The Surgeon General Comes Through...

I'm sorry to all of you smokers out there who read this and become offended, but thankfully someone is aware of the effects of second hand smoke to all of us who choose not to injure ourselves and the ones that we love by smoking. The Surgeon General has published the first new study since 1986 that has proved conclusively that second hand smoke doesn't 'possibly' cause lung cancer, it definitely causes lung cancer. And not only that, it also affects second hand smoke inhalers by contributing to SIDS deaths and heart disease.

As the vice president of national policy and advocacy of the American Lung Association, Paul G. Billings is quoted as saying, "Essentially, the Surgeon General slammed the book on any scientific debate on secondhand smoke. The evidence is clear. Secondhand smoke is harmful and needs to be eliminated." (ScoutNews)

According to ScoutNews, 126 million Americans are exposed to second hand smoke. There are many risks associated with this, with adults being more likely to develop heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmokers, and ear infections, asthma attacks, respiratory problems, ear infections, and not least, SIDS. Secondhand smoke is a known human carcinogen (A substance capable of inducing cancer in an organism) and is composed of more than 50 carcinogens. Living with a smoker increases a nonsmoker's risk of lung cancer and heart disease by 30%, according to the Surgeon General's report.

I know that right now in St. Paul smoking is banned. In Minneapolis, smoking is prohibited in places that serve food. In Bloomington, smoking is banned in public places, including bars and restaurants. Golden Valley has smoking banned in indoor and outdoor areas of eating and drinking establishments and all public areas to 25' from the doors. And it hasn't hurt the economy, according to research done in the areas.

I realize that forcing smokers to be unable to go out and smoke is impinging on their rights to do what they want, but is it fair to be affecting others' health while doing so? While those nonsmokers basically don't have a choice? Is it fair to be asking those nonsmokers to go to other places to avoid smoke when smokers are protesting that exact reason? That smokers are being forced to go other places to smoke? So who is more right here? Who is the law more on the side of? I think that if I had a behavior that was harmful to others I would try to keep that behavior from the others that I could potentially harm. Is it all right to have pregnant women inhaling smoke, only to give birth to a child who then dies of SIDS that attributable to the smoke? I don't think so, and I hope that others do not find this acceptable, either. An innocent life, that hadn't even had a chance to do anything with the gift that they were granted, taken because someone thought that smoking is their right and whoever doesn't like it should just walk away. Not everyone has that choice - like some people in hospitality and tourism. For some of them, that job is their only source of income, and they cannot get any other job.

I am going to wrap up my diatribe now, but I ask of you smokers, please please think of others also. They have just as much right to choose not to smoke as you do to smoke. But is their choice harming your health without your consent?

These pictures were taken on Bass Lake in Minnesota. It's the lake that Shaun's friend Rob's parents have a cabin on.

Hi, y'all

Well, the biggest news is that we are in the market for a new car, as most of you know. It'll take a minimum of $1,400 to fix it to make it safe to drive. Apparently, Shaun's wheels are thisclose to seizing due to bad wheel bearings. So it's basically not safe to drive. We're mostly looking at Subaru Impreza WRX wagons. They're cute and pretty zippy; they have turbos. Oh, and it HAS to be a stick. If we get one of these, Shaun'll probably be talked into doing the autocross next year. I'm not too sure about that. Just what I want to be paying for is replacing tires all the time. No thanks.

Last weekend was Shaun's company picnic @ Valleyfair. We ended up walking across 101 because we didn't want to have to pay $8 since we weren't going to the park. We left immediately after that (which is good we didn't stay, it started raining as soon as we got into Shakopee) and went to Osceola, WI to watch some of Shaun's friends wakeboarding. Did it mention it was like, 50-odd degrees and sprinkling every so often? That night we went to Rob's friend Brad's housewarming party in North Branch, MN. It was a pretty good time. But Shaun was tired so we left to 'go sleep in our own bed'. More like the car seat. ;-) And then we did absolutely nothing all day Sunday.

