January 8, 2009

Giveaway time! Win a full version hidden object game from Big Fish Games

Our kind friends at Big Fish Games know how much you like hidden object games. They’ve given me a full version download of Hidden Expedition: Titanic ™ to give away. Here’s how you can win it:

Leave a comment below telling me what kind of games you like to play. Which Big Fish Game is your favorite?

To qualify for additional entries: Stumble, Digg or Tweet this post for an additional entry.

Blog about the contest (with link) for two additional entries.

Don’t forget to post back here to let me know how you’ve earned your extra entries and to tell me the screen name you used for submissions to social media sites.

See how easy that is! The contest is open until January 31st. A winner will be selected at random from all valid entries. I may be traveling near the end of the month, so cut me a little slack if it takes me a few days to announce the winner, please!

Technorati Tags: Big Fish Games, contest, giveaway, Hidden Expedition: Titanic, hidden object game

Four Foods on Friday #62

It’s time for the first Four Foods on Friday for 2009. This week Val is being nosey about breakfast foods. You like breakfast, right? Come join us! Copy the four quesitons below onto your blog and post your answers. Make sure you include the link above in your post. Copy your post link to the comments for the original FFoF post and wait for the fun. Val will link us all up in a new post and give her astute observations about our answers. Everyone gets a little linky-lovin and we get to talk about the most important meal of the day!

#1. Waffles. Do you usually eat frozen or homemade?

Alas, I have no waffle iron, so it’s toaster waffles or a trip to the diner for me.

#2. Eggs. Do you buy brown, white, or it doesn’t matter?

I rarely see brown eggs in my markets, but the stuff inside the shells is the same anyway, so I don’t suppose it matters.

#3. Oatmeal. Do you usually make instant or cooked?

I prefer to cook my own. I’ve been using up the supplies in my evac kit, though, so I’ve had instant every morning lately. I just ate the last pack today & don’t want to add to my pantry before I move, so I won’t be having oatmeal for a while.

#4. Bacon. Share instructions or a recipe that you use bacon in.

Oh, I cannot resist reprising one of my most popular posts! Make sure you read the comment chain following my Grilled Cheese and Bacon Sandwich recipe. I also posted an illustrated version of the recipe if you need pictures, but I think the original post was more fun.

Technorati Tags: food, grilled cheese and bacon sandwich, meme, recipe

Siiiiiiiiigh! Oh - did I mean Yay!?

I love my curio cabinets. Two of them have framed my media center for the last ten years or so. A few special items were artfully displayed in each. The one above had some antique-y and Asian items, with a matched collection of classic books on the top shelf. Okay, they’re only the Reader’s Digest versions, but I like the way they looked. The other curio cabinet appealed to the child in me. One of my mom’s Madam Alexander dolls sat beside a couple of stuffed toys - two beagles and a bunny - and the middle and bottom shelf held my m.c. escher books and part of my toy collection: Slinkys and jacks and wooden puzzles and my beautiful kaliedescopes. Most of my lliving room was packed up a few months ago, but I kept some stuff in the curio cabinets just becauase it always makes me smile to look at my little collections.

I’ll be saying goodbye to them today. One of my neighbors came by yesterday and looked at the improvements that have been completed on the house and the work that still needs to be done. I told her I’d be having another garage sale soon and she asked if I’d sell any furniture. When I said I was thinking about selling the living room furniture her eyes lit up. There were boxes stacked all around the curio cabinets and she could barely see them, but she liked what she saw.

My curio cabinets are empty now. The glass has been shined up and I’ll be giving them a some loving attention with Murphy’s Oil Soap in a little while. I got a good price for them and the money is needed, so why do I feel like crying?

Technorati Tags: curio cabinets, furniture, moving

January 7, 2009

Aloha Alfred Shaheen, aloha shirt guy

Inventor of the Hawaiian Shirt Passes Away, the headline screams. Well, no. Not quite. Alfred Shaheen didn’t invent the Hawaiian shirt, but he made it possible for you to have one. What he did was to turn Hawaiian fabrics and garment-making into a viable industry. What had traditionally been a Mom and Pop, cottage industry-type of business became big business under his influence. He gathered a team of artisans to design and screen print fabrics and to design and produce the clothing here in the islands. So, while he didn’t invent aloha wear, he turned it into a made-in-Hawaii product and inspired the thriving aloha wear industry of today. Mr. Shaheen passed away Christmas week and I’m only just catching up with the news, but wanted to salute his memory. Hawaii has lost an enterprising and innovative spirit. Aloha Alfred.

Mahalo to Julie for suggesting this post!

Technorati Tags: Alfred Shaheen, aloha wear, Hawaiian clothing, Hawaiian shirts

January 6, 2009

What happened this morning

I was composing my Tuesday Teaser photo verification post this morning when my isp gave up the ghost. I did what I always do when that happens. I obsessively clicked “Refresh” and various bookmarked URLs, hoping against hope that something magical would happen and my connection would come back. It didn’t, so I decided to use my time a little more productively and make a run to the grocery store.

