We did absolutely NO Labor today. Except for the effort it took to make dinner. Here it is:
Beef Loin Porterhouse steaks on the grill
Perfectly seasoned steaks
Big ass juicy steak and potato with veggies
Celebrating Labor Day with cupcakes
There is also a very happy dog somewhere in our house. She got two bones to chew on and some scraps. Lucky!
A friend just turned me onto the coolest thing - Savvy Chic Kids’ Consignment. What Savvy Chic Kids is a children’s consignment event coming up October 3rd, 5th and 6th.
The consignment event is doubly great because you can go shopping for gently used, name brand clothing for your tykes for unbelievable prices. Your kids can look stylish AND you will still be able to afford gas to drive them around to all the places they need to look nice at. The other part of the double great is that you can also make a little money by getting rid of your own children’s outgrown clothes.
This benefits you - the buyer and the seller - but also helps out local Inland area charities for children and women. You can donate clothes that you don’t end up selling. Clean out your closets, do something with those newish outfits your baby wore one or two times but its just too cute to get rid of, consign those things you love and know someone else would love for their little ones.
The sale will take place October 3rd, 5th and 6th at La Sierra University Church Social Hall from 10 am - 6 pm. I’m sure it is going to go great and there are going to be a lot of happy kid and moms.
Last week, a Riverside family were given the keys to an energy efficient green house. Riverside Habitat for Humanity built the first affordable green, solar powered house in the city - and in the nation. Its features include:
The pictures of the house in the pe.com article look modern and streamlined. I’m jealous but the house went to the Suarez family, who worked on the house and look pretty pleased to be new owners.
How does one get to be a HFH home owner? You have to qualify for the program, apply and be willing to put in at least 500 hours of sweat equity and participate in other education (such as budgeting and home maintenance). HFH builds and sells the homes to families at no profit and with no interest loans. The City of Riverside donated the actual land the house is built on. HFH Riverside has built several homes in the past and has a couple it is currently working on. It is done through donations and volunteers. Very cool.
Now is a great time to post a few helpful links to assist you in prepping for what we’ve been calling since I was a little kid in Long Beach in the 70’s “The Big One”.
What do you do for pets? My first thought was to grab Ruby’s things that I usually take with her for a walk - her leash and pinch collar (only because she’s a wily pup and I know she’d get right out of her regular collar if she got scared enough), her portable bowl and a toy. The Earthquake Preparedness for Pets booklet also suggests up-to-date ID tags, enough food and water for the duration and prepare to render first aid if needed. This reminds me to update Ruby’s tags because the phone number on her current pink tag is wrong. She’s sitting by the door, waiting for the next one I suppose.
For kids and families - The U S Geological Survey has a cool site just for the tykes with the hows and whys of earthquakes, science fair projects, etc. California has a checklist of stuff to prepare for and a general warning of:
When preparing for an earthquake, plan on having enough supplies to get you and your family through at least the first 72 hours. After a major earthquake, there’s a good chance that traditional emergency response teams will be too busy to take care of you and your family. You need to prepare your home and neighborhood.
Our own Riverside Couny Fire Department has a pageful of earthquake information. Awareness, Preparedness and Readiness is the key to survival.
Good luck! Be prepared.
The City has begun a campaign to educate us on the dangers of flushing or washing our unused meds down the drain. This was a big news item a few months ago and both LA and Orange counties have begun similar programs already.
So what are you supposed to do with your unused or expired medications? Talk to your pharmacy because they might have a medication disposal program. A non-environmentally kind solution is to pulverize them, put them back in the bottle and wrap in several plastic baggies. You could then throw them out with your regular trash. Seems like a lot of work and a waste of plastic but its better than leaving it around for your kids and dogs to get a hold of. You can also donate to an organization who will give it to patients in Third World countries. Never knew that was an option.
Riverside residents will begin seeing flyers in the mail and at the pharmacy, with probably better recommendations than I listed above. I have a ton of old medications I could stand to ditch.
