Category: Opinion

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Have you ever wanted to get published?

I have a lot of friends that tell me that they would love to be able to have some of their writings get published, but they don’t know how to get started. I often tell them that they could start their own blog, for free, using WordPress, but that seems to scare them off somehow. I think that they are afraid that they will then have a huge commitment to write everyday.

Some of them try using Facebook, but I don’t really think that is the best platform for creative writing, and to be honest, I’ve struggled with trying to find older posts on Facebook. A lot of people will post something on Facebook and write “Share on your own wall so you can find it again.” I have not had good luck finding that thing I shared again – ever!

Believe it or not, I get a lot of emails from people asking me if I will pay them money for them to write a guest post on my own blog. I wouldn’t mind doing that from time to time, except that the people then want me to pay them big money for inferior writing that is really all about promoting their own services or product! They claim it will help my search engine rankings, but I know better than that. I get angry that so many people think I am that ignorant!

Posted on

Adapters are a good thing

I have to admit that I have a love-hate relationship with technology sometimes. I think technology is great, but there are so many different connection types for things that it can make my head spin! Would you believe that I have three drawers full of different types of adapters? These are an accumulation of at least twenty years! Some of them are a mystery to me at this point. I wish I had been smart enough to put them each in a zipper-type of plastic bag and labelled the bag with what type of adapter was in the bag! Doing that would come in really handy when I need to find a dmx 5 pin to 3 pin adapter! I am going to start doing that, starting with the next time I am putting an adapter in the drawer! And from now on, when I have to rummage through the drawer to find an adapter, when I find what I need, I will label it before it goes back in!

Posted on

The best iced tea

I drink a lot of tea, but normally it’s all herbal, as I really don’t like the speedy feeling that happens to me when I drink anything with caffeine in it. It makes me shaky and very jittery. I must admit though, now that warm weather is here, I make sun tea and only use Luzianne tea for it. I realize that there is caffeine in it, but this kind of tea doesn’t give me that shaky feeling that I hate. Plus, in my opinion it is the best brand for iced tea! I’m pretty picky about my iced tea and do not use sugar at all in it. I’ll never change brands.

Posted on

Decorating Ideas

Although I don’t have a lot of money, I love to look at magazines and websites that showcase interior decorating. I like to fantasize about how beautiful my house could be “if only” I had plenty of money and the kind of family that wouldn’t break everything within two hours of the arrival of the items I had purchased! Today I was looking around at the domestications bedding section of a website that sells home and patio decor and was surprised to see that they were selling melamine serving ware for what I would consider a hefty sum of money!

I can remember when I first moved out of my parents’ house, my first set of dishes was melamine. I bought them because they were the least expensive set I could find. I was really pleased with them because they were not likely to chip or break, and they lasted a good long time. (I don’t remember whatever happened to them – did I donate them to charity?) Anyway, I was surprised to read the descriptions of these particular melamine products, how the descriptions said that melamine was highly valued for their durability. Made me wish I still had those plates (maybe they would be worth some serious money!)

But continuing to read the fine print about melamine, I saw that it is not recommended for use in the microwave, and that hand washing is recommended. The description said you could wash them in an automatic dishwasher but over time it would ruin the finish. Thinking about how almost all of my cooking is done in the microwave, and how much I use my dishwasher to wash my dishes, pots and pans, I was quite surprised to learn that there really is still a market for melamine dishware at all!

Posted on

A guitar with three necks

I was watching a YouTube video a few minutes ago featuring a performance on a guitar that has three necks. The musician playing the guitar is a man named steve vai. I hate to admit that I have fallen “behind the times” when it comes to recognizing the names of the current names of younger musicians and bands – I guess that is the price you pay when you are working full time, (with overtime) taking college courses at night, and raising kids, too! Anyway, I was surprised to see a guitar with three necks! The musician sure seemed talented! I had to wonder if he ever watched himself on video after he plays – he was making some really funny facial expressions that made me laugh! I wonder if he does that on purpose.

Posted on

Easter and garden supplies out

I went shopping yesterday and could not believe it!! Easter items are out already. To me, this is getting a bit out of hand. I asked the store clerk how long they had been out, since it looked like the shelves were pretty much picked over and I hadn’t gone to that store in awhile. He told me they had stocked Easter things right after Valentines Day. (SMH)

The great thing though, is that the garden supply section is now nearly fully stocked. Looks like I’m going to get an even bigger jump on shopping this year for my garden. I’m at least excited about that!

Posted on

Organizing the Spice Cupboard

This morning while I was looking for some cinnamon, I decided that I was in dire need of some kitchen spice racks. I opened the cupboard and I had an avalanche of spices fall out of it. My kids are all teenagers, or out of their teens now, and they have started to try their hand at cooking. Needless to say, they don’t put my spices back in the cupboard the way I like to have them, and since I have literally nearly every spice one can imagine, when they are finished cooking I can’t find what I’m looking for.

I have one wall in my kitchen, that I think a big wall spice rack would look great on and the spices would be organized plus close at hand for everyone to use. I like the idea of the spices to be displayed so we wouldn’t have to dig through the cupboard to find what we are looking for. I’m thinking about getting one for my baking spices, and then my cooking spices. Perhaps even one that would hold the various oils I use when I make candy.

My mom has some really nice looking spice racks that my sister got her for her birthday, and since she doesn’t have a whole lot of cupboard space, she has hung hers on the wall where everything is handy for her. I’m looking forward to getting rid of the clutter and have my spices organized.

Posted on

Information Highway Helps With Shopping

One of the ways that the Internet can be helpful is to compare options from different places without feeling a lot of high pressure from someone. I always hate it when I have to buy something “big” like an insurance policy, or a new car. So I like it when I can find a website, like the one that allred insurance burlington nc put up that will answer a lot of my questions without me actually having to talk to a person. My shopping around is a lot easier with the Internet’s help!

Posted on

Portable battery chargers

My son was taking photos with my camera and even though I had bought really good battery’s they kept dying on him. He told me that I should get a portable USB charger battery. It made sense to me. With all the new items we have in the house and in the vehicles, getting one of the chargers would help a lot and cut down on the cost of having to keep buying batteries. I can’t believe the price of good batteries now and I really can’t afford to keep buying them. My camera was a major big deal to me, and I could not understand why the batteries kept being literally sucked dry.

I think my son’s suggestion is a good one, so I’m going to check it out. Certainly it will be less expensive than having to shell out money for all kinds of batteries like I have been doing. These would even help with cell phones dying and my laptop computer running out of power also. They work with MP3 players, iPods and other electronic items that the kids have. It gets to be an expensive pain, every time I have to run out to the store or shell out money for new batteries. So, I’m going to look into my son’s suggestion.