Junk Mail - Send it back!

Sometimes I get a forwarded email from a friend. She knows I don't like or ever read most of them. But today she sent me something interesting. There was a LOT more but this is what tickled my fancy and I thought: "post it on your blog"!! so here it is. I hope you enjoy it and make use of it's suggestions... I am going to! Maybe I can get a smaller recycling bin!

 Maybe I will post the other suggestions at a later date. Or maybe I will delete the email. Hard to say at this point....




 (3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.

 When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

 Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 44 cents postage, 'IF' and when they receive them back.

 It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes. 
 One of Andy Rooney 's (60 minutes) ideas. 
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!
 If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.
  You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 44 cents.
 The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice!
  Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!

  I   Love   to   Read ! !

I LOVE to read!!!! I have to check out from the library or borrow from a friend which sometimes limits me in church fiction authors. But I still manage to go through a book or two a week.

Here are some of my favorites and what they use a hook to reel me in (they are all murder mysteries). I would recommend you start with the first ones published, as the characters grow, their romantic relationships grow too.

Joanne Fluke - Hannah Swenson owns the "Cookie Jar Coffee Shop" and shares all her favorite or newly developed Cookie/dessert recipes. Each book has at least one recipe every chapter or so. Joanne Fluke's website: murdershebaked.com

JoAnna Carl - Chocolate mysteries - tips/trivia on chocolate This is a fun one. I love the humor, which is my kind, the sarcastic, under the breath muttering kind.

Terri Thayer - stamping, quilting. Limited books, about 3. Waiting for her to write more.

Donna Andrews - (PG-13) Titles such as We'll Always Have Parrots, Swan for the Money, No Nest for the Wicket. Start with her first and work your way up. It is worth it! Some are more funny than others, but she really has some very diverse location/plot set-ups. I mean, Extreme Croquet in a cow pasture?

Lillian Jackson Braun: Definitely start with the oldest published and work forward. There is a story behind the story.

Dorothy Gilman: Mrs, Polifax series. Older lady gets involved with the CIA -- just to have something to do with her life.....

LDS:
Rachel Ann Nunes, Betsy Brannon Green, Michele Paige Holmes, Clair M. Poulson, Lynn Gardner, Traci Hunter Abrahamson, and my new fave: Josi S. Kilpack who has a new series out that is food related and about an older sleuth. She is way fun to read!! However, some of Josi's are much more serious. Read the flap.

I am also hooked on Regency Romance novels but only the older ones. I had a very favorite author and she started modernizing her words and now they are pretty much "R" rated. Too bad. I have learned so much about Napoleonic era, 1800 - 1816, mostly England history and the peerage.

I lately joined an online paperback swap. Check it out: http://www.paperbackswap.com
I don't have that many books to add to it but I like the idea of low cost books, basically the postage. Better than buying brand new.

I want to read some new ones out: Marilyn Bunderson, "The Mark" and Rochelle J Christiansen, "Wrong Number", but my library doesn't carry them yet. I have made requests, but it will take a while.

Well, that is it for now. It has been fun sharing with you.

Happy Reading!!!!
(*j*) Becky

Uses of Vinegar
1. Good stain remover
2. Clean shower head: bring to boil 1/2 cup each of vinegar & water, take off burner then put in shower head. Let soak for a while, using old toothbrush or similar to get all the 'crusties' out of the holes. Should be very easy to brush away.
3. Shower curtain: One cup of vinegar in the washing machine cold rinse cycle will take away mildew.
4. Window wash: 1/2 cup each water & vinegar, with sponge or rag wipe window with solution. Use old rages or newspapers to wipe dry. Hint: Dry the outside of the window with a sideways motion and the inside with up and down motion. That way you can see places you have missed. Feel free to reverse the inside/outside motions! Change it up!
5. Full strength for hard water stains, rust, bath rings. Clean while the tub/shower walls are warm after using. Use a non-abrasive scrubber and a little elbow grease.
6. Decal remover. Soak for a several minutes and then rub off.
7. Add a couple of cups to the rinse cycle (no clothes please) with detergent to help clean out the pipes.

If you know of other ways to use vinegar in house cleaning, please share your "Tried and True" hint!

Monday. July 12, 2010. 11:30pm This is not a special day or a momentous one. It is just another day.

Sometimes it is hard to find things that I want to do because I have so much I should be doing. Today I did't want to do housework or gardening or work on getting all the medical papers from last year's three changes of companies sorted out. I only wanted to get this blog going. I have been thinking of doing it for a long time. Just to be a part of the world of technology. So I asked a friend to help me.

This was a day that I felt like I did accomplish a few things. My good friend came and helped me set up this blog and taught me a few things about computers that I didn't know. She even brought me lunch. "Extra mile" blessings for her. I also got two loads of laundry done. It didn't all get put away but it is clean. I made dinner and went to the library with my husband for Family Home Evening. It got me out of the house and into the fresh air. We checked out a few "old time movies". Nice to see the blue sky and a few clouds and visit with hubby.

I feel like I need to share. Share things I have learned or look interesting or are new to me and that you might like to know. With all the kids gone and no grandchildren close, I feel a big empty space. I love to teach. I like to think it is because I want to learn too but I suppose some of it is that I feel like I have all this knowledge and no one who wants it. Is that the way it is when you get older? Please say No!

I am hoping this blog will contain some helpful hints about all those things that are stuck inside that want to come out. My dilemma is what to begin sharing. I feel like I am bursting! And I also want to learn more as I go along. Experiments, insights, realizations, helping, serving. Who knows what will pop up. But whatever it is, I hope it all comes out right and with love. Most of all love.

It is late. Now it is the next day. Tuesday, July 13, 2010, 12:25(-ish) am. I am going to bed. I wish you all pleasant dreams.

(*j*) Becky