Useful Forwards (Yes, There Is Such a Thing)

I hate getting forwards. In fact, I generally move them to my trash folder without ever opening them if I see the "FWD:" in the subject line. But this morning I was sent this one* about WD-40 and was intrigued since the drummer from my dad's band just recently told me that the product would remove tar stains from our car. So if you have a problem, read on. WD-40 can probably fix it.

(*This is not the exact forward. Some grammar and spelling has been modified and corrected, and some extraneous content has been omitted.)

WD-40, or "Water Displacement #40." This product came about in an attempt to create a rust preventative solvent and degreaser to protect missile parts. It was created in 1953 by three technicians at the San Diego Rocket Chemical Company. Its name comes from the project that had been started to find a "water displacement" compound.. They were successful with the fortieth formulation, thus WD-40. The Convair Company bought it in bulk to protect their atlas missile parts.

NOTE: Ken East (one of the original founders) says that there is nothing in WD-40 that would harm you (so fret not as you read any uses that involve topical use).

Here are some common (and uncommon) uses:
1. Protects silver from tarnishing.
2. Removes road tar and grime from cars.
3. Cleans and lubricates guitar strings.
4. Gives floors that "just-waxed" sheen without making them slippery.
5. Keeps flies off cows.
6. Restores and cleans chalkboards.
7. Removes lipstick stains.
8. Loosens stubborn zippers.
9. Untangles jewelry chains.
10. Removes stains from stainless steel sinks.
11. Removes dirt and grime from barbecue grills.
12. Keeps ceramic/terra cotta garden pots from oxidizing.
13. Removes tomato stains from clothing.
14. Keeps glass and plastic shower doors free of water spots.
15. Camouflages scratches in ceramic and marble floors.
16. Keeps scissors working smoothly.
17. Lubricates noisy door hinges on vehicles (and doors in homes).
18. Removes black scuff marks from floors.
19. Displaces the moisture on your car's distributor cap and allows the car to start.
20. Gives a children's playground gym slide a shine for a super fast slide.
21. Lubricates gear shifts and mower deck levers for ease of handling on riding mowers.
22. Rids rocking chairs and swings of squeaky noises.
23. Lubricates tracks in sticking windows and makes them easier to open.
24. Lubricates the stem of an umbrella, making it easier to open and close.
25. Restores and cleans padded leather dashboards in vehicles, as well as vinyl bumpers.
26. Restores and cleans roof racks on vehicles.
27. Lubricates and stops squeaks in electric fans.
28. Lubricates wheel sprockets on tricycles, wagons, and bicycles for easy handling.
29. Lubricates fan belts on washers and dryers to keep them running smoothly.
30. Keeps rust from forming on saws, saw blades, and other tools.
31. Removes splattered grease on stove tops.
32. Keeps bathroom mirrors from fogging.
33. Lubricates prosthetic limbs.
34. Keeps pigeons off the balcony (they hate the smell).
35. Removes all traces of duct tape.
36. Relieves arthritis pain when sprayed on arms, hands, and knees .
37. Removes crayon marks from walls. Spray on the mark and wipe with a clean rag.
38. Takes the sting away immediately and stops the itch for fire ant (and other bug) bites.
39. Attracts fish. Spray a little on live bait or lures. Also, it's a lot cheaper than the chemical attractants that are made for just that purpose. (Keep in mind though, using some chemical laced baits or lures for fishing are not allowed in some locations.)

FUN FACT: New York's favorite use? WD-40 protects the Statue of Liberty from the elements.

So yeah, I think I'm going to go out and buy a can to keep in my purse.

P.S. The basic ingredient of WD-40 is FISH OIL.

Surf Girl Meets Turf Gril

Friday night was special for me, not only because my siblings were out of the house for the night (teen group version of "Survivor Man" = memories of what it was like to be an only child), but also because I had my first ever steak.

My mom found out about this while making a list of meals for the next week before sending me grocery shopping. "You mean you've never had a steak before? In your entire life?"

"Nope. Well, wait. There was that one time when [my Family Life Skills teacher] brought back a small piece of filet mignon from Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and let me try a bite....does that count?"

"Uh, no."

"Oh..."

"And you've never even ordered it when you've gone out to eat?"

"Well, no. I almost always order something spicy and/or seafood...I don't get that often, so I always like to get something with shrimp. I never thought to get steak."

"That's it. We're going to get you some steak Friday."

And so we did.

We were running errands that evening, so we headed out to Applebee's for their 2 for $20 deal. We both got the 7 oz. House Sirloin. I ordered mine medium rare, hoping they'd undercook it to a perfect rare; instead, I got it the other way around and ended up being delivered something that looked more like medium - there was very little pink. But I couldn't complain: I sunk my teeth into that piece of juicy, savory meat and let it linger there, clamped by my jaw, allowing the juiciness to flow freely into my mouth. It tasted amazing; better than I had imagined.

