Stay Fresh, And Away From The Mess

Hey! I have been doing some more experimenting and I wanted to share MORE tricks for the blog.

This cartoon picture is ridiculous, and the
exact opposite of what is happening right now.

Corn!  I like to buy corn at the farmers market but it is on Fridays, and we don't always get to eating it that day. The solution: take the corn out of the husk, wrap it in plastic wrap and stick it into the refrigerator. I left it in there for about a week, took it out of the wrap, boiled the corn, and it was just as fresh and delicious as day 1.


My roommate taught me THE magic trick for NON-STICKY bar or restaurant napkins. To avoid your glass sticking to the napkin, throw some salt right on the napkin and it creates a barrier between the glasses and napkin.  No more awkward 'drink with napkin' move.

The Stick of the Scis-sor:
I don't know about you, but I strongly dislike when you go to use a pair of scissors and they are sticky or just hard to open because something has gotten stuck up in there.  Usually the scissors come apart so you can easily goo gone or scrape the gunky stuff, BUT for those scissors that do not come apart here is a solution.  Take some rubbing alcohol and pour it over the scissor part that is sticking, preferably over a bowl and just let it sit for 20 minutes or so.  Since you can't get in there to scrub it, it doesn't cure it completely, but does help to decrease cutting frustration.

My food guru fahja sent me these helpful pointers. Check it out, it's pretty neat!
3 Surprisingly Heart-Healthy Foods
>Beer
Red wine may soon have company on the healthy drinks menu. According to a recent review of more than 18 studies on booze, beer is just as good for your heart as vino. Drinking a little more than a pint of beer a day could make you 30 percent less likely than non-drinkers to suffer from stroke, heart attacks, and heart disease, researchers found. Credit heart benefits to the alcohol itself, and polyphenols (antioxidants) in beer. And make sure to drink that beer with a smile.
>Burgers
As long as they’re grass-fed. How come? A heart-healthy diet has to be balanced in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. The omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio is usually way out of whack on most of your conventional beef, but with grass-fed beef, it’s close to 1:3—similar to the ratio found in most heart-healthy fish. Another bonus? Grass-fed beef is loaded with cardio-protective vitamin E. Check out your local farmer’s market to find the best grass-fed beef. http://www.tallgrassbeef.com/
>Eggs
A study in the Journal of Nutrition found that eating eggs increases HDL (“good”) cholesterol but not LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. So eggs actually help your arteries stay clear! In another study, overweight participants ate a 340-calorie breakfast of either two eggs or a single bagel 5 days a week for 8 weeks. Those who ate eggs (including the yolk) reported higher energy levels and lost 65 percent more weight—with no effect on their total cholesterol levels.

Hola! It has been a little while, did a little traveling, and answered a pretty important question.  Of course while away from the blog, I was constantly thinking about new material and here I am back and ready for action.

As soon as I mentioned that I did not have fruit flies (which is one of the major down sides to composting), they must have read the blog and then flew straight to my kitchen. Oh course I sighed and said sh**, but then looked it up in my vermicomposting book and came up with a solution.  If they travel to your house for one reason or another, the best way to trap and rid them is TO set a cup with apple cider vinegar about half full, put plastic wrap over and secure with a rubber band. THEN poke some holes in the top, but not too big. You want them to get in but not be able to get out. They will be drawn to the vinegar, and away from your kitchen.  My cup is pretty full with those little fruit eaters!

My new recent obsession mixed with an old obsession has created a great cleaning bonanza in the house. Not literally mixing them together, but having them both near by.  The new: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, and the old: tea tree oil.  You can basically get anything done with both of these bad boys (oh! and of course my best friend vinegar).  Mr. Clean takes off the dirt from the lawn chairs, stains on the kitchen floor, and scum in between the tiles in the bathroom. Tea Tree oil (diluted with water) gets the makeup off the counter, oil off of my skin from my bike chain, and so many other things.  Absolutely love them both, and you can literally use them for just about any household anything.  I mentioned in a previous post, but will reiterate, tea tree oil is great for your skin too.  Helps reduce pimples, heal bacterial infections, and great for your cuticles.  It does have a very potent odor, so it's not for the weak of smell.

