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ReclaimPrivacy.org will automatically review all of your Facebook settings and tell you if you have any areas of concern. I am pretty fanatical about locking down my account, but I still had two things to change. If you have any issues, the page has a link to the appropriate Facebook pages so you can change it easily and quickly. Well worth a visit!

The article 13 small things to simplify your workday came through my email box last week and I finally read it today. Like most working mothers, I sometimes feel like I’m drowning in task lists and demands on my time: I crave simplicity! There are 13 tips on this list, and you can find a couple that you can apply to see progress right away. Here are three that I am planning to use:

Batch distractions. Set a time to do all the things that distract me: typically email, phone calls, twitter, facebook, and blog. He recommends 3 – 4 pm, because that is usually a less productive time of day. I often get my best work done at that hour, so I may try this other approach: do them for 10 minutes at the end of each hour — but stick to that 10-minute limit!

Write shorter emails. Wow – what a concept! Limit myself to 3 – 4 sentences per email, which takes less time to write. Then, you tend to get shorter replies, which take less time to read and reply to. This may be a tough one for me, but so much better than taking 2 hours to answer one email, right? (Yes, true story)

Take breathing breaks. Every 15-20 minutes, get up from your desk, and take a breathing break. I’ll be honest: I hate this one. Once I’m in “the zone,” I don’t want to get out of it for something so trivial as breathing. And yet… taking a short stretch break helps reduce eye strain, cope with stress, prevent repetitive stress injuries (e.g. carpal tunnel), and may fix my lower back pain. I really must do this.

I saw this sign in the lobby of the place we take our dog for grooming. Had to laugh!

I get pretty excited about saving money, and thanks to the recent economic downturn, everyone else seems to be in the same boat. These tips will help your printer supplies last longer, which saves money and it’s good for the environment besides.

1. Print in Black and White. Just because you have a color printer doesn’t mean you have to use color every time. In fact, I find that most of what I print looks just fine in black only, which saves on color print cartridges. This is especially important if you have a combined color cartridge, in which you have to replace the whole thing as soon as one of the three colors runs out.
2. Switch to Fast Draft mode. I lower my printer quality to fast draft as a default, which uses less ink. The prints are noticeably lower quality, but still completely legible – I just have to remember to switch to a higher quality for print-outs for clients or Christmas letters, etc. As a bonus, the printing is a lot faster.
3. Narrow your margins. Sounds a little nit-picky, but if you regularly print long documents, this can save paper.
4. Don’t print it. How many times have you printed something when it really wasn’t necessary? You can proofread on your screen, save files in on-line archives instead of file drawers, print just the first page if you don’t need the rest, and use print preview to prevent avoidable re-printing.
5. Print selection. In most software, including web browsers, you can just print the portion of the page that you need, without having to print a bunch of extra pages. In Internet Explorer, select the text or images you want to print and type CTRL + P or choose File: Print. When the print dialog box appears, make sure to choose Selection in the Page Range section before you click Print.
6. Use both sides of the paper. Once you’ve used one side of the paper, you can just flip it over and print on the other side: Voila! Green printing… I usually keep this type of paper in a stack next to the printer. If you’re really committed, you can save junk mail from companies and print on the other side. Warning: This could drive your spouse nuts. My husband hates this because invariably he ends up with something private or confidential on the back of something he printed at home and then took to work. Whoops.
7. Use recycled, refilled, or remanufactured ink cartridges. Any of these will save money, but printer manufacturers say that this can cause problems with your printer. Whether true or not, in my experience, if you call tech support and you are using a recycled ink cartridge, they are likely to blame that without delving further into the issue. I also noted that about 1 out of every 5 recycled cartridges I tried wouldn’t work at all. So, I do not use either of these methods – I’m just listing it here so that you know the consequences.
8. Do cost comparisons Good, old-fashioned smart shopping works well – on the internet, just type the part number of your ink cartridge into Google, e.g. hp c8721w. Watch for sales and use coupons, buy in bulk if it’s a good price, look at Costco, etc. I typically find that Costco is the best, so you’re pretty safe choosing that if you don’t have the time to make detailed comparisons. Warning: don’t stock up too far in advance, because many ink cartridges stop working when they are past the expiration date. If this happens, you can try rolling back the date on your computer, but that’s obviously quite a hassle.

