Month: July 2015

Online Article – GENEALOGY: THE TIME TO START IS NOW!

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Genealogy: the time to start is NOW! July 2013 Written for personal blog Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON

You want to let your children know where they come from, and, hey, so do you! But where do you start? You know there are online websites and books and things, but you just don’t have any time for those. You have CHILDREN and a family!

The easiest way to start is probably on your social calendar already. The picnics and family reunions that are popping up this time of year, especially around The Fourth, are the BEST time to start on your new hobby: genealogy.

Before going to the gathering do some preliminary note taking. Write down what you do know about your or your significant other’s (SO) family. You probably know your/SO’s mother and father’s name and where/when they were born; write down all siblings and their partner’s names, birthdates and wedding anniversaries, and children’s names, birthdates. You are off to a great start!

Now, try and remember the next generation BACK:  your/SO’s grandfathers and grandmothers names. Names are a great start. Hopefully, you may remember their birthdays, anniversaries, death dates, etc. Even bits and pieces can help put the puzzle together.

If you cannot remember this information, you will now know where to start!

Be sure to gather a couple of extra items to bring with you with that favorite bean dip: A couple of pens, a notepad, a digital recorder or camera. These are all great tools to help you catch all of the information. Recordings are great because you can just sit back and listen to the stories and go back later to write it all down!

“What was Great Aunt Rose’s full name? Did she ever get married? What about Chester? Was he a brother to Great Aunt Rose? Where did he move? What was that story about Papa and the anteater?”

Enjoy the process! Sure, you may want to visit with your closest family but chatting to that distant cousin might bring up some forgotten family history that you will want to record in your notes. Just think of the possibilities!

After you assemble what you can from the members in your family that are living, it is time to then hit the internet! There are several places to start your search from Ancestry.com to the online vital records of the towns, cities, or states where those family members from past generations lived.

Start with what you know. The clues will send you on your journey! Bon Voyage!

 

Online Article – IT’S LIKE A FOOD TRUCK RODEO IN HERE!

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It’s like a Food Truck Rodeo in here! August 2013 Written for personal blog Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON

Every day in the kitchen at my office there is a homemade snack or two sitting on the table, tempting the office staff to come and try it. At lunch, the refrigerator opens up to a plethora of sights and smells when the foodies bring out what they made the night before. They made extra so everyone can have a taste!

It has become almost like a Food Truck Rodeo every day! One lady brings a new kind of slaw made from Ramin noodles, cabbage and mandarin oranges. Another brings her husband’s bbq chicken and some fried okra. There is always a new cake, new salad or a new side dish popping up!

One day recently, I didn’t feel much like driving to the local sandwich shop so, as it turns out, my co-workers fed me with a little of this and a little of that! SO TASTY!

If our everyday fare is like the Rodeo, you can imagine what the office parties are like! When a birthday or a promotion or just Hump Day roll around, it is time to break out the family recipes and show off the ol’ chef skills! It is quite the presentation and gastronomic feast!

I wonder if it just us? Or, does this happen in other offices? And, if it is just here in the South or do others around the country do it too?

I bet it is happening everywhere. The economy is still rough for so many of us. And, the popularity of cooking channels along with the trends like the food-as-medicine, farm-to-table, and the fusions of different cuisines from around the world has us all wanting to learn more. It seems to be almost a zeitgeist moment.

I do work in a small office with mostly women and a few men. I have noticed that we are making connections through these daily rituals-much like communities did in the days of our great grandparents.

I actually like it. It is comforting slice of peace in the middle of the high-tech filled day.

Pass the pie!

Science Online Article – HOW DO SCIENTISTS MAKE WATERMELON FLAVOR

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How do scientists make watermelon flavor?   July 2011 Written for TriangleMommies Blog Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON

It is a summer time favorite -a venerable taste of the season. I have loved the taste of these big delicious red and green melons since I was a kid! The experience is unmistakable-with the juices that run down your neck and the seeds you can spit easily because they are slippery-the flavor unmatched. Or so I thought.
The first candies I tasted with watermelon flavor were way back in the mid 1980’s, Jolly Rancher Hard Candies. I was amazed at the flavor, the color and the smell -oh the smell! However great this new candy tasted, I was ultimately disappointed in the lack of subtlety of the candies’ flavor that can only be found in the fruit itself. It was then that I knew right there in the middle of winter, there would just never be the perfect watermelon flavor to whet my appetite. I tried, though. I tried many times to find it. It never was found.
Today, I sit eating a scrumptious piece of the real fruit and I think back to that moment. And, I wonder why. Why couldn’t there be the perfect blend of odor and taste to bring this fantastic delight to me in the wintertime? Well, besides having the watermelons flown in from the southern hemisphere.I got to work. I looked up natural versus artificial flavors. I looked at histories and chemistry notes. I think I might have the answer.

