Droid ROCKS!

So I blew it with Nablopomo. My house is a total disaster. The kids are still in PJs and Mt. Washmore is rising to new heights...but my HTC Droid Eris is in my hands and kicking booty!! 

Priorities.

Let me introduce you-

To Lurker Girl and her post from Friday about
Common Courtesy.

Check it out- what a hoot!!  

Premier Regional Conf- amazing people!

When you get to your car an hour later

What to do, what to do...

Finish putting Christmas stuff away?   -no I did not do it last weekend.
Fold another load of laundry?  -folded five today, already over my quota.

Finish Get another pile cleared out of the Pit??  -probably, but I need full daylight in there or I could be lost forever.
Shampoo the LR carpet from a few scattered puppy accidents?? -too late tonight. I'll can't get the spots done w/o just doing the whole dang floor. Must be some OCD thing...or something.
Clean off the buffet and move the kitchen around, like I've wanted to for two months??  -I haven't had near enough to drink.
Go to bed?  -Yes, I need to but I'm going to catch some SNL first. Maybe I'll get one of the above mentioned tasks done tomorrow and report back. 

Don't hold your breath.

On either the above tasks or a post. :-D

Droid, Nexus One, iPhone???

I just came across this and my jaw is on the floor.

Yours probably too as I'm posting twice in the same day.

iPhone to Verizon- Official??

Now I might be in a pickle...

Droid-oh yes, I want one!

Mr. FixIt upgraded his cell phone last month and got the very cool Motorola Droid. I'm sure you've seen the commercials. Loving all things Apple and craving an iPhone but despising AT&T's lack of coverage- an iPhone has been a far-fetched dream.  Sigh. Until now- Android OS and functionality of the Droid rivals iPhone- finally!! I really like the Droid, but I'm not crazy about the slide out keyboard or the heft of this gadget. I currently have a Samsung touchscreen phone and love it! So a new touchscreen phone that doesn't run on WinDoze or require At&T-  I'm IN!!  Cool apps of the Android phones are a big seller- games, goofy sounds, music, handy gadgets such as the barcode scanner. Seriously, use the phone's camera to scan any barcode and you will see the price of that item in different stores and where to purchase. Nifty, eh?!  Another one- Keychain. All those store and club cards hanging on your keys?? Scan them and store in the phone- hold up your phone to scan at the store = less junk to hang on your keys!!  Fun apps including sirens, movie sound bites, animals, and Mr. FixIt's favorite- the Fart Noise app. Twenty+ different disgusting fart sounds including a timer so you can play tricks on your children/coworkers/relatives. Monster Man also loves this goofy app- go figure. Another favorite, the gun apps. Chose your weapon, realistic click/cocking/bolt slide sounds and FIRE!  Mr. FixIt does that when one of us is driving him crazy...he just opens fire with his phone. hehe.

Ironically my phone has worked flawlessly for over a year until the past week when Verizon started sending me, 'upgrade early' info. Darn they are tempting me!  Of course we came from Alltel and as long as I have an Alltel phone, Verizon has to keep our billing the same as before. Upgrade to Verizon phone, voila! Get Verizon billing. Really it's not a big change, pricing is figured differently though ends up the same $$. The difference is we will lose 5 of our Friends & Family numbers...unless we up to a larger plan. Well the budget isn't allowing me for a larger plan right now, so 5 people are gonna get called a lot less around here! :-D

Where was I?? Oh, sorry brain wandered off...  so an Android phone is in my future, but not wanting a Moto Droid...I've fallen in love with the HTC Droid Eris. More slim, lighter, has a trackball, and dedicated call/hang up buttons.  The Eris has an older Android version, but still works pretty much the same as the Moto Droid.  Both have 5 mp camera, though Eris doesn't have a flash. Eris is $100 cheaper- $99 at Verizon online and $49 at Best Buy. Cool deal- though Best Buy can't authorize the early upgrade Verizon offers- DARN!  So I'll have to wait until price goes down to get this nifty phone.

