When I was little all I wanted to do was be on Star Search. I thought I was best suited for the female vocalist or the TV spokes model category. No matter what category, I competed in I knew I’d mop the floor with the competition. Yeah we have the Idol competitions and X Factor and this or that country’s Got Talent now, but nothing beats Star Search. What’s a talent competition without Ed McMahon?
I’ve managed to get a bit of a cold. I’m on the tail end of it now but it’s inconvenient to say the least. It’s shocking too, because I haven’t been sick since the last time I was sick. I actually think that was Christmas 2 years ago, but I may be mistaken. Anyway there are a couple of things I like to do to knock the cold out of me. Some might think they’re old wives’ tales (poor old wives), but I’m all into them big time. The first is echinacea tea. Here’s how I make it.
Ingredients
I use a mid-sized sauce pan to make this tea. I don’t know how much water goes in it exactly but I’d say it’s enough to make about 4 mugs of tea. Fill the pan with water then add the ginger and the lemon. Bring that to a boil. Put your dried herbs into a teapot (one of those ceramic old school ones) and pour the boiling water into the pot over the herbs. Cover and let steep for 10 to 15 minutes. If you don’t have a teapot, no sweat, just use something else like another pot. Honestly, though I wish I had a teapot, I don’t so that’s what I do. If you really have too because you need some sweetness in your life, add some honey. I usually skip that part.
Other Cold Remedies
The title of this posts says something about other natural cold remedies. I should have written remedy because I only have one to offer up and it’s going to sound really crazy to you, but it works. Garlic oil on the feet is a great remedy. Just peel and chop up a head of garlic roughly, put it in a container, and add enough olive oil to cover the garlic. Let this sit all day and at night put the garlicy oil all over your feet, put on some socks and go to bed.
I learned about this remedy from this herbal remedies site.
Yesterday, I pulled out my sewing machine to continue my never ending learning to sew project. For some reason I thought I’d buy a sewing machine and automatically know how to use it. I mean I’ve seen people sew before. It can’t be that hard, right?
Boy, was I wrong about that one. I mean, I don’t know who’s more uncooperative the sewing machine, the fabric or the thread. All I know is that it isn’t my fault the fabric keeps puckering every time I try to attach sleeves to the shirt I’m making.
I like to listen to music while I sew. The sewing machine isn’t loud enough for me. I have to add some noise to that. I’m trying to slowly go deaf.
While searching through Spotify for a something good to listen too, I discovered that Charlie Hunter has a new album, Gentlemen, I Neglected to Inform You You Will… When I listened to it I was pleased to discover it’s just as wacky as his previous album, but this album includes a horn section.
I love to share the music I like with you. So click this this link to download “You Look Good In Orange” from Charlie Hunter’s newest album for free. If you like it why not buy it from Amazon
I hate door to door sales people. That’s not really true. I don’t really hate the people, I just hate the door to door sales that they’re doing. Many of them are probably perfectly nice to be around when they’re not trying to sell you something. I’m sure they must hate their jobs too. I mean I would hate it if I had to do that.
Anyway, there was a knock on the door this morning and since I was doing my hair I told my husband to answer it. It was a door to door salesman. Their spiels are so good sometimes that I wish I could record them. This one was about changing our telephone and broadband provider.
Salesman: Hello. Are you Mr. Martinez?
My husband: No you must have the wrong address.
Salesman: That must be the previous tenant’s name.
My husband: I don’t know.
Salesman: It doesn’t matter. We’re interviewing people who use OP company about their telephone and internet service.
My husband: I’m not with OP company.
Salesman: …and people with XYZ company too. I’m from ABC company and we’ve been getting a lot of complaints from people in your area about XYZ company’s rising prices.
(I would like to point out how this makes no sense. Why would customers from XYZ be calling ABC to complain about XYZ’s prices?)
My husband: I’m happy with XYZ company.
Salesman: I wouldn’t want you to change a service you’re happy with. You can have the exact same service with us for cheaper.
(Wouldn’t that be changing your service?)
My husband: I’ll compare the rates online and see what I think.
Salesman: This is a special offer. You won’t find anything online this low.
My husband: I’m not interested then.
Salesman: We’ve come all the way from Manchester to help you save money.
(Wow! He’s really committed to helping us save money. After all he came all the way from Manchester.)
My husband: Sorry I’m not interested.
My husband just told me that he thinks he should put up a “No Solicitors” sign on our door. Since they call lawyers solicitors here I don’t think that would do us much good. I’m not too keen on lawyers either–unless they’re my sister, but we don’t tend to have a problem them knocking on our door and trying to get us to sue somebody.
Photo by L*u*z*a*
So you’re probably thinking, enough about foxes already, but I have just one more thing to add. I found this video about people keeping a red fox as a pet. I’m not partial to the red fox. There’s something freaky about their eyes. I like the silver fox or even the small fennec fox. I know you were wondering about my fox preferences. Anyway here’s the video.
