Interesting solutions to lifes issues

Got this in an email, some interesting options here :)


A sealed envelope - Put in the freezer for a few hours, then slide a
Knife under the flap. The envelope can then be resealed.
(hmmmmmm...)
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Use Empty toilet paper roll to store appliance cords. It keeps them
Neat and you can write on the roll what appliance it belongs to.
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For icy door steps in freezing temperatures: get warm water and put
Dawn dish washing liquid in it. Pour it all over the steps. They won't
Refreeze. (wish I had known this for the
last 40 years!)
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To remove old wax from a glass candle holder, put it in the freezer for
a few hours. Then take the candle holder out and turn it upside down. The
Wax will fall out.
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Crayon marks on walls? This worked wonderfully! A damp rag, dipped
In baking soda. Comes off with little effort (elbow grease that is!).
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Permanent marker on appliances/counter tops (like store receipt
BLUE!) rubbing alcohol on paper towel.
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Whenever I purchase a box of S.O.S Pads, I immediately take a pair of
Scissors and cut each pad into halves. After years of having to throw
Away rusted and unused and smelly pads, I finally decided that this would
Be much more economical. Now a box of S.O.S pads last me indefinitely!
In fact, I have noticed that the scissors get 'sharpened'' this way!
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Blood stains on Clothes? Not to worry! Just pour a little hydrogen
peroxide on a cloth and proceed to wipe off every drop of blood. Works
every time!
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Use vertical strokes when washing windows outside and horizontal
For inside windows. This way you can tell which side has the streaks.
Straight vinegar will get outside windows really clean. Don't wash windows
On a sunny day. They will dry too quickly and will probably streak.
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Spray a bit of perfume on the light bulb in any room to create a lovely
light scent in each room when the light is turned on.
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Place fabric softener sheets in dresser drawers and your clothes will smell freshly washed for weeks

to come. You can also do this with towels and linen.
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Candles will last a lot longer if placed in the freezer for at least 3 hours prior to burning.
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To clean artificial flowers, pour some salt into a paper bag and add the flowers. Shake vigorously as the

salt will absorb all the dust and dirt and leave your artificial flowers looking like new! Works like a charm!
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To easily remove burnt on food from your skillet, simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough

water to cover bottom of pan, and bring to a boil on stove top.
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Spray your TUPPERWARE with nonstick cooking spray before pouring In tomato based sauces and

there won't be any stains.
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Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.

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When boiling corn on the cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring out the corn's' natural sweetness.
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Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half, and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.

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Don't throw out all that leftover wine: Freeze into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces

......... left over wine? What's that?
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To get rid of itch from mosquito bites, try applying soap on the area and you will experience instant relief.
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Ants, ants, ants everywhere ... Well, they are said to never cross a chalk line. So, get your chalk

out and draw a line on the floor or wherever ants tend to march. See for yourself.
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Use air-freshener to clean mirrors. It does a good job and better still, leaves a lovely smell to the shine.
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When you get a splinter, reach for the scotch tape before resorting to tweezers or a needle.

Simply put the scotch tape over the splinter, and then pull it off. Scotch tape removes most

splinters painlessly and easily.
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Now look what you can do with Alka Seltzer........ Clean a toilet.
Drop in two Alka Seltzer tablets, wait twenty minutes,! Brush and flush.
The citric acid and effervescent action clean vitreous China.
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Clean a vase. To remove a stain from the bottom of a glass vase or cruet, fill with water
and drop in two Alka Seltzer tablets.
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Polish Jewelry. Drop two Alka Seltzer tablets into a glass of water and immerse the
jewelry for two minutes.
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Clean a thermos bottle. Fill the bottle with water, drop in four Alka Seltzer tablets, and let soak
for an hour (or longer, if necessary).
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Unclog a drain. Clear the sink drain by dropping three Alka Seltzer tablets down the
drain followed by a cup of Heinz White Vinegar. Wait a few minutes, and then run the hot water.
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Do your friends a favor. Pass this timely (and some not-so-timely) information on to a friend! I just did.
Makes you wonder about ingesting Alka Seltzer, doesn't it

LID month 31

In a couple days it will be 31 months logged into China....thirty....one....with all likelihood add another 12 and we might be getting close....forty three...gee and I wonder why I hate math! Enough of that, onto more festive thoughts...

Although we will miss not being with family this Xmas, we are looking forward to being home, not having to worry about travel...Cara has already stacked the time with tons of visits.

On Xmas eve the drama group I help direct is doing the evening service. Should be an adventure, it is full of talented youth ,but still youth have their moments, heh, but they always seem to pull it off in the end, and are remarkable.