THEN- Google throws me a curve ball with their Nexus One phone.OOOOHhhh, AAAAAhhhhh.
Only available at the moment with T-Mobile, but coming this spring to Verizon. An Android phone, with guts made by HTC and sold by Google.  Similar to the Eris in looks with upgraded OS, a flash and still has that trackball I love on the Eris. Larger screen to match the Moto Droid.  Much longer battery life. Price yet to be determined for Verizon.  I guess I'll have to wait until my phone totally kicks the bucket... and hope it's not until Spring and cross my fingers Verizon has a killer deal on the Nexus One. If not, I'll be happy with an Eris.  Ohhh- Android phone here I come!!

Ah, it has begun.

Time sure flies by!  Holidays are gone, we're in 2010, and the first semester of school will finish up this week.  Wasn't it just sunny afternoons on the swing and kids barefoot playing in the sprinkler...yesterday??  Blink and BOOM- six inches of snow and still piling up.  Aaacck. Great for the kids; they've had a blast sledding and playing in the snow most every day. Sucks for me- freezing temps and gloves, hats, snow boots...bah humbug.

With the new year underway, I have to get off my arse!! Literally and figuratively!! Many things around this house need to be dealt with and apparently they don't work on themselves. Darn. School materials are pretty much under control, but home papers, bills, etc, need a revamp. All that was formerly contained and under control at my desk when I was transcribing 10-12 hours a day. Since then, it's migrated into several hot spots around the house. It's NOT efficient. The piles of STUFF drives me insane. I have to get that taken care of. First project of the year. I have fluttered behind FlyLady for several years and one thing I didn't do was the Control Journal, as I was at my desk through the day, every day. Now, with homeschooling, dance most every night, and more visiting family...Flylady wins. I need to make my Control Journal and USE it. 

I also need to get back on track with de-cluttering this house. If you follow FlyLady, you know what a super fling boogie is. I did one today and WOW!! Why did I stop doing those??  What a difference and makes you feel GREAT to have a room more clean by tossing that junk!  I think I need to do that every day for a month!  I also did get several things listed on eBay.  Jewelry business has been a bit slow lately.  I need the income and I love to eBay! Woohoo!  Hopefully I can make a few bucks until I can get some more jewelry shows on the books.

With that, I'm calling it a night.  Mr. FixIt is snoring in the COD beside me...he's been there since he got home from work. Literally crashed. He didn't even eat dinner.  He can stay in the chair because I'm not waking him up! I already have the mattress pad warming up the bed- hehe. Mine! All MINE!! 

Like homemade? Try this.

If you like to save money, here's an easy home recipe to try...for laundry soap.  Yup. I've always been one for bargains and hate to pay big bucks for detergent.  I was always super happy to get Arm& H@mmer or Pur#x depending on whichever one was on sale with a coupon to lower the price even more. About a year ago, I came across a site with information how to make your own laundry detergent for super cheap!!  So why not, I already had two of the three ingredients anyway.  All you need is a bar of Fels-Naptha soap (or Ivory or Castile soap), a box of 20 Mule Team Borax and a box of Arm & H@ammer Washing Soda (not baking soda, WASHING soda).  The Mule Team Borax and the washing soda are located in the laundry aisle at the grocery, usually top shelf.  The Fels-Naptha may be there, though in Giant Eagle you have to look in the hand soap aisle, bottom shelf between lotions and hand soaps.  You can make the detergent either a powder or liquid.  I've made both, and I prefer powder.  Faster and easier to make; easier to measure out. Easier for the kids to use (since you have to remember to stir or shake the liquid before use). Google  will find you a multitude of recipes all over the place. This one is from The Frugal Shopper Site. This page also has links to other homemade items- check it out.


