College Rankings

In a news article this morning about my old college (which ranked #2 as best "Quality of Life" college) is a list of college rankings done by The Princeton Review.  Find out which colleges rate as best and worst for: food, dorms, beautiful campus, and other quality of life aspects. Several of these are hilarious such as the one my sister pointed out -- "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians." Who knows? Maybe some people may actually want to attend a college like that.

Family Security Fair

We spent all morning at the fair. I took 15 photos. They are located at Family Security Fair Photos. They also had an ambulance open outside. The children loved that one and they got all kinds of handouts from the ambulance folks including a handy tote bag to hold all the other handouts and candy other booths were giving away.

I learned from the YMCA that 80% of child drownings occur while an adult is there - supposedly watching them. It just a takes a glance away for something to go wrong.

I learned that there's a number to use instead of 911 for calls that are important, but less of an emergency. Here in Huntsville, that's 722-7100 (a Community Watch number where problems can be reported that are not an emergency but could become such). A community watch program can do much good.

Classes were taught by experts on identity theft, self-defense and more. The mayor gave a short talk as well as our local head of the Department of Homeland Defense -- all fascinating speakers. I learned so much. It was well worth the time.

Local power outages can be called in at 53-LIGHT. ARK, a local humane society, reminded us to plan emergency actions for our pets. Where possible, store a extra pet food, keep an animal carrier handy and plan what to do with the pets if a disaster occurs. They also talked about therapy dogs in community service. I loved the ARK ladies and their dogs!

The CERT program takes volunteers through an 8-session class to become certified with the Community Emergency Response Team. When they finish the program, they are given a hard hat, backpack, first aid kit, flashlight and are prepared to help handle neighborhood emergencies.

One booth about storing food offered a great one-hour yeast roll recipe that I plan to make. It sounds very easy because no kneading is required. (From Sister Hill in Decatur.)

Trying to Decide on a Career?

Yesterday was very busy. My husband is doing a booth at a Family Security Fair today. The fair will have other booths and classes on self-defense, YMCA swimming safety, finding employment, identity theft, fire and rescue, ARK - a humane society, what to do in a power outage, storing food, first aid, etc. Our mayor is coming by, along with a police officer, other city officials and more. My husband is a volunteer employment consultant. Having set up booths at conferences for years for my company (Golden Gates Genealogy Forum at GenealogyForum.com), I helped him design and organize his information.

He has some great handouts. Here's one of the six different handouts on employment and businesses that he will be giving to those who are trying to figure out what kind of job they'd like. (He didn't write this himself and I don't have his information source handy. My apologies in advance to the author of this if he or she is known.)

Top Ten Jobs for People Who...

One of my own personal pet peeves about job hunters are those healthy people with no experience, no children, no unemployment or other financial benefits, and no education in any field who stay idle for months because the jobs out there "aren't good enough." For those folks, there's nothing wrong with working at McDonald's or Wal-Mart until something better can be found. At least you would be making money instead of living off of Mom and Dad, etc.

I bussed dishes at a restaurant until I could find better employment when I was in college. I lived with 5 other girls. One of them was job-hunting. She wanted to play her guitar in a restaurant. She could never find a job doing that and refused to do anything else. It was "beneath her dignity." Instead, she stole food from the rest of us rather than face her parents to get more money -- yeah, right -- some dignity there.

PhotoFriday: Macro

The topic for PhotoFriday.com this week is "Macro." Looking at the other submissions, most people interpret this as taking a picture using their camera's macro ability. This is fun! I love the macro lens. Here's my entry.

There are some very, very good photographers from all over the world participating in this. Take a moment and browse through the photos. They are well worth the time.

If nothing else, look at the top right of the page and check the "Noteworthy" photos. Its easy to go through the archives and find the older ones, too. Alabama's own MedicMom has made this list more than once.

Thai Birthday

A blog is a convenient reference for past events. I looked up my birthday last year and read that I was eating Nestlé's Coconut Treasures. I had forgotten how much I like those.

Today I am 48. My younger sister says I am only 34 because she stopped aging at 29 and I am just 5 years older than she is. I could go for that.

