Thursday, March 1, 2012

Better Living.

STOP worrying about your five year plan.

Take that vacation.

Buy yourself a small treat.

Your life is happening right NOW. Enjoy it.

Study hard. Work hard. You'll sleep better knowing you are doing the best for yourself.

Drink Water. Lots of it.

Veggies. They go with everything.

Stretch. It helps with a lot of things.

Kiss your child. Call your relatives.

Dance in your underwear.

Take a chance. So you can say that you tried. You might surprise yourself.

Wear a color you would never wear.

Smile at strangers.

Have PATIENCE.

Read my blog.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Tip Rant

Tips I found on various websites...




Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.. I didn't know that!

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic, and at the end of the recipe if you want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummy!

Reheat Pizza Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs: Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting: When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread: To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away: Plant your plants in the ground, work the nutrients in your soil. Then wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go, cover with mulch, and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass: Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes: Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum: To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip to eliminate static cling. It works; you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... Ta DA! ... Static is gone.

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

De-fog your windshield: Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Re-opening envelopes: If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies: To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup an d gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants: Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Wash your dryer filter: The heating unit went out on my dryer. The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material and the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free, and smell good. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box? Apparently that stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Friday, September 30, 2011

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

I wish more people were informed about Lupus. Lupus affects my family and has taken loved ones from me. Please educate yourself and people you know, so that we can begin to find a solution to this disease.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Minstrella

I heart the Black keys.




Loco for Moloko










I just had a Massive Attack...

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Defy the Stars

"And when he shall die, take him and cut him up in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will fall in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun."- Juliet. ( Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet )

Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Weary

BEFORE YOU READ THIS. Please click play on the video, as the song is meant to be heard while reading the poem. :)





This is for the weary
Cold and pulled
from every angle.
Mangled, tangled
hearts of the past
that live in the present.

Blown and blustery
How your knuckles ache
and take and take and take
the cries of your children
and muster your own.


Through the grey paved streets of the city
twinkling in the moonlight-
you dredge;
pulling your old suitcase,
cracked Italian leather.

Moving on, moving forward.
Never knowing when the next stop is.
Inertia pulling you from the inside out.


The world goes by in a water colored blur
of births,marriages, and deaths.
Trains rushing on pulsing tracks
Billboards lit against inky black skies.
The city is alive, and it begs you to notice.

Skyscrapers, payrolls, stocks.
It means nothing to you.
You cradle a cup of coffee.
The steam curls around the edge of your lips.
Time stops.

This is everything.




THIS is for the weary....