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My Favorite Snack Craving

Everyone has a “go to” snack. Its the food – even if junk food – that you grab when you are just a bit hungry and don’t feel like cooking a whole meal. You want something to munch on while watching TV or working on the computer, or you’ve already had dinner and you just want something crunchy or salty or sweet to put a smile on your face before going to bed.

My favorite snack is a scoop of hummus with some dried pita chips with sea salt. The hummus has some mild spices and a scattering of pine nuts. I buy the big plastic container of hummus for only about $5 at Sam’s Club and a huge bag of dried pita chips with sea salt for only about $4, also at Sam’s. If I buy the same things at the local grocery store I end up paying the same money but getting containers with only about half of the servings. So it makes more sense to go to Sam’s and stock up.

If I don’t want hummus, I usually crave something sweet, like a cookie or a slice of pie. Lately I have been craving cakes, but I think I will try cake pops instead of a full size cake. I like the smaller serving size of a cake pop and I don’t need as much self control on portion size if I just grab a cake pop and don’t allow myself a second.

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No More Box Cake Mixes

The grocery store had box cake mixes on sale for $1.50 per box and then matching frosting on ale for $1.50, too. So add in the cost of a couple of eggs and some oil, the electricity used for a hand mixer and the oven to bake the cake, and you can make a cake for under $5 – that’s a pretty good price. You cannot buy a bakery cake for under $10 these days, so making it yourself does save some money – plus you know exactly what is in the cake. I know that I use real butter – not margarine, shortening or lard. I know that I use real eggs and real vanilla extract – not powdered, dry or imitation anything.

But now that I have seen a recipe for making a yellow cake from scratch, I wonder why I have been using a box mix to bake cakes? I can use regular flour and some baking soda and have just as good a cake as what comes out of a box. It just means I have to measure out a few more items. Big deal! I have decoded to make the next cake from scratch and not buy any more box mixes. And I am going to experiment with the amounts to make just one cake layer instead of the traditional 2 layers, or just 6 cupcakes instead of a whole dozen.

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Technology Changing So Quickly

Thinking back to when I was a young child, my parents had analog telephones scattered throughout the house. They started with one incoming telephone line, then when my sisters and I were teenagers and hogging the phone talking to all our friends, they got a second incoming line for us girls. Then we started getting online which tied up the phone line and no one could call us without getting a busy signal. So they got a third phone line – primarily for internet but also a backup line for us girls. After all, three teenage girls can do a whole lot of talking on the phone, between their girlfriends AND their boyfriends!

But now, we’ve grown and moved out, we all have cell phones and we get online using cable instead of the telephone line. So my parents decided to give up the home phone line and save $50 a month. I don’t blame them!

Another big technology change has been instant messaging and texting. What a great convenience that is! Especially when you just need to push a message to someone and not really talk to them or engage in a 2-way communication. I use texting all the time with my sisters and my parents, and I love the way they can get in touch with me any time, even if I am on the phone and on the internet, all through my cell phone.

I just love how technology is changing so quickly. Now if they will just start reducing the monthly charges. I don’t see how they can justify these high prices for phone service any longer – they are not spending money on expensive phone lines and cables – it’s all digital.

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Listening to the Oldies

My favorite way to listen to music is with the online service called Spotify. You can use it for free, but I pay a small amount every month to get extra features. I’m not sure what the difference is, but I love Spotify and I don’t mind spending $5 a month to support this service.

Tonight I will be listening to the Oldies while I clean house and do the laundry. The weird thing is that my definition of the Oldies might be different from what you call the Oldies. There are actual Oldies radio stations, but they play really old songs, like from the 1950’s and 1960’s. That’s before most of us were even born. In my world, Oldies means the songs of the 1980’s.

The 1980’s songs were so fun for dancing and the best days of heavy metal bands. All the great Metal bands were forming their sound in the 80’s – like Metallica, Guns and Roses, Kiss, AC/DC, Alice in Chains, etc., although the genre got it’s start in the late ’60’s and 70’s. I think the 80’s were the hay day and I love the loud, upbeat music while I am busy scrubbing floors and washing dishes.

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Clever Street Art

Photo of street art with a mouse watering weeds

I guess that, technically, this is graffiti, but I think it is a cute example of street art that takes something ordinary, like a tiny weed, and turns it into something whimsical. Can you see ordinary things like weeds and get the inspiration to create something like this mouse watering a weed, as if it is her houseplant? I think it is so clever! And I don’t have near the talent to even draw something like this, much less come up with the idea in the first place!

