BIG THANKS to everyone who came out to the 17th Annual Drive By Giving. Your donations Friday morning raised nearly $22,000 for Royal Family Kids Camp - and donations are STILL coming in!.
That means this summer, we'll be able to fill both the Whatcom and Skagit camps this year and give kids who've had a tough start in life a week of positive memories, love and support.
Thank you for being a part of it. Together, we've done a good thing for Whatcom and Skagit Counties!
Your need to fix everything - When we cried because our boss was a jerk, we didn't expect you to come up with a plan to get him fired. Why can't you just let us be sad and pretend to listen?
Oblivious to a single detail - Your best friend called to tell you he had a baby. You don't know the baby's name, or even the baby's gender. You do however know that we're out of beer.
Sleeping through a crying baby - We know you're not really sleeping. Oh yes, we know. We're also keeping score.
The combover - The combover has never once fooled anyone into thinking you have hair. Never once.
Booby Kryptonite - They're just boobs; breathe. You know who else has boobs? Your mom.
Not knowing when something's wrong - When we say "nothing" is wrong, it means everything is so completely wrong that we don't even have enough hours in this lifetime to adequately express how wrong everything is.
Thinking we know where your stuff is - Why would we know where your soccer cleats are? We didn't use them last.
Your definition of babysitting - Watching your neighbor's kid is called babysitting. Watching your own kid is called parenting. The more you know.
Scratching in public - You call it "adjusting". We call it disgusting.
Dirty clothes outside the hamper - We find dirty clothes next to the hamper, semi-near the hamper, but rarely inside the hamper.
Refusing to ask for directions - There's no longer any need to drive around lost and fighting for three hours. If you won't ask for directions, at least get a GPS. You like gadgets, right?
Poor aim - This toilet bowl is twice the size of your noggin and yet we still seem to have a problem. Set to "stream" instead of "spray", okay?
Thinking you're a better driver - Beating Gran Turismo doesn't make you a better driver. When was the last time you successfully cried your way out of a speeding ticket?
Your version of cooking - It's your night to cook... so you ordered Pizza? Really, that’s doing your part? We wish we could "cook" like this every night!
Here it is... by popular demand...! Okay, actually, it was suggested by one guy in management. But we thought it might be fun too.
So... here's our first attempt at a video recap.
It took us a few tries. Thevideo starts at Take 11.
There's a 44-year-old woman in New Jersey who may be the tannest women we've ever seen.
She was arrested recently and charged with child endangerment, after her five-year-old daughter showed up at school with a sunburn and said she, quote, "went tanning with mommy."
Patricia says she didn't take her five-year-old with her into a tanning booth . . . but did take her to the tanning salon. "I tan, she doesn't tan," she said. "I'm in the booth, she's in the room. There's tons of moms that bring their children in."
She says her daughter got that sunburn from actually playing out in the sun.
Patricia is currently out on bail. Check out her video below. Wow.
I'm not sure most people lose sleep over being defriended on Facebook . . . it's like, "Oh no, my old coworker from 1998 doesn't want to look at my vacation photos anymore! How will I survive?"
But if you do worry about it, researchers at Arizona State University used focus groups and studies to come up with these ten SCIENTIFICALLY-PROVEN rules to keep people from defriending you on Facebook.
#1.) Return the favor. When someone posts on your wall or comments on your photo, you're expected to respond.
#2.) No disrespectful postings. You shouldn't publicly write anything negative on Facebook about one of your friends.
#3.) Think before you post. Think about the negative impact a post could have on someone. Like, if a friend of yours is home on workers' comp, don't post a photo of him wrestling a bear.
#4.) Don't repost. If someone deletes something you posted on their wall or untags a photo, don't repost it.
#5.) Don't rely on Facebook to replace real communication. You should tell your real friends big news before you post it on Facebook. Like whether you're pregnant.
#6.) Be honest.
#7.) Don't be an addict. Don't be the person who posts so much that it becomes over the top.
#8.) Protect yourself. Don't post information that could be used against you.
#9.) Use common sense. Think before you post . . . your friends don't want to feel bad for you because you post something incredibly stupid, like negative information about your boss, or a photo of you committing a crime.
#10.) Don't put your friends' jobs in jeopardy. Think about how your friend will look to their boss or a potential employer before you post something potentially-damaging on their wall.