It all starts with a chemical compound called an “ester”. A chemist can find these esters by boiling down or deconstructing the very fruit, or other natural element, into the chemical components that make it up. Then, when taking the water molecule out of such so that it breaks down even more into a compound made up of the reaction between an acid and an alcohol, one finds the ester.

These esters are the basic building blocks of taste and scent for the flavor. The ester for an orange flavor is called octyl acetate (CH3COOC8H17). The “octyl” is the alcohol and the “acetate” is the acid. So, by adding these esters to a product’s ingredients, the product will taste like an orange. Well, at least to some degree.

I did some further digging and found out that my precious watermelon flavor used to be based on a strong belief that alcohols were the main contributors towards the aroma. The study by some chemists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign actually found out that a watermelon’s ester, the one that can smell like fresh cut watermelon, is identifiable but not stable enough to flavor anything. It breaks down too quickly. These chemists worked on the problem but found that if you used the ester, nicknamed “watermelon aldehyde”, and bonded it to a synthesized “backbone”, the result still wasn’t good enough to be a suitable replacement for the esters on the market now.

This process goes for every flavor you can imagine. The chemists find the esters. The food producers add the ester compounds to the products. The public figures out if the product does taste like the food producers want you think it tastes. And, we all happily go about our business.

Of course there is a huge debate whether these artificial flavors are a good thing or a bad thing. This follows along the same lines as the debate on artificial colors or news of the development of the Local Food Movement. These ideas will have to be addressed in other blog posts. In this article, I just wanted to find out “how?”

As a result of all my research, here we sit, with a mock watermelon flavor that just cannot satisfy my cravings for this summer fruit during the summer. The real thing is still the best! But, it might just do in a pinch come Halloween!

Online Article – GARDEN ENVY GOES GREEN

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Garden Envy goes GREEN: How I went from no garden to mini-garden easily! ( Part II of Color Me Green)

May 2012 Written for TriangleMommies Blog Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON

To recap, if you have been reading the TM Blog, I wrote recently that I was suffering from a bout of Garden Envy. My friends were so lucky with their little nurslings-watching them grow-that I soon wanted a garden too. Well, this is the rest of the story.
My Garden Envy is slowing slipping away. I now have plants and dirt and watering schedules to help me recover! Of course, it cost me about $50 at the home improvement store. (Yes, I probably could have saved money by shopping around and piecing things together myself.) But, with the experience of those burly men (and women?) in the gardening section, I found the expertise that would seed my enthusiasm for my project.
My son had brought home the first plant from his science class. It is a kidney bean plant. So, going with the flow, I bought a large long rectangular plastic pot that would hold three plants with room to grow. With help from the burly man mentioned above, I picked a green pepper plant and then a citronella (for getting rid of pesky insects) to fill out the pot.
Still being in the throws of a Green Envy outbreak, I bought a plant just for myself. It is an almost two-foot-tall tomato plant in its own pot. I had to stake it when I got home, but it is a beauty! And, consequentially, I started to dream of fresh salads.
The back porch did not work out as planned. It ended up being to shady. I moved the two large pots to a small sunny nook in front of my front porch yet behind a small “butterfly bush”. Here they should get all the sun they need!
I water them in the morning and check to see if they need water again in the evening. It is easy to remember because the plants are on the same schedule as my walks with my dog.
I currently have two, maybe three, green tomatoes. There is one very tiny bean pod growing. Alas, there are no signs of green peppers.
My Garden Envy infliction has subsided thanks to my small (two pot) container garden; however, I AM feeling a bit anxious watching and waiting for those plants to grow. Perhaps I should go shopping at a farmer’s market soon so I can get my “fix”. Oh well, I guess one can’t be completely cured of an ailment of the Horticultural variety too easily!

Online Article – COLOR ME GREEN

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Color me green  (Part I of II) April/May 2012 Written for TriangleMommies Blog Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON

Like the characters Kermit the Frog and Yoda of Star Wars, it really isn’t easy being green. In fact, around this time every year the green-eyed monster within has reared her (unfortunately) ugly head and signals the beginning of the growing season. Yes, I must admit that I have Garden Envy.

And, this year, the force is quite strong. Due to the mild winter we have had here in North Carolina, everything started blooming early and with gusto. (I’d hate to even think about the amount of bugs that will be showing up soon. But, that is another blog article.)

I had been used to having my own home-grown vegetables at my finger-tips, but those days are gone. I have moved from a house with a yard to a duplex with, well, a back porch. Gone are the days of green vines spreading out in all directions! Those corn stalks; they would reach to the sky!

I have friends that have been tending their seedlings this spring and I just look on with awe. In fact, I have one friend whose husband has taken a five by five foot area in their rented house’s back yard and built a two tiered vegetable growing plat. The top is for the herbs. They sit right at arm’s length. The lower (outer) plat is for the veggies.  He has sectioned the area off into squares with twine and each set of squares has its own function. These squares are for the tomatoes and these other ones are for the radishes. Amazing.

