Pinatas are Fun for young and old!

Pinatas make a great theme to center a party around. It can be a birthday party, a going away party or just a fun party where friends and family get together. Pinatas offer excitement and challenge for both the young and old because it’s exciting to see someone swing a stick around and anticipate the breaking of the pinata and watching all the candies, chocolates and prizes spill out.
All pinatas lovers know that the right ingredients mixed with care and exactness produce a colorful, rewarding pinata that is loved by everyone.
Having pinatas at a child’s birthday party is always a hit. It really doesn’t matter how old a kid is, from 5 years to 75 years young, everyone enjoys watching and being watched as they attempt to break open a colorful surprise filled pinata. And just watch those young faces erupt in laughter when all that candy spills out.
Whether your looking for pinatas for a friend or a special treat for your family, pinatas made from the best ingredients available is sure to please everyone.
I suggest that you purchase only quality pinatas filled with the best candy and the freshest quality ingredients.  You’re sure to have great fun with your pinata.

Pleasures of Soup

Often our diets change during the cold weather. More hot foods then cold sandwiches grace the dinner table. Our schedules do not slow down so we seek out hardy, quick to prepare meals.
Making a pot of soup is a perfect solution for a healthy, hot meal. There are dozens of different soups that you can make.
Make your meal different then chicken noodle or tomato soup, why not try a creamy wild rice mushroom, white chicken chili, cheesy potato with bacon, country bean or even Italian wedding soup.
You do not have to make these wonderful soups from scratch or pour from a can, purchase a soup kit and add fresh meat for a great home made taste.
Soup kits provide all of the dried ingredients, spices and instructions. The ingredients you add are minimal and the cooking easy and relatively quick.
You can find these soup kits from several small Internet businesses that sell gourmet foods at very affordable prices. Make dinner different tonight and try a soup kit for your family.

