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Time for another random tips post!

Avoid wooden hangers as they can react with the fabric over time. Use plastic or wire instead.

Secure a button after you have sewn it on by a drop of superglue or nail polish

Don’t shop on the first few days of a month as some stores raise the prices when people get their social security checks or food stamps. (That’s kind of messed up isn’t it??)

If you have an empty freezer, fill it up with jugs of water…it will use less energy to keep it cold!

Unclog your toilet with a few drops of liquid dish detergent.

Put your wet swimming suit in a gallon ziploc bag with 1/4C baking soda to keep it from getting smelly before you have time to do laundry.

Clean off crayon drawings on your wall with some WD40!

If you need to pick up broken glass, use a dry cotton ball.

If you have problems with your slip clinging to your dress, try pinning a small safety pin to your slip.

Use non-stick cooking spray on the walls of your freezer to make it easier to defrost. This should be done right after your next defrosting!

Place a bath towel in with your wet clothes to speed up drying time.

This is a great article dispelling 20 popular food myths. Ones I didn’t know:

#2: Boiling drains away all nutrients from vegetables - It’s true that you lose some minerals but not all!

#13 You can’t deep fry in olive oil - I always avoided this because of the whole lower smoking point argument (which is true) but it turns out it is possible and is supposed to taste better! I love olive oil so I’ll have to try this next time.

#18 Salads and sandwiches containing mayonnaise aren’t safe for picnics - I’ve always been afraid of having anything with mayo out for awhile and eating it. Yes, I’m paranoid about getting food poisoning hehe

If you’re like me, you’re too lazy to clip coupons when you go grocery shopping. This website, Shortcuts.com, eliminates that! Too bad it only works for a few stores…hopefully they add more in the future. In my area, the only one that worked for me was Ralphs but your area might have more.

So how does the website work? You just sign up with whatever club card you have and then it will display all of the coupons available for that store. Next, just click “add” on whichever coupons you think you’ll use. Next time you go grocery shopping, the coupons will be automatically applied to your purchases! Pretty easy!

3 days later and I’m FINALLY rid of my virus. I was on the brink of reformatting my computer, throwing it against a wall, or finally breaking down and buying an apple. ARGH. This was the nastiest thing I’ve ever had on my computer. I would get rid of it only to have it come back. And each time it rendered my computer useless. My whole desktop including start bar would blink and in about 5 minutes everything would disappear. Every once in awhile I would get a blue screen. Other times I would get a popup telling me to buy Antivirus 2009. Yeah….I didn’t do that. It turned out I had some variant of the Vundo virus. And after dling about 10 different antiviruses and trying 10 million different things including messing with my registry, this single webpage saved the day: That Computer Guy’s Help Forum (seriously, you should be bookmarking this page right now!!)

I think my initial problem was I kept googling my exact symptoms but it turns out that Vundo evolves and is always changing. So a fix that worked in the past, might not work now. At least that’s what I was running into. But I followed the steps outlined in that forum and it worked! My computer, I believe, is cleancleanclean. YAY. I’m sooooooooo happy!

So I’ll commence my regular posting tomorrow…sorry for the delay. I was literally spending every free moment I had on this (which isn’t very much to begin with). I’ll be back just in time for Friday Links!

Time for another random kitchen tips links post!

How to boil potatoes

Does the color of beef determine if the meat is still good?

Before opening a new package of bacon, roll it up and unroll it. When you open up the package, your bacon won’t stick together as much

Get ketchup out of the bottle by inserting a straw all the way to the bottom of the bottle to allow air to flow out as well as the ketchup

Before cutting marshmallows or dates in half, coat scissors with oil

To help milk stay fresh longer, add a pinch of salt when you open it. This will not affect the taste in any way.

Wilted Lettuce - Don’t throw away the wilted outer leaves of lettuce. Use it to wrap up your leftover meat. The lettuce leaves, though wilted, still contain a lot of water, by wrapping meat in it, the meat will retain it’s moisture.

Before handling fish, wash your hands in cold water and they will be less apt to be fishy smelling

If you keep bananas in a closed plastic bag, they will keep longer on your counter.

I’m a sucker for carnival games. I know they charge outrageous prices to play and usually the prize isn’t that great. In fact, most of the time I end up throwing them away. I hate stuffed animals! hehe. But it’s just fun trying to win these almost impossible games! And now that I’ve discovered all of these neat tricks to beat carnival games…maybe I’ll have a better chance at winning. My favorite tips:

Rope Ladder

The trick to climbing carnival rope ladders is to completely ignore the “rungs” and only use the outside ropes to climb on.