If you haven't seen it yet, one of the co-founders of the website Awkward Family Photos posted a video of his grandparents giving marriage advice . . . and they bicker through about half of it. But in a fun way.
Their names are Selma and Kenny, they've been married 72 years, and they made the video because they couldn't travel cross-country for their grandson's wedding.
The best part is when Selma starts talking about a trip they took to Italy, and says you have to keep an eye on your husband... because Kenny wandered off and took a picture with a topless woman by the pool.
The tips start at :27, they start bickering at 1:22, and it shows the photo of him with the topless woman at 2:23. Don't miss the big kiss at 3:29.
Ahhh, spring. The sun is shining, flowers are blooming, and everyone is happy! Until we notice that summer is coming and we're still holding on to a few extra pounds of winter weight! Yikes! If you're stressed about swimsuit season, we're here to help! Thanks to Self Magazine and Yahoo News, we have the Top 10 Superfoods for Weightloss:
Any new electronic device always seems to run SO much faster than the one it replaced.
And then as time passes it seems to gradually slow down. Is it just that you've become used to this new faster speed so it seems less impressive? Or is your device actually running slower?
Probably some of both.
You don’t need to know much about how your smart phone or tablet works to make it run faster. We shared a few simple steps to get you on your way to a cleaner, quicker device. For those who want more detail, here are the articles we used to put that information together:
5 Easy Tips to Speed Up Android Tablets and Phones (We suggest ignoring the tip about adding Advanced Task Killer. With the latest Android upgrades, it's no longer needed and can slow down your device. But there are other good tips here.)
Alright ladies, here's some pretty exciting news for red wine lovers: What if you could drink wine and lose weight? (Where do I sign up?)
According to a new study, researchers kept tabs on nearly 20,000 normal-weight women for 13 years. Over time, the women who drank a glass or two of red wine a day were 30 percent less likely to be overweight than the nondrinkers (they tracked women who drank liquor and beer too, but the link was strongest for red wine). One reason wine may contribute to a healthy weight is that digesting booze triggers your body to torch calories. Women make smaller amounts of the enzyme that metabolizes alcohol than men do, so to digest a drink, they have to keep producing it, which requires the body to burn energy.
...but that’s not all...
The study also showed that women who drank moderately ate less. While researchers can’t say why, it’s possible that they were more likely to slow down and savor their food and drink.
If you combine these factors, drinking wine could lead to taking in fewer calories while your body is burning energy, meaning you’re less likely to gain weight. But before you get too carried away, the doctors warn that drinking isn’t a weight-loss strategy on its own. Plus, overdoing it is linked to health risks you don’t want to take, like breast cancer. But having a glass, along with a healthy diet and exercise, seems to be a marker for a healthier lifestyle.
In preparation for Mother's Day next month, Salary.com did their annual calculation of how much the average mom should be paid.
The average stay-at-home mom puts in a 94.7-hour work week, two hours less than they worked last year. Based on the market value for the work she does, someone owes her a $112,962 annual salary. That's 2% lower than last year.
Working moms got a raise this year. They spend 57.9 hours working as a mom after getting home from their day job. That would work out to a $66,979 salary and is 5% higher than last year for two hours of more work.
Salary.com has a calculator where you can find out how much you or the mom in your life is worth. Click here to play.
April 17th is Tax Day! If you're cutting a big ol' check to the government, you could probably use a free lunch. Here are a few 'tax day freebies' to get you thru the day: Panda Express
Get one free Shanghai Angus Steak on April 17 at Panda Express if you "like" the page on Facebook to claim the coupon.
Coffee is Made from Coffee Beans - Actually, they’re not beans, they’re seeds.
There are 50 States in the USA - Technically speaking there are only 46 states in the USA. Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia refer to themselves as commonwealths.
The Color Red Makes Bulls Angry - Bulls are actually colorblind, and it doesn’t make a difference what color is used for a matador’s cape. They’re bright red for the benefit of the crowd.
Bats Are Blind - All species of bats have some degree of vision. True, they use echolocation to spot their prey in the darkness of caves and night time, but given some amount of light, they can see.
The Caesar Salad Was Named after Julius Caesar - The Caesar Salad was actually named after a chef named Caesar Cardini.
