We drink a lot of sweet tea in Texas.

Sweet tea definitely turns the volume down on this heat.

I think sweet tea is a southern thing.

I don't know if people in the north tend to drink it much or not.

Down here though, if you're not drinking water, coffee, beer, or soda then you're probably drinking sweet tea.

At my restaurant we have a variety of sodas available in the fountain.

We also have caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee and iced tea and sweet tea.

Guess which one gets drank the most?

In the morning when we make the sweet tea we use an absolute boat load of sugar.

That's all sweet tea is......... regular iced tea that's got a ton of sugar in it.

The funny thing is half the people that order it add even more sugar to it.

If you taste it right after it's been made you will immediately grimace at how absolutely sickeningly sweet it is.

Yet there are people that will add 5 and 6 packets of sugar to it everyday.

It's not just that my restaurant either......... pretty much everywhere you go around here you can order a glass of sweet tea.

That includes fast food places like Wendy's and McDonald's.

I try to watch my health so I don't drink much sweet personally although I do find it absolutely delicious.

Where you're from do they drink a lot of sweet tea?

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Coming up with dinner ideas is tough when you don't have an oven or a stove.

Last week a surge caused my oven, stove, microwave, washer, and dryer to all die.

 At first I thought it was a problem with the general electricity in the house but, alas, it was a lot worse than that.

The heating element was cracked in a few places and it looks like electricity struck the inside of the oven.

I then went and bought a really long electric cord which was super expensive and ran it all the way across the street to my neighbor's house who had given me permission.

Neither the washer nor the dryer would come on in his house either.

Normally I cook a couple of times a day. I love to cook.

When I have a break during the day I might get some chicken and some hamburger meat and make a dual dish in one pan with some veggies and potatoes.

I can usually prepare it in like 5 minutes then bake it for 45 minutes while I take a nap in between shifts.

Whichever item I had on top can be eaten and the bottom item can then be heated up again when I get home.

Easy, fast, and healthy.

Not being able to use the oven or stove makes lunch and dinner a heck of a lot more difficult though.

I can't even make a pizza.

So it's been sandwiches and chips for dinner every night until I can figure this out.

I don't even have any tools to make a baked potato right now.

Some dinner ideas that I have for this week are as follows:

Cold chicken salad.

Sandwiches.

Hummus and pita chips.

Nachos with unmelted cheese.

Fruit.

That's all I got right now.

I'm just not used to living like this.

Coming up with dinner ideas is tough when you don't have an oven or a stove.

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The kind you put in strawberry lemonade.

Every day we take several containers of fresh strawberries and put them in our blender.

We blend them up to make several different types of drinks all beginning with our Strawberry Puree.

It's really just blended fresh strawberries so you can imagine that it would taste really good in any sort of tropical drink.

We make a couple of different types of lemonade that people really enjoy.

We can also make different desserts involving ice cream, brownies, and several different delectable treats using this strawberry blend.

We also have several different flavors of lemonade and drinks that we use...... but none of them use fresh fruit.

Most of them actually use a kind of syrup which I think is kind of gross, but that is just me. Lots of people like it.

I think even if you don't enjoy eating fruit you probably would enjoy the taste of blended strawberries.

It's really good, and at first taste of our strawberry lemonade everybody immediately wants a second glass.

Do you like strawberries? I bet you would like ours.

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Homestead Happiness Is ...Getting To See The Fruits Of Your Labor

Happiness is within the eye of the beholder. For me, homestead happiness comes in many different things, but one really stands out among the rest. My homestead happiness comes from the plants and animals that we raise on our homestead.

My happiness stems from being able to watching things grow. I see the end result as a reflection of myself and all the hard work that was put into the plants/animals success. Working the soil, planting, weeding, and harvesting or working with animals is something that I find enjoyment in. It can be hard work and there are days were you think to yourself, “I really do not want to weed today” or “I will get to the garden tomorrow,” but it is necessary to its success. Without putting the time into projects, they are destined to fail or not produce well. Without the necessary upkeep, any time that would have been put into the project would just be wasted.

Putting the work into projects, like a garden, makes one enjoy the successes they reap. When I sit back and look down at my dinner plate and see all the food that we have grown, it makes the meal just that much more enjoyable and taste that much better. I have the satisfaction of knowing where the food came from, and I know that it was raised in a natural/organic way. Also, something about getting to watch a seed grow and mature gives one a sense of pride in their work.