I wonder if the government would get all upset if little drawings like this started showing up on the street curbs. I really think most people would enjoy them, but I bet there would be some jerk who thinks it is destruction of public property or some other stupid crime. And some people do not appreciate art at all – they like things plain, sterile and ordinary. I’m so glad that I am not one of those types!

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When words just won’t do it

Justin was trying to explain to me why he wants to buy and install a bigsby vibrato on his guitar, and I just didn’t seem to “get it.” I thought his guitar sounds just fine the way it is. He finally decided to go online to this YouTube video, which is a demonstration of a “before and after” the installation of the bigsby vibrato on a guitar. I have to say I was very surprised to hear that it really makes a big difference in sound! Amazing!

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Thank Goodness for Climate Control

Sometimes I wish that I lived in an area where it was a constant seventy-six degrees out. Someplace that had no natural disasters, and where it only rained at night between the hours of 2am and 4am. Where the economy is good, the government is good, healthcare is good, and people were friendly. I take that back – I don’t wish that sometimes – I wish that always! But I don’t even know if a place like that exists, so here I am, stuck in a location where it gets cold in the winter and hot in the summer. I am lucky to have a furnace to keep me warm when it is cold out, and air conditioning when it is hot out. And if I need a repairman to either the furnace or air conditioning, a phone call to Cary air conditioning takes care of that problem in short order.

Yes, I do love the creature comforts of climate control in my house! I have become quite spoiled!

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Lots of Summer Vegetables Available

Guest post by Louise Stratham

I wish there was a Farmer’s Market close to my house. I don’t know of any except the one downtown, and I hate to drive downtown. I end up spending an extra $10 in gas to go all the way downtown and an extra $10 to the trip for paid parking. So the cost of fresh vegetables is already $20 before I even pick out the first one.

The last time I went to the Farmer’s Market, the price of vegetables was not any cheaper than what I can buy at Kroger grocery stores. I’m not sure there is much advantage to shopping at Nashville’s Farmer’s Market other than you are supporting local farmers and local businesses rather than a big grocery store chain like Kroger and whatever farms they decide at a corporate level to buy from.

There is a little place on the side of the road that sells fresh vegetables and fresh flowers on Lebanon Road. I don’t usually take Lebanon Road to go anywhere, but when I know I am going that way, I usually stop and buy a few things. I went by there yesterday and found lots of summer vegetables. They are a little cheaper than Kroger and the owner tells me that all the produce is grown locally. So I don’t mind supporting this guy and his wife.

I tried to grow some tomato plants on my patio, but they did not produce much. The tomatoes are so small and colored funny that I ended up throwing them out. It was nice to find a fresh picked, field grown tomato at the vegetable stand. One slice of their tomato covers the entire piece of bread! So I enjoyed a fabulous tomato and mayo sandwich last night. And I’ll have another one tonight for dinner, with a couple pieces of bacon and some lettuce on top.

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What do you mean it isn’t an end table?

cajon drum (free clip art)
cajon drum (free clip art)
When Shawn showed me the picture of the cajon drum he wants to buy at musician’s friend I thought that I was looking at a really nice end table! I was so surprised when he told me that it was something called a “pick-up” and it had a built in pre-amp and microphone in it. At that point my eyes must have glazed over because Shawn started trying to explain to me how musicians often have to use several different pieces of equipment to perform the function that this one piece of equipment does. Well after a minute or two I mumbled “that’s nice” and excused myself to go wash my hair. I’m still not sure what it is that it does, but it would look nice sitting beside my sofa!

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No cups or cans of drinks near the PC

eating and drinking near computer (free clip art)
eating and drinking near computer (free clip art)
I know a lot of people like to sit in front of their computer for hours and gradually surround themselves with all kinds of creature comforts so they don’t have to constantly get up from their perch. I have seen empty pizza boxes, stacks of plates and bowls, boxes of tissues, all kinds of pill bottles, phone chargers, a fish bowl, hand sanitizer and all kinds of knick knacks.

But remember this one important rule: No cups or cans of drinks near the PC. I’m serious. Because, no matter how careful you are, one day something WILL happen that results in the liquid getting spilled. Best case, it just spills on the desk or table. Worst case, it pours directly into your hard drive or saturates your keyboard. Not only do have a sticky mess that is almost impossible to clean up, but you can short out the electronics and end up with no computer.

I got lucky tonight, the cat jumped up on my desk and knocked over a small can of Arnold Palmer’s Half and Half. The mix of iced tea and lemonade went everywhere, soaking a stack of papers, dripping into the carpet, and little splashes dotted my keyboard. Thank goodness I was able to clean it all up and not lose anything important. I think this must have been a gentle reminder from Mr. Murphy of Murphy’s Law to follow that rule I just mentioned: No cups or cans of drinks near the PC.