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| We are going to buy you guys chat room. |
| The Beach |
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50% |
[ 65 ] |
| The Desert |
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14% |
[ 18 ] |
| The Field |
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35% |
[ 45 ] |
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| Total Votes : 128 |
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 Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 5:35 pm
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:10 pm
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:52 am
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 Spooky Witches Fingers
Ingridients:
♦ 1 Cup butter, softened
♦ 1 Cup confectioners' sugar
♦ 1 egg
♦ 1 tsp vanilla extract
♦ (2) 2/3 Cup all purpose flour
♦ 1 tsp baking powder
♦ 1 tsp salt
♦ 3/4 Cup whole almonds
♦ 1 (.75) tube red decorating gelDirections
♠ Combine the butter, sugar, egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl; beat together with an electric mixer. Gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt, continually beating; refrigerate 20-30 mins.
♠ Meanwhile preheat oven to 325 degrees F and lightly grease baking sheets.
♠ Remove dough from fridge in small amounts. Scoop 1 heaping teaspoon at a time onto a piece of wax paper. Use the wax paper or well washed hands to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie.
♠ Press one almond into one end of each cookie this gives the appearance of a long fingernail. Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles.
• Quick Tip: You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the squeezed points to help make it more realistic.
♠ Arrange the shaped cookies on the baking sheets, space well since the cookies will enlarge quite a bit, about twice their normal size.
♠ Bake cookies until golden brown, about 20-25mins.
♠ Take out of oven and remove the almond from each cookie. Squeeze a small amount of the red decorating gel into the cavity. Replace the almond and press slightly, this causes the gel to ooze out around it creating a gory effect.
• Quick Tips: When you take the cookies out of the oven you can add chocolate chips to them to create "warts", this gives a nice effect and adds some flavor.
• Want even more gore? Dip the other ends of the cookies in strawberry or raspberry jam or add more red gel to the ends to make it look like the fingers were pulled out.Prep Time: 35min Cooking Time: 20-25min Yield: About 60 depending on cookie size May your Halloween be tasty, scary, and fun. Enjoy! |
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:30 pm
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I've chosen a cooking guild to spotlight:
The Guild of Vegans and Vegetarians
The guild hasn't been very active as of late but with this spotlight, they hope to gain more members and activity. Ailinea is a Vice Captain and also the leader of the guild, in charge of 1,183 members. The guild was created in January of 2006 from a branch of a previous guild that "died." The guild is designed to help both new and old Gaians learn about vegetarianism and veganism considering there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about them.
A lot of people have a hard time going vegan/vegetarian because they think they'll be missing out on key vitamins and minerals or because they believe the diets to be bland and boring. But according to Ailinea you actually don't need as much protein as an "anti-veggie" and you get most of your vitamins and minerals from fruits and veggies. And from looking at some of the recipes listed, that seems to be the exact case. Who wouldn't want to try Un-fish Fish Filets or Chunky Veggie Chili? The recipes are healthier and just as good as normal recipes with meat/fish (sometimes even better.)
There's a challenge to this type of cooking. Most people try to create their own recipes, add ingridients, and find ways to cook and use them that we normally wouldn't do. It inspires creativity. Vegan/vegetarian cooking is both easy and more challenging than cooking with normal ingridients such as meat and fish. The main challenge is to impress non-veggies. For example, there's always a mission to make tofu amazing and desserts are a big genre of recipes that vegans/vegetarians love.
Myths of being a vegan/vegetarian: Many people think that vegetarians/vegans are unhealthy, skinny, or sickly. For some, that is true, but with the right diet you feel fit, energetic, and healthy. They don't have to take a bunch of supplements either to make up for meat.
So if you are vegan/vegetarian or if you just want to eat healthier visit the Guild of Vegans and Vegetarians to check out recipes, share tips, and meet some interesting, fun people.
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 1:06 pm
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The Female Brain
We change ...and we change....and we change...and....
A female changes every day based on her cycle.
Affecting up to 80 percent of women, PMS is a familiar scapegoat. But women are affected by their cycles every day of the month. Hormone levels are constantly changing in a woman's brain and body, changing her outlook, energy and sensitivity along with them.
