Amy Currioman

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.

My hubby and I enjoy watching the beautiful white tailed deer that come into our yard every day.  They are so graceful, and so gentle looking.  They remind me of the Bambi movie.  I have to laugh when I go onto Youtube and see videos of deer attacking hunters!  The deer can put up a fight when they are cornered!  Anyway, the deer have been munching on our hostas and spireas.  This has upset my hubby quite a bit!  I was talking about that to one of my new Red Hatter friends and she told me that she was told many years ago that planting marigolds in your garden will repel deer.  She said she has done it ever since and hasn’t had a problem with them since!  I’ll have to tell my hubby to go buy some marigolds!

We bought our house here almost three years ago. One of the first things that I did was to try to replace as many light bulbs as possible in the house with CFL bulbs. Our bathrooms have those large globe-shaped light bulbs and it was hard to find the right shape CFL bulb for them at first. And they tend to be expensive to buy, but they promised to save electricity and last much longer than the standard incandescent light bulbs. Well, the master bathroom has a strip of 6 lights on it. I decided that I would replace three of the standard bulbs with CFLs, and then as the standard bulbs burnt out I would replace them with CFLs. Much to my surprise, the CFL bulbs are burning out faster than the standard bulbs! I wonder why, and I have to say that it is very aggravating because they cost so much more money to buy in the first place! I’m not convinced I’m saving any money doing that now!