Baby Birds Handled by Humans Are Rejected By Their Parents - Birds have very little sense of smell and they aren’t really bothered by it.
Three Wise Men Came to Visit the Baby Jesus - Nowhere in the Bible does it say that there were three, nor that they were kings, rode on camels, or that their names were Casper, Melchior and Balthazar. The wise men in the biblical narrative did not visit on the day Jesus was born, but they saw Jesus as a child, in a house as many as two years afterwards. (Matthew 2:11)
The “Immaculate Conception” Refers to the Birth of Jesus - Most people believe that, but the Immaculate Conception actually refers to the conception of Mary, who was conceived biologically. According to tradition, at the time of her conception, Mary was protected by God from the stain of original sin, hence, “immaculate”.
The Keys on a Typewriter/Keyboard Are Arranged Specifically for More Efficient Typing -The keys were not arranged for the typist’s convenience. Instead, they were arranged to slow down typists on old typewriters. Originally, the inventor of the typewriter laid out the keys in alphabetical order, but he realized the keys would jam if typing occurred at a high speed because too many frequently used letters were placed too close together. So the QWERTY system was developed to place the most frequently used letters as far apart on the keyboard as possible. It was publicly and falsely claimed that the QWERTY system was scientifically devised to promote efficient typing. Others have since invented more efficient systems, but the QWERTY system is so widely accepted that it’s nearly impossible to change.
Ostriches Bury Their Heads in the Sand When They’re Scared – In cartoons, yes. In real life, not so much.
Napoleon Bonaparte Was Short – Actually he was slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his time. The French emperor’s height was recorded as 5’ 2” in French feet. That’s 5’ 6” to you and me.
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 Was Caused By Mrs. O'Leary's Cow Kicking Over a Lantern - A newspaper reporter made it up because he thought it would make colorful copy.
"Irregardless" is Not a Word – It didn't used to be, we'll grant you that. And while it’s true that you shouldn't use it if you want to be taken seriously, it's also true that language evolves, and it has now gained wide enough use to qualify as a word.
The Great Wall of China Is The Only Human-Made Object Visible From The Moon - This is just plain false. Shuttle astronaut Jay Apt has been quoted as saying that "the Great Wall is almost invisible from only 180 miles up." City lights, however, are easily visible on the night side of Earth from orbit.
Every Drink of Alcohol Kills Some Brain Cells – Your brain is safe unless your alcohol consumption is overly excessive.
Abner Doubleday Invented Baseball - There is a great debate about who invented baseball, but if it was Abner Doubleday, he apparently didn’t think much of his accomplishment. Among his many writings there is nothing about his role in the great American past time.
Thomas Crapper Invented the Flush Toilet - Funny, but false. It was actually invented by Sir John Harrington in 1596. Crapper did do a lot to increase its popularity and came up with some related inventions, such as the ballcock mechanism used to fill toilet tanks.
Thomas Edison Invented the Light Bulb – We needed a moment on this one. Edison apparently developed the first PRACTICAL light bulb in 1880 but it wasn’t the first.
Humans Only Use 10% their Brains - In the 1800s, William James wrote about humans only using a small percentage of their brains and the 10% myth was born. But magnetic imaging has proven that not to be anywhere near true.
A Dog’s Mouth is Cleaner Than A Human’s Mouth – Have you seen what they put in their mouths? Garbage, decomposing squirrels, and cat poop do not lead to clean mouths.
The Titanic was Billed as Being, 'Unsinkable' - Nobody really talked about the ship's unsinkability until after it sank.
With KAFE's big 80s party, Whamarama 3, coming up tomorrow night, we're doing a lot of reminiscing around here, and this morning I made the mistake of mentioning that I had a pierced ear back in the day and wondered aloud if the hole was still there.
It was actually not in the 80s, but in 1990 that I put a hole in the left lobe. I was at the Texas State Fair with a bunch of coworkers - all guys who ALL had their ears pierced - when we came upon a piercing booth. Yes, I succumbed to the peer pressure.
I haven't had anything in that hole for the last ten or fifteen years, but the dimple is still there and easy to see. So this morning, Mandy brought me some ice, some alcohol and an earring and we set out to explore whether or not we could open that old wound.
Nope. That sucker just wasn't gonna go through. Although I don't think Mandy believes me. She thinks I wussed out.
