spugbrap’s blog

The directions for preparation on a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Spirals are:

1. Boil 6 cups water. Stir in Macaroni. Boil 6 to 8 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.
2. Drain. Do Not Rinse. Return to pan.
3. Add 3 tablespoons spread[/butter] (or 1/2 tablespoon unmelted butter for lower fat preparation), 3 tablespoons 2% milk (or skim milk for lower fat preparation), and Cheese Sauce Mix, mix well. Makes 3 servings.

Here’s a simple trick my wife, Lacey, taught me to make step 3 a little bit easier:

After returning the drained pasta to the pot, turn the stove back on, at its lowest setting. Then, add the butter, which will be much easier to stir in with a little bit of heat melting it. Next, add the milk, and stir that up. At this point, the pasta is coated in butter and milk, which makes the cheese powder stick to it better. I leave the heat on until I’m completely done mixing it all up, which also ensures that the finished Mac and Cheese will actually still be warm by the time you dish it out.

Ever since I read an article a year or two ago about how to get a better shave, I’ve been wanting to try out some of their tips. I believe that’s when I started shaving in the shower, which I definitely like better than trying to shave at the sink. I’ve had “shaving brush” on my Christmas, birthday, and Father’s Day wish lists, but it just never happened… until this past Christmas (2007). Lacey bought me a shaving brush and shaving cream.

I’m not brave enough or motivated enough to try a different type of razor, at this point, so I’m sticking with either my Gillette Sensor (which I’ve had since Gillette was nice enough to send me a free one for my 18th birthday; nice marketing, Gillette!) or my Schick Quattro. I prefer the Quattro, but the cartridges are more expensive so I only get them occasionally (sale + coupon is always good!). I can usually get a big pack of Sensor cartridges for a less outrageous price, although even those seem pretty darned expensive. I actually tried some generic cartridges last year, which fit Sensor razors, but the difference in quality was quite noticeable. I’ll stick with the name brands.

Anyways, I’ve used the shaving brush + shaving cream 4-5 times, now, and I’m definitely a fan. I’ve been able to get the closest shaves I’ve ever had, with no irritation, and have even been able to get more uses out of a single razor cartridge than I could when I just used regular store-bought mainstream shaving gel (i.e. chemical-rich goo).

If you’ve never tried using a good shaving cream and a badger-hair shaving brush, you don’t know what you’re missing. I’ve always hated shaving, and although the brush+cream didn’t make me actually enjoy shaving, like they have done for some people, they definitely make shaving less annoying.

I’m not sure where the article that I read a couple years ago, that first sparked my curiosity on this subject, but here are a couple that I’ve read since then:

• Deeper Motive: A Simple Guide to Shaving
• MSNBC: How to get that perfect shave

and a couple of pages with links to more shaving-related information/tips/etc.:

• SoundMoneyTips: Tips on Getting a Close Shave
• Lifehacker: Grooming: Get the best shave possible

Over the weekend, my family and I went over to a friend’s house to carve pumpkins. I was a bit late, so by the time I got there, most of them were already done. Jena asked whether I wanted to carve a pumpkin, or a watermelon from her garden. At first, I was going to do a pumpkin, because I’d never heard of carving watermelons–at least not for making jack-o-lanterns.

But, then she sat down to try carving a watermelon, herself. It didn’t take long for us to realize why this was a great idea! Instead of scooping out pumpkin guts and throwing it in a bowl, we could scoop out the watermelon and eat it! So, I grabbed another watermelon, and proceeded to scoop out and eat the tasty insides.

When I was done, I had a hollowed-out green oval/cylinder shaped thing to work with. I sat for a few minutes, trying to think of something green to make it look like. My first thought was a Mountain Dew can, but I decided that it would be too hard to try and carve all of those letters into the small watermelon. Then, I thought of a turtle, and went looking around the house for turtle faces to imitate.

Luckily, Xander loves turtles, and I found plenty of possibilities. I finally settled on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, from the cover of a video game. Most of the TMNT faces that I saw kind of needed visible teeth-separations to look good, but I found one that had a good enough facial expression without needing tooth detail.

I started by drawing on the watermelon with a pen, which allowed me to correct mistakes by wiping off the pen with a wet paper towel. I’m not very artistically inclined, so I really didn’t expect it to turn out very good. I was very close to giving up and going with a standard pumpkin carving style, rather than trying to make it look like something in particular. I also came very close to asking Xander to draw a ninja turtle face, for me, because that boy is a great artist, and I’ve seen some of his ninja turtle drawings before. But, I actually managed to draw a face that I was happy with.

Then carved it out with the pumpkin carving tools. I couldn’t decide whether to cut out the whole ninja turtle mask part, or to just cut the eyes out. Dallin suggested cutting out the eyes, then the whole mask, and then putting the eyes back into place with toothpicks. I knew that they’ve done the toothpick thing before, with pumpkins, so I trusted that he knew what he was talking about.

The final product turned out better than I thought it would! It’s easily recognizable as a ninja turtle, and I think I consider it my best pumpkin carving, ever. Jena’s carved watermelon turned out great, too! It’s cool to see this different color scheme: green with red inside, rather than the standard pumpkin orange with yellow inside.

Here are some close-up pictures of the carved watermelons, as well as some pictures of the watermelons next to the pumpkins that our respective families carved/painted:

We all had lots of fun, and look forward to doing it again next year! We will definitely be carving both pumpkins AND watermelons again.

When opening a new container of deodorant, it used to annoy me that the first one or two times I used it, it was not easy to dispense the proper amount. I like the “soft solid” type of deodorant, which pushes the white goop through tiny little holes in the top, when you twist the bottom of the container. Each time you twist it, it makes a clicking sound, and–in theory–it dispenses a consistent amount of deodorant.

However, when you first open it, it takes quite a few clicks before the deodorant actually starts coming out of the holes. When it finally starts coming out, it only comes out of the edges; nothing comes out of the center for quite a few *more* clicks. In the mean time, it’s hard to gauge how much you need, when it’s only coming out of the edges.

One day, I decided to try something new. I left the plastic seal on the top of the container, and started twisting the bottom (clicking it).

The plastic seal helped to contain the deodorant, as it tried to come out the holes on the edges. I kept on clicking it until the goop looked ready to come out the holes in the center, too. It got more and more difficult to twist, the more I clicked it, because the seal was holding it back.

By the time the deodorant was coming out of all of the holes–but still being held back by the plastic seal–the goop from the edges was starting to come out.

When I finally removed the seal, it just took a couple clicks, and I was able to easily get the amount of deodorant that I wanted.

Tissues work very well for erasing dry-erase marker!

Specifically, I’ve tried it with Kleenex regular unscented ones, but I assume others probably work, too.

I used to get frustrated, sometimes, trying to erase dry-erase marker off a kids’ workbook that had laminated pages. The first method I used was using a dry paper towel. It worked fine, for a long time (but sometimes it didn’t). So, I tried a wet paper towel, and that would usually do the trick (but sometimes it wouldn’t). So, I tried a wet dishwashing sponge, which usually did pretty well (but not always). The last resort was a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (awesome product!), which always worked. But that seemed overkill, and I hated to waste it on something that should be easier to clean, so it wasn’t an everyday solution.

Lacey saw me struggling with this, one day, and told me about the tissue thing. I’m not sure where she learned about it, or if she figured it out, on her own. But I always use a tissue to erase it, now, and that works like a charm.

I also tried this on my whiteboard, at work, and it works on that, too. Much cleaner than using the whiteboard eraser, which just pushes the dust around and leaves a line of it wherever you stop erasing.