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| Name: | Oreo |
Age: | Eight years old |
| Gender: | Female |
Kind: | Cat |
| Home: | Nova Scotia, Canada |
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This is Oreo. She spends most of her time in cubby holes and sunny windows. She disappeared for over six months and came back to us very skinny. Now her belly hangs off windowsills, like she is making up for lost time. We are working on helping her lose weight. She loves meeting new people and playing with their feet… so we have to warn visitors about that so she doesn’t get stepped on! The only trick she knows is how to convince someone to give her more food when she just ate, which works particularly well with visitors. She’s loyal, as far as cats go, and thinks she’s my guard cat. However she is easy to petted into submission and loves her chest and belly scratched. |
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Day: January 30, 2012
Dog-gone Doggie of the Day for Jan. 30
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| Name: | Shii-Anna |
Age: | Nine years old |
| Gender: | Female | Breed: | Siberian Husky |
| Home: | Northern Michigan, USA | ||
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Shii-Anna is also known as Shii-shii, Shii-bear, Bear-bear, and Shii-Ann. Shii-Ann is my gift from the heavens; It was two years ago when my Mom got a call from a family member asking if she would take a dog, and a cat because they could not keep them in their current situation. My Mom began uttering the word “no” when I asked her to let them know that I would take their husky. Shii-Ann is named for her personality, she is an extremely skittish dog, if a person she does not know walks into the room she hides. From the moment I met Shii-Ann, she and I both knew that she was meant to be my pet.
She is a couch loving pup, with a passion for chasing tennis balls, and going for runs. She Loves to howl “I love you,” and runs away when it’s pill time. I love her as most people love their children, and I feel blessed to have her. |
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30 Things in Your House That Could Explode
30 Things in Your House That Could Explode
- Chaya, selected from Networx
By Philip Schmidt, Hometalk
Surely there’s nothing funny about an explosion in a home, but in a kid-science sort of way it’s fun to think about all the everyday things around you that can blow up. Without even counting obvious hazards, like fuel cans and leaky gas pipes, any household has at least 30 things that can go BOOM under the right conditions. In fact, you might even live with some whose temper can be described as ignitable or explosive; if so, you should certainly add this person to the list.
Note: While all of the items listed here are potentially explosive and therefore potentially hazardous, the explanations for why these things blow up are not comprehensive (not by a long shot). In other words, DO NOT use this list as a guide for how to prevent explosions.
1. Hot water heater
That valve thingee with an open pipe on your water heater is called a temperature and pressure relief valve, or TPR valve. If the TPR valve and the heater’s thermostat fail at the same time, your water heater has the potential to take off like a space shuttle.
2. Food storage containers with spoiled food
If you leave your leftovers in a sealed container long enough, gasses from the decomposing food can build up and blow off the lid. Mold spores, anyone?
3. Baked potatoes
We all know this is true because it happened to Pa on Little House on the Prairie. You really do have to pierce a potato’s skin before baking it.
4. Sausages
Hot dog aficionados (such as myself) refer to a blown-up hot dog affectionately as a “splitter,” but sausage explosions can be painful, as boiling-hot juice squirts out of the casing toward the unsuspecting griller. Maybe this should be called a “spitter.”
5. Light bulb
A light bulb is like a vacuum tube and actually implodes rather than explodes when it breaks, but the difference is essentially semantic to the observer. A drop of water landing on a hot light bulb can cause it to “explode,” in addition to the usual causes.
6. Beer bottle left in the freezer
There’s no sadder way of ruining a perfectly good beer.
7. Opening sealed containers in high altitudes
Alpine residents learn to open sealed packages carefully, especially those full of powders.
8. Aerosol cans in sunlight or heat
Anything from cooking spray to WD-40 really can explode if the can gets too hot.
9. Pumpkins (and other thick-skinned vegetables)
If left outside, your uncarved Halloween pumpkin can freeze and turn into a boo-bomb.
10. Electrical explosion
These are more common on power poles than houses, but a large service panel (breaker box) can have an explosion due to a short circuit overwhelming the breakers.
11. Natural gas
It’s worth noting that anything, including your house, that uses natural gas can potentially become a bomb.
12. Soda bottles
Explode when shaken too much, particularly when dropped during excessive shaking.
13. Wood stove
Numerous homeowners have blamed backdrafting (which provides oxygen) and unburned gasses (which newer stoves are designed to prevent) as the causes of minor explosions that can fill the room with dust and ash.
14. Non-oven-safe glass containers used in the oven or microwave
Looks like you’re eating out after all.
