Helpful Hint: Huge Savings in the Kitchen

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-Guest Writer: Ruth Morse

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When the Cheap Senior Citizen's cute and adorable inlaws (pictured above) retired, they began cutting every single paper napkin in half. (Grrrrr, yes! Blog Owner remembers those!)

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Have you ever tried to wipe your face and hands on half a napkin?? It was not pretty. She thought her father-in-law's idea was pretty dumb. 29 years later, in her own retirement years, suddenly the Cheap Senior Citizen embraces the frugality of using only half a napkin. However...

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She still thinks cutting little paper napkins in half is dumb. The Cheap Senior Citizen's alternative? A modern upgrade to her inlaw's idea: Repeat-Use Napkins!

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It makes much more sense to use napkins 3-4 times rather than cut them into quarters, right?! You just leave it on the table by your placemat, or in the living room, or in the den on your handy dandy TV tray. Of course, the house does look a bit messy - if you are a neat freak, this helpful hint may not work for you. But if you can stand a few crusty napkins sitting around, you can save mega bucks! Tried and Proven!

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Helpful Hint #1. You need decent paper napkins. If your package of 2539 napkins cost 99 cents, forget this money saving tip. Those so-called napkins don't get you through half a meal. If you buy Bounty* napkins, you can save in the long run by multiple uses.

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Helpful Hint #2. The Cheap Senior Citizen does NOT suggest you share napkins. That's not what she means by "more than one use." One person, one set of germs, one napkin, multiple times.

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Helpful Hint #3. If her meal contains sloppy stuff, the Cheap Senior Citizen might fly in the face of her new regulation and throw the wretched mess away, but if you just have a sandwich and wiped hands once? SAVE IT! SAVE IT! SAVE IT!

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Helpful Hint #4. The Cheap Senior Citizen doesn't require guests to save napkins. It would get ugly if she had to put a guest's name on the used napkin with a Sharpie and then find the semi-used napkin the next time said guest was to visit.

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The Cheap Senior Citizen will no longer refer to herself in the third person. She apologizes for the annoyance this has caused. Her editor took some liberty in an effort to refine her and she hates to complain, but.... it's annoying.

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....and one more thing......
uh, I'll get back to you when I remember it.
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The Cheap Senior Citizen is a Guest Writer who occasionally shares helpful hints she has learned through her experience.
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*The Cheap Senior Citizen did not receive any compensation for said endorsement of Bounty napkins.

The Gap Between Our Experience and the Claims of God

I've been listening to Ravi Zacharias' series called Mind the Gap. In this series, Ravi is exploring the gap demonstrated so often when what we expect from God is not what He provides. When we think: Why can't God act according to our logic when, after all, He calls us "to reason together?" There is a gap between our experience and the claim & the calling of God..... And there is a bridge to cross this gap. Here are my notes from Ravi's series:
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There are basically 3 gaps, he says, that feed this incongruence.
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Gap #1. When knowledge is not in keeping with reality. When what it is we think we know doesn't align with what we are seeing on the outside.

3 reasons for this particular gap:

Because of our own finitude. We just have that limitation, we long to break beyond these barriers of knowledge. We read, study, learn, engage, interact and we learn there is more and more that we don't know.
Because of our propensity to believe certain things because that is what we want to believe. Luke 7:31-33 Jesus was telling the Pharisees He couldn't win them over, nothing He or His disciples could do would satisfy what they wanted.
Because of the power of deception. The enemy of your soul uses our fatigue, our work, success, blessings, friendships, etc.

In C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters Screwtape teaches his nephew how to
seduce those who are getting closer to God, he says "Work on their horror of
the same old thing." People get tired of the same old thing and
the devil uses that to derail them. Screwtape was teaching him
"Don't let them stop at being merely Christian, make it Christianity AND
something."

.... And culture or ....and faith healing or ....and new psychology, substitute for the faith some fashion with a Christian coloring. We can't be content with the richness and grandeur of the age old message; we want it to be Christianity plus something. This is a dangerous seduction which we've swallowed hook, line and sinker. (Screwtape, by the way, used food. He took gluttony and twisted it into a demand for novelty.)

