COME TREASURE HUNTING WITH US!
In the last newsletter I offered to publish any tributes to readers' mothers, either in an e-book or a special edition of this newsletter before Mother's Day. Within minutes I got back two poems about Norma Liles' mother! Norma and I go back a ways, and I know she's a writer with good material on her mother, which material was apparently all ready to go.
Then I got a couple more really touching pieces about mothers. And now I'm waiting for the other shoes to drop. I'm living in fear that a bunch of you will aim for the April 20 due date by landing a pile of stuff on me April 19. PLEASE DON'T. I've gotten to an age where I'm not up to that kind of pressure.
Tell you what -- if you want to send a piece about your mother, please e-mail me RIGHT NOW. Just say that you plan to do it and give me an idea of what date it's coming. And make that date before April 19. Okay? Thanks much -- Janette
----Table of Contents----
1. Test-Drive Your Dream Job!
2. Coolworks.com
3. Google Earth
4. Extra-Good Christian Sites
5. A Startling Event
6. Last Frost Dates for Planting
7. Gas Tank Near Empty?
8. Elder Travel
9. For Those With . . . Problems
10. Cream Puffs Are Back In?
11. Cooking Light Magazine
12. Recipe: Prizewinning Jelly Roll
1. TEST-DRIVE YOUR DREAM JOB!
For the soon-to-be graduate, or for the thousands who are in a line of work they don't enjoy, these people will let you "Test-Drive Your Dream Job!"
Vocation Vacations says, "Whether your inner voice is telling you to go find your true calling or you're simply curious about a career change, VocationVacations can help. Our one-of-a-kind holiday adventures are empowering people everywhere to realize their dreams not only in work, but in life.
"While on your VocationVacations holiday, you'll work alongside an expert mentor who shares your passion and will offer invaluable insights into your dream career. You'll also receive two free sessions with a VocationVacations-approved Life/Career Coach." And if you're already in the job of your dreams? Perhaps you'd like to be a mentor for Vocation Vacations.
2. COOLWORKS.COM
Cool summer jobs for youths in national parks, amusement parks, ranches, etc. And they have an "OLDER AND BOLDER" category for seniors who are not wishing to sit around and rot just yet, thank you kindly. Click on "help wanted now" for jobs that are open RIGHT NOW. Plus you may want to subscribe to the "Caretaker Gazette" for job openings around the world for caretakers and house sitters.
3. GOOGLE EARTH
A scientific friend, Lance Wallace, put me onto several fascinating sites, including "Google Earth." His wife says he spent several days glued to his computer after he downloaded that one, and once you see it you can understand why. Not everyone can download it. It requires Windows 2000 or XP, and, Google says, it "is a broadband, 3D application that not all computers can run."
http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html
Once you have it, you must learn what the different buttons do, so that you can manipulate yourself into and out of a 3D view of the Grand Canyon, for example. And of course everyone wants to see what their own house looks like, starting with a 3D aerial view of the continent and zooming down on it. And we all want to see if our car is parked beside the house. Some people are going to find they can't see their house. Apparently the area in and around major cities has been "worked up" into 3D detail by Google Earth enthusiasts -- you can take a balloonist's eye tour of London or Paris -- but much of the countryside remains green and brown blobs. You'll understand more if you click on the option, "Google Earth Community."
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php/Cat/0
What you see on the Google Earth Community site is Google Earth as a way of life. Isn't it amazing? You might say that Google Earth invites you to visit for "an hour, a day, or the rest of your life." And if you want even more Google-Earth related items, put "Google Earth" into the Google search box and start scrolling down through the items. Google Earth has forums; it has a blog. Try it, and it may have you.
I steer clear of politics, though this fall I'll give you some websites where you can find good things like your representatives' complete voting records. But when it comes to religion, things are different. I do collect good Christian sites, and I know I have a number of Christian subscribers who are also interested in them. Here are several I particularly liked:
4. EXTRA-GOOD CHRISTIAN SITES
a. EASTER IS COMING. The Pratt family website is a favorite of mine. It has a delightful Easter section, with items for all ages, tots on up, plus Easter recipes, and an amazing collection of EASTER LINKS which take you all over the Internet!
http://www.fastq.com/~jbpratt/recipes/recipemain.html
b. CHRISTIAN VOICES, a twice-weekly newsletter, is just long enough to cheer you with a joke, followed by a brief message that will give your spirit a boost up. Don't take my word for it. Go to the site, click on Archive, read a couple of newsletters. And I think you'll want them coming your way regularly.
c. DAYSPRING CHRISTIAN E-CARDS are suited to many occasions. You may want to start with Easter. Check them out at
http://www.dayspring.com/ecards/card.asp
d. FREE CHRISTIAN WEBSITES, SOFTWARE. Serious Developments wants to show you how you can start a free Christian website, for yourself or your church.
