McGyver-Like Tips

Need to set up stakes for a Garage sale but forgot stakes?  No worry, use pens!

 

Traveling a long distance and need to keep your root beer cold but no cooler? No problem, use a water sweeper base!

Need to start over on a failed crochet baby hat project?  Just pull it loose.

 

It might take awhile, though. Patience...

Want to go camping and have an all nighter watching Parks and Recreation Season 2? Simple solution= Camping Plugged in.

Need to run errands, want to save gas and still take your dog with you? No problem, you can take your mo-ped and put your dog in your backpack!

 

That last idea was not an original one.

How to Slice a Banana

You need to start with a sharp knife, a ripe banana and a cutting board. 

Take your banana and chop off the ends.  This simplifies removing the peel.

See?

Now for the most important part, slice into the banana at an acute angle.

Actually, not as acute as it should have been, but you get the idea right?

 

This gives you longer slices of bananas and they just look so fun! Now add chocolate and some ice cream.

Taiwanese Down-Home Cooking

Don't know how to?  Here's the perfect solution.  First you need to find someone from Taiwan, which is easy to do in a college town. Then you need to let them move in with you after their lease it up, provided they do the cooking until they have a job opportunity out of state and have to move away...

Hot and sour soup--the only thing right out of a package

Green bean sprouts, turkey burger and other surprises

zucchini and ground turkey burger with chili pepper

Broccoli with sesame oil and garlic

Yumm...It was the most delicious 2 weeks of my life.

Moving In, Moving Out

It is the season for moving and that is as good as time as any to clean out some areas, because you can ALWAYS get rid of stuff you don't need. Here's the right way to do it.  You will need 3 bags. One bag is for trash, one is for giving away and one is for what you will be keeping.

 

The next step is to identify a room or area you desire to reorganize, clean out, etc. Start small so you do not overwhelm yourself.

A good small start would be this corner shelf area.

This is another corner shelf that needs attention

Also the bathroom gets crowded so quickly, so add that to the list.  Now that we have some areas to tackle, it is important to be in the right mood to get rid of stuff.  If you are not already, you can watch an episode of the show Hoarders. That will do it. So start throwing stuff away and giving it away by asking yourself the question: "What would I do if I didn't have this?"

This is really effective especially when you come across things you didn't know you had.

 Do not be discouraged, when you are getting organized you will have a bigger mess for awhile.

 

Proof that it pays to get organized, I found a $5 bill! A Christmas present I put in a weird place.

 

 

Now the end result. How satisfying.

I was able to empty the right side of the bathroom sink completely.

 

And changed how things are stacked in the corner shelf.

 

Anyone Read Hie-ro-glyph-ics?

Anyone?

We met some folks that felt compelled to give us a gift which they had picked up while in Egypt (yeah, not making that up). Brilliant colors and on papyrus. That's all I can tell you about it. I wasn't sure about asking them if they knew what it said. Pretty sure they did not speak Egyptian.  But maybe someone out there does?

I would want to know what it says before framing it and mounting it on a wall right?

 

The Truth Hurts

Banjo Lesson #11 Flailing the Hands

In order to play really really fast, you have to master the correct way to frail by using your hand to literally claw at the banjo strings which feels as out of control as it sounds.  After all this time I have still not mastered this technique.  So each lesson we spend some time practicing different strategies, 

1. Waving bye-bye like toddlers do.
2. Winding the wrist back and letting it fall on the banjo.
3. Flailing my right hand as if I have more than a few loose screws...I tell my teacher, I am going to be doing this all the time now.

"I can tell people they can't make fun of me because I'm actually learning how to play the banjo."

My teacher says, "No, after you tell them that, then they will make fun of you."

Cleaning out the Fishtank...For the Last Time

So when all the fish die, and you don't want to buy more. It's time to give away the fish tank. Not in it's current condition, so here' how to clean it out completely.

Gather the fishtank vaccum to reduce the water to 1/2 level. Using gravity to Drain the dirty water into a bucket.

Until your bucket is full of water.

Take it to the dump.

No, this kind of dump.

The next step is to scrub the sides with the tank scrubber to remove the calcium deposits and algae growth.

The brush needs to be wet and kept wet to keep from scratching the glass.

Scoop out the gravel. It might have another purpose.

6 square inches of mulch?

Remove the plants. If they're super nasty, they're not worth keeping.

Now all that's left is some serious calcium deposits near the top.

Yuck.

Tough jobs call for tough stuff like bleach or vinegar. Since the smell of bleach makes me gag, I chose vinegar.

45 minutes later...Better, but not gone. I think it's good enough for a garage sale.
 $1 in my pocket.