74 Degrees. In my house. And I didn't even have to pay for it! It has not been that cool in my house since probably the end of May. It is so nice. Today's high should be 71 and the low...48! When Hubby leaves in the AM - very early AM - it is so nice and cool! Next week will warm up, however, I am enjoying the little bit of coolness. I may even bake! I can't wait! I won't even need to turn the air conditioner on! Mmm, just think. The smell of freshly baked carrot cake, chocolate chip cookies, banana bread and pumpkin pie wafting through the air. Yum! Oh, yeah and I forgot about dinner. How about salisbury steak with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans. Or maybe, umm, a homemade chicken pot pie? Lasagna, with italian sausage, ricotta cheese and smothered in mozzarella? I am going to try making rouladen this year. That is round steak layered with bacon, mustard, pickles and seasoning, rolled up and simmered and cooked in a sour cream gravy. I need to get the recipe from dad. Or what we had last night. Beef stir fry with chinese five-spice powder, soy sauce, etc. and sauteed with mushrooms, onions and bell peppers, served over steamed rice. Am I making you hungry? I gotta get cooking!
I didn't do too badly this summer with the air conditioning. Hottest summer on record, supposedly, and my electric bill for August was $227. Not too bad, considering a normal bill is between $80-100. Last year the high bill was about $300.
Next week I am going to buy peaches. I found this guy that has end-of-season peaches that are the size of grapefruits. Not small grapefruits, either! These things are huge! Last year they were the size of cantaloupe. Now, put your hands in the shape of a circle and picture this...a peach the size of a cantaloupe! He sells them for $10 a lug. And last year I got the last two bags of his crop. His place is off the beaten path and the guy I know on the main road sent me there because he was all sold out. Now I am going there intentionally. He has a kid who thins them out on the trees for him, but he said this year he didn't thin them out quite as much. They were fantastic! So, these are the ones I am going to use to can peaches. Less trouble, since they are huge and it will be much nicer in the house while I do it. Yeah! I can hardly wait. Peach ice cream, frozen peach smoothies, peach pie, canned peaches, peach jam, peach cobbler. And these are going to be the last ones of the season. I can't go there until the 1st of October. I have not been to the other peach place here in a while, so I can't wait for these! It is fun at the beginning of the season to pick them, however, by the end of the season I don't mind that they are already picked and in boxes. Plus, my two little helpers tend to bruise the peaches a bit. Okay, a lot. But how can I get upset? They love to help!
The area we live in is a great agricultural area. You wouldn't think to look at it, but within 1/2 hour of me in several directions, there are great orchards. Vineyards for wine production, cherry orchards in the spring, apricots and plums in the early summer and peaches all summer long. And when those are done, there is a variety called last chance peaches that are grown in the high desert at the base of the hills that ripen at the very end of the summer and into early fall. That is what these are.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
AutoZone is So COOL!
I have gotten things from AutoZone because they are in my neighborhood. Little did I know how cool a store it is. This is a long story, but I will try to edit it. A couple years ago a friend of mine told me that she had heard that if your "Check Engine" light goes on, you should try to replace the gas cap. Sounds corny, I know, but we did it when the light came on and it worked! Cool. Then we dropped the gas cap and I don't think the codes were "cleared" anyway, so it came back on. It was a problem that actually, I think, had to do with the gas cap. The EVAC system, I think. Anyway, so I get my DMV renewal in the mail and I need to get it smogged. Well, the "Check Engine" light is on again, ever since then. The smog station I called said it is an automatic fail if your check engine light is on. So, how much to diagnose the problem? $89. Which you can put toward the cost of repair. Great. I don't have the money to put toward repair. Dad just did the service, so everything is good. Except for this !@?!#* light. I mean, the check engine light. So, since we had gone to AutoZone and they had a caliper set for the brake pad repair, Scott said to call them and see if they loan out the diagnostic meter. It turns out they DO! You give them a credit card and driver's license and you may use it in the parking lot. Which we did. This thing is so easy to use. Put the new gas cap on, checked the codes (they were all related to this), reset the codes and VOILA! The check engine light is off! THANK YOU GOD! So, the manual said that if the problem still exists, then the light will go back on after three engine cycles. I'm thinking this is three trips with the car on. So we went straight home last night after the AutoZone trip and I went straight to the Smog Check station this morning. No light. The tech moved it to the right spot for the test. No light. It passed! THANK YOU GOD, AGAIN!
So, to make a long story endless, AutoZone is way cool because they twice have saved me all kinds of money by having the tools I needed and it didn't cost me anything.
So, thank you, AutoZone and Thank you GOD! Because it would have cost me a fortune to have a service repair shop come up with the same conclusion. And it passed! :-)
So, to make a long story endless, AutoZone is way cool because they twice have saved me all kinds of money by having the tools I needed and it didn't cost me anything.
So, thank you, AutoZone and Thank you GOD! Because it would have cost me a fortune to have a service repair shop come up with the same conclusion. And it passed! :-)
Something Stupid
Okay, if you don't want to hear me rant, then go away. I'm giving you fair warning.
Okay, you are still here. Then I assume you want to hear this. So I will continue.
