It seems that when I was younger, there were a lot of commercials for household products and food products. But when is the last time we’ve seen a commercial with a little kid crying, “I want my Maypo!” or another kid singing, “My bologna has a first name, it’s O – S – C – A – R.”? What about all the margarine commericals, the Stovetop Stuffing, the Jolly Green Giant vegetables?

Now all we get is medical and TV show promos. I saw the price of a Viagra prescription the other on a board at sam’s club. If they are charging between $15 and $20 PER PILL for Viagra, no wonder they are running 30 commercials every night on prime time TV.

A couple of years ago  decided to toss a couple handfuls of worms that I found under the trash bins into a big bucket. I’ve kept them there and they’ve grown mightily. The worms are there for when I want to go toss a fishing line into the lake and also for enriching the soil of my container gardens.

For the most part I feed them ever day or two and make sure they don’t drown if we get a lot of rain.They don’t make any noise and they don’t try to escape, so they don’t need a lot of attention to be happy.

I give the worms all of my used coffee grounds. I make a pot of coffee each day, so they get plenty of of coffee grounds. But once in a while I sprinkle the top of the dirt with a small box of cornbread mix. I like to buy the cornbread when it’s on sale for 20 cents a box, but every once in while they freshness date expires. So that box becomes a treat for the worms. They also like newspapers and cardboard and other discarded foods, like table scraps. I don’t like to put that much garbage outside for the worms because I don’t want to attract any critters like raccoons or skunks. But if you are OK with a big composting pile or not worried about other scavengers coming around at night, you can give them most vegetables or fruits that are leftover or too ripe to eat. Do not give worms any citrus, spicy food, or dairy or animal products.

My sister in law has gone back to work as a teacher’s assistant again this year. She lives in a very small town in the Oklahoma panhandle. There are just very few jobs to be had and she never went to college, so she is very limited on her job prospects. The sad thing is that she never intended to have a career. She got married right out of high school and thought her husband was going to be the provider. But when he left her with two young daughters to raise alone, she had no choice but to take a job and do what she could to get by.

Now that both of her daughters are grown and in college, I told her it’s time for her to get her college degree and start the next big phase of her life. There is no college within driving distance of where she lives, so I suggested a distance learning degree. She can take most of her college classes online from her home. Once she finds a good school that offers the types of programs she wants, then she can start searching for her financial aid options. If she likes this, she can even go on to earn an online phd.

She’s been working with children and involved in primary education and a degree in education will enhance her credentials if she wants to stay there, but if she wants to change her career focus, now is the time to do it. I think she would make a great nurse and everyone knows that the health care field is growing. I think health care is almost recession proof. So looking for an online nursing degree is her first step in starting her new life.

We had made tentative plans to go to the Lake today and have a cook out. I bought a bag of instant lighting charcoal and made up a batch of macaroni salad to take with us. I like to travel light and plan menus carefully to keep down the amount of condiments and assembly when we use the public grills.

But this morning we tuned in for the weather and found that it will barely be 70 degrees and there will be a steady breeze. Well,that’s just too cool for me to want to swim. I can’t believe that it is the end of August, which should be our hottest month of the year, and it is barely 70 degrees. So we’ll have to cancel the cookout and find something else to do today.

The weather has turned a little cool and I’m done with all the summer dinner menus. I’m ready for chili, stews, and comfort food.

During the summer I rarely bake anything – I don’t want to make the kitchen any hotter than it already is by running the oven and adding more heat to the room. But now that I can open the windows and enjoy being in the kitchen, I’m ready to start baking again.

Tonight I’m going to try a new recipe for carrot cake. A friend of mine has developed an intolerance for gluten and she has a gluten free recipe for carrot cake that sounds yummy. I’m going to give it a try.

All the guys in our bowling league are getting together and forming a fantasy football league. As if we don’t have enough competition already!

Most of the women on our league are typical southern housewife women and I think I am the only woman on our league that actually likes to watch football and follows the teams through the season. so of course, I want in with the guys on their fantasy football league.

Ever since I was a deejay, I have not been a fan of live performance recordings. There are a couple that I like, for personal reasons, but for the most part I have focused on recordings that are clean without a lot of background noise and are easy to dance to.

One exception to my dislike of live recordings and also the dance-ability requirement is this video of Metallica performing with the San Francisco Symphony. Those two groups seem so incongruous but it actually adds a fuller dimension to the song in a strange, adult way. Tell me if you like this version that Ifound on Youtube:

While I was writing my last post, the title reminds me that I’ve been a long time fan of the heavy metal band, Metallica.

Back in the 1980′s, I saw Metallica in concert at the Capital Center in Maryland. I’m pretty sure the arena is not called the Cap Center any more. All the arenas have adopted this ridiculous method of naming themselves after a corporate sponsor. That drives me NUTS! But that’s another rant.

When I saw Metallica, I was totally blown away with their guitar playing and high energy, but also the thought and effort put into their lyrics. I absolutely love two of their songs, “Enter Sandman” and “Don’t Tread on Me.” Those two songs are like the anthem of my life in the 80′s and I can’t help but smile when I hear either one of them from the awesome memories that rush forth.

My household has been in an uproar this past week. At my age, I crave 8 hours of sleep and nice, predictable routine. Let’s face it, the days of all night partying and running off for a wild weekend on impulse are over.

The good thing about my normal routine is that I am staying healthy and fighting the aging process with every weapon available over the counter. I especially want to get enough sleep. In fact, I’d love to move to Mexico just so I can take advantage of their culture’s afternoon siestas. I would love to take a short nap every day. That would give me much more energy to deal with the evenings.

My bedroom is the second most important room in my house. The first most important is the kitchen. I’m in the kitchen throughout the day and only in the bedroom once a day, but the quality of my time in the bedroom is probably just as important, if not more important, than my time in the kitchen. After all, I can always order take out or go out to a restaurant and avoid the kitchen for a day or two. But I need my bedroom for a good night’s sleep every night.

I centered my bedroom around a beautiful bed and spent a lot of time shopping for just the right one. There are so many different kinds of beds, you have to know exactly what you want and you can only do that if you shop around. My favorite is a platform bed, which is low to the ground and offers firm support. The style of the Savoy bed is very dramatic. It makes me feel like a Hollywood star, with its padded leather headboard and dark brown richness.

I don’t remember when neo-sporing came onto the market. When I was a little girl, the standard first aid was a spray bottle of Bactine or a bottle of mercurochrome and a band aid. In bad cases of cuts or scrapes, there would be a bottle of iodine brought out with gauze bandages and white tape.

Now the first thing I reach for is a tube of neo-sporin. It kills germs and promotes faster healing. I even carry a small tube of neo-sporin and a couple of band aids in my briefcase for when I travel.