July 20, 2008

Self Portrait Sunday for July 20, 2008

I’ve been trying for several days to do a flea treatment outside and give Lance a bath. Yesterday after I cleaned up his yard I leveled the gravel and sprayed it down with bleach, then rinsed it down after it had had time to do a little sanitizing. Right about that time I began to see the clouds - almost always present on the mountain tops - starting to move down into the valley. Uh-huh. Another day when it wouldnt make much sense to spray the yard, since the rain would wash the stuff away before it had a chance to do its thing. This morning the sun came up … and almost immediately hid its face in gray fluffiness. It’s been raining *all*day*long*. I had to go to the store for a few essentials, but otherwise I’ve been holed up at home.





















It was really nasty driving the couple of miles to the store and back. The entrance to my community flooded in the half-hour or so that I was gone. They’ve got the street dug up to run water lines and drainage for the new homeless transition community. There are steel plates covering much of the road and temporary patches over even wider areas. You can imagine the mess on a day like today. Huge potholes full of rusty-looing mud and water. I built up some muscles in my arms navigating the mess. Wonder if I should get myself on some legal steroids until the construction is finished and driving gets a little smoother? Anyway, I made it home safely, snapped a picture in the rain on my way in and now I think … I’ll go take a nap. Isn’t that the best way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon?



Go see whether the sun is shining on my friends today over at Midlife Musings. That’s where all the self portrait takers hang out on Sundays. When they’re not taking naps, I mean.

Shoot! I don’t know why this is messed up. I’ve been fooling with the code for half and hour and still can’t see what’s causing part of the last sentence to hide behind the flooded-street picture. I’ll try again after my nap. Maybe I’ll be seeing more clearly then, hm?

Technorati Tags: meme, photos, self portrait

Posted by skeet @ 2:49 pm • Photos, Meme • 5 comments  

July 17, 2008

Four Foods on Friday #38

This week Four Foods on Friday is all about smells - the good, the bad and the ugly. If you want to play, go to the link above. Copy the four questions, answer them in a post on your blog, then post a comment to Val letting her know you’ve played. Make sure you give her a link in your post. She’ll return the favor when she does her round-up post on Friday.

#1. Fruits and veggies. Do you prefer them peeled or not?

No choice - I can’t digest peels at all.

#2. What’s your favorite fresh fruit or vegetable smell?

Fruit: fresh, crisp apples! Vegetables: baked potatoes!

#3. What’s the worst food smell you’ve ever smelled?

Without a doubt, noni (picture above.) That stuff is just nasty. A lot of my neighbors grow it. It’s been a staple in many Polynesian diets for centuries and has a lot of medicinal uses. It’s gotten very popular in the health food industry in recent years, primarily as a juice. It’s usually mixed with grape or other strong-tasting and strong-smelling juice to disguise it’s disgusting nature. One of the neighbors gave me some noni paste to use on my foot when I had a bad burn a few years back. It did seem to speed up the healing process, but I was afraid to go around people when I had it smeared on. The smell penetrated multiple layers of bandages and was really nauseating. To make the paste, put some noni fruit in a jar and let it rot. Smash it up and keep in the jar, tightly sealed, in the fridge. Warn everyone before you open the jar - they’ll want to be far, far away! They don’t call it vomit fruit for nothing!

#4. Share the recipe for the dish that you love to smell cooking in your oven.

Tough question! My first thought was the whole Thanksgiving dinner thing. Does anything smell better than the combination of turkey, dressing, fresh veggies, pumpkin and pecan pies? I think not. But since you want a recipe, I’ll share what’s in the oven and smelling pretty good right now. It’s kind of muggy, so I didn’t want to do something that would keep me in the kitchen. I made up a meat loaf recipe that took about five minutes to mix. I’ve got the oven set at 350 degrees and the timer is set for thirty minutes. I’ve never made this before so I don’t know yet how it will taste or if it will be ready when the timer goes off. We’ll see. I think I’ll call it

Quick Italian Meatloaf

In a large mixing bowl combine:

1 &1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
two eggs
1/2 cup of prepared Italian tomato sauce (I’m using Hunt’s)
1 small can of chopped mushroom
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. basil
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste.