New Year’s Resolutions

Ah, the start of another year!  In a groggy haze on New Years Eve, I promised someone (or was it myself?) that I would be good this year.  I said I would draw up my New Year’s Resolutions particularly after the roller-coaster year I had last year.  Well, a promise is a promise.  I can’t very well start the New Year by breaking the resolution that I was going to write my New Year’s Resolutions, can I? So, here it is, broken down into months being the control freak that I am.
JAN Donate old PC to a Deserving Relative
After all, to give is more rewarding than to receive (but not quite as rewarding as to buy).  So I guess it’s au revoir to my X86 sitting in the corner of my study.  Now, who should I give it to? Who will appreciate my very first, very own PC?  My 91 year-old Gran so she can learn to type?  Or my 5 year-old niece so she, too, can fall in love with Frogger and Pacman I grew up with instead of playing with her PlayStation 2?
FEB Start RDO (Rostered Day Out)
Negotiate with The Boss to work (offline, of course) in the park one day a month.  I want to feel the breeze in my hair, the green grass underfoot and the occasional bird droppings on my head.  I want to feel free as I prepare my daily status report.  I want to pretend I’m unshackled even if the price I have to pay is grass stains on my suit.  Just for once, I want to live like the lucky b!@#$%^s on those TV ads.
MARCH Test Drive a Hot Spot
I can be savvy.  I can be cool.  Just because I don’t have the latest 3G video bluetooth- enabled combined PDA/Phone (yet) doesn’t make me a techno geek.  I am techno sleek!  In the month of March, I shall borrow The Boss’s Centrino laptop and test drive a Hot Spot.  I shall sit at the caf├й downstairs from work, sip coffee, pick at my friand and surf the net to check my share portfolio performance (yeah, as if).  This will be the ultimate testament that I have lived no, that I am really living – because I can work without being bound to power cables.  I can say to the rest of the world, I have a WiFi lifestyle.
APRIL Turn Multimedia PC into Karaoke Machine
In April, I shall make real use of my all-in-one multimedia PC.  I won’t be content just using it to tape shows from TV, watch DVD with 7.1 channel output and play all my shoot “em up games.  I will go one step further.  I will transform it into a karaoke machinein time for Australian Idol II.  It used to life be in it.  Now, it’s singing be in it.  I even have proof.  The Google 2003 Year-End Zeitgeist showed that Australian Idol was the most popular internet query in Australia (google.com/press/zeitgeist.html).  See, I’ve right there with the in-crowd.  I contributed to the incredible stats.  Go, Cosima!  You go, girl!
MAY Clean Up Electronic Files From Network/CD/Floppies
Yes, like Autumn pruning, this housekeeping task is boring but necessary.  Also, I can’t afford to wait until Spring to commence the electronic file Spring Clean.  At the rate I’m archiving, triple backing up and ghosting my files, I’ll accumulate another filing cabinet full of CDs between Autumn and Springon top of the three cabinet fulls I already have.  Maybe I’ll get a 200 GB external hard disk
JUNE Stop End of Financial Year Madness
Oh, how I’d love to hate Junebut all those end-of-financial year bargains!  “Buy something now for a final chance to claim tax deductions this year!” I can already see the advertisement headlines.  This June, I will not succumb to temptation and buy/upgrade a mobile phone, PDA, laptop or digital camcorder.  Must tell self: “contrary to self-imposed belief, I will not spontaneously combust from a mild dose of STAS (Sensible Technology Adoption Syndrome)”.  I will sponsor a World Vision child instead.  At $35 a month or $420 a year, it’s cheaper than a new PDA, laptop or camcorder.  And tax-deductible too!
JULY Expand My HorizonsOutdoors
There’s no reason to huddle myself in the house just because it’s cold.  I must stop playing those video games.  After all, it’s hardly healthy to pretend I am any of the following: James Bond, Lara Croft, Tony Hawke or Harry Potter.  Go outdoors and enjoy the fresh, chilly air.  I will ride a bike, bushwalk or hike.  I will try bungy jumping, sky-diving, parasailing, absailingYeah, right!  Who am I kidding?
AUG Take Time Out toOrganise Photo Album
Something tells me the extreme sports challenge from July will not take.  So this month, in my winter of house-bound discontent, I shall take to organising my photo album.  I still have photos from my 1998 trip to Europe in three different shoeboxes (unsorted).  I suppose that’s hardly surprising since I still have the 1999 Paris (my favourite) calendar hanging in the kitchen.  So this month, I shall organise and scan all my photos from the last centuryand take down the Paris calendar (sob, sob).
SEPT Install PC SecurityProperly
Install the latest virus-protection, firewall, surge protection, backup software and vigilantly check for updates.  I know I’ve been lucky so fargoodness knows I’ve committed too many “install and ignore” sins.  Better not push my luck.  After all, I wouldn’t want my 23 episodes of 24 to be wiped out in one foul swoop before I’ve had the time to indulge in my round-the-clock Kiefer-Sutherland-thon!
OCT Subscribe to Something Useful
I will stop compulsively subscribing to sites offering the latest bargains.  As we head into the last quarter, I need more motivational sites that give me tips, advice and quotes on how to feel better, work better and be better.  I need inspiration delivered straight to my inbox (since technology still can’t deliver it directly to my head).  Inspirational messages like this Walt Disney quote:  “If you can dream it, you can do it.”  Hmm, fast-track promotion, here I come!
NOV Get Rid of Techno Junkie Addiction
As the year starts to draw to a close, I must curb my addiction to all the techno gadgetry.  Last year, I failed miserably and ended up with three mobile MP3 players: a standard 128MB MP3 player, an improved model with voice recording (a feature I’ve not yet had the opportunity to use) and a 1.5GB mobile juke box (just because I need something to hold more songs to take on a planned 10 hour trip up the coastwhich I still haven’t booked).  This year, I must do better.  I heard there’s no better way to cure an addiction than taking up ahobby.  Now, is there anything non-tech I want from eBAY?
DEC End of Year Appraisal
As with any good New Year’s resolution, we must track our progress and compare actuals to our plans.  Month by month, I want to know whether I’ve kept to my word. For example, by 31 Dec 2004, I don’t want to see that X86 still sitting in the corner of my study.  Wait, I seem to recall saying something about getting rid of that X86 last year, or was it the year before that, or was it 1994?  Whatever.  There’s always 2005.
I hope you’ve had a chance to draw up your New Year’s resolutions.  All joke aside, a wise woman once told me: “A goal is a dream with a deadline!”  So, what are you waiting for?  Get out your PDA, fire up Word, plug in the camcorder and set those goals.  Most of all, enjoy the 2004 roller-coaster ride!

