A happy little hodgepodge

It's been awhile since I've done one of these.

It's been awhile since I've done one of anything.

So let's make it less than* awhile!

Here goes...

10 Great Cheeses You Should Try
Oh, that is SO going on my to-do list. I've already had... camembert, gruyere, mascarpone, danablu, emmental and halloumi. Wow, a fair amount... I think the to-do should be "have such goodness more frequently". But cheese is so expensive here. I guess it's do-able in tiny amounts, though... Okay!

Creamy spinach cheese dip
A recipe I just HAVE to use -- it sounds so delectable! I have the vital ingredients... Anybody up for spinach dip Friday evening? :D

Java Tips: 5 Ways to Upgrade Your Homemade Coffee

Cooking with Beer: 6 Tasty Recipes Using Ale, Lager, or Stout

12 New Ground Beef Recipes

Facial Exercise To Tone The Face Muscles

6 Skills Every Teen Should Learn
My brother and I had an intersting discussion about parenting and the skills parents should pass on to their children. All of the kids in my family know how to clean extremely well, thanks to my mom's high standard of cleanliness and her diligence in passing on that skill. Of course, what we choose to do with that knowledge, as grown adults, is an entirely different matter, heh, but I _have_ noticed that some people don't seem to have received the same "training" we did, which makes one wonder about how skills and standards are passed on... It's interesting... In any case, that's a handy little list of a few vitals every person nearing adulthood should be familiar with... I'd say...

How to fold a pocket square
That one's for the guys...

And... to end on an even happy-er note... here are some extremely useful movie (which I haven't actually seen) quotes... :D

- Linus.
-- Now, Eve... ...let's just not talk any more about it.
-Linus, I'm tellin' you, you don't know your own mind.
--Maybe so, maybe not.


-I wish you Godspeed, Eve. And I ain't said that to anybody for a long time.


-By golly, you're a strong-minded woman. I reckon I seen that varmint for the last time.
The westward course was no smoother than that of true love.

*(Do YOU remember which side "less than" points to, as opposed to "greater than"? I don't remember that sort of thing, in general... When I learned it, I had to make a visual, right-hand/left-hand, association, gah! "Greater than" always points to the right [I think -- now I'm not so sure, since I don't remember, haha] -- and the right is "greater than" the left, because I'm right-handed. :) Same way I remember my Roman numerals... is 50 L or D? Well, D comes before L, but in Roman numerals, it's reversed, so L is 50 and D is 500. Logically. :D And in Chinese numbers, liu is 6 and jiu is 9, reversed, alphabetically. But of course. Okay, yeah, I have a weird/bad brain -- it just doesn't work properly. :D)

Feel like a woman!

Feel like a woman,
Wear a dress!

Okay, the point of that quote on my Skype was that Shelah mentioned it after I wootwooed Crystal for showing up to work in a dress, which she had said she would start doing, after seeing me show up in dresses and skirts these past couple weeks. (It's summer! One should be wearing dresses and skirts!) Shelah said some lady who created the wrap around dress was the one who used to say that (well, she gave some variation of it and I googled it to get the info). It sounds great! If one is in a feeling-like-a-woman mood, haha. Granted, skirts and dresses aren't very practical if one cares for children and/or does more physical work throughout the day (or decides to jump on a pony mid-day), but for sitting at a desk and/or skipping around carefree through the city, they sure do the trick for feeling summer-y enough. :D

Anyway, mostly guys commented on my Skype quote. Only guys, actually. So I just want to point out that the quote was intended for women, NOT you guys, aherm. Please don't try to feel womanly -- stay right in your manly pants, doing your manly things, like...: making girls feel womanly, telling girls how womanly they are, encouraging girls to be womanly, putting up with girls who are womanly (ehe), and all that womanly-jazz.

Selah.

So, due to the unexpected reactions that quote engendered, I figured I'd pause for a moment to celebrate feeling like a woman...