While it often takes many, many hours of cultivation, sweat, and work every year, I would not want it any other way. Like I said, while there are many things that bring me happiness on the homestead, watching all of the plants growing in the garden and being able to see the results of all the time/hard work is what brings me the most happiness on my homestead.

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Top 3 points of contention between roommates.

Living with roommates is hard although it's a great way to save money.

I have listed here the top three points of contention that I personally experience with my two roommates.

1. The Air Conditioning.

I bet this one is a surprise to you.

I have to admit I find it surprising, but not everyone likes their air to be at the same temperature.

You would assume that everyone likes a nice cool breeze in their house that makes you feel comfortable.

Not too cold and not too hot.

On the other hand you don't want to run the bill up because we all pay in on it.

Our house is comfortable and cool at 78 degrees and that is the temperature I always set it at when I get home from work.

The other roommate comes home for a few minutes before he leaves to go work on his other business.

Before he leaves he will sneakily change it to 82 degrees. I tend to notice it's very hot and then realized what happened and become mildly agitated.

I think he wants to save money.

The third roommate will come home late from his job downtown and set the temperature very low at like 60 degrees.

I'm usually in bed and so is the second roommate so we wake up in the middle of the night absolutely freezing.

The second roommate then gets up at 6 in the morning freezing and sets the temperature at 84 degrees before he leaves.

As you can see it's a complete mess.

2. Noise

This one is obvious and I suspect everyone has to deal with it.

Human beings make noise and there is no way to avoid that.

Especially when you have three men living together and each of them works all the time.

No one wants to come home and have to keep quiet after working for someone else all day.

To be honest we all do respect each other most of the time.

None of us listen to loud music very often and since we all work in the morning we all go to bed at a reasonable hour.

However, once in a blue moon I will wake up to a very loud movie that is caught on the repeating title screen.

It's incredibly annoying but you can't really avoid something like the topic of noise when dealing with other people.

3. The Kitchen.

I suspect that the kitchen is probably the number one point of contention between most roommates.

For us it's not that big of a deal but it's also not perfect.

I love food and I cook every single night.

My mother taught me how to cook when I was little and I love experimenting with different cuisines.

It's also much cheaper to cook food then it is to buy fast food or go out to eat.

The second roommate doesn't cook.

Since he's usually on the go he picks up a rotisserie chicken and makes a sandwich.

He does this pretty much every day.

The third roomate, however, makes a huge mess every night.

If I hang a trash bag on the door the next day it will be full of disgusting food trash.

If I buy a fresh soap dispenser the next day the soap is half gone.

I must say though that I have had worse roommates.

Sometimes you just have get along.

These are the three points of contention that we face.

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Why do some people absolutely drench themselves in perfume or cologne?

Have you ever stood next to somebody that was so completely soaked in fragrance that you actually smell like that same fragrance simply by being near them?

Something like this happened to me today so I thought it would be a good thing to post about.

Standing in the meat section of the grocery store, I slowly walk by attractive young woman who smells quite strongly of berries and flowers.

As she walks off I noticed that I can still smell the berries and flowers quite strongly a few minutes later.

Getting into my car I realize I am absolutely covered in the that flowery scent.

Perhaps she put perfume on just before I walked by........ I suppose that is possible.

Here's another example.

I used to work with a guy named Kenny.

Every morning he would walk into work smelling like a bottle of cologne.

It was good cologne too........ not the cheap stuff, and he had about a dozen different bottles.

He told me he felt like it was a waste to just put on a squirt and then not have everyone smelling him.

I guess he did not understand that cologne is supposed to be subtle.

We don't really live in a subtle world these days though, and subtle can sometimes mean understated and unheard.

I think Kenny was wanting to make sure that his presence was known by wearing so much cologne that people would look at him and say

"Wow...... that guys wearing cologne."

I honestly think that's why people wear so much........ because they want to turn heads.

They must not realize that they are turning heads for all the wrong reasons.

Do you know anyone that drenches themselves in perfume or cologne thinking that they smell good and not realizing that they smell like a giant bottle of stench?

Well I think I came up with a good phrase for it.

Nose pollution.

I bet you know someone like this.

Why not upvote this post and then tell me all about it?

Why do some people absolutely drench themselves in perfume or cologne?