Mush it all up together with your hands until well blended. Shape into a loaf, cover with another half-cup or so of sauce and pop it in the oven. I’ll let you know later how it comes out.

Edit: It was pretty tasty! I’ll use half the oregano and basil next time to let the meat flavor come through better. Cooking time depends on the size of your dish or pan. I used a small, oblong casserole dish, so the loaf was pretty condensed - about three inches thick. I needed a full hour to cook it.

So - not my best creation, but good, moist, flavorful. A few adjustments and it will be better next time.

Technorati Tags: food, meatloaf, meatloaf recipe, noni, recipe

Small business success

After almost thirty years in the industry, I know pretty much eveything there is to know about pest control. I’ve done household, commerical and industrial pest control, termite inspections and treatments, canine-assisted termite inspections, sales, training and media relations. I’ve served in management for two national corporations. One of the good things about those two positions is that they came with instructions. Both had business plans in place and I pretty much just had to follow established routines. All of the things I’ve learned over the years have been useful in running my own small business. Working for someone else is a great way to learn a business from the from the ground up, but does not necessarily teach you everything you need to know to reach your goals and dreams as a small-business owner. That’s where business coaching can be very helpful. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day drudgery of running a business and never make the time to do any long-range planning and goal setting. OneCoach can provide the small business owner with the tools and resources to:

As small business owners, most of us went to work for ourselves so we could achieve independence and financial freedom. Don’t we owe it to ourselves to take advantage of the resources that can take us there? Check out OneCoach and watch your business grow!

Technorati Tags: business, business coaching, business success, small business

Tuesday Teaser photo verification

Doggonit! I was sure someone would eventually recognize the Pepsi blue next to the distinctive Sierra Mist colors, but it just didn’t happen. No winner for Tuesday Teaser this week. Don’t get discouraged, though. When that happens I start worrying that I’ve made the puzzles too tough and y’all will quit playing, so I tend to go overboard in the other direction and make the next puzzle too easy. I’m not saying that’s going to happen, you understand, but come early next week, just in case it’s so easy that the first person will be an automatic winner!

Oh, about Meat Jun: I was wandering around the mall looking for possible Tuesday Teaser items. She and I struck up a conversation & she had several very good suggestions for things to take pictures of. I won’t tell you what they were, though, because some of them will probably show up very soon. Mahalo, Meat Jun!

Technorati Tags: contest, photo puzzle, soft drink dispenser, Tuesday Teaser

July 14, 2008

Tuesday Teaser for July 15, 2008

Can you identify the item depicted above? 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. Be as specific as you can. A table is too vague - a clamp on a card table leg is specific. Sometimes the brand will need to be specific, as when you identified the Enregizer Bunny. Maybe someday I’ll do Ecco shoes, which are quite distinctive, so you’d need to be that detailed in your answer. Guess as many times as you want, but put each answer in a separate comment, please!
2. First person to identify the item wins. If more than one person provides the correct answer, time and date stamp will determine who was first.
3. The author of this blog will be the sole judge as to what constitutes a correct answer. Sorry - no hints will be given. I will attempt to respond to your answers at least every few hours, but I am not continuously at the keyboard so please be patient.
4. The contest will end in forty-eight hours, whether or not a correct guess has been submitted.
5. Skeet’s Stuff is a do-follow blog, so you get some link value just for commenting.

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!) Ha! PR3 blog. Skeet writes good reviews.
2. The weekly winners will be entered into a monthly drawing for a $10.00 gift card from Starbucks or Amazon or a ten dollar payment through PayPal.
3. Drawing for the monthly prize will be held on or about August 1, 2008, and will include all weekly winners for the month. There are five Tuesdays in July, thus the maximum number of people who will be eligble is five.

Comments submitted with commercial links will be deleted. If you would like to market your product, service or website through skeet’s stuff I’ll be happy to discuss your needs and my prices. Please submit your request via email.

