Coughs

Every time I’m down with the sickness, no matter what kind of sickness it is, my mommy always has a trick to fix me up. The one time I was sick I had a horrible cough. Horrible enough to make me quit smoking for almost three weeks. Now you know how serious this cough was for real, huh? Anyways, she looked in her handy dandy book and gave me this recipe to try out.

"Blend lemon juice with a little honey, then add a pinch of cayenne pepper and swallow. The honey coats your throat, soothing irritated tissues, while the lemon reduces inflammation and delivers a dose of infection-fighting vitamin C. The red pepper increases circulation to the area, which hastens the healing process."

It worked for me to soothe my current state of agony at the time. I swear you’d think I’m dying every time I don’t feel good. I just get real moody and whiney. Who doesn’t though? Anyways, this recipe has become my favorite when I have a sore throat, which is quite often. But I guess I can’t complain about sore throats until I quit smoking for good…

If your interested here's the book. ISBN: 0-7621-0488-010

Or here's the link. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=0-7621-0488-0

Baking Soda

Baking soda is a multipurpose item. Well it says right on the box: "For baking, cleansing, & deodorizing." I’ve heard of lots of things you can use it for including a cleanser and teeth whitener. However, I never heard of actually ingesting it for any reason until now. If you mix baking soda in warm water and drink it down it helps with UTI (urinary tract infection) symptoms. Eh gross I know kind of a nasty topic, but I’m telling you it works. If you’ve ever had one or know someone who has had one you already know that they are not pleasant. I mean extremely unpleasant. The urgency to urinate, the pain and stinging when you do go, and the trickle that comes out, all of it is just unpleasant. Mix up some baking soda in warm water and pound it down (I say pound because you really don’t want to sip on this-trust me) and you’re relieved for quite some time.

For more uses for baking soda look them up on their website: http://www.armhammer.com/

As I was doing this post I learned baking soda is also used as an antacid. Ah the endless possibilities.

Cat Nip

My brother bought a cat for his girlfriend once. He thought he could keep it hidden in his room without my parents knowing. When he would leave the house he would leave it in his room with the door closed. The cat would put her paws under the door trying to get out when she would hear someone walk down the hall. Obviously we noticed her and we would take her out and play with her while he was gone and put her back in his room before he would get home. Needless to say when he moved out the cat stayed behind because she became my mom's new best friend.



So he and his roommate got a new kitty. They named him Toby. This kitty is insane. He'll jump up at the window and bangs into the blinds and his claws get caught up in the strings of the blinds. He bats cigarette butts out of the ash tray and throws them on the floor. He jumps up the side of the refrigerator to knock off the magnets so he can chase them around the kitchen floor.



One day my mom gave my brother a bag of cat nip from my house so he could share the pleasure with his kitty. He set his bag of things down and went upstairs to his room. To his surprise when he returned downstairs, Toby went inside his bag and pulled out the entire bag of cat nip and ripped it open on the kitchen floor. He said my mom must have had the best bubonic chronic cat nip ever because his kitty went nuts. So next time you're thinking of a treat to give your own kitty cat maybe a little cat nip will do the trick. They deserve to have some fun every now and then too, right?

No See 'Ems

So my plants got bugs. Yeah that's right bugs. They're the kind of bugs you can't see too. That's right the invisible kind of bugs. The no see 'ems. You might think you saw them for a split second then nope they're not there anymore. I asked my mom what I should do to get rid of them. She told me to spray the plants with soapy water. She said that would get rid of the bugs without killing the plants. Has anyone ever heard of such a trick? I don't know if it works or not yet, but I'm about to go find out.

Now that I think of it, I only see these pesky little buggers when I'm eating food in my room. So annoying. Before I can swat my hand at them they vanish in thin air. This means war.

House Plants

Trying to add a tiny bit of responsibility to my life I decided it would be a good idea to get a few house plants for my bedroom. You know to liven things up a bit or get that el natural kind of atmosphere. While picking out the ones I liked the best the thought of how long it would take me to kill them ran through my mind. I figured it wouldn't really take long but I figured it'd be worth a shot anyway. I picked 2 that like the sun and 2 that like the shade. Wouldn't you know I still have all 4 of them intact today (for the most part). I mean don't get me wrong they could probably have more leaves on them, could have grown taller, and could be healthier then their current sad state. Skimpy, crispy, frowning leaves like they are begging for you to never water them ever again so they could just die already. I do water them. I really do. When I remember to.

If you ever attempt to have house plants. Rule #1- Check to see if the plants need watered often.

Texters

If any one ever said I love you for the first time over a text message. Um...game over. In general, I have mixed feelings about texting. I've been in situations before where I have felt less important because the person who I am currently with is too busy texting someone else. But I know I also do this to people all the time not meaning to portray that message at all. I have actually got into fights with the boyfriend because I say he doesn't text me enough. His excuse, "What do you think they did one hundred years ago". I know how ridiculous that may sound but I just want to know what he's up to or how his day is going. Is that such a bad thing? As much as I hate my hunnie tracker 2,000 at times, I've recently went almost two weeks without a cell phone and I hate to say it but I felt lost without it. How pathetic.

Permanent Marker

I went to the petting zoo with a girlfriend. We frolicked around in our flip flops and feed all the animals at Living Treasures (I highly recommend going if you don't have anything else better to do. It's quite amusing for real). Anyways, on our way home we decided we were going to go have a drink and watch the rest of the Steelers game. So, she stopped at her house to change her shoes. We were both sitting on her steps while she took off her flip flops and slipped on a pair of boots. All of the sudden, she whips out this marker and starts coloring in her boot. And I quote, "I love permanent markers. They can fix any pair of black shoes," she said. This is something I never even thought of before. Sure it seems simple, but it would have never crossed my mind. Instead of spending money on shoe shine or whatever you fix shoe scuffs with, why not just color it in with a permanent marker? I'm telling you, you couldn't even tell the difference. Seemed like a neat trick to me.