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A Jeezzle Movie Review: The Forbidden Kingdom.

If you're looking for a good family friendly martial arts adventure then The Forbidden Kingdom is for you.

I am a huge fan of kung fu flicks, especially the older stuff by The Shaw Brothers.

I also love ninjas, samurai, and all different kinds of martial arts.

The Forbidden Kingdom is something really unique because it is a family friendly martial arts adventure starring two very well known martial artists.

Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Jackie Chan and Jet Li have both been in a bunch of movies and they have very different fighting styles.

While Jet Li focuses on precise acting and precision moves Jackie Chan tends to focus more on comedy although he is a great fighter as well.

It's really cool to see Jackie Chan and Jet Li fight together even though they're on the same side because you can compare and contrast their fighting styles.

Jet Li uses his typical somber but powerful techniques while Jackie Chan uses a Drunken Master Style.

What's the plot?
A young boy named Jason is a huge fan of kung fu style Chinese movies.

He is constantly visiting an old Chinese man that rents or sells these movies.

One day the old man is attacked by some thugs and somehow Jason is transported to a mystical world while holding a golden staff.

It turns out that the golden staff once belonged to The Monkey King and he was turned to stone by the Jade Emperor.

The staff will revive The Monkey King because he is immortal but the seeker needs to bring it to him.

Jason is the seeker.

An adventure team is formed and they set off to save The Monkey King.

This is a great adventure movie that is completely family friendly except for a few splotches of red blood but it is really barely there at all.

This movie is done in the Wuxia style which basically means people can jump up and fly a little bit and do all kinds of mystical and magical stuff.

It's fun to watch.

How long is it?
The movie itself is 1 hour and 44 minutes long.

It goes by really fast though and there are not really any slow parts to it.

If you watch it with the family you shouldn't have anyone fidgeting or being uncomfortable because there are constant action scenes to keep everyone happy.

It should be noted as well that there are several nice looking women in this movie but no one takes their clothes off so that is not an issue either.

How does this movie compare to other martial arts movies?
Well this movie is a mystical adventure in which a young boy is transported to a magical land where he has to save The Monkey King.

So it's not really your typical martial arts movie for a couple of reasons.

Actually it's more like an adventure movie that has a lot of great martial arts in it and also it's a movie that allows us to compare Jackie Chan's and Jet Li's fighting styles.

It has a lot of lush scenery and it is a really pretty movie.

I stated earlier that I really like the early Shaw Brothers Kung Fu flicks.

This is really nothing like those because this is a grand adventure and not really completely focused on the fighting but more on the story of finding The Monkey King.

Everyone knows that Jackie Chan tends to keep things family friendly and I really got the feeling that because of him they went really light on things like blood and stabbings.

That's a good thing because it makes it accessible for everyone.

If you're looking for a good family friendly martial arts adventure you can't do much better than The Forbidden Kingdom.

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Do you drink tap water or bottled water?

Everyone that I know drinks bottled water

I drink bottled water myself because I think it tastes a lot cleaner than the water that comes out of the tap at my house.

Now I've been to a few people's houses that had tap water that tasted nice and clean.

The water in my house tastes a little bit chalky and I notice that I tend to get an irritated throat when I drink it.

The water at my mom's house tastes fine though and they always drink it from the tap.

There's obviously been a great trend in people drinking more bottled water and you see a lot of people that say that tap water is just as good.

I think it probably has something to do with how clean your pipes are.

The water from this house just doesn't taste good but it tastes fine at my mom's house and at my job.

At least it always used to taste fine at my job until this week.

Lately at work the water has been tasting very much like dirt.

It's one of those things where you want to ignore the problem and hope that it goes away but it probably won't.

Starting a few days ago some of our customers decided that they didn't like the taste of our tea anymore.

Others started complaining that the water had a noticeable dank taste to it.

I can taste that in the water myself but I feel like over time that taste is actually going away.

It's possible there was something that has been cleared up now.

No one got sick so it doesn't seem to be anything to worry about and I think most people were probably just over complainers, but it does give a lot of room to think about bottled water.

Bottled water sometimes tastes like plastic but it rarely ever tastes like dirt.

It can be expensive though especially if you drink a lot of water like I do.

Do you drink tap water or bottled water?

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I remember the first time I ever saw the Nintendo Entertainment System.

