Cost Of A Fruit Cake

On By Michel McDonaldIn Food, HolidaysLeave a comment

I just cannot believe how much it costs to make a fruit cake.  Now I know why those things are so expensive.  Dang $51 so far and I still need eggs and margarine.  By the time I have all the rest of the ingredients it will be $55.  I just hope that it makes a whole lot of fruit cake.  It better.

I wanted to make it so bad because I can never find it in the stores and when I find it online it’s so expensive.  A 1lb cake is $25.  I’m sure that I have about a 10lb cake so far lol.  I’m going to have to split it up into a few smaller ones because fruit cake doesn’t have a very good reputation.  I bought these small loaf pans that have lids (disposable pans) and there are 3 in the pack so I can make 3 small.  I also have a regular size loaf pan which I’m going to start with then put the rest in the smaller ones.  I want to bring the small ones because I know that people are going to waste big slices if they don’t like it and it’s too expensive to throw away.

All I know is if I see 1 piece of fruit cake in the trash I’m gonna lose it lol.  Just kidding.  Maybe lol.

Bromosexual

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Ok, what?  When did this happen?  When did they start saying Bromosexual?  What the hell does that mean?

I was bromo-curious to find out what this meant so I just went to the yahoo search engine and typed bromosexual and got this…

Urban Dictionary: bromosexual

ROFL what the… these people that come up with words…  And the person who said it was Ryan Seacrest.  Need I say more?

Skeletal Remains Found in Florida

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

Skeletal remains of a little girl found in Florida not far from Caylee Anthony’s grandparents home.  They think that it might be the skeletal remains of Caylee Anthony, the little girl who was allegedly murdered by her mother in June 2008.  Notice I said allegedly?

Casey Anthony, who is in prison right now for the murder of her daughter will probably get the death penalty.  They took that off the table but it can be put back on the table.  They are also testing the duct tape that was used to cover the child’s mouth with for finger prints on the glue as well as the duct tape that was used to wrap the little girl with a plastic bag.  When they finish looking at the finger prints they will know without a shadow of a doubt who killed Caylee if it is her.  Also they said there is still some flesh on the skeleton so they can probably do a DNA test to make sure that it was Caylee’s body.  I guess they would do like a maternity test by comparing the DNA of the body with the mothers DNA.

Even though this is good news for everyone to find the body it is still bad news knowing that poor Caylee is not still alive.  But it is not a fact that this is indeed Caylee until the autopsy has confirmed who it is.  The skeletal remains have been sent to the FBI office for study.

Oh one more thing, they said that they found out that there was Chloroform used, they determined that by the smell inside the bag and they talked about how Casey Anthony was doing a search on the internet for Chloroform.  The Fox News team were saying that it is not uncommon for parents to use Chloroform on their children to put them to sleep if they cannot find a babysitter.  WHAT!?!?  Not uncommon?  Holy cow!  What’s going on in this world?

Update: I saw on the Fox News ticker just now that a utility worker who was going into those woods to take a leak found the bag and picked it up and a skull fell out.  The skeleton was found 1/2 a mile from the grandparents home in Florida.

Day Without A Gay

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gay, Gay RightsLeave a comment

Today is Day Without A Gay day.  That means that all the gay people are “supposed” to call in sick (or gay) and not work today and not even spend any money today as a form of protest because of Prop 8.

I don’t really have to go to a job every day so that isn’t a problem for me but I do support this protest.  For example, I barely have any food in the pantry and fridge but I will eat tuna and egg salad sandwiches for lunch and dinner if that means I am helping out.

Recycling Numbers

On By Michel McDonaldIn GreenLeave a comment

Today we went to turn in our plastic to recycle and found out that different plastic containers have different numbers and they cannot all be recycled together.  See I never knew that.  I found this website that shows you what the difference is.

What do those recycling numbers mean?

