Chatbug Karen

Hallelujah! Today is my favorite holiday! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, today is National Cheesecake Day! I plan on doing my best to celebrate this magnificent holiday. I absolutely love cheesecake.

We all want to do our part to protect the environment, but without a large paycheck, that can be seem difficult, if not impossible. But doing your part doesn’t have to be hard. Small steps add up to a big difference, you just have to know which ones to take.

Use less water.

Saving water is all about small steps, here are a few that will help save big.

- Shut off the water while you brush your teeth
- Take showers that are a minute or two shorter
- Only flush the toilet when you need to
- Only run full loads of laundry and dishes
- Buy from sustainable producers. These are farmers, ranchers, and other producers that use techniques that pollute less and use less water. You can do some research online or ask at your local organic market to find these products.

Use less energy.

If you don’t have the money to buy a hybrid car or convert your house to solar power, you can make a big difference with small changes.

- Buy energy efficient appliances. They may be more expensive, but make up for the increased cost in lower energy bills.
- Unplug chargers when you’re not using them. Cell phone and other chargers use up powers even if there’s nothing attached to them.
- Put devices with remotes, like T.V.s, VCRs, and stereos, on a power strip and turn it off when you’re not using them. These devices use a lot of power to run the remote receiver even when the device is off.
- Walk or ride your bike for short trips.
- Buy local products. It takes energy to transport food and other products across the country. Buying local not only supports your local economy, it helps them use less energy.

When it comes to saving energy and water, it’s a great idea to get the kids involved. You can even make it a game. Have them track how much water and electricity everyone is using. You can compete to see who uses the least water. You can often count on your kids to help keep you on track when given the task.

Reuse.

Most of us know the three R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle, but when we work on conserving, we often leave reuse out of the picture. While you can often find tips on how to reuse common products from other people, what you need most is creativity. With a little thought there are many items around your home that can be reused – toilet paper holders can be used to sow seeds for the vegetable patch. And old yogurt containers can be cut into strip to make plant labels. Old food jars can be refilled with homemade foods or can make great impromptu vases.

Use environmentally friendly products. When you go to the grocery store, you probably see more and more “natural” or “eco friendly” products every time. There are generally two big problems with these products: 1. Just because they’re more natural than regular products, doesn’t mean they’re entirely natural. 2, They’re often expensive.

If you want inexpensive, natural, safe products, why not just make them yourself. Vinegar is a great way to clean and disinfect glass and other surfaces. Need to remove stubborn stains? Just add some baking soda to your vinegar cleaner. Some quick searching online will lead you to hundreds of other natural safe home-made cleaning products.

We all knowing that going green means better for the environment, but it’s also better for you. Conserving resources also helps save you money, which is something most of us are happy to live with.

Remember when you were little and you used a flashlight under the covers so you could read a book? We all thought mom couldn’t tell. LOL I read all of the Trixie Belden books and Cherry Ames books. Do you remember Cherry Ames Dude Ranch Nurse? LOL My kids love flashlights. They used to build forts with the sofa cushions and use their flashlights to make shadow pictures of rabbits on the blankets hanging over the cushions.

When I was a kid, we had flashlights with changeable colored lenses. The colored plastic lenses enabled us to change the color of the streaming light. My dad brought us those flashlights when he served in the military. We thought they were so cool.

I’m not sure I would encourage the kiddos to try frog gigging but I remember going out with my dad with hands free headlamps. We had a gunny sack full of jumping frogs by the end of the night. ummm is that legal?? Hey, I was only 10. Oh my goodness! I think my dad was a rebel. LOL

Having just gone through the joy of experiencing our son and new daughter in-law’s wedding, I find myself drawn to links where weddings are the topic. I recently discovered this wedding video where the wedding party entered the sanctuary in a most unconventional manner. I think it is disrespectful and I am shocked that the minister allowed it to take place.

What do you think?

I posted a few wedding pictures on my My Opinion Counts blog and I have a disclaimer. The pictures of me don’t look like me. The ones from the rehearsal dinner look more like my true self.

On Saturday, the day of the wedding, I woke up to royal bed head. I was hoping that having my hair done on Friday would suffice for the weekend. Needless to say, I slept fitful. We could not get the air conditioner set to a comfortable temperature. I was freezing and then I was sweating. My hair took the brunt of my tossing and turning.

Saturday morning, hubby and I went on a search for a hairdresser. We checked at the hotel but they were booked. It seems there were a lot of weddings in Indianapolis that day. We decided to hit the road and find a beauty shop. This was an emergency, people!