This is what I saw when I got near the entrance to my community. Oceanic Time Warner apparently knew that y’all were waiting for me to make a winner’s announcement and they got right on top of their repairs. They must have sent all of their Westside personnel out to take care of me. I had passed a single truck near my house, so there were six altogether, one hauling a trailer. I was feeling the love!

See that coil of nasty, dirty cable on the back of the lead truck? That’s 320 feet of cable - enough to stretch from end zone to end zone, with a little left over - that had to be pulled from the underground conduit.

The field service personnel of Oceanic Time Warner asked me to apologize to you for ruining your morning. They’re very sorry and will try their best to not let it happen again. Aren’t they just the nicest folks? They took about two hours to fix things up. That’s pretty phenomenal in my book!

Technorati Tags: cable service, cable service outage, Oceanic Time Warner, nice guys

Tuesday Teaser photo verification

Sorry for the delay, folks! Cable has been out.

Ah, Lee, Lee, Lee! Shut me down again before I had a chance to wake up on Tuesday morning! It seems she’s as well acquainted with hanging file folders as I am - as most of you seem to be, actually! Lee is hereby declared the first Tuesday Teaser for 2009. She’ll be entered into the monthly drawing for a prize with a little cash value. I don’t give away enough to pay for your Vegas vacations mind you, but the monthly prize always has a value of at least $10.00, which I’m sure anyone can use in today’s brutal economy.

As my first weekly winner of 2009, Lee is being offered an option. She may select a blog review (the usual weekly prize) or a full version game, Hidden Expedition Titanic, from Big Fish. It’s one of my favorites and one of the first hidden object games I played at Big Fish, so it’s special to me and might end up being a favorite for Lee and her family, too. Your choice, Lee, so just let me know which prize you prefer.

Now, listen up players! I’ve reviewed a lot of hidden object games on skeet’s stuff and I own a lot of Big Fish games myself. When they gave me a game to give away it got me to thinking that maybe some of you enjoy them as much as I do. Assuming that to be true, I’ll be offering my monthly winners an expanded choice of prizes:

A $10.00 gift card from Amazon or Starbucks
$10.00 in cash through PayPay
OR
A Big Fish Game valued at up to $20.00.

How do you feel about that? Will you stick with the tried and true prizes, or will you be playing twice as hard so you can win a Big Fish Game? Your feedback is most welcome!

Technorati Tags: Big Fish Games, contest, contest winner, file folders, hanging file folders, office supplies, photo puzzle, Tuesday Teaser

Tuesday Teaser for January 6, 2009

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. For instance, “lighting” would be too general as an answer if you needed to identify a lava lamp. Sometimes the brand will need to be specific, as when you identified the Enregizer Bunny and auto company logos. 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 Hmmmm! PR2 again. 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 around the beginning of next month and will include all weekly winners for the month. There are four Tuesdays in January, thus the maximum number of people who will be eligble is four.

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

January 5, 2009

Looking forward to movie nights with family

I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone with various famiy members over the last few months. They’ve all been incredibly encouraging and very enthusiastic about my pending move back into our home territory. We’ve begun to make some plans for things we want to do once I’m with them again. I love playing games and haven’t had anyone to play them with for a long time. Three cousins and I have already committed to having regular movie and game nights. I’m hoping other family members will be interested in joining us, too - I’ve really missed that kind of family interaction over the last twenty years. Those special nights with the three cousins, though, are the only thing that’s actually planned so far. We’re all women and close in age. I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that their taste in entertainment will be similar to mine. I watch a lot of kid movies and a some “chick flick” films, as well comedies and more serious drama. I like sexy romances, but I don’t think any of the movies that I especially like would be considered offensive to anyone. I like “have a good cry” movies, too, especially if they have an ending that lightens the mood. I’ve just watched the trailer (above) for All Roads Lead Home - The Movie and I think it will fall into that last category for me. It’s kinda sappy, kinda romantic and is almost guaranteed to have a happy ending (though we won’t know that until we watch it, will we?) Here’s a secret some of you may not know about midlife women: we need to have a good cry every now and then. It clears away a lot of cobwebs and lets us get on with our lives. Maybe it’s a hormonal thing, but it’s something that many of us just have to do, and it’s always better to let loose because of a movie or a book or TV show than to spin out of control over a real-life situation. I already know that All Roads Lead Home is going to be that kind of movie for me. I’m a total sucker for movies about familes working out problems, even if they have to go through some tough times to get there. I’m looking forward to getting this one and watching it with my cousins. It’s due to be released on DVD next week (on January 13th, but you can pre-order now) so it will be available the first time we gather for a family movie night in Texas. I’m adding it to my list of things to look forward to once my move is completed!

