I've been published!

Hours after I uploaded my peanut butter salmonella photos, I received this letter from Calder, the Director of Public Relations at NowPublic.com.

:: Your Salmonella photo


Hi Jill Rachel,

This is clorenz41. One of our Vancouver contributors posted
a story on the Salmonella recall, and found that people on
Flickr were sharing photographs relating to the story. I
wanted to see if you would be interested in contributing to
the article.

The post is on NowPublic, which is a news sharing community
that relies on stories, photos, & videos from sources like
you.

Yrs,
Calder
Director of Contributor Relations @ NowPublic.com

So... without further a-do... Here is my link :)
If for some reason it doesn't load, let me know. Here is a screen shot of the website!




Thank you NowPublic and Flickr!

Salmonella anyone??

So apparently, according to CNN.com, Government scientists have pinpointed the first US salmonella outbreak to one of my favorite foods. PEANUT BUTTER!! Any jar with the code "2111" on the top indicate the infested jars.



It's such a shame though... To think that I already ate 98% of the jar! Ya know, Peter Pan Plus Peanut Butter is my FAVORITE peanut butter. Actually, it is the only one that I will eat. Hopefully things will get under control soon!

What it takes to live in a snow belt....

So everyone knows that I HATE THE WINTER!!! I can't wait to move out of New York and not have to shovel or anything!

So yesterday in the spirit of Valentine's Day, or the fact that I needed exercise and wanted to do a selfless deed, I headed out to my horrid parking lot. Noticing that the plows had yet to come through and clean up the lot, I proceeded to dig out my car and move it to a more cleared out spot.


A couple people were snowed in, so I helped dig them out as well. Then I figured it would be nice of me to clear out a few spots so when people came home from work, they would have a spot to park. Walking back in towards the building, I noticed the walkways were way too covered. So, I cleared out the 3 of those as well.


I hope people appreciate this, since no one else did a damn thing about the awful snow covered complex. Too bad they don't know that it was me who did it all. Talk about a self-less deed!

When I finally got inside, 90 minutes later, I realized the necessities of snow shoveling.



I have to be glad though... At least I didn't get as much snow as Erin did!

Seattle

Erin and I went to Seattle for a week for some much needed R&R.
From the plane, we had great views of Mt. St.Helen's and Mt.Hood.

On our first full day, the skies were mostly clear, and Mount Ranier made an appearance.


We spent a morning at the Pacific Science Center which is at the base of the Space Needle in the Seattle Center. I made friends with a grub.

This was an amusing display representing chromosomes.

I even climbed a fake rock wall- one of those lateral ones.

We spent quite a bit of time at the Seattle Aquarium in the freezing cold rain. Thankfully, most of it was inside.






We made our way to the Woodland Zoo just north of downtown. Lovely zoo, but QUITE chilly and VERY wet.






We got a chance to go to REI and try out rock climbing. I am HOOKED.


This is a view of the city from Union Station in the International District.

And we had one last view of the market on our last day....


Overall I had the best time ever. Erin is such a good friend to me, and a BLAST to be with!!!