15. Boilers
Hot water boilers have TPR valves just like water heaters. Good thing to test periodically.
16. Portable propane tank (for barbecue grill)
Carelessness can turn your meal of seared tuna into a summer on a seared patio.
17. Flour
Boring, old baking flour is highly flammable and has the potential for explosive flare-ups.
18. Botulism-tainted canned food
A bloated can (or jar) is bad. An exploded can is much, much worse.
19. Carpenter ants
The next time you’re at a dinner party in Southeast Asia, you can wow the other guests with your knowledge of nine species of local carpenter ants that can literally blow themselves up to kill their rivals.
20. Water and hot oil
You never see this on TV cooking shows, but many a home chef knows the sting (and sound) of water droplets hitting a pan of hot oil.
21. Espresso machines
The words, “Do not remove filter unit when under pressure,” are good advice. You know this if you’ve ever had to clean up the aftermath of a coffee bomb.
22. Boiling salted water
The scientific jury is still out on this one, but I personally witnessed a panful of salty water explode upward and outward about 2 feet, with very serious results. Current theory points to overly salinated softened water as the cause.
23. Ice cubes dropped in hot liquid
Exploding ice can actually break the glass or mug.
24. Hot/cold glass filled with cold/hot liquid
Seems like you can do this a hundred times with no problem, but sometimes the glass shatters, even violently.
25. Firewood
The familiar popping of a real wood-burning fireplace is actually little explosions of trapped pitch, sap or water. Cozy, no?
26. TV tube
An old fashioned TV tube is much harder to break than a light bulb, but it implodes just like one. A very good reason not to buy a real tool set for your two-year-old.
27. Batteries
Many household batteries are theoretically explosive, while car battery explosions are by far the most common.
28. Septic tank
Problems with a system can lead to methane buildup. Not the best place for plumbers to take a smoke break.
29. Trees
Trees can explode due to fire or a lightning strike, both of which heat the water in the wood. Extreme cold can freeze the sap inside maple trees, causing it to expand.
30. Mentos and Diet Coke
If you haven’t tried this awesome kid experiment, suffice it to say that you should never wash down 11 Mentos candies with a half-liter of Diet Coke.
8 Ways Not to Use Vinegar
8 Ways Not to Use Vinegar
- Chaya, selected from Networx
By Adam Verwymeren, Networx
Common household vinegar is one of those wonder products that people are always discovering new uses for. Whether you want to drive away dandruff, eradicate mildew, or keep bugs at bay, vinegar has been proposed as a solution to just about every problem under the sun.
But while it has a number of uses, vinegar isn’t always the solution, and on occasion it can be downright dangerous. Here are the top 8 ways not to put this miracle substance to work in your home.
1. While vinegar is good at cleaning many things, you shouldn’t confuse it with soap. Alkaline cleaners like dish detergent are ideally suited for lifting grease, whereas vinegar will have little effect on it. If you have a greasy cleaning job, reach for regular soap and leave the vinegar on the shelf.
2. You should never use vinegar on waxed surfaces. The vinegar will only strip the wax off, dulling the sheen on your nicely shined car. However, vinegar is a great option if you’re looking to remove an old coat of wax before you put down a fresh layer of polish.
3. Do not use vinegar on marble countertops or other stoneware, as it can cause the stone to pit and corrode, according to the Marble Institute.
4. Your smartphone and laptop monitor probably have a thin layer of oleophobic coating that limits fingerprints and smudges. Acidic vinegar can strip this off, so you should never use it to clean sensitive screens.
5. Cast iron and aluminum are reactive surfaces. If you want to use vinegar to clean pots and pans, use it exclusively on stainless steel and enameled cast iron cookware.
6. While both bleach and vinegar are powerful cleaning agents, when mixed together they make a powerful chemical weapon. Chlorine gas, the stuff used to clear the trenches in World War I, results when bleach is mixed with an acidic substance, so never mix them together.
7. While vinegar can be useful as an insecticide, you shouldn’t spray it directly on bug-infested plants as it can damage them. However, you can use vinegar’s plant-killing effect to your advantage by using it as a weed killer, as suggested by several people on Hometalk.
8. If you’re the victim of an egging, do not try to dissolve the remnants of this prank away with vinegar. Vinegar will cause the proteins in the egg to coagulate, creating a gluey substance that is even more impossible to clean up, says Popular Mechanics.
I also feel obligated to say that although vinegar is touted as a great way to remove mildew and mold, like bleach it only kills surface mold. Most mold problems are deeper than what you see on the surface, and your best bet is to kill them at their source (which is usually leaks and rotting drywall).
