Month: February 2011

Crocheted Kitchen Towel Topper

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts4 Comments

Remember going to Grammas house and seeing these on the oven or fridge door?  Ever wondered how they make those?

I always have a towel on the fridge door because… well, that’s what you do, right?  When I’m done with the dishes I dry my hands on that hand towel.  Well I was thinking, I wonder if I could find a pattern for making the towel topper so when I dry my hands it doesn’t come off all the way.

Well I found one and you are welcome.

My search brought me to YouTube which has a full 22 minute video of how to make it from sewing the chain into the towel with the yarn, crocheting all of the rows, making the button and the button hole and then finishing it off.  It’s really not that difficult and it looks so good.

The video on YouTube also has a link for the full instructions which is over on the Art of Crochet by Teresa blog on Blogger.  The video is over on YouTube via the Art of Crochet channel.

My problem is that I have carpel tunnel syndrome which means my hands get numb very quickly and I feel a very painful pinch in my palms so I shouldn’t really work on this.  The problem is that I love to crochet so that’s a huge bummer for me.  I mean, I can see the endless possibilities with this, I can make a topper for a towel for every holiday and for every season.  Like in the summer I can have the sunflower or watermelon towel, Christmas can be the Christmas towels, Halloween, Easter…  If there is a towel for everything then you bet that I would want to make a towel topper for that time of the year.

I found like 4 Christmas hand towels in a drawer too that would look so awesome with the vintage Christmas yarn that I have that has the mixed red, white and green colors in it.

Maybe some day I might be able to do this but for now I can’t but that doesn’t mean I can’t share the pattern and video with all of you crafty people so besides the link above which you can view to rate, comment and subscribe to, here is that video.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdePxyZ6Kog

A Good Breakfast for Energy

On By Michel McDonaldIn Food1 Comment

When I make breakfast for myself in the morning, it’s usually a bowl of cereal.  If we don’t have any milk for whatever reason I usually moan and stomp my feet like a child before nuking myself some oatmeal.  Or I might begrudgingly put my clothes on and go to the grocery store. This morning was different because I wanted to actually make a real breakfast.

Last night I decided that I wanted to make some hash browns for myself this morning so I bought a bag of potatoes from the grocery store with our dinner ingredients and got the food processor out to shred them.  Of course I peeled them first before shredding them and they were small enough that I could just stick them in the food processor.  Normally I have to cut things up but those bags of potatoes are always tiny so that was perfect.

After I shredded about 6 I put them into these containers that I also bought at the store to store them in all night.  A friend told me to put water in them to remove the starch to keep them from turning brown and sure enough when I went to do that they were all brown.  Before bedtime I went in there and drained them all and rinsed them all off and put them back in their containers with more water and I’m glad I did because they were still brown so changing the water was a good thing I think.

This morning I got up, grabbed my Big City Slider Station and filled each compartment with sausage so I could have some sausage patties, put 3 slices of bacon in the skillet to cook and when those were all finished I put 2 slices of bacon on the plate, 2 sausage sliders and then I put all the rest in a container for another time.

I took the hash browns out of the fridge and put them in the salad spinner to get the moisture out then put them in the bacon grease.  Ok I know now that I should have used margarine or oil.  Coulda shoulda woulda.  When that was finished I scrambled 2 eggs and put cheese on top of the eggs.

I was going to take a picture but it was very sloppy and too embarrassing but I will tell you that it was very good.  It was a very rare occasion that I would ever make that kind of breakfast and I can’t say I will ever do it again but you never know.

What am I going to do with the remainder of the hash browns though?  I’m thinking that maybe I can put some butter in the big city slider station then roll up some of the hash browns and stuff them in there and see how that works out.  Then I can put them in the container with the sausages and have some hash brown sliders whenever I want.  I could also freeze them for later.

The reason I did all of this is because I really needed the energy for today because I have 61 posts to restore today from March 2009 and I’m getting so burnt out on the whole thing.  Coffee just isn’t cutting it anymore, I figured I needed a real breakfast to get me through this day.

That kind of breakfast is good but so bad but it was so worth it.

A Golden Retriever Was Hit on H Street in Bakersfield

On By Michel McDonaldIn Pets2 Comments

Tonight at around 6:15pm we were driving along H Street here in Bakersfield going to Hometown Buffet (which we didn’t know is closed for renovation, we ended up going to Denny’s) and we passed the saddest thing.