And she's got support. This email came from Laurie: "OK Mandy, do what you got to do to get a hole in Dave's ear! Sewing needles and safety pins work well. Please remember the rubbing alcohol! Have fun!"
Hmmm. Peer pressure all over again. Aren't I supposed to be too old for that now?
Here are twelve mistakes people commonly make that end up getting them audited. Unless you really want to meet a representative of the IRS in person, these are things to avoid:
1) Protest - People still try claiming no taxes owed because they say the income tax is unconstitutional or Federal Reserve notes are not money. The IRS won’t be impressed. In fact, the maximum penalty was just boosted for arguments the IRS deems frivolous.
2) Brag a Lot - The IRS is now paying informants for tips leading to big unpaid taxes. If you are getting creative with your deductions, keep it to yourself. Don't even tell your spouse - divorce cases provide the IRS with lots of juicy leads.
3) Use a Sleazy Tax Preparer - The IRS won't tell you who the bad apples are but they know. Be wary of tax pros who base their fees on a specified cut of the refund or say they can get you bigger refunds than others.
4) Report Your Income Wrong - This is a big red flag: What you report as income must match the income forms the IRS is getting from the people who gave you the income. Add carefully.
5) Toss Out Your 1099s - If you got a 1099, they got it too. If you skip reporting all interest, dividends and miscellaneous income they’ll know it.
6) Don’t Attach Everything You're Supposed To – Forget to attach the proper forms and you’ll get to show them in person.
7) Don’t Sign Your Forms – Believe it or not, many people get audited simply because they forget their signature. Doh!
8) Use Sloppy Penmanship - If your return is sloppy, they'll think your numbers might be sloppy.
9) Write Off Your Butterfly Collection - You say it's a business, the IRS says it's a hobby. You deduct big losses from it, and they audit you.
10) Declare a Whole Lot of Charitable Contributions – Well, aren’t you nice! If your deductions are way out of line with the national average, expect to have to prove it.
11) Round All Your Numbers - Use an exact number, and if you can't remember it exactly, make it look like a real number. You should round cents to the nearest dollar. Just don't round your dollars. A $397 expense is much more believable than $400 expense.
12) Do Business With Cash – There’s not much you can do about this one, but if your business involves lots of cash and tips you’re more likely to get to meet a nice IRS agent face to face.
The website CareerBliss.com polled over 100,000 people to find out how happy they were with their jobs and which jobs seemed to make people the happiest.
They had people rate 10 different factors, including their boss, co-workers, salary, and workload. But they didn't include executive-level job,s like CEOs, probably because the salary would skew the results.
Instead, they wanted to know the top ten NORMAL jobs when it comes to overall happiness in the workplace. Here they are, starting with number one.
#1.) Software Quality Assurance Engineer. They make between $85,000 and $100,000 a year to make sure software programs run the way they're supposed to before they're released.
#2.) Executive Chef. Most of the chefs who were polled said they like the people they work with, and enjoy the actual work . . . which is mostly cooking, creating the menu, training the staff, and dealing with inventory.
#3.) Property Managers. Most property managers work for the owner of an apartment building, and make sure all the nuts-and-bolts stuff is taken care of, from having maintenance work done, to making sure rent is paid.
#4.) Bank Teller. It's not as high-paying as some of the other jobs on the list but tellers like the social element. According to the CEO of CareerBliss, quote, "Many of the happiest jobs have some component [of] working with people. Folks who work with others tend to rate their happiness higher." So in other words, if you work in an office where you just sit in front of a computer and never talk to anyone, you're less likely to be happy with your job.
#5.) Warehouse Manager. It's another job that doesn't necessarily come with a high salary. But again, you work with people all day long.
This has to fall under the "life changing studies" category.
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have proven that eating chocolate makes you skinny.
They studied 1,018 healthy men and women who exercised an average of 3.6 times per week, and ate a balanced, nutritious diet. Some of them ate a reasonable portion of chocolate five days a week, some didn't.
And they found the people who consumed moderate amounts of chocolate five days a week had lower body mass index numbers than people who had chocolate less often.
How is this possible? Well, the regular workouts helped. The psychological effect of not depriving themselves of chocolate made it easier for them to keep the rest of their diet. And chocolate DOES have a healthy side . . . cocoa has antioxidants that improve your body's functioning, speed up your metabolism, and help your insulin sensitivity.
