Introducing DIY Saturday

I’ve always been interested in working with my hands and, over the years, have become pretty handy around the house. I thought I’d try out a new feature here on SimplyForties, which I’m calling DIY Saturday.

I'm going to focus my Saturday posts on DIY projects around the house. Some of the projects, like how to change an electrical outlet or light fixture, are simple but expensive if you have to call in an electrician. Winterizing your lawn mower is also simple and, if you do it yourself, will save you money and keep your mower running longer. Some projects, like re-caulking the bathtub, I’m going to feature in order to make myself do them! I’m hoping to teach you some skills that will come in handy and maybe, along the way, complete some of my own projects!

I'm going to show you some fun projects too, like building a platform bed and constructing an outdoor pergola. If you have some jobs around the house that you would like to learn to do yourself, leave me a comment or send me an e-mail. I already have a list of projects in mind and would love to add yours.

This week I’m starting off by showing you my big project, which has been sitting for so long that I don’t even see it anymore. Does that happen to you? I’m hoping that by talking about it here, I’ll be shamed into completing it! On my list of goals for 2009 I listed it as #4 under personal goals, “Finish a particular, long ignored DIY project.” I was so vague that, in December when I report on how I did, I could claim anything! I’m going to introduce the project and then, periodically throughout the year, I’ll update it.

I live in a neat old house built sometime between 1910 and 1920. I was lucky to have purchased it, 3 ½ years ago, from a nice couple who had lovingly rescued most of it from the ignominy of many years as a rental. There are a few areas that still need a little work. One of them is this little pass through hallway from the living room to the dining room. To the right is the door to the basement and to the left is a built-in cabinet. The ceiling is the underside of the stairs to the second floor. Got the picture? It’s a very small space so it was difficult to photograph.

All the walls in my house were sheathed using a style called shipboard lath. It took so much wood that I doubt it’s used today. Instead of sheetrock (or lath and plaster), they nailed 2x6’s butted right up to each other, to all the framing. A linen-type fabric covered the boards and in turn was covered by wallpaper. During the subsequent years all of these walls have been covered with sheetrock and painted, with the exception of this small pass through area. After nearly a hundred years the fabric has sagged and in some places torn, was repaired with tape and painted over. It always drove me crazy and, a couple of years ago on Christmas Eve, I was standing in this area looking at the ceiling and started to pick at it where it’s low, just over the basement door. Before I knew it, I had torn the fabric completely away in a huge area. Oops!

Sometime later I removed the trim from one side of the doorway and a broken board from the ceiling. Two years later, I’ve done nothing else! Here are two more pictures so you can get a good feel for how really terrible it looks:

Now for the project. This a very dark area so the first thing I’m going to do is run an electrical line in here and install a rocker switch near the cabinet, which will control an outlet that will be out of sight up on top of the cabinet. I’m going to build some uplighting up there. I will need to replace the broken board and trim piece, sheetrock the whole area and paint it. It’s going to be a big job for me and I have got to get started! I have a pretty nice house and this area is a real eyesore. It’s been like this so long that I no longer see it but I’m sure guests in my home are really surprised when they come through here! Hopefully, setting myself up for a little public accountability will spur me to action!

Next week I’m going to illustrate how to change out a light fixture. I’ve done this for a lot of people; both men and women, so I know there are plenty of people out there who don’t know how to do it. If you’re one of them, stay tuned!

Let me know if you have a project that you would like me to cover. If you have a completed project and would like to do a guest post for a future DIY Saturday, send me an e-mail! What do you think of this DIY Saturday idea? Do you think it will be useful to you?

Pie-Charting My Budget

This article appears in the Carnival of Personal Finance at Funny About Money. If you came from the carnival - welcome! I hope you will consider subscribing via RSS feed or e-mail.

Money Management posted a really snazzy pie-chart last week on Blogging for Change in an article on budgeting, which outlined her budget versus what she calls a standard consumer spending plan sample.

After reading her article, I decided to break down my budget on a percentage basis and see what was going where. I didn't have 4 people and 48 hours to devote to creating an equally eye-catching pie chart so I just made an ordinary one!

This exercise was a little harder than I thought it would be. I'm glad I did it because it showed me some things about my budget, which were not so apparent on the spreadsheet that I use to track my spending. My housing costs, including mortgage, insurance, taxes and utilities are spot-on with recommendations. My transportation costs are very low because my car is paid for and I have a client provided gas card.

In making this chart I realized that I needed to adjust my estimated tax payments up a hair to get me to from 14% to 15%. I am aggressively paying down my debt and that accounts for the high percentage in that area. Using this formula, I expect all my non-mortgage related debt to be retired this year and will then be able to reallocate those funds elsewhere.

On my actual budget spreadsheet the Misc category is not nearly this big. I don't name every penny but I do name most of them. On this chart Misc. just represents everything that didn't fit in the other categories. My "wants" as opposed to "needs" only represents 3% of my total budget and are bundled in this misc. category.

Have you tried this pie-chart approach? How do your expenditures measure up?

Check it Out

I have a guest post up today over at My Super-Charged Life on having a giving spirit. Go over there and check it out and, while you are there, subscribe to Jeff's blog. It's a good one!

Weekly Link Love

(My mother took this beautiful photograph.)

Condo Blues posted an article on a very neat “plantable” calendar. The pages are embedded with seeds. At the end of the month you tear off the page and plant it! How cool is that?!

Funny About Money relates a shocking story of a friend of her son’s who found out, after being in a terrible motorcycle wreck, that his employer was not paying their part of his insurance premiums. Pretty sad and, like Funny, I’m not sure how you’d check up on that.

A while back I wrote an article that touched on the idea of making a list of what you want in a mate. Fabulous Financials took up the theme in her post, A Book I’m Reading About Men. In her post she said, “I want a life partner who will complement me and add joy to my life”. Doesn’t that just say it all?

Another of my very clever nieces (a sister to the one who took that great photograph I used on my roundup post last week) wrote about how using Windows Live as your IM client can Save the World One Instant Message At A Time. Who knew?

Emotionally Attached to Your Investments? appears in the Carnival of Finance, Investments and Trading at Fulfilled Dreams. The Digerati Life has an excellent article on the Best Places to Put Your Money When The Stock Market Tanks. Icarus Landing has some good money advice for his son in Money – Yours, Mine and Not Pink Floyd’s.

Bargaineering put up a fascinating video from TED.com. It’s a talk by Benjamin Wallace, from GQ magazine, who set out to try some of the world’s most expensive items and/or experiences. Very interesting stuff! Can Money Buy Happiness?

Check out all these very cool green roofs at Ecosalon. 17 Living Roofs.

