How to Heal Stinky Carpets

This from the brilliant novelist Melissa Miller:

Hi Nerissa,

I thought of an idea for the How To Be An Adult site ... I have carpets in our bedrooms and they have fallen prey to both the kids and dogs in the urine department. I hate the stuff that they sell for such odors and don't think they're good for my family or pets to breathe, or for the environment. What I found works like a charm is to sop up the wetness, clean the area with a good cleanser (I use the new green series by Clorox or something by Seventh Gen.) and let it dry ... then the piece de resistance is plain old baking soda. I sprinkle it over the stinky spot and brush it deep into the fibers with a hand broom. Let it sit for the day and then vacuum it up! This also works for every day kinds of pet odors in carpets ... vacuum the carpet, shake the soda all over it, brush it into the fibres, let it set and then vacuum it up!

Nerissa says: the wonders of baking soda! We keep countless boxes of it in our pantry and in all our bathrooms. Combined with vinegar, it is a powerful, earth-friendly all purpose cleaner.

Dead Car Battery Question

In some cars, you can charge a cell phone whether or not the car is running. My question is: does that in anyway hurt the car? My husband and I are in disagreement about this.

Unbelievably Good Mock Sushi Salad

I haven't had real sushi in over 10 years as I don't eat sugar, and sushi has sugar in the seasoning for the rice. Also, it is ill-advised* for pregnant women to eat sushi, so there are multiple reasons why, when Tom and I go out for Japanese, I abstain from what was once my obsession. But pregnancy cravings are pregnancy cravings. Today, I marched into my local food co-op, set down an avocado, a cucumber and some organic nori sheets on the belt and got creative in the kitchen.

Ingredients

-nori sheets
-one can crabmeat (the fake crabmeat, which most California rolls use, have sugar in them, so if you don't have a problem with sugar, you can substitute this.)
-6 oz cooked brown rice with a little rice vinegar shaken over
-1/4 avocado, thinly sliced
-3/4 cucumber, thinly sliced
-2 tbsp Annie's Organic Shiitake Dressing (optional; again, if you don't have a problem with sugar, go online and find a recipe for sushi rice and follow that)
-powdered wasabi (or real, if you can get it)
-tamari or soy sauce
-caviar (I didn't have this, but a girl can dream)

You might also want a bamboo sushi roller, though I don't have one and did just fine making little cones with my piece of nori.

Assemble your ingredients. The rice should be cool and easy to work with. You can either toss all the ingredients together to make a non-traditional Japanesish salad, or attempt a more roll-like creation. Either way:

-hold a sheet of nori over a gas flame or a candle very briefly. The sheet should turn from black to green.
-wet the powdered wasabi to create a paste. Leave for 10 minutes.

Then, if attempting rolls:
-lay the sheet down on the bamboo roller. Put a layer of rice on it in a square, leaving a margin of about an inch all around
-in the middle of the sheet, make a vertical line of crabmeat.
-next to the crabmeat, a vertical line of avocado
-and a vertical line of cucumber
-and a vertical line of caviar
-roll up the roll and seal the nori (wet the inside and outside edges of the nori to make a seal)
-with a VERY sharp knife, cut the roll into four-six equal parts. You may need to wet and dry the knife blade between each cut.
-with chopsticks or your hand, dip your sushi into a little dish with some tamari/soy and wasabi

OR what I did:
-cut your sheet of nori into quarters
-fold one quarter into a cone
-with a spoon (or chopsticks if you are very skillful) fill your cone with the sushi salad
-dip into the wasabi/soy mixture and enjoy!
-keep making cones till you are satiated or the sushi salad is gone, whichever comes first.

*perhaps falsely, but that's another story--see Trevor Corson's wonderful essay here:

What to Do If You Break Your Pinky Toe

Nothing. Okay, not nothing: tape your broken pinky toe to the nearest other toe, ice and elevate and take some ibuprofen or Tylenol. If you go to the doctor and they confirm it's a broken toe (by X-Ray), the doctor will tell you the same thing.

I broke one of my pinky toes when I was a teenager by banging it against a chair as I was whizzing around my bedroom. I broke the other one last Tuesday when I was whizzing around my kitchen, trying to make yogurt. In order to make yogurt, you have to monitor the heat of the milk very closely so as to keep the probiotics healthy and happy. So I was whizzing. Also, being pregnant, I am extra clumsy these days, forgetting I have about 22 extra pounds on me and that my center of gravity is a bit off. So now I have an impressive dark purple streak running down the center of my right pinky toe. I figure it's just another way my body is telling me to slow down and quit the whizzing already.

Banks

In my book, I confessed that I bank at Bank of America. I also wrote about how I learned from my friend Melissa Scott all about compound interest. As far as I can tell (and this from talking to a rep at my local branch) Bank of America doesn't give compound interest if you just open a simple savings account, only if you open a CD (which involves locking up your money for a specified period of time, usually 6 months minimum.)

So my questions are:
1. Is there a better local bank than Bank of America? (Florence Savings Bank, Easthampton Savings, etc.) Or national branch?
2. Is it unusual for banks not to give compound interest on simple savings accounts?
3. Where Would Jesus Bank?

composting

A reader told me that I have it wrong about the compost jar by the kitchen sink. I had written that you should keep the lid closed because compost stinks! She corrected me, saying that compost only stinks when you keep the lid closed and let the smells fester. If you leave it open, it airs itself out. I've been trying this for a week, and she's right. BUT--now we have a fruit fly problem. Any suggestions?

Question About Health Insurance

This might vary state by state, so please indicate which state you are writing from when posing responses.

If you have a pre-existing health condition, and are currently in a good (okay, not necessarily "good"; safe--not fun) job with benefits, how terrifying would it be to quit your job and seek a new one? I have heard awful stories about women who are in the middle of a pregnancy and lose their insurance when switching jobs.

Please share your experience and knowledge below!