Had a fun time doing a gospel Xmas magic show for a church in town, that was fun, broke out 2 new tricks I have never done before, and they were hits, so now I can work on refining them even more, plus I treated myself to a dvd with tons of tricks to learn from it, from my favorite magician Jeff McBride, so I hope to work some practice time in over the break.

I am also determined to finish Brisingr before the year is up. It has been a slow pace, which if it picks up I would certainly be more involved in finishing it.

Couple months left, likely, before we have to consider what to do, US adoption wise, as well as with updating passports...

Looking forward to the Xmas break, Celebrate JESUS!

kick in the pants-General edition

A blogging friend I follow (Hi Janet- thanks for always posting on my blog :)http://tuiningatreasures.blogspot.com/ ) came upon a fun idea which she has been posting about occasionally, so I decided to steal the idea and do my own version. It is deciding who needs a kick in the pants and why, and in virtual reality giving them one. So here is a general kickin, Kung fu style...

One crescent kick to the chin to the folks who speed thru mushy intersections spraying pedestrians with snow, water or muck. Show some courtesy!!

One sharp front kick to the face for those nitwits who can't count and go to the self serve grocery store checkout with more items than allowed. sure a bit of grace in counting but not 10-12 items more, give me a break!

One quick shin kick, to the shin(obviously) for those irresponsible pet owners that let their animals run free, leaving little gifts in everyone else's yard and running the risk of getting killed on the street. These folks also get a kick from my mom, and she will aim a BIT higher and centralized, if you catch my drift!

One heart kick to the morons who make processes for adopting families harder,rather than supporting them. Now they might have a sliver of knowing what it feels like.

One back kick to those ignorant folks who think we shouldn't help those in the third world with relief and support efforts.

My favorite kick, one roundhouse kick to the head of people who spam emails with all their immoral crap, keep it under the rock where you live already, we don't need anyone seeing that nonsense!

Finally,One quick side kick to the kidneys to those drivers who don't know the rules of a 4 way stop. Grab a manual folks and learn before you kill someone or back traffic up because you wave everyone and their dog thru even though you don't have the right away to begin with!!! Okay, seriously, this one deserves 2 kicks!

Gee that was fun! must find more folks to kick in the pants...

My full but boring life

I want to blog, I want to have something to say, but really, there isn't much to say...

I certainly keep busy enough with work, meetings, kung fu, household stuff,so life is full, and things are in a good cycle now. I have a job review coming up, and although that can bring stress(and due to some whacked out processes I have experienced should make me more gun shy this time around, but I am not...so that is good, but not too captivating, no drama to blog about :) )

Snow is on the ground, not a lot, but winter is here...oh same for you...so nothing new or exciting there...

I still can't book magic shows, event hough I am getting calls. I will be doing a small show for a neighbor church on December 9, that will be fun.

I have developed the annoying typing habit of spacing things wonky with my "th" combos(see the paragraph above "event hough= even though"). This has been happening for months, "int his=in this" etc. etc. Sadly spell check isn't picking it up, and I do it so much, just don't know what is up with that. I would say, aside from adoption wait annoyance, this is the next most annoying thing in my life...captivating ain't it ;)

My big thought process conflict at this point is trying to discern if this wait has made me disengage the whole process and just stuff my overall annoyance and even anger at the fact this is taking so bleedin' long, or if I am just resigned that it iwll happen when it happens and living on edge isn't doing anyone any good.

(I have also developed an annoying habit of reversing the "i" and "w" with the word "will" almost every time i type it- spell check picks that one up :))

Is it trust or giving up hope? I certainly hope we get little bean in the next couple months, or we will be back to plan "a" of China being our first stop for a child, I honestly don't know if (US Adoption) will happen, when things are totally out of your hands, how can you know? Will we adopt from the US, for sure, who knows when it will actually work out, but I believe we will have a child from there and China by the time this ends. As I read over that, that sees to say hope. Okay, so thinking on screen seems to have resolved that...what other mysteries of the universe shall I ponder...

Milk

Okay, file this one under "another dynamic of the long wait we didn't expect" file.

We made the decision to breast feed our babies, and by Cara taking certain herbs etc. she can generate milk. It takes a couple months for things to start flowing, so we began this process months ago, shortly after we decided to also pursue the US side of adoption.

There are lots of benefits to breastfeeding, attachment, health benefits for the little bean etc... so Cara has been faithfully taking the herbs and producing the milk, which we have been storing, as it is good for a year once frozen. Well, she has been at it now for months and the problem is, we have milk coming in, but no baby to use up the milk, so our deep freeze now has nearly half of it full of milk, so the other half is grown up food, if we don't get a baby soon...we are gonna starve ! LOL

So seriously, let's get the kid already, the room is ready, we are ready, the food is ready...only one piece missing.... :)

Random musings

The picture is a pic of the matching room at the CCAA. Our dossier is in there somewhere!