Diminish pleasure while increasing desire.

Nonsense in the intellect will reinforce corruption of the will.

You can't deny the increase in nonsense in our society and laws.

Example: you can't justify abortion, but the intellect tries.

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Gap #2. When hopes become dashed with disappointment. The sense of dismay when things aren't the way we thought they were supposed to be. The problem is not Jesus' inability to perform the miracle. When your desires are being shattered and you say "why did this happen?" There is a gap and you say "Oh God, fill this gap." In the first gap, we don't have the knowledge. But in this gap, we don't understand the purposes of God.

Gap #3. When presence is suppressed by preoccupation. He raised you in America and you are not far from Him. He raised me in India and I am not far from Him. Sometimes His presence is suppressed by preoccupation. The heresy of Here-ness and the heresy of There-ness.
Thereness: Adam. God is out there, but not here. Adam hid from God.
Hereness: Cain. God is here, but not there, so I'm gonna go out from the presence of the Lord.
David found out a long time after that, you can't do that. Psalms 139:7-17 "where can I go from your presence...?" Paul knew it. Acts 17:24-28. We forget that He is here. When you look back, you see that He was there during the worst of your troubles, He was there guiding your life even before you knew Him. His presence is nearer to you than you can ever imagine. From the very womb He put you in, from the ethnicity that He gave you. Sometimes you sense Him halfway through a tragedy. Sometimes He comes through at the very end.
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Simplicity breaks into sublimity: At the end of the day, it's not understanding and apologetics that satisfies the heart. It's a touch, a simple note, a voice on the phone, a gift, a simple little thing that says "I love you and you mean an awful lot to me." That's the simplicity combined with sublimity that Jesus demonstrated. The disciples knew so much, but they had forgotten what it all meant. Jesus bridged the gap; He brings the coherence, He binds the soul to the body when He takes a piece of bread and eats it. Resurrecting the reality that the physicality is important, the spirituality is important and only He knows how to bring the two together.
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People try to put life together with many things: power, money, pleasure, knowledge, religion, many things. Nobody can put it together like Jesus Christ.
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Naturalism settles for the theory of chaos. Jesus offers coherence.
Islam talks of a law to compassion, but Jesus went to the cross.
Hinduism talks of karma and the death of morality. It is Jesus who offers forgiveness and paid the price for sin.
Buddhism talks of the eradication of desire, Jesus offers to fill those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
The gap is not in Him, it is in us. Mind the gap. Simplicity and sublimity will bridge it when knowledge doesn't seem to coalesce with reality, when hopes are dashed by disappointment and finally, as you come to the recognition that your busyness can dull His presence. He is the God of the gaps in distinction to the others who create the gaps, the problem is not in Him, it is in us.

The Lotus Eaters, Book Review

The Lotus Eaters

by Tatjana Soli, St. Martin's Press
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A female photographer went to VietNam in '63 with unclear purpose. A brother had died in service there, maybe she wanted closure or understanding. She was new to photo journalism, maybe it was a career move. She was young. She was green. She was American. The next 12 years redefined her.
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The first couple of chapters were confusing, but I was unstoppably hooked by chapter 3. Chapter 1 starts out with the NVA's invasion of Saigon, April of '75, after our characters had been there many years, found safety in the city and come to love the people. We are thrown into the scene at eye level, street-side, on a personal level, not a military level. We are immediately thrown into the physical struggle to survive and the emotional struggle of human interaction & relationships.
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Chapter 2 goes back to the beginning, back to '63 when we get the backstory for our supporting character. "Once there was a soldier named Linh who did not want to go back to war." Poor Linh. He's a mellow wall-flower type of guy, "a lackluster soldier," always the supporting actor. At 26 he had joined the NVA, then escaped to South Vietnam where he ends up working with our photojournalists who are never quite sure if he's a spy or not, but they do know he would lay down his life for them.
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This is not a historical war novel, this is a portrait of humankind & the psychology of relationships. It's a book about survival on a variety of levels, it's an expose' of the soul.
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The Lotus Eaters:

• explores the reasons we love
• exposes what motivates humankind
• touches hidden longings in all of us

I'm not reviewing this book for the publisher, I simply checked it out of the library, loved it and wanted to pass it on. Hope you enjoy it.