Mid-winter break is upon us here in Puget Sound, and I found myself ill-prepared to entertain my 4-year-old! Turns out that there are quite a few options, and I thought I’d share. Did I miss some good ones? Let me know in a comment!

• Arena Sports Soccer Camps: All day and half-day soccer camps for Lil’ Kickers (3 – 5 yrs) and older.
• Everett Skate Deck: Ah, the lost art of rollerskating! “Skate & Bounce” every Wednesday from 10:30 – 1:30 (under 7 yrs) and special events on February 15 – 16.
• Imagine Children’s Museum: Everett’s children’s museum is fun any time of year, but they have special events set up during winter break, such as hockey carpet skating, crafts, etc.
• Jump Planet: Play on huge selection of inflatables and bouncy houses. Drop in times for Pre-K on Monday – Friday mornings.
• Lynnwood Bowl & Skate: Skating and bowling in the same place? Say no more.
• Lynnwood Ice Center: Many public ice skating times, plus basic skating classes for ages 3 and up.
• The Museum of Flight: Did you know that the first Thursday of every month is free admission from 5 – 9 pm?
• Pony Paradise Rides: Summer Camps for ages 4 – 16, winter specials for lessons (all ages), and guided mini-trail or arena rides. (yee-haw!)
• Pump It Up: Another huge selection of inflatables and bouncy houses. Drop in times for Pre-K on Tuesdays – Thursdays, in Lynnwood and Kirkland.
• Taproot Theatre: Mid-winter break acting camps February 15 – 19, for ages 4 – 18, with a performance on that Friday. Is this like when my friends and I did a remake of Grease in the backyard and sold tickets to our neighbors and only our moms came? Probably far better…
• Vertical World: Indoor rockclimbing, including classes for ages 6 and up.

NOTE: For Seattle area and Michigan only.
If you like Qdoba, you’ll enjoy this offer. Here goes: from now through 2/14/2010 if you order online at qdoba.com for pickup, you can get an entree plus regular fountain drink for $5! This saves an average of $3 – $4 on every entree. We normally eat in the restaurant, and it will be cool to show up and have everything ready. We haven’t tried it yet, but will post back here when we do. Offer Details

Update

We have now ordered several times using Qdoba online ordering, and it’s pretty slick. I found the site to be a little slow, in spite of having a high-speed internet connection. However, we often order the same things, so once I save those items to my favorites on their site, it was very fast to order them the next time around. We have not yet had the experience of walking in and our order is ready and waiting, and only once was our order “lost” because their fax machine was off. Even then, they gave us the order anyway, even though I didn’t bring my printed receipt, until they were able to find the record of it. I think it works very well now, and I look forward to improvements as they refine their systems.

Title: Living with Kids and Dogs … without Losing Your Mind
Author: Colleen Pelar
Summary: Practical help for that moment when you realize that you can’t just let them “work it out.”

If you’ve ever had your dog do something to your child that scared you, or had your child do something to your dog that made you wonder about a cruel streak, or both, this book is for you. Paraphrasing the author, most dog books say, “control your kid!” and most parenting books say, “control your dog!” In reality, “good kids and good dogs can get in trouble because of miscommunication” – Fluffy may well be doing what she was bred to do, and Johnny is just being age-appropriate, but it’s our job as parents to form a relationship, and use management and training techniques to help these two mesh safely, and this book can tell you how. “Kids rarely try to bother the dog; they just act like kids.”

This book is laid out in a very parent-friendly way. She begins with an overview of this topic, and then has four chapters focusing on key topics: choosing the right dog, preventing bites, identifying serious behavior issues, and the equipment you need to make life easier. After that, she offers four chapters of age-appropriate tips for helping your kids to interact with your dog: babies and toddlers, preschoolers, elementary schoolers, and teens. Finally, she ends with a chapter about saying good-bye – a topic all pet owners dread, but she addresses it with compassion and honesty.