Monday, March 31st is the LAST day to submit nominations for the best Riverside neighborhood and neighbor. The Jack B. Clarke Good Neighbor Award, established in 1996 in honor of the late councilman, is for that special person who cares for his/her neighbors and makes their neighborhood a better place to live. The Neighborhood Spirit Award will go a neighborhood group or organization who hosted an outstanding, community building event or project in the past 12 months. The Neighborhood Awards Programs winners will be announced at the Riverside Neighborhood Conference in May.
I know it seems like it came around too quickly but yes, it is Easter this weekend, so if you have kids, yesterday would be the time to go to Target and buy candy and grass and baskets and whatever else. If I had little kids, I think I’d skip the whole plastic scene and do it natural and green this year. Or maybe not. Little kids are a lot of work.
Digsmagazine has a few good tips on holding an Oscar party, including sending out your invites through Evite.com. We all knew that already, just a reminder.
I wish there was a site with recipes that had to do with all the nominated movies. Wouldn’t that be swank? I’ll have to do that next year if I think of it more than a few frikkin’ days before the occasion. I’ll forget but my heart intends it. If someone does it, please let me know.
Epicurious has an Oscars Party Fit For The Stars menu that looks delish. It includes this Crimson Champagne Cocktail (which would probably give me a headache but make me drunker than drunk) that seems pretty.
Brandy-cranberry syrup
1 quart cranberry juice cocktail
4 slices fresh ginger
1 cinnamon stick
1 piece star aniseChampagne cocktail
1/4 cup brandy
Champagne
1 fresh cranberry, for garnishFor cranberry syrup
In a medium saucepan, boil the cranberry juice cocktail, the ginger, the cinnamon stick, and the star anise for half an hour or until reduced to 1 cup. Let cool.For cocktail
Fill a Champagne flute half-full with Champagne and add the brandy. Add 1 ounce Brandy-Cranberry Syrup and mix. Garnish with fresh cranberry.Cook’s note: The syrup recipe makes enough for 10 drinks.
Recipe courtesy of Kathleen Saachi, The Fine Art of Catering
Wolfgang Puck was supposed to have Oscar Party videos on Yahoo Food, but I didn’t see any. He’s so famous for his Oscar Party meals and parties but I think everything he makes is good so you can’t go wrong by including him in your menu creation.
Cooking Light is even in the game for all you healthy folks with their salmon and pickled shrimp. No mention of booze recipes or bacon wrapped anything so boo to them.
Ok enough with the food. I’m hungry now and need to concentrate on activities. Send me your ideas please. I’m fresh out!
Okay, I’ve decided I’m going to have an Oscar party. What to serve… whom to invite… what to do… how much to spend…
More details to follow.
Yay Christmas is in the air and the kind elves at pe.com have provided us with a map of Riverside Holiday Lights (and one for Moreno Valley too). Do you have the Christmas decorating spirit? Submit your house to pe.com and maybe you’ll be included also.
We are getting a tree this weekend, but the extent of our current decorations are a doggy advent calendar and a doggy squeak dreidle.
We got the key to our new pad and have begun painting. It’s Springfield Tan-esque. Pix to follow. Thanks Jessi and Erick for helping painting.
We can’t wait to move. It seems like it will be earlier expected, maybe early in the week instead of the weekend after. We are waiting for it to be ready.
While I was waiting I visited my best friend in her cute little downtown house. She introduced me to her next door neighbor, who is really a cool guy. I wonder what my neighbors are going to be like? Hopefully they will be cool and nice too. This article on being a good neighbor may help. How To Be A Good Neighbor - eHow.com
Our first task is to paint the living room. We haunted Sherman Williams for color ideas and decided on Camelback (6112) or something similar. Our second task is to replace that crazed hanging light.
Our master closet is 60 square feet and is between our master bedroom and bathroom. I can’t wait to fill it up with clothes and shoes and set up a swell vanity area to primp at in the morning.
PE.com Daily Bulletin
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