Mar

16

By rach

No Comments

Categories: all the fishies in the sea, glory days

today i…

…took brain for a car ride to run errands.

…changed my oil.

…rotated my tires.

…changed my spark plugs.

…ran brain around while i rode my bike (she got the hang of it after a couple of times up and down our street).

…enjoyed the cool breeze.

…basked in the sunshine.

…bought my boyfriend & roommate lunch.

…ate lunch out on the deck.

…watched golfers go by.

…cleaned out some branches (prepping for our fence…hopefully, i did enough).

…threw away some dead plants (oops! they don’t all make it at my house…some of them were annuals anyway).

…slept in.

…played on the internet.

…tried to get ahold of my friend, ben. what?!

…played on facebook.

…played on flickr.

…watched tv.

…ate unhealthy food (taco bell & bojangles…YUM!).

…hung pictures in the rest of the house (it only took us 3 yrs lol).

i’m just really enjoying today. it’s awesome outside, and i think i might trip back out there to see what other fun stuff i can find to do. :)

Mar

13

By rach

3 Comments

Categories: glory days

dog vs. kids

after being on vacation all last week, it was great to come home to our puppy, brain. while we missed her, we were glad to get away and not have to manage the dog all the time. being a puppy, she still requires a good bit of training and supervision (she’s very nosy).

we were back no more than 2 or 3 days before we had to take her to the vet to get her fixed. it’s the first overnight visit to the vet of her life, and she didn’t seem to miss a beat. when i left her at the vet, she didn’t even notice i wasn’t going with her. lol @ the silly dog.

that evening, i was constantly hearing her around the house…getting her nose into stuff, whining, scratching, drinking, whatever. it was all completely in my head. and i found that i missed having her around the house. not having her on vacation was different. not having her around the house was flat out strange. i was constantly looking under my feet while sitting on the couch. i waited for her to follow me into the kitchen whenever i got up. i fully expected her to bring me one (or all) of her toys, begging me to play with her.

i felt completely ridiculous. i am so used to her presence in the house that i merely expect it now. this longing to “have my baby around” was foreign, but fairly strong considering “it’s just a dog.”

i started wondering if this is what parents go through when their children leave for a period (or forever!). i never thought owning a dog would relate so much to being a parent. while it’s not the same at all, there are definitely some similarities (training, supervision, exercise, discipline, affection, etc.). and brain has a way of making me fully aware that i’m not ready to be a parent at all! :) i feel like i got a glimpse of a taste of a glimmer (e.g. pretty small sampling) of what it’s like to be a parent.

Mar

12

By rach

No Comments

Categories: general

hints for around the house (from an e-mail)

• Peel a banana from the bottom and you won’t have to pick the little “stringy things” off of it. That’s how the primates do it

• Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

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

• Peppers w 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 indouble broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let it set for a wonderful minty frosting.

• Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you wanta light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want astronger taste of garlic.

• Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simple chop them up with the foodchopper. 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.

• 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 microwave pizza. This was 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
Take a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You can 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 at faster.

• Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. 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.

• Squirrel 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 papertowel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

• Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and 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.

• Measuring Cups
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.

• Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? 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!

• Reopening envelope
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.

• Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It’s a lot 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 and 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 & you don’t have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

• INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
If, when or even before the heating unit goes out on your clothes dryer you should consider some information from a repairman. Go to your dryer and pull out the lint filter. It should be clean (always clean the lint from the filter after every load of clothes.) Take the filter over to the sink, run hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material – the hot water may just sit on top of the mesh! It may not go through it at all. That is because dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh and that can burn 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 –that nice fragrance too. That waxy feel when you take them out of the box, is the stuff that builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to catch fire & potentially burn down your home. The best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (& to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush (or other soft brush) at least every six months. It will make the life of the dryer at least twice as long!