Have you heard of domesticated foxes? Apparently, some people raising silver foxes for fur in Russia decided to try to tame them so they would be easier to raise and kill. I think I heard about this on Radio Lab not too long ago. If you don’t know about Russian domesticated foxes you can find out more about them here.
As the foxes became tame they developed features similar to dogs. Some had floppy ears or white marking or even blue eyes. They are friendly animals with the independence of a cat and the loyalty of a dog. Doesn’t that sound like an ideal pet?
When I saw the pictures of the domesticated foxes online I immediately wanted one. I used to imagine my pet fox curling up next to me on the sofa. I’m not sure what you do with a fox exactly. Can you walk a fox? Do they use a litter box? Do they purr? Is a fox more like a cat or a dog? Even without knowing the answers to these vital questions I wanted a domesticated Russian fox…until about a month ago when I realized something disturbing about foxes.
When we moved into this flat we started hearing some disturbing noises late at night that sounded kind of like someone torturing a dog. One night when the noise was particularly loud my husband said, “Maybe that’s what a fox sounds like.” Curious I looked up fox calls online and this is what I found. The noise is a fox.
If that upsetting noise is the sound my pet fox will be making, I don’t want one. My dreams of owning a pet fox are over. The pet monkey that I’ll never have can play with the pet fox that I’ll never have in my imagination. Pets are easier to take care of when they’re imaginary, don’t you think?
Photo by nicknbecka
This post appears in FFYF blog carnival.
I never understood the point of artichokes–so much work for so little food–but now I think they’re heavenly.
I missed the delivery of a package the other day. Isn’t that always what happens? You’re home all day, but you step out for 30 minutes and that’s when they show up. When I first saw the red missed delivery slip on the floor, I was excited. I’m always excited to get a package in the mail. Then I realized the package wasn’t really for me. It was medication for someone else in the house that I ordered. Not so exciting.
Anyway, I had to go to the central post office to pick up my undelivered package. It was a pretty dreary day and I wasn’t feeling too great. We drove down the same tiny stretch of road three times trying to find the entrance to the post office. When I finally spotted the sign I cheered up. “This is going to be interesting,” I thought.
A spray painted sign on the horrible looking fence is never a good start. When I think of the post office I think of a friendly looking building with a mailbox out front.
This is what you see as you turn into the entrance. “What is this a used car lot?” I asked my husband. You’re probably thinking this really isn’t bad. Just wait.
These crazy metal containers are lining the entire drive. What the heck are these?! I could imagine that at one time these containers weren’t rusty and had lovely green shrubs growing out of them. I have an excellent imagination.
This is the post office with the lovely red Royal Mail sign above the door behind what appears to be a garbage dump. Check out the barb wire. Is this really the image Royal Mail wants to put out there? I was scared to pick up my package from that place. Who knows what kind of hoodlum would jump out and mug me while I’m casually walking out of the post office with my package.
My problem opening doors continues. The other day we went to the shops down the street to buy electricity (we have a prepay electric meter). When we got to the shop door I immediately started trying to pull it open. When it didn’t open I pulled again harder. My husband of course said nothing he just stood behind me watching until the person working in the shop opened the door for me.
My husband finally decided to try to tackle my door problem on the way home.
My husband: Just so you know all doors open in here.
Me: No they don’t.
My husband: Maybe not all door, but definitely all shop doors.
I don’t know if that’s true, but I’ve tried to commit this possible fact to memory so I don’t make a complete fool of myself again. Okay, I probably will make a fool of myself again but it won’t be because of a door.
Some people like to get up early. They like to see the sunrise. It makes them feel like they’ve got more time in the day. I know some of these people, and I’m definitely not one of them. I don’t have much need to see the sunrise. I see it set everyday. I think that’s pretty much the same thing just in reverse. In my opinion only the clinically insane would want to wake up before the sun comes out. Nobody needs that much time in their day.
My mother has always gotten up very early. I’m not trying to imply that my mother is insane. I’m just saying that she likes to have a lot of time in her day. At 11:30 at night she’d say things like, “I have to get to bed soon. I have to be up by 4 in the morning after all.” She likes to brag about not needing much sleep. My mother’s minimal sleep requirements used to be what I aimed for. I thought this was a pretty good goal. I’d read websites about how to shorten my sleep requirements. Then I’d try these techniques out and always come to the same conclusion. Sleeping less definitely gives you more hours in the day–more hours to suffer for the splitting headache you have from not getting enough sleep.
I used to think it was because I needed 8 hours of sleep, but recently I discovered that isn’t exactly true. I’ve realized that as long as I don’t get up before 8 o’clock I’m fine. I could go to bed at 7 in the morning and get up an hour later and be totally fine. I would never do that of course because I don’t need that many hours in my day. Ideally I’d like to sleep until 9 or 10 or maybe even 11:32, but life isn’t always ideal.
The saying goes, Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. I’d like change that saying to early to bed, early to rise makes a man unable to get to sleep at night, gives him a huge headache the next day and puts him in a bad mood. That saying probably won’t catch on, but I think it’s more realistic.
