Muscles in a Bottle?

How can that be, muscles in a bottle? What does that mean? It means that you don't need to rely on exercise like days gone by to achieve your desired muscle mass. What they don't tell you is that if you're not genetically predisposed to be 'cut and ripped', you never will be, unless by a surgeons knife. That aside, there are hormone and non-hormone products available(legal or not) that the sky is obviously the limit. You can obtain through various means potions and salves such as bicep growth products, pectoral growth products, thigh muscle growth products, hair growth products and even eyelash growth products. There are other growth products of questionable repute but I'll not touch upon those here, no pun intended. The bottom line is that marketers and merchandisers have shown us all that we don't measure up unless we purchase their products. Out of curiosity I'd like to see some of the board members from some of these companies to see if they practice what they preach.

Tis The Season With No Reason

There is no reason why the end of the year holidays mean rules are put on hold when nothing, except the season, changes. Let me explain a little of what I'm talking about. I work in a medical lab that uses dangerous chemicals. I stress the word dangerous because ingestion of the majority of them, either singly or combined, could potentially cause major illness or even death. Needless to say you8 want to keep your gloved hands away from your nose, mouth, and eyes to avoid accidental ingestion. With me so far? For some reason when it comes to this time of year people seem to think the bad chemicals have become good for the holidays. That means everybody needs to bring holiday Christmas mugs to work and have them in the work area with beverages in them. They're cute, they're mood setting, they're relevant, and they're probably infused with chemicals that are airborne that we wear breathers to avoid. Every year we have to sign documents saying we understand that no food or drink is to be in the lab area, except during the holidays. No, it doesn't say that about the holidays but it does say NO to all forms of oral gratification items(coffee, soda, cookies, etc). The person who used theirs for pencils was told to make sure he didn't have any drinks in it. Go figure, Christmas fever no doubt.

Check The Company and Check The Order.

Sound advice, I wish I listened to it earlier. I recently got a reciprocating saw because, well, I didn't have one and I wanted one. You never know when a reciprocating saw will come in handy. Right? Yeah, we're in agreement then. Well, smart guy that I am I figured that to get the full experience of this saw I needed to get the various blades that would do various things that a reciprocating saw did. So I ordered blades. You can probably see where this is going, can't you? It was such a great price that I ordered them when they went on close-out. Wait for it. The delivery was very inexpensive. Wait for it. Buy three and get two free. Wait a little bit longer. They came two days ago. Here it comes. Band saw blades! My order said "blades" and the boxed invoice said, that's right, "blades-band". I don't know anybody that owns, let alone works with, a band saw. I suppose worst comes to worst I could use them to make round cut0outs in the grass to place bushes or trees.

Road-trip!

It starts with Thanksgiving and ends just after New Years. What's that you say? That's right, road-trip's! The problem I see is that this time of year is probably the worst for traveling anywhere. Trains are booked, airlines are booked, hotels are booked, car rentals are booked, and buses are even booked. I guess that's why some many people have opted for RV's. In the past you'd see them everywhere until the fuel costs skyrocketed and you couldn't give them away. Well like the man said, times are a changin'! The RV's, campers, and trailers are have a resurgence. People have remembered to bring the hotel with them on the road once again. The recreational vehicle has not died or even gotten sick, it was just resting for the time when everything else became an unreasonable cost and the RV was again a reasonable expense. The toughest thing I can think of while on the road would be getting a RV repair. Not every mechanic will know their way around a house on wheels with a beefy V8 in the living room! A good auto club along with a set of tools that fit the nuts and bolts on your rig is essential to a pleasurable journey to wherever. Take off a load and hit the road!

The Christmas Offers Are Pouring In

I say that the Christmas, or other holiday you may celebrate, offers are pouring in is because every year I get freebies from different alcohol websites I'm logged into. I like to collect hard to find and rare items from old and established companies. Every year I get free label offers to customize liquor related gifts. Well, not related because they are liquor gifts, amongst others. That's the point though, customized gifts! What better way to reach out to special people than to make your gift personal. Something they can remember every time they see, touch, or use it they'll remember ot was special from you. For years you could get personalized monogrammed gifts but now it's become a great treat because of how elaborate your personalization becomes. Either simple or complex it's the thought that counts in the end.

Some Things You Should Never Forget

There are birthdays and the holidays where we remember our close friends and loved ones and sometimes we may forget to acknowledge someone and that's usually forgiven. If you're unlucky enough to forget your wife on your wedding anniversary you're as good as toast! That much is a given today as it was yesterday and the years before that. What happens when he is forgotten? Why it's double standard time people! He just needs to realize that he needs to be thankful to she for continuing to be his wife of course. Hmmmm, how does that work out? It's not always the case however and I have to say that that example is more the exception than the rule. Any person that thinks that way needs to be alone and unmarried! Although it's rare for any woman to miss an important recognition of their partner there is always the ability with today's electronic Internet age to send him a special anniversary gift. How many men wouldn't like something from the Internet, right(hand raised)? I like to pick out my own things because I know what I really like and it's easier on the gift giver knowing the receiver will be happy and appreciative.

