Midnight Sweethearts

By Rhett Downs

 So you’ve decked the house out in creepy accessories, and picked out the perfect costume. The candy is ready to go for the trick-or-treaters and the music for your Halloween party is downloading into your MP3 player. What else could you possibly do for the holiday? Why not come up with some fun Halloween items for lunch or dinner? Here are some fun ideas to get your creative juices flowing while you are planning your menus.

Ghost sandwiches

The best way to make these is with all white ingredients - think of things like turkey, swiss cheese, white bread, miracle whip, etc. Make the sandwich like you normally would, and then use a large, ghost-shaped cookie cutter to cut it into a ghost shape or cut the sandwich with a knife. You could even use a small amount of ketchup or other condiment to draw eyes and a mouth on your ghost.

Bat and Cat cookies

The easiest way to do these is to buy a tube of your favorite sugar cookie dough from your local store. Roll out the dough, and use a cookie cutter to cut them into bat and cat shapes. Bake the cookies like you would normally. While the cookies are baking, melt some dark chocolate. When the cookies are cooled, brush the chocolate over the top to create “black” cats and bats. If you are feeling very creative, consider using red or green candies or sprinkles to give your animals creepy looking eyes. Allow the chocolate to harden, and keep cookies in a cool place to prevent them from melting.

Pumpkin Wraps

Take a tortilla and spread it with your favorite orange ingredients - pimento or cheddar cheese, slices of ham, orange peppers, etc. all work well. Roll the tortilla tightly to create a wrap, and then cut into half inch slices (you may need to use a toothpick to hold the wrap slices together, consider getting the decorative ones in green to be the “stem”). Lay slices on their sides, and using small pieces of veggies or cheese to create the eyes, nose and mouth on your pumpkin.

Pumpkin Pizza

Spread your favorite pizza dough or ready-made crust with sauce and cheese. Then, using pepper slices and pepperonis, create the ridges of the pumpkin and the face of the jack-o-lantern. Bake as usual and serve.

Graveyard Dirt

You can make this dessert in one large pan or individual cups, depending on the size of decorative tombstones you can find. Start by crushing an entire package of chocolate sandwich cookies (like Oreos) and layering a portion of them in the bottom of the cup/pan. Combine 1/2 cup of butter, 8 oz of cream cheese, 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups of milk with 2 - 3.5 ounce packages of instant pudding (your choice vanilla or chocolate). Fold in 1 12 oz tub of Cool Whip (again, your choice regular or chocolate). Then fold together the two mixtures. Layer a portion on your cookie layer, then continue layering pudding mix and cookies until all have been used. While you are creating your layers, you can consider hiding in some gummy worms or plastic skeletons so that bits and pieces poke at the top. Garnish the finished product with a couple of decorative tombstones and you have a creepy Halloween dessert.

Use these and your own ideas to create some fun and creepy Halloween meals!

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The High Cost of Fuel

By Rhett Downs

 As I write this article the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is just under $3.00 for a countrywide average. The price will only continue to rise as issues continue to heat up with Iran and the price of crude oil continues to climb.

I personally used to spend close to $400 per month on gas to commute back and forth to work and that was when gas was only $2.25 a gallon or so. I finally put a stop to that by starting my own website and working from home. Now I fill my tank once a month compared to 3-4 times per week.

I decided to write this article after seeing an interview on the Today Show with the CEO of Exxon. He was asked in this interview if his company was going to do anything to cut the prices for consumers this summer as prices get higher. He had to hold back from laughing. He went on to give the answer I figured he’d give, which was that they had a duty to shareholders to make them money. The interviewer said, “So, that is a NO then?” His response was, “We are in business to make money.”

So, knowing that the politicians are not doing anything to help you with gas prices and the companies are doing everything they can to milk you for every penny they can get, what can you do to reduce your fuel expenses? There are obvious answers to this question, such as buying a hybrid car or a more fuel efficient car in general. You can drive less just for fun. The days of cruising around are basically over. When I was in my teens I used to fill my tank and just cruise around and get lost. Not only was it relaxing for me to drive, I did some of my best thinking while driving, but I learned my way around very well. The days of joy riding are long gone.

I know my wife and I have started taking my Nissan Sentra out for family trips rather than her Nissan Murano. Her Murano gets excellent gas mileage for an SUV type vehicle but it costs nearly $60 to fill the tank as opposed to $31 for the Sentra.

