I'm a Seattle native currently living across the water in Manchester (near Port Orchard). I telecommute from home working on Lasso and related products. My employer is OmniPilot Software from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I have lived in Washington, California, Colorado, Idaho, and Massachussetts.
If you have a discount theater in your area be sure that you check its schedule. They usually carry all the big movies, just a couple weeks after the regular theaters carry them. If you get into the habit of watching movies when they play there then you can see all the movies that everyone talks about, but for a lot less money. It is a great way to catch up on movies that you'd like to see on the big screen, but missed the first time around.
Some movie chains like Regal also offer free movies for families on a weekday during the Summer. Regal calls it the Free Family Film Festival. At a theatre near my house they are showing a free movie each Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 a.m. Upcoming movies include Shrek the Third, Bee Movie, TMNT, Water Horse, Wallace and Gromit, Veggie Tales, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Fantastic 4, Surf's Up, and more.
I've been using Macs since the mid-eighties and currently use a Mac for all my day to day work. In my opinion, there has never been a better time to get into Macs.
Macs cost about the same as comparable PCs. You can buy cheaper PCs, but if you compare equal features the Macs come out about even. Macs are often smaller, have fewer cables, and use a bit less power than a comparable PC.
Macs comes with a nice suite of software. The email and Web browser are good. The built-in multimedia applications make it possible to create your own music, videos, Web sites, and to manage your photos and downloaded music and other media. The most recent Mac operating system has nice built-in search and backup features.
All Macs now have Intel chips inside. This means that every Mac is actually a PC as well. You can install Windows on your Mac or you can use virtualization software like Parallels which lets you run Windows alongside your Mac applications.
The biggest advantage of the Mac I've found over the years is that a lot of things just work. In general when I plug in a printer, a DVD recorder, external hard drives, video cameras, digital cameras, iPods, keyboards, mice, etc. the Mac recognizes them automatically. This means that I don't spend a lot of time messing around with configuration. ... View related article.
I lived in Boston for many years. I'd say it is a bit more expensive than San Diego, but shouldn't be too bad. Boston is a great place to go if you are interested in history, museums, or schools. There is plenty of great shopping and there are lots of regional attractions as well.
The Freedom Trail in downtown Boston is a good place to start. It walks you past the Boston Commons, public gardens, cemeteries and churches from revolutionary times, and the site of the Boston Massacre. The area around the trail includes some of Boston's best shopping opportunities including Downtown Crossing, Fanieul Hall, and Quincy Market. From the public gardens you can walk down Newbury Street (a street with many funky shops) to Copley Square at the base of the Prudential building where Trinity Church sits opposite the main branch of the Boston Public Library.
Boston is home to several great museums including the Museum of Fine Arts (which can eat up an entire day by itself), the Gardener Museum, the Science Museum, and many museums at the various colleges. if you head over into Cambridge you can visit the campus of M.I.T. The M.i.T. museum is small, but has a great collection of holograms (and slide rules). Further up Mass. Ave. you'll find Harvard Square, both a great shopping destination and a great place place to see the historic campus. Boston University is located back over in Boston and is right near the big Citgo sign and Fenway Park.
It's easy to get around Boston on the T. The subway can take you to most of the places I've mentioned. I think you can buy a 3 or 7 day visitor pass so you can ride the subway as much as you want during your visit. It's also great to walk down near the Charles River and over all the bridges.
If you rent a car you can drive out to Lexington and Concorde to see Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Walden Pond. Salem is just up North and Plymouth is just to the South. Further out you can go to Cape Cod, Nantucket, or Martha's Vineyard. The states are really small compared to those in the West so you can also take day trips to Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Connecticut. ... View related article.
The rule of thumb is 2 tablespoons of coffee per 6 ounce "cup" of coffee. You should need 60 tablespoons or 3.75 cups of coffee for an entire pot. ... View related article.
I thought this was a very interesting question so did some research about it.
It appears that cobwebs are a form of spider web. A cobweb is basically a disorganized spider web. Some spiders like house spiders and black widows actually spin cobwebs. Other cobwebs are formed from stray spider lines left behind by spiders which descend from the ceiling or by jumping spiders. They may also be formed when spider eggs are sent adrift using webbing as a kind of parasail. And, cobwebs might also be formed when you clean webs out of other places in your house and some of the web material gets set adrift, collecting naturally in the corners.
To answer the original question you can get rid of cobwebs by cleaning regularly. You only see cobwebs because they are covered with dust. If you've walked through spider webs in your garage or in the forest before you know that they are usually nearly invisible. Dust the upper corners of your rooms periodically whether they appear to have cobwebs or not. This will help get rid of any nearly invisible webs that are forming up there, before they get covered with dust.
I had this happen to some swim trunks recently. I spent the better part of a couple hours working the cord back in. It was slow going, but I worked on it while watching TV so it wasn't too tedious.
In my case, the cord came out when I washed the trunks. I think the spin cycle in the washer did it in. I'd recommend either hand washing swim trunks, putting them in one of those mesh bags for delicates, or tieing the cord before you wash them so there is no end to snag. ... View related article.
I've been working on weeding our front yard for the last couple weeks. It's been hard work, but it's also been nice to spend some time in the yard. I'm using a hand dandelion weeder, getting the root sometimes, but sometimes really just cutting the weed down to the ground.
Our neighbor periodically sprays round-up on the dandelions in his lawn. It not only kills the dandelion, but all the grass in a circle about a foot wide. If it rains there can also be a trail of dead grass leading downslope from the area. Some of these run right into our yard!
Half and half can usually be substituted with "Light Cream", "Coffee Cream", or "Table Cream". When I lived in Massachusetts I usually bought light cream for my coffee and it seemed like about the same thing as half and half. ... View related article.
The Aerobie is different from a french press, but is a similar principle.
A french press is a method of brewing coffee. The grounds are placed into the french press, allowed to steep, and then the grounds are filtered out using the press.
The Aerobie is used to make espresso shots. The grounds and water are placed in the Aerobie and then the water is forced through the grounds under pressure. It is this pressure which distinguishes espresso from drip coffee.
I like the Aerobie because it has the simplicity of a french press, but allows me to make espresso shots so I can make lattes or americanos at home.
The milk frother is also similar to a french press. It has a plunger which is moved up and down through hot milk quickly. The result is nicely foamed milk. ... View related article.
