Twisty

Some Practical Plumbing Tips

In addition to fixing the poorly installed trap on our garbage disposal, John the Plumber did a walk through the house and gave us a ton of practical, plumbing tips, some of which I thought I would share with you.

Garbage Disposal

He hates them and thinks they’re useless. (“You won’t find a garbage disposal in the house of any plumber I know – and believe me, I know lots.”)

He also gave me a list of big no-nos. Never, ever throw in the following into your disposal:

• Carrots, Celery, Lettuce (“Clogs the whole thing up. Basically don’t throw in anything that shreds.”)
• Potatoes (“They break down and turn to starch. Very bad for your pipes.”)

Toilet

New toilets have one hole. Old ones have two – that big one that the stuff goes down and a smaller hole more towards the top. The purpose of the smaller hole is to help with suction.

Once a year, you should take a screwdriver and clean out the little hole. (Gross! I know.) Apparently calcium deposits and all kinds of crap (no pun intended) build up in there. Cleaning this little sucker out can help save your toilet!

Slop Sinks

If you’re like me, your washing machine drains out into a slop sink next to it. The problem is that a lot of fibers get washed down the drain. This can clog your pipes and cause a lot of headaches later on.

Best solution: Call in a plumber. Have him/her reconfigure it so that the waste water goes right out your sewer pipe. Cost $800-900.

Next best (and cheapest!) solution: Buy a mesh drain cup at your local hardware store.  Pop it over the drain. Clean periodically. Cost $1-5.

Stop (At Least Some of Your) Pipes from Bursting

Your outside faucets / pipes (the one you attached your garden hoses to) are the most susceptible to temperature changes. To keep water from freezing in these pipes during the cold season, do the following:

• Find the valve on the inside of your house associated with faucet. Turn it off.
• Then, turn the faucet (on the outside of the house) on.

This way, water can’t freeze in there and burst the pipes.

Cool, huh?

Livin' on the Cheap

Well, it’s tax season again. Time – if you’re at all like me – to write a fat-ass check to the government.

What I appreciate about tax season, though, is that inspires great feats of creative thriftiness. So, let’s celebrate the secret cheapskate in all of us!

Come on, in what ways are you creatively frugal? Feel free to share.

Trust me; I could use the ideas.

Here’s my short list:

• Troll for free samples. My free, petit booty is the perfect size to pack in my travel bag. (Recommended: yes-its-free.com and freebies.about.com)
• Make my own chicken stock and breadcrumbs.
• Do lunch at swanky restaurants instead of dinner.
• Borrow cookbooks from library and photocopy recipes.
• Buy generic, with the exception of peanut butter. (If it ain’t Skippy, it ain’t worth it.)
• Raid my mother’s refrigerator after she visits Costco. (This weekend she hooked me up with free tilapia. Score!)
• Shamelessly brandish old grad school ID if it will score me student discounts.
• Cook stuff on aluminum foil. Use the same aluminum foil to wrap up leftovers. (Actually, this probably has more to do with me being lazy than cheap…)

Ah hah!

Typepad solved my technical woes. Turns out the system is not built to display archives dating past 10 months. So, they gave me instructions for creating a special archive. See new "Back in the Day" section.

Das Archives

Several weeks ago my husband, J, started a blog with his friends. It's actually pretty damn good! I would link to it here, but he is oh-so-secretive about his online identity.

Suddenly he's "Mr. Blog." Now we kind of have this friendly competition going on. But today, he crossed the line when he gave me a big of smack talkin' blog style.

J: Oh yeah, like, you've been blogging for, like, a billion years.

Me: Well, my first post was in December 2002. That makes me preeeeety seasoned.

J: Nah-ah! Says here your first post was October 2003.

Me: What???

I'd just been served -- and thought I lost my precious posts, all those great comments and good memories.

However, I breathed a sigh of relief when I hit "Archives." It's only when you click on "Archives" do you see all the goods. Strange...

I hope technical support can help me fix it!

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

Things I’ll be doing at some point today:

• Doing end-of-year clean up for work
• Checking the doorstep repeatedly for missing Abercrombie gift for niece
• Finally putting away my laundry
• Sending round of last-minute Christmas cards
• Payin’ some bills
• Making Kransekake and -- if I’m up for it -- Oatmeal Scotchies (for my fella!)
• Drinking a glass or two of Three-Buck Chuck* while doing the above

* Jersey Cost of Living = Expensive. So-called "Two-Buck Chuck" costs an extra buck in my area.

Fun with Arts and Crafts

Instructions for Making a Fruit Arrangement

After spending an hour’s worth of time and approximately $12 bucks on fruits and veggies, my masterpiece is complete. Check out the pics under the “Fun with Fruit” gallery on the left.

In case you feel like channeling Martha yourself, here are some basic instructions.

What You Need

- Sturdy Flower Pot (If you only have a basket, make sure you weight it down. The fruit makes the arrangement very top heavy. You don’t want it to flip over.)
- 1 Head Lettuce
- Spinach Leaves (A few, if you have ‘em.)
- Approximately 20-24 BBQ Skewers
- 1 Cantaloupe
- 1 Bunch of Grapes
- 1 Package Strawberries (~ 10 Berries)
- 1 Pineapple
- 1 Sharp Knife
- 1 Melon Baller (If you don’t have one, a teaspoon measuring spoon can pinch hit.)

Preparation

- Wash all fruit and veggies.
- Cut the almost all of cantaloupe in long spears.
- Make 5-6 melon balls with the remaining cantaloupe.
- Cut green leaves off strawberries.
- Cut pineapple into flower shapes.

How You Make It

- Put head of lettuce – whole, stem-side down -- into flower pot. (Make sure it fits securely. You may have to trim the sides down a bit to fit it in.)
- Layer spinach (if using) on top of the lettuce. Tuck in at sides so it doesn’t slip. (This is supposed to look like grass.)
- Put fruit on skewers.
- Ease the pointy end of the skewers into the lettuce.

Easy as that!

To make your life easier, I recommend putting in the fruit in the following order.

- Cantaloupe (Think of this like your foundation.)
- Pineapple/Melon Flowers
- Strawberries (Use this to cover in the spaces you may have missed.)
- Grapes (4/Skewer / Use for accents.)

Ugh! Comment Spammers.

I was just stopping by to chat a bit and post a little apology note. This has been a very busy week, so I wanted to say sorry for my lack of post-i-ness.

OK. So what's the deal with the Spam in the comments section?

Penis Enlargements_Gay Sex_Viagra

(I'm quoting, mind you.)

In case you're wondering, I deleted the posts. (Thanks, TypePad for this handy little feature.)

Has anyone else ever experienced this?

Welcome!

Welcome to the new home of Twisty.

I've been dying to add pictures up here. So, since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I decided to kick things off with a few pics from last holiday.

Today is incredibly nuts. I have a ton of errands to run. However, there's so much to say. More later.