I had all these different types of plastics.  I had clear soda bottles, milk cartons, yogurt containers etc. and they had to separate the clear bottles with the rest.  The clear soda bottles had the 1 on the bottom inside that little recycle symbol.  Those get you more money than the other ones which were 2 and up.

We had basically half number 1 and the rest were 2-6.  When the guy gave us the receipt it showed us how much each plastic cost.  The plastic with the 1 was a lot more than the rest.  I think it was $7 something for all the number 1’s but all the rest we got like .45 cents and that’s it and it was half  number 1 and the other half was all the rest and that rest was less money.  So basically it’s not even worth recycling the rest.

They basically told us that it’s a waste of time to save anything but the number 1 plastic as well as even paper.  The reason I am recycling isn’t for the money although it helps in today’s economy but also because those Brita commercials where they say like 30 minutes on a treadmill, forever in a landfill.  Those make me feel guilty for buying anything that comes in plastic or anything lol.  But, you know if they are so concerned with it then they will have a machine that goes through the trash cherry picking all the certain types of plastics and paper etc.  Darrin told me that he read in the newspaper that there is like a mountain of recycled paper that they are having trouble getting rid of, that’s why paper is so cheap to recycle.  That’s probably also why the plastic that isn’t number 1 is cheap.

I’m not saying to not recycle because the CRV items like the soda bottles/water bottles and soda/beer cans give you a lot more money but I’m certainly not going to waste our patio space recycling milk cartons and yogurt containers and other plastics anymore.  I’m going to find out about steel cans too before I waste any more time with those.  I want to save the planet but at the same time if they don’t want to recycle certain things then it’s out of my hands.  I can only do so much by using the cloth grocery bags and recycling plastic and aluminum.

Fruit Cake

On By Michel McDonaldIn Food, HolidaysLeave a comment

I plan on buying ingredients to make Fruit Cake for Christmas.  But, instead of just doing it the traditional way by either making it like a loaf in a loaf pan or doing a circle with the middle missing, I’m going to do a loaf but then cut it down the middle then cut the 2 pieces down their middle so it’s 4 long pieces so when you slice it, it comes out like cracker sized.  This way if people aren’t sure if they like it or not then they can just get a slice to taste it.  This way people aren’t taking these huge pieces of fruit cake then taking a bite and realizing how gross it is then throwing the rest of it in the trash.  That would piss me off considering how expensive they are.

Now, when I say “how gross it is” I’m speaking purely on other peoples opinions of fruit cake.  I like fruit cake.  I’ve loved fruit cake since I was a kid so to me it’s not gross at all.  Frankly, I don’t know why people would even give them as gifts at Christmas time considering how expensive they are to buy.  They are also a little expensive to make, not as much as if you were to buy one but still expensive.

But cutting them in cracker sized slices is a good idea, I think it is.  You can probably also make cup cake sized fruit cakes so they are individual and you can use the cup cake paper things so you don’t have a huge mess.  Hey that’s a very good idea.  I’m also thinking of putting some german chocolate cake frosting on the top of the fruit cake to disguise it a little lol.  I’m sneaky that way.

Bike Light

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

I think it was the day before yesterday or something but I noticed that the light generator wasn’t touching the tire when you flip the switch and so I fixed it and then checked out the lights to make sure they were ok by pushing the peddles.  I noticed that the back red light was working fine but the headlight wasn’t working at all.  I flipped the bike upside down and pushed the peddles with my hand to make the back tire turn and the light was just not coming on.

I took the light fixture off the bike and took it apart to see if the light bulb was just out and when I went to turn it to remove it the glass part came off and the metal was just not unscrewing at all.  I’m pretty sure it’s because the light set that I bought was old, it was made in 1991.  I searched high and low trying to find a new bulb, I went to Albertson’s, no go.  I went to Walgreens, not there.  I figured that maybe an auto parts store might have them because they have little tiny lights too but alas the car lights were the same size but no threads.  The guy at the counter told me to try Home Depot or Floyd’s hardware store.

