Remember me telling you last week that, in order to claim the free dinner for eight that I'd 'won', I had to sit through a fire safety demonstration? Well, I learned two things at that demonstration. Okay, really I learned three--that the contest was a scam and I should report them to the Michigan Attorney General's office--but maybe the two other things will some day come in handy for you.
Did you know that fire/smoke alarms don't last for ever? I thought they did. I thought all you had to do was yearly replace the batteries and you were good to go for ever. Not so.
Did you know that 9 volt batteries can start fires? The guy that did the demo said that if you toss a 9 volt into your garbage can/wastebasket (even a dead one), if it touches/rubs up against a piece of tinfoil it can start a fire. He demonstrated that by rubbing a piece of tinfoil against the outward prongs on a 9 volt. Sure enough, it started smoking, then burst into flame.
Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.
hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
Monday, October 19, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Chilly Friday
So here it is October, mid-October at that, and my furnace is already turned on. There were snow flurries just north of here last night, and it's cold. Cold and damp. I don't mind Fall, actually I love it, but dry Fall is what I love. Not rainy and cold. Not windy. Dry, lovely Fall. The kind of fall where the multi-colored leaves are on the tree branches and not on the ground.
It could be worse though. I saw on yesterday's news where central Pennsylvania and parts of New York state had snow. Measurable snow. That definitely isn't in my definition of Fall.
The weather guy says next week is warm-up time. Not Indian Summer, you have to have temps in the 80's to be Indian Summer. We're expecting 60 degrees. Compared to what we've been having, well, 60 will feel like summer (smile).
My friend Tallulah is down here. She drove down from the UP last Saturday. Snow was licking at her windshield. She said when she came out of the casino in Christmas, MI (it's a small town in the UP) it was snowing. Tallulah couldn't wait to get down here. She was thinking it would be warm. And it is warmer than it's been in the UP but not warm like what she was hoping for.
My new internet access appliance is supposed to touch down by the end of next week. I'll be able to 'talk' with you a lot more then. Getting to the library and snagging an available computer is an exercise in, well, patience.
Hope you're having a good day.
Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.
hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
It could be worse though. I saw on yesterday's news where central Pennsylvania and parts of New York state had snow. Measurable snow. That definitely isn't in my definition of Fall.
The weather guy says next week is warm-up time. Not Indian Summer, you have to have temps in the 80's to be Indian Summer. We're expecting 60 degrees. Compared to what we've been having, well, 60 will feel like summer (smile).
My friend Tallulah is down here. She drove down from the UP last Saturday. Snow was licking at her windshield. She said when she came out of the casino in Christmas, MI (it's a small town in the UP) it was snowing. Tallulah couldn't wait to get down here. She was thinking it would be warm. And it is warmer than it's been in the UP but not warm like what she was hoping for.
My new internet access appliance is supposed to touch down by the end of next week. I'll be able to 'talk' with you a lot more then. Getting to the library and snagging an available computer is an exercise in, well, patience.
Hope you're having a good day.
Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.
hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
Thursday, October 15, 2009
No Such Thing As A Free Meal!
I enter lots and lots of contests. Primarily ones I see around town. I figure I have the best odds of winning something locally because not as many people enter. So far I've been right because I've won quite a few. Once it was for $100 worth of free groceries!
Okay, so I won another one I entered at my local grocery store. I was notified that I'd won last week. What did I win? Second prize--dinner for 4 couples! Not bad at all.
When the woman called me to let me know I'd won and to give me the particulars on how to redeem my prize, surprise to me, she said I'd won dinner for 8 at a local Italian restaurant. Okay, I was good with that, I'd been to that restaurant before and the food was good. But the big surprise was that along with dinner, we had to sit through a short fire safety demonstration. Hmmm...okay, we could do that, maybe we'd learn something.
Last night was dinner. Well, there is no such thing as a free meal and some contests are not what they appear to be.
We got dinner. Chicken parmesan with a side of penne and spaghetti sauce, bread, salad and one (make that ONLY 1) glass of pop. The food was only slightly warm and exceedingly rubbery. Hmmmm.
