My cousin, who's a microbiologist, routinely sends me articles about fecal transplants being used as a cure for C. diff infections. (If you're friends with me on FB, you may see them from time to time.) I love her. (I think poo transplants are brilliant, and apparently they work like goddamn magic.)

I would donate my poo to any of you who needed healthy intestinal bacteria to save your life. TOTALLY.

And in less gross news, check out this commercial for spaying/neutering your pets. It is AWESOME: [link]

Fecal transplants? I've never heard of that!

Fecal transplants? I've never heard of that!

A C. diff (the bacterium Clostridium difficile) infection is a massive hostile takeover of your gut -- the C. diff overtakes all of your necessary good bacteria, and it's pretty bad. And it's becoming harder and harder to successfully treat.

The idea behind a fecal transplant is that because the donor has normal intestinal flora, the donor poo is the vehicle to get those good bacteria into the patient's gut, where they can multiply and get everything back to normal. And, for real, fecal transplants have been almost miraculous in how quickly and how completely they've eradicated long-term C. diff infections. It's amazing, and amazingly simple when you think about it.

Which reminds me that I need to bottle my kombucha.

Steph, that commercial is fabulous. If givethemten.org was around here, I'd promote the hell out of them.

Steph, that commercial is fabulous.

"Who's your daddy? Not me!"

Never realized how weird it feels, looking for a sympathy/condolence card.

Oh yeah. I had a phase where I needed so many, I bought extras, which was nice ("nice") when I had to send one randomly recently. Now I'm out again. I like the cards at Papyrus in general.

Jilli, I'm glad you had fun! Gates is OK BBQ, and I'm glad you liked it. (Everyone here has a favorite BBQ places, and people get quite snobby about it!)

ita, I'm sorry about your cousin, and hope that this trip is as calm as can be.

In kid news, M got caught saying the f word at school, and lied about it USING RELIGION AS AN EXCUSE ("I couldn't have said it becuase Jews are allowed to swear.) AND playing games on his tech during class. There's going to be a come-to-Jesus meeting (er, you know what I mean) on Skype tonight with all 4 parents. We (Parents) already had a pre-call meeting, but we're going to do it later so he can get this project done first.

Some of the fuck he hears is, I'm sure at school or his lacrosse team, which is 5th to 8th grade...but I know his mom and stepdad curse within the kids' hearing all the time.

I swear like a sailor, but I am like a friggin' NUN around him, so...WHEW. Didn't do it!

Yeah, tonight Dillo has called both his sister and himself an asshole. We're nipping that in the bud, I tell you what.

If that haunted Venetian island doesn't work out, maybe a Spanish town? [link]