Minty Maggots

Did I mention that I LOVE Halloween?!?!!?

Well ... I do. One of my favorite places to shop for Halloween 'treats' to hand out on the big night is Oriental Trading. They have the funnest stuff! I just received my *second* big box of stuff that I couldn't resist. Here are a few highlights.

Plastic coffins full of candy 'bones' that interlock to build a skeleton:

Yellow gummy candy labeled 'Gummy Earwax':

And the cherry on top ... Minty Maggots .... mints that are actually shaped like maggots! I am totally cracking myself up here in my living room. I don't think I can wait two more weeks until the big day!

Halloween Joy

I love Halloween. I love dressing up. I love costumes. I love helping other people with costumes. I love candy. I love pumpkins. I love making Jack-O-Lanterns. I love trick-or-treating and receiving trick-or-treaters. I love decorating for Halloween. I love Pumpkin Patches. I love Corn Mazes. I love Fall leaves. Halloween brings me joy!

This year Matthew wants to be Harry Potter for Halloween. So of course in typical out-of-control style I had to order the whole shebang ... cloak, wand, glasses, sweater, house tie, lightning bolt temporary tattoo ... :) He looks adorable and is so excited about it.

His Dad decided it would be fun if he also dressed up as a character from Harry Potter .... he first wanted to go as Hagrid or Ron Weasley ... but finally decided on Dumbledore. His wig got here this week and I had to have him try it on right away! I am going to be Tonks (see my profile picture for my adorabe purple wig!). I can't wait for Halloween!

Barcode Tattoo?

Google was celebrating the 57th anniversary on the patent of the barcode today so I thought I'd join in. I saw a link to a barcode generator and made my own 'ScrapGoddess' barcode above.

My Dad has always said that one day we will all have barcodes tattooed on our hands and we won't need driver's licenses or credit cards or anything like that because all anyone will need to do to find out about us will be to scan our barcode. I don't think that is so far-fetched. I mean I don't think it will be a an actual tattoo .. probably a sub-cutaneous embedded computer chip. They embed computer chips in dogs and cats ... I'm sure the technology exists right now to do it to humans.

I mean really ... everyone has a ton of little pieces of plastic with what are functionally barcodes or other identification 'codes' on them ... drivers license, credit cards, shopping 'club' cards, membership cards .... how long will it be until someone appeals to our desire for simplification by offering an 'EZShop' type card that will function as a consolidation of all of those things ... every time you get a new card that participates in the program, you can 'add' its registration to the master card.

But then you get a little anxious about that one card having all this information about you. And what happens if you lose it? (Never mind that the same thing would happen now if you lost your wallet or purse with all the individual cards). But you are anxious about it .... so then its just a short leap to saying how much more convenient it would be to never have to worry about losing that master card so "wouldn't you like this special bracelet that you can lock around your wrist"?

Then it would only take one liberal state to pass a law that they require their citizens to be embedded with a computer chip identifying them ... and wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am we would be living in a science fiction movie.

Not tomorrow and probably not 5 years from now ... but 15 or 20? Definitely this is a possibility.

Recycling Crocs

My sister Melissa sent me this link:
Real Simple - How to Recycle Anything

It literally has information for anything that could possibly be recycled.
Including Crocs which are recycled into shoes and sent to needy people.
And old sneaker soles which are recycled into athletic courts in underprivileged areas.
And old cell phones which are refurbished and given to domestic violence victims.

And the insides of deodorent containers.... not sure what they do with those.

We deliver laughter.

This van totally cracked me up. I posted it on my FB the other day, but I just had to post here too in case anyone missed it.

I was driving down Route 9 the first time I saw it and I just about peed my pants I was laughing so hard. I called my sister to tell her about it but I couldn't stop laughing long enough to get the words out to describe what I've seen.

I just can't imagine there is that large of a market share who really want a bright yellow van delivering 'adult' products to their home.

But there the proof is in bright yellow packaging.

I laugh every time I drive by.

White Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Dip

My sister found a yummy (and pretty healthy) dip recipe. I had it over a yummy salad kind of like dressing ... also on bread as a spread to make a lettuce and tomato sandwich. Melissa ate it as a dip with carrots and broccoli to dip in it ... it was tasty any way you serve it.

The following blog was the original source ... It also has a picture and a link to instructions on how to roast your own red pepper:
http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/white-bean-and-roasted-red-pepper-dip.html

Roasting the red pepper was super easy and it tasted so good!


White Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Dip
(makes 2 snack sized servings)

Ingredients:
1/2 19 ounce can white beans
1 roasted red pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 lemon (zest and juice)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Puree everything in a food processor until smooth adding water (or more olive oil) to bring it to the consistency that you desire.

Eating Mold

Loved this article my sister sent me about food safety.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/11/food.safety/index.html

To summarize:

1. Don't eat mold.
2. Don't eat stuff that smells bad.

Enjoy!