Category Archives: Personal stories

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Another Life Hack from Alyson: Ways to use lemon juice around the house

Sweet, sugary Brach's lemon drops. Made with r...

Sweet, sugary Brach’s lemon drops. Made with real lemon juice! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ok, I originally drafted this for a client but they didn’t use it so maybe some of these tips can help you. I personally think lemon juice is amazing.

Get rid of nasty, baked on grime in your microwave with water and lemon juice. Put a cup of water with a half a cup of lemon juice in a bowl. Microwave this on high for 30 seconds. Remove the bowl (be careful, it will be hot) and wipe down the inside of your microwave with a clean and damp cloth. Your microwave oven will sparkle and smell great.

Keep a lemon with salt in your refrigerator. Cut a lemon in half and remove the flesh. Fill the empty space with salt. Place in the back of your refrigerator to keep it smelling nice and fresh.

Mix lemon juice, water and white vinegar to make a great surface cleaner. Mix one part water with one part vinegar and then as much lemon juice as you want. This is a safe and chemical free cleaner that you can use to cut through dirt and grime all over your home. The combination of white vinegar and lemon juice can be a powerful cleaner for dishes. The grease won’t stand a chance with this mixture.

Polish wood with olive oil and lemon juice. Mix the juice from one lemon and about a quarter cup of olive oil. This can be used on your wooden floors and furniture to get the shine and clean look you want without using harsh chemicals.

Please let me know what you think.  Thanks!

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After spending most of my day with my head up my butt…

Well, not really but I was accused of that this morning after I posted a column I wrote about Hillary Clinton for Firebrand Left. My general thesis is that if you like Hillary Clinton, you don’t care what the transcripts of her speeches say and if you do not like her, nothing in those speeches will change your mind. I stand by this. But it led some people on Facebook to get really pissy.

If you would like to see the exchange, please check it out here. You can read my original column about the transcripts here. I wrote a follow up piece about how Hillary and Bernie supporters need to treat each other better here.

Now, you may know that Susan Sarandon endorsed Bernie Sanders. While I think that’s great for him, I have to take issue to part of her endorsement speech. She claimed that one reason she is supporting him because she doesn’t “vote with (her) vagina.” Well, that’s good for her, I guess.

Now, I cannot get that out of my head. For instance, I wanted to watch the Superbowl but my pushy vagina wanted to watch some feminist clap trap on PBS so that’s what I watched. I had to miss the puppy, baby, monkey commercial. Dang, my vagina is so annoying sometimes.

Anyway, please check out my links and let me know what you think.

 

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Life hack from Alyson: What to do with cat litter in your toilet

I still miss Hobbes and Cheddar.

I still miss Hobbes and Cheddar.

If you have a cat (or more than one cat), the chances are that you have litter at least one litter box (one good ‘rule of thumb‘ for these is to have 1.5 boxes for each of your feline friends). Most people I know use clumping litter. If you know how it works, it may make little sense to dump your litter down the toilet. The reason for this is simple; litter turns into concrete when it comes in contact with water.

This actually happened to me so this is a good way to deal with litter in the toilet.

I went away for a business trip and when I got home I learned that the person taking care of my cats, Hobbes and Cheddar, thought a time saving thing would be to pour their litter down the toilet. When I walked in, several days later, this had turned into concrete and my toilet was completely blocked. Or so it seemed. I called several plumbers and got estimates. The bottom line was that it looked like this was going to cost several thousand dollars. OUCH!!!’

Well, that sucked so I went online and looked for DIY solutions. I found one. It suggested using liquid Joy (lemon). I spent the next six hours pouring the dish soap into the toilet with warm (not hot) water, plunging, waiting about 30 minutes and then repeated it about every 30-60 minutes until the toilet was completely clear.

Steps:

  1. Buy lemon dish soap
  2. Add soap and warm water to toilet
  3. Let sit for a few minutes
  4. Plunge for a few minutes
  5. Add more lemon soap and water, let sit
  6. Repeat until drain is clear

I cannot promise this will work for you but it worked for me.

 

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No one who runs for office in the United States is “un-American”

 

This is the tattoo I have above my left butt cheek. It is the donkey from the DNC.

This is the tattoo I have above my left butt cheek. It is the donkey from the DNC.

I recently posted a comment on my Facebook wall about how I have friends who like Bernie

Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio Donald Trump, Ted Cruz… basically, I have friends who like all of the candidates. If you know anything about me, you should know that I do not have any kind of ideological requirement for my friends.

My point of the post — other than to say I am supporting Hillary Clinton — was to ask people to start treating each other better. I mean, I am going to vote for whichever Democrat gets the nomination but we should be at least civil to each other during the primary process. Continue reading →

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My daily fight with myself

Whenever I approach a writing project, it goes like this:

This is Susie Salmon.

This is Susie Salmon.

  1. Pitch my ability to do the job.
  2. Get the job.
  3. Start work on the job.
  4. Stress process begins — I can’t do this job, why did I think I could do this? I am never going to get this right. Maybe I should call and quit.
  5. Do the job.

The only thing I really know anything about is politics. The only thing I know I do well is write (I am also good at event planning and media relations but writing is really my thing).

I am posting these photos because one is of Saoirse Ronan at 13 looks a little like me at 13.

A photo I found of myself from my youth. See? I wasn't always a thousand years old.

A photo I found of myself from my youth. See? I wasn’t always a thousand years old.