Drain Cleaner that REALLY WORKS!

When I moved into my manufactured home October, 2007, one bathroom sink was clogged. I tried various products to get it to unclog, but nothing seemed to work. After a while, I just gave up and used a different sink (that bathroom had two sinks). 

But when I bought a small set of drawers to set up in the bathroom, I needed to use the clogged sink, and I went in search of a powerful drain cleaner I hoped would finally work.

And I found it! Pro-Strength Liquid-Plumr Full Clog Destroyer! I followed directions exactly as they were written. Funny, I thought. The directions say to pour a full bottle down the drain s-l-o-w-l-y. How else would anything go down that drain? The only way down was slowly. So I stood there and allowed the bottle to empty very slowly anyway – I didn't want in any way to screw up the possibility that my sink wouldn't drain properly.

But then I discovered another problem when I read that after 15 minutes I had to flush the drain with warm water. How was that going to work? It takes nearly a full minute and sometimes longer for the water to become warm in that bathroom, because it is so far away from the water heater.

But – success! – I came up with a remedy. I set the timer for 14 minutes and ran hot water in the bath for that minute. I grabbed a bucket, filled it with hot water and tons of expectations, poured it down the sink 15 minutes after I had poured the Pro-Strength Liquid-Plumr Full Clog Destroyer, and THE CLOG WAS GONE!

Don't you just love when something actually works?

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Tangle Teezer Brush Really Works!

When I first saw the commercial for the Tangle Teezer, I thought, "That will never work on MY hair!" My whole life, my hair has been wiry. Getting the snarls out of my hair got even worse after I got cancer – I lost all my hair and when it grew back in, it was even more wiry and suddenly curly as well.

I dreaded shower time, because my pre-shower ritual consisted of brushing my hair until all the snarls came out, a job that took for EVER, because brushing hurt, and I had to pull the brush through my hair very slowly! So the commercial intrigued me and I thought that if the Tangle Teezer worked on me, it would work on anybody. 

One of my granddaughters (8), whose hair is about 2 feet long, HATES having her hair brushed. She hangs on to her head and winces, complaining the whole time that it hurts, so when I got the Tangle Teezer, I tried it on her first. The Tangle Teezer didn't hurt her at all! Seems promising, I thought. I couldn't wait to try it on my own hair.

That night before I showered, I tried the Tangle Teezer. I should tell you first about how I tested this product. I was in North Carolina visiting my son for the past month and a half when I saw the ad for the Tangle Teezer. On the day I ordered it, I vowed to shower without brushing my hair for the entire week and a half that it took for me to get home, where my Tangle Teezer would be waiting for me. I wanted to give this brush a true test of its worth.

Guess what! After a week and a half of not brushing my hair AT ALL and trying this brush for the first time, I discovered that this brush is PHENOMENAL! I will NEVER use another brush. After a week and a half of not brushing my wiry cancer hair, I ran this brush through my hair and watched it glide from top to bottom effortlessly! With each stroke I became more and more amazed. It worked, it didn't hurt, AND it got the snarls out.

If I gave stars, and 5 was the most I gave, I would add another 20 for this product. I don't know HOW the Tangle Teezer works, I can't figure out WHY the Tangle Teezer works, but I can tell you THAT it works – absolutely! 

The ads for this product are completely truthful. I sincerely do not understand why this brush is so different from all the other brushes. It makes no sense to me that anything could take out tangles pain-free, especially after a week and a half of no brushing, but the Tangle Teezer lives up to its promise and I have become a forever fan!

You can purchase Tangle Teezer from any Sally Beauty Supply shop or go online (where I purchased mine) at SallyBeauty.com. The brush is expensive but SO WORTH IT!

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Refirm? Don't Bother!

Let me be upfront about something – and I realize I'm outing myself here – but I have a LOT of belly fat, so when I heard the commercial for Refirm, I thought to myself that if Refirm really works, as the "doctor" in the commercial claims it will, I owe it to myself to give Refirm a try.

First problem: Refirm is EXPENSIVE, but I'm worth it right? Yes – I am – IF REFIRM WORKED! It doesn't! 

Any time I see a product that claims it will get rid of belly fat and it comes with a plan that also includes a change in diet and an exercise program, I decide right then and there that the product probably DOES NOT WORK without the diet plan and the exercise program! Why not just institute the diet plan and exercise program WITHOUT the product?

Why?

Because if the product truly worked, it should stand alone as a working product. Refirm claimed that it had proven results. I'm generally not very trusting of commercials, but this one was convincing.

