I was having a conversation with Kwick (Burning the Wick at Both Ends) about our weather (she lives not too far from me). The hurricane-like winds and the downpours. She said she wished she had a boat. I told her I planned on taking the roof off over my back porch and using it for a floatation device. THEN we decided to make a list of items necessary for survival that would make MacGyver proud!
1. filter pitcher
2. duct tape (you can NEVER have too much duct tape)
3. large sheet of plastic
4. paper clip
5. safety pin
6. tube of super glue
7. a rubber band
Of course one should ALWAYS carry a swiss army knife and a cell phone. You can take down a whole foreign government with those devices alone!
Now...where's that MacGyver dude?
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TIPS I RECEIVED FROM A HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND (long but worth it):
If you peel a banana from the bottom you won't have to pick the little "stringy things" off of it. That's how all the primates do it.
Separate your bananas when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen much faster.
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. The cheese will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
Add a teaspoon of water when sauteing ground beef. It will help to pull the grease away from the meat.
To make terrific scrambled eggs or omelets add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, heavy cream, or Fat Free Half and Half before beating them.
Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and add at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
Leftover snickers bars from Halloween or Christmas make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.
1. Reheating Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy microwave pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
2. Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw the bag away! When do NE for an easy clean up.
3. Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You will also be eating less sugar and calories per serving.
4. Reheating Refrigerated Bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
5. Newspaper Weeds Away
Start putting wet newspapers in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Put layers around the plants, overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic but they will not get through wet newspapers.
6. Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
7. No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
8. Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.
9. Flexible Vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
10. Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Put a pin in the leg seams of your slacks and -- at DA! -- static
Is gone.
11. Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
12. Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
13 . Reopening Envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
14. Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up th e conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair...
15. Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill i t with a 1/2 " of Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
16. Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home," can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!
17. INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material - I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. well,...the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free -- that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box, this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to catch fire & potentially burn your house down. The best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long.
He will probably email us all later that class is cancelled anyway. 
come to think of it, some of them are on blogstream too. So those ppl got a double dose...sorry. 
but what happened was I was making some tea and talking on the phone to someone and I noticed something...it wasn't good. The Mr. had been doing some cooking in the last couple of weeks...mostly frying (which I hate) and there was this thing film on the back part of the stove where the dials are.
Somehow I managed to get out of there and home without going postal on someone's arse! 
But I did manage to smile pleasantly at the bagger (whose fault NONE of it was) and tell him "thank you". 
I am looking forward to a most exciting evening with the washer and dryer. (those spin cycles are quite wonderful! 
)
