|
|
Not only do I want to give a shout out to my new online/through the mail Sexy Exy Book Club leader Britt at FluentBrittish, but she gave me a shout out here! I am slightly famous! 
Britt has been doing this cool book exchange for a bit, and I found out about it at Clarrisa’s blog. I thought it would be cool to share my current favorite book/writer, Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster. I was a bit apprehensive about one of the”rules” : we were to annotate the book as we read, and after it makes the rounds, we will have 4-5 different views on the book written in different colors. After I started writing though, I realized how much fun it was to add my comments as I read (I added a TON of LOL’s and ROTFLMAO’s) I my next book sometime next week and I am excited to start reading – I have decided since I have a month to finish it before passing it on, I am going to use my time ON THE TREADMILL (since it is SO DAMN FRICKING COLD HERE) and I challenge myself to ONLY read the new book on the treadmill – since I have a deadline, it will FORCE me to get my saggy butt working out. A win-win for everyone, right?!?
By the way, totally random but anyone have any idea how to cut a mango? I bought two today at the grocery store and I am clueless. Thanks for any help you can give me!
…TOTALLY kicked my butt last night. I was at a friends house and they broke out the Wii. We played tennis, boxing (OW OW OW OW my arms are killing me today), golf (I suck at golf), some crazy bunny dancing/shooting game that was fun, Madden ’08 (promise girls, it was actually fun and I HATE boy computer games), and my new favorite, Guitar Hero III. I can see why people have lost weight while playing the Wii – the boxing game? Yeah, kicked my ass and took names. I was sweating, out of breath and my arms were killing me after ONLY 3 short rounds. This morning I woke to sore sides (you have to duck and cover a lot) and my arms feel like I did a 45 minutes workout.
If I had $250.00 to spare, I would TOTALLY run out and get a Wii right now (if I could find one - I hear they are still hard to find right now). I bet I would lose 20lbs of upper arm fat just from the boxing game. We had Dance Dance Revolution to try too (DDR), but I was too tired and sore to try it. That would be another 20lbs of lower body fat from DDR. No trainer needed!
Oh yeah, Guitar Hero III. I have heard so much about this game and let me tell you -very addictive and very fun (once you get the hang of it). I was doing so well, I was asked by the computer to do an encore… I rock.
I realized I am much better at the “timing and single player-no-one-else-has-to-depend-on-me-to-catch-a-football” type of game that the others. I won almost all of those. The Madden game? While fun, I suck at catching passes thrown at me.
I am on vacation today and Monday from work. I hope to get some blogging done, some housework and get some extra rest. I love 4 day weekends, don’t you?
I got this as an email forward and thought it was interesting… not sure if they all actually work, but here you go!
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 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 your want a stronger taste of garlic.
Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simple
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.
And even more!
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you
can’t see easily.
7. No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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!
13. 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. Viola! It unseals easily.
14. 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…
15. 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!
16. 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!
17. INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
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
told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to
the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh
material – I’m sure you know what your dryer’s lint filter looks like.
well,…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 — that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy
when you take them out of the box, well t his stuff builds up on your
clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer
units to catch fire & potentially burn your house down with it! He said
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 and wash it with hot soapy water and and old toothbrush at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn’t know
dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I’d share!
Note: I went to my dryer & tested m y screen by running water on it. The
water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the
mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water & a nylon brush & I had
it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it the water ran right Thru
the screen! There wasn’t any pudding at all! That repairman knew what he
was talking about!
I got this as an email forward and thought it was interesting… not sure if they all actually work, but here you go!
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 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 your want a stronger taste of garlic.
Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simple
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.
And even more!
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you
can’t see easily.
7. No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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!
13. 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. Viola! It unseals easily.
14. 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…
15. 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!
16. 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!
17. INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
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
told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to
the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh
material – I’m sure you know what your dryer’s lint filter looks like.
well,…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 — that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy
when you take them out of the box, well t his stuff builds up on your
clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer
units to catch fire & potentially burn your house down with it! He said
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 and wash it with hot soapy water and and old toothbrush at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn’t know
dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I’d share!
Note: I went to my dryer & tested m y screen by running water on it. The
water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the
mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water & a nylon brush & I had
it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it the water ran right Thru
the screen! There wasn’t any pudding at all! That repairman knew what he
was talking about!
This is the way parents should do it!
Mom dubs herself “meanest mom on planet”: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/01/09/mean.mom.ap/index.html
Do you have any life changing sayings that made your life different?
My best friend is going through crappy (evil, really) work stuff right now and she mentioned that something she saw on my email signature- “This too shall pass” -really helped her out. Also the one about God opening a door when he closes a window. When we were talking via email today, I wrote this:
Yes- everybody needs down days! And you obviously needed a down day yesterday… This Too Shall Pass is my favorite saying still, though it is SOOOO hard to say it sometimes, especially when I want to throw someone through a window (or want to stay in bed for 12 days straight).
The other ones I like are (and are not relevant right now at all, but oh well) ”is the juice worth the squeeze” and “is this the hill you want to die on” and “going to have a ‘come to jesus’ meeting”. My mom recently introduced me to all of these. Not sure if they are West Coast sayings or what, but they help me through alot of crap.
Are there any sayings that have helped you out of a dark place or made you think twice?
Do you have any life changing sayings that made your life different?
My best friend is going through crappy (evil, really) work stuff right now and she mentioned that something she saw on my email signature- “This too shall pass” -really helped her out. Also the one about God opening a door when he closes a window. When we were talking via email today, I wrote this:
Yes- everybody needs down days! And you obviously needed a down day yesterday… This Too Shall Pass is my favorite saying still, though it is SOOOO hard to say it sometimes, especially when I want to throw someone through a window (or want to stay in bed for 12 days straight).
The other ones I like are (and are not relevant right now at all, but oh well) ”is the juice worth the squeeze” and “is this the hill you want to die on” and “going to have a ‘come to jesus’ meeting”. My mom recently introduced me to all of these. Not sure if they are West Coast sayings or what, but they help me through alot of crap.
Are there any sayings that have helped you out of a dark place or made you think twice?
Well, it has been about a week since I created my goals, and actually, I am doing pretty good with them. I (obviously) am not writing everything down, but I have been really good at eating good for me food and can you believe that I brought my lunch everyday last week- and it was healthy homemade lunches? I had at least 3 servings of fruits and veggies at lunch each day– yippee for me!
Tonight I had a “hot bowl of yummy” (have you all had this yet? If, not I will post the recipe in a new post in a few minutes). I had never had it and it was EXTRA good. I had about 1/2 the recipe because I had less califlower available, so it was only 2 pts for a big bowl. I am now going to eat a sectioned orange and then do some work to make sure I am ready for tomorrow. If I have time, I am going to run downstairs and walk on he treadmill for 30 min…. wait… I WILL MAKE TIME to go downstairs and walk on the treadmill for 30 min.
Anyway, Since I just made my lunch for tomorrow, I will create a new post with my BLSD for tomorrow so I won’t forget to put it on here. Geez- forthought- who would have thought I had it?!?
TTFN- Have a great OP week!
AJ
|
|