Today we're hoping to go to Rob's cabin and then see my family tomorrow. Well, my mom and maybe brother at any rate. My dad's working in South Dakota. So I won't get to see him on Father's day. Oh, well. We're pretty used to that.

It rained like crazy here last night, all I could think about was my friend Anita's leaky ceiling. It leaked Memorial day weekend and they told their landlord about it but nothing happened, then on Wed night it rained (and leaked) again so she called and their landlord said that they'd let them out of their lease. So I'm hoping that their stuff is alright after the downpour.

Sorry there aren't any pictures, but there should be some coming soon! :)


Edit: I didn't mean to imply anything suggestive with the 'our own bed; opart. It's just that that's the reason why Shaun wanted to go home, then ended up falling asleep in the car.

I know, I know. I'm not doing good at keeping this up...

Memorial day weekend was nice, we brought the kitties up to my parent's house and let them run wild. Etta will actually stay in the same room as them now. My dad ended up coming home from Louisiana, so that was nice to see him again! We hung out at Rob's cabin a lot, just chilling on the pontoon. :) Monday sucked though when we got home - Shaun's (when purchased) $300 bike was stolen. We looked at our deductible for our renter's insurance and it's $250. So it wasn't even worth reporting or anything for no $ and upped premimums. That kinda put a damper on it all, but it sure was nice seeing Jen D and Jen L! :)

Last weekend we thought that we had absolutely no plans, but the weekend ended up getting booked up Friday. Friday night we went to see 'The Breakup,' which was eerily like our relationship. But I hated the ending of the movie.

Saturday we went to Kohl's and got a blender, and then Sarah* and I went to the Edina art fair. I think while we were there we decided to open up a handbag business, so if you want a cute handbag, get a hold of us in a month or two. ;-) For friends, we might even make custom orders. I loved it so much (and didn't get to buy anything) that I decided I'd drag Shaun with the next day. That night we went to Old Chicago in Minneapolis and met up with Rob, Andrea, and her friend Danica. We were there for less than 5 minutes when some guy walked up to me and said, 'Hey! Come give my friend a kiss on the cheek. He's a bachelor!' Inside, I was thinking, 'Why me?' but I decided to be nice and went. When he saw me, he was like, 'Oh, man guys!! Oh, man!' SOOO that makes me wonder if it had something to do with my size. I doubt it was because I was knock dead gorgeous. It just makes me realize how judgemental people are and want me to be less like that. Danica wasn't into dancing, even though Rob kept trying to get her to (he was in a pub crawl that day; he'd been drinking since 1:30pm and this was about 11pm). So we went to a bar called 'The Lodge' and I just started dancing like I didn't care. I did and didn't. But I was hoping to make Danica feel more comfortable.

On Sunday we went to see Shaun's work friends Dan and Jason and Dan's roomate Louis do an autocross. Then we went to the Edina art fair, where Shaun realized he had lost his wallet. We decided it was in either my car or the shuttle bus we took. Well, it wasn't in either. We left as soon as he realized he didn't have it because what fun is it to be with someone who's worried about their wallet/purse? That was a bummer. After that we went to Hyland to watch the pro disc golf tour that was there. Can you believe that there are disc golf groupies?!?! There are. They're 30-40 years old, too. I think they're reliving their hair band groupie days. Anyway, I had HORRID blisters from the shoes I wore the night before so I hobbled everywhere. We decided it was too hot so we came home and chilled.

We don't really have any plans this weekend beyond Shaun's company picnic early Sat afternoon. We'll see how that goes, it's supposed to rain.


Edit: Jean pointed this out to me - I forgot to include whether Shaun found his wallet. Yes, he did. When we got home. It was in his shorts from the night before. :p So he ruined my second fun trip to the art fair. I won't even start on what he did when he 'lost' the laundry card monday night......