MS Maze

The U.S. Consumer Safety Commission (CPSC) is warning consumers that certain recalled products, originally sold at Meijer, Inc., were resold after the recall date due to an error. These recalled products were improperly disposed of by offering them for sale at discount retailers, dollar stores, liquidation firms, flea markets and thrift stores nationwide at various prices.

Read it: 7 Hazardous Children’s Products Sold After Recall

I received this very sobering email from the National MS Society today:

Dear Ann,

It’s only been a week since you registered for Walk MS, but in the last seven days another 200 people in the United States have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Please help us to help others.

Few things are as basic to our health as the foods we eat. When there’s a food recall or a food safety alert, you want to know about it now — before you eat it. On March 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service launched a series of Twitter feeds that will provide state-specific food safety alerts directly to consumers.

Read it: Get Breaking Food Safety Alerts on Twitter

I’ve always liked pink and orange, though not together. When I was a young girl, the walls of my bedroom were pink. As a teenager, I opted for a bright shade of orange, much to my mother’s chagrin and my father’s amusement. In this age of color-coded illness, it’s a bit eerie that I should have both the pink disease — breast cancer — and the orange one — multiple sclerosis (MS).

Read it: What’s pink and orange and walks 5 miles?

The number of people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) increases every hour of every day. We’ve formed Team “No More Secs!” to help the National Multiple Sclerosis Society fund research to unlock the mysteries of MS and to improve the lives of those living with MS.

Please help us to help others by making a donation to the National MS Society.

Ann was diagnosed with MS in 2004. We participated in our first MS Walk that year, and many since. We missed last year’s walk because Ann was undergoing aggressive treatment for triple-negative breast cancer at the time. This year she’s apparently cancer-free and enjoying a remission from MS. If ever there was a year for us to walk, this sure is it! How could we not?

About MS Walk Team “No More Secs!”
This comment from a reader captured perfectly the reason we chose to publish a book about life with MS (No More Secs! Living, Laughing & Loving Despite Multiple Sclerosis):

“What a nice book. I laughed, I cried, I connected to you in a way I’ve connected with no one else. It was so nice to know I’m not alone.” 

We’re not alone. That’s never more obvious than on Walk MS Day, so we named our team after the book.

Want to walk with us? Join our team as a walker or virtual walker. Walk MS: Saturday, May 12, 9:00 am / Clearbrook Park, Clearbrook, VA

Oh, and it doesn’t matter if you donate through Jim, Ann, or to the Team pot — it all goes to the same worthy cause. Donate online:

Donate to Team “No More Secs!” or Donate through Jim’s page or Donate through Ann’s page

or by check: please make checks payable to: National MS Society, Blue Ridge Chapter 
mail to: Ann Pietrangelo, WebCamp One LLC, 206 Crest Circle, Winchester, VA 22602

If you can’t donate or walk this year, just send us a note of support and encouragement — you’d be surprised how valuable kind words can be. Need more info? Email us at writer@webcampone.com

Thank you,
Jim and Ann Pietrangelo, Team “No More Secs!”

Can you help Team ‘No More Secs!’ to Help Others?

Eating lots of citrus fruits may lower the risk of ischemic stroke by as much as 19 percent in women, according to a new study. So should you eat an orange a day?

Read it: An Orange a Day…

An interactive ad placed on a bus stop in the UK uses facial recognition to determine the gender of the viewer. Females who opt-in can watch the 40-second ad in its entirety. Males are denied access to the full content and are directed elsewhere…and for good reason.

Read it: Only Girls Allowed: Futuristic Ad Using Facial Recognition Highlights Gender Inequalities

When he lost his wife following a car crash, Gregory Welsh gave the gift of life to others by donating her organs. Fifteen years later, the 47 year old father received a donor heart transplant to prolong his own life.

“It’s a miracle I got this heart and I’m going to do everything I can to take care of it,” said Mr. Welsh. “I got a second chance and that means something to me.”

Read it: New Heart for Man with Heart of Gold

Baby showers celebrate new life by showering moms-to-be with gifts, attention, and friendship. The crowning glory of the occasion is the baby shower favor, something gracious hostesses around the world have long known.

But baby shower favors can serve multiple purposes. Here’s three of them…

Read it: What is a Baby Shower Favor?

Who do mothers trust most when it comes to shopping for their families? Not company websites; not Facebook pages; and not their Twitter streams. It’s Mom’s tried and true circle of friends; it’s other moms and mom bloggers.

Word-of-mouth, mother-to-mother, it seems moms believe mother really does know best.

Read it: The Power of Mom

Most of us have suffered from a broken heart at some point in our lives. Is it just an emotional expression of love gone wrong…or is a broken heart a bonafide medical condition?

Loyola University Health System cardiologist Dr. Binh An P. Phan says that broken heart syndrome is a very real medical condition. It occurs during highly stressful or emotional periods like a broken romance, death of a loved one, loss of a job, or intense anger.

Read it: Broken Heart is Real, says Cardiologist

Baby Shower Favors and Gifts is a labor of love for husband and wife shopkeepers, Jim and Ann Pietrangelo. We operate WebCamp One, a web design and development company that is actively engaged in helping small businesses take advantage of the opportunities that the Internet offers. Together, we created V Shoppes and, under that umbrella, are in the process of opening online stores, each one geared towards helping today’s active and busy consumers find just the products they need without having to sort through the clutter so often found in online shops.

Baby Shower Favors and Gifts is our first store, specializing in baby shower favors that will make party guests feel appreciated — and perhaps even a bit pampered. Saying, “Thank you” never goes out of style. We hope you agree that our favors make ideal mementos for anyone who makes the effort to participate in the celebration of new life that is the baby shower.

Moms…babies…friendship…that’s what it’s all about.

Don’t you get frustrated when you visit an online store run by a faceless entity? We do to. That’s why our “About” page and contact information are prominent. Please drop by and browse for a bit. We’d love to hear what you think, so feel free to contact us through the site or start a conversation on Facebook or Twitter.

BabyShowerFavorsandGifts.com

Facebook/BabyShowerFavorsandGifts

Twitter/@BabyShowerStore

Pinterest/BabyShowerStore

Would you feed your family with food you dug out of the trash? If you knew where to look, you might consider it. The Food Network recently airedThe Big Waste to draw attention to the problem of food waste in the U.S.

Chefs were assigned the task of creating a gourmet banquet using only food that was destined for the trash, or in some cases, already in the trash. Sounds disgusting, right? It was, but not in the way one might expect.

From restaurants to farms to grocery stores and, yes, into the dumpsters the chefs went in search of discarded food items. The resulting meal was glorious, but the aftertaste is hideous.

Read it: Feeding America…from Food Waste

Book Giveaway! The editors of Care2 Healthy & Green Living are giving away a free copy of my book, No More Secs! Living, Laughing & Loving Despite Multiple Sclerosis.

For a chance to win the book, simply visit the blog and leave a comment. The winner will be notified on Valentine’s Day — isn’t that sweet?

Read it and enter: Book Giveaway: No More Secs!