Recommendations Needed for Spa in New Orleans

My sister is headed to New Orleans and is looking for advice about at a nice spa there. I don't really have any, so please respond in the comments if you know of one.

Here are a few that look promising:

Travel and Leisure magazine calls the Belladonna Day Spa one of the 10 coziest spas in the U.S. (Note to self: visit all of these spas.)

They also mention the Ritz-Carlton Spa in an article about spas that use local ingredients. (I hope that means they serve Hurricanes.)

And the Guerlain Spa in the Roosevelt Hotel also looks promising.

Hope you have a relaxing trip!

The Irony That is the Gaim Living Catalog

So the Gaim Living catalog came in the mail the other day and on the front it says "earth day, savings and solutions." I'm pretty sure the best solution for the Earth is not to print and send catalogs and not to buy a bunch of stuff.

But now that I've gotten that off my chest, there was plenty of stuff in the catalog I wanted. Here are a couple of items that will help the Earth (or at least make me happy).

This solar buddha fountain costs a pretty penny, but wouldn't it make me feel so peaceful when I saw it in my yard?


Again, this rattan meditation chair is way out of my price range, but I just know it would help me maintain a regular mediation practice.

If you too can embrace the irony, then you can sign up right now for a $500 Gaiam Shopping Spree.

Occasional Randomness:Great post at mnmlist: the only thing you can change.

Best Health Book Ever: Live a Little!

I blogged about this book awhile back when it was mentioned on the New York Times Web site. The thesis of the book sounded pretty good to me, but now that I've had a chance to actually read the book I have to say that I think that every woman (men too, but it is definitely slanted to a female audience) should read this book.

The authors, both doctors make the case that what most of us really want is to be "Pretty Healthy." And if you know the basics about living a healthy life style and are trying to do these thing, (you shouldn't smoke, you should do regular exercise, eat a variety of foods, etc.) then you are probably Pretty Healthy.

They go on to argue, that those of us who become obsessed (not that I would ever do that) with all of the health information floating around are probably making ourselves unnecessarily stressed out. They talk in detail about various diet and exercise studies and why many of them are inconclusive (despite the media hype).

In this book, Drs. Susan M. Love and Alice D. Domar offer some practical advice (backed up by research) about the range of activities that will (probably) lead to good health. And they make the very valid point, that we are all going to die (even if we run marathons and eat wheat germ every day). So why not just Live a Little!
Daily Randomness: Good post on mnmilst about not buying an iPad. Main point: I don't need one.