But the team behind the study has to give the disclaimer that this isn't a license to start eating family-size bags of M&M's after every meal. It works best if you eat one ounce of dark chocolate or, at the most, one candy bar.
There are actually two great food stories coming out of the halls of science today.
Believe it or not, scientists from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania say that, in some ways, popcorn is a healthier snack than fruits or vegetables.
They found that popcorn contains more of an antioxidant called polyphenols than fruits or vegetables. Polyphenols help you fight heart disease, wrinkles, inflammation, and more.
And that's not the only healthy aspect of popcorn. It's also the only snack that's 100% unprocessed whole grain. So one serving gives you more than 70% of your daily intake of whole grain.
Of course . . . once you soak popcorn in a ton of butter and oil, it offsets a lot of the healthy quality. And adding sugar to make kettle corn makes it even worse. Plus fruits and vegetables obviously have vitamins that popcorn doesn't have.
Still, air-popped popcorn with lighter oil and a little salt really is a pretty good snack for you.
Sure, we may be living in tough times, but there are a few things our kids wont have to worry about. Forbes just came out with this list:
Taking a typing class. It used to be hard to learn how to type. Many people (especially men) never bothered. These days, kids teach themselves and many are experts before they’ve reached middle school. They don’t need classes to master the task. They’ll laugh that we did.
Paying bills by writing checks. Our kids won’t understand why we ever spent so much time writing and mailing checks to pay bills when everything can be paid electronically.
Buying an expensive set of encyclopedias. Encyclopedia Britannica announced last week that it will no longer print its famous set of encyclopedias. Kids today would have a hard time believing that their parents actually shelled out upwards of $1500 for information that’s so readily available for free today.
Using a payphone or racking up a big "long-distance" bill. Most kids today have no idea what a “long-distance” call is and most of them will only see a rotary-dial telephone in a museum. Likewise, they will never likely use, or even see, a payphone or phone booth in the near future. Instead, they will all just carry phones in their pockets, as many of them already do. And they’ll be flabbergasted by how many trees we cut down so that people could look up numbers in something called a “phone book.”
Having to pay someone else to develop photographs. Few kids today have ever touched film or gone to stores to have pictures developed. Digital photography has almost completely disrupted that business. They would have no concept of “conserving pictures” so as to not blow all 36 exposures. Instead, we snap away hundreds of pictures and decide which ones we want to keep.
Driving to a store to rent a movie. Incidentally, just six years ago, Blockbuster, the largest video-rental chain at the time, abandoned an effort to acquire rival Hollywood Video after antitrust regulators at the Federal Trade Commission threaten to block the deal. It serves as another example of creative destruction at work and also as a cautionary tale about regulatory shortsightedness.
Sending letters. Some folks bemoan the lost art of letter writing. Email and instant messaging largely displaced it long ago, and social networks are finishing the job. While it is easy for some old-timers to get nostalgic about the decline of hand-written letters, the upside is that new communications and social media technologies have made it easier than ever for us to stay in close and continuous contact with friends and family.
If work stresses you out, chances are you don't have one of these jobs. Here's a list from Yahoo of the eight easiest jobs on the planet: #1.) Eating Chocolate. The food tasters at Godiva can sample up to 50 bonbons a day, but it actually requires training. And as you'd imagine, it's a hard job to get. But food testers can earn up to $70,000 a year.
#2.) Watching Videos of Kittens. Web editors at websites like CuteOverload.com spend hours combing through footage of kittens, puppies, and other baby animals. Casting agents for the Animal Planet show "Too Cute" do the same thing.
#3.) Being a "Mansion-Sitter". It's exactly what it sounds like: House-sitting for rich people. Veteran house-sitters with good reputations can charge up to $200 a week. Plus they get free room and board. It's usually just for a few weeks or a few months at a time, but you can apply to be a "mansion-sitter" on the website LuxuryHouseSitting.com.
#4.) Watching TV. There are a few different ways to make money doing it. At Nielsen . . . the company that does the "Nielsen Ratings" for TV shows . . . researchers watch eight hours of TV a day for about $10 an hour. Or if you type really fast, you can write captions for the hearing impaired for a starting salary of about $25,000 a year.