We'll start off with a possibly-appropriate song (Dan, I know you don't read my blog anymore, but if you happen to stumble upon this post, please know that for some reason I can so picture your "chiseled" self as one of her back-up... um, back-up guy-things... ahahaha! but please know that you have WAY MORE personality than all of them put together, for which we are very thankful):



And here's one to make us all feel like extremely natural women, ehe:



To continue on with femininity, someone told me that if I saw this type of article around, I should post it, for general use-full-ness, so here're some links along the "flatter yourself" lines. I'm the least-aware-of-fashion-and-what-looks-good female ever -- off on some other plane, generally -- but I guess useful info is always... uh... useful?

Little Black Dresses for Every Body Type

How to Dress to Flatter a Curvier Figure

Flatter Your Figure

Figure-Flattering Clothes for Women

Flattering Fashion for Any Figure

How to Dress to Flatter a Curvier Figure

Easy figure fixes

Shape Your Style


And here are some random, but totally useful, things:

11 Instant Soothers for High-Stress Times

10 Things That Should Always Be in Your Car

American Pie

The Go-To Dip: 7 Spinach Dip Recipes


To share a bit more enlightenment-from-Shelah-today :D...



And, of course, that leads into this, in keeping with the general woman-ly-ness of this post (er):



(Pa-tree-sha, my dear sister, this post gives you a general idea of how my brain usually works. Since you've always wanted to see. Ahaha!)

Home ec tips

I'm a tabs junkie. It's true. I admit it. Ugh, it's disgusting! I collect tabs like some people collect fake eyelashes (snicker) and I never do anything with them... they all pique my interest, but then... "who has time?!" So Firefox eventually crashes and I lose all my lovingly garnered to-be-viewed-and-assimilated-when-I-get-a-second tabs, then I start over again.

Anyway, just to clear these out, here're a few I collected in the last week along the "home economics" lines. There were more. I lost them. Twice. (Firefooox!!! Grrr. Oh well, none the worse off for it. I already know all this stuff anyway. Haha. It just soothes me to hear it repeated. Heheh.)

Spring-Cleaning Basics

10 Clever Cleaning Tricks

Sewing Projects for the Home

Time-Saving Services

De-Stress Your Weeknights

5 New Uses for New(ish) Things

25 New Clothing-Care for Old Things

Twenty Alternate Uses for Dryer Sheets

8 Creative Wetsuit Designs

Haha, I threw that last one in so I can always find it, when I'm rich and famous and can afford a wetsuit for no other useful purpose (like windsurfing and deep sea diving) than to run around feeling happy in it.--And you KNOW I could (more like WOULD, regardless) pull it off... think spats... ahahahahahahaha... hrm... (The Star Trek one appeals the most to me, at the moment -- with Jules Vernes and James Bond pulling in a close #1 -- although I think if a Na'vi one showed up on the market... oh! oh! hold me baaack!!!)

Prepare house for winter

October maintenance checklist

-Repair roof shingles
-Repair siding
-Reinforce windows
-Fire fluency
-Detect deadly gas
-Check batteries in smoke detectors
-Close seasonal air conditioners
-Bleed air from radiators
-Cut brush back from the house
-Watch those leaves
-Store outdoor furniture
-Winterize external plumbing systems

Speed-clean your kitchen

One of my favorite things: useful and organized little lists. Although I wouldn't put much stock in the timeframes given for each task or the regularity, depending on the size of the household. :) But the point is to regularly take care of smaller tasks so that kitchen cleaning doesn't build up into unmanageably huge tasks over time. Who has that kind of time, anyway? :)

How to Speed-Clean Your Kitchen


When cleaning the kitchen always start with the sink. "Keep it empty and shining," says Marla Cilley, author of Sink Reflections (Bantam, $15, amazon.com) and creator of FlyLady.net, a housekeeping website.

A sparkling sink becomes your kitchen's benchmark for hygiene and tidiness, inspiring you to load the dishwasher immediately and keep counters, refrigerator doors, and the stove top spick-and-span, too.

Every Day

* Wipe down the sink after doing the dishes or loading the dishwasher (30 seconds).
* Wipe down the stove top (one minute).
* Wipe down the counters (one minute).
* Sweep, Swiffer, or vacuum the floor (two minutes).

