aseiwert's Profile

We have this exact problem every spring no matter what. Sadly, we live in an apartment surrounded by....less than savory folks, to put it nicely. So it continues to be a problem.

Our trick:
- Grab an old plastic container from the recycles (or rinse out one you were going to throw away anyway), one with a low edge and wide top works best
- pour in some beer and throw in some pieces of fruit (cores, peels, whatevs) if you have them
- cover with plastic wrap, secure around the outside edges with a rubber band (so they can't get out), and
- poke just a few holes in the plastic with a thumbtack (or similar).

The plastic dish is handy because then you can just throw those suckers away without having to look at or smell the beer/fruit/smelly/dead fly concoction you've been growing.
Depending on how bad the problem is, you can leave them out for about two days before there are enough dead flies inside to keep new ones away. Then toss and start over.

I work in retail, not in a call-in customer service situation, but I call in to them constantly as part of my job.
Being nice to the person on the other end of the phone is the most valuable tool you have. Why would they do something for you if you're being...less than pleasant?
And enunciating. If they can't understand you, they can't do anything for you. And speaking louder is not the same thing.

Kansas has some of the most archaic liquor laws out there:
We were the first state to adopt Prohibition laws, the last ones to abolish them, and there are still 25 dry counties out in western Kansas.
Only in the last 5 years has it been legal to buy alcohol on Sunday, and then only until 8. Except on Easter Sunday and Christmas when it falls on a Sunday.
Pre-1987 there was some strange membership/card/hole punch business involved with purchasing alcohol at a bar that I've never been able to get straight in my head.
Only 3.2 beer in grocery stores, but everything else, you have to go to the liquor store for (which means you just go straight to the liquor store, no one buys 3.2 beer).

Here, if you actually care, just head here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_Kansas

My boyfriend requested and received this for Christmas (best 20-year-old ever!):
http://www.spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=77

@accio, I ADORE the heavy cream idea!
We *always* buy entirely too much thinking we'll use the rest for something (I mean, it's delicious) but it just ends up spoiling in the refrigerator while waiting for us to have enough time to do anything with it.
I actually just shared this idea with the boyfriend (he does the cooking, I'm pretty hopeless) and this may actually get implemented.
Yay! Thank you!

You crazy crazy people. I grew up in the midwest, so I'm no stranger to cold winters (and this one has been particularly brutal), but to deny yourself a warm home just seems strange to me. I feel that my house should at least not want to give me frostbite during the winter months.
That said, my father always tried to freeze us to death in an effort to save money each winter, so now I always keep my place at 70F minimum.

My boyfriend (the coffee snob in the relationship, I just benefit) found a large Chemex for around $3 at a garage sale. We haven't made coffee another way in about a year.

Somehow when we moved in together (from our parents house, so, completely bereft of any kitchen anything) we ended up with a blender first - before any other countertop-sized appliances. Don't ask me why, I'm not sure.
We've ended up using our in lieu of a food processor, hand mixer, clean bowl, or storage container many a time. Then we bought a hand mixer and life got a few less cuts, but more pancakes ("darn").

Between being completely broke, a windfall of meat (beef) from his parents, and a pantry full of things we'd always kept because we figured they'd be useful sometimes but never actually used, we're doing the same thing. We're nowhere near as well-stocked as you are, however.
It is ridiculously handy to have parents-in-law who buy a whole cow (butchered, of course) every year just after Christmas. We get everything they hadn't used already. With his new obsession (sous-vide) and lots of herbs and spices and reductions, we've gotten along quite nicely.

We JUST made these. Completely screwed up and added an entire lemon's worth of zest (don't ask) but made up for it with an addition of powdered thyme to the cookies and a delicious cranberry/rosemary/nutmeg/cream cheesy filling.