Among all the speeding cars driving around 40-50mph, there was a Golden Retriever laying on the ground between 2 parked cars. He (or she, I don’t know) seemed to be alive, he was laying down but sitting there panting with his head up. There were 2 people standing by the cars and it looked like they were on the phone.

Since we didn’t pull over I don’t know the full details of what happened but I can only speculate that the dog went out into the street and got hit. I can only speculate that the person I saw on the phone may have either seen the dog get hit or they are the driver that hit him. I don’t know. They may have been calling the owner of the dog if the dog had tags on the collar or they might have been calling for help for the dog. Again, I don’t know.

What I do know is that my heart goes out to that dog tonight. I am a very sensitive person, especially when it comes to animals because they aren’t that bright sometimes. We’re always seeing dogs and cats in the street wandering around confused and lost. I don’t know if it has to do with the fact that they were sheltered in a house then suddenly kicked out into the world that they are very confused by or if they just don’t have a lot going on up there.

I know they run out when you least expect it and if you stop suddenly you could end up causing a huge accident so I understand why they end up getting hit. I just wish people would keep their dogs and cats inside the house or inside the fenced in yard. And if you can’t keep the dog then at least find them a new home so there aren’t so many strays out.

There is a house in our neighborhood on 2nd and Eye st. where the dogs have a chain link fence but the driveway gates don’t close tight so the dogs are always running around the neighborhood chasing and barking at people who walk by.  And they are little dogs which is how they were able to get through the driveway gates.  I saw one of them dead over on Chester and 2nd street in the gutter.  I hate seeing dead dogs in the street, especially when you know that dog has a home, their owners just don’t care enough about them to keep them either in the house or get the fence fixed so the dogs don’t go wandering around.

When we came home from dinner I picked up our dog Flower and hugged her and kissed her. Sometimes you don’t appreciate something (or someone) until they are gone, that doesn’t only apply to people either.

:Cue Cat

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

Do you remember the :Cue Cat?  It was made in the late 90’s by a company called Digital Convergence and was given away for free at Radio Shack in the early 2000’s.  When they first came out with them I got one and installed the software that came with it and had a jolly good time scanning boxes of cereal and cans of Chef Boyardee and my soda.  But that became boring after 5 minutes and it sat there plugged in for months until I decided it wasn’t doing me any good at all.  I unplugged it, removed the software and put it in a drawer never to be seen again.

Today I was sitting here and I saw it sitting on a shelf and I thought, I wonder what good that thing is anymore, should I just toss it or what?  Then I got to thinking, I kept it all these years because it scans bar codes, I wonder if it still does that but for other things like placing things on eBay or adding books to my Anobii account.

I did a little Google search and I actually found more information than I thought I would about it.  Apparently people were upset that the Cue Cat was sending information to Digital Convergence every time you used it and someone hacked it and made it impossible for them to get any information.  They found out and tried to sue that person but ended up going out of business instead which is why the software doesn’t work anymore.  You can’t use the software on the cd because it doesn’t have a website to connect to anymore.

But it still works, if you have a Cue Cat plug it in and try scanning something into Notepad.  You will get some long numbers because it’s made to send encrypted code to the Digital Convergence software to bring up a website.  You can’t use the software but the scanner works and there is a website at LibraryThing.com that can read that encrypted code to add your book to their website.  Although I tried it and only 5 out of 32 books would scan properly.  So my search continued.

I found the CED Magic website which gave me a bit more help with a program called CatNip which will remove that encryption from the bar code information so you can get the proper numbers to scan.  I tried it and it works.  I went to Anobii and scanned a book and it automatically added it to my bookshelf.  I removed it of course because that book was already there.

What I want to use it for is so that I can add things to eBay without going through the hassle of having to type everything in.  Even the bar code itself, I’d rather just swipe the bar code, since I already own a Cue Cat, then just go from there.  Darrin owns hundreds of LP’s and wants to sell them on eBay but figured it’s such a hassle typing in all that information.  Now it’s easier.

I don’t buy physical books anymore since I own a Nook so I really don’t have a need to scan book bar codes for Anobii but you never know what might happen in the future.  I might get a bug up my ass and want to scan all of my books, dvd’s, cd’s, and pc software bar codes for a catalog program lol.  Crazier things have happened.

Well at least if you have an old Cue Cat that you got for free 10 or 11 years ago, you can take it out of moth balls and hook it up again and scan to your hearts content lol.