I opened my eyes - I hadn't even noticed I had closed them - and looked directly at my mom, grinning with satisfaction. "How could you keep this from me for so long?" I asked, with a frustrated but playful tone.

I couldn't finish it all, having eaten my fair share of our boneless buffalo wings appetizer plus the smashed potato side that came with my hunk of meat. But after two hours I attacked it again with just as much excitement. Maybe it's just because I'm new, but it tasted just as good cold.

It sucks having a picky dad and (so-called) vegetarian sisters (interpret "vegetarian" loosely...it's more like "vegetarian...except for bacon and pepperoni"). We have very little options when it comes to planning "carnivorous" meals. So now I'm definitely going to have to add steak to my eating-out menu.

YAY FOR STEAK!

New Favorite T-shirt Site!

it's called vigtees.com and their t-shirts are awesome.

My personal favorite can be found here.

They're a little more expensive than the other t-shirt sites I've found, but this shirt is totally worth it.

Introduction

It was late Saturday night - or, as some would say, early Sunday morning - as she climbed the stairs. She stepped softly, careful to keep her right wrist as steady as she could to keep her gigantic tea cup of hot water from tipping. She had boiled and poured it several minutes prior and was hoping that it had cooled sufficiently so that, once she reached her room at the top of the last platform, she could rip open her new teabag, place it in the cup to steep, and then sip from it soon after without burning her tongue. As she crab-walked her way up, she could not help but think that this was what it was like to feel "old," should one be able to properly define such a word. Her knees ached, but (in her mind) for all the right and most honorable reasons. She smiled inside as she realized she was wearing the prize she had earned at the same time she had earned the sore knees: the ten-hour volleyball tournament in Harrisville. She was still recovering from the severe sunburn she had received from that affair, but despite the pain she suffered that week (and the peeling she was still trying to get past), it was all worth it to her - even if all first place won was a t-shirt.

She reached her room and made a right through the open door. Her wrist quivered a bit as she gently set the flower pot-sized mug down on the round, metallic coaster at the edge of her large, black wooden desk. She felt relieved to have made it successfully to her final destination of the day without spilling any scalding hot water on herself - she was, after all, carrying it with her opposite hand. Roaming about her desktop, her eyes finally fell on the sky blue packet of tea. She picked it up and read it to herself: "Harney & Sons. ORANGE PEKOE." What is "Pekoe"? she thought aloud. She turned over the now opened packet to read the description: "A classic Assam laced with Ceylon." A load of good that did me...I don't know what Assam is either. She shrugged and slowly tugged the teabag out by its string. Then, as if it were someone easing into a jacuzzi after a long day's work, she slid the teabag into the steaming cup of water, guiding it down the side until it finally rested flat along the bottom of the mug. Without lifting the cup, she leaned in and allowed her nose to linger just above her mammoth mug and the aromatic waves of heat that were now drifting upwards into her room to serenade her senses, both with the sweet smell and the warm yet intangible touch as it wafted against her face. She then sat down in front of her laptop (situated in the very center of her desk) and began to type a new and quite overdue blog entry.

Relient K!

I cannot even begin express how excited I am about this. I haven't seen RK in concert since my 17th birthday(!!!).

By the looks of the tickets site, it seems to be Toby Mac's tour (technically speaking) - the "Winter Wonder Slam" - but either way, it's still an opportunity to see Matty T and the guys live.

If you have no clue who I'm talking about, check out their website or YouTube them. Some excellent songs to search would include: "Pressing On," "For the Moments I Feel Faint," "Mood Rings," "Getting into You," "Be My Escape," "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been," "Must Have Done Something Right," "Deathbed," and "The Lining Is Silver."

This clip is their song "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been."

Cookin' up a Storm

So I was supposed to go to Kennywood today with some friends, but since it was a 70% chance of thunderstorms, we decided we'd rather wait for a day that was forecasted to be sunny so our $40 tickets would be worth while. I was so pumped to go though, so I'm kind of frustrated that it isn't POURING outside right now. (If Sammi ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.)

On a brighter note, my mom and I are assembling something of a cook-book gone cook-three-ring-binder. We're tired of the pages of all our cookbooks getting wet and wrinkled or splattered with food and such; plus, so many of the recipes we use have been altered over time that they're not even the recipe we use anymore. So we're typing them all up the way we actually cook/bake them then and keeping them in clear plastic sleeves so they stay nice.

So. If anyone is interested in leaving some favorite recipes in the Comments section of this post, feel free! Maybe I'll share some of my favorites.