My friend Jonathan and I were playing in a field when a young boy ran up to us.

"Sebastian got a Nintendo! Sebastian got a Nintendo!"

Sebastian was a friend of ours who had cerebral palsy so he didn't play around and explore the neighborhood with us.

We would go over to his house on occasion though to play and read comics or go swimming.

He would stand in the water by the edge of the pool but not actually swim very much.

On this particular occasion Jonathan and I were hitting a tree with a stick in order to make the little Cicada shells come off.

You know........ the shells that they leave behind after they molt or whatever it is that they do. Well we used to collect those shells. I still think they're cool.

Of course I barely knew what a Nintendo was at the time. I had heard rumors but we lived in a completely different world.

There was no internet and the only way to find out information like this was to experience it firsthand.

Despite this, we looked at each other after hearing the news with excited expressions and we ran towards Sebastian's house as fast as we could.

Knocking on the door we frantically asked if Sebastian could play.

His mom let us in and we went into his room. He was sitting on the floor playing a game we had never seen before.

It was Super Mario Brothers and it was the most glorious thing I'd ever looked at.

You see, growing up I had an Atari 2600 and I used to play it everyday.

Most of the boys and some of the girls in the neighborhood would come over and we would have competitions playing the Atari 2600.

After that we would go run around and play tag and other children's games.

I had never laid my eyes on anything like this though.

The graphics were like something straight out of the arcade.

The music didn't sound like it came from a little plastic box either.

It also sounded like it came straight out of the arcade.

We played for hours and hours and even though we got to Sebastian's house around 4 in the afternoon it must have been after 8:30 when we left because it was dark outside.

In those days you knew it was time to come home when you heard your mom yell your name and it echoed through the neighborhood.

Since we were inside we couldn't hear our parents yelling and they were not to happy with us when we got home.

I'll never forget that first day playing Super Mario Brothers.

I'm sure part of the experience was the game system itself and most of it was being a young child and seeing the world through a young child's eyes.

It was an experience I'll never forget.

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How much sleep is enough?

You've probably been told that 7 to 8 hours sleep a night is the ideal amount.

Not everyone can afford to sleep that much.

Sometimes it's not about finding the right amount of sleep but instead just enough sleep to actually get by on.

Whether you sleep alone or have a partner falling asleep can be difficult.

Just because you get in bed at midnight doesn't mean you will fall asleep at midnight.
Even if you do fall asleep right away a variety of things can keep waking you up and prevent you from falling back asleep.

For example, last night I got in bed at midnight but then realized at about 12:30 that I had to use the restroom.

At 1:00 my roommate then decided to go get some food. The front door of the house is right by my room.

He then came back at 2:00.

I slept from 2:30 to 6:00 until my other roommate woke up and let the dog out.

He showered and left at 6:30, putting the cat gate up so she would be trapped upstairs. Our cat is a very active Bengal cat and is always looking to knock stuff over.

So of course she knocked over the cat gate and it comes crashing down the stairs and bangs into the front door of my room at 7:00.

At 7:45 the other roommate goes upstairs to use the restroom and replaces the cat gate.

At 8:00 the cat knocks over the cat gate again and so I wake up for work.

I think I probably got about 5 hours of sleep total and it has really affected me today.

For me, 5 hours was not enough.

My concentration is off and I might not be as quick with a smile or a quick reply as I usually am. I just feel like the world's a bit blurry.

I once knew a girl named Rene though that always got 5 hours a night and she functioned just fine with that amount. She was a paralegal at a law firm I used to work at.

Everyday she would come into work chipper as a bird and be friendly and happy with everyone.

Since she was extremely attractive most of the guys found a few minutes to chat with her.

I once made the mistake of having lunch with her and I never heard the end of it from my girlfriend at the time.

Rene told me she usually got about 5 hours of sleep every night but she could function on 4 hours.

Her entire family was like that......... they just didn't need much sleep.

On the other hand I once lived with a guy that couldn't even get through the day unless he had between 10 to 12 hours of sleep every night.

When he would get home from work he would watch TV for about an hour and go right to bed.

He would sleep almost right up to the time that I had to be at work.

I felt like he was always sleeping even though he didn't seem like a depressed guy.

He was actually very friendly and had a lot of luck with the ladies.

He told me one day that he just had always needed a lot of sleep.

I guess everyone is different.

So how much sleep do you think is enough?

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