I decided that since I can’t use my bike anyway I might as well wait until I can to worry about it.  But then I noticed a Halloween tap light sitting in a drawer and noticed that the light bulb looked the same.  I unscrewed the 3 screws on the bottom and was able to unscrew the bulb and sure enough, the exact same light bulb.

I brought it to the bike area (this was yesterday) and screwed it in and flipped the bike over and plugged the wire into the generator and pushed on the peddles but unfortunately it didn’t turn the light on.  I put it back in the tap light and put some batteries in there and tapped it and it turned on just fine.

I went searching in a computer drawer with old computer stuff and found some old mic’s from when I got my first computer and never used the mic’s and was all ready to strip the wires to use it but it was late at night and I couldn’t find my scissors so I waited until today.  This morning after Darrin went to church I got up and went out there and my scissors were by the bike so I got all the stuff ready and sat down on the stool out there.  I tried it one more time with the wire that came with the light set but this time I stripped the wire that touches the light to see if it was just messed up there but no go.  I then thought, well what if the light has to be on the bracket on the bike frame so I just placed it on there and turned the peddles and sure enough the light came on.

At this point I’m not quite sure if it’s just sheer stupidity or if my ADD is really that bad lol.  At any rate I’m glad I finally figured it out and got one more problem out of the way so I can get back on with my life.

Decorated

On By Michel McDonaldIn HolidaysLeave a comment

The house is finished being decorated.  The tree up, all ornaments on it, the wreath on the door with the plastic canvas candy cane I made for it.  It’s all done finally.  I’ve been putting ornaments on the tree here and there because standing for a length of time hurts my back so I can’t be decorating constantly until it’s all done.

We’re not lights on the outside people so that’s not a problem.  I wish we were but I’m just afraid that in this neighborhood someone will come along with a knife and cut the wires if they are low enough to be able to cut.  I know, paranoia right?  Wrong!  One morning I came outside and saw that our hose which was rolled up in the planter was cut and it was a significant amount of hose too.  I went to walk to the store and saw the piece that was cut laying on our grass.  I don’t give anybody in this hood the benefit of the doubt.  They don’t deserve it.

However, we do have an indoor patio which is actually kinda sorta outdoors.  It’s the space between the house and the garage, it has a wall in the front of the building with a door and the back with a giant window and a door so it’s pretty much closed off.  Darrin bought 2 boxes of lights that he wanted to hang out there, not for holiday decoration but just for regular decoration for mood.  Tonight when I was at the store I picked up these holiday light hanger things that have nails and you hammer the nails into the wood then you just press the wires into the plastic and it holds the lights.  This way if you decide to take the lights off you can then when you want to put them back up you don’t have to do anything, just push the wires back in.  It’s really cool.

Bad Luck

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

I have the worst luck of anybody in this whole universe.  I don’t know what I ever did, maybe my karma sucks really bad.  I went to ride my bike for a minute or 2 so I could see if the bent tire would be ok and as soon as I opened the back gate then set my bike up with the kickstand so I could close the gate, the kickstand went back in and the bike fell and guess what?  My brand new rear view mirror broke right off.  So now I need a new one.  I’ve had bad luck with crazy glue and plastic.  If I glued it with crazy glue then every time I adjust it, it will fall off.  ARGH!

Front Wheel

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

I got my bike all fixed up and stuff and I just spun the front wheel and apparently it’s bent a bit.  I just spent $76 today and I really can’t afford to buy a new wheel.  I’m sure that I will be fine with a bent wheel until I get my next check in January.  I probably won’t be able to ride my bike for a week anyway so when I do start up again I can just ride with a bent wheel for a while.  I’d rather not ride with a bent wheel but there really isn’t that much I can do about it for right now.  All I can do is just be very safe when riding and hope nothing goes wrong lol.  Or just not ride at all until I get a new front wheel.  This is all costing more than the bike is worth lol.