Retiree

So this morning went as usual: I arrived at work around 7 a.m. with my small, soy white chocolate mocha in hand. I entered my office, turned on the computer, and logged in. But when I tried to open the office's network email, I couldn't log in for some reason. I decided it must be a fluke and instead tried to open one of our database systems to enter some data. To my surprise, I couldn't use that either. I figured the server must be down or that the computers had been updated and thought it might work better if I just restarted my computer. I did so, and was shocked to find that now I couldn't even log on to my user's account. Even more astounding was the a notice window popped up saying "Your account has been disabled. Please see your administrator for help." So when one of my co-workers got in, and paid her a visit and told her my problems. She pulled up a program and found my name. After a three-second pause, she said, "Huh, that's funny."

"What?" I asked.

"It says here that you're retired," was her reply.

I leaned forward from my seat and craned my neck around to view the screen; sure enough, I was listed as retired. It turned out that when I was changed from a "temporary employee" (through a group called Temp. Services) over to a "Pitt student employee" (same thing, but paid by someone else), the computer system was never notified and therefore decided my time here at UPMC had expired. I still can't figure out why it chose to do it that way though.

While I was waiting for my request for an account to be processed, I decided to walk down to the hospital and collect some data for the study. My dad, who works there, happened to be just leaving his office, and we had a chance to stop and talk. "So guess what?" I asked him, "Apparently, I'm retired!"

"Wow," was his response. There was a pause, then, "sooo....do you get a pension?"

I laughed and explained to him what had happened and that it was being taken care of while I was out. He sighed, and with a laugh said, "Sure wish I could retire!"

So now I'm back to work. Nothing's changed, just what the computer says. Though I feel a bit of that rush that Brett Favre must have felt the x-number of times he's come back from retirement. LET'S DO IT AGAIN!

Live...Sorta.

In response to some of my co-workers, I'm posting this video clip as a sample of my singing. It came up during a mini birthday celebration today that I sang at a wedding over the weekend and one of our doctors wanted me to sing an excerpt. Having already taken that first bite of cake, I knew she would be greatly disappointed with what she would have heard after that point. :-)

So here's an older music clip of me singing with a quartet; hopefully I will be able to upload the video of my performance at the wedding later this week. (For anyone interested in the song I sang at the wedding [because it is a beautiful song], it's called "I Will Be Here" by Steven Curtis Chapman.)

Why I'm the Favorite

REASON #1:
For months now, my brother has been on a Coldplay kick. And for the past several months, he's been saying how much he wishes Coldplay would come to Pittsburgh so he could see them live in concert. Thanks to the annoying (but in this instance, helpful) ads on Facebook, I noticed that they were coming to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Pavillion at the end of May. Although his birthday is in August, I decided to get him tickets as an early birthday gift. But I was trying to decide how to tell him...I mean, it wouldn't be as fun to just hand over the tickets. So I spent a whole night doing nothing but Googling Coldplay lyrics to use as scavenger hunt clues for him. And when I say I went all out, I went all out. Needless to say, he had a blast looking for the clues. I was able to use the video recording feature on my dad's camera to film him looking, but I still haven't uploaded them yet. [[drat.]] So stay tuned for an "updedit" with the clips.

REASON #2:
I secretly requested Friday afternoon off for my mom so that I could take her (and my sisters) out to Alexandra's Tea Room as a surprise Mother's Day gift. We had such an amazing time: the food was delicious, the atmosphere was relaxing, the tea was fantastic, and the company was -- as always -- great. The first teas we selected were "Buckingham Palace Garden Party," "Goddess of Mercy Oolong," "Amore," and "Peach Apricot," but you can have as many different flavors brewed for you as you want. Here are some pictures from the trip.

And the Saga Continues...

Last Monday I received an email via my Pitt webmail from a mysterious sender "Duane Dangerous." Tuesday's class was canceled and we were to come Thursday "as scheduled," even though on the syllabus we were scheduled not to come. Confused as I was, I came anyway. Instead of my professor showing up though, a woman came to our class telling us that "[my professor] is gravely ill" and that she would be finishing out the term with us as our sub. We discussed possibilities for the final since it had not yet been assigned, and we all agreed on a take-home final that would be emailed to us the next week.

Fast-forward to Thursday the 16th. I get a Facebook message from a friend in that class saying our professor WAS BACK and ended up holding class for a party. I checked my Pitt webmail (which I never check) and sure enough, there in my inbox was the invitation to the class party along with 5 paragraphs-worth of essay topics for our new final that would be due the next week on Wednesday by midnight. I got this email Monday the 20th. Luckily I was able to write it and turn it in on time, but boy am I relieved to be done with that class.

In other news, my mom pawned off a bunch of assorted teas that she had acquired on me the other day - one of which was this white vanilla grapefruit tea by Harney & Sons. Conclusion: BEST TEA EVER. It was so smooth...like silk...the vanilla perfectly accented the hint of citrus from the grapefruit. Both existed harmoniously in this perfect sweet and fruity blend....sort of deal....or whatever. I can't even put it into words how good this tea was. All I can say is that you need to try some for yourself!