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Julie in CA

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Everything posted by Julie in CA

  1. I was wondering why your dot was never green! Welcome back :party: ~J~
  2. Our over 100 year old house on the dairy was just not worth salvaging. As much as I hate to see old homes torn down, ours had to go. We built a new home, and for a variety of reasons it was absolutely the right thing to do. Just to give a few reasons: Our old house was right about 1000 square feet, with one bathroom, horrible wiring, laundry outside on an uncovered porch(rain filled my dryer during winter and manure blew in during gentle spring breezes...), and horrible use of space. We had no closets, no insulation, crumbling roofing, and curtains blowing in the breeze from leaky, drafty windows. Our house came to us this way and we glued/baling wired/duct taped things together for 12 long years. I can also say that our house didn't have one iota of that "old-fashioned charm" or "sense of history" that people talk about. Oh, and did I mention the termites.... We ended up building a new house and tearing down the old. Truly, there wasn't even much to salvage from the old house other than our memories. Even though our focus wasn't on green building practices, our new home is so much better built/insulated than our old one that we're not wasting as much in terms of electricity, propane, and water as we definitely were in our old house. The process of building was actually very smooth and easy for us, and I think the key to that is finding a contractor that shares both your vision of a home for your family, and your commitment to environmentally responsible building practices. The right contractor will be able to help you with the multitude of choices, and will be able to make it seem easy. I believe that we are in a unique position (I'm speaking of both my family and yours) as farmers, in that we are much more likely than the average family to live in our home long term, through lifetimes and even generations. We built our home with that in mind--the sense of heritage, I mean. We aren't positive that any of our children will continue on in the dairy business, tho the signs are there, but we did not just "build a house", I don't think. We hopefully built a homestead where our children and their children some day will be able to feel that sense of home and heritage. We didn't build just another cookie-cutter tract home that some other family will be living in in a few years. It's not that our house is filled with expensive stuff, but that we tried to pay attention to making it a house where 100 years from now, someone would rather remodel it than tear it down, and feel some sorrow should it for some reason be beyond salvage. Well, I guess I rambled here, but hopefully there's something in this message that will be a little helpful. Blessings, Julie
  3. I'm pretty sure I have the wireless router already. I'm talking about whatever feature the computer itself needs to have to be ready for the network.(?) Thanks, J
  4. I currently have a laptop that's on it's last legs, and it's time to replace it. When I set up my wireless network thing, I didn't have to do anything to make this computer ready for my wireless network, it just jumped right on. My question is: I need a new desktop computer, and I need it to hop onto my wireless network. Will it automatically come with whatever "stuff" it needs to do that, or will I have to buy a wireless "whatever it is"(would that be a card?) to make it do that? What should I be looking for in the list of features to make sure it can do that right out of the box? -Sorry if I'm not making any sense...I know just enough about computers to get my daily stuff done, but no more!
  5. Ahh, the fondue... My friend picked up some packages of the pre-made at Costco. Really, I'm willing to spend $27 to see the problem go away. I'll just save my yummy cheese that I bought and use it for my own family. What a treat! For tomorrow though, I'm relieved to be just heating & eating. Now I'm up to my elbows in carrot cake fixin's. Doesn't bode well for the continuation of weight loss...;-) ~Julie~
  6. I've lost 16 lbs, and just realized that I'm spending half my time hitching up my jeans and then adjusting my shirt. It doesn't seem like I'm getting that much smaller (I have a *lot* to lose). How soon do most people get new clothes as they're losing weight? Thanks, ~J~
  7. We have a single-story house, and we have about...7 smoke detectors, I think. Our builder put one in every bedroom (4), one in the hall, one by our door to the garage, and one in our family room. They are all hard-wired into the house, with a battery backup.
  8. When it's not fresh strawberry season, I think Costco's frozen strawberries are the best around. They have a lot better flavor than any other I have tried (including Trader Joe's). We really like the Pubhouse Cod, which you bake, but it definitely has that fried-fish taste & crunch. I love the potstickers. Yum! I sometimes buy the big can of nacho cheese, take it home, and freeze it in meal-sized portions. It's pretty good drizzled over chips or taco salad, or sometimes I spread a very thin layer of nacho cheese over the tortillas before I roll up burritos. I just realized that pretty much all of the unhealthy stuff we eat comes from Costco. Huh. I never noticed the direct connection before. Still, it's all so yummy!
