Archive for November, 2007

November 20, 2007

Tuesday Teaser Photo Verification

Well, Folks - Jo shut me down early again. Methinks y’all don’t love me so much. Couldn’t you wait until a get a few gazzilion visitors out of my contest before you display your brilliance and solve the puzzle? It would be a charitable kindness and I’m sure it would make you feel good all over!

Speaking of charity, Chuck Foxtrot, who won last week, got three linky-love posts, which I promise I’ll start on soon. He’s giving one to a cousin, one to a charity and keeping one for himself so I can tell everyone how fabulous his recipes are again! I’ll try to get started this evening, Chuck! Haven’t forgotten you!

Congratulations to Jo and mahalo to all of you for playing! Time for me to put on the monkey suit and go look for bugs. See you all back here next week!

Technorati Tags: contest, photo, photo puzzle, winner

Posted by skeet @ 9:50 am • Tuesday Teaser, Contest, Photos • 8 comments

November 19, 2007

Tuesday Teaser for November 20, 2007

Can you identify the item depicted above? Just take your best guess and post it in the comments below. If your guess wins, you’ll get a nifty prize. Here’s how it works:

1. Write a comment giving your guess as to what the item is.
2. First person to identify the item wins.
3. The author of this blog will be the sole judge as to what constitutes a correct answer.

What will you win?

1. The author of this blog will write a LINKY LOVE POST (review) about the winner’s blog (commercial sites ineligible.) The LLP will contain the url for your blog plus at least two deep links and will be posted here on Skeet’s Stuff, a ~~PR4~~ ~~PR2~~ PR0 (bah google!) blog. Skeet writes good reviews.
2. The winner’s name will be entered into a drawing for a $10.00 gift card from Starbucks or Amazon.
3. Drawing for the gift card will be held on or about November 30, 2007, and will include all weekly winners for the month. There are four Tuesdays in November, thus the maximum number of people who will be eligble is four. CORRECTION: Since there was no winner for the last week of October, that prize carried over. There will be a maximum of FIVE winners in November.

Cool stuff from Vat19

You probably think there are no fireplaces in Hawaii. You’d be wrong. It can get a little chilly at night sometimes and a surprising number of homes do have fireplaces. I just got one, too.

Okay, mine’s not really a fireplace. It’s an Ambient Fire Video Fireplace DVD that I got from Vat19. It’s pretty cool. I can select the kind of fireplace and fire that I want. Tonight I had a modern fireplace. I’m thinking that tomorrow night while I’m doing my early prep for Thanksgiving dinner I might go for the Holiday fireplace, or maybe the candles. All of them can be accompanied by music and/or the sounds of a crackling fire. Fun stuff!

I got some other stuff from Vat19, too. My memory card for my camera seems to have died, so I’ll show you pictures of my other treasures directly from the Vat19 site. I got a watermelon-scented Smencil, which not only smells like real watermelon, it’s eco-friendly. Smencils are made from recycled newspapers. Someone worked overtime on their cleverness to come up with that. I like the idea that we can have pencils that don’t require trees to be cut down.

Now this next item is very cool. It’s Instasnow, a powder that can be mixed with water and “poof” - instant snow! I’m going to make sure it goes to the keiki party that the Slippah Fund will be throwing for them in a couple of weeks. The kids will get a party, some holiday gifts (including slippahs!) and a little snow, which I’m pretty sure none of them will have ever seen. Instasnow is even cool to the touch, so they’ll enjoy getting their hands into it to build a little snowman.

Vat19 carries all kinds of wild and crazy items (and some very practical ones,too) that will make great gifts for the holiday season. I’m thinking I may drop some hints to my son, since he’s sure to be asking soon what I want for Christmas. I don’t have many recent pictures of him and he’s pretty far away so I don’t get many opportunities to take photos of him myself. I’ll ask him to add a photo album that talks to my wish list. He could fill it with photos of himself and his life in California, then record his own voice telling me about each of the photos. What mom wouldn’t want that? And how much fun would it be if I were to repay the favor by slipping some Invisible Playing Cards in his stocking. If you don’t get the joke it’s because you’ve forgotten that he’s a dealer in a casino, lol! I’m telling you, Vat19 has all kinds of very cool things that are going to add some extra fun to the holidays this year!

