Asha Anujeeva

A few months ago my brother bought a wireless light switch for me to use on my bedside table lamp. I didn’t really feel I needed one, but it was a gift from someone who loved me, so I gratefully and dutifully plugged it in. Today I was reading the Consumer Reports Shopsmart magazine for January 2010 and saw it featured in their recall article as being a fire hazard! So I have just unplugged the switch and plan to call the toll free number and hope that they will issue a refund of some sort! I never would have know about this recall if I hadn’t read that magazine! I think maybe I should subscribe to it!

Mom was very upset over the fact that people have been claiming to come over and deliver packages and that no one was home at the time so the packages were returned.  She has been complaining to Dad for over a year that the doorbell is too quiet and there have been several times that people have rung the bell and no one heard it.  So we think that is the case with the package deliveries.  Dad finally agreed to look at the bell, telling Mom that it probably just needed new batteries.  Mom told him she was sure it was hardwired and no batteries were needed.  So Dad finally got the step-ladder and took the cover off.  He was going to prove his point that it just needed new batteries.  Well, Mom got to say “I told you so” because there were no batteries.

Going on the assumption that maybe it just needs a good cleaning, Dad has been vacuuming the dust out and is playing around with it to see if he can adjust the volume or change the chime to one that is easier to hear.  I hope it works!  This is not the time of year to have a doorbell that no one can hear!

I am amazed by how many homes I see nowadays with signs in front of their houses, and on their doors and windows that they are being protected by a security service such as the adt home security system.  It’s beginning to make me think that I need to get a system of my own – simply because I seem to be the “odd man out” without a warning sign.  Just might be letting the burglars know that my house is the only one that is safe to break into!

Of course I have a couple of dogs, a big one and a small one, and they both bark at strange noises, so that brings me some comfort.  But maybe it’s time for me to consider an electronic system as well.

I think I would like to make a plaque like this one. The words are inspiring and timeless. With all the old barns around here, I hope to find some old wood planks that would be suitable.

I have an island type counter in my kitchen that I dearly love, but it is poorly illuminated.  I need to buy an island light to put above it to help me see what I’m doing, but I want something that is really nice looking; not simply functional.  I’ve found a nice website dedicated to decorating with lights called lightingandliving.com that has hundreds of different types of island lights to choose from, but what I especially like about the website is how easy it is to narrow down what you are interested in.  You can type in your specifications into their search function and it filters out all of the ones that would not fit your specs.