Water on the Brain

I was in the supermarket this morning (nothing unusual in that) and pushing my trolley to the checkout. Well, my wife was pushing and I was away in airy-fairy land when it suddenly dawned on me that I was walking past water. Not just any water but a whole world of the stuff. A complete representation of nations: a veritable United Nations of water in one aisle.
There, in your local Supermarket: Highland Spring Water all the way from Scotland or water drawn from the speckled valleys in the Black Mountains of the Canadian Rockies. Or you prefer Continental European? How about Spa Reine Water from Germany (hope it wasn’t a public Spa) or Vittel from the French Societe Generale des Eaux Minerales de Vittel, whatever that is. Even Australia is represented by Wattle Water Pure Water from the Australian outback and complete with a sprinkling of dust. And from the Continent of Africa comes “Oasis Pure” shipped out from the Negrev by Camel Train. China and Japan had ambassadors at the Supermarket I attended and the pictures on the bottles looked great, but the price of $4.50 was pushing my ability to grasp the essentials behind buying water a bit far.
Yes, one can buy water from almost any place in the world right in your local shop. You can even get water from the Three Gorges Damn in China at your local Chinese Take-away, which is a bit weird as the damn is not ready for completion for another six years or so.
How true the advertising of water is can be anybody’s guess, but to me it seems a mite strange to ship small bottles of water half way across the world when a quite decent reservoir exists just up the road. I realize that in an effort to promote certain brands you can pay twice as much for water in a colorful green bottle or in a bottle shaped like a duck but is it all so necessary. The cost of this water is outrageous yet nobody seems to realize what they are actually doing when they faithfully buy bottled water everyday of the week. The way I see it is that people are buying water that comes from the other side of the world and costs them money that could be otherwise spent. Why not just go to the tap as we used to do and use the water from there? If concerned boil it, let it cool and put it in the fridge for later. That is what we used to do until all of these fancy and expensive bottles came on the scene.
In an attempt to understand this bottled water phenomena I decided to put the words “bottled” and “water” into the search engine on my computer. The first entry that came up surprised me greatly. There is a whole association dedicated to bottled water; a whole business geared up to its welfare. I mean I can understand the International Association for Rail Workers or for Medical Supplies, but the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) shocked me to the core. After this surprise I noticed that the whole Industry is massive, that not only this association exists but so do hundreds of others! Wow!
Anyway, it matters not. Looking through the IBWA site for inspiration I came to their “tip of the week” page. And here is the tip that they had for this week:
“Cool water is absorbed much more quickly than warm fluids and may help to cool off your overheated body”. Source: Nutrition Information Center in partnership with IBWA
Handy stuff! I got another useful hint from some other association that told me to drink two glasses of water every morning to offset imperceptible water loss that I have had during the night. Excellent stuff. This “handy tip” was given out by a Dr Fereydon Batmanghelidj and he wrote a book called, “Your Body’s Many Cries for Water”. I doubt that it is fictional in content.
Must try and get hold of that book only joking. Another piece that I found was Ed Ford’s views on the matter of water:
“Human beings were invented by water as a device for transporting itself from one place to another”.
I am completely stuck for something to say after reading that weird statement. I must move onto other things or I will end up trying to find this man to see if he is for real.
As a kid in Edinburgh (which is not that long ago) we always used to drink water from the tap. If you wanted a glass of water then go to the kitchen sink and open the cold tap, let it run for a few seconds, more to make it cold than to clear the line and then fill your glass. Final step: drink it. This was always the case and 99% of the population of Britain (one percent lived on whisky) lived quite happily in this way with no notable side-effects form the tap water. And then suddenly bottled water came on the scene and life changed without noticeable falter, now 100% of the population drink from bottles.
Edinburgh Water shocks a lot of people when they find out the cycle that it goes through before it arrives in the glass that they are busy drinking from. Recycled sewage water is the ingredient of the stuff now inside their stomachs at the point when they grasp what you are telling them. Edinburgh has for many years removed the dung from the sewage (this used to be shipped out to sea in a special ship called the Gardyloo), it is then treated and passed through charcoal beds and retreated and analyzed endlessly before it is sent back into the system. And believe it or not Edinburgh has some of the highest quality water in Europe and it comes straight from the tap!
Countries like Taiwan, the Philippines to name but a few do need treated water as the quality available from the tap could kill at ten yards. Taiwan has an extremely efficient system going just go outside of your house to any one of the many machines dotted along the streets and by putting in 5NTD (8 pence) you will get a few gallons of clean and drinkable water in return. Not that the tap water is that bad (some waste chemicals and untreated sewage have been diverted to another river) and a boil in the kettle does me perfectly if I am feeling lazy.
It seems to me as if the whole world is shifting water around constantly. Singapore is a good example of the state of water today. Singapore has to buy water from Malaysia to survive and without such the whole of the Singapore economy would grind to a halt. This water is actually under serious contention as Malaysia has been complaining that Singapore does not pay enough for the water they pump everyday.
The Malaysian state of Johor provides 350 million gallons of water per day to Singapore at $0.007 per 1000 gallons, while Singapore has to resell a minimum 17 million gallons per day of treated water to Johor at $0.13 per 1000 gallons. The price differential has prompted calls from numerous Malaysian politicians that Singapore is profiteering from the deal. It also rankles the Malaysians that the price paid was derived from an agreement made decades ago and is still due to run for another few (until 2061). In basis: they want more for the water and Singapore doesn’t want to pay. They are even threatening to go to war over this!
In an attempt by Singapore to reduce their reliance on Malaysia they have started a program to build recycling plants around the Island. Great idea ‘А”convert dirty water into drinking water and although it will take many years before the balance changes it is a good start. I am not sure about their marketing campaign you can buy this water from the chosen outlets and it is called “New Water”. Sounds like a religious order.
The worlds shifting of water (despite Ed Fords thinking that water made humans so that it can transport itself) is none greater than what is going on in China as we speak. The Three Gorges Dam! China’s largest project since the Great Wall of China: and one with greater impact on China and the rest of the world than any other project underway today.
Some facts about the Three Gorges project:

