Home Depot is giving away 1,000,000 florescent light bulbs this weekend in celebration of Earth Day (Sunday, April 22).
According to their website, the new bulbs will save an estimated $12 million in annual energy costs. That’s a lot of energy.
The give away is on a first come first serve basis – so if you can, drop in before church and see how you too can help save energy costs.
Category: Life hacks
Getting life done
Lifehack has some pointers they’re sharing from WiseGeek on how to make your life offline easier.
- Hoard stamps. It’s true that snail mail is becoming less and less important, but every once in a while, you do need a stamp. – I rarely use stamps which means when I need one it usually means I have to take time to go to the post office to do it.
- Outsource your chores. Your time and sanity are worth way more than that kid’s hourly wage. If you have the means, ask your friends and neighbors for a referral for a housekeeper that is trustworthy. – I’m a huge fan of this idea. $15 – $20 for someone to clean house or do chores once a week could be a huge help.
- Never travel without a swimsuit. Period. You don’t want to miss an opportunity to enjoy a hot tub or sauna because they won’t let you go commando. – I used to be better at this when I was a kid. I need to get back in the habit.
- Park far away from entrances. Walking across a parking lot isn’t necessarily the most pleasant thing, but it’s still walking. Walking is exercise and therefore reduces stress. Waiting patiently for a spot near the front, only to have that yellow H2 ignore you and pull into your spot will have the opposite effect. – I usually have pretty good luck finding close parking spots but I need to be willing to walk when time comes.
- Change the billing cycles on your monthly bills so that they’re all due at the same time. Usually this can be accomplished with a quick phone call if it can’t be done online. This can prevent forgotten or lost bills, since you’ll have to go through your entire list of liabilities at the same time. If one of your accounts won’t allow you to change the billing cycle, then change all the others to match that one. The other useful thing about this practice is that it makes it easier to calculate your monthly expenses and make good decisions about your budget. – Mine are divided into two due dates so I can pay them with the corresponding check. Any thoughts?
- Feel free to let the phone ring. Many people don’t realize that you don’t have to pick up the phone, or you can just turn off the ringer. The point is that people often call at bad times because they don’t know that it’s a bad time. Rather then let them interrupt you and complicate your life, simply ignore the call and get back to them when it is a better time for you. – I have no problem doing this. My mom and aunt obviously do.
Birthday fun
Laurie’s birthday was yesterday. I think she had a good day – despite having to work for the first time in many years on her birthday.
I cooked dinner and I think we found a couple winning recipes. They were both new to me and I did my own adaptations but I was pleased and we plan on holding on to them for use in the future.
We started dinner off with a chicken teriyaki stir fry. We laughed that I’m not one who normally follows recipes very well. I like to make my own changes and such but here’s the recipes with my notes added. I eye balled all the measurements so none were exact.
1/3 c. chopped onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/3 c. soy sauce
2 tbsp. salad oil (used a low fat cooking oil)
2 tbsp. white cooking wine
1 tbsp. honey
3 chicken breasts split
Combine onion, garlic, soy sauce, oil, wine, and honey; mix well. Arrange chicken in shallow baking dish; pour sauce over. Marinate at room temperature 30 minutes, turning several times. (I cooked the chicken breasts whole in a shallow pan on the stove and then cut them up after they were done cooking. After they were cut up I put them back in the sauce on low for a few minutes to soak up additional flavor).
Broil or grill while brushing with sauce until tender. Cook stir-fry vegetables and place on platter. Arrange chicken breasts over top. Makes 6 servings.
STIR-FRY VEGETABLES
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. salad oil (same low fat cooking oil)
2 c. sliced carrots
1 c. sliced onion
2 c. green beans or broccoli (i used fresh snap green beans)
2 c. cauliflower or cabbage (i used cauliflower)
2 tbsp. lemon juice (i squeezed the juice from a full lemon)
1/2 tsp. salt (optional)
dash pepper
2 tbsp. chopped parsley
In wok or large heavy skillet, heat butter and oil. Add carrot and onion; stir- fry 3-4 minutes. Stir in other vegetables and stir-fry 2 minutes or cook until they way you like them. (i actually added all the vegetables in our wok as I finished cutting them up. then i turned on the stove and cooked them all together with the butter and oil. i also added the parsley to the mix in the beginning which added some fun color to the mix and kicked up the flavor a bit.)
