Month: September 2015

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A new Halloween store opening

It’s really great to have found out that tomorrow is the opening of a new Halloween store that is opening in town! Normally I will take orders from friends or the folks around here, to make costumes for their kids or even some of the adults, and I really enjoy making them. Some people who make costumes would be bummed about a big store of costumes and everything else one could think of for Halloween in the area, but not me.

I love to go into stores like this to get new ideas and also to buy the items I need to make All Hallows Eve the best time possible. From what I am hearing, this new store has thousands of costumes, mainly the pre-made and sold in packages type ones. But they also have loads of masks and also everything thinkable for this night of ghouls and witches, black cats and skeletons.

The opening of the Halloween store will be held in a few days and I of course will be going there to scope it out. As for buying anything, I’m going to wait until right before Halloween and then the day after, because I also hear tell, that the store will have tremendous discounts on the non sold special effect items and so make up, and blank masks which is what I am looking for, since one of my specialty hobby’s is making masks for all occasions.

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Staying in Apartments While Travelling

My family originated in London, and I have always dreamed of visiting my relatives that still live there. For decades I have corresponded with some of them, even though I never met them face to face. Originally the correspondence started with U. S. Mail, and then eventually it went to email. Now some of them are even Facebook friends!

Apparently many of them live in the London area, and have offered to let me stay with them for a few days if I ever do go over to London. I think that is a very nice offer, but I think that I would rather stay in one of the many London Apartments that are available to rent on a short-term basis.

I don’t mean to sound snobbish, but I do remember when a few years ago I went to visit my son that was going to college in New Jersey, and I stayed with some relatives that I had never met before. I was on a very limited budget, and it was very nice of them to take me in. The problem was that they guest room was full of sketches that their very artistic daughter had done, and I found the sketches quite disturbing. And the relatives themselves insisted on feeding me supper both nights that I was there – and their food was awful! On top of that, they were drunk the entire time I was there!

When I recall that experience, staying in a neutral place when I travel, like the furnished London Apartments that are available, sounds better and better every time!

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Business sign

My sister is starting up a small sandwich and salad shop and she wanted me to help her have the perfect business sign made up. She actually is the artist in the family, but she really doesn’t use her talents anymore, unless it’s doodling on a piece of scrap paper while she’s keeping our rummy scores. I hate it when a gift goes to waste, but she says that she got tired of drawing and just doesn’t feel like doing it anymore. I’ve known a lot of artists that sort of “tap dry” and who won’t draw or sculpt anymore. I guess it is sort of like a writers block.

While looking at various signs, my sister decided also to look at their brass plaques. There were quite a wide selection and she had a hard time with making a decision. At lunch I could tell she had put her thinking cap on because she was really quiet.

When I asked her why she wanted that kind of a plaque, she said that it was going to be a sort of commemorative plaque for the date we found out our mom and her husband were finally cancer free. The whole family is going to pitch in for this plaque. It makes me really happy that she would think of something like that. commemorative

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The dreaded grocery store

Once again, it’s time to make a weekly trip to the local grocery store. I hate to shop, let alone grocery shop. Prices have gone sky high and there seems no end in sight. One can of veggies that went for .49 are now doubled…and that is the store brand or generic. I’m armed with my list, pen and grocery money, but it took me all of last night to figure out what I am going to make for a week’s work of dinners, plus what to buy for the extras that we need. It’s all starting to bum me out a bit, to be honest.

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News on the fly

Most people agree that following the news and current events is important, yet as many as one third of people don’t keep up with the news on a regular basis. Among reasons cited for NOT following the news are the time required, difficulty in understanding the topics, bias of news sites, sensationalism of the headlines, negativity and fear mongering by the media, and the annoyance of click bait and video ads.

Informucate.com is a different kind of news site that seeks to address these issues by providing All the News in Just 12 Views, leaving out the bias, bloat and bull!

Informucate synthesizes the news into just 12 current stories, each only a paragraph or two, with explanations of jargon, concepts, and key terms right alongside the stories.  Not sure about ISIL ? Don’t know what FOMC means? Can’t remember who Rand Paul is? Don’t understand the terms Triple Crown, Grand Slam, or March Madness? Anytime you read a story with terminology, jargon, abbreviations, institutions, or names and places that might be unfamiliar, there is a quick explanation right alongside the article.

Informucate is not a news aggregator. All daily stories are selected by editors and written by journalists.  Compared to bloated and biased news sites, as well as other “explainer” sites that in actuality do not explain, informucate allows viewers to get their news in just a few minutes a day, and more importantly, understand what they have read.

The 12 stories cover the top news of the day, as well as health, trending, entertainment, money, technology, and the popular ‘bad behavior’ report. By presenting a mixture of news that runs the gamut from serious to entertainment to trending, the 12 stories give everyone the information they need to stay informed and be more confident at work, school and in social settings. Best of all, it takes just 5 minutes a day to get informucated.

In addition to news stories, there’s also a fast facts video encyclopedia that includes fun daily trivia and other short videos on subjects including, dogs, cats, US Presidents,  colleges, holidays, and more.

 

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Mail order brides

Have you ever watched any television shows where the theme of the show revolved around mail order brides? I seem to remember a movie a long time ago called “Seven brides for Seven brothers” that revolved around that theme. I remember a Star Trek episode that was dedicated to the adventures of the crew that was transporting a man who was delivering mail order brides to his customers. Every now and then I watch a more recent television show that features the story line around russian brides. Usually the story is a murder-mystery type of show like Law and Order or Elementary.

When the more recent TV shows started to feature stories about mail order brides I have to admit that I was surprised to think that this type of match-making was actually really going on! I find myself wondering how many of these types of marriages become long and happy marriages, and how many of them end in a more unhappy way. I guess that as I gotten older, I’ve become more skeptical about other people’s motivations.

I don’t know how I would react if someone in my family told me that they were getting married to someone they had met online but had never actually spent face-to-face time with that person. I would be very concerned about how they will feel after a few months of reality. I would strongly encourage them to date for as long as possible, and maybe even get a pre-nuptial agreement before the marriage took place. But then that would be meddling, wouldn’t it? Oh dear…

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Welcome September

September (free clip art)
September (free clip art)

September is one of my favorite months. Temperatures start to cool off, and there are a lot of family birthdays to celebrate. Fresh apples are readily available to use to make caramel-candied apples, and fresh apple cider is available in the stores (no preservatives added – my favorite!) Fall festivals abound, and the whole world seems to start getting ready to hunker down for winter. Some evenings and mornings I can smell one of the neighbor’s wood fire wafting in the air. There is a clean, crisp feel to the early morning air, and I love watching the squirrels gathering their acorns and the leaves on the deciduous trees start to change color.