Now the fire safety demonstration? Well, not exactly. True enough the guy did talk about fires and getting out alive and fire alarms. But it was all just a fakeout to sucking us in, playing on our emotions and trying to get our addresses and the best time to come call on us to sell us new (sold only by his company) fire alarms.
He told us numerous times that people who'd attended his demos and who didn't buy his new alarm system, well, a goodly number of them had house fires shortly thereafter. What??? So I'm telling you this here and now and would like very much for you to remember it:
If, God forbid, I have a house fire and you hear about it on the news, those people set it. I'm not joking. What are the odds, particularly after this demo guy told us that those who didn't buy his sytems had fires? I say the guy (and his company) are arsonists who, if they don't make the sale, torch your house so they can add it in to their antecdotes to try and sell systems to other people!
I'm going to call the company this morning and complain. The whole contest was a sham. A pretense. And that's not nice. Not at all.
On another note, the guy who lives across from me, a neighbor told me that his house is in foreclosure. I don't remember when he moved in, probably at least a couple of years ago. He hasn't been the best neighbor in the world but damn! he's losing his house. He lost his job and now this. It all sucks.
Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.
hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
Okay, so I won another one I entered at my local grocery store. I was notified that I'd won last week. What did I win? Second prize--dinner for 4 couples! Not bad at all.
When the woman called me to let me know I'd won and to give me the particulars on how to redeem my prize, surprise to me, she said I'd won dinner for 8 at a local Italian restaurant. Okay, I was good with that, I'd been to that restaurant before and the food was good. But the big surprise was that along with dinner, we had to sit through a short fire safety demonstration. Hmmm...okay, we could do that, maybe we'd learn something.
Last night was dinner. Well, there is no such thing as a free meal and some contests are not what they appear to be.
We got dinner. Chicken parmesan with a side of penne and spaghetti sauce, bread, salad and one (make that ONLY 1) glass of pop. The food was only slightly warm and exceedingly rubbery. Hmmmm.
Now the fire safety demonstration? Well, not exactly. True enough the guy did talk about fires and getting out alive and fire alarms. But it was all just a fakeout to sucking us in, playing on our emotions and trying to get our addresses and the best time to come call on us to sell us new (sold only by his company) fire alarms.
He told us numerous times that people who'd attended his demos and who didn't buy his new alarm system, well, a goodly number of them had house fires shortly thereafter. What??? So I'm telling you this here and now and would like very much for you to remember it:
If, God forbid, I have a house fire and you hear about it on the news, those people set it. I'm not joking. What are the odds, particularly after this demo guy told us that those who didn't buy his sytems had fires? I say the guy (and his company) are arsonists who, if they don't make the sale, torch your house so they can add it in to their antecdotes to try and sell systems to other people!
I'm going to call the company this morning and complain. The whole contest was a sham. A pretense. And that's not nice. Not at all.
On another note, the guy who lives across from me, a neighbor told me that his house is in foreclosure. I don't remember when he moved in, probably at least a couple of years ago. He hasn't been the best neighbor in the world but damn! he's losing his house. He lost his job and now this. It all sucks.
Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.
hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Putting Up Food
Well, hello there! I was starting to wonder when I'd be able to get back and 'talk' to you some more. Being totally internetless is, well, interesting.
How's the weather by you? It's been chilly here. I'd say cold but we all know, at least anyone from the midwest knows, that we ain't seen nothing yet in the cold department. January, when it's sub zero and the snow and ice are plaguing us--we'll look back at 35 degree nights as down right balmy (smile).
The sun is shing right now and that's a good thing. It's maybe 49 degrees and while that's not shorts and sandal weather, it's not winter coats and double layers either. The weather people say it's going to rain all week, every day but Thursday. So far they're wrong about today.
Yesterday I went out to Blocks, a farm stand for want of a weather way to describe them. I was on a quest for collard greens. See, at Blocks, this time of year, they're harvetsing the collards and you can buy them fresh from the earth. So fresh in fact that they're just whacked--macheted maybe?--right at the base and you buy the whole plant. My plan was to fill up the back of my pick-up truck with collards. But plans...They hadn't harvested any yet yesterday morning so instead I bought 2 cases of collards. By the case you get them cut from the plant, but you still have to cut the stems off, devein them, cut and wash them, etc.