Add other ingredients and stir. Sprinkle chopped parsley over.
For desert I had angel food cake with an orange sauce topping.
I have the recipe at home but I ended up changing it a good deal anyways.
I started with a regular store bought angel food cake.
For the sauce I used 3/4 cup of sugar, 12 oz. frozen orange juice from concentrate and 2-4 tbs. of corn starch.
I mixed the three ingredients together and then heated them in a sauce pan. I added a bit of water in the beginning and then stirred until the corn starch helped thicken the sauce, similar to gravy. I added several dashes of cinnamon to step it up a notch. And then poured the warm sauce over a slice of angel food cake and topped with whip cream.
Very delicious. The original recipe called for a can of mandarin oranges and peaches and only 6 oz. of OJ but Laurie’s not a fan of peaches and I forgot the oranges at the store so I adapted.
I had a glass of Pinot grigio that went great with the chicken and stir fry but became a bit bitter when drinking with the desert.
All in all I thought it was a great birthday dinner – we’ll just have to wait and see if Laurie blogs about it and says the same thing ;-).
We finished the evening off with a 2 mile walk down the Waxahachie Hike and Bike Trail with Presley. It was a great night for a walk and we tried out geocaching for the first time with a borrowed GPS unit. We’re still hoping to get our own for our wedding – hint hint.
We failed at our first two attempts: N 32° 22.344 W 096° 50.198 and N 32° 22.193 W 096° 49.850 but we probably didn’t search as hard as we should have. We were right in the area but quit because of the overgrowth and poison ivy in the area. I was wearing shorts and Laurie gave me strict instructions to not get poison ivy less than two weeks before our wedding.
None the less, it was a great evening and I’m looking forward to spending countless more birthdays and special occasions with the love of my life.
Increase your gas mileage with nail polish remover
Maybe?
Wisebread has some info on how pure acetone (a.k.a nail polish remover) might increase your gas mileage by 10 mpg.
The Hole – video powered by Metacafe
Wisebread points out that because the acetone burns so hot it may ruin like gaskets and O-rings but how much will those gaskets and O-rings cost you compared to saving 10 mpg on gas I wonder?
I’d be interested to see how the acetone works in the long run with a car.
Anyone tried this with an older model vehicle?
Google Calendar add-in for Firefox
Elias Torres has a great new add-in for Firefox that allows you to do quick adds to your Google Calendar anytime your browser is open.
Simply type CTRL+; and a small window will pop up letting you type things like, “Doctor’s Appointment Monday, May 7, 7 a.m.”
And of course — bing badda bang it shows up on your calendar.
I’m a huge fan of Google Calendar and now Google Notepad as well for keeping track of mine and Laurie’s calendars and to-do lists.
Give them a try if you haven’t and be sure to check out Torres’ add-in.
Tips to make your blog work
Lifehack.org has shared a list of 20 things to make your blog work.
Granted, many of you may not be concerned about this, but if you want to make any money from your blog and efforts they’re good pointers.
I’m still working on some of these. My biggest downfall might be that I have so many things I’m interested in that it’s hard to narrow my blog down to only one topic.
Here’s the top 10 pointers. Visit Lifehack for the rest.
- Pick a topic for your blog. Having a specific focus actually gives you more to write about. Like a novel, your blog takes on direction and purpose.
- Encourage comments. Allow comments, and respond to comments.
- Make it easy to subscribe. Make it easy to subscribe to your feed by placing an orange RSS button in a highly visible location.
- Route your feed through Feedburner so you can keep track of your subscribers.
- Include an About page.
- Present your ideas visually. Long blocks of text aren’t read.
- Keep posts short and to the point.
- Use subheadings for long posts.
- Link abundantly. Links increase readership and let others know you’re writing about them.
- Make headlines descriptive.
- Archive by topic. Rather than date.
What other pointers do you have to make my blog better or for others to improve their blog?