Commercial Beekeeping vs. Commercial Agriculture appears in the All Things Eco Carnival at Focus on Organic and the Carnival of the Green at Get With Green. Are you in the market for a used car? Veggie Revolution has some helpful tips in her post How to Buy a Used, Fuel-Efficient Car. Want to try something new? Groovy Vegetarian posts 8 Fun Facts About Squash.

5 Minute Brownies appears in the 100th Edition of the Make It From Scratch Carnival at the carnival’s homepage. Grandmother’s Pattern Book has a pattern for a precious little knit baby coat. I don’t knit but this little coat makes me wish I did. Our Red House is lucky enough to be picking peaches in January and has a recipe for homemade peach jam. Yum!

I'm always looking for interesting reads and am happy to pass them along to you. Let me know if you have found something interesting for me to read!

Creating a Price Book

This article appears in the 176th Carnival of Debt Reduction at Rocket Finance. If you came from the carnival - welcome! I hope you will consider subscribing via RSS feed or e-mail.

Green Panda Treehouse recently sent out a Tweet about an article she was thinking about writing on price books. We decided it would be fun to do concurrent, collaborative posts on this topic. Go read her article, which is a broader overview on the subject and, while you are there, subscribe to her blog. Then come back here and see how I created mine!

I use a combination of two or three technologies to keep my price book accessible and portable. With a background in network administration, I admit I’m a bit of a technology geek. If the techie approach to keeping a price book doesn’t appeal to you, there are many low tech ways to do it including simply writing the information down in a small notebook. My way is fun and you might like to try it out.

I took advantage of Google Docs online to create my price book. If you have a gmail account, you have access to Google Docs. You can easily set up a gmail account for free if you don’t have one by going to the gmail account setup page. Once your account is created and you have logged in, in the upper left corner you will see a link for documents –



Click on that link to get to the document creation page. Then click on “new” and “spreadsheet”.


Type your column headers across the top in row 1. I used Item, Cost, Store and then several Date columns. Use whatever makes sense for you.



Name your spreadsheet and save it. The next step is to type in your prices. The best way to do this is to type them in from your grocery store receipts. Figuring out the abbreviations on your grocery receipts can be tricky so I try to do this pretty quickly after I get home from the store.



Once you get your items input you can arrange them alphabetically by clicking on the first column (A), to highlight it, and then clicking on “Tools” and then “Sort by column A, A to Z”. I type all my items in when I get back from the store and then re-sort them when I’m finished so my price book is always in alphabetical order. It’s important that you are very specific with your descriptions so that you are comparing the costs accurately. In other words, it won’t do you much good if you write the total price you paid for a bunch of bananas. You need to know the price per lb. you paid for bananas. The price you paid for a can of garbanzo beans is only helpful to you if you know the size of that can. You also need to know brand names. Include whatever information you need in order to make a true comparison. There are a lot of options you can use when creating a spreadsheet but this basic, simple one works perfectly for this application.

The other part of the equation is the portability of the system. If need be, you can click on “File” and “Print”. Print out your price book and take it with you. If you have an internet enabled phone, the real beauty of the online price book becomes clear. I have a client provided iPhone and access my price book in the store right on my phone! It’s great. I call it up when I get to the store and have it displayed while I go up and down the aisles. It scrolls easily and, if need be, I can add to it right from my phone.

A price book is an invaluable tool for building a more frugal household. Whether you use my approach or someone else’s, add a price book to your toolkit and get your grocery budget under control!

Do you already have a price book? What is yours like? Do you keep it up-to-date?

The Loose Budget

This article appears in the Carnival of Personal Development at HappinessIsBetter.com. If you came from the carnival - welcome! I hope you will consider subscribing via RSS feed or e-mail.

Hi I'm LAL from LivingAlmostLarge and LAL Musings. I am a twenty-something (barely) Dual Income No Kids (DINK) searching for financial freedom. I hope to one day "live large" and be able to enjoy life to the fullest. But for now I'm doing it in small steps and little ways. Check me out when you have a chance. I do a weekly book review giveaway as well.

The first step in personal finance is setting up a budget. But for many people it's the hardest and most difficult step to follow. Personally I find it very difficult to stick to a budget. But that's because I don't really budget. I set guidelines and budget backwards. Let me explain.

When my DH got a real job we were finally able to save for the first time in a long time. But we were unsure as to what to do with all the excess money. So instead we sat down and talked about our priorities. To us the most important priority, because we were getting a late start, was retirement. We decided that we would maximize our retirement savings.

So we started off with our annual gross income and then deducted our retirement savings. Then we estimated our taxes and insurance. That left us with what we could spend. We decided that housing was important to us. So we prioritized that to take 30% of our income. From there we decided we would spend the rest of our money on different things every month.

We don't name every dollar. We know our important fixed items like retirement, taxes, and housing are accounted for. But if we want to spend more one month on food, entertainment, or travel, as long as we stay within our leftover money, we can. Here is an example.

Income	Amount	Percentage
Income	$50,000	100.0%
Expenses	Amount	Percentage
Retirement	$7,500	15.0%
Taxes	$10,000	20.0%
Housing	$15,000	30.0%
Excess	$17,500	35.0%

Thus we know we've committed 65% of our budget to fixed expenses. But how to spend the excess 35% is up to us. Granted things like car insurance, property taxes, or known medical expenses need to be budgeted in. Or even things like cable, internet, and cellular phones are known fixed expenses.

The difference is that this budget is not fixed and strict. It's loose and fluid. It can change based on needs and, since it's not fixed, you don't feel obligated to spend $600/year on clothes. Or eat out $100/month because it's "budgeted". Instead you are looking at the bigger picture by budgeting annually, and you are able to spend $50 on eating out one month and $200 another month because of unexpected expenses.

I prefer the loose budget. I know that my money is going to go where it's most important: Retirement, Savings, Taxes, and Housing. But everything after that shifts in priorities and is open to being increased or decreased. I hope this explanation of how I budget helps. Or perhaps making a strict budget and naming every dollar is better. To each his own! But consider the "loose" budget if you have trouble tracking every dollar spent!

Stop by my blog LivingAlmostLarge for more financial tips, and LAL Musings for ramblings about life! ~LAL

Thanks LAL, for a great post! I'm pretty close to a "name every penny" budgeter so I was happy to get a different take on the always difficult task of budgeting. How you do it is not nearly so important as that you do it!

What sort of a budgeter are you? Do you name every penny or do you, like LAL, leave things loose?