Restoration Is A Lot of Work

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

It has been a couple of weeks since my blogs database went corrupt and I’ve been working every day trying to restore everything that I’ve totally forgotten about everything else around me.  It’s a lot of work but I have other things in my life like books and tv shows and online friends, not to mention house work that has taken a back seat.

Today I decided that after I finish restoring December 2008 that I will read a book.  I read 2 chapters and it was very good to be able to do something else for a change.  I think I said in a previous post how boring the copying and pasting was getting so this was good for my psyche to do something else.

My next side project is to get a new banner.  I’d like to grab a pic of Xanapus from EverQuest and put him by himself in the banner.  What I would really like to do is to draw him to make him look more cartoonish than 3D gameish if you know what I mean.  I can’t draw so let’s hope I can figure out how to do it with Gimp hehe.

I’d also like to change my background, not just for the banner but the site itself.  It’s kind of boring me and since my site is going through some major changes I might as well change it’s look as well.

I’ve been so busy restoring that I haven’t been blogging much so this is sort of an update as to where things stand.  Give me another few weeks, it will all be back to normal and hopefully I can find a way to restore some of those comments too.

iPad Only Newspaper “The Daily” Starts Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

I am fortunate that I was able to wake up early this morning and that Darrin watches Fox News all the time so that I was able to watch this news story in the living room about “The Daily” for the iPad while eating my Honey Nut Cheerios.

Rupert Murdoch has announced this new app for the iPad that will give you your news every day for only .99 cents a week or $39 per year. That works out to just .14 cents per day. Remember when the newspaper was just .25 cents a day? You just load the app in your iPad and you get everything that you would normally get in your newspaper and then some.

Although, I wonder if it has any of your local news and features like local obituaries, classifieds, comics and things that are happening in your city, not just around the country and the world. If this replaces the newspaper, what will happen to all of those other cool features that came with the newspaper?  What about the coupons?  Will those just end up coming in the mail instead?

Well, besides losing local news, I envy anyone who has an iPad because it’s really cool and well worth the $39 per year price. They have news articles just like you would see in your newspaper but the exception is you also get color pictures on every article and sometimes even video instead of an image.

Here is a quote from VentureBeat.com where you can read the full story at:

“The Daily is not an island,” they said. You’ll be able to share stories on Facebook, Twitter and via email. You’ll also be able to record audio comments. The app features a built-in web browser, and certain pages also include Twitter feeds. There’s also an apps and games section to The Daily, which will link you directly to the iTunes Store.

The Daily will update throughout the day with breaking news as it happens so if you are at work and something is going on, you will know about it if you just so happen to be looking at it at the time.

I am not fortunate enough to own an iPad so this will be something that I will dream about for a very long time, at least long enough for the iPad to go down in price anyway. It looks like something that Darrin would find very useful where he can save tons of money and waste less paper since he loves to read the newspaper every day. Maybe he can charge an iPad for himself so he can get the Daily. It would be way easier than a new computer which he needs desperately anyway. Also he pays the same price per month that the iPad Daily charges per year so that’s something to think about.

If you have an iPad, let me know how the Daily looks. You get 2 weeks free thanks to Verizon so you have plenty of time to test it out.

Restoring My Blog

On By Michel McDonaldIn BlogLeave a comment

As some may know, I recently lost my blogs database.  The database was corrupt and even the backup that my web host had was corrupt so I had to start over.

It has been a little over a week now and I have been working hard for at least 8 hours a day restoring posts.  I have almost 500 posts back and I have not given up totally on getting the rest back but I do need to take a day off.

I was restoring them backwards from the day my blogs database died until July 2010 but then I decided that 6 months is good enough, I will start from the beginning in 2007 and work my way to where I left off to fill in that gap.  I want to do it chronologically because there were posts that had links to past posts and the only way I could restore those links is by restoring old first then newer.  Does that make any sense?

As of right now the restored posts are from the very beginning in 2007 all the way to the beginning of October 2008.  Then July 2010 to now.  There were specific posts that I wanted to restore because I see people are still searching for them so I did a search on my blogger site so I could restore them out of order (but with their right dates and times).  Those are the KFC posts, Star Tatoo Girl and Bokni Magus posts.  Those were by far my most popular posts and now they are back.

Now, I need to take a break because I am very bored with the whole process of copying and pasting from Blogger and YouSayToo lol.  My old posts can be seen on those other sites until I can finish restoring them here.

I got some reading to do so I will continue where I left off tomorrow.