salicylic acid ... to trigger dormant genes in corn.

Carla, we are in the same boat. I'm trying to get myself (skin, hair, and figure) in better shape for my son's wedding this summer and have recently started using Olay Definity Pore Redefining Scrub and Neutrogena Pore Refining Cream (spf 15). I think cleaning your skin with something targeted for your "problems" is every bit as important as putting on a cream or lotion. And really effective cleansing should help with the breakouts you mentioned. I've only been using these products for about a week but I can already see improvement - really! My skin looks and feels smoother and looks more even in tone. Even the dreaded pores look a bit better. I expect that part to take a while but I am very pleased with the results so far. I've gotten compliments - without make up. Neither of these products is very expensive and a little goes a long way. I think they are well worth the price and the effort to use them consistently.

Just heard from the principal - form letter he has to send out, no ramifications, he just wanted to make sure we were aware in case we were keeping DS home from school if/when he just was too tired or vague "didn't feel well." Said he might have to contact me again and discuss the "problem" if DS misses school regularly (he gave example of a couple of days each week!) for the rest of the school year, but if he gets sick again and he has to be out 3 days next month, no problem, just call in each day like we've been doing, no dr's note required, no summer school, nothing. He said the average number of sick days (roughly, off the top of his head) in his school was 5! With the flu and the stomach bug going around this year, I find it hard to believe that was it, though like I said it's been a rough year (not just for DH - some schools around here closed in October since over 30% of the students had the flu).

Week-long of humid weather, it rained today. I checked my 3 rooting-areas: In Smart-Pot with MG-potting soil, and in potting soil plus coarse sand, and in acidic pine-fines potting soil with mint-pureed (previous pic), the mint pureed have zero blackspots, but the other rootings either become yellow, or blackspotted after 8 days. Mint-pureed with salicylic acid caused wilting in the vase (no buffer, just acidic rain-water), but the mint-pureed WITH SOIL AS BUFFER is fantastic for rooting. See excerpt from below link: http://www.bluestem.ca/willow-article1.htm " Thomas Powell notes that gardeners reported all sorts of plants growing remarkably better when given regular doses of tiny amounts of aspirin (1 part to 10,000 parts water; larger doses actually proved toxic),” Plants make salicylic acid to trigger natural defenses against bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Aspirin thus is an activator of ‘Systemic Acquired Resistance’ (SAR). However, plants often don’t produce the acid quickly enough to prevent injury when attacked by a microbe. Spraying aspirin on the plants speeds up the SAR response. Tests have shown this works on many crops, producing better plants using less pesticide. They’re also testing aspirin and other SAR activators which could be effective against non-microbial pests such as aphids and root-knot nematodes,” Powell says. “This may be the most important research of the century. Stimulating SAR defenses with aspirin or other activator compounds could result in increased food production and the elimination of synthetic pesticides.” He recommends we experiment by spraying some plants with a 1:10,000 solution (3 aspirins dissolved in 4 gallons of water), leaving other plants unsprayed. Tests have shown that the SAR activation lasts for weeks to months." *** From Straw: Let's see how long my rootings in mint pureed stay clean. Mint has salicylic like aspirin and willow-rooting-hormone. Another German reserach showed that Salicylic acid also help plants to tolerate salt-injury better: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21143731 " Salicylic acid treatment via the rooting medium interferes with stomatal response, CO2 fixation rate and carbohydrate metabolism in tomato, and decreases harmful effects of subsequent salt stress."