Vitamin Nicotine

I was making chocolate milk in Germany one day when I happened to glance down at the ingredients on the nutrition label and see the word "Nicotinamid." Vitamin nicotine what? No wonder their kids start smoking so young! No wonder I love this chocolate milk so much!

The next time we were at the store I checked the ingredients labels on several brands of kids chocolate milk, and sure enough, they were all nicotine fortified. I decided to check my translation of the word "Nicotinamid" against my trusty dictionary and was surprised to find that it actually translates to Niacinamide, Vitamin B3.

Well, I went home and forgot all about this incident, until this morning when I once again encountered Nicotinamide, on the ingredients of my generic Life cereal. Two minutes with wikipedia later, I can now inform you that Niacin is a made up word for NIcotinic ACid vitamIN. Turns out the first niacin was isolated by treating nicotine with nitric acid, but once its nutritional value came to light, the powers that be thought it best not to actually name it vitamin nicotine. They thought it might stress people out to think there was nicotine in their cereal and vitamins in their cigarettes :).

Love

For these two guys. Fifth year please? Pretty please?

Dear Friends in Bahrain

Dear Friends in Bahrain,

I just discovered the "Stats" tab here on Blogger, and was pleasantly surprised to find that after Americans, you guys are my biggest fans! Now I say surprised because I'm not aware that I know anyone from, in, or who frequents your small, gulf nation. Known for your pearls, oil, and protests, I was flattered to discover that you celebrated my 18th birthday by offering women the vote and legally saving us all from the embarrassment that is line dried underwear, but a bit dismayed to learn that your national sport is drag racing. We were getting along so well for awhile there. Ah well, only time will tell if my love of a good royal family can surmount my growing fears that you might be terrorists or, dare I say displaced Nigerian princes?

Best of luck in your future internet endeavors,

Emily

I'm Going to England!

If you had any plans to see me this summer, you'd best hope they've already been made because I'm running out of time in a very good way! My work is sending me to Tahoe, I'm going to a family reunion, my work is sending me to the less exotic destination of Ogden, and I'm sending myself to England! I've even purchased the tickets, so this is for real! Aside from all those destinations, I'm hoping to move, and at some point I'll need to be in Boise for my bro's big send off. Whew! Also, now would probably be a good time to mention that I do get my own classroom at the high school next year, so I'll just be trying to plan a couple courses, assemble supplies, and get my room set up in the midst of all this. No biggie. I'm kicking it all off with spring break in California, too, and suddenly writing this post is making me see how wonderful it is to be employed! I'm kidding myself to think I'll ever be able to save money in the face of wanderlust...