About 10 days after the onset of menstruation, right before ovulation, women often feel sassier, Brizendine told LiveScience. Unconsciously, they dress sexier as surges in estrogen and testosterone prompt them to look for sexual opportunities during this particularly fertile period.
A week later, there is a rise in progesterone, the hormone that mimics valium, making women "feel like cuddling up with a hot cup of tea and a good book," Brizendine said. The following week, progesterone withdrawal can make women weepy and easily irritated. "We call it crying over dog commercials crying," Brizendine said.
For most women, their mood reaches its worst 12-24 hours before their period starts. "It is not entirely an issue of free will," Brizendine stressed.
Do women have ESP....O_O?...well kinda....
Men can have the uncomfortable feeling that women are mind readers or psychics, Brizendine said. But women's intuition is likely more biological than mystical.
Over the course of evolution, women may have been selected for their ability to keep young preverbal humans alive, which involves deducing what an infant or child needs — warmth, food, discipline — without it being directly communicated. This is one explanation for why women consistently score higher than men on tests that require reading nonverbal cues. Women not only are better at remembering the physical appearances of others but also more correctly identify the unspoken messages conveyed in facial expressions, postures and tones of voice, studies show.
This skill, however, is not limited to childrearing. Women often use it tell what bosses, husbands and even strangers are thinking and planning.
Ceeeepy!
When she says she can't stand it....she means it..
Women may also have evolved extra-sensitivity to interpersonal cues as a way to avoid conflict, a state that can feel intolerable to women, according to Brizendine. The flood of chemicals that takes over the female brain during a conflict -- especially within an intimate relationship — is almost on the same order as a seizure, she explains.
Women lose sexual arousal easily
"A women's sex drive is much more easily upset than a guy's," Brizendine said.
For women to get in the mood, and especially to have an orgasm, certain areas of her brain have to shut off. And any number of things can turn them back on.
A woman may refuse a man's advances because she is angry, feeling distrustful -- or even, because her feet are chilly, studies show. Pregnancy, caring for small children and menopause can also take a toll on a woman's sex drive (although some women experience a renewed interest in sex after The Change.)
Best advice for a man looking for a little love. Plan ahead.
My Brain shrunk what happened?! You got pregnant!
Progesterone increases 30-fold in the first eight weeks of pregnancy, causing most women to become very sedated, Brizendine said. "Progesterone is a great sleeping pill."
A woman's brain also shrinks during pregnancy, becoming about 4-percent smaller by the time she delivers, according to a 2002 study published in the American Journal of Neuroradiology. (Don't worry; it returns to normal size by six months after delivery.)
Whether pregnancy causes women to think differently is controversial -- one recent study linked memory problems to pregnancy hormones -- but some researchers have suggested the changes prepare brain circuits that guide maternal behavior.
These circuits likely continue to develop after birth. Handling a baby releases maternal hormones, even among females who have never been pregnant, found researchers at Tufts University. While measured in rats, the finding offers a chemical understanding of the bonding that can occur among foster moms and children.
The study was published in the journal Developmental Psychobiology in 2004.
Once more with feeling
No one wants to go through adolescence again. Its physical changes and hormonal fluctuations not only create mood swings and physical discomfort but nagging questions about self-identity as well.
Women, however, lucky girls, get to do just that. They go through a "second adolescence" called perimenopause in their 40s. It starts around age 43 and reaches its pinnacle by 47 or 48 years old. (Men's hormones also change as they age, but not nearly as abruptly.) In addition to erratic periods and night sweats, a woman's hormones during this transition are so crazed she can be as moody as a teenager.
The duration of perimenopause varies from two to nine years, with most women leaving it behind by age 52.
This information and much more can be found at Live Science
Knowledge is power!
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 12:25 pm
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Gardening isn’t just for spring and summer. Autumn can be a great time to spruce up the gardens with fall friendly flowers that give great scent and color to the landscape. Some of these are mums, asters, and even daisies. Mums are a particular favorite of mine as they smell divine and come in a variety of colors. Autumn is also a good time to plant roses since it is cool enough that they can take root without burning easily like in summer, yet still plenty of time before big frosts to let them take hold.
Autumn is also a perfect time to make a lot of your spring work vanish by prepping early. Take this season to plant your bulbs for spring like daffodils and tulips as well as annual seeds for flowering. They will flower even better in the spring than if you just put down plants in the spring.