#5.) Making Do-It-Yourself YouTube Videos. We're not sure we'd call this a job, but people definitely make money doing it. Videos that show how to do simple things like whistling, folding a paper airplane, or tying a tie can get a ton of clicks, which earns you ad revenue. According to Yahoo, if you make a few good videos, you can bank up to $100,000 a year (which sounds WAY too high to us, but according to YouTube, hundreds of people make that much or more each year). In an interview last April, the guy who posted a video called "How to Tie a Tie" on YouTube in 2006 pointed out that, quote, "It's nice to get paid for doing absolutely nothing."
#6.) Reviewing Spas and Massage Parlors. The CEO of Spafinder.com has gotten THOUSANDS of massages in her life. Freelance writers and editors for spa-related websites and magazines review spas all the time, and get paid between 20 and $90,000 a year.
#7.) Resort consultant. One popular mom blogger was hired by a family resort to spend four days as a V.I.P. guest and offer feedback on how to improve their kid-friendly features. Not only did they get an all-expense paid vacation, but she also earned $1,200 for her time.
#8.) Professional Sleeper. This year, a travel site in China called Qunar hired three people to pose as guests at hotels all over the country, and assess things like thread count, wi-fi strength, and how soft the pillows are. According to Yahoo, they can make around $1,500 a month.
It's Monday, so we understand if you don't feel like smiling. But it's also Act Happy Week which is all about "acting as if" you're happy on the theory that actual happiness will follow.
And science agrees. Apparently forcing yourself to smile can actually make you feel better.
Psychologists call it the "facial feedback hypothesis." We normally assume that the expression on your face is a result of your mood. But it works the other way too.
In other words, if you force yourself to frown all day, you're more likely to be miserable. And if you force yourself to smile, you're more likely to enjoy yourself... even at work.
Need more help? Here are five more reasons to smile:
1) It Makes You Seem More Trustworthy. In one study, participants were 10% more likely to trust someone if that person was smiling. You obviously don't want to overdo it though, because constantly smiling is just weird.
2) It Makes People More Likely to Forgive You. You shouldn't look happy about making a mistake. But research has shown that if you force a smile while you're apologizing, people are more likely to give you a break. An embarrassed smile can be especially affective: That's where you smile and look down at the same time.
3) It Makes You More Insightful. In one study, people who smiled during a test performed better on tasks where they had to concentrate on the big picture. In other words, smiling helps you see the forest . . . not just the trees.
4) It Makes You More Approachable. This one's not that surprising, but researchers found that when a man and a woman make eye contact at a bar, the guy only approaches her about 20% of the time. But if they make eye contact and she SMILES, there's a 60% chance he'll walk over.
5) It Might Add Years to Your Life. Scientists at Wayne State University in Detroit looked at pictures of baseball players taken in 1952. And the ones who smiled when they had their picture taken lived an average of seven years longer.
"Consumer Reports" just released the results of a survey where people ranked the 20 most annoying things other drivers do on a scale of one to 10.
Here's the full list of the 20 most annoying things other drivers do . . .
1.) Texting while driving, 8.9 out of 10.
2.) Able-bodied drivers parking in handicapped spots, 8.7.
3.) Tailgating, 8.4.
4.) Drivers who cut you off, 8.3.
5.) Speeding and swerving in and out of traffic, 8.2.
6.) Taking up two parking spaces, 7.7.
7.) Talking on the phone while driving, 7.6.
8.) Not letting you merge into a lane, 7.6.
9) Not dimming high beams, 7.6.
10.) Not using turn signals, 7.5.
11.) Slow drivers in the passing lane, 7.3.
12.) Jaywalkers who walk in front of your car, 7.3.
13.) Excessive horn honking, 7.1.
14.) Rubbernecking at accidents, 7.0.
15.) Not turning on lights when it's raining or about to get dark, 6.8.
16.) Drivers who are indecisive about where to turn, 6.6.
17.) Slow drivers on a two-lane road who won't pull over, 6.5.
18.) Not going when the light turns green, 6.1.
19.) Bicyclists who don't let you by, 5.8.
20.) Cranking the radio volume, 5.7.
Wardrobe malfunctions happen, and somehow, they always seem to strike at the most inopportune times—like when you have an important meeting in ten minutes. Even if you don’t have the foresight to keep an emergency garment-repair kit tucked away in your desk, common office supplies can fix your fashion disasters in a pinch.