Strawberry Festival, Aiken, SC

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If you and your children are near Aiken SC at the end of April, you need to stop by for Mead Hall's Annual Strawberry Festival and get some strawberry shortcake.

You can grab a lunch while you're there, take home a few quarts of freshly picked strawberries & take home some bake sale items.

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For kids: Carnival Games, Inflatables, Pony Rides & a Playground. On this particular year, the SPCA had some pets there for adoption.

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There are pie eating contests all afternoon with age divisions.

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For Adults: Vendor Booths, Silent Auction, Entertainment Stage and Mead Hall Idol.

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The entertainment this year included:

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• Crosby's School of Dance
• Mead Hall Pom Squad
• Coach Katie's Magic Act
• Graham Gordon & Band
• Father Grant Performing
• Aiken Center of the Performing Arts Academy
• Mead Hall Idol Talent Show

You've Got a Friend in Me, Lovett/Newman

One of my alltime faves - Randy Newman and Lyle Lovett.
PS - who wants to see the original Toy Story with me again?!
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Cupcake. Columbia SC - Take 2

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I was heading to Charlotte, crossing the treacherous Catawba, to go see my Nana again. I made a quick stop at Cupcake, my favorite little cupcake shop in Columbia, to pick up some cupcakes with which to continue my Taste Test in my never-ending quest to find the best cupcake.
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Today's Flavors:

• French Toast
• Double Chocolate Lemon
• Strawberry
• Tuxedo

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Then I realized I should swing through the USC campus just blocks away and get a college kid's input. College kids know high quality snack foods.
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Here's Marj sampling the French Toast cupcake. You can read her mind: "weird!" She added "...cinnamon peacan pie kind of flavor..."
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Marj had a sophisticated repertoire of culinary descriptions which I failed to write down because I was dumb-struck. She's good at this taste-testing thing, she's real good. (recall: '09 Apple Taste-Off)
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At this point I was interrupted by a text message from my sister:
"Nuttin' could b funkier than to eat a funky cupcake in caroliner, lol, oh wateva?!"
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Cupcake delirium abounds.
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Then Marj spotted it. The double chocolate lemon. She sneered at first, see her? Like she's daring it to be delish. This was her pick for favorite. "First," she claimed, "the icing was odd, but then, ooooo, it's good!"
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I know. Those are the words I remember. I don't remember the fine culinary terms, I remember odd and oooooo and good. It was the delerium.
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In Charlotte, dad didn't rush into anything, holding his verdict til every crumb was savored.
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"The lemon gives it a special kick," he mused. While Lisa just kept saying "Awesome, double chocolate lemon is absolutely awesome."
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Mom declared it tangy, but sweet.
And Nana said it was dry, she didn't like it one bit.
It was mine and Lisa's favorite of the bunch.
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The French Toast:
The French Toast was voted favorite by dad.
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"I never imagined French Toast in a cupcake," said Lisa, "but man, yeah, it's good!" She thinks it had a cream cheese icing.
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Mom just kept "pondering the delightful flavor." I didn't get her final verdict on the French Toast.
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And me? Well, I wasn't fond of the French Toast. Maybe if it was a muffin. And warm. I just can't tolerate cinnamon in a cupcake.
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The Strawberry:
I had high hopes for the strawberry and I just knew it'd be Lisa's fave, but nope, it was a let-down. It was good, just not great.

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Mom called it "a little bit of heaven."

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Dad said it had a "real fruity flavor," but I had to disagree, I thought it too mild, timid, bland, like the kid at school nobody remembers at the reunion.
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Chocolate Tuxedo:

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Dad spent a good bit of time "savoring the delicate aroma," but when he bit into it, he said sadly, "mellow."
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Again, some rumored it probably has a cream cheese icing. Lisa didn't care for the Tuxedo much. If she was stuck on a desert island, the Tuxedo wouldn't be on her list of must-haves.