Carnival of Personal Development

I could think of no better theme for the Carnival of Personal Development than that of the hope, which is sweeping through our country and around the world as illustrated by all the hoopla surrounding last week’s inauguration. I know everyone will not agree but I find it inspiring.

These photos, except where noted, came from Boston.com, which had the most incredible group of inaugural photos that I saw anywhere.


(AFP)
"The problems are mighty and the solutions are not simple, and everywhere you turn there will be a critic waiting to attack every decision that you make. But you are all fired up and you are ready to go.”

Personal Development

Improving Your Life: Incremental Changes One Step At A Time. Jeff@MySuperChargedLife reminds us that it’s easier to make big changes if we take them one step at a time.

In Success Finds Hard Work, Talent and Passion, Jim from Bargaineering (the blog formerly known as Blueprint for Financial Prosperity), wants us to remember that passion, talent and hard work all go into achieving success.

Blogging, says Distiller’s Corner, is The Perfect Practice for the Beginning Writer.

Effortless Abundance reflects on coincidence with Some Thoughts on Coincidence.

How To Do Better Socially gave a lot of thought to the way we make friends. How To Make Friends And Get A Social Life explains how it’s done.

If at first you don’t succeed…Broderick Allen, Personal Growth and Enjoying Life’s Journey, writes about Persistence.

Is The Dream (having more) really your dream? VeronicaCalim asks this question in Don’t Live the Dream.

Momentor uses the story of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, hero of the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson, to illustrate how great careers develop in his article Preparation of a Hero.

LifeMadeGreat explains Why We Need to Focus on Strengths and Not Weaknesses at Work.

“Most people are average so it's not that hard to be better than them”, so says The Shark Investor. His advice? “Suck less.” It’s not hard to be good, gives us some pointers on how to achieve that goal.

Hilary Kay urges us to Cherish The Time we have with our loved ones because we never know how much time we will have.

“Television is a time vampire”, says Enhance Life in Ways to Regain the Hours Television Steals From You.

WenchyPoo submitted a rather ferocious post, Bail YOURSELF out in 2009, in which she makes several suggestions for solving your employment woes.

FailSchool makes a case for hypnosis in Using hypnosis to unlock your true potential.

Learn This presents one part of a series on Leadership Skill Development. This one deals with the importance of reading. He states that 80% of Americans haven’t read a book in a year. He doesn’t attribute that statistic and, as a voracious reader, I hope it isn’t accurate.

Jeremy J. Ulmer reminds us not to hide our light with Don’t Hold Back Your Greatness!

Effective planning makes for maximum efficiency, so says Style Life.

In order to be good at something you have to be passionate. Orange Hornet urges us to be passionate about everything we do, not just the grand causes, in Passion Medley.

The Rational Anarchist urges us to identify and question our fears in Ordeal in Space.

Are you already having trouble keeping your New Year’s resolutions? Joshua Seth thinks he knows why and shares his ideas with us in The Top 3 Reasons People Don’t Keep Their New Year’s Resolutions.

The Law of Attraction Library tells us How the Law of Attraction Will Alter Your Life Course. While you’re gaining, you might also lose a little.

A review of Tears of Hope, written by a survivor of the civil war in Lebanon, is posted at Erin Pavlina.com. It’s a message of hope and perseverance.

Therapeutic Reiki shares a short video from Dr. Wayne Dyer on How God Tells You It’s Time For A Change. I like Dr. Dyer and this is a good message.

Jon Chambers is asking us to examine our Motivation.

Wondering How to Leverage the Power of Focus? Marelisa explains how it’s done.

Happiness is Better.com examines The 3 Myths of Happiness.


“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, they will be met.”

Health

If overcoming an addiction is your goal for 2009, Addiction Help for Struggling Addicts from Addiction Help Resource may be just the help you need.

Another good resource for overcoming addiction, in Recognizing Shame in Addiction Recovery Bill Urell’s Addiction Recovery Basics tries to pinpoint and deal with shame.

Who knew that dogs were being trained to sniff out bedbugs? The Dust Mite Center did. With all the press bedbugs have been getting lately it’s probably a booming business!

Sharp Brains has some Brain Teasers to Exercise Your Memory and Reasoning Skills.

Not Made of Money has some good tips for keeping your resolution to get fit without breaking your resolution to be frugal with Cheap Ways to Get Fit. Playing hard with your kids might help you forget that you’re exercising!

Here is a list of 20 iPhone Apps to Improve Your Health from Radiology Schools. Who knew?

Brain Blogger wonders Where’s The Breaking News? Doesn’t everyone know that medication plus therapy is more successful than medication alone? Even I knew that!


"The values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true.”

Finance

The Smarter Wallet advises us to Develop Skills for Managing Your Life So You Can Save Money.

Through The Illusion explains The Second Biggest Financial Mistake You Can Make with a scary example of the kind of financial training she received in college. Maybe college isn’t the best to get our financial training after all!

Rich Single Momma wants us to look at money with the proper perspective in her article on 7 Steps to Economic Empowerment: It Begins Between the Ears

What Should You Do With Your 401K When You Get Laid Off? Moolanomy answers that question in this unfortunately timely article.

FIRE Finance says All is Well If Our HEART is Well when preparing for retirement.

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about YNAB. The Digerati Life gives us a review of this budgeting software.

Extra Gas Mileage says now, while gas prices are lower, may be the perfect time to buy a hybrid.

Are you looking for Free Home Budget Software? Make Money/Save Money/Invest Money provides a list from which to choose.

Keep Your Cash gives some advice for Budgeting on an Unknown or Irregular Income.

The Dough Roller, in a guest post on The Military Finance Network, writes about the dilemma of paying off debt, saving or investing. Having the slow economy thrown into the mix makes this a tougher and more important question.

Need an explanation about the Transaction Account Guarantee Program? Best Interest Rate Banks gives us one.

Money Blue Book has a list of the Best Interest Rates for High Yield Certificates of Deposit.

Financial Decision Making is all about making choices. I Pick Up Pennies reminds us of the value of taking the time to make good choices.

Uncommon Cents gives us a short post on not always taking what we’re told at face value in If Your Mother Says She Loves You, Check It Out!

KCLAU shares his review of the book The Number by Lee Eisenberg

Cheapo Groovo offers a quick video with some Extra Income Ideas.

Malcolm Clarke urges You Should Start A Business Now!

Monevator reminds us that The Really Obvious Thing We All Forget When Borrowing Money is that we are borrowing against our future.

Customer Service is the Epicenter of the Universe, says Srini Saripalli. Always good to keep that in mind!

In another unfortunately timely article, Cash Money Life gives us an FAQ on Filing for Unemployment Benefits.

DebtKid talks about the steps he is making towards repairing his debt.