They were $8.59 a case. Didn't sound bad to me. I spent all yesterday afternoon cleaning and cutting and cooking them and only got half a case finished. Today the plan is to do a whole case, then the other half one tomorrow. Then when they're cooked and cooled and doled out into freezer bags, into the freezer they'll go for when I want collards for dinner.
I don't know how to 'put up' or can. I can make jam and jelly but that's it. So what I do is buy produce, cook it, and then 'pretend' it's leftovers and freezer bag them and toss them into the freezer for when I want them.
I did hundreds of ears of corn just like that a few monthes ago. Scraped them off the cob, cooked them in butter in a skillet on the stove, and then froze them in portions. I've eaten some of it and it's good. The corn will go good with the collards for dinner this winter.
Do you like apple cider? I do. I took two gallons of apple cider and cooked it down until it was almost a glaze or a syrup. Then I used some for 'frosting' on an apple cake I made and the rest as a butter/syrup on hot biscuits. Oh my!
If you want to try it, take maybe 6 cups of good apple cider. Put it in a good sized pan on the stove, on medium heat, and whisk it. Keep whisking it all the while it's on the stove. It'll take maybe an hour for it to cook down, but you'll see it getting slowly lower and lower in the pan. When it gets to where there's maybe a cup left in the pan and it coats the back of a spoon, it's done. You can put it in the refrigerator until you want to use it, then slightly heat it up in the microwave. I don't know how long you can keep it. Mine is gone within a day or two of cooking it down.
Got to go. The library is filling up......
Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.
hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
How's the weather by you? It's been chilly here. I'd say cold but we all know, at least anyone from the midwest knows, that we ain't seen nothing yet in the cold department. January, when it's sub zero and the snow and ice are plaguing us--we'll look back at 35 degree nights as down right balmy (smile).
The sun is shing right now and that's a good thing. It's maybe 49 degrees and while that's not shorts and sandal weather, it's not winter coats and double layers either. The weather people say it's going to rain all week, every day but Thursday. So far they're wrong about today.
Yesterday I went out to Blocks, a farm stand for want of a weather way to describe them. I was on a quest for collard greens. See, at Blocks, this time of year, they're harvetsing the collards and you can buy them fresh from the earth. So fresh in fact that they're just whacked--macheted maybe?--right at the base and you buy the whole plant. My plan was to fill up the back of my pick-up truck with collards. But plans...They hadn't harvested any yet yesterday morning so instead I bought 2 cases of collards. By the case you get them cut from the plant, but you still have to cut the stems off, devein them, cut and wash them, etc.
They were $8.59 a case. Didn't sound bad to me. I spent all yesterday afternoon cleaning and cutting and cooking them and only got half a case finished. Today the plan is to do a whole case, then the other half one tomorrow. Then when they're cooked and cooled and doled out into freezer bags, into the freezer they'll go for when I want collards for dinner.
I don't know how to 'put up' or can. I can make jam and jelly but that's it. So what I do is buy produce, cook it, and then 'pretend' it's leftovers and freezer bag them and toss them into the freezer for when I want them.
I did hundreds of ears of corn just like that a few monthes ago. Scraped them off the cob, cooked them in butter in a skillet on the stove, and then froze them in portions. I've eaten some of it and it's good. The corn will go good with the collards for dinner this winter.
Do you like apple cider? I do. I took two gallons of apple cider and cooked it down until it was almost a glaze or a syrup. Then I used some for 'frosting' on an apple cake I made and the rest as a butter/syrup on hot biscuits. Oh my!
If you want to try it, take maybe 6 cups of good apple cider. Put it in a good sized pan on the stove, on medium heat, and whisk it. Keep whisking it all the while it's on the stove. It'll take maybe an hour for it to cook down, but you'll see it getting slowly lower and lower in the pan. When it gets to where there's maybe a cup left in the pan and it coats the back of a spoon, it's done. You can put it in the refrigerator until you want to use it, then slightly heat it up in the microwave. I don't know how long you can keep it. Mine is gone within a day or two of cooking it down.