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Mom loved it. The Tuxedo was the favorite for both mom and Gram, but chocoholics that they are, is anybody really surprised by this?

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And then it all hit her.

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With head in hands, mom mumbled something about her teeth curling.
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-Nana was a little ticked at the end. She had been misled and thought this whole thing involved a prize. Hours later, late at night, I heard her laughing, the hardest I've heard her laugh in a long time, "I thought there was a prize!" She'd wipe her eyes and then laugh some more.
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Click here to read our taste test results on four other flavors.

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I can't wait for the next taste test. I want to go on a Monday and try Chocolate Chip Cheesecake, Lemon Blueberry and Red Velvet. But then I also need to go on Thursday for the White Choc. Raspberry and the Praline. But then I need to try Cookies and Cream, Creamsicle and all the various banana flavors! Click here for their flavor schedule and let me know when you want to go!

True Confession

.... i still have brightly colored boiled eggs nestled in fake grass in a basket on my dining room table......

& i still have a snowman icicle hanging with beautiful icicles across my kitchen windows....

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This is why I don't usually decorate for each season.
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But I do have a beachy lady decoration out for summer.
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So tell me....
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What's your true confession?

The Book of Awesome

The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, & Other Simple, Brilliant Things"
Neil Pasricha
AEB Putnam
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I can't review this book because I haven't read it yet, but I'm going to.
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"999: That last, crumby triangle in a bag of potato chips." Check it out. Mr. Pasricha values that last little crumb as much as I. Here's my method of getting that last crumb and here's the author's method. I think mine is better, but mine is not mine mine, it's Ruth's, my helpful hint columnist. So, Ruth, we rock. But back to the book . . .
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Screeeeech. Wait a minute. Ruth, why didn't we write the Book of Awesome? I'm always a day late and a dollar short. {slaps head} stupid, stupid, stupid.
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Back to the book. seriously. First came love, then came marriage, then came the baby in the...... First came the website: 1,000 Awesome Things.

• "The moment on a roller coaster after you get to the top of the first hill and before you go down it."
• "The smell of play-doh."
• "Realizing you're in the background of someone else's picture and smiling at the last second."
• "Popping bubble wrap."
• "When you meet up with a group of friends and they stop talking to celebrate your arrival."
• "The smell of an old hardware store." (jinx!)
• "The night before a really big day."
• "Getting a truck driver to blow his horn."
• "The Broccoflower: The bizarre misfit child from two of nature’s most hideous vegetables."

The website's down to about #529 or something. Now the book is out and we can skip to the end, read the ending first & then come back to the website and plod on with a new one each day. Awesome. See?
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Maybe #1,000 is "When you publish a book and everyone gets a warm, fuzzy feeling while reading it."
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Thanks to Chris Guillebeau "The Art of Non-Conformity" for bringing this book to my attention.

Cupcake. Columbia, SC

One fine Spring Day

Jennifer and I found ourselves

reviewing the Cupcake store

for you, my dear reader,

oh the lengths I go to

for my dear readers.

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This was Jen's first visit and it took her awhile to decide which flavors to try.

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I sneaked a peek into the inner sanctum of deliciosity.
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It was Jen's delicious idea to get several cupcakes and do a taste test. So we got four different flavors, walked down the street and settled in at Starbucks to begin the test.

Cupcake bakes from scratch on site daily. They use no preservatives and as much organic products as they can acquire, but they're not 100% organic.

Red Velvet is the number one best seller. Coinkidink: I've had it before. The cream cheese icing makes it my fave, too. As you can see, each cupcake consists of 50% icing... Maybe 44%.

 

Special needs? There is one cupcake that is dairy-free - a chocolate one - but the icing isn't dairy free, you have to order it with no icing. None of the cupcakes, nor is the store, safe for kids with nut allergies. Due to the store's tiny size, nuts are present and lurking most anytime.

Without further adieu..... the moment you've beeing waiting for.....
the results of our taste test!

Key Lime. I thought this baby would be my favorite, but I was let down. Jen nodded sadly, "It's kind of plain. The icing has a nice flavor, tangy, very good."

Peach. Peach freaked me out.

