Amy Currioman

Over the years I’ve learned some interesting things about tricks restaurants use on their customers. A long time ago I read some literature about how different colors effect different moods. For example, red, yellow and orange are “high energy” colors and are often used in fast food restaurants because the restaurants know that those colors will encourage the customers to eat quickly and leave (making room for more customers) and the “high end” restaurants will often use “calming” colors such as blues and greens to encourage their customers to linger longer (perhaps order more alcohol which is their big money maker) and order dessert, relaxing and enjoying their meal and the company they are keeping.

I was just reading an article on the Time.com website about “what makes you eat more food” and was surprised to read that one of the things that makes you eat more food in restaurants is that most restaurants turn their thermometers to cooler temperatures. When the body is cold, a natural reaction to warm up is to eat more food. So the restaurants are trying to get you to eat more food by making their customers cold!

This morning when I left the house I noticed the air was heavily scented with a sweet scent.  I looked around trying to figure out where the sweetness was coming from.  The only thing that I could see in bloom was the honeysuckle that has overtaken the fence that lines the property boundary line between us and our neighbor.  I never realized that honeysuckle had such a sweet scent that could be sensed from so far away!

I remember as a child my Dad showed me how to pull apart a honeysuckle so I could lick the drop of nectar from it.  I used to enjoy doing that a lot as a kid.  I haven’t done that this year yet, but I did do it last year when I was showing my own kids how to do it.  I was disappointed by their lack of enthusiasm for what I was showing them!  Oh well, maybe when I have grandchildren they will enjoy doing it with me!

My horoscope said nothing about how great today was going to be. First, I went to Starbucks and they gave me a free chocolate cherry mocha coffee. They had made one for someone else who decided they didn’t want it and the barrista didn’t want to throw it away, so she asked me if i would like it. Heck, yes!

Then I went to Home Depot to get a couple of rakes for my overdue yard work and went to the self checkout. The rakes both had the bar codes on them, but the second one would not scan. the checkout display said to wait for assistance. I waited and waited and even with 4 idle workers milling about, no one came to help me. So I got a little ticked off and loudly asked “Where’s my assistance?” the clerk came and tried to scan the rake, but it didn’t work. So he went somewhere else and left me standing there along with a growing line of other impatient customers. When he came back he tried to scan it one more time. It still didn’t work. He leaned toward me and said softly, “I’m not going to charge you for this rake. It’s not your fault the scan won’t work and I’m sorry you’ve had to wait so long.” He smiled and handed me the rake – another freebie!

Here it is, only mid-October, and the weatherman says it might actually snow tonight! I have to admit that it certainly does FEEL like it will snow – it isn’t just cold, there is a certain smell and feel to the air that I have come to learn is the feel of approaching snow. But here in this southern state, snow this early in the season is just abnormal!

The weatherman says that it will only be a few flakes if it happens at all, so chances are that I’ll sleep through the whole thing and by the time I wake up in the morning it will have melted. Just as well; I’m in no hurry to see snow!

I’ve been interested for a while now in making my own designer candles.  I’d like to buy some pretty bulk jars and fill them with a lightly scented soy wax.  Then after the wax has solidified I think I’d like to paint the jars.  The biggest reason that I think I’d like to do this is because I have heard so much about how cheap wax is bad for your health and also leaves a lot of soot on the furnishings of the house they are burnt in.  I’ve heard that soy wax burns clean and doesn’t have any negative health side effects.  I’ve always liked candles; I think they are very pretty. 

I tend to avoid burning them, though for a couple of reasons.  One reason is that a lot of candles make a mess with their wax dripping all over the place.  Another reason is that some candles just burn down the middle of the candle and then seem to drown themselves in a puddle of melted wax.  And still another is that a lot of the scented candles make my nose run and eyes water and give me a headache!  Not knowing exactly what is in the candles makes me suspect that if I made my own I could control all of that.