So this is scary news... certain ingredients in moisturizers may be linked to skin cancer.

Mineral oil and sodium laurel sulfate, specifically. Amusingly, SLS is what makes shampoos lather, and I specifically avoid any product with SLS in it already, because it's quite drying and bad for curly hair. What would SLS be doing in a moisturizer?

I almost always use lotions (face and body) from the Body Shop or Sephora, which don't contain either mineral oil or SLS. However, after I got badly sunburnt, I started using Banana Boat Aloe After Sun Lotion, whose third ingredient is mineral oil. That's what I get for buying a body product at a drug store.

See? It's *healthy* to be this high maintenance!

I've been cooking a lot lately, with all the produce from my CSA box, and with my spiffy new grill pan for the stove. I thought I'd earmark my recipe bookmark page for anyone interested in checking it out, or contributing it.

del.icio.us/kimmie/recipe

Also, how long does your sunburn normally last? I'm 10 or 11 days into mine and it's still bright red and itchy. How much more do I have to suffer?

I thought this was a particularly fun thread over on Serious Eats... Where would you throw an impromptu, perhaps illegal, dinner party?

I thought folks would be interested in the current comments:

Someone said Center Ice at the Shark Tank... that would be a different viewpoint of the arena for sure, and intimidating, having all the empty seats looking down at you!

I've had plenty of picnics on the beach, but an actual dinner party next to the ocean waves would be a blast, if you can put up with the wind.

However, I think my favorite place would be to have a dinner party in the underground caverns in Paris.

I just got several drug refills at Kaiser (but not all of this months) and spent a total of $140.58. My receipt says "Your Drug Benefit Saved You: $3.30"

Why do we pay so much for health care in this country when Kaiser charges practically full price for prescriptions? I suppose I'm saving on the times I actually see a doctor, but most of my recent experiences with Kaiser have been over-the-phone diagnoses for sinus infections. "Yes, my snot is neon. No, I can't breathe. No, I'm not pregnant." "OK, pick up your antibiotics in an hour at Kaiser." That's easy and cheap right? What the hell am I paying for?

My inhaler wasn't covered at all. Retail: $43.50, Paid: $43.50. And birth control? Retail: $63.30, Paid $60. The other $37 was for a prescription that recently went OTC and actually costs me twice as much to buy now.

I'm not saying I necessarily want public healthcare like Canada... I hear it takes forever to even get a doctor's appointment. But really? I saved $3.30 on $140?

While my employer pays some of my health care fees, I'm pretty sure they deduct some from my paycheck (I guess I should actually look at my paystubs.)
I contribute to FSA, but my employer doesn't match. So it's still my money, just before taxes, and I have to wait weeks for it to be reimbursed, AND at this rate, my fund isn't going to last to the end of the year.

Argh, my sunburn has gotten to the stage where it itches like mad. I keep forgetting it's burnt, and reach down to itch. I've been moisturizing it like mad with vitamin E and oatmeal lotion, but I'm open to suggestions...

I had so many new emails this morning at work that Outlook took 23 minutes just to update its folders. And I even unsubscribed from rt-users and wplug before I left!

Today was intended to be a chill day, but we spent the afternoon scrapbooking the trip into a mini scrapbook in a tin for my mom. My dad finished fixing things up around my apartment for me, and we did a little shopping. I spent $100 in gift cards at Crate & Barrel, half of it on a cast iron grill pan for the stove, since I can't have a fire/propane grill here (based on the new CA fire code). We bought some beef and chicken at Safeway and used up some of my CSA veggies by cooking some tasty tasty kabobs and saffron rice for dinner, and drank a bottle of Merlot. For dessert, we made grilled peaches.

I fell asleep on the beach and sunburnt the backs of my calves. Not a good place to be sunburnt, as every time you sit down or kneel down, you definitely feel it. I *was* wearing sunblock, but I must've sweat it all off while horseback riding. I guess I can't complain, as I *did* go horseback riding on the beach earlier.

My parents are in town, and yesterday we visited Napa Valley and did a wine tasting at V. Sattui. I picked up a bottle of of the pinor noir, and an amazing dessert wine called Madeira. (I'm not usually one for dessert wines.)

Wednesday was the usual touristy things in San Francisco... Grace Cathedral, Cable Car Museum, took a cable car to the ferry building for lunch, then Coit Tower.

Tomorrow is just a chill day, as it's been a busy week. There's a handful of pictures up on Flickr.

I got my first CSA box on Friday... yay! (CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture) I'm trying to eat local and in season more often. I didn't quite understand why there were no artichokes available though, since about 95% of the country's artichokes come from Watsonville. The fruit and veggies I got were more ripe and plump than any I've ever gotten at Safeway. Huge bananas, beautiful strawberries, cucumbers, zucchini, green bell peppers, blackberries, and a plentiful bunch of carrots. I'll expand my horizons a bit more as I go, as you can tweak your standing order anytime, as long as it's 48 hours before delivery.

Tomorrow's dinner: stuffed peppers.

I made a big pitcher of Watermelon Ginger Margaritas for a 4th of July picnic today. They were a huge hit... if you even remotely care for margaritas, you should give it a try. The ginger gave it a little bit of zing, while the pulpy watermelon cooled off the bite of the tequila a bit.

If you're interested, I've been bookmarking cocktail recipes that I've tried or want to try at http://del.icio.us/kimmie/liquor

Oooo my patio got featured on SF Apartment Therapy.

I need to update the photo, as my strawberries are hanging up and thriving, and I have bistro chairs for the table.

So, the sites been down for a while. It looks like we finally found a solution around the DDOS, and I'm back. I've mostly been posting on LJ, but for family and such, here are some pics of what I've been up to.

My herb garden! Spearmint and peppermint on the left, chives, cilantro, sage, rosemary and basil in the strawberry pot, a dwarf meyer lemon tree (that is just beginning to fruit!) and lavender.

The strawberries on the ground have since been hung but didn't fare well, thanks to FedEx holding the package (despite the big sticker that said LIVE PLANTS). They mostly died en route. Parkseed.com replaced them free of charge, but based on my Fedex tracking, the new package got held again.

My plants: Celosia in the leftmost pot, some more rosemary, a larger pot with coleus, moneywort and electric pink festival grass, and a humungous pot with persicaria and New Zealand flax. The flowerbox has coleus, impatiens, New Guinea impatiens and dichondra.

Also, succulents.

The table now has matching chairs, and I've eaten dinner out in my little garden. In fact, Friday, I cooked goat cheese stuffed chicken and ate it outside :)

I rearranged my living room and hung my awesome paintings from Audrey Kawasaki.

This weekend we took a motorcycle ride to try and see some of the damage from the Summit fire. We failed, as the nav system thought a lot of private roads were actual connecting roads. Dirt/gravel roads + bike = not great. At one dead end, we did randomly meet up with some folks who lived in the mountains, and talked about bikes for a good while. In the end, we just gave up and drove to Monterey for dinner. We ended up eating at Fisherman's Wharf right on the water.

Also, after something like 3 years of playing my main character on WoW, I hit level 65.

And now you're caught up, and people can quit telling me to update my site :)