While in Belize I picked up a small book titled "Creole Proverbs of Belize." It was compiled by Colville Young and features the finest collection of Belizean proverbs yet in print.

Since I wouldn't want anyone to get stranded at a bakabush Belizean cocktail party without anything local and intelligent to add to the conversation, I will share some of this book with you. There are so many delightful entries to choose from, we'll just have to take them one, two, or a few at a time.

The Creole Word of the Day is "caca."

Cow caca pa(n) e tail, weh you expec(t) pa(n) di groun(d)?

Literally: If the cow shits on its tail, what do you expect on the ground?
Meaning: A man who mistreats his own will not treat strangers well.

Fowl caca white an tink e lay egg

Literally: The chicken shits white and thinks it has lain an egg.
Meaning: Quoted to describe a person who is self-important.

Man weh caca 'pan di beach forget; di man weh waak eena it rememba.

Literally: The man who shits on the beach forgets. The man who walks in it remembers.
Meaning: The deed is remembered by the victim long after it has been forgotten by the perpetrator.

Our darling Priscilla has passed on. Only with us for a short time. Amber and I rescued her and her two brothers from my parent's barn about seven months ago. They grew into the sweetest group of kittens. Priscilla was particularly sweet. She was skinnier than the others and when you picked her up it felt like her bones were filled with air.

We just went to Belize for a week and while we were gone the kittens stayed outside and my dad came by to feed them daily. Priscilla had been much less active than usual right before we left. I took these pictures of her laying in front of a sunny window just over a week ago. I guess she was sick and we didn't notice. She didn't come out with the other kittens when we got home. We found her behind the house. I buried her this morning.

We'll miss you Silly...

"A substance found in fish oil may be associated with a significantly reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other dementias, researchers reported yesterday.

The scientists found that people with the highest blood levels of an omega-3 fatty acid called docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, were about half as likely to develop dementia as those with lower levels."

Fish Oil Linked to Lower Alzheimer’s Risk

Plasma Phosphatidylcholine Docosahexaenoic Acid Content and Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer Disease

To understand why I am sitting in this unusual automobile see Deer in the headlights. For those aready in the know... I had twenty dollars of rental reimbursement insurance through Geico (who FYI have always been very reasonable and easy to deal with), so asked for the cheapest car I could get. This is what showed up. PT Cruiser convertible. Only cost me two bucks a day (at least until my insurance goes up... don't you just LOVE the insurance racket). Drove it down to Houston this past weekend. Had the top down the whole way. Brought back memories of my old jeep and the pleasantly sticky texture my hair would gain after plodding around in the Houston smog and humidity for a few hours. This was a nicer car as far as ease of use goes, though not nearly as manly as the jeep. Plenty of leg room. Good sound system. Automatic top. What else do you need on a pleasant sunny Texas afternoon?

For an unexpected benefit of driving with the top down see my last blog.

Another article illustrating the importance of vitamin D to your health.

"For instance, the researchers point to studies showing that in winter, colds, flu, and other respiratory diseases are more common and more likely to be deadly than they are in summer. During winter, ultraviolet-light exposure tends to be low because people spend more time indoors and the atmosphere filters out more of the sun's rays, especially at mid and high latitudes.

Cannell's group cites a 1997 study showing that the rate of pneumonia in Ethiopian children with rickets, and therefore a likely vitamin D deficiency, was 13 times as high as in children without that disease. The researchers also point to five studies since the 1930s that have linked reduced risks of infectious disease to dietary supplementation with cod liver oil, a rich source of vitamin D."

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061111/bob9.asp

So sunshine, or cod liver oil, or vitamin D3 supplementation may greatly reduce your risk of becoming sick this winter.

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Everything changes... including this website. I use a great little program called Rapidweaver for all of my site design. Suffice it to say that I overcomplicated the previous site design and this new design rectifies that problem. It will now be much easier for me to add new features and quickly change the layout. The new site display at a width of 960 pixels. This may cause problems for people still using 800x600 resolution. They will have to scroll over to see some parts of the site. This site is best displayed at resolutions of 1024x768 or higher. The wider display allows significantly more room for sidebars and other fun, funky, and informative site additions.

I hope you enjoy the new design. Please email me any comments/suggestions that you have.