I did answer an important question and now have a bit of bling on my left ring finger.  It was my grandma's engagement ring, and therefore had a couple of years behind its '"belt".  I wanted to give it a little extra lovin, and mixed it in a solution of 6 parts water to one part ammonium and put it into a vibrating denture cleaning machine.  Of course this is something that I have access to because of where I work, but this solution will also work if you let them soak for a while.  After your rings have relaxed for a bit, rinse with soap and water and scrub with a soft brush. The key to this is PLUG THE SINK when doing this so your valuables don't go right down the pipe.  This solution can be used on gold, sterling silver, diamonds, all types of jewels.  Should have taken a before and after photo, but if you trust me, it definitely makes things sparklier.

The next and final tid bit was given to me by a generous contributor and I have not  tried it personally.  You can clean dry erase boards with nail polish remover.  If they are starting to look a little dingy, you can pour a bit on there and it will clean right up. Apparently the acetone-free type worked great too!

Thanks! Flanagan out. 

It's Been A Year

That's right, it is my anniversary and I have been blogging for a year. Wow-zaaas! Of course I could not have done it without the eyeballs of you guys and gals.  Thanks for clicking and checking back every now and again!

I decided to devote this episode to my worms and give you the update on those little buggers because I just love talking about them. AND if you have made one on one contact with me I am also obsessed with the fact that I got attacked by a Canadian goose while I was riding my bike the other week.  It looked sometime along the lines of this: with a side of pecking at my bike helmet. For real.

And this is how to avoid a goose attack in case I have scared anyone to death. Goose Survival Guide

Ok, enough of those terrible Canadian geese, and onto the worms. They are much more caring, and less terrifying, plus they dig the food that I give them.  I have been doing the vermicompost for two months now, and they have pretty much eaten up a good chunk of the food and are ready to move into bigger and better places.  How the system works that I have is, you build upwards and the worms are able to detect where the food is and they migrate north.  There are little holes in the bottom of every "bin" which is how they move from one to the other.  They are all in one bin as of right now which is pretty full, so the bottom tray is going to be used in the garden as planting compost, and they are going to start breaking down the food in the "working bin".  Was that confusing? I took pictures to better show what I am trying to describe. 

 

      The Old Set-Up --->     

                 The New Set-Up --->
 

 The very top bin is the "working" one. The worms to head to their summer northern home, and leave behind all their other memories.  In the old set-up it looks like 2 bins (including the Spigot one), and in the new there are 3. The bin that has the spigot on it doesn't have any worms in it, that collects excess moisture which is rich in nutrients to be used in household plants or in the garden. 

The "Hole-y" bin

Things that might be interesting or questions one might have.  They really prefer kinds of foods over others. For example, avocados which were already mentioned, corn in the cob, they were wrapped about those bad boys which was pretty neat.  Fruit, specifically watermelon rinds, grapes, and strawberry tops.  It is still in my kitchen, and still doesn't smell. The actual garbage can smells much much worse.  No fruit flies hanging around the kitchen, which is a really common problem, but as a preventative measure I have been putting the scraps in the freezer or fridge.  I have a container that is the overflow until I feed them, which is about 2 times a week.  I have not had too many scraps yet, but the summer is coming which means more fresh veggies, fruits, so we will see what happens. When it got too hot in the house they knew right away and started fleeing the dirt to cool down, that was a pretty cool process to watch.  Not actually leaving the bin because it's impossible, but going down to the spigot level where they are not supposed to go. At first I was offended they didn't want to hang out in the home that I made them, but then I figured it out, and felt bad for the crawlers.  The air was turned on shortly after, not for the worms though, for the humans. Honest.

I think that's about it.....One year down with another one just upon us.

Later gators!

Potters, Plants, And Puns Are Phenomenal!

The nice weather is upon us, the sun shines bright and early in the morning, which means avocados and Oberon are in season! You have to love the midwest/midwesterners because we really know how to get out there and enjoy the weather.

I actually got this idea from the chalkboard paint CAN, although I am sure it is all over Pinterest. If you don't know about Pinterest, it is an internet site that you can find a lot of crafty things and so much more. I painted the rim of the pots to write what 'breed' of plant they are, for ALL to see.  It is such an easy easy thing to do, and a small quart of the paint goes a long way.  Obviously, if you want to have the chalk stay in tact you can't really water it with a hose, but the watering can works great. Here is the picture:

Cute, right?