Finally, as a courtesy to tired parents, she ends each chapter with a short list of tips, just in case you don’t have the time to read the whole book, but need results now. All in all, this is a well-crafted tool, and you are bound to find some practical tips if you are seeing some friction between your kids and your pets.
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If you haven’t heard of pet insurance and/or you don’t have a pet, you may think it sounds crazy. I know I did! However, our veterinarian’s office had a brochure for VPI Pet Insurance, and after looking at the costs, we signed up for this when we first got our labradoodle, Abby. I am about to renew for the third time, as we have really found their services beneficial. They do not pay as high a percentage of overall costs as “people insurance,” but we have appreciated that we get some reimbursement for minor or routine things (shots, exams, etc.). Plus, we don’t have to worry so much when the unexpected injury comes up – for example, when our toddler threw a fast ball at Abby’s eye from about three feet away. VPI allows us to use any vet, so there was no problem when we had to take Abby to the emergency vet after that little fiasco.

When we first got the policy, some fellow pet owners were asking me if the reimbursements kept up with the policy costs, and I was wondering that myself, so I did a little comparison, and I thought I’d share it with you.

As you can see, we have never made our money back, but I also didn’t realize until 2008 that they covered flea medication and some other handy things (included with the preventative care rider). Costs vary by breed and age of the animal, but I have so far found the extra money (i.e. premium costs that we didn’t make back in reimbursement) to be well worth the peace of mind in the event that Abby has major medical issues at any point. If you should decide to get their insurance, make sure to tell them Krista Ehlers sent you… and I’ll try not to spend my $5 all in one place.

A friend just collected a bunch of goodies for her birthday, and there were a few which were new to me. Here is a list of my favorites, including the new ones from Katie (thank you!). They all offer freebies for your birthday – mostly just for signing up for their mailing list. Enjoy, and let me know if you have some to add! (happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…)

Alfy’s Pizza: Free mini pizza the month of your birthday
Baskin Robbins: Free scoop on your birthday
Cold Stone Creamery: Free “creation” on your birthday
Denny’s: Free kid’s meal for children under 10
Duke’s Chowder House: Register for frequent coupons, 2 free dinners, and a free dinner for your birthday.
Gordon Biersch: Free offer for your birthday (I think it was “buy one, get one free”)
Hollywood Video: Free rental on your birthday (valid for everyone on your account)
The Keg: Free prime rib dinner during your birthday month. (Fill in the form and check the bottom to receive special offers)
Old Spaghetti Factory: Free kid’s meal on their birthday
Qdoba: Get a free Qdoba card in their restaurant, then register it online. After every 10 meals, you get one free, and a free meal on your birthday, too. (TIP: My husband and I each keep a card registered, so we can both have birthday meals!)
Red Robin: Free burger on your birthday
The Ram: Join MVP club to get “buy one, get one free” coupon right away, then a free Mile High Mud Pie on your birthday
Starbucks: Free drink on your birthday. I have differing info on this: some say you have to have a gift card, register it, and put your birthday on there. Their site says you have to have a Gold Card. One person said you just tell them it’s your birthday. In any case, I added my b-day to the account profile on my existing card.

I got this recipe from a a great list of bread machine bread recipes, and we love it around here. The notes read that it’s pretty hot, but we find it to be mild – maybe this is because I used jalapenos from a jar. Makes fantastic grilled cheese sandwiches. Enjoy!

Jalapeno Cheese Bread

3/4 cup sour cream
1/8 cup water
1 egg
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated (4 oz.)
3 tablespoons fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped (about 4 peppers)
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Wow … hot stuff!! Serve this coarsely textured, very spicy bread at your next cocktail party and watch it disappear. It’s great with a glass of wine or a cold beer, but its perfect partner is a frosty margarita! Place all ingredients in bread pan, select a light crust setting, and press “start”. After the baking cycle ends, remove bread from pan, place on cake rack, and allow to cool 1 hour before slicing.