Secondly the commercial states something to the effect that if you lose more than 10 pounds in 10 days, Refirm implores you to go back to the store where you purchased it and readjust your plan. What a bunch of BS.

Yeah, that was the line that was supposed to cinch the deal. Wow! 10 pounds in 10 days! Sign me up, right? WRONG! I was already exercising and I was already following a healthy diet. I just wanted to get rid of my belly fat. I took the pills as I was supposed to and – guess what! I DIDN'T LOSE EVEN ONE POUND with Refirm.

To me, if a product truly works, it works. It doesn't require a special diet or a special exercise program. It works because it works. And in this case, Refirm does NOT work! I weigh exactly the same now as I did 6 weeks ago.

It probably would be better for me to start a new program – on my own, without Refirm. I have a plan and I'll let you know if it works. I'm waiting until the middle of August when I return home to the midwest. In the meantime don't waste your money on Refirm.

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Breast Cancer and the Genie Bra

In 2009 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I underwent a lumpectomy and had both radiation and chemotherapy. What I haven't been able to do since that lumpectomy is wear a bra. Not that I mind, but some clothes require a bra and I couldn't wear one until ...

One day, my youngest daughter told me that her upscale consignment boutique had just gotten in some Genie bras and she thought that I might be able to wear them. I was suspicious. Every bra I'd ever tried on hurt, because my cancer was located just under my right breast at the point where an underwire would scrape and push on it. Imagine somebody placing a large hard rock just under the underwire on your bra and having to walk around with that huge lump ever present. What happened was that the surgery effectively replaced my 4-centimeter-wide lump with close to 6 centimeters of rock-hard scar tissue.

So when anybody suggested I try on anything that had elastic of any kind, I soon discovered that I couldn't wear it.

Until I tried on the Genie bra. For three and a half years I went without a bra, and still do for some summer clothes, but now I know I can wear those nearly-see-through tops again with my new Genie bras.

I'd like to thank the makers of Genie Bras for making a bra so comfortable that even breast cancer survivors with rock-hard scar tissue can wear them. I've included links to the Genie Bra for anyone looking for comfort after breast cancer surgery. Just click anywhere you find Genie. Of if an ad appears above this post, you can click that.

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Bling it On (Your Graphics)

Thanks to Linda Herder, I learned about a web site that brings a little bling to graphics and photos. Want your graphics to sparkle? Want to fix your photos? I don't need to write a long blog about it. All you have to do is check it out. Click FotoFlexer and sign up! 

NOTE: When you get to the part that says, "Save to my computer," nothing may show up, but when you look on your computer you'll find it, so Bling it On with FotoFlexer!

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SOLEIL Best Self Tanning Product I've Ever Used

Last year my youngest daughter introduced me to Lancome's SOLEIL, Expert Sun Care™ Flash Bronzer. The tanning salon she visited sold it. What I wanted to know was why, if she was getting such great results with this tanning product, did she even need to go tanning. 

She had lost a tube of SOLEIL (very expensive {$37}) and had to purchase another one. Then she found the tube she lost and she gave the older one to me. I applied it and within an hour I saw results. So I tried it the next day and the next. Though my skin doesn't tan well, even in the sun, people asked me if I'd been on vacation.

The expense of this product could be lower, but I guess that when you sell a product that works better than any comparable product and people see the results, SOLEIL can ask whatever price it wants. (If anybody from Lancome is reading this blog, please don't be so greedy – lower the price so everybody can use it.)

SOLEIL doesn't streak, dry out the skin, or turn the skin yellow. The Vitamin E in the product assures silky smooth skin. This year, my daughter hasn't had a minute to spend in a tanning bed. I'm grateful – not that she doesn't have a minute to relax, but that she can't find time to sit in a tanning bed – skin cancer runs on both sides of her family, so I'm glad she can achieve the same great tanning results with SOLEIL.

The product I used came with no SPF protection, so if your SOLEIL Flash Bronzer purchase comes with no sun protection, make sure to add sun protection. You might have to go to your nearest tanning salon to purchase the product or you can find it online. 

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For Dog Lovers Everywhere

I love dogs. Sadly, I'm allergic to them, but I would have at least one if I could. I have read A Canine's Guide to the Good Life. It's imaginative. It's funny. And it's written by two dogs, Frankie and LuLu. If you have a dog, do him or her a favor and BUY THIS BOOK!

The Soap That Heals

If anyone were to tell me that I would prefer soap to body wash, I'd have told her she was wrong – I would never switch. But when the owner of JP Soaps asked me to try her soap, I decided to give it a try.