  9. I was wondering the same thing. I've looked at the History Pockets in the past and just not been impressed. I'm glad to hear that History Odyssey will still be full of good stuff without them. Thanks, ~J~
  10. I'll post it (just in case you want it), but it's not healthy or particularly budget conscious. Whisk the following ingredients in a large bowl: 5 eggs+ 1 egg yolk 3/4 cup sugar 3 cups milk 3 cups cream 2 1/2 tablespoons bourbon (you can make it without, but it really is SO much better with just this tiny bit of bourbon) 1 tablespoon vanilla 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon salt Add about 16 ounces bread cubes and pour into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Sprinkle with golden raisins. Toss about 4 oz small bread cubes with about 2 tablespoons of butter and a bit of cinnamon sugar, and throw them on top of the mixture in the pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 50 mins. (until it jiggles only slightly) Serve slightly warm, and top with whipped cream or melted vanilla ice cream, and a drizzle of caramel ice cream topping if you have it. This makes a restaurant-quality dessert, and if you haven't tried bread pudding before (I thought it sounded gross!), just think of it as baked french toast(it's not really, but that helped my dc get over their bias against bread pudding). You'll probably really like it. ~J~
  11. "So what you're saying is that in order to make Swiss fondue, you'd have to put some in some serious mileage to get either the prepackaged or some genuine Swiss cheese? Hmm...Who are you serving? Why do you have to make this, anyway? I'm curious!" (quote from Colleen) I have to do this because my sil is giving my niece a baby shower on Saturday. I am the "go to" gal in the family (and the community, for that matter) for feeding a crowd, since I have a little bit of restaurant and catering experience. My sil, on the other hand, cooks less, has a smaller family, is thrifty to the point of...well, never mind...and generally speaking would fix one sandwich for a party of 8 people. I'm already making a custom cake (I'm really a dessert chef in my other life), but I saw that she was floundering a bit with the baby shower plans, so I offered to help her with making other food. I just kind of forgot that she usually has very specific ideas about what she wants (hence the "authentic" fondue). I probably (no, definitely!) would have picked something else to make for the shower, but this is what sil wants, so I'm going to do it with a smile. :) Besides, situations like these are my chance to try something new, and learn along the way. Thanks to everyone for their kind advice! Because I already have a fair amount of really yummy cheese, I'm going to try making it one more time. OTOH, I have a friend willing to venture into Costco for me tomorrow while she's already in town for other errands. Thanks again, Julie
  12. In light of current events, I need to add that my grocery *does* have plenty of rice, wheat, and corn. I'm really thankful for our food, I promise! ~J~
  13. I have to travel about 40 minutes each way to get to the closest town that has the premade. My local grocery doesn't even have swiss cheese! ~J~
  14. I've loaned out my Joy of Cooking. Is the recipe complicated? Pretty please, do you have a minute to give me the recipe?
  15. I just passed up the packaged fondue at Costco, because it was $9 for a v-e-r-y small package, and I figured that even with relatively good cheese I could make it a teeny bit less expensively. But I trust you Colleen, and oh, how I wish I'd just bought the premade!
  16. I need to make cheese fondue for about 20 people on Saturday, and I've never made it or ever eaten it before. I tried one recipe and...:ack2: It wasn't good. At all. Help!
  17. In a perfect world I'd have plenty of time for working alongside each of my dc. In the real world, however, I'm only buying curriculum that I think they can work on relatively independently. I hate it when a motivated kid is "stuck" in their schoolwork because I'm unavailable sometimes. Thanks so much! ~Julie~
  18. I wish I had unlimited time, but alas, I'm finding that my dc must work independently more and more. I also have a LD kid who needs "grammar lite". I have heard that LLATL on a few grade levels below might be just right for him. Thanks again, Julie
  19. I tried to email you, but it bounced back. My email is: julie vantol @ clearwire . com (no spaces) Feel free to email me if you're interested.
  20. Have you used Journey into Africa already, or did you get already get it for the fall? I have a nice set that's been for sale forever (about 1/2 price). We really enjoyed using it, and I hate to keep it sitting on my shelf. ~J~
  21. What do I need? Which brands/labels/processors/components are the best (in my price range, of course)? I don't need a printer, and I think my existing monitor is probably ok. What should I look for? (I'm thinkin' eeney-meeney-miney-mo is probably not the way to choose this!) Thanks, Julie
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