Today's "treasures" include some articles I've written, so it isn't particularly modest of me to call them treasures. But, if they have information you can use, they will be treasures. Let me mention the article called "Expert and Easy Computer Commands." Its section on "Carting Information Around" tells you how to manage Tastebud Tangos that have information you don't want to use right this minute but may want to use later. Using the techniques in the article, you can highlight the Tastebud Tango sections you want to keep, import them into your Microsoft Word program, and file them in any way that works for you. And next year when you, for example, need to find an assisted living center for your mom, whose health is failing, you can go right to the item that tells how to find official ratings for these centers. (You can also find back issues under Our Newsletter on my websites -- http://delightfulfood.com/Archives/index.html.)

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----Table of Contents----

1. Unclaimed Baggage Bargains
2. A Beautiful Color? Yes or No?
3. Need a Great Price on Prescription Drugs?
4. Help With Medicare Drug Plans
5. Basic Googling And How You Can Become Advanced
6. What Google Will Do For You
7. The Dark Side of Google
8. When You Hit the Wrong Key and Your Computer Goes Bananas!
9. Expert and Easy Computer Commands
10. Cool Science for Curious Kids
11. Genuine Mexican Food
12. A Manly "Irish" Recipe

     You may have heard about this, and here it is. These people in Scottsboro, Alabama, buy about 7,000 items of unclaimed baggage per day, but the stuff moves so fast that what they stock today will probably be sold by tomorrow. They say, "In pre-owned merchandise, primarily from Unclaimed Baggage, you'll save 50-80% off the original retail price. On new merchandise, which is normally from the Unclaimed Cargo we purchase, you save 20-50%. Most of these items are factory-fresh and still in the original packaging. We have expert buyers in every category who know the market prices for everything from cameras to fine jewelry, and even that trendy designer bag you might want!" Click below to check out what they have for you today:

http://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/

     My husband says Glidden has been advertising this on TV. If you haven't taken a look already, here it is. It's neat!

     When you paint a room, it's hard to know what it will REALLY look like when you're through. The Glidden paint website has a fascinating feature that should help. When you get on the site, click on Color Visualizer. Then pick the room you plan to paint -- say, your living room. They show you seven living room interiors. You pick the one that most resembles your living room. Then wait a minute while the color feature loads. Now select a color and drag the color, in a paint bucket yet, onto the picture and dump it over your Internet living room walls. And there it is! Many of the interiors show what the paint will look like with the sun shining on it as well as with regular daylight coming in. Fascinating indeed!

http://glidden.com/home/index.jsp

     Pharmacy Checker is a wonderful site for anyone who wants to save money on medications. Through this website you can "find out which domestic and foreign pharmacies have licenses, provide proper privacy, security, and reliable contact information." The site lists Canadian, U.K., U.S., New Zealand, Israeli, and Indian pharmacies. Results differ according to the medication in question. I clicked on Pravachol, 10 mg. Price PER PILL ranged from $1.36 from UKMeds to $2.98 from Costco. In other words, Costco's medications were more than twice as expensive. But Costco and a Canadian firm had the LOWEST prices on Lisinopril. In other words, which pharmacy works best for you depends on the medications you're taking. Test them all and see what you get! The site also rates suppliers (actually it only lists ones that earn high ratings) and gives average shipping times.

http://pharmacychecker.com/

     A site that helps seniors rate U.S. Medicare drug plans. You click on your state for a chart summarizing all the drug plans offered. The chart goes a long way to simplify an extremely complex issue. You can also click on "Discussion Boards" to discuss questions you have about the plans.

http://www.medicaredrugplans.com/

----commercial----

     Merchants are swiftly and sadly sweeping away the Valentine's chocolates. Coming next is St. Paddy's Day, which is why they're sad, because there's only so much you can do with green beer. But, as it happens, my little shopping cart is uniquely situated, with the only "Irish" barbecue sauce and steak sauce in existence, so far as I know. They do amazing things, with and without corned beef. Check it out here, clicking on "Bedazzling Barbecue,"

http://my-url.us/pv-spice.html

or wait until you get to the bottom of this newsletter for a Maguire "Irish" recipe that I suspect will surprise the Irish as much as anyone.

----end commercial----

     And now for some articles I've written. I'll be posting them on more than fifty "fr*ee article" sites on the Internet, in addition to posting them on my own site. I'm working on fifteen articles, because those article sites put a person through so many miserable hoops it isn't worth doing with one or two articles. And I go to all that trouble because the fr*ee article sites are the basic way a writer advertises on the Internet.

     Below is commentary on the first five articles, which are posted on my Delightful Food website. Hope you enjoy them.

     The battle of the giant search engines is heating up, and you and I are going to emerge as winners! Google is by far the more popular, and Microsoft, with only 10 percent of the searches, is retaliating. Do your Internet searches through MSNSearchandWin.com and you may win a prize.

     But you don't tangle with Google and win. If you use Google by GOING THROUGH Blingo.com, you may also win great prizes!

