Friday Funnies

NICKNAMES

·  If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah.

·  If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Bubba and Wildman.

Vinyl Records Making a ComebacK?

Retailers have started to sell vinyl again. Why would anyone think that vinyl is such a great format? It pops, clicks and sometime scratches. These, apparently, are some of the very reasons why. It's adds to the charm of the format and brings it closer to the live experience.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, manufacturers’ shipments of LPs jumped more than 36 percent from 2006 to 2007 to more than 1.3 million. Shipments of CDs dropped more than 17 percent during the same period to 511 million, as they lost some ground to digital formats.

SoundScan reported vinyl sales reached 2.8 million units in 2009, up from 1.9 million in 2008, a record since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991.

In this age of iPods and digital downloads, why are vinyl records enjoying this resurgence in popularity? Several reasons come to mind. Baby boomers and empty nesters now have time to listen to music again, not just play it in the background of their busy lives. Teens that have grown up only listening to digital are discovering this once thought to be obsolete technology that was first introduced in the late 1800’s by Thomas Edison. Another main reason has to do with today’s economy. With everyone having less expendable income to purchase music, we are rediscovering our record collections and teens are discovering their parent’s record collections. Let’s face it, there isn’t a lot of good music being made today.  And, of course, vinyl records sound better. Though CD’s have wider dynamic range, the audio on CD is compressed to make it as loud as possible. And since the audio on vinyl records can’t be compressed to such extremes, records offer more subtle nuances that transfers to more warmth and richness in the music. No matter how high the sampling rate in the digital process, it can never contain all of the data in an analog record groove.

I never stopped using mine. I still have a turntable. My youngest daughter always liked to help me with housework while listening to "Stars on Long Play" and Donna Summer. Turntables are cool and vinyl rocks!

Many retailers sell vinyl now. Amazon.com has a line of vinyl you can check here HERE

They also have the recent Elton John/Leon Russel Album "The Union" on vinyl HERE

I found this wallpaper and I love it, so I'm sharing it with you. To save it to your computer as wallpaper, left click and then left click again to enlarge it to full size. Right click on the largest image and save.

Freebee Friday

Prepared Pantry is offering free baking lessons
HERE








If you like to play games, Sploder lets you create your own game for FREE. Check it out HERE

Today is the Day!

I started my diet today! My very low calorie diet! I feel kind of like I'm floating around and I'm not supposed to reach out and grab anything! I have to keep floating until my feet touch the ground without any help. Hopefully, I'll get used to the new routine in a couple of days and I won't feel so "detached". As I was looking around at different diet blogs, I came across an article on Miracle Skinny Drops' site about a detox bath. I've never heard about that before. I guess I don't get out much. The article read:

Detox Baths

Pour 1 lb. of Epsom Salt into a very warm bath with 1 lb. baking soda (Arm & Hammer). Soak in tub of warm/hot water – as warm as can take water for at least 20 minutes. Do not shower off until next day.

You may feel light headed, dizzy, weak and completely drained after a detox bath (which is a symptom of weak adrenals), so doing it around bedtime is a good idea.

Epsom Salt “detoxes” your body by drawing out the toxins and replenishing nutrients that your body needs and it can make the skin feel nice and soft. Baking soda increases CO2 levels in the blood, which dilates blood vessels and increases circulation, causing a “tired” feeling.  It is sort of like “chemical exercise”.  The magnesium and bicarbonate are getting flooded with minerals and nutrients. Magnesium is a natural mild sedative and is great inside and out for reducing muscle spasms and strains.

Sometimes taking fresh squeezed orange juice with a little sea salt and sip during the bath can help this. You can also add a handful of dead sea salts, which will give minerals and micro-nutrients that will feed and improve the skin.

Take advantage of the relaxation to get a good night’s sleep.

It sounds like a great idea! I think I will try this.

A Day For Love

A good marriage is between a man, a woman and God.

Friday Funnies

My Granddaughter has been playing this game here recently and so I checked it out myself. It's not only just cute and somewhat challenging, but it's addictive!

Check it out for yourself HERE.

Check out this video of an amazing trick ... 2 women in a box.

Here

TamLynn P.I. Audio Drama

I recently listened to this audio production from Gypsy Audio. It was so much fun, I thought I'd share. Each episode is an individual story. I like that! You can hear it HERE.

Catch the entire series HERE.

Friday Funnies

Cocktail Shrimp and Cream Cheese Dip

The Super Bowl always presents a food challenge. Here's a simple idea.

Cocktail Shrimp & Cream Cheese Dip

8 oz pkg cocktail shrimp, thawed
8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
8 oz bottle cocktail sauce

Spread cream cheese onto larger platter. Spoon coctail sauce over cream cheese. Arrange shrimp in single layer over sauce. Serve with your favorite crackers.

OR

If you are making it for a crowd you will need the whole pound of pre-cooked baby shrimp and probably 2 jars of cocktail sauce and 2 bars of cream cheese.

Mix shrimp together with the cocktail sauce in a medium size bowl. Cover and place in refrigerator until you are ready to serve it.

Unwrap the 8 oz bar of Philadelphia Cream Cheese and place it on a plate and then cover it with the shrimp and cocktail sauce mixture. Serve with crackers.

Ketchup or Catsup

Remember when catsup is about all that was in the stores? I remember sitting at the table when I was a kid looking at the bottle and wondering why it was spelled that way but we didn't say it that way.

These days ketchup is all you see in the stores and it's spelled and pronounced the same way!


Why the difference? Here's a couple of ideas about that.


Catsup Versus Ketchup


World Wide Words (about Ketchup)