Credit Card Assist advises us not to treat our credit limits as income. Good advice!

Is a No Limit Credit Card a Good Idea? Apply For Credit examines the topic.

I hope we all realize that Keeping Money Secrets From Your Partner is a bad idea and yet, evidently lots of people do it. Destroy Debt gives us a little refresher.

Deposit Accounts advises us on Money Management During a Recession.


"As we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes."

Other

THE FUTURIST magazine, a contributor to the Britannica Blog, recently interviewed Professor Hauser—about where morality lives in the brain, how to coax it out, and what lies ahead for the future of moral science. Abortion, Stem Cells, and How Morality Works: Reinventing Morality is part two of that interview.

That's it folks! Please promote the carnival through the various social media avenues you enjoy. Also, why not show a few of your fellow participants some of the love you are hoping to achieve by visiting, reading their articles and promoting their sites?

Next week's carnival will be hosted at Happiness is Better. Submit your articles here!

Looking forward to this week!

I’m pretty excited about my upcoming week here on SimplyForties. Not dancing in the streets excited, but pretty excited. Here’s what’s coming up –

Monday I’m hosting the Carnival of Personal Development. This is a very diverse carnival with topics including personal development (no surprise), finance and health. I got a lot of entries, about 65 of which will be included in the carnival.

Tuesday I’m hosting a guest post from Living Almost Large on creating what she calls a “loose budget”. If you’re having trouble creating and/or living with a restrictive budget, this may be the approach for you!

Wednesday I’m trying something new. Green Panda Treehouse and I are posting collaborative concurrent articles on creating and using a price book. It’s a fun idea that I hope to repeat with some of my other blogging “friends”.

Thursday I’ll have a guest post up at My Supercharged Life on having a giving spirit. Here at SimplyForties I'll have my weekly link roundup. I’ve already got a lot of good links and will continue to add more throughout the week.

For Friday I “pie-charted” my budget a la Blogging For Change. It was an interesting project and taught me some things about my budget that all my Excel spreadsheets hadn’t.

Saturday is still up for grabs!

That fact that I already know what’s going on all week is probably the most exciting part of all. Stick with me, it’s going to be a good week!

5 Minute Brownies

If you are new here, thanks for stopping! I publish a recipe every Sunday to give myself a day off and to share my interest in food and cooking.

This article appears in the 100th Edition of the Make It From Scratch Carnival at the carnival's homepage. If you came from the carnival - welcome! I hope you will consider subscribing via RSS feed or e-mail.

Have you seen that e-mail going around with a recipe for a chocolate cake you make in a mug in the microwave? It's called the most dangerous recipe ever, because it means chocolate cake is five minutes away. I tried it and wasn't that crazy about it. I don't find it that dangerous either. In fact, I think it's just the opposite because it makes a relatively small portion. When I have a raging sweet tooth I'm liable to make an 8x8 or even 13x9 pan of brownies and eat the whole thing. A recipe that only makes two portions is a solution, not a danger!

So, back to the recipe. As I said, I didn't much like it. This recipe, for microwave brownies is a lot better! It makes an 8x8 pan but is easy to halve, which is what I did, and it is delicious. It is from George Duran's show on the Food Network, Ham on the Street. I skipped the chocolate chips and added pecan halves on top.

Microwave Brownies

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate I used bittersweet chocolate
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Nonstick cooking spray
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Put the butter and chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl and heat on high for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds to melt the chocolate. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar.

In a large bowl sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the egg and chocolate mixtures along with the vanilla and stir well to combine.

Spray an 8 by 8 by 2-inch or 8-inch round microwave-safe glass pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the pan, spread it out evenly, and scatter the chocolate chips on top.

Cook on high for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 3 minutes before cutting and eating.

Inauguration Feedback From the Front Lines

One of my close friends attended the inauguration. She was asked by our local paper to file a “postcard from Washington”, which they printed yesterday. With her permission, I’m reprinting it here.

Liz Rogers, a federal public defender in my town was among thousands of Texans attending President Barack Obama’s inauguration Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

Postcard from Liz Rogers -

“It was the most amazing feeling of euphoria that I’ve been around. There were so many people - and I don’t like being around that many - but it was OK. People were so nice and; no one ugly. … "

“I thought the speech was just wonderful. I loved that he quoted George Washington. He spoke to the moment. … "

“It was a strong, tough speech but I also thought he was very gracious to President Bush. … "

“We started the day about 6:30, trying to get on the Metro. It was already so crowded. … We got to the Rayburn Office Building about 8:30 a.m. so that we could stand in line to get into the inauguration area … "

“The line just didn’t move. We finally decided to just go somewhere else to watch. There were so many ticket holders who did not get in; some complaining, but nothing ugly. … "

“When we couldn’t get in, I said we have to find a restaurant, which was hard to do. So a limo driver who was parked in front of a hotel let us get in his limo with him and listen on the radio … "

“Then we found a hamburger place not far from the White House. Everyone in there was quiet, then everyone started cheering. People were so happy … "

“It was really cold but I was dressed fine. I [didn’t get tired until] the long walk home. … When we got back to the hotel we really didn’t want to deal with crowds again but we wound up going to a wonderful Chinese place on DuPont Circle with several friends, including a young lawyer, Jose Garza, from the public defender’s office in Del Rio … "

“I was with my niece, Anna Marie Darden from Uvalde. She’s my little sister’s oldest daughter. It was a great experience for her … "

“We got into Arlington on Monday, taking the train from New York. Then we grabbed our luggage and went directly to pick up our tickets. The lines were huge. It was an hour-and-half wait for most people to get their tickets. But everyone was nice and helpful. … "

“Afterward, we walked back to our hotel in Arlington. By that time, we were getting cold and tired. No one in West Texas would believe the kinds of crowds we saw; a real weird feeling … "

“While we were in the Tuesday morning, we saw Cyndi Lauper trying to get in just like us. … "

“At the Texas Black Tie and Boots party Monday night, I shook hands with Henry Cisneros.”

She’s coming by this afternoon to give me all the scoop on her few days in Washington, D.C. I can’t wait to hear all about it!

Things You Don't Have To Pay For...

I've been browsing Clark Howard's message boards lately and came across this list, compiled by his readers. I removed a couple which were so dated as to no longer be applicable. Italicized comments are mine. See what you think.