Got to go. The library is filling up......
Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.
hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
Friday, October 02, 2009
Hotels 4 Less
Don't you just hate it when you keep forgetting things? It happens to me a lot.
Okay, in case you aren't aware of this place www.checkinncard.com and you travel from time to time, and you want to save money (and who doesn't want to save money, right?), this is the place for you.
Tallulah told me about them and, while I haven't used them yet (although I am a member), she has and she's saved so much money each time she checks into a hotel/motel, and they're nice places, not sleazy places.
Be good and be careful, take crae, stay strong.
hugs, Tawny
Microsoft + Me
So someone asked me on the phone the other day why in the world, after being a Micrsoft customer (webtv and then msntv2) for over twelve years, why did I ditch them? Well, it's like this.....
In 1997 I purchased my first webtv. I was in love! Not only did it give me internet access--emails, newsgroups, surfing, etc.--but the unit (the webtv) cost me a hundred dollars after the rebate. A hundred dollars and I was on the internet super highway! Okay, there was a monthly access fee of $19.95, but who didn't (and still has to) pay a monthly fee? And what computer cost a mere hundred dollars???
I loved the webtv so much that I bought one for HSM and her brood. and at least six of my phone customers, after hearing me talk it up, bought ones for themselves and their family members.
Maybe four years later, when webtv developed a newer model, a new classic is what they called it, I purchased one. It was faster, it had more bells and whistles, and I loved it. Okay, monthly access increased to $21.95, but so what? The new classic cost me another hundred dollars. Big whoop.
This past August my webtv gave up the ghost. The consensus seemed to be that it was the video card that went bad. Unfixable. Webtvs are no longer in production. But Microsoft still had some of their newest model, the MSNTV2, in stcok. And such a deal they were offering!
The unit, the MSNTV2, was free. Yes, free. Pay shipping and handling charges of roughly $6 and the unit is yours. And pay for one years worth of service up front. $199.00. Such a deal! I got one. It was a refurbished unit, refurbished by Microsoft, and Microsoft backed it with a 1-year warranty.
And you know what? as much as I loved using the webtv, the MSNTV2 was that much better. It was faster by about ten thousand light years. It went places and did things that the webtv only dreamed about. I could open pdf's! It even represented like a computer when you sent things to people. It was amazing.
On the downside, and you know there's always a downside, the doggone thing had trouble connecting. It couldn't dial out from my phone line to the MSN access number, no matter what access number I tried to use. I made over 8 calls to tech support over a two week period. I spent hours on the phone with the techies. Some were helpful and nowledgeable and some, well, some of them should have been throttled for their incompetence.
One of them even said it was my phone line, not their device, that was the root of all trouble and so I had my local phone company come out twice, TWICE!, to check my phone line. And, each time, there was nothing wrong with my line.
Anyway, one night, after the techie, a nice sounding man in his 60's, threw up his hands and said what I had been saying all along--ma'm, your unit is defective--did I toss in the towel. The next morning I called MSN and told them I was through.
I think it's a doggone shame that the MSNTV2 wasn't beta tested better than it was. I spent a lot of time in msntv2 user newsgroups and just about everyone was having problems. I seemed to be unusual with my connecting troubles, but everyone else was having their fair share of problems too.
I understand that Microsoft is notorious for releasing a product--think Windows, any version--and then relying on thier customers to let them know what needs fixing, but, well, I think it sucks.
The MSNTV2 is a marvelous product IF it works properly. I think Micrsoft dropped the ball with this. I think the units should be in production again (currently they are not being produced) and I think that they should hire a whole new tech team to throw out the bugs and make them work properly. Then an aggressive ad campaign should be launched so people know rhe unit is available.
I think it would be a great product. I think it would sell well.