Which leads to a site listing all sorts of free Christian software:
http://www.seriousd.com/freeware.htm
and a section on free Christian games for children:
http://www.seriousd.com/edutain.htm
5. A STARTLING EVENT
I was recently startled to find my articles on Internet safety, written in the summer of 2005, were hopelessly out of date. Internet crime was exploding! I wrote new articles dealing with computer zombies and the latest rash of computer hijackings. I then thought computer hijackings were rare events brought about by risky online behavior. And I thought I had the situation covered.
Then I read Brian Krebs' article, "Invasion of the Computer Snatchers." And I realized I didn't know nuthin'. I learned first of all that spyware is legal. Spyware is legal? And that hundreds of thousands of computers have been turned into robots ("bots"), spewing out tons of spam, and their owners don't even know it. And that yours might be one of them!
I did some serious research, and the result is an e-book called "Outwit Internet Predators Who Stalk Your Computer!" Among other things, it will give you a test to find if your computer is actually a zombie or bot. (Mine is -- another shock!) I'll also tell you what to do if yours is -- and I'm following my own advice. The draft manuscript is being gone over by experts and will come out soon.
In the meantime, in case you think I'm making this up, here is the U.S. Justice Department website on cyber crime:
6. LAST FROST DATES FOR PLANTING
This site will help you decide when to plant out your tender seedlings -- though their best advice is to ask experienced gardeners in the neighborhood. Sometimes a small area can be a frost pocket surrounded by warmer terrain. Local gardeners will know.
http://www.thegardenhelper.com/hardiness.htm
If you use the chart given above, I'd suggest you use the latest possible frost date listed for your area. Or use the Janette Blackwell system: the last killing frost will occur the day after you plant out your baby tomatoes. I am not joking. The balmiest spring days are those just before rain. We all race outside, shedding our jackets, the kids play Frisbee with the dog, and grownups plant stuff. Then the sky clouds over, covering that lovely warm sun, and it rains a bit. And after a spring rain a BITTER COLD front generally sweeps in. And bye bye babies.
For climate information even more accurate than that, click on the "USDA Hardiness Zone Map" title just above the frost date map on the Garden Helper site. This map pinpoints local climate zones much more closely than the frost map and for once generously includes Canada and Mexico.
7. GAS TANK NEAR EMPTY?
If Mom is a home schooler with the needle of her gas tank pointing near empty, try the most-used UK education portal. Click on "Webguide" to find "Over 40,000 educational websites -- all reviewed by UK teachers." I think you'll find some goodies.
8. ELDER TRAVEL
Now you have leisure to travel, and you'd be surprised how many people want to help you have a good time. Here are some:
With ELDERHOSTEL, you click on the continent that interests you, to find educational trips of all kinds. You can choose food and wine tours, house and garden tours, bicycling tours . . . you get the idea.
http://www.elderhostel.org/welcome/home.asp
For ADVENTURE TRAVEL for the over-fifties, try 50plus Expeditions, "Active, off-the-beaten-path, small group tours around the globe."
http://www.50plusexpeditions.com/
Or try OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel), which also has information for the single traveler and for those who have the novel thought of wanting to save money, which I notice is not usually encouraged:
http://www.oattravel.com/gcc/general/
9. FOR THOSE WITH . . . PROBLEMS
Of course the Internet has trips for the less active! It even has something for the group least inclined to go on tours: those with overactive bladders. Or, come to think of it, with the trots. Try
http://www.wheretostopwheretogo.com/index.jsp
A great guide for the U.S. Europe seems not to have weighed in on this yet, though I can say from experience that the need is there and anyone can feel the need!