Technorati Tags: gifts, novelty gifts, Vat19

Posted by skeet @ 10:50 pm • Shopping, Home & Family • 8 comments

Are posties the best or what?

I didn’t get to go to PostieCon. I’d like to have gone. There were a lot of speakers addressing ways to become a better blogger, a lot of revelations about new features coming to PPP (Argus, IZEA, SocialSpark!) and a lot of good times to be had. The primary reason I wanted to go was because it would have been an opportunity to actually meet some of the people I’ve been interacting with online for over a year now. I don’t want to imply that the sessions weren’t an attractive draw or that I’d not have appreciated all of the blogging tips. Those are good things too that I’d like to have partken of, but it’s the people that make PPP special and it was the chance to spend some time with them that made it tough to not go. I’ve enjoyed all of the pictures and blog posts they’ve shared which made it seem more real to the rest of us, but, let’s face it: being there would have been better.

Most of the folks who attended PostiCon also attended BlogWorld, so they were there for a couple of days before PostieCon actually started. And they were posting stories and pictures before PositeCon. I started seeing all of the goodies they were gathering in their swag bags and realized there was yet another good reason for going. Stuff! I saw some stuff with the new IZEA logo on it and my stuff detector started ringing loud and clear. I really, really need more stuff! I really, really wanted something, anything with that pretty new IZEA logo. So I swallowed hard and shot off a couple of PMs to posties I had spotted online during the gathering and I asked. Could I please, pretty, pretty please have one fo those IZEA mousepads if they could get an extra one? I figured it would be rude to ask for all of the stuff, so I pretended I don’t have a greedy heart and asked for just one logo item, one that would be easy to shove into an envelope and mail to Hawaii. I gotta tell you, these are folks who know all about me and stuff, lol! It seems several of them got together and, acknowledging my greed and my love of stuff, decided to be incredibly accommodating and generous. They filled up a swag bag for me and persuaded Techie to deliver it personally when he came to island after leaving PostiCon.

There you see that beautiful new IZEA logo on my shiny new mousepad. You also see a long-sleeved SocialSpark tee, a Car Guys tee packaged up in a block shaped like a car, a SocialSpark button (on the mousepad,) an IZEA cup cozy and a Travelodge Sleepy Bear complete with pajamas, nightcap and slippers. I ask you, did I score? I scored!

Mahalo for Robyn and Lisa who responded graciously to my greedy PMs. And to Cass and Jules (Happy Anniversary, Julie & Michael!) who were, I think, in on the conspiracy. And to Techie and Mrs.Techie for bringing the goods and for sharing their beautiful keiki and a wonderful afternoon with me. If anyone else was involved I hope you’ll let me know so I can give you some of my worthless linky-love and a big mahalo! Y’all da bes!

Technorati Tags: friends, postiecon, posties, stuff, swag

Posted by skeet @ 8:56 pm • Just stuff, Society & culture • 6 comments

What’s in The Mist?

Have you ever been caught in a dense fog? Back in the 1980’s I provided some services for an entire parish school system in Southeast Louisiana. Because the area of service was large I couldn’t go just once a month and service the entire contract. Instead I had to spend a whole day of each week taking care of just that one account. I had to leave my home about four-thirty or five in the morning on those days and wend my down Highway 90, alongside bayous and through swamps to get to my destinations. The highway was completely shrouded in mist as I started my journey each week. Many times it was so dense that you couldn’t see tail lights in front of you. The drive was terrifying. There were other dangers in the mist in addition to the very real possibility of a collision with another vehicle. I don’t think I ever took that drive without having to slam on my brakes to avoid wildlife cutting across the road in front of me. Snakes, racoons, skunks, oppossums and armadillo were most common, but the swamps were full of alligators too. My greatest fear was that I would get in a wreck or have car trouble and find myself stsnding on the shoulder of the road at the mercy of whatever was in The Mist. It eventually came to the point that I was having anxiety attacks even contemplating the drive.