After I used it once, I wondered if it might heal my daughter's skin problem. For almost ten years her hands had broken out in blisters, and the skin opened up to reveal layers beneath the surface. The exposed underlying skin became infected and caused her a great deal of pain. She often wore gloves to hide the sores.

Find out what happened to my daughter 3 days after she began using JP Soaps by reading, A Miracle Soap? Maybe! If you or someone you love experiences the same type of problem, you just might find a healing remedy by using JP Soaps.

If you would prefer to skip the review, but would like to visit JP Soaps online, just click the link.

You can also visit them on Facebook (click the link).

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One Book Everybody Should Own, Read, and Absorb

Whether you were born in the 30s, the 50s, the 70s, or even the 90s, you have to agree that morality has steeply declined through the years. The comfort of those fortunate to live through the 50s, when they were able to leave their doors unlocked and when neighbors could drop in uninvited, has disappeared.

Admonitions to "honor your elders" and "trust adults" no longer apply to this new world of instant gratification replete with avenues to pornographic highways, admission to which is so easily accessible all you have to say is, "yeah, I'm 18 or older," and you're in. Children are being subjected to a world wide web of deceit filled with poisonous spiders ready to strike at prey that unwarily touch upon one of its threads.

We now have to protect our children and ourselves in ways we never thought we would. Seemingly simple questions, such as, "Do you know how to get to (name a place)," can mean a swift grab and run into a tinted-windowed van and a tortuous trip to hell. No longer can we blindly trust anyone. 

The sad thing is most of us aren't (or at least haven't been until now) equipped with the necessary tools to handle these precarious situations. We might recognize when we – or our children – are being manipulated or in danger, but we don't know how to handle the manipulators, because we have been raised to "be nice to people."

How can you tell the difference between somebody who is being friendly and somebody who is grooming you so that he or she can molest your sons or daughters? Not until Dr. Phil's Life Code: The New Rules for Winning in the Real World, have we had a manual that tells us exactly how to detect frauds and exactly how we can protect ourselves and our children. 

Life Code is more than just one book. It could have been titled, How to Live Your Life Authentically, AND How to Protect Yourself and Your Children from Criminals, AND How to Recognize a Manipulator AND… (I could go on and on). I wish I could have read Life Code when I was in my teens. It might have saved me from a lot of grief over the years. 

Life Code could save you or your children from experiencing situations that would lead to emotional problems later in life. If I gave stars on what I expected from this book and on what I got from this book, on how much I learned from this book, and on how valuable I believe this book is, Life Code would get every star possible and then some.

I highly recommend Life Code. I plan to read it again and again until its message seeps into my pores and becomes part of me.  

Olive Garden's Breaded Shrimp Scampi

One Friday night, as I was serving drinks at the cocktail lounge where I worked as a waitress, a regular customer walked in with his dinner – breaded shrimp scampi.

"That smells sooooo good," I told him.

"Wanna try it?" 

Of course I did, and he obliged. What I tasted had my taste buds dancing. It had the perfect combination of butter and garlic, giving the scampi not only the flavor I didn't even know I was craving, but also the texture that felt so good in my mouth. 

The restaurant where my cocktail lounge's patron ordered these delectable shrimp was located in Calumet City, Illinois, a few miles from where I worked. 

Throughout several moves to different states and several decades later, I have searched – in vain – for breaded shrimp scampi that matches in excellence the ones I tasted so long ago. I almost gave up searching, but I never gave up hope.

Good thing, too, because now, FINALLY, I found it – on Olive Garden's new menu. 

I don't know if Olive Garden uses the same recipe as that long ago Calumet City restaurant did or if the owner of the restaurant in Calumet City moved to Orlando to open an Olive Garden chain, but when my taste buds rose to attention and started dancing that familiar dance, I knew I'd found that same p-l-e-a-s-u-r-a-b-l-e feeling again! 

If you haven't tasted Olive Garden's breaded shrimp scampi, you owe it to yourself to experience possibly the best breaded shrimp scampi ever. You'll find it on their appetizer menu.

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Red Heart Boutique Sashay Yarn

As a crocheter, I love to experiment with various yarns. It seems that lately so many new ones appear on the shelves every time I visit my favorite yarn shops, that I feel compelled to use them. 

Some of the items I crochet appear in my daughter's consignment boutique, but only one of those items has been requested by shoppers. And that item was made with Red Heart Boutique Sashay Yarn. 

The yarn looks like ribbon when you purchase it, but transforms into a beautiful silky lacy looking item when stretched. Red Heart Boutique Sashay Yarn comes with instructions for knitters, but does not come with instructions for crocheters.