Project expected to take 17 years; completion expected in 2009.
An estimated 250,000 workers are involved in the project.
The Three Gorges Reservoir will inundate 632 square kilometers (395 square miles) of land.
An estimated 1.2 million people will be resettled by the dam.
The project’s 26 hydropower turbines are expected to produce 18.2 million kilowatts, up to one-ninth of China’s output.
The amount of concrete totals 26.43 million cubic meters, twice that of the Itaipu project in Brazil, currently the world’s largest hydroelectric dam.

Source: Chinese government
Alongside of this massive shifting of natural resources we have the ice caps melting North and South of us, floods occurring worldwide where they should not and abnormal rainfalls flooding towns that usually do not see water for months on end. And of course the Meeting of Nations on the Supermarket shelves!
The world has water on the brain!
Just make sure that when you buy water from the supermarket that you try and miss out the “Clouds Recycled with Flouride” and the “Occaneechi Local Spa” and maybe go for the Deep Rock Crystal Drop and Whistlers Pure Glacial. It’s all in a name!

Meal Planning Help: Meal One

It’s nice when I find a meal where the foods compliment each other because it simplifies my life by knowing what to serve with what. Of course I don’t have to stick to any one meal plan; I can mix and match the main dishes and sides, but a lot of the time I’m in a hurry and don’t have a lot of time to think about it. I already have quite a few meals like this up my sleeve, but when I find a NEW one to add to my collection I get happy because it adds a little more variety to our meal choices. I’d like to share some of my new and old meal plans with you in hopes of helping you with the question `what do I make for dinner’. Here’s a meal that we have tried lately where the foods complimented each other really well. The food items aren’t necessarily new for us, but the flavors are and that makes a big difference.
The Meal:
Honey Barbecue Meatloaf Ranch Mashed Potatoes Your choice of vegetable (I just heat up a can of green beans or corn) Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Honey Cinnamon Butter
Make Ahead Tips: You can make the Honey Cinnamon Butter ahead of time and refrigerate until serving. You can also prepare the meat loaf and refrigerate it before baking.
The Recipes: Honey Barbecue Meat Loaf I’m not usually a meat loaf eater but I love this one and the family does too.
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 egg
1/2 cup oats — quick cooking
1/3 cup barbecue sauce — honey flavored
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon mustard — prepared
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 pound ground beef
ketchup
In a large bowl, stir together soup mix, egg, oats, barbecue sauce, onion, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic powder, salt, pepper and chili powder. Add beef and mix well. Press into an ungreased 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350* for 1 hour. Top with ketchup. Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until meat is no longer pink and a meat thermometer reads 160*. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Ranch Mashed Potatoes Make mashed potatoes as you usually do but omit the butter and add ranch dressing and cream cheese to taste along with less milk than usual. Top with grated cheddar cheese.
Apple Cinnamon Muffins My kids love these (so do I) and there’s never any leftovers because of this. We also make them for breakfast. Be sure to try them with `Honey Cinnamon Butter’ (recipe follows).
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons applesauce
1 medium tart apple — peeled & grated
topping:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter or margarine — cold
1/2-cup oatmeal — old fashioned
In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Add the egg, milk, oil and applesauce and stir until just moistened. Fold in apple. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. For topping, combine brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in oats. Sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 400* for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm with Honey Cinnamon Butter (recipe follows). Yield: 1 dozen.
Honey Cinnamon Butter
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl; beat until smooth. Serve with muffins, toast, bagels, French toast or pancakes. Refrigerate any leftovers. Yield: 1 1/3 cups. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for Meal Two.