MAKE A NOTE!! -- July 15th, 1997

CIRCULATION 51

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READER REQUESTS...

...LITE BOX CAKE MIX RECIPE (NO NOT THE "APPLESAUCE ONE") :-)

Someone asked if I could put out this recipe for the cakes I do. It just eliminates the oil and one egg, without replacing it with applesauce, so it cuts down on the fat AND calories, and tastes great. As far as I know it only works with Duncan Hines cake mixes; I don't know what it will do with the other brands. This recipe can be used with all their mixes EXCEPT Butter Recipe and Angel Food. Eliminate the oil and use 2 eggs and 1 1/3C water (if Devil's Food increase water to 1 1/2C). Bake at 350F: 2-8" layers 29-32 min; 2-9" layers 24-27 min; 9x13" 29-32 min; Bundt (12C) 39-44 min; 24 cupcakes 14-17 min. With this recipe you cut 20% of the calories and 50% of the fat off the regular recipe. POST IT...in your recipe box, or where you keep your cake mixes, or on your shopping list.

POST ITS***POST ITS***POST ITS***POST ITS

FREE LOST KIDS VIDEO OF YOUR KIDS

During the month of August, Blockbuster, in association with the Nat'l Ctr for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), does free videos of your child. The NCMEC, and most law enforcement agencies, recommend that you do at least one video of your child a year with them talking and moving around a bit, along with a close up. They also recommend a professional picture be taken at least once a year (twice a year with babies and toddlers). That way, if the child is ever missing or abducted you will have a good picture to put out on the news. For those of us who have resisted the video camera sales, this Blockbuster offer is a good opportunity to get a video done. It only takes about 10 min/child. It is always a good idea to call ahead to make sure their cameras are working and to ask when their slow times are so you don't have to wait (sometimes they do whole classrooms of kids). POST IT...on your calendar Aug. 1st.

LIFESAVING BOOK! GREAT BOOK! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Need I say more? :-) "The Gift of Fear (Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence)" by Gavin DeBecker is worth a lot more than any self-defense training (for those of you who don't know, I have a black belt), pepper spray (yes, I still carry it), or alarm system (yep, we have one of those too). I think it should be required reading for all of us, but especially for women. The basic premise of the book is that our intuition is actually our brain taking in information and processing it quicker than we realize. So while we come to a conclusion, we aren't quite sure how we got there until a lot later. For example, a man (true story) went into a convenience store on the way home. Almost as soon as he got inside he felt a rush of fear and that his life was in danger and he left the store and went home. Later he found out that shortly after he left a policeman interrupted a robbery in progress and was shot dead. While the man had no idea why he felt the way he did, he later started remembering details of things he had seen. The way the clerk was watching another man in the store with concern, that the man was wearing a winter coat (in the summer time) probably hiding the shotgun, that there were 2 men waiting in a running car outside the store, and that he had read in the papers that this store was hit quite

often. By themselves, these items wouldn't have been worth mentioning, however, his brain put all the pieces together and realized he was in danger and sent the danger message. In the book, the author discusses how too often we put these feelings aside as being "silly". How often has

someone told you that just before they were attacked or something bad happened that they "had a feeling", but disregarded it as "being silly"? Ask a postal inspector how often he has heard stories of people joking about a mail bomb just before a package went off. In the book, he discusses this gift that we all have and how we can learn to listen to it, and what to watch for. To be able to recognize the information that we are getting that is causing the concern, but most of all to listen to those "feelings" and not to dismiss them too quickly. Our local library had this book, and most libraries should either carry it or be willing to purchase it since it is on the bestseller list. Check out his web site at www.gdbinc.com too. POST IT....in a very visible place!

SELF DEFENSE SPRAYS

Hey, I didn't say they were worthless now, did I (by the way, the self defense training and alarms are also still highly recommended:-)? :-) Pepper sprays are the ones to buy and the kind that most police/sheriff depts have now switched to. CS and Mace do not always work on animals,

people who are on drugs or insane. But pepper spray works on just about everyone and everything (I even heard some police used it on a snake!). Just remember that they can expire, so check yours periodically to make sure it is still working by spraying a bit outside and taking a SMALL whiff, or putting a drop on your finger and holding it near your eyes or nose. There are sprays that are streams and some that are clouds, with the latter you don't have to worry about aiming, but they are more likely to possibly affect you. Get the ones that DO NOT have a rotating head that could shift around and make you have to hunt for the trigger. Some sprays have ultraviolet dye in them to help to identify the attacker later on, not a bad idea. The higher the concentration of pepper, the better it will work, read the labels. And by the way, most attacks occur in the home (although this probably does include domestic abuse), so it does NO good in the

bottom of your purse. Put it in your pocket or in a central location in your home. POST IT...on your shopping list.

DUMMY KEYS

Keep a set of old keys that don't go to anything anymore, very handy in your purse or pocket. If anyone ever tries to steal your car (usually when you are getting in or out) throw the dummy set on the ground for them to pick them up and run, screaming all the way. Consider that most people carry house and car keys on the same set and your car usually has your address in it. Not a pretty picture. By the way, be sure not to keep credit card receipts in your glove compartment or elsewhere in your car. There have been people who go through unlocked cars, or employees of car washes, who are looking for just that information. POST IT...by your purse/wallet.

IN PRAISE OF CATALOG SHOPPING

I think we receive just about every catalog ever created. I used to store them alphabetically, but then would forget some of their names, so I finally had to store them by category (e.g. toys, kids' clothes, adult clothes, commuters, gifts, etc). Am I obsessive-compulsive or what! :-P

But when your stack gets to be about 3' long, you have to do something to organize. I have found that catalog shopping is not only a wonderful time-saver, but also quite often saves you money (yes, even with shipping) and also gives you access to a lot of products are not available in

stores (no, I'm not talking about clap-on, clap-off lights). While there are some catalogs whose products are cheap, you learn pretty quickly from your orders which are the quality catalogs. And now I am offering to save you the guessing. If any of you are interested in particular products, just let me know and in the next newsletter I will print the phone numbers of the GOOD catalogs that sell those products. Even if you are looking for an obscure product, don't be shy, I have them all (almost). Just remember Christmas is coming, so start considering shopping lists and let me know what products you would be looking for. Miss the gift wrapping? You can still take it down to the mall or a gift wrapping service to have it wrapped. Also try to store your catalogs like you would put books on a shelf. I find it works best if it is on a carpeted floor in a closet, because the carpet keeps them from sliding down. Keep the last catalog you were sent and as you get a new one, swap the old one out and pass it on to a friend, or throw it away. POST IT...by your computer and send me those wish lists. Believe me, I will come up with some GREAT catalogs, that you haven't heard of.

REQUESTS

Let me know what you would like to hear about in future issues. Make-A-Note@worldnet.att.net

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Credit Checks/ Fraud, substitutions for eggs, kid stuff, Christmas lists, moving lists, check lists, catalogs.

JOKE (Courtesy of MSNBC Mike Tyson Joke Contest)

Have you heard of the new Mike Tyson computer? It has 2 bytes and no memory. :-)

QUOTE

"Every fighter, even the greatest, has moments when the battle plan goes terribly wrong...That's when we find out who's a warrior and who's just a gifted bully."

--Thomas Boswell, Washington Post

Isn't that true of just life in general too?

More later.

God Bless, Sharon

^i^

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