It was around that time that I first became acquainted with The Mist by Stephen King. Whatever possessed me to read it I’ll never know. I was already terrified of the mist, so it was a sure thing that the story would only highten my anxiety. I already knew what terrors could await in the mist that I had to travel through much too often, so it was foolhardy indeed to feed my imagination with even worse possible scenarios. I was young and foolish in those days, though, and had been allowing Stephen King to scare me half to death for years, so of course I dug into the story. I distinctly remember that I was unable sleep without nightmares about other things that I might encounter on that horrific drive. When I was promoted to a management position shortly after reading the story, my greatest glee was not because of the additional money I would be making or the prestige of the new position. I was overwhelmed with relief that I would no longer have to take the horrifying drive through the mist.

The Mist has now been made into a movie. I’m not sure if I’ll go see it. Well, actually, I’m pretty sure I won’t. Stephen King has the ability to scare the whey out of me. Add in cinematic effects and a tension-building musical score (as you know they have) and I think the terror would just be too much for me. I’m old. My heart, as far as I know, is in reasonably good shape, but the Mist could easily push me over the edge. All Stephen King movies should carry a warning: “This movie may literally scare you to death. Watch it at your own risk.” I’m not so much into risk-taking these days. Some of you are, I know. Some of you are young and healthy enough to stand the total assault of nerves strung as tight as piano wire for an hour or more. As for me, I think I owe it to myself, my friends and my family to sit this one out.

The Mist opens in theaters everywhere on November 21st. Go at your own risk.

Technorati Tags: entertainment, movies, Stephen King, suspense, The Mist

Posted by skeet @ 5:06 pm • Entertainment • 5 comments

November 18, 2007

It’s official! I’m B.A.D.!

I know y’all all think I’m just some middle-aged frump living an old-maidish existence on my little island. Well, okay, I mostly am, but Beth at Ramblings of an Undisturbed Mind has peeked beyond the facade and discovered the woman of substance I thought I had carefully disguised. Actually she just thinks I’m funny and tell good stories, but that was good enough for her to declare me Certified B.A.D. That’s Blog A Day for those of you who don’t know, the status Beth awards to the blogs she reviews. I gotta tell you, she made me look good when she made me B.A.D. You can submit your blog for review too, and if you’re not a middle-aged frump living an old-maidish existence on an island she’ll probably let you be B.A.D, too. That category is already taken.

Mahalo, Beth! You sure did perk up my day!

Technorati Tags: blogs, blog reviews

Posted by skeet @ 2:59 pm • Review, Blogging • 8 comments

Self Portrait Sunday

Nothing fancy this week. Jut me sitting on the roof singing some white trash version of Shania karaoke. Well, not really. It’s just that the song has been making like an earworm for a few days & is making me crazy so I went up there to clear my head and look around the neighborhood. I was hoping I could see some place that I could get Chrysler 300 accessories, but the neighbors’ houses and the mountains are between me and everything else, so I guess not. I just spent two hours doped up trying to sleep off another sinus thing, so I’m behind today and haven’t visited the other self portrait takers over at Digi-Cass yet, so c’mon - you can go with me. You should post your own self portrait first so everyone can see what you’re doing today, too. Ya think?

Technorati Tags: meme, photos, self portraits

Posted by skeet @ 2:12 pm • Photos, Meme • 12 comments

November 17, 2007

What’s on your desktop?

My pal Sprite at Homespun Honolulu has tagged me to tell you what’s on my desktop. No one who knows me will be surprised by my choice. Books are an important part of my life and I love quirky art. It was only natural that I fell in love with Written Worlds by Ron Gonsalves the first time I saw it. Its depiction of a library offering entry into the worlds of our imagination speaks to my heart and my intellect, besides being delicious eye candy. Canadian artist Gonslaves, though inspired by the works of Magritte and Escher (my “other” favorite artist) has a style distinctly his own, blending the surreal with the mundane to create what he says is best described as Magical Realism. I don’t care what he calls it. I just love that he does it!

I’ve been hesitant to tag folks in the past, not wanting anyone to feel that they “had to” respond in kind. These are perilous times to be linking anyone to my blog, which the Big G has apparently identified as a “bad neighborhood” because I’ve had the audacity to write for sponsors through networks other than their own. They’ve become quite concerned with how I keep my checking account healthy and have demoted me to a zero. I’d be flattered at their personal attention if I didn’t know that I was only one of thousands thus blessed. The call is yours, my friends. I won’t give you a “valuless link” unless you request it. If you’d like to play along just let me know in your comments and I’ll hook you up. Just don’t say that I didn’t warn you!