So, I am suffering with Garden Envy. And, most doctors won’t write a prescription for it.  However, it seems, I might have found a cure! I won’t know if my cure works until the trials, which start t this weekend, end and the data gathered and published. But, if I plant my own little mini-garden on my back porch, I might just shake this GE affliction!

I will be sure to publish my findings here at Triangle Mommies, so if ever you catch this malady in the future, you know what to do, or what not to do.

Until then, keep your chin up and watch out for bees!

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Online Article – BLACK GOLD

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Black Gold June 2013 Written for TriangleMommies Blog Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON

My co-workers and I have discovered black gold. No, it isn’t the “Texas Tea” sort either.

We have discovered a little sandwich shop inside the corner gas station that sells Café Cubano or cafecito.

This is a black coffee, sweetened oh so perfectly, and served hot with foam in a small little Styrofoam cup. It smells perfectly pungent with hints of the tropics swimming in a dark sea of caffeine. It tastes like the smoothest dark chocolate, almost liquor-like in its consistency. The foam just tickles your lips with buttery kisses while the coffee warms your whole being.

Beware! It is STRONG. Ah, so strong-strong enough to carry you through the rest of your stressful day on just that one cup.

Of course, it is strong enough to last into the evening too. A couple of us have had a cup of cafecito in the middle of a particularly hard afternoon and found out that it did get us all through the day without killing anyone, but we were up half the night ready to kill someone for lack of sleep!

There are several places throughout the Triangle where you too can try a cup of Café Cubano: The Oakwood Café in Raleigh, the Havana Grill in Cary, The Old Havana Sandwich Shop in downtown Durham, and our little secret in Morrisville, The Latin Corner.

If you love coffee, and you haven’t had a cup of joe you could call “black gold”, then you must seek out this lyric-poem-in-a-cup, a cafecito.  Be warned, you might get addicted.

Online Article – “All the Single Ladies”…HAPPY FATHER’s DAY!

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“All the Single Ladies”…HAPPY FATHER’s DAY! June 2013 Written for the TriangleMommies Blog Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON

Normally, we would all just burst into song, until you read the last few words of that title.

I am calling out to a segment of Motherhood that usually only gets bad press: single mothers. Single mothers are so much more than what those sad accounts tell us.

There are mothers who choose to be single and there are mothers who are divorced; there are mothers who have lost their partners in numerous different ways like accidents, disease, and even war. Some are dumbfounded on how they even became single mothers!

Single mothers are more than a statistic on your economic chart; they are more than blights on the welfare system. Single mothers are hard working women. Most have full time jobs and come home to their other full time job. Most juggle schedules that would drive the White House secretaries into tears.

Many single mothers still have the father in the child’s life to help with the schedules, the decisions, and the childcare. Just like other women, single mothers can have great family or social support systems and of course, some do not. These ladies can seek out great groups like Triangle Mommies to fill that void.

Oh, and those single mothers are NOT trying to “steal” your husband, partner, or significant other. It seems like a funny statement at this moment. However, society norms make us leery of those single moms all the same. Basically, they don’t have time to “steal” anyone. Think about it.

The next time you meet a single mother, don’t pity her. Think of how strong she is! Think about the time, effort, and finesse it takes to raise a child (or children) on her own.

So, for those single mothers who fill both roles of mother and father, HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! You are all doing a GREAT JOB!

 

ONLINE ARTICLE – Southern Exposure

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Southern Exposure July 2013 Written for Triangle Mommie Blog Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON

I have lived in the South most of my life. I have said my fair share of “yes, ma’am” and “no, sir”. I have acquired a taste for fried pickles and good ol’ North Carolina Barbeque. However, it is amazing how much more you can learn about the South when reading some of the more regional magazines out there!

Of course, most of us know about several of the larger publications in the region like Southern Living, Southern Lady and Southern Accents.  Here in North Carolina we have Our State Magazine and many states have their own magazines too.

The Blue Ridge Parkway has one. Golfing in Georgia is covered in another. Southeastern Equine covers horses and what to do with them. Florida has a business magazine called “850”. Mississippi has two or more great literary magazines. And, there are so many more I cannot even name them all!

If there is anything that you want to learn more about, you can find an article about it in one of these magazines. What growing region are you in? Check in Southern Living. What is the best batter to fry catfish in? Check in Taste of the South. What are the best books to read during a hurricane? Yes, there is an article on that topic in Deep South Magazine.

One of my newest finds has actually been publishing for two years now. The articles are thoughtful and current. The topics are always entertaining. There are some sections I just jump over because I am not interested. But, all in all, the magazine is a great read!