Interior Design Gone Full Circle

When I was growing up I remember the things we had in the house. We had linoleum kitchen flooring, the table and chairs were stainless steel with vinyl covered cushions, a porcelain sink with a hand sprayer attachment. The bathroom never heard of a shower until a portable kit came to the stores one hot summer and I got to install it in the clawfoot bathtub which probably weighed 500 pounds, or so it seemed to be, along with the matching sink. Oh yes, the flooring was linoleum with a scatter rug on it for those cold Boston mornings in your bare feet at 3 a.m.. What point am I attempting to make? It's simple. I'm think of all the money that could have been saved had we known that the style we were trying to shed because it was so outdated would be so in vogue today. People are actually paying top dollar to recreate these kitchens and bathrooms of yesteryear for what we paid top dollar to undo!

We've Become an Outspoken Nation

That's right, an outspoken nation. People who have finally had enough of getting pushed this way and that often display the first sign of open rebellion, being outspoken. In fact it's gotten to be a bit foul mouthed as well in many forms of delivery. We have protest songs for regular songs, rebellious speeches for standard political speeches, foulmouthshirts for funny t-shirts, and sub standard political candidates for qualified ones. It's a veritable plefora of choices, not all being equal or sane. When the quality goes back up and the madness subsides will be a very good indicator of the health of this nation, and probably the world.

What White Collar Jobs Are Out There?

The positions that are available for white collar applicants sound familiar but have additional job specs associated with them now that streamlining is back in the job requirements. Positions that are available also carry more duties with the emphasis on multitasking. For instance, a Personnel Director position may include travel to recruit and interview potential employees instead of sitting at a desk reviewing applicant resumes, supervising staff, and doing higher level interviews only. There are Quality Assurance Director Jobs, Marketing Director Jobs, Regional Trainer Jobs where you're always on the road, etc. All these jobs have several hats to wear. The candidates that get these positions are the ones who look their best in hats!

Financing Finance

These are the heady days of doing business with bad or poor credit and not caring if you succeed. With the passing of the sub prime mortgages we've seen a vacuum in what shady financial folks can come up with to sell a loan or provide empty, high interest credit to unsuspecting individuals or businesses. I just never thought you could do business without good credit. Today you can even get bad credit business loans and lines of credit without regard to ever making good on them. That's just not the way things used to be in the world. I do believe that making loans and credit available to struggling businesses is good businesses if it helps a good businesses get through tough times, such as a reputable home builder who needs funding to build model homes to sell their line of custom built houses when the market returns.

Spring Fever Brings Fall Handouts.

You go to work and see people there that you have no interaction with and that's okay, there's too many people to know everyone. Well, last spring several of the 'young ladies' at work got pregnant and feel the need to involve everyone at work with it. Involving also means not coming to work and having others fill in and do their own work as well. Okay, I'm not moaning about that because overtime is good also, especially now the way the economy has gotten. Every dollar helps! So why is it that I've gotten 6 baby shower invitations from girls I don't know from a hole in the wall, pardon the analogy. It's bad enough that they've taken quite a bit of time off that probably ate up their vacation and sick time(not maternity yet), had others doing their work while out, but now they want those of us who got a few extra dollars to give it to them in the form of gifts, let alone the fact we don't really know them that well where we'd actually show up for a baby shower. It doesn't really matter if we ignore the invites because most of them will quit after the maternity time is exhausted, which is what we know 3 of them will be doing. It's too bad we can't hire replacements ahead of time. Oh well, it's a job.

North Korea Launches Nuclear Missiles At

I hate the journalistic tactics news sites use to attract readers and viewers. They come at you with a catastrophic lead-in and it turns out to be a small sidebar story about what would happen if. There's a news agency named after a dog like animal with a bushy tail that does this kind of reporting quite a lot. I get back pain, literally, from chasing the remote to put another channel on, any other channel. I'm probably going to have to go see a back cracker or get some laser treatment for back pain or something. Maybe a better remote will work that allows me to block certain channels for my well being and piece of mind. I tell you one thing, I'd love to laser that bushy tailed critter and replace it with a reliable animal.

Keeping In Touch With Friends and Family, All At Once!

The major share of friends and family I have, as well as my wife, are back in Massachusetts. Calling can be a bit tricky, especially around the holidays when you'd like to get several of them on the line at the same time but logistically, nobody can be at the same place and time. What I did establish was that everyone I'd want to get on the line at once does have a PC and a cam. I figure that if I can do it at work why not at home. What I did was to set up a specific time for everyone to be online so we could establish internet conference calls for our holiday chats. The best part, except for getting everyone together, us to say hi and them to coordinate visits, is that the Internet is virtually free if you have the proper access to it's features. Moving ever forward in today's technology. Next year it will probably be smart phone conferencing.

