A simple landscape tip that can save money and energy inside the home is to plant trees around your home that can shade your home from the heat of the sun and create a wind block. Summer or winter, evergreen trees can offer savings to the home owner, and deciduous trees can offer summer shade.

If you can set timers on your lights, lights won’t be on at times when they’re not necessary. Motion detectors that shut off and compact florescent bulbs are also big energy savers. Another way to save on lighting in the home is to open the curtains and lift the shades. Natural light is free.

Just as you can open curtains for light, you can close them to cut out heat. In hot months, keeping the heat of the sun’s rays out of your home saves power with your air conditioner or with fans. This saves energy and saves money.

Consider the use of weather stripping around doors and windows to get rid of drafts. Also consider insulating attics, walls, basements, and floors. The energy savings will be big and in the end, it saves money.

Oscar

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In your bathroom, consider a low-flow shower head to reduce the amount of water it takes for showers. In addition, if you switch to taking more showers and fewer baths, you can also save water and save money.

Remember when folks used to put a brick in the toilet tank to conserve water with each flush? Well here’s a different take on that. Instead, fill a water bottle full of water and place it in the toilet tank. This simple trick can save gallons of water over the course of a year, saving you money and conserving a natural resource.

Here’s a practical suggestion. Fix those drippy faucets. Those little water drips may not seem like much water, but added up over a week, a month, or a year, those little drips can amount to major gallons of water wasted. Fixing drippy faucets saves money and energy.

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Even if you don’t have an infant in the house anymore, keep a small package of cheap disposable diapers handy. If you have a spill on your upholstered furniture or the carpet, take a disposable diaper and place over the liquid. Apply firm pressure and you will be amazed how the diaper will suck up nearly all of the liquid and trap it in short order. Also, the filling from a disposable diaper can be taken out and mixed with potting soil when growing plants. The absorbent cotton and granules of the diaper will retain water and release it as the plant requires.

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Do you have oily skin and like using the little oil absorbing papers you can buy at the drugstore? If so, you know the price of those little packages can be pretty expensive. The next time you are in a public restroom, stick a couple of the paper toilet covers in your purse. When you get home, cut them up in small squares and you will have free oil absorbing papers. They work just as effectively as the high priced ones at the cosmetics counter and can be made in whatever sizes you need.

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Use hydrogen peroxide instead of bleach in your laundry. It is safe for colored items and works like magic. It is not damaging to septic systems like bleach, either.

The first one is short so here’s another:

Want to lower the fat content of your ground beef? After browning it in the skillet, wad up about four paper towels and place them in the skillet. Use your spatula to dab up all of the grease from the ground beef and then discard the greasy paper towels. You won’t loose any ground beef
this way while attempting to strain it and won’t be left with grease to dispose of.

Oscar

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Every household needs to keep Band-Aid Brand Liquid Band-Aid in their medicine cabinet. Have you ever heard of Dermabond that they use at the ER when you cut yourself? You know, the glue that they use to mend cuts instead of stitching them? Guess what? Liquid Band-Aid is the same thing as Dermabond! It’s even made by the same company. So save yourself a trip to the hospital, drama, and money and do it at home. Simply clean the cut with an antiseptic and after the bleeding has slowed down, glue it together. It’s easy and leaves little scarring.

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Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are not only good for removing marks and writing from surfaces; they work amazingly in the bathtub! With little effort, you can remove every trace of soap scum and buildup without using harsh chemicals and cleaners. Simply wet the tub down and wipe it down with the eraser and rinse! And you don’t even have to buy the name brand ones; give the ones at the dollar stores a try! They will give you the same results for less.

Oscar

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Spoilers are located starting in the middle, I’ll warn you.
Though I will NOT reveal the ending.

Hello everyone! Just got back from the premiere. You have no idea how exciting it was to be able to walk on the red carpet going into the theater. Especially the looks of the fans who couldn’t pass the barricades. Teresa and I decided to leave early and had some trouble with a bit of traffic but arrived at 6:36 pm. Right on schedule. Will call opened at 6:30 so we could pick up the tickets.
We arrived at Will Call after getting free parking at the UCLA parking lot to find a really long line to get the tickets. The line moved quickly however but still long enough to actually get out tickets at around 7:20. The Universal Studios employee greeted us and gave us our ticket. Then we posed in front of the theater for some photo’s that should appear on the Universal Studio page soon. I’m not sure which one though as they have a few of them. I’ll find out and add a comment below.

Then we crossed the street into the red carpet entrance of the theater. We found out door entrance on the left and picked up some free Popcorn and Soda. We took a seat in the oh so comfortable chairs and waited. I pulled out my Blackberry and took some hidden pictures as pictures were not allowed. Teresa was nice enough to get me another soda and we waited a bit more.

Then the curtain rose and showed us the screen. The Universal Studios theme song and logo appeared and the movie started.

Now let’s talk about the movie.

STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT A LITTLE BIT OF SPOILERS. I DON”T REVEAL THE ENDING THOUGH.

The entrance was interesting as we met our main character Burke (played by Aaron Eckhart). His job is a best-selling self-help guru who copes with the loss of his wife by helping others. Through our adventure we learn about the pain he feels and how other people ask for his help to cope with their losses. The worst case was probably about a man who lost his son in a construction accident. He felt so bad that it eventually led to his divorce and loss of career. I was touched with the scenes of him explaining the tragic story and how he felt.

We also learn about Eloise (played by Jennifer Aniston). She accidentally bumps into Burke and off starts a romantic interest. Lots of humor mixed into the story created a fun time watching the film. The story line was pretty good but you had to remember that this story was about Burke and NOT Eloise. It had a great ending that surprised everyone and left you feeling horrible for our main character but I won’t mention what it is.

The only thing I worry about is that I think that if Jennifer Aniston wasn’t in this film it wouldn’t get a chance at the Box Office. This isn’t a 10 point movie but I gave it a 7 because of the story. I also felt that some parts of the film moved to quickly, especially getting the first date together.

Overall it was a decent movie with touching moments and parts that made your eyes water, not because of the romance but because of the death themes. I was surprised at how close this was to become a dark film because of the amount of death involved but they had a pretty good mix of comedy in it as well. My rating: 8/10

P.S. They could have made the poster better. Teresa made me realize this. I actually discovered something interesting:

Revolutionary Road (01/23/09) Poster:
http://pacejmiller.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/revolutionary-road.jpg

Love Happens (9/18/09) Poster:
http://www.yourmoviestuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/love-happens_290.jpg

Look similar? I thought so. Personally I agreed with Teresa that this poster would have made more sense with just his picture of with the picture of his book. However, they probably added her because, well, she’s a star! =)

If you see it let me know what you thought of the film!

Until next time!

Oscar

Movie Streaming Beta Test

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