For birthdays these days, my husband I like to eat out (heck, we eat out for any reason or no reason). Of course, I get to pick the restaurant. H-m-m-m-m, so many good ones to choose from here.

Did I ever post that Huntsville was the nation's #1 Tums consumer one year? (It might still be.) Maybe that is due to our excellent selection of dining places.

Yesterday my friends and I ate at Surin's, a Thai Restaurant. It was nice. I love Thai food as long as it is not too sweet. Some restaurants have to drench their Thai menus in sweetness -- but that is not needed. Thai does not have to be too hot or sweet to be good (although both are nice variations, of course). Hot coconut soup (pictured) does not have any sweetness and just the right touch of heat. It's one of my favorite things at Surin's.

Low-Carb Dieting

Whenever I go out in a group and we talk about food, the conversation always comes around to dieting, eventually. Maybe we feel guilty for enjoying the food so much.

My philosophy is to do whatever works for you, health considered, but eventually you have to return to the real world. Most folks fail at that since 99 out of a 100 people gain it all back within 5 years.

I never was much impressed with the Atkins Diet. My mother tried it and gained 10 pounds. An article in Time Magazine a year or two ago, said this diet partially relies on the fact that the dieter will get sick of the things that are unlimited and just end up eating less calories anyway.

I was watching a morning news show with a nutrition expert who recommended eating something in between low-carb and low-fat because we need the fiber, too. That makes sense. I try to eat high-fiber every day -- well, most of the time.

Why are high-fiber things like popcorn best eaten with plenty of melted butter and sprinkled with cheese?

Cracker Jacks Invented in 1896

Here's a timeline showing when certain foods and food products began.  Mom raised us on Kraft Singles (began in 1947). Mrs. Butterworth's Syrup began in 1961 (my husband swears that this tastes better than real maple syrup), McDonald's in 1955, the Moon Pie in 1917, and Sprite in 1961. (Alas, this morning's news says carbonated beverages have a link to oesophageal cancer ...  darn it!)

Heart Attack - Call an Ambulance or Not?

Since this is EMT week, here's a tidbit from Reader's Digest:

Grilling Tips

My husband is looking for a new grill. He likes very simple, gas-powered ones. In honor of the occasion to buy a new one, here's some grilling tips I found in the newest issue of Reader's Digest:

My husband makes a great grilled hamburger. He swears by using the plainest, cheapest (not the lean cuts) of hamburger and not overcooking. He says to avoid further flattening the burger after it is place on the grill, especially do not push down on it while it is cooking - or the meat dries out.

Router Woes

We had an old router, a Linksys which had been working pretty well. When my husband got a new network card, it did not work with the router so we decided it was time to upgrade the firmware on the old router. We hit a snag. There were many firmware versions to upgrade. I didn't realize that Linksys had a million versions of their routers.

Carefully researching the matter, we found 2 possible firmware versions. There was no easy way to find out which version we needed. They both had the same serial number, etc., so we picked one and took our chances.

The network card worked! Alas, the router started failing about once or twice a day. Resetting it fixed things for a few hours. We may have gotten the wrong firmware upgrade.

I have heard people say never upgrade the firmware because it might have bugs like this and others say always upgrade the firmware to get the latest security, etc.

Whatever the reasoning, we decided to dump it all and get a new router. We wanted to go wireless anyway. Staples had a NetGear wireless router for less than $10 (after the kazillion rebates). I got the last one this morning. It's working fine so far.

TechTV in Nashville

My husband wanted to go to Nashville yesterday. We left early and visited Kevin Rose and Sarah Lane at the TechTV booth in Cool Springs Galleria. I got several decent photos.

From talking with their assistant, Jason, it appears they may move to LA and remain a part of "The Screen Savers," a show we watch on weekday evenings. We like the show and the computing tips and information we get daily. I am glad it was not cancelled although I enjoyed "Call for Help" as well and it was cancelled, alas.

I love the Nashville area. It's a beautiful place and a nice drive 100 miles north on the interstate from Huntsville. Sarah said the turnout here was one of the best they'd had.

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