themartianchick

Good advice!

Adding my prayers to the others...

Loved it!

What a wonderful story! All things happen for a reason and these events were certainly no accident!

Looks like you all had a great time, Philbe! What a cute dog!

I need to add a photo of something to my profile. I lost Marvin the Martian...

I think we've all had days like that. Yesterday was my day. I like to keep a big Sun Tea jar of iced tea in my fridge. My nephew had given me a box of Bigelow Tea and thought it would be a good choice for iced tea. I opened 3 tea bags and removed the strings. It wasn't until 5 minutes after I added the water that I realized that all of the tea bags were leaking grounds into the water. I forgot...Bigelow tea bags aren't held closed by a staple, they are held closed by the string. By pulling out the strings, I'd unsealed them all! At least you like corn pudding! (I hate straining tea! )

I hope that she had a wonderful day!

It is good that you found it, Cat, but what would you do with that much butter if your power went out? I've never kept more than 12-15 lbs of butter in my freezer at one time and it gets used within the year. If my power went out during the summer, I'd probably lose whatever butter was in the freezer at that time. I never really thought about it until I read your post. I tend to think of cooking oil/olive as being the fat that I store, since it is shelf stable (though it can still get rancid). I suppose in an emergency, I could trade a pound of butter to someone without any for something else that my family might want... With the meat/veggies in the freezer, I can cook it as it thaws and can up what we can't use promptly...I can't do that with butter, though!

I swear that I'm not the mushy, weepy type, but I have tears in my eyes just from thinking about all that you've been through and the fact that you're still standing! I am so proud of you for taking the stance that you have and even managing to do something nice for someone else at a time when I know that I WOULDN'T be capable of thinking anything except "poor me". You've done all that you can do for your parents. Now it is time to focus on you and your sweet hubby.Enjoy a quiet, low-key holiday and may God bless you and your marriage...

Yaaayy!!

Hi, Philbe! I tried to use the shout box to tell you that I could smell the bread baking but the Shout box seems to be broken today! I baked some bread yesterday, too! Today is a bit of a non-prepping day for me. I will be getting rid of a few things that have been cluttering up the house.

Thank you for asking...All is well in my corner of the world, Robie! We didn't see a single snowflake, nor a gust of wind. I assume that Michael and Lori were missed as well. With Sandy, we only saw some rain for a few days and virtually no wind. It was just dreary and chilly. We were well-stocked for Sandy and the only measures we took involved securing a few yard and porch items to keep them from blowing. We are now even better stocked against bad weather since we just received 7 more cords of firewood. So far, the weather patterns seem to be doing the same thing that they did last year. We never really had a winter last year...all of the storms went around us even though we are usually the snowiest city in NY. Most of our snow came down an inch or two at a time. I remember shoveling once...The sun always came out and melted the snow by lunchtime. BTW- I love the fact that winter storms are being named now!

Hi, Carie! It i is so nice to get an update and have you back with us! I'm so glad that some of the family drama has calmed down so that your family can have some peace.

Older people can behave strangely when they have UTI's or other infections. Has he been checked for something like that? It is more common in women, but men can get them too.

Isn't there a separate item that you can buy that spins the clothes until they are barely damp, too? It seems that I recall seeing something like that.

Awwwww....

Will you have electricity? A pellet stove might be a good alternative since they require minimal venting. However, you would need to make sure that you stock enough pellets to make sure that you don't run out.

We have a rental property where someone broke in and stole all of the copper pipes in the middle of winter. Though hubby realized the theft very quickly, the entire basement floor was soaked. Though we left the heaton to help dry things out, we still had an issue with mold on the first floor. So... we bought a dehumidifier. It worked really well and helped us to eliminate the damp conditions that caused the mold. A dehumidifier might help you too. Since the issue is just in one room, you might be able to get away with a small unit. We bought one that (I think) cost about $130. We still use it when getting a property ready because it helps paint, floor finish and other things dry more quickly. It also doesn't use much electricity as it extracts the water from the air. Once the water pan is full, the unit shuts off until you empty it.

Mi Familia's advice is spot on. Wordpress is the place for professional blogs that can make money. I consult with someone that makes a great deal of money from his blogs, but he has a huge following. The trick for him is that he created lots of blogs with different themes. He trolls the internet for news stories and then writes a one or two paragraph lead in and inserts a link on his blog. Then he publicizes the story by posting it on his Facebook page and people flock to his blog. The biggest story that he posted was about a piece of Hollywood gossip. The news was so salacious that his server crashed due to the tremendous traffic. He blogs about Hollywood, politics, social issues, family issues, crime, etc...Each topic has it's own blog but all umpteen gazillion of his Facebook followers are very different tpes of people with varied interests. It's taken about 4 years for him to build it to this point.

I loved that commercial for some kind of car that was running all summer long. The family was driving down the road and began doing an acapella version of Crazy Train.

I'm loving all of the doggy pics! We really need to go ahead and get another one.I miss being in puppy love...

I heard about the other storm last night. It is already getting cold here. I've been chilly all day, but at least I have options. I've been working on something for my nonprofit employer to try to send some able bodies down there to help to clean up after the storm. I may get an opportunity to see the damage up close, though I'm not sure that I want to. I don't handle cold weather very well.

Enjoy!

Hi, Victoria!!! It is so nice to have you here. This really is a great place to sit and rock a while! We try to be friendly, supportive and helpful. Please thank your hubby for his service and feel free to join in on any of the conversational fun here at Mrs. S!