As for me, now that I no longer have an internet access appliance at my house, when you email me, well, give it a week for an answer. I'm using HSM's computer and the one at the library. Or better yet, pick up the phone and call me. Don't be afraid (smile).
The next time Tallulah comes downstae we're going to go look at netbooks. I'm thinking that might be what I want. See, I don't want a big computer. All I want to do is email, surf and shop on the internet. That's it. My needs are small. Anyway, whatever I purchase, Tallulah will be my tutor. I'm not computer literate. Internet savvy, computer illiterate.
In the meantime, until I get my own access, you be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.
hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
In 1997 I purchased my first webtv. I was in love! Not only did it give me internet access--emails, newsgroups, surfing, etc.--but the unit (the webtv) cost me a hundred dollars after the rebate. A hundred dollars and I was on the internet super highway! Okay, there was a monthly access fee of $19.95, but who didn't (and still has to) pay a monthly fee? And what computer cost a mere hundred dollars???
I loved the webtv so much that I bought one for HSM and her brood. and at least six of my phone customers, after hearing me talk it up, bought ones for themselves and their family members.
Maybe four years later, when webtv developed a newer model, a new classic is what they called it, I purchased one. It was faster, it had more bells and whistles, and I loved it. Okay, monthly access increased to $21.95, but so what? The new classic cost me another hundred dollars. Big whoop.
This past August my webtv gave up the ghost. The consensus seemed to be that it was the video card that went bad. Unfixable. Webtvs are no longer in production. But Microsoft still had some of their newest model, the MSNTV2, in stcok. And such a deal they were offering!
The unit, the MSNTV2, was free. Yes, free. Pay shipping and handling charges of roughly $6 and the unit is yours. And pay for one years worth of service up front. $199.00. Such a deal! I got one. It was a refurbished unit, refurbished by Microsoft, and Microsoft backed it with a 1-year warranty.
And you know what? as much as I loved using the webtv, the MSNTV2 was that much better. It was faster by about ten thousand light years. It went places and did things that the webtv only dreamed about. I could open pdf's! It even represented like a computer when you sent things to people. It was amazing.
On the downside, and you know there's always a downside, the doggone thing had trouble connecting. It couldn't dial out from my phone line to the MSN access number, no matter what access number I tried to use. I made over 8 calls to tech support over a two week period. I spent hours on the phone with the techies. Some were helpful and nowledgeable and some, well, some of them should have been throttled for their incompetence.
One of them even said it was my phone line, not their device, that was the root of all trouble and so I had my local phone company come out twice, TWICE!, to check my phone line. And, each time, there was nothing wrong with my line.
Anyway, one night, after the techie, a nice sounding man in his 60's, threw up his hands and said what I had been saying all along--ma'm, your unit is defective--did I toss in the towel. The next morning I called MSN and told them I was through.
I think it's a doggone shame that the MSNTV2 wasn't beta tested better than it was. I spent a lot of time in msntv2 user newsgroups and just about everyone was having problems. I seemed to be unusual with my connecting troubles, but everyone else was having their fair share of problems too.
I understand that Microsoft is notorious for releasing a product--think Windows, any version--and then relying on thier customers to let them know what needs fixing, but, well, I think it sucks.
The MSNTV2 is a marvelous product IF it works properly. I think Micrsoft dropped the ball with this. I think the units should be in production again (currently they are not being produced) and I think that they should hire a whole new tech team to throw out the bugs and make them work properly. Then an aggressive ad campaign should be launched so people know rhe unit is available.
I think it would be a great product. I think it would sell well.
As for me, now that I no longer have an internet access appliance at my house, when you email me, well, give it a week for an answer. I'm using HSM's computer and the one at the library. Or better yet, pick up the phone and call me. Don't be afraid (smile).
The next time Tallulah comes downstae we're going to go look at netbooks. I'm thinking that might be what I want. See, I don't want a big computer. All I want to do is email, surf and shop on the internet. That's it. My needs are small. Anyway, whatever I purchase, Tallulah will be my tutor. I'm not computer literate. Internet savvy, computer illiterate.
In the meantime, until I get my own access, you be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.
hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
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