When I began using Red Heart Boutique Sashay Yarn, I was at a loss as to how to use it, so I figured it out and wrote about how to crochet with the Sashay yarn in my blog, How to Crochet with Red Heart Boutique Sashay Yarn. 

If you have been wondering how to use this beautiful yarn, please click the link for instructions. You can also follow those same instructions for some of the newer ribbon-type yarns that require you to stretch them apart.

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What You Need to Know About Your NETFLIX Account

Why pay $8 to watch one movie one time when you can pay that same amount of money to watch hundreds of movies all the time with NETFLIX? 

Yes. I know. Some people have to see a movie the minute it comes on screen. If you are one of those people, you can skip this blog. If, however, you have the patience to wait for a movie to come out on Netflix, read on.

Everyone knows by now that Netflix offers lots of movies and television programs to anybody willing to pay $7.99 a month. Yes, only $7.99 a month! You won't get currently running programs or recently released movies, but you will get LOTS of movies and television shows, and some of those TV shows are only a year old.

Netflix is available on your computer, your wii, your PS3, your XBox, your iPad, your iPhone, and many other devices. No matter how many devices you have, though, Netflix lets you register up to only 6 devices on one account. 

Because you can access Netflix through so many devices, family members who are using Netflix at the same time you are means YOU might not be able to watch movies on Netflix, because Netflix allows you to access only two devices at a time.

Last year one of my daughters and two of my grandsons moved in with me. One of those grandsons had an XBox 360. I allowed him to access MY Netflix on HIS XBox while he was living with me. 

After everyone moved out, he continued to use my Netflix in his new home. At first it was no problem (and I didn't realize that it could be a problem, because I thought I was the only one using Netflix). 

Then one of my grandsons moved back in with me while my other grandson continued to use my Netflix. Now it became a problem. The grandson who lived with me often used Netflix at the same time I was using it. Phone calls and texts to my other grandson asking him to stop using Netflix went unanswered and I had to come up with a solution.

Fortunately Netflix is a company that is easily accessible. When you visit the Netflix web site you find an actual working phone number which links you to an actual person. That alone is a plus.

And what you find when you connect with Netflix is that Netflix's customer service is extraordinary! The customer service reps I talked to each time told me which devices were currently in use, which movies or television shows were currently being accessed, and how many minutes into the show my grandson had already watched!

But even customer service can't prevent your friends and relatives from hacking into your account, a problem Netflix recognizes but hasn't been able to stop – yet. If the person who is using your Netflix account knows your birthday and your email address, he or she can get your password. 

Netflix offered to disconnect all devices using my Netflix account and reconnect it with a new password. 

The new password, however, was only a temporary fix. Because my grandson knew my email address and my birthday, he was able to access my account and find out what that password was. He continued to use my Netflix account.

So I called Netflix again and this time I devised a remedy that fixed the problem permanently. How? I used a brand new email address and a brand new password nobody will ever figure out. I also sent a text to my grandson telling him that it wasn't fair for me to pay for an app I couldn't use.

Now, when I turn on Netflix, I can actually watch Netflix.

By the way, If you have several people accessing several devices, at only $7.99 a month, just get another Netflix account. You'll probably see an ad for Netflix somewhere on this blog.

And just in case you think I'm a mean grandma, please know I love ALL of my grandchildren, including the one who thought he could get away with using my Netflix account :)

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BIOSILK's Silky Shiny Gleaming Products Get Rid of Cancer Hair

During chemotherapy, all of my hair fell out. What grew back in looked like barn straw. The texture was brittle – not at all silky or shiny. It didn't even feel like hair. What happened to my gleaming flaxen waxen (from the song HAIR) hair? 

It became bird nest material – curly bird nest material.

And then I remembered a product I used prior to getting cancer, and I wondered if it might turn straw into gold. It did!

Though BIOSILK offers numerous hair products, the two I used after my hair grew back – and the products I still use – are their mousse and their silk therapy serum. 

When my hair is wet, I blend in some BIOSILK Mousse, scrunch my new curls (I never had curls until after chemo) and, after my hair dries, I add the BIOSILK Serum (remember to always shake the bottle – and don't use too much). 

Even though BIOSILK is expensive (for me), the fact that I don't have to use much of the product to get the desired effect is a great benefit. 

BIOSILK serum is an amazing product for cancer hair because it's light and brings hair back to its original (or possibly better) silky feel. And their mousse keeps hair shaped.

When I step out into the sun, I've got that gleamin' flaxen waxen hair I always dreamed of having. For those of us with cancer hair, BIOSILK is a godsend! 

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