1. Storage lockers. You've got too much stuff. Sell something and make room at home. Except as a temporary solution, moving perhaps?
2. Health club membership. Walk somewhere.
3. Cable, especially the premium stuff.
4. Cigarettes. They're really expensive.
5. Cell phones.
6. A home phone if you pay less for a cell phone.
7. Telephone extras.
8. A checking account. Find a free one with free online bill pay.
9. Extended warranties. They're overpriced and seldom used. Consumer Reports in 2004 recommeded them only for laptop computers, plasma TVs, and treadmills.
10. Insurance you don't need. If you've got no dependents, you don't need life insurance. Accidental death insurance is stupid. If you need insurance, then you need it all the time. Not sure I agree with this one. Accidental death is usually a rider on a life insurance policy. Hard to be financially prepared for an early, unexpected death. Completely different set of issues than being prepared for a natural death of old age.
11. Internet. Free at the library.
12. Magazine subscriptions. Most libraries now have freely accessible databases that provide content for tens of thousands of magazines, journals, newspapers and other educational, credible information issued on a periodical basis. You can use your own computer or the library's computer to do extensive research or just read up on your favorite interests. You can even set up alerts that deliver the full text of articles on your selected topics to your email account whenever they are published. Better for the environment too!
13. Movie rentals. Sometimes free at the library. If they don't have what you want, some grocery stores charge only $1 or so.
14. Trash removal. If you have a pickup truck, see if your local landfill will allow you drop off your trash there for free. Seems a little impractical.
15. Lawn service. Do it yourself. It's good exercise, and gets you out of the house.
16. Soda. Water is better for you and free.
17. Pets. Get one from the shelter. It saves a life and discourages puppy mills.
18. Pets. No pets means no pet expenses.
19. Gas logs. Might as well burn money.
20. Ice. Fill jugs and bags with water and freeze them. Ice cube trays work pretty well too!
21. An extra car. Car rentals are $20-30 per day and can be cheaper than keeping an extra car.
22. Join your local Freecycle. Check out http://www.freecycle.org/ to find a local chapter. This is a free exchange of goods. You absolutely cannot charge anyone or accept money for your items, nor are you expected to pay for items you have received. Whoever wants the item picks it up at their own expense.

What do you think of this list? What would you add? What would you remove?

Link Love - Laid Up, Watching the World Go By

(one of my very talented nieces took this fantastic photograph and I stole it from her blog)

I realized that since I started, ah, Twittering, I’ve been spreading the word on articles I enjoy that way. I Tweet and then forget them. I think Twitter’s a good way to spread the word but I think these link-love posts are good too. I’m trying to remember to do both.

Too Big To Fail is an excellent, thought-provoking article at bripblap on the need to diversify.

If you are a blogger, check out The Winnie the Pooh Guide to Blogging at Copyblogger. Simple and straight forward.

A New Experiment in Vermicomposting appears in the All Things Eco carnival at Focus Organic. Green-Change.com posted an article about cooking up his backyard snails in Backyard Escargot. I’ve got a lot of snails crawling around my yard but I’m not sure I’m up to cooking and eating them. I’m going to have to think on that a bit!

In light of the current economic situation, Frugal Dad is wondering if our basic financial beliefs are true. He’s asking, “Have We Been Sold A Bunch of Lies About Money?” I don’t really think so but it’s a good read.

Sweet and Spicy Brined Pork Loin appears in the Make It From Scratch Carnival at A Dusty Frame. As always, this carnival is full of great recipes and crafty projects. My Frugal Front Porch has recipes for making pop tarts and microwave popcorn at home. I may have to give her pop tart recipe a try! Home Ec 101 published a recipe for a creamy chicken and wild rice soup that I wish was simmering on my stove right now!

Sound Money Matters has an excellent article Recapping the Obama Speech: What Does it Hold For The Economy?

As an update on the 21-day Complaint Free Challenge - still hanging in there. It's not too tough when you don't get out much! Also, I'm a pretty positive person overall. I'm looking for a more challenging challenge!

I'm working hard on the Carnival of Personal Development, which I'm hosting on Monday. This is a fairly new carnival that quickly became huge. It deals with personal development (of course), finance and health. The deadline is Saturday so get your submissions in!

Tuesday I will be hosting my first guest poster, with an article by Living Almost Large. She published my first guest post on her site and, as one of my favorite pf bloggers, I'm excited to re-pay the favor and host her in turn.

Emotionally Attached To Your Investments?

This article appears in the Carnival of Finance, Investments and Trading at Fulfilled Dreams. If you came from the carnival - welcome! I hope you will consider subscribing via RSS feed or e-mail.


(image from CNBC)
Are you emotionally attached to any of your investments? I am. While I watch my various funds go up and down (mostly down these days) I am bothered or elated about movement in my alternative energy index fund more than anything else. I realize that attachment is due to my strong feelings about alternative energy and the environment. I also know that it makes no financial sense at all. In fact, I know it is counterproductive to a good investing strategy. If I’m that attached to any particular investment, will I be able to dump it when I should? One part of me is even tempted to cut the cord now and get rid of it just because I’m so attached to it. I’m not actually going to do that because I believe, for the time being anyway, that it is a good investment. I just need to shake my affection for it!

Stocks that people receive as a gift from a beloved relative are frequently the subject of an emotional attachment. We love the giver and so we hang on to the gift even if it would behoove us to sell it off. Our homes are another common focus. We buy homes based on our heart and we frequently hang on to them for the same reason. Stocks obviously aren’t in quite the same league as a house when it comes to selling but the principal is the same. If we are emotionally attached to our investments, our judgment will be clouded when it comes time to sell and we may hang on too long.

When each of my brothers and sisters graduated from college we were gifted with some shares in the company where my father worked. In addition to being General Counsel he was also the corporate secretary and, as such, his signature was on the stock certificate. Double whammy! We were told not to feel like we had to hang on to the stock for familial reasons and should sell it when we needed or wanted to.

A few years after I received my stock I took up scuba diving and needed some way to fund that expensive hobby. I put in a sell order and was lucky enough to sell my stock at a good price. My parents were happy that I sold my stock to buy something I wanted and which I could never have bought otherwise. Most importantly, once sold, I never checked the price of that stock again! Many, many years have passed since then and I haven’t been diving in a long time. Now all the equipment is on my list of things to sell on eBay. I’ll be lucky if I get ten cents on the dollar for it but, had I held on to the stock, that’s probably about what it would be worth today!

Are you emotionally attached to any of your investments? Have you taken a hit because of it?

Yes We Can!

President Obama, I really truly hope so!

Commercial Beekeeping vs. Commercial Agriculture

This articles appears in the All Things Eco Carnival at Focus on Organic and the Carnival of the Green at Get With Green. If you came from the carnivals - welcome! I hope you will consider subscribing via RSS feed or e-mail.