Stapler: Did your hem come undone or your seam rip? A few quick snaps of a stapler can come to the rescue until you can get to a needle and thread. To avoid ripping the fabric, be sure to use a staple-remover when it comes time to take out the staples.
Erasers: If you lose the back to your earring and simply cannot go without accessories, use a bit of rubber from a pencil eraser as an anchor. Bonus: it won’t irritate your skin like backs that contain nickel. If the little rubber nub from the heel of your stiletto pops off, exposing the precarious metal pin of the heel, secure a pencil eraser to the bottom of your heel to prevent dangerous and embarrassing slips.
Packing Tape: Just realized that you’re bustin’ out of that oxford? Is your wrap dress coming unwrapped? Simply tear off a couple pieces of clear packing tape, secure them into loops, and use them to temporarily hold the fabric together.
Sharpie Markers: Markers come in handy when you need to camouflage a scuffed shoe, color in your makeshift pencil-eraser heel, or blend in a staple you’ve used to fix a hem.
FedEx or UPS Packing Pouches: If your cat attacks you right before you leave the house, use one of these sticky sleeves to quickly pick up hair or lint. Just rip off the backing to expose the adhesive, put the envelope on your hand like a glove, and go to town.
Graphite Pencils: The soft graphite in a No. 2 pencil can be used to unstick a tricky zipper. Rub the pencil on the offending area, and it will lubricate the teeth enough to make the zipper easier to work with.
Dry-Erase-Board Cleaner: Dry-erase-board cleaner is made mostly of isopropyl alcohol (aka rubbing alcohol), so when used carefully, it can be helpful in removing residues and simple stains. If you get pen marks, beverage stains, or other marks on clothes, blotting gently with some dry-erase-board cleaner can help treat the stains quickly and remove them. Just be sure not to get the stuff anywhere near your eyes, and if you’re using it on clothes, test it on a hidden area first to make sure the fabric is colorfast.
Paper Clips: If your bra straps insist on bagging and falling off your shoulders, use a standard paper clip to cinch them tight. Just grab the slack in the strap, fold it over onto itself, and secure with a clip or two. Just be sure not to make any drastic movements for the rest of the day.
Most of these aren’t permanent solutions, of course, but these simple tricks can help you stay cool, calm, and collected when your clothes let you down.
Today is Pack Rat Day. If you're a pack rat, today's the day to come clean and admit it.
raised nearly $22,000 for Royal Family Kids Camp - and donations are STILL coming in!.
So, guys... can you explain these things?
Ahhh, spring. The sun is shining, flowers are blooming, and everyone is happy! Until we notice that summer is coming and we're still holding on to a few extra pounds of winter weight! Yikes! If you're stressed about swimsuit season, we're here to help! Thanks to Self Magazine and Yahoo News, we have the Top 10 Superfoods for Weightloss:
Any new electronic device always seems to run SO much faster than the one it replaced.
In preparation for Mother's Day next month, Salary.com did their annual calculation of how much the average mom should be paid.
Coffee is Made from Coffee Beans - Actually, they’re not beans, they’re seeds.
With KAFE's big 80s party, Whamarama 3, coming up tomorrow night, we're doing a lot of reminiscing around here, and this morning I made the mistake of mentioning that I had a pierced ear back in the day and wondered aloud if the hole was still there.
Nope. That sucker just wasn't gonna go through. Although I don't think Mandy believes me. She thinks I wussed out. 
Here are twelve mistakes people commonly make that end up getting them audited. Unless you really want to meet a representative of the IRS in person, these are things to avoid:
The website CareerBliss.com polled over 100,000 people to find out how happy they were with their jobs and which jobs seemed to make people the happiest.
This has to fall under the "life changing studies" category. 
There are actually two great food stories coming out of the halls of science today.
Sure, we may be living in tough times, but there are a few things our kids wont have to worry about. Forbes just came out with this list:
It's Monday, so we understand if you don't feel like smiling. But it's also 
We've had a bunch of requests for the St. Patrick's Day song we played this morning... so here it is! Happy green beer!
1.) Texting while driving, 8.9 out of 10.
You've heard we're (KAFE 104.1) giving away 
Q:Researchers in the field of shape analysis have discovered that THESE really do have personalities. What?