While applying equal pressure with your right foot and left arm, move your left foot and right arm at the same time. Then do the same thing with the opposite limbs — shimmying yourself up the ladder.

Do not move both hands or both feet at the same time - you will lose your balance.

Guess your weight, age or birth month:

Unless you very over-weight or really don’t look your age, it’s best to go with the birth month. Some carnies still use an old scam for guessing your birth month.

If the carny uses this trick (not all do) they will scribble down something like the image on the right (click on the link to see the image). Does it say Jun, Jul, or Jan? The guesser could claim it be whichever one is closest to your birth month. That wide spread allows the carny to be within 2 months of any month, except one: October.

So if you think you are dealing with a shady operator, always say “October” is your birth month.

BasketBall Free-Throw

You have a lot going against you in this game. The ball is over-inflated, the hoop is smaller than regulation size and often an oval shape rather than circular. The backboard is plywood making it extra bouncy. So forget about throwing a normal free-throw shot.

The key is to use a high arc. Do not try to rebound the shot off the backboard — the ball will always bounce too much. To win this game you must make a perfect swish, no backboard.

I’m really paranoid about getting food poisoning as long time readers can attest ha ha. So I’ve been compiling these lists for awhile now. I’m going to print it out and hang this on my fridge (when i have a fridge!)

From the early show:

PASTA SAUCE: LASTS 5 DAYS ONCE OPENED
MAYONAISE: LASTS 2 MONTHS ONCE OPENED
CHEESE (depending on hard or soft): LASTS 1 - 4 WEEKS
LEFTOVERS: LAST 3 - 4 DAYS

From Food Democracy (also check this link for a bunch of diff types of meats):

Hot dogs & Luncheon Meats: 1 to 2 weeks
Cream cheese: 2 weeks
Sour cream: 7 to 21 days
Yogurt: 7 to 14 days

From my Everyday Food mag:

Ketchup: 6 months
BBQ sauce: 4 months
Salsa: 1 month (fresh salsa will only last 3 days tho)
Pickles: 2 months (store bought kind)
Jam and Jelly: 6 months
Mustard: 1 year

From Real Simple:

Olive oil: 2 years from manufacture date (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Peanut butter, processed (Jif): Unopened: 2 years, Opened: 6 months; refrigerate after 3 months
Rice, white: 2 years from date on box or date of purchase
Salad dressing, bottled: Unopened: 12 months after “best by” date, Opened: 9 months refrigerated
Soda: Unopened: In cans or glass bottles, 9 months from “best by” date, Opened: Doesn’t spoil, but taste is affected
Steak sauce: 33 months (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Tabasco: 5 years, stored in a cool, dry place
# Tuna, canned: Unopened: 1 year from purchase date, Opened: 3 to 4 days, not stored in can
Soy sauce, bottled: Unopened: 2 years, Opened: 3 months (After this time, color or flavor may be affected, but product is still generally safe to consume.)
Vinegar: 42 months
Wine (red, white): Unopened: 3 years from vintage date; 20 to 100 years for fine wines, Opened: 1 week refrigerated and corked

I suggest getting one of those labels you can write on and stick on your food with the day your opened food will go bad!

How to survive a sinking car - wear your seatbelt, let some water in the car, don’t panic.

Car accident worksheet - Print this out and stick it in your glove compartment

7 things to regularly check on your car to save money - i really need to start checking my tire pressure regularly!

How to remove a bandaid painlessly - rub it with olive oil…seriously??

How to cut a 5 pointed star with one snip - I told you these were random :)

Watch higher quality youtube videos - One way is to add &fmt=18 to the end of a normal YouTube URL (only works on some videos). Check out the link for all of the diff ways.

How to wash baseball caps so they keep their shape - run them through the dishwasher!

If you’re looking for a new job or might be looking for one in the future be sure to bookmark this page!

Let’s start with the resume. Here are 36 really unique and interesting resumes. Depending on your job though, you might want to stray away from the resumes with extra colors and pictures on them.

Now that you have the layout down, what about the content? Here are 10 resume mistakes that you should try to avoid. The first one spelling mistakes and grammatical errors is such an obvious one but you’d be so surprised how many resumes I’ve seen with them!

Ok, now that your awesome resume got you an interview…here’s how to ace the interview: 64 interview questions you need to know. The list includes every question I’ve ever encountered and tips on how to answer each one.