AVOCADOS! Another thing that I recently discovered is how to keep an avocado fresh after you cut it open and can't really finish it all in one sitting.  My worms really love the avocado shells, so I have found myself using that as an excuse to buy more avocados, therefore needed a freshness cure.  Here is the solution to THE freshness: I usually eat only half at a time, so when you cut it is half, stick the other half on a small plate and this way it seals it air tight and your avocado will stay nice and fresh until you want eat it again.  No more Ziploc bags, plastic wrap, or container that just doesn't fit right!  I have done this for as long as 2-3 days, and it still tastes great and as green as could be.  I thought it was a great fix for that seemingly impossible cure for the non-air attacked avocado!

Right above my finger is where it was
catching and I added clear nail polish

EYE GLASSES! I am blind as a bat, and wear glasses the second that I take my contacts out because I would literally be running into walls.  One of the problems with my glasses was they were constantly getting stuck on my hair when I was putting them on and off.  I mean.....ripping my hair out and it was driving my crazy. I went to the glasses store and the incredibly nice women told me instead of replacing the sides of the glasses (price-y) to paint some clear nail polish on the part where the glasses were getting caught. So that is what I did, painted the side where the metal did quite meet up, and it worked like a charm.  My knowledge from Pearl Vision passed onto you!

Hope this finds everyone well, worm update coming soon to computer/mobile devices near you (to those interested)!

Flanagan out.

The 2 Minute Lifesaver

Working where I work I have a plethora of magazines to dive into, but I found this really interesting article in Good Housekeeping- April 2012.  The article was 'The 2-Minute Lifesaver' and the answer was to basically MOVE.  It is the simple act of moving that can ward off heart disease, diabetes, even cancer AND without any special training, gear, or extra time. Walking away from your chair every half hour while you're at work or at home while watching tv might just save your life. Of course you have to take everything with a grain of salt, but a recently discovered health threat- uninterrupted butt in chair time- boosts your odds of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease to a pretty substantial degree. In one study conducted by the American Cancer Society, women who were sedimentary for six plus hours every day, regardless of how active they were at other times during the day, had a 34% higher chance of dying during the 11 year study period then those who stayed seated for less then three hours. WHOA! That's a pretty big deal. There is a weight loss component to this whole 'getting up and moving' thing as well.  Those who took small, as in walking to the copier or taking bathroom breaks, multiple times during the day were in fact slimmer.  The act of standing and walking contracts the larger muscles to take in fat and sugar from your bloodstream, therefore forcing your whole body to get going.

Men's Health caught onto this phenomenon really quick and at least half of the desks in their work space are mounted so those people have to stand to do their daily work load on computers.  It is very neat, and here is the article including picture.

Here is how to build mini breaks into your day:
(@ work)
A. Stand up to use the phone. Your body works 30% harder when you are on your feet. Pacing is even better.
2d. Get rid of the water bottle on your desk and just walk to the cooler to fill a small glass.

(@ home)
F. Turn off the TV. This causes to you to mount that booty on the couch and become stationary which is the anti to what your body needs.
6. Watch and walk- use the commercials as a break time and get up and go get water, switch out the laundry, go downstairs, etc. etc. You get the idea.
8a. Grab a broom and use your movement breaks to sweep the floor or dust the windowsills. Your house will never be cleaner, and your heart will thank you.
H. You might as well just throw in flossing too because that is also great for your heart, and I love a good flossing.

I have been sitting too long writing this blog edition 2.0, so now I must go move these legs.  Hut Hut HIKE!!!

Until next time, Flanagan out!

I GOT WORMS!

"I got worms."

"I beg your pardon?"

"That's what we're gonna call it: I
          Got Worms. We're gonna specialize in
          selling worm farms you know, like
          ant farms. A lot of people don't
          realize that worms make much better
          pets than ants. They're quiet,
          affectionate, they don't bite, and
          they're super with the kids."

This post is going to be all about THE worms, so if you are uninterested there will be more to read just another time....For now it is all about my garbage eating pets. That was also a quote from Dumb and Dumber if you cannot remember what movie that ridiculousness was in.

The time has come and I got the worms to put in my compost (finally) that I got for christmas! I am not going to lie, I am a little nervous to start these critters in their new amazing life because if you do something wrong, you will definitely know about it. Not enough food, they will get angry.  Too much food and it will get smelly, not enough leaves or dirt they are just going to go find somewhere else to live. So.....I am going to try my darnedest to keep it going perfectly.

