We lost our electricity in the middle of the night last night.  I don’t know why it happened, I have to assume that the wind blew a little too hard and knocked a tree down across the lines, or maybe a car ran into a pole and knocked the pole down.  All I know is that the electricity went off and it is still off.  I hate when that happens!

I sleep with the white noise of a fan blowing in the bedroom, and with no electricity, there is no fan.  With no fan, there is no sleep.  With no sleep, there is crankiness!  I could have turned the generator on, but it makes so much noise that I can’t sleep anyway, so I didn’t bother.  I just laid in bed and hoped I would fall asleep.  Didn’t happen.  I think I’m going to buy one of those battery operated fans so that the next time it happens I can use that for the white noise!

I’ve always had a sweet-tooth.  I much prefer sweet tasting foods and beverages over spicy-hot or bitter or sour.  So it would stand to reason that I prefer Pepsi-Cola over Coca-Cola; the taste is much sweeter.  I can remember quite a few years ago that Coca-Cola changed its recipe to be sweeter in order to compete better with Pepsi.  What an uproar it caused among loyal Coca-Cola drinkers!  I remember that for a time, to try to keep the consumers happy Coca-Cola then started selling both recipes, the original AND the new one; they marketed the original as “Coke Classic.”  To be honest, I DID like the new recipe better because it WAS sweeter and tasted much like Pepsi.  However, I now tend to drink the Pepsi-Free soda because it is caffeine free and I try to reduce my caffeine intake as much as possible.  That being said, when I drink a diet soda, (and I avoid diet sodas because they have a nasty aftertaste) I think that the diet Coke tastes better than the diet Pepsi!  The aftertaste is not as nasty.

My girlfriend just got a new apartment.  She’s very excited about it, but has complained that she doesn’t have a dishwasher!  I suggested that she look into buying one of those counter top dishwashers that are about the same size as a large microwave oven.  It just sits on your counter top beside your sink and washes up to four place settings at a time!  They only run about $235.  I know that’s what I’d do – I would hate to live someplace that did not have a dishwasher!

My family doesn’t eat a lot of fruit.  They tend to feel that it is “inconvenient” to have to deal with peels, seeds, slicing the fruit, juice running down your arm and pits.  (Sigh.)  So I try to make eating fruit easier by buying little gadgets that make it easier to deal with these things.  After all, fruit is a healthy snack, right?

So I recently bought several little gadgets that are called “orange peelers.”  They look a lot like a toothbrush, but have a sharp point that you use to score the orange peel to make it easier for the user to slide another part of the peeler under the peel to remove it.  I thought that these were portable enough to tuck into a lunch box with an orange, and simple and safe enough for even older children to use.  (By older I mean at least 12 years old.) 

Well, I had no idea how dangerous those little peelers can be!  In the past week both my husband and my adult son have sliced open their hands when they were using these little gadgets while trying to peel an orange!  So I want to caution people to be really careful when using these things; they are not as “safe” as they seem!  And if you are thinking about buying an orange peeler, please be very aware that they probably are NOT safe for young children, and may not even be safe for husbands!

Have you made any resolutions this year?  I never do.  That may sound egotistical to you, but I’m pretty satisfied with who I am.  The things I can change I have changed, the things I can’t change, oh well!  There really is no point for me to make any resolutions – I know that I’m not going to have the willpower to lose any weight or exercise any more than I do.  I don’t have to give up any vice like smoking or drinking.  I guess all I can resolve is to try to be the best person that I can be and leave it at that!  I hope other people do the same thing!