If you don’t see a potential question there, check out InterviewUp where users share questions and answers to interview questions. Very helpful!

Wow, did anyone catch the opening for the Olympics that are being held in China right now?

My personal fave:

Their budget for the games was $45M and as you can see they made much use of it!

A touching story was when Yao Ming came in carrying the China flag with a little 9 year old boy:



The boy’s name is Lin Hao and he’s being touted as a hero for saving several of his classmates during the Wen Chuan earthquake. He ended up suffering multiple injuries and had to hike 7 hours with his young sisters to Dujiangyan. To top it off, both of his parents are deceased. That was really cool he got to have such a unique moment!

There’s been a lot of talk about the race for medals between the US and China so I thought this link was interesting and much more accurate. The ranking of # of medals taking into consideration the countries’ population. #1? Bahamas…and neither the US nor China made the top 10.

Anyways, if you want to know the schedule for the olympic games here is a handy schedule or if you use google calendar you can add the events you want to see onto your calendar with this. Just click on an event and there will be a link you can add to your calendar.

Are you confused as to what 2nd and 3rd cousins mean? Here is a handy chart!

I used to think I was pretty good at packing my suitcase. My sister taught me the rolling method a few years ago and I’ve been using it ever since. I had no idea that the new more efficient way of packing is the “bundle method”. Here is a link to a nice diagram on bundle wrapping.

This method supposedly creates less wrinkles in your clothes and takes up less space. Great since pretty much all of the airlines are starting to charge for checked luggage.

Here is a detailed description on how to bundle wrap your clothes. The main gist is to wrap the items that are least susceptible to wrinkles in the middle and work your way outwards. For example, clothes should be wrapped in this order, starting from the outer layer:

1) jacket
2) skirts, dresses (a particularly long, straight dress or skirt might be better placed before the jacket)
3) long-sleeved shirts
4) short-sleeved shirts
5) slacks
6) sweater, knits
7) shorts

The core should be something like an organizer pouch holding your undergarments/socks etc.

These are the things you care about when you travel a lot!

This is definitely a website worthy of a bookmark! If you’re setting up your home entertainment center and completely lost with all the different wires and what connects to what, Wirewize can help. You just enter in all of your gadgets and it will spit out which cables you need and how to connect them all. When I finally get a flat screen TV this will be so helpful when I need to hook up my Wii, karaoke system, Apple TV, etc heheh.

A.
Avoid negative people, negative habits and negative sources of information.
B.
Believe in yourself and your closest confidants.
C.
Create a healthy balance between career, family and social responsibilities.
D.
Dare to be unique and creative.
E.
Enjoy yourself everyday. It’s quite possible there will be no tomorrow.

Some good advice….read the rest here.

Most household items, especially cleaning products, are 90% packaging and advertising. In other words, most of the time you can use common things you have around the house to get the same effect as products you buy at the store! Usually, the home brewed stuff can also be more environmentally friendlier and save you some extra dollars. Here are 7 items and their substitutes you can try making yourself:

1. All Purpose Cleaner
Recipe:
4 tablespoons baking soda
1 quart warm water

Dissolve baking soda in warm water. Apply with a sponge. Rinse with clear water.

2. Drain Cleaner
Recipe:
Drain Cleaner
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup white vinegar
Boiling water

Pour baking soda down the drain. Add white vinegar and cover the drain, if possible. Let set for 5 minutes. Then pour a kettle of boiling water down the drain. (The vinegar and baking soda break down fatty acids into soap and glycerine, allowing the clog to wash down the drain.) Do not use this method if you have used a commercial drain opener and it may still be present in the drain.

3. Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Recipe:
Baking soda
Vinegar
Sprinkle baking soda into the toilet bowl. Add vinegar. Scour with a toilet brush.

4. Glass Cleaner
Recipe:
1/2 teaspoon liquid soap (vegetable-oil based soap recommended)
3 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
2 cups of water
spray bottle

Mix ingredients together and pour into a spray bottle.

5. Fabric softener
Recipe:
1/4C distilled white vinegar

Pour vinegar into the fabric softener dispenser or add manually during the rinse cycle.

6. Furniture Polish
Recipe:
1/4C olive oil
4Tbsp distilled white vinegar
20-30 drops of lemon essential oil

Mix ingredients together and pour into a spray bottle. Shake before using.

7. Carpet deodorizer
Recipe:
Baking soda

Sprinkle baking soda on carpet, using more in heavily trafficked areas or where pets stay. Vacuum after 20-30 minutes.