lawmummy

More scary recall stuff!

It’s Veggie Booty, the spinach and kale cousin of the yummy Pirate Booty.

More than 50 cases of salmonella poisoning in 17 states have been reported after eating Veggie Booty.  As a precaution, all lots and sizes of Veggie Booty are being recalled.

I happen to know from experience that salmonella is not fun - and in some instances, can be really serious.  Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

So, if you have any Veggie Booty in your house, throw it out.  And if you want reimbursement, contact the company.  You can get the official scoop from Robert’s here.

(hat tip:  Sally via text message - she’s so cool)

It’s been an interesting week with respect to race relations in America.

First, there was Isaiah Washington’s rant about his firing from “Grey’s Anatomy” being racially motivated. He claims he was fired not for his use of a slur against fellow cast mate T. R. Knight but because “someone heard the booming voice of a black man and got really scared and that was the beginning of the end for me.” I have to wonder how much of it is actually true and how much of it is posturing by a man who can clearly not control himself. He did, after all, use the slur not once but twice. I don’t understand how he can not find it offensive - or how he would have reacted to a racial slur against him.

Then, the Supreme Court voted this week that race cannot be a factor in the assignment of children to public schools. It was a deeply divisive ruling (5-4) with Roberts writing “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” This, of course, seems like a good idea but the overriding concern is that eliminating the school district’s ability to use race as a means to populate schools may lead to increased segregation of races. Remember Brown v. Board of Education? I have to wonder what this means for districts like Philly which I believe are suffering because of bussing - which may be interpreted as racially driven.

But none of this affected me nearly this week as a piece in the Inquirer about Melvin Figueroa. Melvin is the father of La’Toyia Figueroa who went missing around the same time as Laci Peterson. She, too, was pregnant when she went missing. She was found dead in a vacant lot. Her boyfriend has been charged with her murder. You might not remember it because it received very little press. There were some grumblings when it first happened, claiming that she was being overlooked because she was Latina. I didn’t pay it a lot of mind at the time. Mea culpa. You see, in the wake of the constant coverage of Jessie Davis (the OH woman who was reportedly killed by the father of her baby), I have to wonder if I was wrong. Why did the stories of Peterson and Davis get so much press while mention of Figueroa barely made it in to the local press? It is really because Davis and Paterson are both young, pretty and white? Have we decided that there lives make better stories because they were taken from their nice middle class neighborhoods?

I tried to put myself in Melvin’s place and I couldn’t make any sense of it. If my child went missing, would I have to beg for coverage? Would it make a good story because my daughters are white and pretty? Because we live in a good neighborhood in the City where these things don’t happen? Because my husband and I are lawyers? Would I have to search for her myself or would I have legions of volunteers who showed up? Would I have her picture plastered on every news outlet - just in case someone knew something - or would I have to go door to door because the news folks didn’t think it was news worthy? Would I have to hound police to investigate the case?

I think you and I know the answers.

My heart goes out to Melvin - and to the nine year old daughter that La’Toyia left behind (her new baby was killed in utero). We live in a confusing world sometimes.

Okay, you and I both know that with three children under the age of five, the chances of me actually getting to the movies is practically nil.

Nonetheless, I’m planning on a summer of movies! I’m planning to review a bunch of movies on taxgirl.com - with a twist. I’m going to highlight the tax consequences of the plot lines… Oh yeah. It will be a great read, I promise!

If you have a movie in mind, pop on over and leave me your suggestion.

Sometimes that’s all you need to gain a little perspective.

And I decided that it would do us all some good.  So on Wednesday, I packed up the whole family (well, such as we are, Chris is still in Germany) - Lyle included - left the house and headed off for some relaxation away from the house.  It was a nice reprieve from the stress of late.

Now, back at home, the temperatures are dropping (thank goodness), Chris is coming home in a few days (well, six, but if I say few, it feels like less) and I have some things percolating.

Thanks for your kind thoughts.  They were really appreciated.

