One of my co-workers went to a Bucket List party recently and we’ve been talking about our bucket lists around the water cooler (yeah, we actually have one). I thought it was a rather cool idea.
So, let’s have a virtual one!
The buffet is to your left. The beer and pop are in the cooler by the patio door. Wine is on the counter. Help yourself. Pull up a seat. Who knows, we might find something to add to our lists
In no particular order, my top ten bucket list items:
Go on a honeymoon with That Man. Believe it or not, we never got around to it.
Extensively travel Scotland, Wales, and England. I want to trace my family trees.
Learn Scots Gaelic.
Cruise across the Atlantic and come into New York. I want to see the Statue of Liberty from the deck of a ship.
Actually learn Belly Dancing. Not the thing I call belly dancing, LOL
Become a published author.
Write a letter to each of the wee beasties telling them about my life and the lessons learned.
Create and maintain a Happiness project.
Get all of the wee beasties’ scrapbook albums done before they graduate high school. (I better get on this one! Oldest only has four more years.)
Actually meet, in real life, all the amazing people I’ve met online!
1-6 ounce package of lime Jell-o
1-20 ounce can of crushed pineapple
1-13 ounce can evaporated milk
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup cottage cheese
Mix Jell-o with 2 cups boiling water. Stir in pineapple (this helps cool the Jell-o before adding the dairy). Stir in cottage cheese. Blend milk and mayonnaise till smooth then stir into Jell-o mixture. Pour into greased mold if desired. Cool till firm.
Wee Beastie Rating:
Your turn, what’s one of your favorite GREEN things?
Tomorrow is National Pie Day. An event I haven’t missed since learning of its existence. After all, pie IS my favorite dessert.
It isn’t that I forgot. Rather, knowing I had a three-day weekend right beforehand, I procrastinated. Procrastinated, yeah, I keep meaning to join procrastinator’s anonymous.
And typical of a three-day weekend and all four wee beasties at home…no pie.
Nicole does a regular Top 10 List feature over on her blog, called Ten on Tuesday. I mentioned its fun brilliance and she pointed me toward Carole where I registered for the Ten on Tuesday prompts.
Today’s prompt:
10 Things You Always Have in Your Car
Booster seat
First-aid kit…four boys, need I say more?
ABBA CD
An outlet thing (adapter?) we plug into the lighter spot that allows us to charge anything from phones to DSI’s to my laptop
Blanket
Hand sanitizer
Roll of paper towel
Tinkerbell (a necklace I got on a visit to Disneyland as a kid and it’s hung from my rear view mirror since my very first car)
Loose change in the ashtray (I always keep at least $2 in there)
Scotland flag decal (I won’t stick to my car so I can move it)
Marcia Richards had a fun post in which she shared her top 10 favorite things starting with the letter L. She had an awesome list. Marcia offered to assign a letter to anyone who wanted to play along.
She gave me “C”
Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are my top 10 favorite things beginning with “C”
Christmas
(Yep, Christmas morning at our house after the boys attacked the presents.)
Celts
(You knew this had to be here somewhere, right?)
I know…what the heck does laundry have to do with romance?
Nothing. Unless, of course, having your significant other do the laundry gets your motor reeving.
So, what does laundry have to do with writing?
Nothing. Unless your house is like mine and the laundry gremlins come out, inevitably on a Saturday night.
I generally do a load a day. Yet somehow I’ll go to bed Saturday night, the laundry bins (for the wee beasties to sort whites, lights, and darks) basically empty, only to wake Sunday morning to the gremlins’ handiwork. I must traverse mountains, cross valleys, wade through streams, and sail an ocean of laundry (the bins still basically empty) just to get from my bedroom to the blessed coffee downstairs. The scent of brewing coffee calling to me as I journey past the laundry area.
What that means, besides a crappy floor plan, is a great excuse to lock myself in my writing space to work in between loads, and loads, of laundry. It also makes sure I get up at regular intervals as I take the laundry outside to line dry (yay for being green). And, of course, returning to my cave writing space takes me past the kitchen so it’s also the perfect time to refill the ol’ glass of water.
What that means is I have a lot of experience doing laundry and I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way.
Fels-Naptha is the BEST pre-treatment product out there. It worked on every mess I encountered when the wee beasties were babies and saved more than a few outfits, LOL.
Contrary to most detergents and washing machines, you want to use COLD water on every stain, including blood, with the exception of fruit. For most stains just running cold water from the tap through the stain will do it. For extra tough stains, suds up some Fels-Naptha, rub the cloth together to spot clean the area, allow to sit a minute, and wash. You also want to wash in cold water which isn’t only economical but better for getting out general stains.