The only real things to watch out for when planting your spring bulbs in fall is repeat freeze/thaws and squirrels. Just check to make sure the freeze and thaws haven't wiggled your bulbs up. In case this happens, just push them back down and put a bit more soil on top. Now, squirrels are another matter. An easy fix is to sprinkle the bed with pepper flakes. Those little buggers will stay away from your bulbs no problem,and so will the zombies.
Is your grass threadbare? Did the hot summer sun burn your lawn and give you those not so fun brown patches? Autumn is the answer. This is the time of year to lay down grass seeds and feed. It will start to grow now and once winter comes, the roots will go deeper than earlier seeding and give you a richer fuller garden next spring.
As any gardener knows, mulch and fertilizer is important, and with all those zombie parts you've got to have extra. To keep your already established plants growing strong and blooming again in the fall then don’t forget to feed them. As plants grow they use the nutrients in the soil so it is important to replace this by adding mulch and fresh soil to the ground and churning it in. Just remember to leave a few inches bare around the stalk of the plant to prevent those nutrients from yellowing your leaves or burning the stalks.
Fall is an important time for any serious gardener, but its also a great time for a novice to show off an impressive bed. So grab a spade and dig in.
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:04 pm
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 Does your zombie smell less than fresh? Have the other vampires accused you of rolling in the Reinfield pen? Did the local werewolves say you needed a flee dip? Why not try some easy homemade perfume that YOU tailor made for yourself? Its super easy. All you need is some vodka, distilled water and the essential oils of your choice.
Perfume is made up of alcohol, water & perfume (fragrance) oil. It is a word that comes from Latin per fumum, which means "through smoke".
There are 3 major types: oriental, floral & chypre (means "very sincere" in French).
Scented ingredients used in perfume recipes include ginger, grapefruit, musk, peppercorns, mandarin peel, fig leaves, rose, watercress, bamboo, clementine, vanilla, honeysuckle, green tea & the list goes on.
o Acquire the needed ingredients for the homemade perfume. You'll need four tablespoons of vodka (or ethyl alcohol), two cups of distilled water, and the fragrant or essential oils of your choice. You only need a few drops of each oil (up to ten drops) and the more oils you have the more complex the fragrance. Just be sure to complement the scents and not muddy it with too many.
o Find a dark, airtight bottle. For the purpose of making homemade perfume, a glass bottle will work best. Make sure it has a secure lid.
o Fill your bottle with the distilled water. Then add in the alcohol, the essential oil. Shake the bottle gently until all the contents fully mix. The order in which you mix in the contents doesn't matter.
o Store the bottle in a cool, dry place for 48 hours. Avoid letting sunlight get in contact with the bottle. Once the 48 hours are up, again gently shake the bottle. Use a small dab to test out your new perfume. If you are satisfied, use it as you would any other type of perfume. If you are not satisfied, you can make another batch and adjust the level of essential oils until you get it just so.
Voila, homemade perfume. Its just that easy. Here are a few ready-made recipies to try if you need inspiration.
Moonlight Perfume
The moonlight and twinkling stars will just lull you off to a most peaceful sleep. The perfect scent to create lasting memories. You will want to make this perfume again and again.
2 to 3 cups of distilled water
3 to 4 tablespoon full of vodka
5 to 6 drops of lavender oil
9 to 10 drops of chamomile oil
Falling Stars Perfume Recipe
2 cups distilled water
3 tablespoons vodka
5 drops lavender essential/fragrance oil
10 drops chamomile essential/fragrance oil
10 drops valerian essential oil
extra fine body glitter (optional)
For added effect, add a bit of extra fine body glitter to your oil mix last.
Soothing Summer Body Spray
Body spray is easy too. For those of you who prefer the body spray to the perfume here is a great recipe just for you.
It turns out that making your own body spray is really easy!
1 tablespoon witch hazel
1 teaspoon lemon essential oil (or fresh peelings)
1 teaspoon cucumber essential oil (or fresh peelings)
1 cup water
Mix all the ingredients together, shake well. Place soothing summer body spray in a spray bottle. Then allow the perfume to settle for at least 12 hours. For a refreshing cool feeling, store in fridge during hot summer weather.
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Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 7:02 pm
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Reply
If you see this guy telling you to talk to the hand. 