Short of finding a new job closer to the home there is not much someone can do to lessen their fuel expenses. You need to get to work, you need to do errands on the weekends. Depending on the age of your kids you could potentially ride bikes to soccer or baseball practice (or whatever activity your kids are involved in). It is good exercise for you and the kids. Hopefully those locations are not very far from the house. Once again, if the oldest child is playing baseball and you have younger kids that can’t ride bikes this option is not available.

As American consumers our hands are tied. We are held hostage by the oil Czar’s of the world and the American oil corporations such as Exxon. Our politicians have not done enough to protect this from happening to us. Sure, they are all over the TV now “proposing” solutions to the gas price crisis but it is no good now.

Oil runs our lives. It helps to produce plastics, which mostly everything is made of now, electricity, gasoline for our vehicles, and much more. The price of oil continues to rise. The supply of oil is dwindling everyday as it is not a resource that is replaced. Once it is gone it is gone. I had previously asked what you can do to reduce your fuel expenses and there really is no answer to that. You may be able to get the hybrid cars, which are not really cost effective, a motorcycle, scooter, or ride a bike, if your life allows any of these options. The fact remains that you cannot escape the rising costs of oil. If you save on one end you will be hit on the other end. They will find a way to get their money.

Our only real way to make a difference is to change the way we vote and bring in politicians that actually have our best interest in mind instead of the big corporations. The Democrats like to say that the Republicans are the ones working for the rich and the big corporations but the truth is they both do. In fact, if you look at the stats of where the donations come from for the Presidential campaigns for those parties, the Democrats accept more from big corporations.

It may seem like this article had no direction, or maybe you understand what I was doing here. The only solution for us, as American citizens and consumers, is for us to vote the right people into office. All of the other talk, and other possible ways to reduce expenses, is nothing more than what I said, “talk”.

Learn about rabbit accessories and rabbit deterrent at the Types Of Rabbits site.

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The Value of Gold

By Rhett Downs

 When you have a dream and follow it with your complete being, the most unusual opportunities unfold. During the early 1840s John Sutter wanted to build a large agricultural empire in California. He had managed to get there from Switzerland, and was determined that nothing get in his way. He and his hired hand, James Marshall, were working on building a sawmill down by the river when they spotted shiny pebbles of a golden color. Could it possibly be gold? It was, much to their dismay! Gold seekers would only get in the way of their agricultural dreams, so they tried to keep it a secret.

Secrets are hard to keep and Sam Brannan in San Francisco caught wind of the potential. Did he want the gold? No! He thought in terms of supply and demand. If gold seekers came they would need shovels and picks and pie tins. Sam bought all of them he could find within hundreds of miles. He bought them for pennies, and when the gold seekers came rushing in, he sold them for fifteen dollars (an exorbitant amount in those days). Within weeks Sam was the same as a millionaire. He made his fortune without ever sweating over the river.

Bending over the river searching for those specks of gold that were half the size of a pea was painful and exhausting work. For those experiencing success it was worth it. News of the sore muscles and aching backs reached an innovative thinker back in Indiana. He made his fortune selling a bottled salve to the fortune seekers who were traveling through on their way to California. “Just rub it all over your body and roll down a hill. The gold will stick to this special salve and you’ll be rich without slaving over the river.” Those with the glint of gold in their eye couldn’tresist such an offer.

Most of the gold seekers left their homes during 1849 and were dubbed “the 49ers.” The majority of them never arrived, but all encountered someone applying the law of supply and demand along the route. Trying to get through the desert without any water took the lives of many. Realizing this, the entrepreneurs in California brought buckets and barrels of water to the dessert - which they sold for as high as $100 a drink. If you didn’t have the money to pay, you were left to dehydrate and die in the desert.

Even though striking it rich with gold, many settlers found it hard to come out ahead financially. While they might have earned a dollar a day back where they originally came from, and were making twenty-five dollars a day now, those selling food were also playing the game of supply and demand. A meal at the end of the day took all of that twenty-five dollars. Those who found sources of food to sell were the ones who became rich. Sutter, the courageous thinker who originally found the gold, had his thousands of acres of agricultural land raided, his cattle stolen and slaughtered for food. Sutter remained penniless. And all the 49ers are now gone.

The elusive value of gold continues to fluctuate as concepts of supply and demand are applied in the minds of people. Ultimately, any object or service is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Although ‘all that glitters is not gold,’ gold still influences the economies of every nation.

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