These are things you should buy because I bought/use them and/or they are AWESOME.

Coach’s Oats Oatmeal – I have been on the hunt for some good microwavable steel cut oatmeal ever since I tried Jamba Juice’s version. Coach’s Oats aren’t actually steel cut but is their own patented version of oatmeal that has the same consistency as steel cut oatmeal. Anyways, it just tastes GREAT. And best of all it is microwavable so I can eat it at work. I recently started eating my oatmeal with SOY SAUCE thanks to the recommendation of Louise and Mark Bittman. I LOVE it….I actually prefer it versus eating it the sweet way. It reminds me of eating congee. Don’t knock it til you try it! :)

Kasugai Milk Candy – I think these might cause cancer or something deadly like that but I don’t care. They are SO good. I am so going through a milk candy phase right now. Run to your nearest Japanese market and pick yourself up some of this milky goodness!

Olay In-Shower Body Lotion – This is the best invention ever. Well this is probably not for everyone but I have pretty dry skin…especially in the winter and I am really bad about using lotion. Ever since I was a little kid, I just hate touching lotion-y type stuff. Even now when I put lotion on my face every day I have to wash my hands immediately after! So yeah, you can forget about me using body lotion! BUT! This solves all of my problems….I have since added it to my shower routine (right after my body wash) and it’s so easy! And now I have smooth, slightly sparkling, yummy smelling skin. Yay! So if anyone has issues with using lotion…get this! You just put it on and rinse. No mess or stickiness to deal with!

Mustache ornament – Ok I don’t own this (yet) but one day when I get a Christmas tree this ornament will SO BE ON THERE. Yes, I know I’m weird.

So those are the things I’m loving right now.

Thanks to reader Nhat Ha who suggested I blog about the website My Life Is Average. I actually like it better than the sister sites FMyLife.com and LMyLife.com!

Some of my favorites:

Today, my friend explained to me that if you write 3.14 on a piece of paper and hold it in a mirror, it will say pie. Mind. Blown. MLIA

A while ago in my AP Chemistry class, this one annoying kid and my friend were having a weird argument about who was better. The annoying kid said, “Well, at least I have a girlfriend!” to which I responded, “Whatever. Your girlfriend has 67 protons.” In response, the entire class, including the teacher, turned their heads to look at the periodic table on the wall. The element with 67 protons is holmium, with the chemical symbol “Ho.” My teacher was the first to laugh. MLIA

A few weeks ago, the CA in my dorm put up some signs about STDs and pregnancy. One of them said “Abstinence is the only 100% effective way of avoiding pregnancy.” One morning I noticed that someone had taped next to it a picture of Mary and Jesus with the caption “99.9%” MLIA.

Today, I received a call saying that my son had been lying in school, and it had reached a point where he needed to be sent outside. I don’t have a son. That kid is a good liar. MLIA.

Today I joined a new website and used the word “penis” as my password. The website said my password was too short. MLIA

Today I was babysitting my neighbor’s little boy. I asked him what sound a cat makes. He said meow. I asked what sound a cow makes. He said moo. Then, to fool him, I asked what sound a walrus makes. He replied with Ku Ku Kachoo. Coolest kid ever. MLIA

Today, I received a letter in the mail saying that I would not be given the American Express credit card I requested earlier because my job wasn’t good enough. Oddly enough, I work for American Express. MLIA

Check out the rest at My Life Is Average.

This website is so cute! A new drawing/factoid is posted every day:

Check out the rest here at Learn Something Every Day.

Just had dinner at Ruth Chris’s and I forgot how much I loooove their crusty, warm bread and whipped butter. What is it about whipped butter that is so good? I love how easy it is to spread on the bread. I found out whipped butter is very easy to make:

Soften 1/4 lb stick of butter to room temperature. Add 2tbsp of milk or water and whip with a mixer on slow until light and creamy.

It makes SUCH a difference when you are serving bread!

I also once went to a restaurant that had a trio of flavored butters to go with their bread. My favorite was the sun dried tomato butter which I plan to make for boyrobot one day since he loves butter and sun dried tomatoes. Here are some recipes I found. It seems like a pretty simple way to dress up butter and impress your dinner guests!

Lemon Honey Butter
4 oz butter, softened
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp honey

Sundried Tomato Butter
1 cup boiling water
1/3 cup sundried tomatoes (soak in water for 10 mins, squeeze them out, and mince before adding)
4 oz butter, softened
¼ tsp salt

Garlic-Herb Butter
4 oz butter, softened
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 tbsp fresh basil, minced
1 tsp fresh oregano, minced
½ tsp fresh thyme, minced
¼ tsp salt

And if you ever want to make your own bread, don’t forget to try the no knead bread recipe. I made it once and it was SO easy and yum.

Lonely Planet’s best in travel 2010 list – more cities to add to my must visit list!
Camera from family visiting Hawaii was found – if you’re a friend of mine on facebook, you might remember I posted a picture of this family and their lost camera…well it was found!
Speaking faces – website that lets you upload a picture and people will rate what their first impressions of you are and the results are tallied
10 reasons why the quidditch world cup is the best college sporting event – omg. this is real? the tents are awesome. and the people with their brooms! ha!
Lego engagement proposal – my nerdy self is thinking HOW COOL.
Food phobic who will only eat cheese – I love cheese…but really?
Wisconsin Tourism Federation changes name to avoid acronym – ha ha.

Wow…this mom is amazing. She manages to spend only $4 a week to feed her family of six! Basically she clips coupons from newspapers, circulars, and online websites and only buys things that are free or almost free!

You can see her get over $200 worth of stuff for only a penny here

If you’re interested in finding coupons, good deals, and things for free….these blogs seem to sort of follow what Kathy Spencer does. They have great coupons for Target and CVS especially:

Coupon STL (this is a St. Louis centered blog but she covers stores that are nationwide)
Money Saving Mom

With all of the different websites out there that require a user account, I’ve started getting lazy with coming up with yet another new password. And then it’s hard to remember which passwords go with which website!

Here is an interesting article about password security from technet that shows you the time it takes to brute force passwords:

Kind of scary how easy it is right?

Well I recently read about a tip that I’ve started employing. Basically you make up a code for the password that involves some personal information about yourself and somehow incorporates the website.

For example, for the website http://www.twitter.com you could have a code like this:

the first letter of the website – t
the last 2 digits of the year you were born – 79
your middle name in all caps – DON
the last letter of the website – r

so your password for twitter.com would be something like “t79DONr” and you can add more to make this password longer if you’d like. So for every website you sign up you would employ this same method and now you’ll have complex passwords that are easy to remember!

My favorite….”I’m her mom….no she’s not…”

PS. I’ve started sharing things through my google reader so if you use it…add me! (halfasleep is my gmail name) I share things that don’t make it on the website but are still interesting nonetheless!

Get your own free customized luggage tags here. All you do is upload your own picture! Shipping is also free and no credit card is required.

I haven’t received mine yet so I can’t confirm the quality or anything but you really can’t beat free right? I ended up using my picture from Peru with me and boyrobot in front of machu picchu. Can’t wait to stick them on my luggage!

Joshua Bell plays the subway and noone notices – a great post on perception
100+ google tricks that will save you time in school – kids have it so easy nowadays!
Arnold’s secret message to the legislator – that’s our governator
Do chimps grieve? – what a cool picture
Stephen Wiltshire draws Manhattan skyline from memory – he has autism and a photographic memory. amazing.
National dishes of the world – whenever I travel somewhere I try to eat their “dish” so this is a great reference

Cute dog costume :) Happy halloween everybody!