Evidently there is a bit of a battle going on between seedless tangerine growers and beekeepers in California. Seedless tangerines, clementines and mandarin oranges are gaining in popularity with the fruit eating public. These fruits are self-pollinating but if they are cross-pollinated with seeded fruits, they will develop seeds. As a result of this cross-pollinating, seedless citrus fruit growers in California are taking beekeepers to court in an effort to keep bees out of their orchards.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture is scheduled to issue draft regulations this month that will require beekeepers to register their locations with county agricultural commissioners by March 1st so growers can monitor hives within two miles of their groves. If bees are too close, growers can ask beekeepers to move and hope they comply.

Some big growers are threatening to sue for damages and compensation if their fruits develop seeds. Beekeepers move their hives to follow the blossoms, starting with almonds in February, then oranges to make orange blossom honey and then to the Midwest in the spring for the clover. It is becoming more and more difficult to find winter feeding grounds for these bees.

The most astonishing aspect of this controversy, for me, comes from the mouth of Joel Nelson, executive director of California Citrus Mutual, who, when questioned about the bees, said, "We've coexisted with them, but we don't need them.”

It doesn’t look like this dispute is going to be settled and, in all probability, both sides will be heading to court.

While I certainly sympathize with the issues of seedless citrus growers and I understand what he meant, I beg to heartily disagree with Mr. Nelson. We all need the bees.

According to Shelley McNeal, master gardener and bee maven with the Howard County Cooperative Extension Service, "Every third bite of food we take is the result of pollinators." Bees are the worldwide workhorses of managed pollination. In the United States alone, bees play a vital role in the production of more than 100 commercially grown crops, pollinating everything from apples, blueberries, and cherries to almonds and zucchini. They also pollinate crops like clover and alfalfa, used to feed the animals we eat.

In the face of massive hive failures and bee die-offs, we need to be figuring out how to coexist with the bees. If that means spitting seeds out of my tangerines, I’m okay with that.


Update: After publishing this article I received an e-mail from Kim Flottum, Editor of Bee Culture Magazine, who has been following this issue for several months. She has written an excellent article at The Daily Green on The Drama Behind That Seedless Mandarin Orange You're Eating, as well as several other articles on bee related issues. To learn more about this important subject, head over there and see what she has to say.

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!

Saturday night I went beebopping down my basement stairs, stumbled and fell, badly spraining my ankle in the process. I spent all of Sunday in bed and that’s probably where I’ll be found for the next few days. I couldn’t get in to see my doctor today but she did agree to see me tomorrow morning. Last night one of my friends brought me a cane and another one brought me a couple of pain pills and some food so I should be all set for the time being. I probably don’t really need to go to the doctor but feel like I should in case something is broken or torn in there.

All of sudden I have to give a great deal of thought to every move I make and everything I do. Because I try to stay away from processed food, when it came time to eat, I had nothing that didn’t need to be cooked. A good thing except when you can’t stand in front of the stove! I have a good circle of close friends but, naturally, they were all out of town this weekend. I decided that I needed to move myself downstairs and stay there for the time being. Getting all my necessary things gathered up and transported down to the first floor was no picnic. My clean laundry, which is what I was fetching when I fell, is still all down in the basement, and I need it.

This whole experience is a big nuisance. Inevitably, I am reminded of what a permanently disabled person deals with every day. I hate the fact that I have to give so much thought to getting something that is six feet away. I hate that it’s such a big deal to feed my dog and let him in and out. How I’m going to eat and shower are suddenly major considerations. I’m trying to keep in mind that no matter how much of a hassle this all is, at least there will be an end to it. For a lot of people, all of these inconveniences are a way of life. I’m thankful I’m not one of them and maybe it’s good to have this reminder!

Since I work from home, my productivity is not affected, which is great. Hopefully I’ll be up and around again in a few days. In the meantime, I’m counting my blessings and trying not to feel too sorry for myself!

Recycling and the Beauty Product Industry

I've got a post up at 5 Minutes for Going Green today on Recycling and The Beauty Products Industry. The beauty industry isn't doing too well as far as environmental responsibility is concerned. I hope you'll stop over there and check it out!

Sweet and Spicy Brined Pork Loin

This recipe was included in the inaugural edition of the Make It From Scratch Carnival at A Dusty Frame. If you came from the carnival - welcome! I hope you will consider subscribing via RSS feed or e-mail.

If you are new here, thanks for stopping! I publish a recipe every Sunday to give myself a day off and to share my interest in food and cooking.



3 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
3 tablespoons whole cardamom seeds
3 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
3 tablespoons whole comino seeds
3 tablespoons whole fennel seeds
10 cascabel chilies (a dry chili with a smooth, dark reddish-brown skin, about 3 inches long)
3/4 cup honey
1 stick canela (similar to cinnamon but more papery; 1/2 stick cinnamon may be substituted)
4 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
1 cup kosher salt or rock salt
4 pounds whole pork loin, heavy fat trimmed off
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup freshly ground black pepper

Put peppercorns, and cardamom, coriander, comino, coriander, and fennel seeds in an ungreased cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat and toast until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stem and seed cascabel chilies, then toast in an ungreased cast-iron skillet over medium heat, turning frequently, until crisp, about 5 minutes.

To make brine, put toasted spices and chilies, honey, canela, cloves, bay leaves, and salt in a large pot with a gallon of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes, then cool water to room temperature.

Put pork in a large, nonreactive bowl;, cover with cooled brine;, and refrigerate, covered, for 8 to 24 hours. (Discard brine when finished.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove pork and pat dry. Rub with oil and sprinkle with pepper. Heat a thick-bottomed, oven-proof pan over high heat and sear pork on all sides. Place pan in oven and cook, uncovered, until medium done, about 35 minutes, or until an instant-read meat thermometer registers 150 degrees.

Let rest for 10 or 15 minutes before slicing. (May also be served cold.) Serves 8.

The End Of An Era?

Michael Hirschorn wrote an excellent article in The Atlantic recently about the possible end of the New York Times as a printed daily paper. The New York Times, like many other businesses these days is in dire financial straits.

“Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400million in debt. With more than $1billion in debt already on the books, only $46million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good.”

The Times Company, which owns the NY Times, has a lot of assets and can, conceivably save themselves. It is also possible that a buyer will come to their rescue. But is that merely postponing the inevitable?

“In December, the Fitch Ratings service, which monitors the health of media companies, predicted a widespread newspaper die-off: “Fitch believes more newspapers and news­paper groups will default, be shut down and be liquidated in 2009 and several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010.”