I will have to allude to the title as it is not the best thing to talk about on a Mommie Blog but the first word is GARDEN, ampersand, and the second word is a tool used in hunting wild game in a very licensed and responsible way. Yes, those are the articles in the magazine that I skip over. Although, given the fact that Mommies can have very differing viewpoints and interests, some women might enjoy those articles too. All are very well written.

So, I spend my lunchtime reading and learning more about the region where I grew up. Perhaps, I will find something to do with my new found knowledge like write an article about Reading Regional Magazines! Hmmmm. 😉

CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY ARTICLE – Name that ‘shroom

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Children’s Activities: NAME THAT ‘SHROOM! July 2013 Written for Triangle Mommies Blog Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON

With all the crazy wet weather we are having here in North Carolina, it has been a boon year for mushrooms. You can see them in the forests, in the country and even in many urban/suburban neighborhoods!

I have found at least three different types along my walk in the mornings!

So, I have invented a new activity for the kiddies: NAME THAT ‘SHROOM! This activity includes a hunt-and-find outdoor game and a make-it-yourself field guide.

First the HUNT! While traipsing through the woods or sticking to the sidewalks, be on the lookout for interesting shapes and colors and textures among the landscape. Mushrooms come in many different colors and textures.

**PLEASE BE AWARE, especially with children, do not touch the mushrooms you find until you know for sure that they are safe. You don’t want the kid to accidentally ingest the sample.

It is best to take a digital picture of the mushroom from all angles. Try and get the tops, the surrounding area, underneath the dome and the stems too.

Now off to the library, or the internet, to see what great treasure you have found!  See the guide below for some titles and websites.

Things to figure out: What is its name? Where does it normally grow? What are its tell-tale features? Is it safe to touch or to pick? Is it edible?

Once you find out some of these basics, you and your little one can create a great little field guide of your own back yard. Include pictures, drawings, facts, and even spore prints in a little self-made or store-bought sketch book. See website #1 for how to make a spore print.

Then the next time we get weather like this again, your little field guide will help you identify what pops up in your yard!

BOOKS:

 

1. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (National Audubon Society Field Guides)by NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY

2.    The Mushroom Book For Beginners: 2nd Edition Revised : A Mycology Starter or How To Be A Backyard Mushroom Farmer… by Frank Randall

3.   The Complete Mushroom Hunter: An Illustrated Guide to Finding, Harvesting, and Enjoying Wild Mushrooms by Gary Lincoff

4.    A Field Guide to Mushrooms: North America (Peterson Field Guides) by Kent H. McKnight, Vera B. McKnight and Roger Tory Peterson

WEBSITES:

  1. Urban Mushrooms: http://urbanmushrooms.com/index.php?id=69
  2. American Mushrooms: http://americanmushrooms.com/lawnandgarden.htm
  3. Mushroom Expert: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/index.html
  4. The Mushroom Patch: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/index.html

 

COMPANY MISSION ARTICLE – Mission Two 2014: SGT. Rando

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MISSION TWO 2014: SGT. MATTHEW RANDO’s FAMILY  June 2014 Written for Caliber Technologies Copyright ARLADEAN ARNSON/Caliber Technologies

The family of SGT. Matthew Rando has had it very hard the last year or so. Upon hearing of their troubles, Caliber Technologies jumped to donate through our non-profit of choice, Operation Once in a Lifetime.

Here is the Rando Family’s story:

SGT. Rando is stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.  He and his wife, Samantha, reside off-base with their eight children ranging in ages from 2 to 21 years of age, two of which have special needs. They have lived modestly on his Army paycheck while Samantha works as a stay-at-home mother.

The family is used to weathering hardships. When Samantha’s mother passed away, SGT Matthew and Samantha raised her two younger siblings, without hesitation.

Earlier this year, Samantha underwent major surgery which resulted in complications. These complications are, unfortunately, continuing and she will need another surgery in the fall.

Just as the family was getting used to the difficulties Samantha’s surgery brought, SGT. Rando’s  pay was disturbed in March.  There was an error in the amount he received. Knowing that it may be 45 days until the error was corrected, the family sought help through Army Emergency Relief (AER). This agency was able to help them on a one-time only basis.

His paycheck problem was not resolved in April, nor in May. Samantha tells us this:

“My husband and his command started working on fixing the error in March and they were told it could take 45 days to [get the monies] back in our pay.

So, we did the best we could to get by. Then when the 45 days passed, and it was not fixed, my husband went to his command and they went to S1 and Finance and found that the paperwork was still sitting on their desk and never turned in.

It has went up to the Lt. Colonel and they are doing everything they can to push the issue but it does not help our current situation.”

Now, with SGT. Rando’s paycheck problems still persisting, the family is placed again in financial need. This is when Caliber Technologies was contacted and we happily offered to help out.

You can help families just like the Rando Family with your purchase at Caliber Technologies.

Thank you.