10. CREAM PUFFS ARE BACK IN?
When that study came out indicating a low-fat diet didn't make you less likely to die of cancer, a newspaper editor saw fit to announce that butter and lard were now back in.
And I thought, "You idiot."
People do not eat a low-fat diet to avoid cancer. They eat a low-fat diet to avoid getting fat. Or to avoid getting fatter. (Did you ever hear of a high-fat, low-calorie dish?)
Over the last 20 years I spent 15 eating a low-fat diet. No real limitations on food, so long as it was low fat. I gained one pound per year in those years. For 5 years I gave up, eating anything. I gained 5 pounds per year in those years. (And got a double chin and got diabetes and, not to put too fine a point on it, got fat.)
It took me a year of struggling to get twenty of those pounds back off. And basic arithmetic tells you that if I HADN'T eaten low-fat for 15 years, I would be struggling with an extra 60 pounds. And you're telling me that I wouldn't be more likely to have a heart attack with 60 more pounds?
But don't take my word for it. Below is the link to an article called "Fat or Fiction?" by three physicians who conduct seminars on how to interpret medical studies. This is a serious article for those who want to understand why one study seems to show that a low-fat diet is good for your health, while another seems to show that it doesn't matter.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301319.html
11. COOKING LIGHT MAGAZINE
I've taken a second look at COOKING LIGHT magazine. Which kept coming, month after month, with recipes that all called for cilantro, except for a few desserts, and which also called for multitudinous exotic ingredients. Like grilled beef salad with lemongrass, fresh mint, shallots, fish sauce, and, of course, cilantro. I didn't want to buy all that stuff and have most of it rot in the refrigerator. I quit looking at the recipes. They were too depressing.
Now I'm looking at the latest issue, and it's filled with delicious sounding recipes I MIGHT ACTUALLY MAKE, hardly any of them calling for cilantro, which I happen not to like. Maybe COOKING LIGHT has changed; maybe I've changed. You might check out their website and see what you think. Their recipes call for small amounts of butter and bacon fat, using them in ways that give the most flavor with the fewest calories. They do makeovers, taking a favorite fatty family recipe and turning it into something equally delicious and low in calories. They have a thousand tricks to make dishes taste delicious without many calories, and they'll teach you those tricks.
Like chicken and dumplings. You boil the chicken, and you know that delicious broth has a thick layer of fat. They say to let it cool slightly, put the broth into a ziploc bag, cut a hole in the bottom corner, and let the broth drain out. Stopping it when the fat starts coming out. CLEVER!
I'd renew my subscription, except I've got a year of back issues I've never even opened. But I hope you'll give them a chance. They've got a good website, you can check out the recipes, learn some good low-cal tricks.
http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking/
12. RECIPE: PRIZEWINNING JELLY ROLL
Here's another authentic, old-timey Montana recipe you won't find in Google. I'm trying to give you the best parts of Lorney Faber's cookbook before I send it back to the kind friend who loaned it. (Thank you, Lynn.) Lorney says, "The judges gave this jelly roll a first place ribbon and my family has given it praise for all the years I've made it."
The recipe calls for a jelly roll pan, and, you know, I don't know what size a jelly roll pan is. Do any of you readers? My grandmother used to make jelly roll, and I remember her pan had low sides, to aid in getting out the jelly roll, and was quite large, as the roll should be thin. Maybe 18 x 24 inches? 18 x 18 inches?
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sifted regular flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
filling, such as jelly, ice cream, or whipped cream with strawberries
Beat the eggs until thick and lemon colored. Beat in the sugar slowly and then blend in the water and vanilla. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients until batter is smooth. Pour into a jelly roll pan. I always line my jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and then grease the foil to make sure the jelly roll will slip out easily. Bake roll until top springs back when lightly touched, about 12 minutes at 375 degrees. Turn upside down immediately upon towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Take the foil off carefully and roll cake up while it is hot. After it has cooled, unroll and fill with whatever filling you desire.
Lorney adds, "Any jam makes a good filling for jelly roll; but personally, I'm partial to whipped cream and strawberries for filling. Sometimes I add 1/4 cup sifted cocoa along with the flour to make a chocolate roll which I either fill with whipped cream or softened ice cream. It's nice to have a chocolate roll filled with ice cream stashed away in the freezer to bring out on busy days."
=================================
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