I’ve always looked much younger than my age, and I’ve enjoyed it tremendously. I was genetically lucky, since I did absolutely nothing special to stay that way.
Then I hit my 40s. I thought it was bad at 30 when I finally got hips, but this was worse. Adult acne, wrinkles, and stuff I think they call ‘crepe’ above my eyes. Creepy is more like it. Who wants to see their mother in the mirror?
I was not and never would be a dedicated product user, so I needed something that would work simply and quickly. I tried a lot of different products with no real results until I tried the Pavonia line. Crepe-ee eyelids were cured within days, I have very little acne, and the wrinkles have slowed down to a distinguished few. I can live with that.
I now use the caviar line that includes a cleanser, a cream, serum and lotion. The gift set of these costs about $350, so they’re not cheap, but they last.
And I’m still not a dedicated product user. Although I use the cleanser every day sometimes I skip the rest.
I wonder what I’d look like if I was actually a girly-girl?

I first noticed Larry Winget on ‘Big Spender’ on A&E. There was something greatly satisfying in seeing him confront people who were spending money they didn’t have, telling them the unvarnished truth about their bad habits and, ultimately, teaching them how to manage the money they did have and feel much better about it.
I was impressed enough to buy and read this book. The basic idea is that, “What you think about, talk about, and do something about is what comes about.” I would guess even Larry wants us to add “read about” to the list, too – he has quite a few other books out there for us, which I truthfully feel no compunction to read. This one is enough.

But as for this book, we already know this stuff! There's no Secret, really, and Larry lays it out in his unvarnished, often irritating and sometimes anger-inducing manner. What I personally like about this book is that even though I don’t agree with everything in it, when you’re finished reading it you should be finished reading all the ‘inspirational’ books you’ll need*. It’s time for action. This book might just give you the righteous anger you need to inspire yourself, and you’ll get further faster with that than by reading book after book after book looking for inspiration.

*I am excluding all religious inspiration such as the Bible, the Koran, etc., etc… Although Larry Winget has included some opinions on religion in his book, I skipped that chapter due to my own personal rules about politics and religion…

MMMMMmmmm. Oh, mmmmmmm. MMMmmmMMMmmmMMM. Oh, yeah. Mmmmmmm. Ohhhhh, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. MMMMMmmmmmmm, mmm, mmm, mmm. Uhhhhmmmmmmm. MMMMmmmmmmmmmm. Oh, yeah…..MMMmmmmmmMMMM. Ummmmmmm. MMmmmmm. Ohhh, mmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMmmmmMMMM! MMMMmmmmmm mmm mmm.
If you’re going to cheat, these are the thing!
(For actual words click here and here.)

My metabolism is not what it used to be. I can’t eat even a snack bag of regular chips and not see it show up as more cellulite on my thighs within the week. I accept that. So the challenge for me now is to find my favorite foods in a lower calorie, lower trans fat, lower cholesterol, low sodium, high fiber, etc. ad infinitum….yet still TASTE GOOD form. I found the low calorie and 0g trans fat requirements in the Doritos 100 Calorie Mini Bites. I love Cool Ranch Doritos, and these taste just like the real things…just maybe a tad lighter. But they’re great. I’m saved, and my thighs thank Frito-Lay.
You can’t call them nutrition, and you’ll pay about double for them, but when you’re in a “Must Have Junk Food” mood, these will help.

I have thin, delicate hair that gets color-treated with high- and low-lights every 6 to 12 weeks (as if you couldn't tell;). It’s fly-away, prone to split ends, and, if I don’t watch the heat settings, it can get to feeling like straw between salon treatments. Luckily, my daughter (“Product, product, product, Mom!”) introduced me to Redken Smooth Down Heat Glide. I use ½ pump after washing and mousing, smoothing it through my hair from mid-length to the tips. No matter what hurried-up high-heat stretching exercises I put my hair through in the morning; it now looks smooth and just-from-the-salon sleek. My daughter’s hair is thicker and longer, so she uses two to three pumps per use. You can also smooth a little extra on after drying and styling, especially on those especially wet and humid days when frizz is a real problem. And it smells great! I found prices ranging from $14.00 to $17.00 dollars, but at a few pumps a use or less, it will last a long, long time.

