Author: James

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Upgraded Rat Trap

When my parents came to town to spend the week with us and attend Lia’s one-year celebration, they decided to bring a truckload of merchandise. The items include organic home-grown lemon, custom pureed flax seed multi-grain mix, green San Jose Race Crew 2007 T-shirts in all sizes, an air-powered keyboard from my childhood, and the last of which is the subject of this blog, an animal trap. My mom read about my rodent headache and decided that my mortifying rat-catching skills required assistance, so she unilaterally brought the trap my grandpa made.

rattrap1

Here’s the rodent’s perspective…

rattrap2

I was impressed. This device was constructed using simple parts, which included a wire frame, a door that snaps close by the aid of powerful springs, a bait hook that releases the door, and a sliding latch that ensures the door’s seal. According to my mom, she has caught every animal known to humans from her organic backyard, and whatever animal is lurking in my garage is no match for this device.

We shall see.

Health

Dangers Of Plastics

About three months ago, as part of Lia’s ever-increasing demand for nutritional edible goods, we added Yo Baby to Lia’s diet for breakfast. 

yobaby

It seemed sensible at the time, as Yo Baby is an organic yogurt that, according to its manufacturers, helps promote brain development with its whole milk, helps body growth with calcium and protein, is all natural and certified organic, helps digestion with its active cultures, and contains reduced sugar, which is about as much as a jar of baby food fruit. Lia enjoyed this little cold, sweet treat, and for three months, she had a container’s worth of yogurt every morning. Little did we know that months later, we would discover that this very yogurt, touted to be healthy, would come in a toxic container known to be carcinogenic.

In retrospect, we should have paid more attention when we read the July 2008 issue of the ShopSmart magazine, where an article titled “How Safe Is That Plastic Container” revealed a few recycle numbers (resin identification code) to avoid, including that which contains Yo Baby. After doing a little research, I’ve deciphered the incomprehensible recycle digits and valuable information on each:

Number Abbr Description
recycle11
 PET/PETE Polyethylene terephthalate. Used in water bottles, juice, and sports drinks. PET breaks down over time and the toxin DEHA leaches into beverages when bottles are reused. DEHA can cause liver and reproductive problems and can cause cancer. Avoid recycling reusing because they’re porous and can absorb flavors and bacteria that can’t be cleaned.
recycle21 HDPE Commonly used for milk jugs, liquid detergent bottles, shampoo bottles.
recycle31 PVC Polyvinyl chloride. Commonly used for meat wrap, cooking oil bottles, and plumbing pipes.  Can cause cancer, birth defects, damage to kidneys, lungs, and reproductive organs.
recycle41 LDPE Low density polyethylene. Commonly used in cling wrap, grocery bags, and sandwich bags.
recycle51 PP Polypropylen. Commonly used in cloudy plastic water bottles, yogurt cups/tubs.
recycle61 PS Polystyrene. Commonly used for disposable coffee cups, clam-shell take-out containers. Polystyrene-foam cups and clear plastic take-out containers can leach styrene, a possible human carcinogen, into food.
recycle71 PC Polycarbonate. Commonly used for some food storage, sports bottles, and baby bottles. Contains Bisphenol A (BPA), which can cause breast and prostate cancer, diabetes, birth defects, and child hyperactivity. Can leach into food if exposed to heat or are scratched, cracked, or worm from repeated use and dishwashing.
recycle71 PLA PLA is made from corn, potato, or sugar cane, and is safe and can be composted. Unfortunately this is also classified as “#7: Other”, along with BPA and newer non-BPA plastics.

Now you may wonder if some of these plastics are so harmful, why are they still in use? The reason is that the FDA decided that the levels of harmful chemicals leaching into food is within safety limits. Some new studies, however, seem to show that there are potential risks from even low levels of exposure, including a new draft report from the National Institutes of Health.

With that, we now move on to some practical steps for protecting you and your love ones from the toxic plastics:

  • Use #2 HDPE, #4 LDPE, and #5 PP
  • Use #1 PET, but don’t recycle the water/soda bottles
  • Use PLA
  • Avoid #3 PVC, #6 PS, and #7 PC.
  • Don’t store fatty food with plastic containers or plastic wraps.
  • Microwave-safe only means it won’t melt, crack, or fall apart, but toxic chemical can still leach into food. Use glass or ceramic.

And if you’re really paranoid concerned, you can even:

  • When buying meat packaged with cling wrap, slice off a thin portion that came into contact with the wrap and store in glass or ceramic container or use non-PVC wrap.

Research has a tendency to keep reversing itself, and someone will probably find some toxicity in one of those recycle numbers that we trust to be safe. The only thing we can do is do our best based on what we know today.

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Rat Update 1: Evasion

After setting the rat trap, two days of silence passed.  On the third day, the peanut butter I used as a bait disappeared, but the trap was still active. The next day I reloaded the bait, and once again, the peanut butter disappeared. No Rat.  Finally on Saturday, the trap went off, the trap flipped over, but to my dismay, the rat had somehow evaded the trap!

Perhaps the trap was too large. Tim mentioned that he was able to catch rats with regular mouse traps, so I decided to pick up a 4-pack of mouse traps…

mousetrap

However, the instructions bamboozled me…

neverneedsbait

Never needs baiting? Is the yellow colored plastic supposed to masquerade as a piece of refresh cheese to lure rats, similar to the functionality of fake baits used in fishing? The traps have been set up according to directions for now, but if we don’t harvest some rats soon, I may have to go the traditional route and add some raw meat!

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Wondersensor Oxygen Indicator

When my mother-in-law came back from Taiwan last week, she brought back some Taro Cake. When I opened the packaging, I saw a piece of technology I haven’t encountered before, the Wondersensor Oxygen Indicator!

donoteattag

Unfortunately as with most Taiwanese products, there was a serious lack of directions. I had no idea whether the “Don’t Eat” is in effect. What was the color code for “Yes you can eat”? A color legend would be nice here to provide guidance to its interpretation.

In case you were mystified by these purple-colored pastry, here’s a cross-section of the contents:

tarocake

Flaky Taro-flavored soft shell with Mochi inside.  Delicious!

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Undetachable Legs

Last year, Lia got a LeapFrog Learn & Groove Musical Table for Christmas, and she loved it. Actually, it was a love-hate relationship if you recall her opening the green compartment over and over again. One day, curiosity zapped Karen as she tried attaching the legs included in the package, and to our dismay, this was a one-way street. Despite the bold words “Take the legs off whenever you want!!” (or something to that effect) appearing on the box, it was a clip that snapped in to the slot that was impossible to snap out without snapping the leg in half.

So I put on my Google hat and found this secret society of defective musical table owners who were always displeased with this oversight. One such owner contact LeapFrog, and the solution was to return it to the store, which we ended up doing. However, this also left Lia without her treasured Christmas gift. Even though she didn’t say it, we fathomed that Lia would missing the fun of crying while opening and closing the green compartment, so we ventured out to find a non-defective replacement.

Some comments suggested that the model with the purple door had legs with a release button, but without Superman helping us with his X-Ray vision, it was impossible to determine the color of the door. We tried purchasing one from Target one time, but the unit fell out as we removed it from the cart to put on the checkout counter. Green door.  Needless to say, we did not complete that transaction.

Finally, we arrived at an impasse, not having a strategy to find a replacement, so we gave in and bought the next table we found…

musicaltable

Green door.  But wait…  what’s a new red border on the sides? Turns out that we got a newer model that comes with legs that can be released! Happy ending! If you’re also contemplating giving one of these tables to your child, don’t get stuck with the defective, non-removable legs. Get the new version with the red side trim!