There’s this great scene in the movie Philadelphia when Joe (played by the hot talented Denzel Washington) asks Andrew (played by the talented Tom Hanks) a simple question:

Joe: What do you love about the law, Andrew?
Andrew: I… many things… uh… uh… What I love the most about the law?
Joe: Yeah.
Andrew: It’s that every now and again - not often, but occasionally - you get to be a part of justice being done. That really is quite a thrill when that happens.

I love that quote.  It reminds me of how I used to feel about the law.

Not so much anymore.

I’m not sure when it happened exactly.  But I don’t feel the same way anymore.

Part of it is about other lawyers.  I used to believe that other lawyers were about justice.  But the more of them that I work with, the more that I realize that it isn’t true.  It’s about winning, it’s about money, it’s about being somehow better than other people.

But it’s not just about the lawyers.  There would be no frivolous lawsuits (like this one) if there were no frivolous plaintiffs.  And often, people create their own drama, their own problems and they somehow expect them to be fixed magically.  Despite the TV commercials where cheesy lawyers swear that they can make your life better with a quick phone call, life doesn’t always work that way.

That’s why it was particularly hard for me to have a conversation with a client this week about the battle that we can’t win.  Without going into specifics, his case quickly went down the tubes after I received some more information - information that the client failed to tell me.  He was quietly devastated, you could tell, as he folded up a letter and put it in his pocket.  And for a second, I wanted to say, “Wait, maybe there’s something we could do.”  But there wasn’t.

Laws are what they are.  You can’t avoid following them and figure you’ll just fix it in the end - especially when the end is outside of the “fixable” time frame.

As the client prepared to walk out of the door, I felt like I had been punched in the stomach.  And I wished and wished that I could do something to fix it.  But it was too late.

And in that moment, I wondered when - if ever - I was going to see justice being done.

I hate summer.

I hate humidity.

I hate it when Chris travels.

And that should sufficiently prepare you for my stream of consciousness, sleep-deprived sweaty diatribe. You’ve been warned.

I once asked my mother if she had any regrets about having children when she did. I expected one of those, “No, I wouldn’t change a minute of it” type replies wherein she waxed poetic about how motherhood was the best thing that ever happened to her. Imagine my surprise when she paused and said, “Well. Sometimes, yes. I wonder what I might have done differently.”

I’ve wondered this myself, you know, whether I would have done things differently. Today is one of those days.

I’m generally a fairly optimistic person. And even when I get into a slump, I can usually pull myself out. But lately, it’s getting harder and harder.

I am fully aware that this week is particularly bad because Chris is gone. And it’s not one of his short trips. It’s a long one, ten days. Katie, in particular, is a Daddy’s girl. She does not react well to change. The two are a deadly combination.

At one point today, I yelled at her, really loudly. I shouted “Shut up!” three times. At the time, Katie had just ransacked the family room. Amy came in and pooped right there - in the middle of the family room - a first. Charlie was screaming his head off. I took Amy took down the hall to the potty. She was crying hysterically. I had to wipe her off and put her in the shower. Her bathing suit (yes, she was wearing her bathing suit) had to be rinsed and thrown into the washer. Charlie was mad because he had woken up and wanted to be picked up. He screamed for five minutes straight. And in the middle of all of this, with Amy crying on the potty, Charlie crying stuck to my leg, and my cleaning up Amy’s sh*t off of the floor, Katie would not stop asking questions - those five year old rhetorical questions just to aggravate me. The final straw? “Mommy? Why did Amy poop in the family room?”

Well, Katie, I don’t know why. You tell me why she f*cking pooped in the family room?

But I didn’t say that. I said, instead, “Katie, be quiet.”

She was quiet for a second. I was trying to finish cleaning, Charlie still glued to my leg, and get back to Amy, who was poopy (all the way down both legs) on the potty. And then Katie said, “Mommy? Why did Amy poop in her bathing suit?”

And I replied, “Katie, Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” And left the room.