I can’t imagine any of us don’t see the end of print journalism in the future. Perhaps the very near future. I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. I already read all my “papers” including the NY Times and The Washington Post online. I do find that I pick and choose more than I did when I read the print editions, but combined with all the blogs I read and all the articles to which fellow online “friends” point me, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of what’s going on. Thanks to Twitter, I certainly knew about the Hudson River plane crash a lot quicker than if I had waited to read about it in the paper, or watch for it in on television. The way the news is reported has been changing for a long time and will continue to do so.

I read all my magazines online too. I admit, I don’t like it as much but I’m trying to adapt. I made the magazine switch primarily for environmental reasons but I think the magazine industry is also heading to an online-only format. Environmental issues aside, the internet represents the most up-to-date way to deliver content.

The Kindle, from which you can subscribe to numerous papers and magazines, is another example of an alternate delivery system, which is growing in popularity. What needs to change now is the way revenues are generated. According to Hirschorn’s article, twenty million people read the NY Times online as opposed to about one million who read the print edition. The one million actually pay to read the paper though, and are much more profitable than the online followers. The Huffington Post has figured out how to make it work. If they want to survive, the rest of the online papers need to figure it out as well.

I don’t see a future of no news. I see a future of more news. I see a future of no printed newspapers. If we mourn the loss of printed newspapers, I think we are mourning more the loss of the traditions the daily print papers represent, than the papers themselves.

How do you receive the majority of your news? Do you still subscribe to a daily print newspaper?

Weekly Roundup - January 15, 2009

I've got a guest post up today at Life on Avenue Z about making environmentally friendly choices. I hope you'll head over there, give it a read and check out Beth's excellent blog.

Simple Mom has a great idea for an inexpensive composting system created from a plastic trashcan with a locking lid. If you’ve checked the price of a Compost Tumbler lately, you’ll understand why her idea is worth trying!

Baked Adzuki Beans with Eggplant and Tomatoes appears in the Make It From Scratch carnival at I’ve Got A Little Space to Fill. Treasuring the Moment has a recipe for pecan tassies that I literally had to stop and make the minute I read it! I didn’t have any cream cheese so I used blue cheese in the dough. They were delicious!

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity is starting a series on the basics of personal finance. This week’s offering is The Basics of Banking Explained. I’m very excited about this series and plan to forward all of these articles to my son, who I think is ready to pay attention. I can’t think of a better teacher!

Still Not Onboard? appears in the 47th Money Hacks Carnival at Money Beagle. It’s his first time hosting a carnival and the Beagle did a great job with a cute Beagle theme! Funny About Money has a great tip for a cheap, easy spot remover that I can’t wait to try. Budgets are Sexy asked, “Would you take a 10% pay cut if it meant saving an employee?” She’s getting some interesting comments.

Frugal Dad wrote an article about the frugal choices we make and what we’re willing to do and what we’re not willing to do. It’s called, “Homemade Laundry Detergent Not For Us”. It’s an interesting article but what’s really interesting are the comments piling up in response. There were 82 when I last checked. You need to go dip into them, fascinating stuff!

New Experiment in Vermicomposting

This article appears in the All Things Eco Carnival at Focus Organic. If you came from the carnival - welcome! I hope you will consider subscribing via RSS feed or e-mail.

If you are a regular reader you know I have a worm composting system in my basement and that I love my worms. My favorite worm farming website is Red Worm Composting where Bentley Christie writes about everything worms. Bentley is constantly experimenting in an effort to find the most efficient way to raise the best worms, compost the most scraps and create the best worm castings (the end result of all those worms eating all those scraps). Last summer Bentley created a worm trench right in his garden, which he set up just like a worm bin. His vegetables never looked better. Recently he launched a winter version of this experiment by planting seeds in one of his indoor worm bins. I was intrigued by the idea and decided to try it myself.



I had two long trough-like planters already under the lights down in Subterrania. I had planned to use them to grow some greens or something during the winter but hadn’t yet gotten around to setting that up. I decided they would do very well for this experiment. I shredded up a bunch of paper, added it to my already shredded junk mail and filled the planters about half full. Bentley is not crazy about using shredded white paper in his bins but it seems to work fine in mine and I enjoy feeding all those solicitations to my worms. You just have to be careful not to use glossy paper. I had a bunch of pressed paper pulp inserts from my wine buying days, which I soaked, tore into bits and mixed with the shredded paper, filling the bins.


(The bins are completely full)

The next step was to add some vegetable scraps. I save all my scraps, chopped fine, in plastic bags in my freezer. Freezing helps kill fruit fly eggs and I’ve found there is no need to thaw the scraps before putting them in the bins. So, I tossed a couple of handfuls of frozen scraps into each planter and covered the scraps with the bedding material. I’ve not done this open bin thing before and am a little concerned about the bins drying out so, for the time being, I covered them with an old vinyl tablecloth, which I’ll probably remove when I add the worms. You can just see it in the background in the first picture.



My existent Worm Factory, which I wrote about in my, “I love my worms article”, is populated with red worms (eisenia fetida) who seem very happy where they are. I decided I’d leave them be and get some new worms for the new bins. Bentley is having a shipping sale on European Nightcrawlers (eisenia hortensis). I decided to give them a try and ordered a couple of pounds, which should be here on Thursday or Friday.

Unlike Bentley, my bins are new and clearly not ready for planting. I suspect I’ll have to wait two or three months at least (maybe more) before I can progress to that step. I’m going to add some well rotted hay as a top layer. That’s what I think I’ll be able to plant the seeds in. One thing you learn with this worm thing is patience. In two or three months it’ll be time to plant outside around here, which you might think would nullify the value of the experiment. Actually, it’s so hot here in the summer that it is very difficult to grow salad greens or any other cool weather crops. It’s always about 60-65° in Subterrania and my hope is that, if the experiment goes well, I’ll be able to have a thriving crop of arugula and other mixed lettuces as well as perhaps some broccoli down there this summer. The idea is that the worms will create a perfect environment for the crops growing up top. Worst case scenario is that the plants won’t grow well in that medium, the worms should be fine regardless.

The best part about not being able to plant for a few months is that Bentley’s experiment will have succeeded or failed by then and I’ll be able to learn from his mistakes, before I make my own! I know you’ll be breathlessly awaiting the outcome, so stay tuned!!

Updates and Annoucements!

I successfully made it through Day 1 of The 21-Day Complaint Free Challenge. I have to admit that I can be a bit of a hermit and can easily go a few days at a time where my only contact with other people is via e-mail, Twitter or text. I don’t think I’m generally much of a complainer either. In order to level the playing field a little and to get more out of it, I decided to not only banish expressed complaints but also any complaints I might be thinking. In fact, I decided to banish negative thinking altogether. The rubber band is coming in handy for that! In addition to serving as a visual reminder, yesterday, whenever a thought popped into my head that I knew was going to lead down a negative road, I snapped myself! I really do believe in the mantra of “change your thoughts, change your life”, and believe this exercise will be wonderfully beneficial. Today I’m actually going out into the world, which I suspect will put me to a truer test!

