Mary Fioratti

No School on Friday or Monday

Mary — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:59:09 +0000

Weird. The kids already got a Spring Break. Now they still get 2 extra days off for “Easter” this weekend – a religious holiday that about half of the population does not observe, recognize nor celebrate other than a store bought basket of candy and maybe dinner on Sunday.

I guess its always nice to get a day off from school – unless you are a parent trying to support a family and can’t find day care for those 2 days.

When I was in school, Spring Break was tied to Easter. Now they just seem to throw days off from school around however it suits the School Board and to Hell with the parents.

Remember Simon and Garfunkel?

Mary — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 17:59:33 +0000

Did I even spell Garfunkel right? I think the actual spelling of their name involves an ampersand instead of the word “and” but I was told to not use ampersands in a blog title. So it’s probably not going to be right even if I did spell it right.

I loved this duo’s music when I was a teenager. It really spoke to me. My favorite song they did was called “Sounds of Silence.” I still remember every word to that song and it still means a lot to me.

Gummy Bears vs Fruit Snacks

Mary — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:43:17 +0000

When I was a kid, a new candy was introduced to the word. They called them Gummy Bears. It wasn’t long before this candy was a big hit and there was a surge of new competition. There were gummy coke bottles, gummy worms, and eventually they decided to make gummy vitamins to help convince the little kiddies to take their daily vitamins more readily.

Now they are selling gummy fruit snacks. Come on, people. Everyone knows these are just gummy bears make to look like fruit and packages as “healthy” instead of as “candy.” Gimme a break.

Lint Roller

Mary — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:31:40 +0000

I know I buy a new lint roller gadget every couple of months and it is supposed to be on the shelf by the bleach in my laundry room. But now that I want to use one and get all this dog hair off my pants, I can’t find a lint roller anywhere in the house.

I know that I haven’t thrown any away. So where the hell are they? This is maddening. I don’t have time to go to the store and buy one – I have to leave for my appointment and just needed to vent before I go. Worst case, I’ll tear off some duct tape and use that. But I really wish I had a lint roller to do the job – that’s what I bought them for.

Salads and More Salads

Mary — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:34:59 +0000

Its never too early to start thinking about beach wear and getting my body ready for a new bikini this summer. I have started my new diet so I can lose these extra Winter pounds that crept up on me. You don’t think that a big mug of hot chocolate with melting marshmallows every night has anything to do with that?

So I have decided to stop with the hot chocolate and switch to herbal tea at night. And I am eating salads for lunch at least three days each week. I have found a couple of places that make several kinds of salads for under $5, which is a good price for lunch out.

Fake Commercials

Mary — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:38:26 +0000

Do you ever notice that a lot of TV commercials are so totally fake that the scenes they depict are laughable? Like the one where a girl in a big city, like New York City, comes walking home from work and finds a package left on her front step. She opens it up and find a new Kindle or tablet or some kind of electronics in the box.

Do you REALLY think that people in New York City come home and find packages contained electronics waiting for them on their door step. No way! I know what it is like on the street of the city. Those packages would be snatched up and stolen within minutes of being dropped off. The brazen thieves would open the box right on the door step, take the Kindle out of the box, stuff it in his backpack and leave the empty box on the sidewalk as he rides off on his Schwinn.

Clearing Your Cache

Mary — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:12:04 +0000

Years ago when I was working with computers, people used to tell me that once in a while I need to clear my computer cache and run a defrag program on my hard drive. There was an easy way to do that, but I actually forgot how to do it. I think I had been told later that it was no longer necessary because Windows had built in those processes. But I might be wrong about that. But I quit doing it and now I have no idea how to do it.

I had to call tech support last night about my web site and he told me the changes we made over the phone were not showing up because my browser must be using an old cached version of the site. So I told him I had not heard that term in a long time and he laughed. He told me how to clear the cache in my browser Tools tab. It was really hard to find it, but eventually I did find it and clicked on all the right buttons to make it happen.

But I wonder if I’m supposed to be doing this on a regular basis? And what about that defrag program? Am I supposed to be doing that, too? I wish I knew an IT guy who would explain all of this to me.

From Movies to TV Series

Mary — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:34:21 +0000

Holly wood sure does love to exploit a winner. They take what seems to work someplace and duplicate, twist it or rework it to get every last dime out of a show. Lately L.A. has been raiding British shows and trying to put an American spin on them. some of those shows never make it to the major networks but they are popping up on the cable channels. I need to look into more of these reworks and see what is original and what is a spin off – or a rip off.

After Christmas Clearance Bargains

Mary — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:25:11 +0000

Heading out to the stores this morning. I want to pick up some Christmas clearance items, like wrapping paper and gift tags. If they have any cute Christmas tree decorations, I might get a few of those. Its nice to pay 20 cents on the dollar for things that are definitely going to be put to use. I just have to front the money now and be willing to store the items for 11 months. So, hope the crowds are too bad and I can score some good deals.

May Your Christmas Be Merry and Bright

Mary — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:20:52 +0000

Years of hearing Christmas carols and piped in Christmas music while shopping have left me a little numb about music this time of year. I just realized that I don’t even the know the words of most carols well enough to get up with a karaoke microphone and do a decent job of singing any of them. How did that happen? You hear them year after year, but you never really listen to the words and try to sing them on your own. Maybe I should learn at least one or two carols – keep them in my pocket until I need them.