Water Water Everywhere...

 

I was on a good roll there for a while.  Not that I still have any readers.  But I do like to blog.  Only now I seriously can't think of a single thing to blog about!  Has my life become so boring??  Um, ya.  Pretty much.  Unless you consider new laundry room shelves thrilling to read about.  (They actually are pretty thrilling.  Just not for YOU.)

But this morning I thought of something REALLY EXCITING to write about: Water!  Ya, I know what you're thinking...maybe I should just stick to laundry room shelf posts, right?  But really, I have a serious problem with water.  Water cups, to be specific.  Have you noticed lately that all the fast food and fast sit-down restaurants (you know, like Cafe Rio and Zupas) all give you these minuscule cups if you order water? I swear, the cups are smaller than the cups that come out of those Dixie cup dispensers!  You know, just because I'm ordering water doesn't mean I should be punished with a shot glass sized drink.  I'm not cheap.  It's not a money thing. Trust me, I would much rather be drinking a 64oz Coke!  But I'm generally on a diet, or else I've already had my daily allowance of calorie-free liquid carcinogen, so I'm trying to be more healthy.  But I feel lately like restaurants are trying to make me feel like a second rate citizen for ordering water!

My two biggest pet peeves in the water cup department are:

1) the clear plastic cup with no lid.   Have you gotten these?  It's like a whole different category of cup; not Styrofoam, not regular plastic, not cardboard.  It's like those little tiny disposable cups you get in hospital to wash your pills down with, only slightly bigger. And it doesn't have a lid.  So I'm supposed to carry a cup full of icy water on a tray with other food, with one hand, while I wrangle my toddler with my other hand, across a crowded restaurant, while I try to find a table, without spilling a drop, and then try to eat my meal without my baby dumping that water on me or herself??  Why can't I just get a regular cup FORPETESSAKE??  I've asked them if I could please get my water in a bigger cup, and they say yes that'll be $2.50 please.  FOR THE CUP?  The empty cup?  That I'm going to put regular tap water in?  Is your tap water made of GOLD??

2) My other pet peeve is the mini-cup at the drive-through.  Although the above scenario irritates me to no end, at least I have the option of going back up to the drink dispensers every 15 seconds to refill my 1/4 cup of water.  But when I'm in the drive through and they hand me, literally, a cup that is half the size of my kids' kids meal drinks, I lose it.   How am I supposed to refill that when I'm 8 feet down the road and it runs out? 

Mostly the thing that bugs me is that these restaurants seem bent on trying to make me feel like a loser for ordering the most healthy drink on this earth.   The one thing our bodies can't live without, and I get a big, plastic guilt trip every time I order one.  Well, a tiny plastic guilt trip.  Sometimes they'll give me a bigger cup if I ask for one, but sometimes they really won't and they try to tell me it's some kind of company policy:  I'm sorry, ma'am, it says right here that I can't provide a water cup bigger than a thimble or I'll be fired.

Think twice, lame restaurants.  You're not going to make me change my drink order all of the sudden just because you hand me 2 oz of water. ("Oh, I only get that much water??  Well then, by all means change my drink to an extra large Oreo shake!")  So you might as well pony up the 2 cents it costs you for that bigger cup and fill it with that ultra expensive WATER and hand it over to me with a smile.  AND A LID!

Fruit Fly Remedy

It's October....shouldn't the fruit flies have died a slow, frosty death by now??  My doors are seldom left open long these days, and yet these little pests continue to find their way to my fruit, time after time.  They're not the worst thing to find in your house, but I still hate knowing they're around.  So recently when my mother-in-law told me about a simple, non-toxic remedy to get rid of fruit flies made of common household products, I was eager to try it.  And guess what?  It works like a charm!  And it could not be easier to make.  Here's what you'll need:

 

Apple Cider Vinegar (or other vinegar)
Karo Syrup (corn syrup)
Liquid dish soap
small shallow dish


Instructions:  Get a small, shallow dish.  I use a baking ramekin because the surface is so smooth, sometimes the flies fall right in just perching on the edge!  DIE, SUCKAS!  Pour about 1/4-1/2 cup apple cider vinegar in the dish (should be about 1/2 inch deep).  You can use other vinegars, but the smell of apple cider vinegar mimics the smell of fermenting fruit so well, it's got to be a fruit fly's fondest dream!  Next pour about 1 teaspoon of Karo syrup into the ramekin.  I don't measure it, but it eyeballs out to be a dollop the size of a quarter.  Last pour in 1 teaspoon of liquid dish soap.  Stir it up gently until it's evenly mixed; you don't want to make bubbles.  Set it out on the counter a foot or two away from your fruit.




This works so well, that literally within 3-4 minutes of setting it out, the first fruit fly will bite the dust.  I took this picture 20 minutes later:

 

It's hard to see because they mostly sink, but there are already 9 fruit flies in there!  And the crazy thing is, although it never seems like there are more than 2 or 3 flying around, by a few hours later, my dish will be full of at least 30-50 fruit flies! 

 

 

As my flies converge, gorge and die, I leave the dish out--maybe a day--then I dump it out. If I continue to see fruit flies, I refill it. But as long as I don't leave out any cut fruit or leave fruit with bruises or wounds in the bowl, they usually stay away from then on.


Easy, huh?  Try it and see how fast those suckers dive into your apple cider death trap!