Peach was confusing. Not a strong flavor, but it had real chunks of fruit in it and a ribbon of cinnamon running throughout. If the peach was warm & straight from the oven, it'd be like a cobbler and probably most excellent. Room temperature? Meh.

Chocolate. This was excellent for me. But it was too much for Jennifer, just too much chocolate, she would need a vanilla icing on this one.

The winner? Turtle
This baby is perfect. It contains a good combination of each flavor and the caramel drizzled on top makes it stand out from the rest. The tiniest details make this one the best, as Jen pointed out, "like using cream cheese for the icing with grenache so it's not so tangy."
I can't vouch for the grenache. But if Jen says it's there, then it's probably there. PS. Jen gave me the praline pecan on top!

Cupcake makes a 6" round cake that decorates like a giant cupcake and they make mini cupcakes as well, all of which must be ordered in advance. All flavors are not available every day, click here for a schedule of their flavors.

Cupcake has three locations: Charleston, Columbia and Mount Pleasant.

 Cupcake gave me nothing in exchange for this review.

Spring Break '10: Final Day

-So our Spring Break Finale' was karaoke at Patti's house. Rene' and I are both kind of, ahem, quiet, so to see us so totally out of our shell is pretty big.
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Unfortunately, most of the videos of Rene' and all of the videos of me are not uploadable. They are in a "format" my computer doesn't recognize.
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So here's some photos of us singing Celebration.
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Which is from our day.
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And Tom and I did a great impression of Sonny and Cher singing "I Got You, Babe." I was awesome shaking my hair around like Cher used to.

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Enjoy the video. We had a few guests that normally don't do karaoke, so it was kind of special.

Helpful Hint: The Well Stocked Tool Box

The Well Stocked, Frugal Tool box

The well stocked tool box should only have two items in it—WD 40 and DUCT TAPE.

TOOL BOX ITEM #1

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If something moves and shouldn’t, use the DUCT TAPE.
Some brands are labeled DUCK TAPE. My theory is that these were named by someone who needed to change the battery in his hearing aid.
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HELPFUL HINT:

Not fond of the shiny grey DUCT TAPE color? DUCT TAPE now comes in assorted colors which you can coordinate with your fix up.

TOOL BOX ITEM #2

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If something should move and doesn’t, use WD 40.
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HELPFUL HINT :

Be sure to buy the can of WD 40 with the permanently attached smart straw.

Some cans come with a stray stuck to the side of the can with DUCT TAPE and you have to hope you never lose that straw. Or that you don’t blast your face with WD 40 while trying to wedge the little stray into the aerosol button.
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ONE WORD OF CAUTION:

WD 40 is being sold in a pen size.

This would be easy to tuck in your purse for any sticky emergencies while away from home and your regular, well-stocked tool box.
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BE VERY CAREFUL not to grab your WD 40 pen when you meant to grab your TIDE TO GO spot remover pen. Accidental use of WD 40 to remove a stain will result in a huge problem.


But that’s the subject of another day: CREATIVE WAYS TO CAMOUFLAGE SPOTS ON YOUR CLOTHES.

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....and one more thing......

uh, I'll get back to you when I remember it.

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The Cheap Senior Citizen is a Guest Writer who occasionally shares helpful hints she has learned through her experience.

I Can Only Imagine New Guest Writer

Big news, big changes here at the helm of I Can Only Imagine.
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I am introducing a new Guest Writer.

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When I had trouble getting the crumbs of potato chips out of my bag a month ago, an alert reader sent me an excellent tip. I was dazzled by her helpful advice. So much so, I invited her to be a Guest Writer. I think all my readers can benefit from the Helpful Hints this lady will be sharing. Her specialty is in the area of Senior Citizens, she likes to share from her experience how to make your buck last longer and make your life a lot easier.


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Without further adieu, it is my pleasure to introduce to you...
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my new Guest Writer from upstate NY. . .
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Ruth Morse.

