Category: Home

Posted on

Spring Cleaning Chores

There’s no more denying that Spring is really here and I really need to get started with the Spring cleaning chores. It is so easy to put them off – especially when I live alone and rarely have company. So if it is just me, do I really care that the windows need to be washed? Do I really care that the linen closet needs to be emptied out and restocked?

Well, the answer is that yes, I DO care. I just would rather watch a good movie, read a good book, or play a few games on the computer when I get home from work. I would rather take one weekend and designate those two days as Spring Cleaning days and just get it all done with.

So I guess next weekend is the designated Spring Cleaning project. Unless something better comes along that requires my attention.

Posted on

Yummy Banana Nut Muffins

Betty Crocker makes a great banana nut muffin mix. All you have to do is stir in a couple of eggs and then add some oil and water. Thirty minutes later you have baked deliciously moist warm muffins waiting for the little slab of butter and a cup of hot tea.

I like to add real bananas to the mix before baking, so I try to keep one or two ripe bananas on hand most of the week. It can be challenging to find bananas in varying stages of ripeness. At the Food Lion grocery store near my house, they get a shipment of bananas once a week and they are bright green. They ripen naturally in the store, but they all ripen on the same schedule, so the bananas you buy are either not ripe enough or too ripe all at the same time. So I only buy two bananas at a time at Food Lion.

But Kroger is a few miles further from my house and they seem to get banana shipment three times every week. So you can buy individual bananas in varying stages of ripeness. If I happen to be at Kroger, I’ll buy two very green bananas, two almost ripe bananas and then one that is ready to eat. That way they will continue to ripen after I get them home and not all spoil within just a couple of days.

Posted on

Bring on the Spring!

The southern groundhog weather expert, General Beauregard Lee, did not see his shadow today. It’s a good thin he is in Atlanta, because at home the day was rainy and miserable, although warm. It’s almost like we are already having Spring, rather than waiting 6 weeks for the official first day of Spring.

We were fortunate to have a very mild Winter, with only a few days of snow flurries and it never really amounting to much. Everything wet has been rain, which is much better for me than snow and ice. Even so, I am tired of the short days, early darkness and  needing a coat for even the shortest dash from the house. Bring on Spring! We are ready!

Posted on

Espresso

This morning I learned how to make espresso. It was pretty cool and I feel like I could work at Starbucks and turn out hundreds of cups of espresso or coffee!

Actually, I would not like that job very much. People who go to Starbucks have very high expectations and are extremely particular about what their drink tastes like. I would think that good customer service would be very hard to deliver to those customers.

The espresso is a finer grind of the coffee, and you have to tap it down into the drip cup. Then you have make use of the steam from the hot water forced through the coffee grounds and use that steam to make the milk or cream hot and frothy. It is not that hard to learn, but it is good to have someone who knows what they are doing show you each step instead of trying to read it in an instruction manual.

Next thing for me is to start experimenting with adding different flavors, such as chocolate or caramel. And then on to latte, cappuccino and iced coffees. The world of delicious coffee is at my fingertips!

Posted on

Utility Trailers

My Uncle Carl has several utility trailers at his place. He uses them to haul all kinds of things, from yard waste to motorcycles. So when I started thinking about getting a small trailer to use with my Mazda SUV, I figured he would be the one to ask for advice on what to look for and where to buy one at a fair price. Well, he invited me out to his house to look around and have a talk, which is always nice. He is a very cool guy and I was grateful to be invited over.

After we walked around the farm and talked for while, he told me that I don’t really need to buy my own utility trailer. Since he lives only about 15 minutes – 20, with traffic or school buses – away from me, he said that any time I need to need one for me to just come on over to his place and get one of his. He said that as long as I didn’t keep it for more than a day or two, that it should never be a problem for him. So, I am going to take him up on his offer and not buy my own. That’s so sweet of him!

Posted on

I Love My Vet

When I acted on a whim and got my dog, I had no idea how much time and money I was going to have to spend on taking care of her. She is a great dog, but I really have to work at caring for her, with grooming, flea and tick prevention, annual check ups and now allergies.

Evidently she is allergic to grass. It does not make her sneeze like humans do with grass allergies. It irritates her feet like acid when she walk on it. After we go for a walk in the yard and come back in the house, she immediately starts licking her feet. Sometimes she even chews on her feet to the point that they are bleeding.

I took her to the vet so he could check her and he helped me figure out that it is allergies. So I have had to start giving her foot baths at night and when they get very sore I put a special creme on them and cover them in bandages so she can’t lick off the creme before it has a chance to work. The vet says if they get too bad that I can bring her in for a shot, but that costs $60 and she would have to get the shot at least once a month.

I never heard of dogs having an allergy to grass until she started having the sore feet. Who knew?

Posted on

Wash Day

For years I would do laundry on Wednesday nights. It was always a night with several situation comedies on TV and I could time the trips downstairs to the washer, and then to the dryer, to coincide with the commercial breaks or between shows. But now I seem to just wash a load whenever there is enough accumulation to warrant running the machines. So, tonight is the night – I don’t see any point in waiting until Wednesday.

Posted on

Spring Cleaning

The warmer weather has got me itching to do some heavy duty house cleaning. I just love spring cleaning – I change out the bed linens, and the take down the curtains in the bedroom and living room, put out different pillows, and buy new placemats for the table. These little touches, plus a deep cleaning in each room makes my home looks and feel so nice and fresh!

Posted on

Why No B Batteries?

All the batteries in my house are either AA or AAA for just about everything like the flashlights, my digital camera and the alarm clock. But there are also C batteries and D batteries. But why are there not any B batteries? I checked on Wikipedia and found out that there a lot more batteries than that, and yes, as a matter of fact, they do have a B battery:

Most commonly found within a European 4.5 volt lantern battery. Not to be confused with the vacuum tube B battery.

Posted on

New Vacuum

Today’s vacuums are pretty much disposable, aren’t they? I buy a $50 vacuum at K-Mart just about once a year. I used to spend $200 for a vacuum and I still had to replace that every year. So now I just buy the $50 ones and put the other $150 towards something more fun.