Domestic Geek

While I was chopping up my onions for my chili in my food processor last night, I noticed that it wasn't doing the job it used to. Instead of chopped onions, they came out more like mashed. I've had it forever, so it doesn't really surprise me that it's wearing out. With Thanksgiving coming up, it would be great if I could get a new one. I hate chopping stuff up by hand since using a machine is so much of a time-saver. There's a machine out there I might like to replace it with: The Ultimate Chopper. It's selling right now for $54.95 and includes a free blender attachment. That would be awesome since my blender died a long time ago and I've just been doing without one. I miss mixing my scrambled eggs in a blender. I just can't seem to get them as fluffy by hand.

I find that as I get older, my poor old joints pain me horribly when the weather gets cold. In fact, I can always tell when a front is coming through when that familiar ache in my left knee begins to start. Being overweight, having several stupid accidents when I was younger because I'm a klutz and a family history of arthritis...all contributing factors to my deteriorated joint health. You should hear my ankles and knees pop. *shudder*

When an old dog I used to have, an Alaskan Malamute, begain having trouble walking due to arthritis in her hips, I changed her diet to a food that contained Glucosamine and Chondroitin. I was amazed at how little time (only a few weeks) her condition and ability to get around improved.

Ever since I saw the way those ingredients improved her life, I've been meaning to find a joint pain supplement for myself. I found a product called Synotrex that I'm interested in trying. In addition to Glucosamine and Chondroitin, the product as contains several other natural ingredients designed to rebuild cartilege and reduce pain and swelling.

I know that once I begin taking a supplement such as this, combined with my continued weight loss, I'll save myself from a future of being crippled by irreparable joint damage.

I've noticed a trend in the web design towards predesigned templates. Many sites are offering ready to go out of the box designs, especially for sites needing an ecommerce solution. All the end user needs to do is put in their product info and logo and they're set to go. One such site is The osCommerce cafe. The business was set-up by Myles O'Reilly, the author of the popular book The Programmers' Guide to osCommerce. While they claim they are a resource for web designers, they are also an econimical solution for anyone needing to create an ecommerce web presence.

They offer three separte membership options to gain unlimited download access to the current selection of 70 templates: $89.00 for three months, $158.00 for six months or $299. 00 for a year. Definitely a more economical solution for a business to get on the web instead of hiring a web designer that would have to charge much more. As a designer, these are means to get a working site to a client with a limited budget. There are currently nineteen categories of templates—Art, Hobbies, Sports, Food & Drink, and many more. A lot of sites offer boxy, boring templates, but those offered by The osCommerce Cafe look pretty classy. They don't all look the same, make excellent use of color and spacing and look very professional and clean.

While you can use them as they are, they can be customized by anyone with graphic and html knowledge. They have a Button Generator as a service to create customized navigation buttons for your template. They offer tutorials on how to integrate the templates into your site. There is even an affiliate program, if you wish to join.

As a graphic designer, I was originally wary of such template sites. The fact is, they are a great resouce and can be a starting point to fulfill a client's need. From a small business person's standpoint, though, I can see the appeal of this low-cost alternative to get their businesses on the web. As long as the site sells their product, the cheaper to create it the better.

My mom was a fountain of trivia and inane facts. She knew a lot of answers on television quiz shows and loved doing crossword puzzles. I must've inherited this trait because my brain is overflowing with seemingly trivial information. Combine my love of learning with my tendancy to retain obscure facts and you'll know why I love the Aviva Trivia Blog!

I tend to have a chronic cough and when it gets bad, even the most potent medicines do nothing to alleviate it. I've often wondered what people did before modern medicine for such common ailments. We all know about honey and lemon as a natural remedy, but a post about coughing stated an old superstition that I found odd:

Take one hair from the head of a person who is coughing and put it between two slices of buttered bread. Now feed it to the dog. Somehow, that is supposed to cure you from coughing.

Too funny that someone somewhere thought that would actually work, huh?

The posts cover a broad range of topics—killer bees, shaving, weird jobs, burial customs...the list goes on!

If you'd like to spend some time learning some new little tidbits or interesting facts, I highly recommend that you visit the Aviva Trivia Blog. Be prepared to spend some time there, though!

The hardest thing I had to do when I got my first dog from the Dumb Friends League back in 1993 was figure out his name. It was several days before I found something that fit. There are tons of resoruces out there for human baby name suggestions, but now there is one for the new dog owner. There are tons of resources at Alldognames.com - Dog Names categorized by most popular, size, color and gender. Suggestions from movies and literature. The site also provides general naming tips for your new puppy as well as trends in dog names and celebrity dog news. This will be the first site I visited when i get my next canine companion.