     So how can you lose? You'll get good, but different, search results by using MSN, but Google has the great options you can read about in my next article. My personal opinion? Search with Google and maybe win a prize by going to Blingo and using its Google search box:

http://www.blingo.com/

And find my article on basic Googling at

http://delightfulfood.com/FreeEzines/index.html

     When you get there, just scoot down, past Inspirational, to Internet. The articles are all posted in that section.

     Would you like Google to tell you whether your plane is arriving on time? What's playing in your local movie theater? How your stocks are doing on the stock market? What happened to your UPS package? It can do all that, plus much more. My second Google article tells you how to get Google firmly under your thumb.

http://delightfulfood.com/FreeEzines/index.html

     Ah. Now we get to the bad stuff, and it's all about guarding your privacy as your personal business whizzes about the globe. Be SURE to read this article. Longtime subscribers to my newsletters have seen one of the items, but the rest is new.

http://delightfulfood.com/FreeEzines/index.html

     A lighthearted look at something that isn't the least bit funny when it happens to you. Find it on my site, just below the Google articles.

http://delightfulfood.com/FreeEzines/index.html

     Clever computer shortcuts, especially for newcomers to the Internet, but knowledgeable people may also pick up useful items. And this is where you learn how to transport Internet information, such as that in Tastebud Tangos, and file it in your word processing program.

http://delightfulfood.com/FreeEzines/index.html

     The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has some really cool science projects for kids from kindergarten through second or third grade. The older kids can work on them solo, but they also make good projects for a small-kid/grownup team to enjoy working on together. Find it by clicking on

http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/

     Tex-Mex food can be great, particularly near the Tex-Mex border, but the so-called "Mexican food" available in most American cities tends toward the same tired roster of dishes. And, while eating this food, I have often thought wistfully, "REAL Mexican food must be better than this. It can't be that there's a whole country, with tropical fruits and imaginative cooks, that eats nothing but same old same old."

     And of course real Mexican food is a whole different world. If you live in New York, you can go to Zarela's restaurant and eat real Mexican regional delicacies. If you don't live in New York, you can go to Zarela's WEBSITE and learn to make real Mexican delicacies. You will need some special ingredients, but they are becoming much more common in American supermarkets. And your results will be worthy of a nation of inspired and imaginative Mexican cooks!

http://www.zarela.com/recipes.html

     And now for a recipe from Maguire, of Maguire's Irish Barbecue and Steak Sauce fame. Maguire does not deal in ladies' recipes. This is a GUY recipe, though ladies are allowed to produce it when it's absolutely necessary.

     Oh, yes. You may have noticed you don't have one vital ingredient: Maguire's Irish BBQ Sauce. As you also may have noticed, Irish barbecue sauces don't exactly litter the store floors. You can't get them in the chain stores, in fact. But come to my Placer Valley Store, click on Bedazzling Barbecue, and there it is, an absolutely unique barbecue sauce. Along with an equally unique steak sauce that you haven't noticed littering the store floors either. Because these are special handcrafted condiments: the barbecue sauce from a recipe that Maguire Irishly claims, with a minimal amount of truth, to have found in his family Bible.

     You might want to get both BBQ sauce (two bottles for this recipe) AND steak sauce, as St. Paddy's Day is coming, and what else would be more appropriate on your corned beef? Just a thought. We're having it on ours of course.

     Come here for the sauces:

http://my-url.us/pv-spice.html

1 - 4 1/2 lb pork loin roast
1 1/2 tablespoons of oil
4 1/2 cups of water
2 jars of Maguire's BBQ Sauce
Extra large buns

     Maguire gives two ways to cook the roast. First, with a crock pot: add oil, cook pork roast all day on low. After about 8 hours, drain off fat, shred meat, add sauce, and cook awhile longer, stirring occasionally.

     OR, with pressure cooker: Add oil to pressure cooker and brown roast on all sides. Drain and remove roast. Put stand in cooker, replace roast and add 4 1/2 cups of water. Pressure cook roast for 1 hour after valve begins to rock. (COOKING TIMES VARY, SO CHECK YOUR OWNER'S MANUAL.)

     Remove roast from pressure cooker, shred, and place meat in large pan. Add sauce and cook for 1 to 2 hours (or a bit less if you're in a hurry) on top of the stove over low heat. Stir occasionally.

     Toast buns and top with 1 cup of mixture. Maguire likes to serve it with fries or baked beans, or black beans and wild rice, and/or cornbread.

© Copyright 2005 Janette G. Blackwell. All rights reserved. You may copy and use portions of this newsletter for noncommercial, personal use only. You may forward a copy to someone else as long as the copyright notice is included. Any other use of the materials in this newsletter without prior written permission is prohibited.

     Tour the Sites newsletter comes out on the first and fifteenth of each month, and we'll NEVER give or sell your e-mail address to anyone else. Plus, these breathtaking "tours of the sites" are absolutely free!

     So add your name to our Tour the Sites mailing list at the bottom of this page, and let's dig up more exciting treasures!

     Janette Blackwell