Answers to common questions I have gotten so far: No I did not name them, there are just a few too many to get them all straight. What I do know so far is that they are quiet, and pretty affectionate. At least to the food that is being put in there.  Yes, they are specific worms, and not just any ole worm you dig up from the yard.  The breed is red wigglers and they are perfect for eating your food and turning it into the good stuff to later plant with.  They really like avocados, and not so hot on tomatoes, BUT there is still a lot more experimenting to come regarding their favorites.  This week to be added are egg shells, garlic shavings, and rice.  I know what you are thinking? Who is this nut bag that is talking about worms that eat garbage as if they are real people or maybe something resembling a dog? Well, it is me....unfortunately.  When I tell people that I have started this composting thing-a-ma-jig the response either goes one way or the other. No in between, but rather "Gross! You keep them in the house?"  OR  "That is pretty cool, you keep them in the house?"  Yes I do, currently that are in a very sealed composting bin in the kitchen just hanging out waiting for me to add in the the garlic scraps from the garlic shrimp linguini I made earlier this week. Picture of bin is just below, keep scrolling!

The set up was very simple.  With the compost bin came some dirt that you soaked in water, mixed with shredded newspaper and voila! The home for the worms are ready.  You just had to add some food that I had been saving, add some more newspaper on top of that and they should be happy as a clam.  For the amount of worms I have now, I need to add a 1/2 lb of food a week.  I think I am going to save much more then allowed since I going a little crazy with saving EVERYTHING because it is new and exciting and I am a 6 year old like that. Currently I have a couple piles that just keep growing and growing like an magic expanding dinosaur sponge when you add it to magic water.

You made it to the picture of the bin. Nice color green, right?  The bin in this picture is broken up into three sections. The bottom section is the stand it is on.  The second section has a spigot to extract any excess moisture, and this is full of nutrients to add to the house hold plants. Pretty pumped about that. The top layer has the worms and food and dirt and all of its glory. 

This is the picture of the worms in the dirt with newspaper. If you look closely you can see the little red wigglers hanging out. I was thinking about taking a video but thought that might really freak people out and they would never read this again. 

Last but not least, since we are on the subject of recycling and basically saving the planet like Clark Kent, I mean Superman, my sister is doing a project on environmental literacy. It's pretty neat, so here is a shout out to my sister's website, CHECK IT OUT! I should also mention she is in her last year of becoming a teacher at Michigan State, so this is one of her last projects as an undergraduate.

Flanagan out. 

**If for some reason you would like more info on all the worm stuff, I have great book full of info which helped me get going, the dealer (yes dealer) I got the worms from, and the company that makes the bin with start up kit. Just drop a line, I would be more then happy to lend my help. Or if you just have crazy questions because this whole thing is bonkers, drop many lines!

Now Flanagan out. 

What Gets Me Going

Hey All, What do you call an alligator that wears a vest?   An INVESTIGATOR! 

Onto real world blogging......

A lovely MAN left a MAN grate for the grill out on the concrete for a couple days, and of course it rained and left a nice rust stain on the concrete. A co-worker gave me a book called Talking Dirty with the Queen of Clean, so I looked that bad boy up in there to see how to remove that stain.

How could you not listen to this hottie?

She suggested to lightly sprinkle the area with water and put a package of KOOLAID LEMONADE on top of the sprinkled water. Then cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for about 15 minutes.  When you do this you literally will start hearing the acid bubbling on the cement. It's kinda neat. Isn't it great that this is something that also goes into our bodies?  This also reminds me, put on a pair of gloves if you have them lying around the house.  I checked the progress after 15 minutes, because it was a pretty good stain, and left it for another 15 minutes. After that time has set, pour more water on top of the stain and scrub with a brush.  Make sure to remove any excess KOOLAID by rinsing really well. 

Here is the before picture:

And here is the after picture:

It did work pretty well, obviously an improvement.  This picture doesn't really show it, but there are still some little stains but it took out a good chunk of them.  For this particular stain I probably would have used two packets of KOOLAID, and now that area of the concrete is impeccably clean, and the rest of the patio looks pretty discusting. That clean queen really knew how to talk dirty to me.  This is not the only thing that I have looked up in that book for, it really is amazing! For Real. Here is the link on Amazon.

There is also ANOTHER book that was always around when I was growing up that my mom loved.  It is the same idea as Talking Dirty, but it is called Haley's Cleaning Hints (on amazon HERE) and looks like this:

He is also incredibly hot, so it is really quite a hard decision as to which hottie to take cleaning advice from.  Good luck! Hope you enjoyed, and as always thanks for hanging out.