Been silent as there hasn't been anything to report on either adoption front.

Winter is a couple days away from the feels of it outside.

Cara and I have decided to stay home this Christmas, rather than travel. Take some time to slow things down and get refreshed. We had an awesome late thanksgiving with the inlaws and outlaws last week.

I am STILL not done Brisingr, nor had time to play further on Batman Lego.

I have cooked up some cool magic routines to work on, and once we get baby, then I can start booking shows. It is frustrating turning down shows because I can't promise I will be here. :(

Buckwheat , my goldfish, is growing bigger.

I am prepared to be stiff tomorrow as I have been away from Kungfu club for nearly 2 weeks, and will enter into that again tonite!

And that is some random ramblings!

Batman and Brisingr

What am I up to since things have evened out back to our normal wait and see pattern? well... lots at work to keep me busy. It is a REAL blessing working with the staff we have. It is nice to be part of a team as compared to what my past experiences have been here.

Lots of chances at the church so just riding that through and trying to ensure the church kids don't get too much upheaval during all the tweaking that is going on.

I am in the process of developing a number of 1 minute devotionals with a family focus to air on our local Christian radio station, we will see how that goes. I have a great FACE for radio, not too sure about the voice.

Other than work, free time is now spent playing BATMAN LEGO on playstation, a very fun game and reading the 3rd book from Chris Paolini. He was like 15 when he started writing this medieval type story Eragon, which they made a movie of(the movie totally missed the depth of character and relationship the book captured...:( ) and this is the 3rd of 4 books to tell the tale. It is a big book, 800 odd pages I think, so it will be a book that will take me a bit of time to read...secretly hoping I will be reading it on a plane heading to the US to get a baby...

I also bought a fish tank and a gold fish named Buckwheat, he entertains me at the office when I am brain blocked or looking for distractions :)



Seems that Feb 15 2006 LIDS have been matched, meaning we have 3 months and 3 days of LIDS to go. March is supposed to be a bear month, with LOTS of files to match. Congrats to those matched!!!

We SURE hope we get the US adoption worked through before the end of the year, otherwise we may be faced with dropping it and waiting out China, to ensure there is a year between adoptions...*SHUDDER* don't even want to go there, but we will see.

The US roller coaster continues

The birth mom changed her mind...wow...what can be said... we are back to waiting...but God had His hand in there, and saved us from a harder journey if we had gotten down there...we were heading out of town to go get a flight and had to mail some stuff to the agency, the postee said they didn't think they could courier it there, so I better check with them, so I called the US agency, and they were, "Don't send it,the birth mom just changed her mind"...

Wow, stunned, deflated, scratching our heads...it wasn't the day...but that day will come...

We are matched in the US!!!!

We just got the call that a birthmother in the US has matched us with their soon to be born child. We do not know the gender. Delivery due date was Oct 19, but she is having early labor pains, so they are hoping for her to hold on another week and then deliver.

We have paper trail to wrap up, the suitcase has been packed for months, book flights, get the bird and fish looked after...and within a couple weeks, we suspect, we will have our little bean!

I am seriously numb, and in the deepest part of my spirit it feels filled in with a missing piece, in the shape of our little bean!

Feb 9 2006 matched

In China news it appears at least up to Feb 9 is matched making it a 9 day match cycle this time. Congrats to all who made it!

I am not even going to start wrapping my brain around how long until May 19 comes up. In December we will look at it, see how it fits with ensuring we keep a year between adoptions (if we aren't matched in the US before then), and then go from there.

I have joked(starting years ago) that I hope I am a father before I am 40... well only 365 days to get that taken care of, can we move this along a little please?!

Not doing much of anything for my Bday this year, just taking it easy. I painted our bedroom over the weekend, got some outdoor stuff done before the snow falls, repotted a few of my bonsai and ordered some magic from Bday cash.

Dealing with some gaps and changes in Fall church stuff and trying to get things going for the Fall. Been feeling pretty relaxed about it until middle of last week, time I thought I had got gobbled up with unexpected stuff, and people I thought I had in place, had stuff chance for a few which opens up more work for me to do, again, no fault of theirs, just life stuff.

39 and feeling fine...
Wife making me stirfry in which to dine.
Bought a fish tank and a fish named Buckwheat...
He's swimming and darting and is kinda neat.
I know this poem sucks, but you don't have to whine!

sigh... it has come down to this...LOL...if i can't start reporting about baby stuff soon no knowing what will end up on this blog next!
:)