Technorati Tags: contests, photos, photo contest, photo puzzle

Self Portrait Sunday for July 13, 2008

I took my picture yesterday, honest! Something was wrong with my cable connection and I couldn’t stay online long enough to post. This wasn’t the usual weekend craziness, where the connection (and sometimes my electricity, too) goes out completely because some drunk takes out a few utility poles on the highway. That’s understnadable and I don’t blame the cable company for that. What was happening yesterday is that the connection would come … and go … and come … and go. Now that’s annoying! It’s like being in my favorite restaurant, seeing someone at the next table eating my favorite chocolate dessert and then finding that it’s just sold out. Oh, so close, but I can’t have it! Like when you shop in furniture stores and they always have the displays set up with the most perfect accessories. You find something you love, but the store doesn’t carry it - they bought it for their display. Oh, so annoying! Anyway, my new jammies aren’t annoying and I know Cass loves jammies, so I modeled them for her yesterday. Turns out she was modeling something new, too, but she made her own instead of buying it at Walmart, lol! Since I’ve got her page open over at Midlife Musings I think I’ll go visit the other Self Portrait Sunday participants right now - well, as soon as I get back from pouring my second Monday morning cup! Hope you have a great week, y’all!

Technorati Tags: meme, photos, self portrait

Posted by skeet @ 7:22 am • Photos, Meme • 2 comments  

July 11, 2008

Shared Bond

Quite a few years back I was up one night looking for something to watch on TV when I came across an amazing music video. Four girls with stringed instruments were making a sound that I’d never heard before. Their hair was flying, sweat was flying from their faces and the music was electrifying. I bought Bond’s first album shortly after that and I’ve been hooked ever since. If you’ve never experienced Bond before, click on the video above, turn your speakers as high as they’ll go and hang on for an exciting ride.

In looking for a video for this post I’ve been a little disappointed. I couldn’t find that first sweaty video (I think I saw it on A&E or PBS) and the speakers on my computer are not good enough to project the volume I want when I listen to Bond. I keep their CDs in my car and ususally listen to them when driving. I suspect that’s probably a dangerous practice. I’ll tell you about it, but here’s your disclaimer: Don’t try this at home, folks!

I crank the bass and the volume of my car stereo to about half past obnoxious. Victory is always the first cut I listen to. About the time my speakers start vibrating, the adrenaline begins to course through my blood and exits through my right toe, which is firmly affixed to the accelerator pedal. I like to do this when I’m on one of the two stretches of interstate on the island where the posted speed limit is 60 MPH. That means everyone drives seventy, of course. If I’m really lucky there won’t be any cars near me and my speedometer zooms up to around seventy-five or eighty. I’m not a thrill-seeker and I don’t court danger, but when I ‘m listening to Victory, I must have speed! I can listen to it twice in the time it takes me to go from one end of H-3 to the other. I have to turn the volume back down and ease off of the gas pedal once I’m back in traffic and around other cars (pity!) but I’ve been known to play the same track over and over until I reach my destination. Yes, it’s that good. It’s that addictive.

I should mention that the Bond girls are all trained classical musicians, but any similarity to others of that sort will not be evident. These aren’t stodgy old maids. Sssssssssssizzling hot is what they are. There’s blatant sexuality oozing all over the place in each of their videos. No, not oozing! Splashing! Exploding! Erupting! Yeah, more like that. I’m as hetero as they come, but if any one of the Bond gals beckoned to me I’d pack my Rimowa and be one my way. Your libedo has got to be as dead as a doorknob if you don’t feel it, too!

Here’s a bonus video for you. Victory is my favorite, but Bond doesn’t have any bad music, so any choice is a good one. This one is Duel. Remember Dueling Banjos, back in the seventies or eighties or whenever it was? This one is a battle between violins and it packs a real punch. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Bond, music, music video

Four Foods on Friday #37

This week hass been so crazy that I forgot about Four Foods on Friday! I think there’s still time to submit, so I’m going to do just that. This week Val is asking about entertaining. I haven’t done that in years. I had a party for the office gang in my old rented condo before I bought the house. I think that was the last time, and I’ve been in the house for over twelve years. I’ll rely on old memories to answer the qestions this week.

