Cleaning Day Again

I love cleaning day. Wait let me correct that. I love the results of cleaning day. Although, I try my best to put things back where they should be throughout the week, I always get lazy and slip up. Wrappers, papers, magazines, get piled up on my desk, on my floor, and on my nightstand. About a year I ago I've started what is cleaning day.
Cleaning day, for me, is usually Sunday. It's a great start to my week. Fresh floors, fresh desk, and an airing out it weather permits.

My favorite weapon right now is vinegar. It kills the germs and doesn't leave any scent behind. I'm a viscious toliet cleaner. Squirt some bowl cleaner in go around with the toliet brush, do under the rim, then do an aerial attack with a pumic stone (always wearing gloves). The shower is impossible to clean! It's so grimmy and dirty that my mom or I will touch it. But, I think I'm going to try and hit it with a daily 409 regiment. Maybe that will work.

For my room I sprinkle baking soda on the rugs, make the bed, put EVERYTHING back where it should be and dust, then finally vacuum, and hit all of the furniture with furniture polish.
I think I'm done cleaning this week. Next week I'll be washing my sheets.

Happy Valentine's Day

Everyone!

♥

Enjoy my clean bathroom pictures ☺

What to think?

So, on Yahoo Sports this morning I saw an artical about one of the Olympic skaters, Johnny Weir, having to live in the Olympic village because of "anti-fur" activists' threats. Apparently, his skating customes use fur, such as fox fur. He's run into trouble for it before but I'm assuming that the pressure was just too much this time. Weir is known for his "flamboyant" customes. Now, I'm all animal right and everything but these people must have really shaken him up which is just cruel. He was planning on staying at a hotel but opted for the Olympic village, that has better security, instead. Animal rights aside, what about human rights?

Although, I am concerned with these people threatening Weir, I do hope that he stops wearing animal fur.

Coupon Clipping Hourly Rate

Click here.
That will change your mind about not clipping coupons, wont it?

Some helpful coupon site:
Coupons.com <-- requires download
Retail Me Not
Coupon Cabin
Smart Source <-- requires download
Cool Savings

Add your favorite websites in the comments!

Turning Snow Day into Pretzel Day!

I love pretzels mostly soft Annie Anne's and from some  random bakery in Lancaster that I went to last spring for a field trip. The only problem is Annie Anne's pretzels are expensive and the ones for Lancaster I'll probably never have again and will never find the place again.

So, I decided that it was time to make my own. And boy, I'll never go back to frozen store pretzels! The only thing is that I felt that they need A LOT more butter and perhaps 1 tablespoon more of sugar.

Here's the recipe:

The dough:

1 1/2 cup of warm water

1 packet or 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup bread flour

3 cups all purpose flour

Baking Soda/Water Solution:

4 cups water

4 tablespoons baking soda

"Glaze"
Melted butter

Dissolve yeast, sugar, and salt in warm water. Let it sit for about 5 minutes. Mix in flour. Turn mixture onto floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. Lightly grease a bowl and turn down in it to coat. Place towel or plastic wrap over dough and let rise for 1 hour. Turn dough out and cut into 12 stripes. Roll them into 3 foot long pieces and twist. Let sit. Boil water and baking soda and one at a time, place pretzels in water until they float. Repeat until all pretzels are done. Coat with plenty of butter and sprinkle kosher salt* on. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.

I think this was my most successful venture into making bread. When I make bread my loaves are dense and I was afraid that this would be as well.

*Get creative with what you put on it. Try garlic salt, and cinnamon and sugar.

Chocolate: The Raw Truth

Just a magazine clipping that I found interesting. My favorite chocolate is fair trade. I love the Endanger Species Chocolate. You'll need to click the artical so you can zoom in and out to read it. I'm going to try to post more interesting magazine articals especially those that I find in Mother Earth News.

Today's Agenda

Today is a snow day from work. I went in last night for my shift with the threat of the snow chasing me out early. It didn't, to my relief. But today there's about five inches of snow on the ground and my road is completely covered. Nevermind the main roads, it's my roads that I worry about since I think we are the last to get plowed.
So, on today's agenda it looks like cleaning for me. Since I still live with my parents I have little cleaning responsibility, I only clean my room, the upstairs bathroom, and the upstairs hallway. I have to admit, I've been neglecting my cleaning duties lately. My room my not look messy, compared to my friend's room (don't get me started), but it bothers me. Part of the problem is that I have little storage.
Today I need to clean my room which includes; vacuuming, dusting, cleaning my furiture; and cleaning the bathroom which includes; the toliet, the floor, and the sink (my mom and I give up on the shower). The toliet's already done, scrubbed and the bowl done over with a pumic stone for the lime bulid up. It's so clean you could drink out of it, although it's not recommended.
Being organized is a bit of an obession for me. I feel good once my room is clean since I spend about 75% of my time there. I think i'm going to invest some money in organization products such as a shoe organizer for my closet door and binder magazine holders for my Mother Earth News. I have a few cliped articals from other magazines that I want to scan and put on my flash drive and possibly post here.
Well  I better get cleaning!

Field Trip: To the Library

One of my friends is nineteen now, loves to read but doesn't have a library card when she lives two minutes from one! So yesterday we made a trip there and got her one. I made her drive since I only had a vauge idea as to where this library was. I thought we were going to die and it wasn't just because her car dates to 1991.

The building that the library is held in is more than 100 years old and use to be a school. It was really nice and had that library feel to it (You can learn about the library's history here). One would think that this library would be huge but it isn't. It's just the top floor of the building. It was actually a little bit disappointing. But for me and my friend, it's better than driving twenty minutes to the better library.

Afterwards we went to the pizza parlor next door which was really nice.

Sick Again-What's Wrong with Me?

So here I sit with a cup of throat soother's tea. I'm sick again. The second time within a month. I know that you don't actually catch colds but I had a feeling that being cold can actually lower your immunity. After a quick look up online I found that it was true. and of course Monday night I slept cold and woke up with a minor sore throat. Last night I turned the heat up and piled on the blankets in hopes that my cold wouldn't get worse. It did, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Actually, it's more of a runny nose than a sore throat now.

Happy Groundhog Day!

I just got a text message from Phil:
"Hey, just saw my shadow. I hereby do predict 6 more weeks of winter. Last one to a PA ski lodge is an opossum. -Phil"
"Germn tradition holds that if a hibernating animal sees its shadow on Feb[uary] 2...winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, legend says spring will come early."-From the Associated Press
He's devilishly handsome isn't he? The groundhog not the human.

A Simple Breakfast

Yesterday I had a really good breakfast of my awesome french toast. It's so rich and so good by Monday I crave something simplier. This morning I made toast with jam. It's not a fantasic example of my cuilinary adventures but it's so simple that's wonderful.
Back in November I went out to Lancaster and stopped by something called the Kitchen Kettle Village. I was under the impression that the jams that they made were the most fantastic thing on earth. The truth is, it's not.
Today I put Kitchen Kettle's Strawberry Rhubarb (left)  jam up against my homemade blackberry jam (roght). I was a little disgusted when I read the ingrediant lable of the KK jam. High fuctose corn syrup. And this stuff is made by Amish women!
Anyway, I put both on toasted texas toast bread and tried both. Which is the best? Mine of course. The KK jam is overly sweet with not much Rhubarb flavor. Honesty, I'm a little bit annoyed about it and I don't think I'll be getting anymore KK products. You could try all of their products before buying and the pickles tasted like sugar coated cucumbers!
Hopefully next time I go back to Lancaster I can go to one of those nice roadside stands. The one with the pretzels is amazing.