Another Cold Winter Coming?

I'm assuming that this winter, coming up, will be as cold if not colder than last year. Well, I guess I can deal with that, living here in Florida and all. The problem I now face is taking a trip up north this winter after being used to 70 degree weather all winter long here. I'm probably going to either buy a thick down parka that I'll never wear again or invest in some heated clothing, where ever that is found. The last time I went back to Boston in the winter I realized how fast I lost my snow covered driving skills and how fast other drivers let me know it. Grey skies, icy roads, snow banked up along the roads where parking spots used to be, and the ever violent holiday shoppers. Hmm, I think I'll wait for spring this time when it's muddy and rainy. Uhhh, maybe a summer trip would be nice?

A Touch-Up Here, Touch-Up There

A touch-up everywhere, that there's rust that is. I like to think of it as a patina but my wife calls it rust. If you look at an old metal shed on a farm with a beautiful red metallic roof you'd naturally think that it had an excellent patina but noooo, it's got a rusty roof. I suppose that some see rust as a breakdown of newness that needs to be hunted down and destroyed at every occurrence and for the most part this is true. There are no automobiles that have a nice weathered patina, that's rust plain and simple and needs to be gone. Some iron yard pieces will be considered rustic furniture because of it's weathered look while cheap metallic furniture will be just plain rusty waiting for the trash haulers to take it away. Rustic can be several materials including, but not limited to, wood, stone, and metal. Good taste is in the eye of the beholder and comfort is in the behind of the sitter!

Still No Pool Heater!

Since, as I stated above, I have no pool heater I am once again forced to close the pool for the winter, even though I live in Florida. That's the indignation here, Florida and being too cold for swimming. Years ago this wasn't the case as it was quite warm even during the winter months but times are a changin' my friends. I now have to wrap outside water pipes for my water softener and several other things. My list looks something like this: clean gutters of leaves, winterize my lawn weeds, chemically treat pool for algae and other nasties, cover pool, deep clean pool filter, alter timer to fewer hours on pool filtration, repaint pool deck, treat yard for invasive insects and/or critters(no more citrus rats since citrus trees died from frost 2 winters ago), inspect house filters(air and water) and replace as needed, etc. I know, it should take a good weekend to accomplish these things unless you're like me and procrastinate till April to get done. The water pipes are definitely the first things because 2 winters ago, the year my beautiful orange trees died, the pipes froze and I was out in frigid temps early in the morning with my heat gun heating up PVC pipes(not normally a good idea) to get the water moving. I will not have a repeat of that again. If it weren't for the electricity cost I'd have a heater but alas, I just have a pool cover.

Kim K., Apathetic Money Diva or Jeweler?

I mention Kim K. but there are so many others out there flying under the radar while she takes the flack that it's hard to keep score until they zoom up into the sunlight. If you read the scandal sheets you know what I mean, not that I read a lot of those rags but you see enough just channel surfing the television shows nowadays. With Kim's recent wedding being called a fake by her publicist, former publicist now, it makes you wonder if she gets a commission on the sale of diamond engagement rings all over the globe. Of course I'm just kidding, if anyone actually had that ability they wouldn't be waving a flag over their head announcing it. For these 'people' an engagement ring is a commodity to be expected, for the rest of us it's an announcement of our pride in our selection of, and acceptance by, our anticipated mate and partner for life. Something us 'little people' don't look upon lightly or take for granted. Often we go to find the 'perfect' ring together, sometimes we get one anticipating a similar jewelry taste in rings from the recipient. Whether accepted or not we look at the diamond engagement ring as a symbol of a lasting union, not a flawed contract showing offer and acceptance.

How Do Schools Today Do It?

I mean when I was in primary and secondary school we always had paper and theme books to write in, pencils to write with, erasers, so on and so forth. It seems like today the parents are required to be the school repository for educational supplies. I spent a short while working for a big box retailer and I used to see the supplies list each area school would have posted for the parents to fill for each child. Holy crap, there was a lot of stuff listed that I never needed to use when I was in school. Do you remember having a flat, plastic compass or protractor or whatever they called it? It was a half circle on one side and a straight side on the other with inches and centimeters stamped on it. We used these for doodling between classes since we never needed them, but they always came in the store bought kit your parents bought you every year. Either the supplier bought too many of them and needed to get rid of them or there was actually someone out there who used them that was under 10 years old. What parents need are discount school supply coupons that can help defray the costs that they now have on them, not to mention the assortment of clothing needed because of a growing child, and the required school uniforms some schools now have. Good luck parents!