And Cass is the first to step up to the plate. She ain’t afraid of no g-monster! Line forms to the rear, folks. Who else has the courage to thumb their nose at G by asking me to link them? (This is not a slam at the courage of anyone who is avoiding risks until the dust settles. We all understand and I know that many are not so much scared as they are confused as to what’s “allowed.” I’ll still respect you if you avoid links for a while! )

And I’m happy to report we have two more players. I honestly didn’t know what to expect this time around, considering the recent carnage. Beth, about whom I will have something to say soon, will boldly share her desktop with the world! So will Val, who plays my games and lets me play at her place! Yah! Are we all getting back to “life as usual” in the blogosphere?

Edit:

Since Blueyes was bold enough to criticize me in my own home I thought I should take a look at what she had to say. Well, yes, Blueyes, I had way too many icons on my desktop, especially considering that I rarely use any of them. I’ve repented. I’ve kept the icons for a few trouble-shooting programs that I like to get to quickly when things go wrong. I’ve kept Rhapsody because I’ve just installed it and it’s convenient to have it right there as I explore. I’ve kept my Netscape icon because I use it frequetnly to compare browser views of my blog. Everthing else was just fluff & stuff and is gone.

Technorati Tags: art, desktop, meme

Posted by skeet @ 9:13 am • Just stuff, Meme • 25 comments

November 16, 2007

Oh, the tangled web we weave

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” Sir Walter Scott

If I were still young and perky I wouldn’t need enhancements. Perhaps there are women in their fifties who don’t need the “slightly padded” look supported by straps of iron. I’m not one of them. Giving birth while still in my teens gave me a lucious fullness which promptly deflated to a reasonably firm but slightly sagging chest once my mammaries were to longer needed for their designed purpose. I fooled myself for a while, but my mirror refused to allow me to live the lie. I gave up strapless in my thirties and never went back. I’ve gotten a little fuller in the last ten years or so, but without support you certainly can’t tell it. So I have straps, nice sturdy hardware to hoist the slightly padded feminine features back up to where they belong. Straps that dance around each other inside their net bag on laundry day, pair up and entangle their fates one with the other. An hour of so of frustrated pulling and tugging and tracing of sources usually restores order without the need to resort to scissors. I’m tempted to chuck them all, but as I approach the possible need for plus size lingerie I suspect I’ll need more rather than less of them. Yeah, I could handwash them separately and solve the dilemma, but I’m not quite aggrevated enough to make that change yet.

How do you do it? Toss them in loose with everything else? Throw one in each washload to minimize the risk of permanent melding? Net bag? Surely there’s a solution that won’t require me to go the handwashing route? Isn’t there?

Technorati Tags: bras, laundry nightmares, lingerie

Posted by skeet @ 4:47 pm • Just stuff • 12 comments

Four Foods on Friday

Friday crept up on me and I forgot to answer Val’s questions over at Fun, Crafts and Recipes. She’s a good sport though and has extended her deadline, so you can still play Four Foods on Friday if you get it in gear. Just hop on over to her place & grab the link, do a post and let her know. Easy!

My answers for this week:

#1. What are your favorite toppings and condiments to put on a hamburger?
When I make burgers at home I cook them in real butter and Lea & Perrins. Cheese is always a given. I like bacon on them too (that doesn’t surprise you, does it?) I dress it with BBQ sauce and mayo (NOT Miracle Whip!) I can’t digest fats so I don’t indulge very often, but when I do I go whole hog!

#2. Applesauce. Chunky, flavored, sweetened, unsweetened. How do you like it?
Not a big fan, but when I eat applesauce it’s natural, unsweetened, no chunks, please!

#3. Rice. What is your favorite way to make rice?
I ususally just toss it in the steamer and make “sticky rice” these days (it’s a local thing.) If I’m making down-home foods (New Orleans stuff) I wash the rice, cook it on the stove top and drain and rinse before serving so that it comes out drier and less sticky.

#4. Coffee. Is buying beans and grinding them worth the extra expense over ground coffee?
Absolutely worth it, but I’m lazy & usually don’t, lol!

Technorati Tags: food, food meme

Posted by skeet @ 9:38 am • Food and beverage, Meme • 3 comments