Technorati Tags: All Roads Lead Home - the movie, entertainment, family, family activities, family movie nights

A sneak peek at the “new” kitchen

Paul is almost through making the new cabinets for my kitchen. Actually, they’re not new cabinets - they’re new faces for the old cabinets. We used 3/4 inch birch veneer plywood which I stained with maple wood stain. The process was actaully quite easy. He used the old cabinet fronts as templates. The doors are the same size as the door openings when first cut. (The black thing is a “pigtail” for new under-cabinet lighting, already purchased and waiting to be installed.)

I sanded the cut edges and stained the pieces, and also stained the moldings that would be used for trim. Paul cut, fitted and installed the trim around each door so that it had a finished look and was about a half-inch larger in width and height than the opening.

I used Varathane Premium Wood Stain in Colonial Maple. Super easy to apply - just brush it on, wait a while and wipe it off. When it was dry I applied a paste wax to help preserve the finish.

We re-used the existing door and drawer hardware to assemble everything. The hinges show some wear but are perfectly functional. If I’d been staying in the house I’d probably have bought all new hardware. The cost for new ones would have been between $80 and $100 and I’m on a tight budget here, so we went with what we had. The ivory drawer pulls are some I had on hand, still in their original packaging. I think I found them in a box of hardware a friend dropped off when she was moving off-island.

One more cabinet to go, and this one will be all new construction. My washer and dryer used to sit in the alcove beneath the kitchen window. They were moved outside to my screened room when it was built, leaving a big, unfinished-looking space in the kitchen. There’s a capped gas pipe coming through the floor and a sheet-metal covered vent opening in the wall. We’ve installed a new countertop and Paul will build a cabinet under it. It will be shallow to allow knee room in case the new owners want to use it as a breakfast or homework space.

Paul started on the cabinets in September. Unfortunately, he doesn’t work often and when he does it’s only for short periods of time. I’m convinced that the kitcehn work could have been completed in a week or two by someone putting in “normal” work hours, but that’s not Paul’s style. Now I’ve got my fingers crossed and am fervently hoping he’ll finish up in the next week or so. Not holding my breath though, because, well … he’s Paul.

There is a flaw with his design. Can you spot it? He cut the first cabinet front with the grain running on the vertical. He “forgot” and placed the grain on the horizontal with the others. Nothing to be done about it now and I’m sincerely hoping it won’t be a sore point with prospective homebuyers!

Technorati Tags: cabinets, carpentry, home remodel, kitchen cabinets, kitchen upgrade

January 4, 2009

Self Portrait Sunday for January 4, 2009

I’m feeling a little less than glamorous today. Do you see the big red zit on the side of my nose? I distinctly remember my mother telling me when I was in my teens, “Be happy that you have oily skin. You’ll never have wrinkles.” Ha! I’m over the hump of mid-fifties and still have zits, but you probably don’t really notice them because they’re usually hidden in wrinkles! This would probably be a good time to mention that the anti-aging cream I’ve been testing hasn’t done much at all for me. I don’t want to put down a sponsor, but I also promised my readers I would follow-up and here it is: it didn’t work for me. Sorry folks! That might be because of my skin type (sun-tanned leather!) or becuase I have a medical condition that causes me to struggle with dehydration. I’m not saying that it won’t work for you. You’re probably more “normal” than me. Most folks probably are, come to think of it. The product comes with a money-back guarantee, so you wouldn’t be out any bucks if you decided to try it. If you’ve been looking for a way to prove to the world that I’m abnormal and you’re not, here’s your chance!

On to other things. I’m still making progress towards my move, but keep getting bogged down. I hurt my back a few days ago and have done almost nothing since then. The day before that I got a lot of boxes packed. Now there are so many of them that I’m running out of places to put them. I’ve even got them in the middle of my living room and discovered last night that one that is in front of my tv stands in the line of fire between the tv and the remote when I sit in my favorite spot. I’ll have to do something about that before primetime tonight! Paul finished upgrading all of the existing cabinets this week, except for a little trim work. He was supposed to come today to finish that and start constructing the extra cabinet that will give a finished look to the alcove where my washer and dryer used to be, but he didn’t show up. I never actually know that he’s going to be here until he pulls up in the driveway, so I’ll have to wait and see. Both of my bathrooms also need some finish work and some cabinets need to be hung in the master bath, but those are small jobs that will be finished quickly once I’m done with painting and installing floors (that’s what I should have finished in the last few days when I wasn’t getting anything done.)

Speaking of finishing what I start, I’m going to go over to Midlife Musings now to see who else posted for Self Portrait Sunday today. Have you decided to join us for 2009? I hope so!

Technorati Tags: aging, home remodel, meme, photos, skin care

Posted by skeet @ 4:54 pm • Photos, Just stuff, Meme • 4 comments