Got rid of the garbage disposal

I think that every home I have lived in since I was in my teens had a garbage disposal. Having owned 3 homes, they all had them. We went through at least replacing one in each home. Last month our garbage disposal gave out and we made an odd decision and not to replace it. Our thoughts were, why are we putting garbage down the drain instead of composting it for our vegetable garden that we have every year.

What we did was buy a drain strainer that is put in place of the regular straining plug. It is made of a fine mesh. We have a small covered bucket by the sink and empty the strainer into it each time we rinse off the dishes. We already have an active compost heap so no need for us to run out and buy composters for the garden.

After a month of not having a garbage disposal in the kitchen sink, I can honestly say that I don't miss it at all.

Painting project

The Author of this post is Velma Baird

While my husband was out of town, I decided to paint our bedroom. I had been planning this project for a while and had already bought all the materials that I would need. I got everything ready. First I moved everything away from the walls so I would have clear access all around the room. Then I cleaned the walls and put down drop cloths so I would not get any paint on the floor. I had the radio blasting on my favorite oldies station. When I paint I always have that station going and have been known to sing very loud when no one is around. So I went around the room and trimmed out the edges first. That makes everything easier when I get out the roller and roll the rest of the walls. I went over and opened the windows so I could have some ventilation in the room. I was painting along and singing my head off. All of a sudden I looked up and a police officer was standing in the doorway. He said that he had gotten a call that there was a break in in progress at my house. After explaining that I was the homeowner, I realized that I had not turned off the alarm system that we had gotten through home security 101. When I had opened the windows it had set off our silent alarm. I have never been so embarrassed in my whole life. But, it did make me feel safer knowing that the police would show up if I ever did have an intruder.

How to avoid scam job wanted ads on Craigslist

Yes the scammers are out in force on Craigslist. They are particularly prevalent on the jobs section of the site. There are many legit companies that also advertise on there too (God only knows why since they should know better than to advertise on a website that is known for scams). So how can you tell the difference? Here are some tips:

• In the ad, it should state the company name and contact information. If it doesn't skip it.
• If there is a phone number in the ad, Google it and see what you come up with.
• If the ad has no contact information but you are still interested just take part of the ad and copy and paste it into your search on Google. If that same ad is showing up in other Craigslist ads all over the country then you know it is a scam.
• If the email address in the ad is a hotmail or gmail account they are usually scammers. I Googled on that had the email address of 128BeadsarusX7@gmail.com and nothing showed up, a sign of a scammer

I recently saw a job ad on Craigslist that was hiring automobile production workers ASAP. I thought it was strange since the area I live in does not have that type of industry. So I took part of the ad and put quotes ("") around the sentence and Googled it. The results showed 5 other ads on Craigslist that were all over the place. Yes, I flagged the ad so it would be removed.

If you think the ad just might be a real job, never send a cover letter or resume first. Send an email requesting more information and asking for their company name so you can find out more about them. Most companies want you to know more about them before you apply for a job with them anyway so a real company would not object.

The ever changing cell phone

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of LG DoublePlay™ for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I got my first cell phone over 15 years ago. A bulky thing that needed its own bag, well almost. Of course all it did was make phone calls. No such thing as texting and forget surfing the internet. Nowadays some cell phones have replaced computers and you don't even need a computer for most internet surfing functions. 

One of the newest cell phones to come out is the LG DoublePlay™ a phone that utilizes the Android market for apps. It has 2 touch screens plus a QWERTY keyboard for big fingered gals like me who are absolutely all thumbs when it comes to using a touch screen to type. The Double Play is named because you can multi task with it. You can surf and reply reply to your Facebook friends at the same time, just like a regular size computer. 

This phone is only available through T-Mobile so that can be a plus or a minus, depending if you live in their coverage area.

I don't send that many texts messages and I don't surf on my phone because it is just too expensive. Maybe I am just one of the older generation that would rather talk to someone than type them a message. The Double Play does have a camera and video capabilities but so does my current phone and those features I have put to good use. I also use the MP3 on my phone, which reminds me, I need some more tunes on it.

So what phone do you currently use? Would you trade it in for something like the Double Play or something else? Leave a comment I would love to know and so would my readers.

A solution for foreclosed homes

Gosh, it has been awhile since I lasted posted on here, hasn't it? It is nearing the end of the year and for the majority of people living in the USA, a time of festive parties, shopping and gathering with family and friends. But of course there is a growing percentage (don't ask me if I know the actual percent, I don't know) of people and families who cannot afford this time of year and don't even have a place to call their own, whether it is a rental house or apartment or even trailer. They are living with family or friends since losing their homes.

Some of the people that got tossed out of the places they lived were not home owners but renters who were tossed out on the streets without warning. Their landlords didn't tell them that the rental was in foreclosure. Of course the tenants had been paying the rent but the landlord was not paying their bills with the money.

What I do not understand during this whole foreclosure fiasco was why banks are having perfectly good homes razed to the ground. Are they too stupid to even realize that those foreclosures could become homes for rent and that the banks could still be making money on them. By renting them out, the renters would be up keeping the property and keeping neighborhood real estate prices up. But NO, all the banks thought about is how they could acquire land and homes at the expense of the economy............but they never thought that they would be stuck with those properties for years and years and years and years and............

So if the banks are reading this (yeah, like that is going to happen) I want you to think about making those foreclosed homes into low cost rentals and rent them back to the people you tossed out. Maybe, just maybe you could be in the news this Christmas season because you are doing something nice for a change and not just getting reported on for the corruption that is going on in your company.

Making money for Christmas

I am known in my family for being very resourceful. I am always finding ways to make or save money. This time of year I clean out closets and list stuff on eBay. I surprise myself every year with what I think is junk and other people snap up right away.

Just a few days ago I listed 15 balls of new rug yarn. I did some research first and found out that some people were selling this stuff online for $5 each. So I put them up for auction with a "buy it now" option at over $50 and it got bought with the "buy it now" within 3 hours of listing. So back to the closet I go for more stuff.

I found a few old sheet music books, one on easy songs on the guitar from when my daughter was taking guitar lessons. I did sell a few of her books that were almost brand new and I found out they were first editions (those things get snapped up fast on eBay).

Now back to that closet.

Wide spread outage of Feedburner

If you go to your feedburner account and discover that your subscriber count is now at zero, fear not, it seems to be a widespread problem. Hopefully they fix it soon. Apparently it not only happened today but also about 4 days ago as well. There was talk of Google abandoning Feedburner but that is all the information I have.