Go West for the Best Candy

Until I started reading about chocolate and learning about candies, I did not realize that candy making was such a regional specialty.  People who live out West have always had See’s candies to enjoy, while those of us on the East Coast have not had the pleasure. The only reason I was ever introduced to See’s candies was when my Dad went on a business trip to California and he bought a box of See’s chocolates to bring home for my mom.  She opened the box right away and shared her special chocolates with everyone. They were so so good!

I’ll always be glad that my dad went on business trips once in a while. Although my mom was not happy to have him gone, sometimes for up to a week, we were always so happy to have him come home. He always brought us back something for a treat, and we always celebrated with a special dinner, including dessert!

Dad would tell us stories about the cities where he had traveled and about the people he met. Most of the time he would take the train, but when he had to go out West he would have to fly. I remember standing at the big glass window watching his plane taxi away from the gate. We were all standing there waving goodbye, jumping up and down, and we would always be there to meet his plane when he got back. But with security like it is now, no one is allowed to do that anymore. I miss those days.

Chocolate for Breakfast?

When did someone decide that chocolate was a good thing to have to breakfast? I have never really paid attention to the chocolate flavored breakfast cereals, although it seems that Coco Puffs have been around since before I was a kid. But now the Poptarts and frozen pastry strudels come in chocolate flavors, too.

The Poptarts have been out for a while, but I guess I never paid that much attention to the variety o flavors. I rarely buy them, and if I do, I buy the strawberry or blueberry filling flavors. I just can’t wrap my head around serving chocolate for breakfast.

DIY Ringtones

Everywhere I go, when people around me get a call, their cell phones are ringing these really cool notes or ringtones that make their phone and even that caller special to them. I really want to have some special songs, too, so I have been listening to a lot of songs and haven’t really found what I want. I’ve been reading lyrics online and listening to clips – but nada.

My brother just got a new iPhone 4 and he told me that by using an iPhone 4 Video Converter he can upload DVDs to his iPhone. I can’t imagine having an entire movie on my phone – how cool is that?

If he knows so much about converting DVDs and videos, I hope he can help me do some simple ringtones on my iPhone. I found an iPhone 4 Ringtone Maker online and it looks easy enough, but I don’t want to mess up anything. If I’m going to jump into this tekkie project, I would fell better having a real life geek sitting next to me to help out if I get stuck.

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Think We Should Stop?

signs-of-the-times

Found this photo on a church web site. I just had to share it here. I think they really want you to stop. But then again, people who like to go four-wheeling (not naming any names here!) would just see this as a challenge.

TV Trivia

My generation has always had TV and cable, but my parents did not. I found some interesting trivia on a web site about TV. For example, did you know that although the television set was built and sold as early as 1939, that there were almost no television broadcasting stations because of World War II? Most Americans did not have access to local programming until the 1950’s, so the affluent and middle class did not start buying them for home use until the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Another interesting fact is that in the year 2006, the number of television sets in American homes outnumbered the number of human occupants for the first time. The average American home had  2.73 TV sets but only 2.55 people, and that number of TV sets per home continues to increase.

Running for Coffee

The following entry was written by Guest Blogger Alvaro Jordan.

I started running two years ago when a friend of mine decided to lose weight. She wanted to have company and I needed to lose that last twenty pounds that had plateaued on me. At first we would run together and try not wheeze back home (usually because we talked so much while we tried to run) but it did get better. Now we can actually talk and run at the same time without getting dizzy!

About four months ago we decided to be more competitive with each other so we started betting on who got to the bench in our park first. The winner had to buy coffee for the other one. Since we meet at six o’clock in the morning, there have been times where I had to hunt down my flashlight before switching on my home security alarm (all home security) and going out the door. We have really started trying to run faster and are getting ready to run an actual race for the first time. I don’t think they will be serving coffee for the race drink but that’s okay. It goes to a great cause and helps me keep in shape. Anyway, I can keep up with her now so at least I am only buying coffee half the time.

Happy Easter!

What a great Easter! We went to church, had a great brunch, and hunted for Easter eggs. We all had a wonderful day.

We went out to brunch this year. I had the most delicious stuffed french toast. It was filled with gooey cream cheese and strawberry preserves. I could have eaten a whole tray full of that stuff. My husband had a huge plate of steak, eggs, and hash browns. The kids had smiley face chocolate chip pancakes with whip cream and cherries. Everyone left with full a belly and a big smile.

After breakfast we went home and let the kids hunt for a few extra eggs. They already had quite a few from the neighborhood hunt we had yesterday. We just wanted to give them a little private hunt in the backyard. Now our house has tons of plastic eggs and neon green grass all over the place.

After the hunt the kids dug into their eggs. They don’t get candy very often so were thrilled at the collection of sweet treats they had to chose from. I helped myself to a delightful chocolate covered marshmallow peep. Peeps always remind me of my childhood. I look forward to having a few every year.

Ink at a price I can afford!

Why does printer ink have to be soo darn expensive?  My printer takes ink that costs around $60 or more  just for one cartridge.  I’m always printing something and these things only last for 600 pages.  I’m either printing something for work, coupons, or my kids are printing off coloring pages.  600 pages does not go very far in this house.

I found a great site that has cheap ink.  They have the ink I use in my HP printer for a whopping $5.95!!!  That’s about 10% of what I was paying before. They even have a great deal where I can get a combo pack of 2 color and 4 black for only $49.99.  At this price I can afford to print off all of those coloring pages for my kids and not worry if I’ll have enough ink to print out my report for work.

This site has inkjet cartridges for a variety of printer brands… all of the popular brands plus a bunch I haven’t even heard of.  They also sell toner cartridges for laser printers,  fax cartridges, copier cartridges, and refill kits.  It’s a one stop shop for all of our ink needs!

Call me crazy, but I might even purchase some cartridges as gifts for my friends and family with kids.  I don’t know a single kid that doesn’t love to print out every picture made with the standard paint program.

Easter is around the corner

Easter is almost here.  I haven’t had one free moment to get anything done.  I wanted to get the kids a few things and clean the house.  This year we are having a big neighborhood barbeque with everyone on the block.  It’s Saturday so we can all still do our own thing with family on Sunday.

Every family is bringing two dozen decorated eggs for their kids and putting them in the collective hunt.  All of the kids get to go home with the same number of eggs but not necessarily the same ones they came with.  It was a hit last year and I’m sure it will be this year too.

In addition to the egg hunt we’re barbequing simple things like hamburgers and hot dogs.  This year I want to bring something extra yummy for dessert.  I’m thinking about looking up something easy on allrecipes.com.  I don’t have a lot of time left to plan for it so hopefully I can find something that doesn’t need much for time, ingredients, or effort and can still impress.

Crack!

GAH!!!! My shiny IPhone now has one hideous crack running diagonally across the screen.  I dropped it as I was getting out of the car.  It hit the pavement and I shuddered. I’ve dropped the darn thing plenty of times in the past.  This time was different.  I picked it up and looked and saw a tiny crack… the kind a rock might make in a windshield.  It was just a little spot.

I was soo bummed as I worked really hard to keep it in nice condition.  Well, now that I am home I looked at it again and that tiny spot turned into a huge crack.  My phone doesn’t seem to want to work just right when I touch the screen.  I bought that 2 year protection coverage and hope that it covers this.  With my luck I bet I’ll have to pay to get it fixed.  They’ll probably say that the coverage isn’t for neglect.

I can’t stand looking at this huge crack.  I hope I can get it fixed fast!