~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
May 9, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote: The essence of communication is intention. ~ unknown

★~ Lost Sock Memorial:

Today we must face a hard fact — that our lost socks will not find their way home to their “sock mates.” There’s only one thing to do in this situation. First, grab a Coke to help fortify you and then gather your sad sock singletons and give them a reason to live, a new purpose in life as a dust rag, drink sleeve, change purse, sock monkey, heating or cooking pad, or an eyeglass case. Cut the toes from your single socks, and sew them together in a long tube. Stuff the tube with dryer lint, and use it as a door-stopper. Have I gone too far? Perhaps, but today is the day to re-purpose those single socks and make room for new sock couples.

A few tips from last year:

~ El Morno friend Sue:   Little Miss Matched.  Sells mismatched socks. Yes, on purpose. I have some. The designs and colors coordinate, they do not match, so don’t pitch the matchless socks — get creative and wear them! The sock police will not get you (lol).”

~ My Sweet Mother:  Here is a  sock tip that is probably responsible for saving a lot of marriages…Sock Sorter or Sock Locks. You slide both socks through the little colored ring before you toss them in the wash and you will never lose or have to sort socks again. Each family member can be assigned a sock lock color.  SockPro Sock Holders or Lighthouse for the Blind 

~ Sock Dividers:  Amazon Sock Dividers 

★~ Salad Day:

The first salad bar opened in 1939 in the Boston Oyster House in Chicago’s Morrison Hotel. Although this is hotly debated; I’ll go with the hometown answer.

Veggie Chopped Salad
Radicchio Salad With Frisee & Apples
Warm Asian Steak Salad
Taco Salad
Cobb Salad With Brown Derby Dressing
Caesar Salad
Nicoise Salad

★~ Butterscotch Brownie Day:

Some people call them blondies; other people call them butterscotch brownies; but whatever you call them, they are pretty darn good. Not, in my opinion, as good as chocolate brownies, but branching out on occasion is a good thing (for other people). Some say that butterscotch brownies were around for almost a hundred years before chocolate brownies became popular! Of course, the moment chocolate was added to the mix, nobody really paid much attention to butterscotch brownies. In fact, it has been rumored that Elizabeth Browning’s poem “How do I love thee let me count the ways” was really written about a plate of chocolate brownies. Ok . . . ah . . . that’s not true—but it could be!

To celebrate National Butterscotch Brownie Day, make a batch of homemade blondies to share with friends and family! But if you are sharing them with me, could you add some chocolate chips? Please..

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1940 – Actress Vivien Leigh made her American theatre debut with Laurence Olivier in Romeo and Juliet in New York City.

♥~ 1959 – 16-year-old Wayne Newton made his Las Vegas debutat the Fremont Hotel. That first booking, scheduled to last two weeks, stretched into three years. Newton went on to become king of the Vegas showrooms, earning close to $20-million a year. He has been seen live by over 12 million people, more than have seen either Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley in concer

♥~ 1964 – Hello Dolly! became the top pop record in the U.S. The milestone put Louis Armstrong on the Billboard music chart in the top spot for the first time in his 41-year music career. Later, ‘Satchmo’ was cast in the movie version of Hello Dolly!.

♥~ 1984 – It took the Chicago White Sox 25 innings, eight hours, six minutes — and two days — to finally defeat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-6. It was the longest game (in elapsed time) in major-league history. Tom Seaver pitched one inning of relief in the suspended game to notch the win. The game tied the record for the longest game played to a decision.

★~Born Today:

♥ ~ 1860 – Sir James Barrie author, dramatist: Peter Pan, The Little Minister, The Admirable Crichton, What Every Woman Knows, Dear Brutus; died June 19, 1937

♥~ 1868 – Reno, Nevada. on this day a little town in Northwestern Nevada was officially named, Reno (after General Jesse Lee Reno, a Union officer of the Civil War). In the mid 1800s, Reno was just another settlement of silver miners. When the Comstock Lode was discovered in the Virginia City area, intrigued fortune hunters throughout the world came to the area to strike it rich. Today, they still come to strike it rich at Reno’s glitzy gambling casinos. Reno, also a haven for quickie divorces (only a six-week residency is required), is known as the biggest little city in the world, the winning slogan from a contest held in 1929.

