syzygy's Profile

We had about a million fruit flies in my kitchen about a month ago, and nothing was getting rid of them. We tried every kind of trap, and no matter how many we killed, there were always more flying around. We put away any food that might have been out, kept the counters clean, but they were still everywhere.

Finally, we decided to wage war on the little nuisances. We ditched our old garbage can and recycling box (plastic tends to absorb smells) and bought a new all-in-one can with a lid. Then we cleaned every surface in the kitchen, washed every pot and pan hanging in the pot rack (they would gather there) and every tool or item that stays out on the counter. We put away a lot of the things we had out on the counters, too. I even got up on the counter and cleaned the top of the cabinets, which were kind of gross. It took three days, caused a fight between my husband and me, and inspired many creative curses for the builders who "designed" a kitchen that had so many hard-to-clean nooks and crannies.

Then we laid out the traps again, and lo and behold, the flies were gone in a matter of days. We still have one or two that just refuse to die, but we must have found the place they were breeding, because we aren't getting more of them. For bugs that only live for a few days, they sure do have staying power.

The upshot of all this is that my kitchen is so clean right now. I hope it lasts.

I inherited my great-grandmother's dishware. It's over 100 years old. My mother ate off of it as a child, and broke a lot of it. When I was a kid, we used it for special occasions. I broke a few pieces myself, and my husband has managed to break a few. And there are still about 80 pieces! It's very fragile, and many pieces are damaged. I suspect it's not actually china, but that doesn't make it any less cool.

It's a nice set, and it's cool to have something that old and with so much family history, especially since I never knew anyone from my mother's side of the family. But 80 pieces of dishware takes up a lot of room, and it almost never gets used, since my husband and I are not formal dinner party people. I have used it during holidays and other occasions, but it hasn't been used for a few years now.

I basically eyeball it.

I don't like the current setup I have for my flatscreen (a crappy old TV stand and some bookshelves), and when I finally replace it, I'd like to get something nice, but I am not going to hide my thousand-dollar TV behind doors as though I am ashamed of it. I'm not, any more than I'm ashamed of my fridge or my bookshelves. And I do need a certain amount of storage for it, because I have a ton of DVDs, as well as a gaming console, a DVR/Cable box, an Apple TV, a Blu-Ray/surround sound system, and a bunch of speakers. I'd love to have all my media streaming from one box, but that's going to have to wait a few years. In the meantime, I need to store that stuff somewhere.

Wasn't the Jawbone UP been pulled from the shelves because it was defective?

I'd split the batch up. Put some in vodka to make vanilla extract, some in sugar for vanilla sugar, and some in an airtight jar for cooking and baking with.

Although I imagine you could just use the ones stored in sugar for baking and cooking, right? I'm not 100% sure-- every time I've made vanilla sugar, I've given it away, and left the bean in.

JNvillage I was just thinking the same thing.

I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one with a bunch of CPKs. I had 9, plus a Koosa, and my brother had three, and another Koosa, which he eventually denied were his, so they ended up in my room. I don't know how my parents ever afforded them, since we were not rich, and I wore hand-me-down clothes. I did save my money and buy a couple of them myself, and a few were given by relatives, but still-- that's still a lot of dolls! I think I ended up with so many because my grandmother gave away all my mother's dolls the day she turned 11 because she was now "too old for dolls", so my mom decided her own daughter could have dolls as long as she wanted. I got my last CPK at the age of 12, long past the age other girls were playing with theirs.

Most of them are at my parents' house, but I kept two of them with me: A blonde one in a kilt (she's a World Traveller, and came with a suitcase and a passport), and a Newborn in a blue sleeper.

My first one was named Joanna Melvina, and I got her in 1983, when I was 8. She had short blonde hair like mine, a blue-and-white striped shirt, blue jeans, a blue jacket, and white sneakers with pink stripes (so you could tell she was a girl). I was snooping in my mother's closet one time, and I found her (in my defence, she wasn't well-hidden). I knew I wouldn't get her until Christmas, but I went and visited her in the closet every day after school. My friend Mike had a boy one, with reddish-brown hair (like his) and the same outfit, but in red. We used to pretend they were best friends and on a team or something, until Mike got to be too cool to play with dolls.

I would live a cozy library, with comfy chairs and bookshelves everywhere (and a fireplace). And a laundry room with space to fold and iron. (My washer and dryer are in a closet in my bathroom, too, although I am trying to figure out how to get a folding ironing board in there.)

But I do have a room for washing my hair. It also conveniently has a sink, tub, and toilet in there. Multitasking!

It's a straw jar, not a coffee press.