”How Do You Sign Wal Mart?”

American Sign Language Proper Nouns

Presenter: Barbara Lovas, ThD
RID CI/CT, NAD IV, LCD V

Come join us for a fun filled interactive workshop. We will learn commonly used signs for various states, cities, famous/infamous people, places, businesses, holidays, countries, and several international proper nouns via helpful memorization tools and interactive games. We are gonna’ learn ‘em all ... and have fun doing it!!!


DATE: December 6, 2008
TIME: 9am – 3pm
PLACE: CBBDC (downstairs – enter the door facing Hawthorne Pl. )
5324 Canal Blvd. , NOLA, 70124

Price -- $10.00 at the door


CEUs applied for

More info contact: bblovas1@yahoo.com

Kombucha Recipe

Here are my simple instructions for making kombucha. It is much more potent than what you can buy at a store. You will need to find a scoby. Join a kombucha Yahoo group or post your desire to find a scoby on a freecycle or your local health food store bulletin board. Most home kombucha makers are more than happy to share. Many have tried to make kombucha from store bought kombucha. To my knowledge, no one has ever been able to succesfully do it.

Most important thing to remember while making kombucha is that it must be made and handled in a very clean environment. Take off all jewelry. Scrub under your nails with a nail brush. Also make sure that no chlorine or chlorinated water comesds into contact with your kombucha or scoby at any time. Here's the instructions:

12 cups spring water/ 1 cup sugar/ 5 tea bags (bring spring water to boil, pour in 1 cup of white sugar and boil 5 mins, turn off heat and let 5 bags of organic black tea simmer for at least 10 mins. Let the tea/sugar/water cool down before adding ur scoby and kombucha tea to it.) Add your scoby in smooth side-up -- if it flips, no problem. They have a mind of their own. Don't freak out and take me literally!

1 cup of kombucha tea (if u forget to save kombucha from ur last batch you can use apple cider vinegar instead -- I don't know how much, I never used vinegar before. You can look that info up on the kombucha website if u need to use vinegar)

1 or one large mother (SCOBY)
and can add a baby SCOBY on top (both SCOBY should be smooth side up)

Put in a dark quite place for around 8 days. Temp. around 70 to 75 degrees. Taste to your liking. 6 days is too sweet and 10 days starts to taste more vinegary if you mess up and it is too vinegary for u to appreciate, u can add a juice, water it down, use it as table vinegar for your salads or for shampoo or antifungal -- I keep some in my bathroom for my hair. Add strawberries or herbs to your tea after the scoby has been removed (they call that the first fermenting) add your stuff and then let it soak a day or two in the fridge or out of fridge for a few hours (that is the second fermenting). Remember to burp ur bottles every once in a while to prevent them from blowing up:)

Here is Beverly's instructions http://users.bestweb.net/~om/kmi/. Her instructions are far more detailed than mine. She is one of the few individuals who is most knowledgable in kombucha making. She is a member of one of the groups that I am a member of. In fact, I suggest that if you are not a member of the Original Kombucha Yahoo Group, it would be very helpful for you to join. If you have any questions you can always ask her for help too.

Rice Sock Heating Pad

Instead of using an electric heating pad with dry heat, consider making your own heating pad with plain white rice and a white cotton sock.

First, you will need around 3 cups or so of plain white rice (NOTE: though I don't buy white rice to eat, I do use white rice to make my rice sock heating pad. A gigantic bag of white rice is very affordable. One bag will last you a year.)

Then, find a clean white cotton sock. I would suggest washing it well with a little soap and bleach, rinse it very very well. Another thing I would suggest is that you start saving all your odd mismatched cotton socks for such things as this in the future.

Fill your sock with between 2 to 3 cups of rice, according to your preference. Place it on a clean microwavable plate and heat it in a microwave on high for one minute. After one minute, take it out and turn it over and heat it another minute on high. A total of 2 minutes should be sufficient. If you want it warmer, you can add a few seconds at a time.

Wrap your rice sock heating pad in either a clean white cotton pillow case, towel or a recycled white t-shirt. This rice sock will stay warm for a very long time. It also produces a moist heat, instead of a harmful dry heat. It is safe enough to use with children. NOTE: If you use it for children, be careful not to make it too hot. Also, quickly knead the heated rice sock in your hands to evenly spread the heat before giving the sock to a child to use. This precaution will eliminate the danger of a child being burned by hot spots that might be hidden in one or more areas of the sock.

You can use the same sock indefinately. I use mine until the moisture is just about gone. After heating it up the first time, you will notice a smell simular to popcorn. As the moisture is taken out of the rice it will more and more resemble the smell of popcorn ... when it starts smelling more like burnt popcorn, it is time for a new rice sock.

HOW TO SPEED UP A SLOW COMPUTER

BEFORE YOU BEGIN: It is always best to backup your harddrive before you do any removing; though honestly I don't do it for this simple cleaning. It might be a good idea for you to make a backup for the first few times you clean, until you get used to it -- if you follow these instructions FOR SURE everything you delete will be safe. The backup is more to protect you if you accidentally delete the wrong thing unintentionally. This is a very SAFE cleaning! I do it at least every 3 months.

CONSERVE ENERGY -- THIS SPEEDS UP YOUR COMPUTER A LOT!

Go into CONTROL PANEL > System > Advanced > Performance
You probably have selected "Best for computer",
Change to "Best for performance"

Go into CONTROL PANEL > System > Advanced > Virtual Memory
Is probably set to 480 - 960
Change to twice your ram,
for example: my ram is 256, so 256 X 2 = 512
I set both my min 512 and max 512

Go to Control Panel > Fonts > Delete all fonts that you don't use -- this will give u lots of speed back!

NOTE: If you need to find out how much RAM you have, let me know and I will tell you how to find it.Also, If you don't use your time stamp, you can turn it off -- it will save more energy. I would be glad to tell you how to do that too. Just reply to this blog.

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QUICK / EASY CLEANING

START > Search > All files and folders > type in the box *.tmp then go to Edit at the top of the page > Select All > press Delete (on keyboard)
(if a pop-up says that you cannot delete a file(s) go ahead and highlight above that item(s) and delete manually. You can left click and drag across several together to group them and then click delete.)

START > Search > All files and folders > type in the box ~* then go to Edit at the top of the page > Select All > press Delete (on keyboard)

START > Computer > Local Disc C > Temp -- click on Temp to open > Select All > Delete

START > Computer > Local Disc C > Windows > Prefetch > click on Prefetch to open > Select All > Delete

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TO SPEED UP EVEN MORE -- GET RID OF FANCY SCREEN SAVERS:
Right click on Desktop empty area
PROPERTIES . Theme > Classic (select)

Screen Saver > none (apply)
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Last thing to do: which you should do regularly is go to:
INTERNET EXPLORER > top of the page click on TOOLS > Internet Options >
Delete COOKIES
Delete TEMPORARY FILES
Delete HISTORY
select OK or APPLY as directed to remove them all.

Shut down your computer and turn it back on -- it should be running much faster.
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(John's added a message for you)
Be sure you are ready to chase the computer when it runs faster, it will run off your desk and chase your cats and dog! Just kidding!!!