I am steamed. This is about the dumbest thing I have heard in a long time!
I am sure you have all heard of the new vaccine, Gardasil. For girls. So they won't get cervical cancer. This is even more ridiculous than the Hepatitis B vaccine that are given to babies at birth, because when they become "active", they will need a larger dose of the vaccine and probably won't come in to get it.
Consider the facts about the Gardasil vaccine:
Just 2 percent of the patients in the study were infected by the kinds of HPV that put them at high-risk for developing cervical cancer.
A little more than 3 percent were infected with the types of HPV that Gardasil was concocted to prevent.
About 90 percent of all HPV infections go away within two years.
So, here is a vaccine that is to be given to girls who may or may not become "active", but we must assume that they will. And it is only effective against four strains of HPV, so that the possibility exists that the other strains (there are MANY), may become stronger.
Okay, if you are still with me, here is the really amazing part. NOW THEY WANT TO GIVE IT TO BOYS, TOO!!!
So, try explaining this to your 11-year old son.
You have to get this shot in your arm.
Because IF you have oral ___ with a girl, and she has HPV, you could possibly get throat cancer.
11-year old son: What is oral ___? What is HPV?
You respond.
Silence.
THAT'S the basis for recommending it for every boy for a body part that they do not even have! Ridiculous!
One of the reactions to this vaccine is death. This is not a good reaction. According to JudicialWatch.org, more than 1600 adverse reactions were logged, including three deaths, shortly after receiving the vaccination. The list of possible reactions is extensive.
The same thing will happen to the boys.
This vaccine is manufactured by the same people who brought you Vioxx. Wonderful. They are currently lobbying state legislatures to make vaccination mandatory in the nine to sixteen year old girls. Ridiculous.
And if all this doesn't get you upset, according to the list of ingredients on the merck.com website, each 0.5-mL dose of the vaccine contains 225mcg of aluminum.
I just don't see how they can justify this one.
Background:
When I was pregnant with Jessica I read an article regarding the Hep B vaccine. I researched the heck out of it. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about vaccination. I have spent literally hundreds of hours researching this. I went into it thinking I would vaccinate. I realized after extensive research that I did not want to do this. The vaccine manufacturers and the government do not always have our best interests at heart. I do. When it comes to my children. People tell me you can't believe everything you read on the internet. Well, I pulled most of my research information from the vaccine manufacturer websites and vaccine information sheets and also from the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization. So, MOST of my information came from the people advocating vaccine. And I chose not to vaccinate.
References: mercola.com, merck.com, judicialwatch.org
Okay, you are still here. Then I assume you want to hear this. So I will continue.
I am steamed. This is about the dumbest thing I have heard in a long time!
I am sure you have all heard of the new vaccine, Gardasil. For girls. So they won't get cervical cancer. This is even more ridiculous than the Hepatitis B vaccine that are given to babies at birth, because when they become "active", they will need a larger dose of the vaccine and probably won't come in to get it.
Consider the facts about the Gardasil vaccine:
Just 2 percent of the patients in the study were infected by the kinds of HPV that put them at high-risk for developing cervical cancer.
A little more than 3 percent were infected with the types of HPV that Gardasil was concocted to prevent.
About 90 percent of all HPV infections go away within two years.
So, here is a vaccine that is to be given to girls who may or may not become "active", but we must assume that they will. And it is only effective against four strains of HPV, so that the possibility exists that the other strains (there are MANY), may become stronger.
Okay, if you are still with me, here is the really amazing part. NOW THEY WANT TO GIVE IT TO BOYS, TOO!!!
So, try explaining this to your 11-year old son.
You have to get this shot in your arm.
Because IF you have oral ___ with a girl, and she has HPV, you could possibly get throat cancer.
11-year old son: What is oral ___? What is HPV?
You respond.
Silence.
THAT'S the basis for recommending it for every boy for a body part that they do not even have! Ridiculous!
One of the reactions to this vaccine is death. This is not a good reaction. According to JudicialWatch.org, more than 1600 adverse reactions were logged, including three deaths, shortly after receiving the vaccination. The list of possible reactions is extensive.
The same thing will happen to the boys.
This vaccine is manufactured by the same people who brought you Vioxx. Wonderful. They are currently lobbying state legislatures to make vaccination mandatory in the nine to sixteen year old girls. Ridiculous.
And if all this doesn't get you upset, according to the list of ingredients on the merck.com website, each 0.5-mL dose of the vaccine contains 225mcg of aluminum.
I just don't see how they can justify this one.
Background:
When I was pregnant with Jessica I read an article regarding the Hep B vaccine. I researched the heck out of it. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about vaccination. I have spent literally hundreds of hours researching this. I went into it thinking I would vaccinate. I realized after extensive research that I did not want to do this. The vaccine manufacturers and the government do not always have our best interests at heart. I do. When it comes to my children. People tell me you can't believe everything you read on the internet. Well, I pulled most of my research information from the vaccine manufacturer websites and vaccine information sheets and also from the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization. So, MOST of my information came from the people advocating vaccine. And I chose not to vaccinate.
References: mercola.com, merck.com, judicialwatch.org
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