General topics.

Cwillie
Was your regular toothbrush under the sink?

Green food coloring:
What is green food coloring made of?
1. They are made in a lab with chemicals derived from petroleum, a crude oil product, which also happens to be used in gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt, and tar. NPR.org: “Artificial food dyes are made from petroleum and approved for use by the FDA to enhance the color of processed foods.” 2.Mar 13, 2012
Real Food Tips: 7 Reasons I Hate Artificial Food Dyes - 100 Days of ...

It was probably the green sprinkles Cwillie, made of soap. Lol.

Online, googling Tundra Swan migration, watched the majestic swans! They are not very noisy, and some guys stand heads above the rest. If you did not jump in your car and go, you can see them online. There were people there, with binoculars. The swans were behind a fenced area, breached by the photographer.

I had a donut this morning, a jelly one with white icing and green sprinkles in honour of St Pattie's Day, but when I brushed my teeth with my spare toothbrush it tasted like soap, yuck. Maybe that was the one I used to clean the crevices??

Nice, Susan!
I would love sausage gravy. Do you freeze the extra scrambled eggs?  Your planning out the food has always impressed me.

Today, pork chops for Sunday brunch. And those same, frozen vegetables, as many as dH wants.

Coffee with scrambled eggs & cheese here this morning, Send. And I made a batch of low-carb sausage gravy to spread out over the next few days with the rest of the scrambled eggs. (I like to cook "big" on Sundays and then not have to cook much during the week.)

I must be having trouble with conversions, Glad. But then the weather is changing, and will be 62° F later today.
It was 39 ° Fahrenheit, and we have a frost warning until 9:30 a.m.
Everytime I look this conversion up, it changes.

Anybody having Cocoa and donuts on this Sunday morning?

4 degrees Celsius sounds cold until it is converted to Fahrenheit. 49 degrees. Quite a nice day by many standards. Maybe this belongs on the whine thread?😉

Typo, yes 39. Still very nice temps, it is still winter. Yesterday it was 71 here a record breaker!

4° C

Nice recipe Mally!
Love the pineapple.
Blueberries are good too, but not with the pineapple, imo.

CWillie,
What a wonderful experience that would be. Try not to spill the hot cocoa in your lap.
Sorry that Mom cannot go with you.

It is a beautiful spring morning here, bright and sunny and about -5°C. I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to hop in the car and drive to see if there are any tundra swans at a local migration hot spot. Mom and I used to try to catch them many years, I would park on the side of the road so she could hear them, but somehow it's not as fun when there isn't anyone to share it with.

New sweet treat..... 1 c pineapple, 2/3 glass milk, 1/3 glass coconut milk, 1 banana. Blend and freeze; eat slushy whenever you want a treat during the day - yum! Can change the fruits around, too; if using strawberries, probably 1/2 tsp stevia would help. I no longer eat cookies, candy, cake, pie - any other kind of sweets, and I was a sweetaholic!

Candied nuts would give you protein AND a sweet treat, just don't eat too many. Mmmm, yum.

My problem is my sweet tooth. It's 11:15pm. And I just finished a mini bag of oreo cookies. I'm suppose to be replacing these sugary snacks to protein ones... per the doctor.

In general, I too dislike pickles.

Late night snacking? Ham sandwich @ 4:45 a.m., does that count?

Send, do you like pickles? I hate it. I keep forgetting to tell them to take out the pickles when I order burger. Anyway, I read from one lady, that her husband, a pilot, drinks the pickle juice every day for his acid reflux. I've also read that ACV or the pickle juice works if your acid reflux is caused by too little acid in your stomach. Whereas those who have acid reflux because of too much acid, the ACV and the pickle juice would aggravate the problem... And those who have acid reflux due to hiatal hernia - all the ACV, etc won't work. My endoscopy ruled out the hiatal hernia. He didn't find excessive acids either. He narrowed it down to my late night snacking and what I eat.

Bookluvr,
Took the a c v for gerd. Fortunately, sinuses are good.
I did feel a little tingling lips, but I will just dilute it next time.

It is great that you are trying things that help you, and that you have the time now to take care of yourself. If I read about a success, it makes me want to try harder to take care of myself.

Send the ACV mix is really great for the sinus. I tried it again after a few days of not drinking it. After a few sips, my lips started tingling. I can no longer use that mix anymore. It usually tingles after using it 3 days in a row. My reaction to it is now immediate. I'm back online researching alternatives. Except the ACV with or without honey is truly the best home-made remedy. I'm glad it's working for you.

Bookluvr,
Not sure about ivory, except that it is controversial, you are right.

That is a great haul for very little money! imo. Hope you had such fun.

Tried your recipe for apple cider vinegar, water, and honey.  I felt better overall.

Send, I have never flown through LAX. I want to fly back via Denver because United Airlines new aircraft the Dreamliner flies from Denver to Narita. I heard that if you fly in this plane, you don’t feel the air pressure and you don’t have to pay about $200 for legroom seats because All the 💺 in economy feels great.