Every Week

* Mop the floor (five minutes).
* Wipe the cabinets, backsplashes, and appliances (10 minutes).
* Wash the dish rack (four minutes).
* Wipe the switch plates and phone (one minute).
* Wipe the inside of the garbage can (one minute).

Every Season

* Empty and scrub down the inside of the refrigerator (30 minutes).
* Empty and clean the insides of the utensil drawers (15 minutes).
* Scrub down the cupboard exteriors (30 minutes).
* Clean the stove-hood filter (10 minutes).
* Perform "Shiny Sink 101"

Home economics

I like reading this kind of stuff. Not that I ever remember any of it, when needed, but I simply enjoy hearing about such handy and informational stuff. Oh well, maybe someday, someone will need it.


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Word-of-Mouth Cures That Really Work!
Seven homespun remedies that have solid research behind them.
By Quick & Simple Staff


It's amazing how many traditional cures actually have evidence to support them, says Francesca J. Fusco, M.D., of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Here are seven that have solid research—not just someone's grandma!—behind them.


Zap nail fungus with bleach

Why: "We're not sure why, but there is something in bleach that slows down the growth of nail fungi," says Dr. Fusco.

How: Combine one teaspoon of bleach with one cup of water.
(Note: Always dilute the mixture—applying pure bleach will burn skin.) Then, use a dropper to place this mixture under the affected nail. Repeat twice a day until the infection disappears; this could take up to three weeks.


Prevent blisters on your feet with deodorant

Why: Blisters are caused by skin rubbing against your shoes, and are made worse by sweating. "Deodorant works on your feet just like it does under your arms: It stops sweat glands from producing sweat," says Ranella J. Hirsch, M.D., president of the American Society for Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery.

How: Before heading out, roll deodorant—any kind will do—on your soles.


Soothe burns with tomato

Why: "The tomato contains lycopene, which is a natural anti-inflammatory, so it calms inflamed skin. And the wetness of the tomato juice helps draw some of the liquid out of the burn, reducing swelling," says Dr. Fusco.

How: Slice a large tomato and apply pieces to damaged skin. Leave on for five minutes, then remove, letting the remaining juices fully dry on skin. Once dry, rinse skin with cool water. Repeat twice daily until discomfort ends.


Calm insect bites with aspirin

Why: "Aspirin is made of salicylic acid, a potent anti-inflammatory that can reduce pain and itching," says Dr. Hirsch.

How: Crush three aspirin and add a few drops of water—enough to make a paste, Dr. Hirsch says. Apply mixture to the bite. Leave on for two minutes, then rinse with cool water. Repeat twice daily until pain and itching stop.


Stop small cuts from bleeding with used tea bags

Why: "The tannic acid in tea has an astringent effect, prompting blood vessels to constrict more quickly, which slows the flow of blood," explains Dr. Fusco.

How: Using light pressure, hold a cool (not warm) tea bag against the cut for one minute. Rinse, then cover with a bandage.


Remove warts with duct tape

Why: Experts at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., found this remedy could clear warts in two months. There are a few theories about how it works. One is that duct tape irritates warts, causing an immune system reaction that attacks them. "Another is that the tape removes the virus-laden skin cells," says Anthony Mancini, M.D., professor of dermatology at Northwestern University.

How: Apply a piece of tape that's the same size as the wart and leave on for six days. (If tape falls off, replace ASAP.) Remove tape after the six days and clean area with soap and water; leave tape off overnight. In the morning, reapply tape, keep on for five days and repeat until wart disappears. It may take up to two months, says Dr. Mancini, but it's less painful and less expensive than repeated doctor visits.


Nix dandruff with apple cider vinegar

Why: "The vinegar's acidity reduces the natural pH of the scalp," explains Dr. Fusco. "And this creates an unfriendly environment for yeast that tend to overpopulate the head and cause dandruff."

How: Mix 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar with one quart of water and use as a final rinse after shampooing, twice weekly.