Powdered Laundry Detergent (aprx. 32 loads)
1 Cup grated Fels-Naptha Soap
1/2 Cup Arm & Hammer WASHING Soda
1/2 Cup 20 Mule Team Borax

 












Grate the bar of soap, nearly one entire bar grated = 1 cup. If you want to work out your forearms and hands, use a hand grater as I have here. If you'd rather do this in 30 seconds instead of 15 minutes and don't care about your forearms...use your food processor. :-D  

You can leave the soap grated as is or you can further reduce it down to powder. It does mix better as a powder, but I've made it both ways. Takes about three whirrrs in the Magic Bullet to make a powder out of the grated shavings,  or if you already have your food processor out, change the blade and give it a whirl in there.  You can see the difference below.

Put the grated/powdered soap into a container, add the washing soda and borax. Mix thoroughly.  *Great science lesson about measuring and mixtures here. :-D If you make the liquid version (see link), more lessons about solutions-solute, solvent, suspension, etc.  FUN stuff!! 

I use a plastic coffee container with a snap lid (pic above). Works well. Easy for even the kids to pick up and scoop out of. Oh and that's the best part...note the measuring utensil in the container: a tablespoon. Only ONE Tablespoon per load. This is low sudsing and great for front loaders. If I had a top load washer, I'd probably use 2 TB.  A double batch of this recipe will about half fill a large coffee container and gives you aprx 64 loads of detergent. 


The cost breakdown: 
1 Bar Fels-Naptha - $1.50 to $1.75

1 Box Arm & Hammer Washing soda- about $4 bucks depending on where you get it. (aprx 7 cups)

1 Box 20 Mule Team Borax - $5 to $7 depending on where you buy it. (aprx 9 cups)


You can get at least 14 batches out of washing soda and 18 batches of borax per box. When you do the math it equals to just slightly over $2 per batch (32 loads). Cheaper if you find any of the above on sale or have coupons.  Not to bad, eh?  It cleans clothes really well -trust me I have THOROUGHLY tested it out! Two, get down in the mud and grass kids, who also like to help hunt (blood and guts), and work on bikes with daddy (grease). All comes clean with this stuff. 


You will also find hints of using white vinegar as a laundry softener and I have used that. Yes, it does work, and no, it doesn't make your clothes smell like a salad! :-D  I do like nice scents to my clothes but have yet to go get the essential oils to make my own (by adding them to vinegar)...so until I get motivated in that department I'll keep my bargain store-bought with coupon softener. Though it is good to know if you run out of softener, you can use vinegar in a pinch! 


There you go. Cheap laundry detergent that can be made in less than 5 minutes and WORKS!!
Enjoy!

My little drummer hero

Giving it a shot.

Ok,  new year, new goals, starting over with a clean slate...blah, blah, etc.  So not that I have a snowball's chance in hell of completing even a week of NaBloPoMo, I'm on the blogroll for January.  Stay tuned to watch me spiral down to a silent-forgot-to-blog death in the YOU SUCK blogging category.  I would hate to disappoint my hundreds four followers by actually finishing a month of blogging!  Hehh. Giving it a shot for the heck of it.

Speaking of shots- OMG - Mr. FixIt received a recipe from a co-worker over the holidays. It is a long-time used family recipe. If you like B@iley's...you are sooooo going to love this.  HOMEmade Irish Cre@m. A shot of this stuff is not enough. You need a glass :-D

Easy peasy. You probably have most of this stuff at home already.  Here goes.

1 cup whiskey (cheap is fine, we used Evan Williams)

3 beaten eggs

1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

2 teaspoons Hershey’s chocolate

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping (not whipped, straight from the carton)

1 14oz can Eagle Sweetened Cond. Milk

Put all ingredients in a blender and mix on high.  Refrigerate and it will thicken. Keep refrigerated, should keep for about a month or so.

Like it will last that long?? What kind of non-drinkers suggest that??  Mr. FixIt cranked out a batch of this last night for New Year's Eve and it's more than half gone already.  Wheeeeeeee!!!!!

Honestly, I think you could put a touch more chocolate in it and touch of mint extract and have an equivalent B@iley's Irish Mint, but whatever you try,  in honor of the family that has passed it down for years...don't screw it up. :-D   You wouldn't want to waste even cheap whiskey anyway, hehe.

Alrighty NaBloPoMo....Day 1 down.  Only 30 more to go!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!