Amy was still hysterical. I wiped her off and put her in the bathroom. I cleaned her up, toweled her off, told her that I loved her but I needed her to be a big girl for me. And I started to cry. I tried really hard not to, but I did.

I went back to the family room and picked Charlie up. I told Katie that I was sorry for yelling, that it wasn’t a nice thing for me to do, but that I was frustrated. I told her that I needed her to listen. And then I collapsed in the chair - for a minute. It was dinnertime.

It’s now 10:15 p.m. and the kids are still awake. Well, Katie and Amy. Amy has already been taken out of her room once this evening. She’s tired and refuses to admit it. They won’t sleep. They’ve complained about everything imaginable.

I don’t know about them, but I’m exhausted.

And when I get exhausted, I think too much. Which brings me back to my earlier point. Now, with a few minutes to myself, my mind is racing.

And little bits of regret are creeping in, which is something I’ve tried very hard to not have. I’ve often said that I want to live my life and not be able to look back and regret things - everything happens for a reason.

But lately, I’ve been having a lot of those pangs of regret - or is it resentment? I’m not sure.

I don’t love my life right now. And yes, I know it’s easily explained away with “you’ll feel better when Chris is home” but I don’t know that it will. Chris and I had a big talk before he left about a lot of things that need to change with respect to our collective stress levels and such. We have had similar talks for the last few months. We have yet to make any real changes. He’s stressed - over work, over his dad’s health, over finances. I’m stressed - over the kids, over my own parents, you name it. I kind of feel like our lives are rushing past us and we’re so busy trying to just keep up that we’re missing everything. My kids are growing up so fast and I feel like I am spending more and more of my time just managing them and not enjoying them.

It is an utterly horrible feeling.

Top Ten Monday is back!  And yes, I’m in a bad mood (keep reading).  So my top ten this week are the top ten reasons that I hate summer:

1.  The heat.

2.  The humidity.

3.  School’s out.  This means the horrible children on my block (the ones that I refer to as Appalachia) have nothing better to do than get into trouble.

4.  Shore traffic.  For those of you who don’t live in the northeast US, this is a phenomenon wherein everyone leaves the City on a Friday afternoon and heads back on Sunday afternoon - using the same roads.  The traffic is crazy.  And I say this as someone who grew up on the coast of NC.

5.  Airfares are up.  That’s why I’m here and Chris is in Germany.

6.  Contractors are on vacation.  It’s impossible to get a contractor in the City to return your call at the best of times… in summer, it’s impossible.  I have about 5 calls out - I got one back.

7.  The sun stays up far too long.  When I was a kid, I loved this.  As a parent, I hate it.  It’s impossible to get the girls in bed at a decent time.  They’re sure it’s still daytime outside.

8.  Summer TV stinks.  I miss the Amazing Race.

9.  No good holidays.  Yeah, call me unpatriotic all you want, but July 4th is about the most overblown and unsatisfying of all of the holidays.  I can eat BBQ and corn any day - I don’t need a special day to have a picnic.  And I’d rather not have to deal with the drunks.  And not have to worry about horrible children setting off illegal fireworks for weeks on end.

10.   No good sports.  I used to love baseball but most of the players annoy me anymore (except for Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley).  No football?  No college basketball?  I’ll even take hockey.

Sigh.  Only 88 days until fall.

I saw this post by Zuska and it made me think about temperament. I am very Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to my reactions to people. As a rule of thumb (though clearly it depends on the circumstances), I have patience for kids, older people and folks that don’t know any better. When it comes to other lawyers, professionals, companies, service providers and people who I expect should know better, I have zero tolerance. It’s just me.

This was particularly evident today. On the way home from the airport, I freaking lost it in the parking garage when some jackass tried to park his HUGE minivan in a compact car space. Why, you’re wondering, did you care? Because, since he couldn’t get into the space - while traveling the wrong way through the parking garage - he had to do a million point turn to get into the space. And me, sniffling after my goodbyes, just wanted to leave. I couldn’t because it was one lane in my direction and jackass in the minivan couldn’t get his act together. I honked and he wagged his finger - who wags a finger anymore? And he kept pulling in and turning, then reversing and turning, then pulling in and turning. I just wanted to go home.