You want to use HOT, as in boiling if you can, water on fruit stains. This includes tomato and tomato based sauces, wine, and fruit juices (and no, Kool-Aid isn’t a fruit juice). Running hot water from your tap and letting the hot water rinse the stain out is easiest (though some stains may need the boost of using the Fels-Naptha) followed by washing like usual in cold water.
For wine on the carpet, boil up some water and pour over the stain, blotting with a clean towel (repeat as needed until stain is gone). Ditto with wine stains in clothing, pour boiling water over stain until gone then wash as usual in cold water.
If the stain doesn’t come out the first time, DO NOT put the clothing into the dryer. That will just set the stain and no amount of pre-treating will help.
Fabric softeners (liquid and dryer sheets) will actually decrease the absorbancy of your towels over time. Can cause a buildup in your machines adding to wear and tear, and possibly decreasing their longevity. And DO NOT use fabric softeners on flame-retardant clothes, like children’s pajamas. I’ve also found stains are harder to get out of clothing subjected to fabric softeners.
Liquid bleach is tough on material and some fabrics actually stain with the use of bleach. I do admit I use liquid bleach on the undies and socks. House of boys…need I say more? To make sure I don’t damage other clothing in the next load, I don’t use the bleach dispenser on the machine and always run an extra rinse cycle on my bleach loads, and followed by a sheet or towel load if I can but, at the very least, a light colored load.
I know the faded look is popular — or is that just my kid? — but if you want to keep you denim from bleeding and fading soak in salt water (or a 50/50 solution of water and white vinegar) before the first wash. Turn the jeans inside out and wash as usual in cold water. The salt water trick works with most dark colors you want to keep from bleeding and fading. (Not that we’re washing in warm or hot water anymore, right?)
“Trolls exist! They steal your socks. But only the left ones. What’s with that?” — Gobber from How to Train Your Dragon To avoid the sock stealing trolls, each family member has a mesh bag to put their socks in. I tie off the bags, drop into the wash, and presto. It also makes it so much easier to tell whose socks are whose (as each bag is color coded) which is a sanity saver with five males all wearing similar styles, not to mention socks not having readily displayed sizes.
As I mentioned, I line dry (click on the picture source for a great article on how), probably 95% of the time. It’s thrifty and, heck, I have the sun and wind power of ol’ Mother Earth working for me. But you don’t need a sunny day. String a clothesline in your garage, basement, or covered patio. You can even reuse an old oven rack, cleaned of course, strung up to a beam or rafter to hang clothes. When I do use my dryer, I add a couple of tennis balls (kept just for this purpose) to each load. Believe it or not, it cuts drying time by 25% or more, and that saves money.
The lovely Claire Hennessy nominated me for this award. Thanks so much Claire
The rules are to share ten facts about oneself and pass the award on to six fab bloggers. It is hard to come up with interesting facts about yourself. And if you’re really curious I’ll point you to my Versatile Blogger posts here and here plus the 7 X 7 Link post.
Instead, I offer up to you, my Top 10 Sexy Men
(alphabetically so no one feels slighted of course)
Adrian Paul
Christopher Eccleston
Clive Owen
Eric Etebari
Gerard Butler
Hugh Jackman
Mark Dacascos
Oded Fehr
Sendhil Ramamurthy
Shemar Moore
Will Smith
Oops. Miscounted.
Who is in your top 10?
Okay, on with the nominations…
So many of you have been beyond awesome, especially over the last few weeks when I haven’t been as good about getting to your blogs, and I’d love to name you all. In the end, I looked at my stats and picked the top visitors without this award.
In Part 1, I shared my non-fiction shelf. In Part 2, I shared my physical fiction shelf. Today, for Part 3, I’ll share my digital fiction “shelf” on the trusty Nook.
Now, this list is on the short side, just because I haven’t had my Nook all that long, and I haven’t got around to reading everything on it yet.
Without further ado, alphabetically, my digital Top 10 List:
There’s this place in me where your fingerprints still rest, your kisses still linger, and your whispers softly echo. It’s the place where a part of you will forever be a part of me.
If you’d like to play along, let me know in the comments and I’ll assign you a letter.
To avoid the sock stealing trolls, each family member has a mesh bag to put their socks in. I tie off the bags, drop into the wash, and presto. It also makes it so much easier to tell whose socks are whose (as each bag is color coded) which is a sanity saver with five males all wearing similar styles, not to mention socks not having readily displayed sizes.