We stopped at the first shop we found and wandered in. The gal at the desk was sympathetic and said they would fix me up and that Jeffery would be right with me. We were offered a beverage and settled in to wait. Before long, a big guy with blue glasses decorated with diamonds appeared and said he was ready. I was not sure I was as ready but I went with him to the shampoo bowl.

Jeffery could massage a head like none other. It felt like heaven. He applied product after product and told me what each was supposed to accomplish. I really didn’t care. Off to the styling chair I went and that is where I noticed Jeffery’s many tattoos. I asked him about the one that started from his wrist and disappeared under his sleeve. It seems that Jeffery is a comic book fanatic and has Wonder Woman tattooed on his arm. This guy had my attention. He hoped that my husband would be comfortable in the waiting room because he was going to be working on my hair for an hour. AN HOUR?!!!

More product was applied to my hair and he worked at blowing it dry. This was all while telling me about his cat, his previous job at a salon in Indianapolis and his cooking abilities. I enjoyed being entertained. He brought out a large flat iron and proceeded to work on my do. All the time he had my hair parted on the other side from my usual and I never said a word. What was I going to look like?

The final look was so different from anything I have ever worn that it took my husband off guard. He didn’t like it. I was going to be in my son’s wedding! What was I going to do? There was so much spray on my hair that there was no way of moving a single strand into something more like what I was used to. I wandered through the hotel and made my way to where the mother of the bride and the bridesmaids were getting their hair done. Lo and behold…

They liked my hair! My son and his new wife have commented since about how nice my hair looked that day. Can you believe it? It turned out alright. I kinda wish I could reproduce the look. The fact that a few people said it made me look younger has nothing to do with it dangit.

The Internet is constantly changing. As mentioned in my previous post, we need to keep up with these changes. I notice that since I began using Twitter, using shorter URL addresses is popular. The problem with shorter url addresses is that you can not read where the URL leads. That leaves one open for entry into bad sites and possible malicious behavior. Fortunately, there is a way to unshorten those URL addresses. Daniel who writes at Daily Blog Tips, recommends using a URL unshortening tool like the one over at Sucuri.net. This tool will reveal the real URL behind the link and make checks with Google and with SiteAdvisor to make sure the website is safe to be visited. Thanks Daniel. This is good to know.

How many of you use the Internet to pay bills and check the balance of your checking account? I raise my hand. How many of you use Twitter? Raising my hand again. How many of you think your information is safe from hackers?

With the news this morning about the hacking of a Twitter employee’s personal e-mail account, we have to question whether our information is really safe. The employee’s account housed some of Twitter’s private financial documents and notes. In another incident, a hacker broke into Twitter chief executive Evan Williams’ wife’s e-mail account and then accessed Williams’ PayPal and Amazon accounts! Holy smokes!

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Thirty five years ago, these two young’ins were married.

Most of you know that my son got married this past weekend. I cannot wait to tell you all about it! It was fabulous, beautiful, memorable and fun. I will post more as the weeks past but I wanted to show you how the table decorations turned out for the rehearsal dinner. I went with simple decorations and I thought they turned out nice. The rehearsal dinner was held at Harry & Izzy’s Restaurant, downtown Indianapolis. They treated us very well and the food was awesome. More to come…

This is the kind of day for which I wait all summer. In Indiana it gets so hot in July that it is unbearable to sit outside. Today is perfect. There is no humidity and there is a cool breeze. My husband and I have been sitting outside for the past hour, watching yellow finches perch on the feeder. We have been trying to keep our dog, Elsie, from chasing a dove that is busy eating from a different feeder. She chases it off and it comes back. It is either determined, very hungry, or not very bright.

Years ago, I bought a laptop with the hopes of being able to blog outdoors. Unfortunately, that laptop’s battery would die after two minutes and it was such a hassle to drag a cord outside that I gave up. I have a different laptop now and the battery lasts about three hours! Holy smokes! I am in heaven. Here I am, sitting outside, watching the birds, drinking coffee and blogging about mesothelioma. Life is so good.

We have been wondering if, like red birds, the male is the prettier species. I did some checking and sure enough, the male is the bright yellow bird. The female is a drab brown. The Yellow Finch brings bright sunny color to your bird feeder and is never a pest. To have a small flock of these brightly colored birds flitting about your yard is practically magical! We have been laughing as they fight for their place on the perch.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday afternoon and evening as much as we are and that you have a great week ahead.