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Ruth Wingler Morse, a preacher's kid from Vestal, NY, has been married to Driftwood for 43 years, bless her heart. She has two sons, two wonderful daughters-in-law and 5 teenaged grandchildren.
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Ruth has a weird mind, a quirky thought pattern that gets her in trouble and an obsessive compulsive nature that complicates life. She loves to read, enjoys 25% of a book, then consistently reads the ending before going back and finishing the book.
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I think you will enjoy Ruth's Helpful Hints and I encourage you to share your helpful hints in her comment sections. Watch for Ruth's columns to appear about twice a month.
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Let's all welcome Ruth with a warm round of applause.

Charleston, SC: Spring Break, Day Three

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Spring Break 2010 included a day trip to Charleston, a trip to the beach. I called Patti, "Hey, you guys wanna go to the beach?"

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Ummmmm.... I think it's a yes.

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South Carolina really does have it all. Within a couple hours drive, we can be at the beach or at the mountains, rafting madly down a river, strolling riverside in Savannah or hip-hopping our way through the streets of Atlanta.

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Our favorite beach is Isle of Palms, just outside Charleston. There's public parking and a public restroom with outdoor showers. A little hamburger and ice cream shack and beachside restaurant are there, too.
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I know April is still too windy and cold on the beach for laying out, but the unusually hot weather we had upstate bewitched me and I forgot. So we went thinking we'd lay out, we got all set up and within minutes I was wrapped up in a towel, freezing. Look closely, my teeth are chattering. Some people (including Eva) were actually in the water though.
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We lasted a couple hours, then packed up, got dressed and headed away from the beach.

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I drove along the shore, taking the long way (via Sullivan's Island) into Charleston. I was looking for a playground for Eva and a place for our picnic lunch. Isle of Palms is ritzy, touristy. It has condos and beach houses and vacationers, probably no playgrounds. Sullivan's Island has an "old neighborhood" feel, this is where real people live, probably year round. There are a lot of vacationers, too, but it's down to earth - families riding bikes, playing basketball, etc. I found a playground, no problem.

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After our picnic, we headed across the bridge into Charleston, taking a left on East Bay. Passing the market, I headed to the pier and battery area and took a few minutes to find a place to park. We walked down to the bay and watched for dolphins.
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Eva swam in the pineapple fountain for quite awhile.

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She wasn't the only one to enjoy cooling off in the pineapple.
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But then Something Happened as Somethings always do.
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But it's so unusual for Eva's mommy to look like this, it made Eva wonder . . . .
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Where is she getting this???
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And she looked into mommy's reading pile and found "Making Children Mind without Losing Yours" by Dr. Kevin Leman.

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We continued walking along the bay down towards the pier. Eva posed for this picture so I could show you the walkway along the bay, it's such an enjoyable walk.
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And at the pier, Eva found another fountain to play in. This is about 4-5 blocks from the Market. That's a nice walk, too, if you're shopping and it's lined with art galleries and restaurants.
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We love the swings on the pier!

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After the pier, we went back to the market and shopped the small stalls, picked up some praline pecans for you-know-who, and ate dinner, of course, at Wild Wings. Eva finally got her long promised ice-cream with an afternoon visit to Ben and Jerry's. Yum-O.

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For more Charleston Info, click on the red links above. For Charleston Food, click here. For my Charleston Plantation tour, click here.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Screamed

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After a particularly hot Spring Break Day, Rene' and I came in from our evening exercise walk, logged on our facebooks and checked in with our friends.
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"Rene'," I posted, "How are things in the living room? Hey - want some ice cream?"
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All of our 440 combined friends (most of which are hers) caught the mention of ice cream. They must have a google search on the term Ice Cream.
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64 comments later, we were delivering ice cream.


Here's Patti waiting on her ice cream.
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So I think, Gee, why isn't she excited to see us? She's practically ignoring us.
She knew we were on our way, who else would pull up at 10:30 at night?
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Turns out one of my headlights is out and I looked like a motorcycle pulling up.
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Mazda 6, vroom vroom instead of zoom zoom.

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Curbside Delivery!

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(in our PJ's no less)

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Curbside Delivery Gone Bad.

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Shannon commented "Wow, looks like Patti ate a little too much of Eva's Easter candy."
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See, I toldja --Facebook is not just sitting in front of a computer!

It is the ultimate community builder.