Flash ahead to this evening when I was on the phone. Amy and Katie both got out of bed a kazillion times. I was talking to my friend on the phone. After awhile, she remarked that I had the patience of a saint. I told her that at times like this, it was easier to be patient because I knew that they were both reacting to their dad being gone. In fact, Amy came in “because I heard Daddy but it’s just you on the phone.”

But unfortunately, ineptitude, carelessness and selfishness of others tends to rile me these days more than I’d like. So, it makes me wonder… What makes you crazy?

Since I switched over to WordPress, I haven’t been able to figure out how to include certain code snippets.  The FAQs imply that it’s not supported but I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from widget-y types that it’s just a matter of figuring it out.  In the meantime, that means I can’t participate in things that rely on code - like my beloved Green Thumb Sunday.  If you have any advice for me, please, please… I’m all ears.

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Here is the link to the recall info. Or you can download the info here as a pdf: Toy Recall

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Terrific. How could they not have known this. 1.5 million pieces? I think I have a few but it’s impossible to tell - even from the pictures. I’ve gathered them up and will call the hotline on Monday.

And now for my rant: It was no surprise to learn that these toys were made in China. But of course. In our zeal for cheap products, as of late, we are very happy to ignore all kinds of safety insights - especially from China.

I can’t imagine a US company including lead paint in products marketed to children. Lead paint is a danger that you would have not expected to encounter in the US for any product for children manufactured within the last thirty days or so. So it was particularly shocking to hear that the products had been sold in the US for almost three years - and apparently the company involved, RC2, based in Illinois did no investigation into the products, knowing that they came from China which is notoriously lax with respect to its regulations - before putting them onto the market. Even more appalling, the recall, which has received woeful attention considering the volume of toys (1.5 million) is voluntary. The company has reportedly refused all requests for interviews. (Note to self: avoid toys from RC2. The company’s brands include The First Years, Lamaze and Bob the Builder).

This issue, though, is bigger than toys and has been bothering me more and more. After I heard about this latest recall, I did a little digging into both the CPSC and the FDA with respect to imports, and guess what I found? The Consumer Product Safety Commission says:

“So far in 2007, 60 percent of the recalls we have conducted are of products made in China. So far in 2007, we have done 24 recalls of toys; all of those products have been made in China.”

This follows a horrifying story that I heard a few weeks ago about the increase in contaminated foods and vitamins due to lack of inspections at the border and lack of regulation by the Chinese government. The FDA acknowledges that they do not have the resources to monitor all of the imports into the US - especially from China. Yet, from those imports that they do monitor, the FDA has rejected more than twice as many food shipments from China as from all other countries combined - even adjusted for volume, the FDA claims that China has the highest rejection rate of any country importing products into the US.

The story was a follow-up to concerns over the infamous pet food recalls of late. In the case of the pet food recalls, two companies willfully added chemicals to the gluten for the pet food due to a lack of protein - the chemicals increased the nitrogen levels in the food which, in turn, killed the animals. Some of the examples for humans cited included shoe polish added to egg yolks for color, herbal tea with lead and baby formula with no nutritional value.

I am not anti-import and I am not anti-China. I do have concerns about the lack of regulations by the Chinese government and our own failures to stem the influx of poor products from China - whether from a lack of budget at the FDA and CPSC agencies or our reticence to “rock the boat” with China as a trade partner.

The one thing that this does solidify, in my mind, is the need to be more diligent for my own family.  I need to read labels.  I need to ask questions.  Most of all, I need to remember that the best way to make sure that my food, toys and other products are safe is to buy locally when possible.  It’s a good start.

Hat tip for the recall: SEPTA kid.