I usually fly in the summer but.... younger brother said best to go in October.

Oh, today fave sis and I went shopping. Fave niece in Texas says her kids want island wears. Her kindergarten son wanted to wear Hawaiian print shirt for his school picture. We had fun shopping for the kids. Then we went to a Chinese store. We bought some pretty Chinese dresses. I found a cute all black Chinese shirt and shorts for my nephew. It had subtle Chinese design and a dragon in front central. My little nephew would love that shirt. We went overboard. Got us some costume jewelry (oriental). I was shocked it came out to $143.00. The owner then gave me a 20% discount. Whew! ... there was a pretty ivory pendant. I didn’t buy it because isn’t ivory illegal? Plus buying it is encouraging the poachers to kill more elephants just for their tusks.

Trying to go to bed early here.

Bookluvr,
You could go in June, or even sooner.
You could fly to L.A., then to Texas?

FYI, I will be borrowing from my emergency fund to pay for the ticket. My tax refund (once I turn it in) will cover about $1100.00 of that balance. The rest, I will have to just consider it a loss, a naughty no-no for touching the emergency fund for something that's not an emergency. It's not really much actually. It's an amount that helps me not worry if I suddenly didn't have a job. I have at most, 6 months to find A job. It's enough to cover the bills until then. Like I said, not much but a great peace of mind.

Yay!!! Since I wasn't sure which part was no longer working, I bought both the cord and the wall adapter for the iPad. It came in. I only opened the adapter box. I connected it to my original cord and it's working!! The iPad did not say that this device is not supported. I can use my iPad! I'm going to use it sparingly. I need it to work when I go visit fave niece.

I haven't bought my ticket. The lowest airfare is $1700.00, Non-Refundable and minimum penalty of $300 + any additional airfare. I spent hours trying to choose dates in October where I can do the GRT figures, print the forms and have it for my bosses to just cut the check and make payment before the due date. BUT, because school is still in session, I need to arrive in El Paso on Friday so that I can spend the whole weekend with my niece and her kids. One of them is in kindergarten? .. When it's time to fly home, I Have to leave Saturday morning in order to arrive back home on Sunday at 10:30pm or Monday at 2:00am. And still go to work on Monday. That's taking off for 11-1/2 days, round it off to 12 days off.

I'm so torn about buying the ticket. I've been getting sick so quickly lately. I hate to end up using my vacation leave for sick leave. It's bad enough that I'm spending $1700.00 for only 2 weeks off-island! Such a waste... And that I won't be seeing little nephew most of the time because he will be in school. I'm struggling with my money-conscience mentality. 

My prepaid mobile won't work in the US mainland.  One of my fears is traveling in the US and getting stranded at the airport.  I just realized that I will do what I did when I first traveled to Colorado.  I went to Walmart and bought a cheap mobile and prepaid minutes, activated using my sister as the account holder because she has a US address.  It only cost me $39.00.  I can ask fave niece to buy one at Walmart, activate and mail it to me.  Then I won't worry about getting stranded in Denver both ways to El Paso.  I can just call my niece who lives in Denver for a favor.  She did stay in our home on her visit here. 

I am like you cwillie I can't make it more dead. That and a good dose of WD40 often does the trick.
PS I don't use WD40 on delicate things like computers, just mechanical things

That's a really good point... lol

re: taking things apart, I've always figured if the darned thing is broken anyway it can't hurt to give it a try...😜

Book, hope the charger fixes the issue. Recently my MacBook wouldn't turn on, wouldn't charge. Years ago, I used to work on electronics, so I had a feeling it may be a small thing, where something in the power source had become undone, a fuse, something that wasn't too complicated because if a device just suddenly goes dark, it can be as simple as loose connection in the power source.

I took the MacBook apart and using video on YouTube, saw where my battery went to the rest of the laptop. I was able to reconnect some things and voila, it started working again.

Even if you aren't comfortable taking apart to see what you can see, it may not be a big issue, a minor fix, if you know someone in electronics who would take a look at it for you.

But also - I hope the charger is the fix. ;-)

I ordered my iPad's charger from Best Buy. Can't believe they sent it by ship. It had left Richmond, CA on 19Jan. When I saw Richmond, I just knew that it was going by ship! No, no... So, I haven't been using my iPad since then. I realized how much I miss it, though. Tonight, I decided to check the Tracking number.

Ohhh.... Strange... We're one day ahead of the mainland US. We're the same time zone as Sydney, Australia. It's Friday, Feb 23rd at 9:30pm. The tracking system says that it was received by the post office on Saturday, Feb 24th at 2:01am... Hmmmm .. That's 4-1/2 hrs from now... Yay! My charger is finally in... Let's hope it works. If it still doesn't work.. that means I need a new iPad. (ugh!!!)