I am very excited to announce that I will be joining the crew over at 5 Minutes for Going Green as a regular contributor. 5 Minutes for Going Green is my favorite “green” blog and I’m happy to be on the team. Come by and say hello!

I’m also happy to announce that I will be guest posting at Life on Avenue Z on Thursday. Beth is a freelance copywriter who writes on the trials and tribulations that freelancing inevitably entails. She launched a virtual food drive amongst her readers during the holidays and managed to get over 4,000 pounds of food contributed to food banks all over the country! Be sure and check her out!

I’m working on a piece now for Jeff at My Supercharged Life for him to use when he is on vacation. One of my goals for this year is more guest posting (and guest hosting) and things are off to a good start. If you left me a message about guest posting (either for me or from me!), I’ll be contacting you soon! If you’d like to guest post on SimplyForties, please click on the “contact me” link in the right column on my site and send me an e-mail.

I launched a new vermicompost experiment yesterday and will be posting about that when I get home this afternoon after what I hope will be a complaint free jaunt to see some of my clients face-to-face!

Baked Adzuki Beans with Eggplant and Tomatoes

If you are new here, thanks for stopping! I publish a recipe every Sunday to give myself a day off and to share my interest in food and cooking.

This recipe appears in the Make It From Scratch carnival at I've Got A Little Space To Fill. If you've never perused this carnival, check it out! It's a treat. If you came from the carnival - welcome! I hope you will consider subscribing via RSS feed or e-mail.

I promised that after the holidays I'd offer some simpler, more everyday recipes. So, for this week's Sunday recipe feature, try this delicious and hearty dish. Perfect for a cold winter night. My "near-vegetarian" younger sister makes this pretty often as her main dish.

Serves 6

1 cup dried adzuki bean
1 bouquet garni (thyme, parsley, and bayleaf)
2 small eggplants, unpeeled,and cut in 1 inch cubes
kosher salt or sea salt
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 cups canned chopped tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock or 1 bouillon cube dissolved in 1 cup water)
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt and pepper, to taste
4 tablespoons fresh basil, shredded
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Pick over and discard any damaged beans or stones; rinse the beans, then place in a sauce pan adding plenty of water to cover; soak for a minimum of three hours (can be all day).

Drain the beans and return to the sauce pan with enough water to cover by 2 inches.

Add the bouquet garni and bring water to the boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered until the beans are tender (20 to 40 minutes); drain and set aside, discarding the bouquet garni.

Place the eggplant cubes in a colander and sprinkle with kosher or sea salt; let drain for 30 minutes, then rinse and pat dry with paper towels (this step can be done while the beans are boiling).

Pre-heat oven to 375°F.

In a large frying pan over medium heat, heat 4 TBS of the olive oil then add the eggplant and saute until lightly browned on all sides (5 to 10 minutes).

When the eggplant has browned, transfer to a large baking dish (I use a 13x9).

In the same frying pan, heat the remaining 2 TBS olive oil and saute the onion until it begins to soften but not brown (about 5 minutes).

Add in the garlic and continue to saute 1 minute.

Add the tomatoes, stock, allspice, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste; simmer slowly for 5 minutes, then transfer the mixture to the baking dish.

Add the beans and the basil to the baking dish, and mix everything well.

Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and bake until golden, about 20 minutes.

Serve immediately.

My sister told me about this recipe, which comes from FlemishMinx at Recipezaar.

The 21-Day Complaint Free Challenge

I’ve decided to embark upon the 21-day Complaint Free Challenge today! I was reminded about the challenge over at The Simple Marriage Project where they’ve renamed it the 21-day Complaint Free Marriage Experiment. I'm going with the original. It’s very simple to explain, not so simple to complete. Essentially, you have to go 21 days without complaining…about ANYTHING to ANYONE!!! Put a rubber band or bracelet of some sort on one wrist. Every time you falter, switch it to the other wrist and start over. I’m going to give it a try. Care to join me? If you want to take up the challenge, leave me a comment and we’ll go through it together!

When Does What We Look For In A Partner Change?

Alice Gorman wrote an article for O Magazine some time back outlining how, in a moment of despair over a bad love life, she compiled a list of 100 things she wanted in a man. Her list was very specific. She stuck the list in the back of her closet and forgot about it. Five years later she met the man who would become the real love of her life. During an argument with him she produced the list. He matched up in every way except for two. She said that making the list was like giving up what she wanted to the Universe and this man was what the Universe sent her. Sort of like a “vision board” for a mate. Oprah also investigated this topic on her television show. There were several people interviewed on the show who had done this very thing successfully.

It got me to wondering, if I were to make such a list, what would be on it? I think my list would include such things as being open and honest, communicative, demonstrative and trustworthy. Self-supporting, shares some common interests with me and a sense of humor would also appear on my list. It occurred to me that no physical attributes, other than possibly being relatively physically fit and taller than me, came to mind. Even when I thought about it, I still couldn’t come up with any other physical attributes about which I cared.

Little girls tend to play imagination games including planning their weddings and what they want their boyfriend to be like. Ask any 10-year old girl how many bridesmaids she wants and I’ll bet she’ll be able to tell you without a moment’s hesitation. She probably also knows what her colors will be, all about her flowers and what songs will be sung at the reception. If you ask her about her boyfriend she will have that all figured out as well. She’ll most likely be able to describe him in detail. She probably will also tell you how many kids they’re going to have and about their pets. I remember my imaginary boyfriend was 6’2”, had blonde hair and blue eyes and was slim. I’m sure I spent a lot of time conjuring him up and dreaming about him. I had no thoughts at all about what sort of person he would be or what sort of values he would have. I suspect we spent a lot of time mooning around holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes. Serious stuff! (Note – I’ve never, in all my "real" life, had a blonde boyfriend!)

Somewhere along in there, thankfully, we grow up and our wants and wishes change. Clearly that’s a good thing since I suspect all that eye gazing would get pretty tedious after awhile. When exactly does that happen? Does the change occur as a result of years or experiences? Obviously there is some of each but I wonder which has the stronger influence. I suspect it is experience. When we realize that our knight in shining armor might have a spot of tarnish on him and we’re okay with that, the change begins.

I guess I’ll make that list and throw it in the bottom of a drawer. I may or may not be posting on the results at some point in the future but, what the heck, it can’t hurt!