Anyone want to re-purpose a kitchen item?

Attn: Any of my creative engineer-minded friends.

I have a cheap hand-mixer I bought a few months ago but need to get rid of now. (Yes, you definitely get what you pay for!)  The motor is still working fine but its the *Beaters* that failed me! (Who would have guessed?!?) The plating is flaking off AS I MIX THINGS – NOT GOOD!!.  Hence I’m no longer going to use this product to make any food items and its just taking up space now.  

Here's the thing:  I hate to waste a perfectly decent (though admittedly cheap) motor when it might be re-purposed for something else (& *far more creative*).   If *YOU* have a possible use for it, please let me know and I’ll get you the hand-mixer (sans beaters :) – you can have the fun of disassembling it for parts!

:)

Memorial Day Weekend is almost here!

Garden Grove Strawberry Festival 5/2010, a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

pics from the Strawberry Festival in Garden Grove, CA. (Saturday, May 29, 2010).

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And THAT means....Garden Grove Strawberry Parade & Festival!! YAY!
*Kermit arms*
:)

Its a fun little/big municipal fair and its been going strong since 1958!! They have the BEST Strawberry Shortcakes (not to be missed)! Its always a treat to take a few hours and wander around, eating Fair Food, seeing what's for sale in the booth, etc....and Admission is FREE. :)

For more info on the GG Strawberry Festival: http://www.strawberryfestival.org/

My Garden Grove Strawberry Festival 5/2010 pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157624267693192/

(If you want to see pics on Picasa instead, my Picasa Album: https://picasaweb.google.com/rebecca.thelin/StrawberryFestival2010?feat=directlink or

Strawberry Festival 2010

)

May 25th - Towel Day (HHGTTG)

towel day - tribute to Douglas Adams, a group on Flickr.

Do you know where your Towel is? Don't Panic!
:)


Yes, its That day again, May 25th - aka Towel Day - a Tribute to the creator of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.

For more info on Towel Day: http://www.towelday.org/

And If you're carrying a towel today, in honor of Towel Day, be sure to snap a picture & add it to "towel day - tribute to Douglas Adams" on Flickr! (http://www.flickr.com/groups/towelday/)

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“ A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with. ”

— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Who knew braiding hair could be so hard?

Still dealing with fall-out from re-injuring my arm yesterday...and while I can do some things relatively easily, my arm (elbow) ligaments are certainly stiff and I have a limited range of motion...again.

I've been attempting to braid my hair (which is relatively long) in a single braid behind me for the past whatever number of minutes, and it just isn't happening. Getting my injured arm into a position for braiding my hair strains those sore ligaments to the point I have to stop cause its just painful.

Gonna make this weekend VERY interesting when I NEED to have my hair done up in a Civil War (1860s) appropriate hairstyle.

Wish me luck!

Sometimes I wonder if my life is a Screwball Comedy....

considering the various things that just "seem to happen to me". Like Tuesday's contact episode.


This morning was another example: I literally FELL out of bed (tangled in my bedsheets/coverlet) in my half-awake scramble to reach a cup that was falling...and of course landed on my sore/previous injured (so easily hurt) arm. Doh! OUCH! Its like a good 3+ feet drop (I have an "elevated" bed that was made for me years ago so I could store things easily under it. Nice most of the time, just not this morning!).

At least the arm is only a bit sore and not TRULY re-injurred. I'll baby it a bit today and hopefully will have it mostly useful by tomorrow/this weekend. :)

Guess where I'll be this weekend?

If you guessed at a Re-enactment, you're RIGHT! :)
I'm finally heading back to Fort Tejon for a Civil War re-enactment! (It's been way too long since I last made the trek up there.) And I'm super excited that I get to cook in the Officer's Headquarter's KITCHEN!! An actual Kitchen with a Hearth (i.e. Fireplace)!

No, I'm not cooking ALL the meals for our group this weekend (Yay for learning from the past!), but I did sign up to cook at least one - Saturday Supper (evening meal).

Right now I'm debating between 2 meals & can't make up my mind which I'd rather make (assuming I have cookware - dutch ovens/kettles - large enough to cook these):

1st Option: Apples & Buttons ("Schnitz un Knepp") or Dried Apple Schnitz. German/Swish dish.
>Cook a ham (on a bone) for 2 hrs with dried apples (that have soaked overnight) & brown sugar. Serve with Potatoes (boiled or baked) and Corn (I'm thinking of buying frozen kernals & cooking them up in a skillet). Possibly serve also with biscuits available.


2nd Option: Stewed Chicken & Dumplings.
>like the name says - whole chicken cooked (stewed) in a pot with fresh-made dumplings. Haven't though out yet what to serve with it...probably same as above for rest (Boiled Potatoes & Corn).


Both of these are assuming there's a pot (dutch oven or kettle) that's big enough for me to put a whole chicken or a ham bone into it for cooking on the fire/hearth, of course. Considering the weather forecast for this weekend, they both sound nice & warm (besides tasty!) for a chill evening in the middle of a Mountain Pass. :)


So....what do YOU guys think? (Especially those of you that might be eating with me ;-). Time to voice your opinion while I'm making up my mind. Anyone have a preference for one over the other?

Time is of the essence since the event is THIS WEEKEND and I'm driving up to the Fort on Friday, so I gotta make up my mind soon. :)

Oh, and I'm debating if I should volunteer for a 2nd meal....hmm....

Things not to do when taking a Wilton Decorating Basics Class

Things not to do when taking a Wilton Decorating Basics Class (i.e. decorating cakes etc.):

1) Half way through the course’s allotted time, rub your eyes & cause one of your contact lens to fall out….especially the dominant eye’s contact lens.

2) Forget to bring a back-up pair of glasses in case you do the above.

And yet, that is INDEED what happened to me! Fortunately, the erstwhile lens landed on the table (and not in my frosting or on the cake I was decorating), but there was NO WAY I was putting that lens back in my eye! (Good thing it was just a “Daily” so I could toss it & not have to save it for cleaning later). Unfortunately, as that was my dominant eye, and while I can see ok up close, far away (and at night) is blurry…and with one I focused & the other eye trying to compensate for sudden change in focus (i.e. sans contact lens), let’s just say it made for an interesting rest of the evening! (Trying to keep your dominant eye closed while looking out of the other eye, for a period of time, is harder than it seems!)

Oh, and to top off the evening, I then had to drive home…at night! Fortunately for me the class location wasn’t far from home so it was only a brief trip. (5 minutes with stoplights).

:)

And I did get to finish decorating my cake at home. It looks great!