Monday, January 30th is a fantastic day for…..
Cosmic Calendar for Monday, January 30
For the most part – after several days of exhausting celestial shenanigans – you can now breathe a sigh of relief during the last two days of January. The first piece of good news comes in the form of the monthly Moon-Jupiter union in Taurus (3:30AM PST). Although this occurs officially early in the day, its influence can last for many hours. The power of positive thinking, good luck and auspicious vibrations are your bridge to worldly achievements. Some challenging situations may pop up to test your faith and resolve since the Moon squares Mercury (8:16AM PST), Mercury then makes a frictional, 45-degree tie to Venus (8:48AM PST) while the tension-creating First Quarter Sun-Moon Phase (energizing 11 degrees of Aquarius and Taurus) clocks in at 8:11PM PST. Moving too far too fast – particularly with an air of superiority (a la Jupiter on steroids) – will foil your higher plans. It is always wise to be humble instead of succumbing to the sin (hubris or pride) of mythological Icarus – whose wings melted because he flew to close to the Sun. Helping you stay more creative and artistic – in a deep and powerful manner – is an enlightening, 72-degree link from Venus to Pluto (6:50PM PST). Try to tweak the Taurus Moon tendency to be stubborn into the more admirable trait to be a Rock of Gibraltar when friends and loved ones need someone to lean on.
Calendar of the Sun for January 30
Calendar of the Sun
30 Wolfmonath
Day of Pax
Color: White
Element: Air
Altar: The same as yesterday’s Concordia ritual, except with a cup of clear water instead of milk.
Offerings: Work for peace, in the home or outside of it.
Daily Meal: Fasting today, in honor of those who are caught in war.
Pax Invocation
Peace is not an easy thing to maintain.
It is not strong; it falls away
With an upraised hand or an angry word.
It is an act of constant balance.
It is true that there is peace in solitude,
If the cacophony of the mind will allow it,
But it is no true peace if the mere voice of another
Can so easily destroy it, like a child’s paper castle.
Peace must be achieved within the group of voices
Or it may as well be a mere pastime.
Peace must be more than a sanctuary;
It must be the work of every hand.
And yet it cannot be kept by force,
But it can only be achieved by understanding.
True peace does not come after victory,
For victory requires one to win and one to lose,
And a true peace can only be found between equals.
Therefore, we honor you, Pax, delicate bird
That we must protect and sustain with our strength.
(The clear water is poured out as a libation. All sit in silence and meditate on peace, and then go. There can be discussions today, but all who disagree must go into the discussions ready and willing to make peace, and see beyond their differences.)
Lunar Almanac for Monday, January 30th
Lunar Almanac for Monday, January 30th
First Quarter Moon, at 11h. 11m. evening.
Ascending Node is at 11° Sagittarius.
Moon in 10th degree of the Sign Taurus, the Bull;
also in 12th deg. of the Constellation Aries, the Ram.
Moonset: 12:06 morn. Moonrise: 10:39 morn. Midheaven: 5:46 eve.
The Wiccan Book of Day for Jan. 30th – Up-Helly-Aa
Up-Helly-Aa
Around about now–on the last Tuesday of January–the citizens of the small Shetland town of Lerwick celebrate Up-Helly-Aa, a festival around two hundred years old that harks back over a millennia in celebrating these remote Scottish islands’ Norse heritage. Essentially a fire festival hailing the reborn sun, a “Guizer Jarl’s squad” of men dressed as Vikings carries a replica Viking longship through the streets at night, followed by hundreds of “guizers” (men in various, often termed, disguises) carrying firebrands. At journey’s end, the longship is set alight, initiating a night of wild carousing (womenfolk included)
“A Saintly Savior”
Remember St Aidan (Maedoc of Ferns, d. 626) on his feast day, for this Irish bishop protected wild animals. He is symbolized by the stag that he is said to have rendered invisible to its pursuers. (A stag, or its antlers, also represents the Horned God.)
Today’s Meditation for Monday, January 30th
Karmic Law
Within many wisdom paths is the belief that life is governed by Karma – the spiritual law of cause and effect. This law states that our actions in this life dictate the rewards we will receive in the next. Close your eyes and spend a few minutes considering how your actions impact on your own life and the lives of those around you. How would your life differ if you strived to be kind generous and thoughtful at all times? Good Karma depends upon pure intention, so it is important to try to release any thoughts of self-gain as a result of your good actions. Resolve that from now on you will make an effort to respond to all situations, whether easy or difficult, with consideration for others and generosity of spirit.
The Witchcraft Chronicles 
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