♥~ 1935 – Charles Roger Hargreaves:  British author andillustrator of children’s books, notably the Mr. Men and Little Missseries, intended for very young readers. The books’ simple and silly stories, with bright-coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, have been part of popular culture for over 25 years, with sales over 85 million worldwide in 20 languages

♥~ 1946 – Candice Bergen Emmy Award-winning actress: Murphy Brown [1989, 1990, 1992, 1993]; Starting Over, The Group, Boston Legal; daughter of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen

♥~ 1949 – Billy Joel Grammy Award-winning singer: Just the Way You Are [1979]; My Life, You May be Right, It’s Still Rock ’n’ Roll to Me, Allentown, Goodnight Saigon, Tell Her about It, Uptown Girl, Piano Man; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [3-15-99]

★~ Good to Know:  Now that you have cleaned your socks here are a few ideas of what to do with the singles.

♥~ Make a dust rag. Slip the sock on your hand. Dampen it with water or a furniture polish and clean away! Socks are good for furniture, window sills, computer screens, floor spills, handles, and blinds.

♥~ Polish your shoes. Old socks make great shoe polishers. You can also use them to shine the shoe after polishing.

♥~ Make a homemade hacky sack. A hacky sack is a small cloth ball filled with small beads or beans. Cut off about half the top part of a long sock and about three quarters for a short sock. Fill the sock with dried rice, dried peas, or beads. Sew the opening together in a ball shape.

♥~  Make a drink cozy. This requires a long sock. Cut the whole top of the sock off. Slide it over a bottle to keep the bottle cool (insulated). A shorter sock can be used for cups and cans.

♥~ Make muscle relaxing packs. Fill with rice or wheat and sew up the open end. Place in the microwave with a glass of water to heat for 1 minute. Hang around your neck or place on other sore muscles for instant relief. (Note: Always include the glass of water to provide moisture or the pack can catch on fire if it dries out too much after repeated use.)

♥~ Make a hard-to-reach cleaning stick. Get a ruler (the longer the better) and slip the sock over the end. Attach with an elastic band or staple. Use this to run underneath stoves, fridges, and other hard to reach places. The sock-covered ruler will return lots of fluff and dust and it is easy to wash the sock after each use

♥~ Make garden soap holders. Gardening can be messy and dirty. Pop a soap bar into the bottom of an old sock and tie a knot around the soap part of the sock. Leave the long part of the sock for tying onto a faucet in the garden. It will be ready for you whenever you need to clean up outside after a gardening session.

♥~ Make draft protectors. Fill a long sock (knee-high is good) with beans, rice, or other spare filling that you have around the house. Sew or tie up one end and you have an instant, rounded draft protector. If you want to enhance its appearance, add eyes, nose, mouth and maybe feelers or whiskers.

♥~ Make a back and neck soother. Tie the tennis ball inside the end of a long sock. Taking the long end of the sock, toss the sock over your shoulder so that the ball lands on your back. Stand against a wall and lean against the sock and ball. Rub your back up and down against the ball that is squeezed into the wall and it will massage away aches and pains from sport, sitting too long at the computer or any other activities that may have caused back tension. Use a shorter sock for a neck massaging version.

♥~ Save them for moving day. Place valuable glasses, or knick knacks inside the sock sole and wrap the higher part around the bottom. This will give more protection. Add a tag on the outside of the sock, so you remember what is inside. Place in a moving box or inside one of your dresser drawers.

♥~ Make Fingerless gloves. Cut a hole in the heel and cut off the toe of the sock. Stick your thumb in the heel hole and your fingers out the toes. If you want you can tuck under the raw edges where you made the cuts or sew a simple hem.

♥~ Out Door Spigot Insulator. To prevent out door spigots from freezing and busting you can use an old sock to cover the spigot and add a plastic bread bag to keep the sock dry. This will help prevent a water leak due to a burst spigot.

♥~ Make a Bottle Cover. Bottles of cooking oil always seem to leave dirty marks in kitchen cupboards. Put a stop to this by slipping an old sock over the bottom of the bottle. When the bottle is empty, throw the sock into the wash to be used again.

♥~ Make Pony Tail Bands. Childrens’ socks are well suited to this use. Simply cut across the sock so that you have a ring of fabric. You will be able to get several bands out of each sock. The first time that you use each band the fabric will roll itself up and you won’t be able to tell that it was ever a sock.

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I have been without power since yesterday morning, some sort of digging hit my power and a neighbors power. The powers to be hoped to have power restored by last night, but it didn’t happen. Really, hasn’t been to awful except for internet issues and those have been solved fairly easily. Cole and I headed over to Bakers Square last night for Internet and dinner and this morno….

One thing that has surprised me is how quiet our house has been without any appliances humming in the back ground.

Wishing everyone a Terrific Thursday!