You’ve seen the commercials or heard about it. You might have even tried it. It’s expensive (about $7 for a tube of 10), but worth every penny to me. I use it when I know I’ll be in germ-filled environments, but I also use it when I’m just feeling a little sluggish – like I might be coming down with something. I keep tubes of it handy for whenever I think I need an immune system boost. This is more than just an easy way to get my vitamin C. I don’t know what else is in it, but I do know that the ginger is soothing to my stomach, which means more if I do happen to catch a cold – which isn’t as often, isn’t as intense, and doesn’t last as long. I like the orange-flavored, and prefer to use only ½ cup of water to dissolve it in and drink it down. Others that use it like other flavors or drink it in a whole glass of water. And still others can’t stand the flavor at all, but like other brands of similar items. Whichever – try the flavors and experiment with the amount of water you like, and then keep this around for traveling, partying, school environments or anyplace or time you need to boost your immune system. You’ll be glad you did. For more information go to the Airborne site.

I’ve gone back and forth between Claritin and Alavert, and the Alavert quick dissolving tablets and slightly better price finally settled the issue. Both have a dissolvable tablet version, both are 10mg of loratadine, both are non-drowsy 24 hour formulas and both seem to work equally well for my ongoing battle with allergies related to house dust and cats. Alavert costs less, though, by about 18 cents a tablet when you compare a 10 tablet pack of Claritin to the 12 tablet pack of Alavert. As a bonus, the Alavert tablets dissolve quickly, have a good texture, and they have a pleasant mint flavor. The Claritin RediTabs are kind of gummy and have a much less pleasant mint flavor. I get the good and the good deal with Alavert.

Talk to your doctor and/or check out all of the information before taking any OTC drug, of course! Loratadine information.

I’m not a coffee snob, but I heard a news item recently that stated consumer reports found McDonald’s coffee to be the best deal, based on taste and value. I couldn’t let that stand, so I went to McDonald’s and ordered a cup. It had been years since I’d tried it, from the time when I made my former mistakes of ordering their coffee; ordering any fast-food coffee, for that matter. Only Bojangle’s seemed to have palatable coffee for a fast-food joint. I was surprised that the coffee at McDonald’s had improved in the intervening years. It wasn’t bad. Now McDonald’s advertises that they’ll add the cream and sugar for you, which my polite attendant did, without flinching at my request for six sugars. They use a little mechanism that measures out the sugar with the push of a lever, so it was a fairly easy operation. Six sugars were too much, though – the coffee was not the bitter sludge of yesteryear. However, their attempt at specialty coffees misses the mark by a long shot. Their mocha was weak and flavorless. I am glad, though, to have an option when I wander to the lands of the Starbuck-and-Caribou-less and need my jolt of live-giving fluid.

Challenge 1) Print letters 2) Scan family photos 3) Print quality photos from digital. Special challenge:  print and bind nine copies, two-sided, of an approx. 120 page story containing mostly text but also color pictures.   Kinko’s?  BRRRAAAAPPP.  Wrong answer.  About $200.00/copy.   Answer…HP’s All-in-One.   $99.00 at HP  – I bought mine at Target for about that (Amazon as low as $54.50).  To be honest, I compared them and couldn’t decide between Lexmark, HP, etc. so I made my decision based on the reasonable price of the ink cartridges AND – here was the clincher – I only had to remember three numbers.  92 Black, 93 Tri-Color and 99 Photo.  Scanning – great.  Printing photos – I forgot to put in 99 and ended up with great photos with only the 93!  Printed and bound story - some trial and error  , and don’t try more than 30 or so pages at a time, but 16 copies later the recipient is thrilled!  Kinko’s = $3,200.00.  Me = printer + binder & supplies + 1 black per copy (that’s about 120 pgs per cartridge, average) and two tri-colors + paper = (let’s round up to) $550.00.  Slower, but I still win.