#1. Cake. Buttercream, whipped cream or ice cream?

Cake must have frosting! Adding whipped cream and ice cream is optional, but always a winner. Hey, desserts are why diet pills were invented!

#2. When entertaining do you use real, paper, plastic or styrofoam dishes?

Depends on the crowd. For kids parties I always bought the party packs of paper plates. For adults, real dishes if we’re eating inside, plastic or styrofoam for al fresco. I had some rattan plate holders for paper/plastic plates, but I haven’t seen them lately, so maybe they’ve gone away.

The ex and I, sharing an al fesco afternoon back in the eighties, at a pest control association picnic.

#3. When hosting a party do you cook, have it catered or go to a restaurant?

Trick question, right? What’s the catch? I cook!

#4. Share a recipe that you frequently serve when having a party.

This is so easy and so good that your friends will call you a kitchen goddess:

Center a block of cream cheese on a plate (it’s prettier if you buy the tub instead of a block, and the lite version of the spread works fine.) Cover with Pickapeppa Sauce. Lay a knife or spreader on the edge of the plate and put it on the table next to a platter or bowl of crackers. I especially like it spread on a Ritz. Prepare for a lot of “gee whiz” questions and compliments.

Technorati Tags: blogs, entertaining, food, food blogs, party recipe

July 10, 2008

What’s your BillsIQ?

Do you know your BillsIQ? I just took the quiz and I scored 84%, which is acceptable only because I’m an ostrich when it comes to finances. I’d much rather keep my head down in the sand than know what’s going on. If you’ve been reading my blog you know that my professional license was due for renewal last week and I couldn’t renew because I was behind on my taxes. Here’s the thing: the money for the taxes was in the bank, but I procrastinated myself into a corner that was pretty uncomfortable. I took a week off to get my paperwork all in order and I’m happy to say that my taxes are paid and I’m back at work, license intact. Taking the Bills IQ exam reminded me that I really need to set up a budget and live within it, and that paying bills on time (like, say - my tax bill!) is pretty important to my financial health. The results also recommended that I consolidate debt and establish a retirement plan. All common-sense advice, and all things that I should be doing. The results weren’t 100% on-point in my case because the questions assume that you have credit cards. I don’t, so I had to “work around” a couple of the questions. Still, taking the test is a good way to see how you’re doing in several areas of financial health, and to find solutions for areas where you need some help. At the end of the test you’ll be able to compare your results with others, by gender, income, geography, age and education. I guess it’s good to know that I’m pretty close to the averages in all of those categories, but above-average would be better. Being “average” means that I’m late with my bills sometimes (even when I have the money in the bank) and that I haven’t done any solid financial planning. Well, yes, I am smarter than that, but too lazy (or maybe too unfocused) to do what I should do. Seeing my score and the explanation for the answers was a wake-up call. I’m getting close to retirement age and don’t have a lot of years left to “get my act togehter” if I want to have something to live on after I quit working. Maybe it’s time to start taking responsibility for my financial health, ya think? Maybe you could use a friendly reminder, too? Take the BillsIQ test and you’ll have a good picture of your own financial health.

Technorati Tags: BillsIQ, debt, financial health

July 8, 2008

Tuesday Teaser photo verification

Well, I’m feeling like a real ninny! It never occurred to me that someone would guess “sunglasses” as the answer to the photo puzzle this week. Put me in a real quandry, it did! That was part of the answer, but not the whole answer. Since cotton-candy pink was clearly visible I decided it was appropriate to hold out for a complete answer and sure enough, Gina nailed it. The correct answer was The Energizer Bunny, who, of course is totally cool and wearing sunglasses. Gina’s answer has won her a blog review here on skeet’s stuff. Congrats to Gina and mahalo to all who played. I’ll try to think things through a little better next week so as not to create confusion!

Technorati Tags: Energizer Bunny, photo puzzle, Tuesday Teaser, winner