165 degrees

I was heating up a microwaved meal for lunch and the instructions on the back state: "be sure to heat up the product to an internal temperature of 165 degrees as measured by a food thermometer in several spots" Um, say what? Assuming that the bulk of these meals are eaten at lunch, away from home, how many people have readily on hand a food thermometer? And, assuming that this is truly a safety risk, what the hell is in my prefabricated micro meal of macaroni and cheese that could prove dangerous otherwise? Frankly, I am a little worried.

Speaking of worries, an impending baby creates whole new avenues to divert my love of researching and over-researching products. I am floored at both the wide spectrum and equally wide price range of crib mattresses alone. Do you want a one sided or dual sided? Innerspring, foam, or latex? What about a little of each? How waterproof do you want it to be and, if so, what material is okay for waterproofing? You might buy an 'eco friendly' mattress, but find that it is only slightly less, for lack of a better term, 'toxic' than one that is not. Some people will rave about the 'natural' qualities of a certain brand, while others will decry it for using an adhesive bonding agent somewhere in the manufacture that will, evidently, slowly poison and/or mentally impair your little one. If you don't care about any of these things, or consider them to be as made up as ghosts or moderate Republican presidential candidates, you can get a mattress for under $65. If you believe with a vigor generally reserved for a Tim Tebow prayer session that any contact with something treated with chemicals would lead your little one to remedial classes and a hopeless life of criminal behavior, you can spend well over $400. The gray area of course is the stuff that lies in between. How much constitutes a modicum of concern and what rates as extreme overkill. Considering that there are various other 'exposures' such as the materials used to build the crib, the carpet or hard woods in the floor, the substances the clothes and sheets are made out of, etc....does the mattress really matter at all if you aren't going to go all organic non-toxic with everything? One thing is for certain, no matter what you pick there will be some flaws and it will lead inexorably to the downfall of western civilization as we know it. You know, if you believe in that sort of thing.

Thankfully, there are only a few dozen (hundred) other items to research. Ugh.