Thursday

GADGET REVIEW! "As Seen on TV" Do-Dads Reviewed-Watering Plants, Controlling Cat Litter, Problem with Keurig Coffee Maker


PIC OF DAY

DO NOT BUY……


So the things pictured below DO water your plants, slowly but effectively, this is true.

Always a sucker for gadgets, I figured those glass globes that are filled with water then stuck down into a potted plant's dirt to slowly drop water to plant's roots were just the thing for me and my bevy of potted plants.



DO NOT BELIEVE IT!

Like I say, they work, but first, the long stem of the thing gets jammed with dirt and it's a real pain to clear it out. I paper clip bent straight will work but if you have many of these things, which I have about ten, standing and cleaning dirt out of glass globe stems is no fun.

You have to clear the dirt out to fill them with water and we go on to pain in the butt number two.

THESE THINGS TAKE A LONG TIME TO FILL!!

You hold the tops under the tap and if you're lucky, maybe one drop out of five goes to the bottom of the globe.

I've tried straws, funnels, dripping water streams, torrent water streams.

My advice? Get a water bucket and water your plants that way.

It's way faster and way cheaper.
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Review of "Litter Genie"


I'm okay with the new, latest and greatest gadget, that collects the cat litter box contents, stores it in a smell-less bag until ready to dispose, and with a flick of a wrist the old bag is cut and a new one created to begin the process anew.

As I understand it, THIS device is patterned off of another device, the DIAPER GENIE. Evidently the diaper genie was so well received that somebody told the inventor…."hey, why don't you invent the same sort of thing for cat litter collection?"
This is a GREAT invention but I add one major caveat. IT MIGHT NOT BE THE SOLUTION FOR MULTIPLE CATS!

We have four cats and I change this bag once a week. I empty the litter pans, four of them, three times a week so keep a perspective. The advertising hype states it only must be changed once a month. A claim that, by my experience, is close to the truth because if once a month for ONE cat, then once a week for FOUR cats is logical.

I still like this device even though I wrestle with empty and refill once a week. But before, consider, I wrestled three times a week with scooping out the pans and then I put the soiled litter in those small plastic grocery bags. Those things always seem to have a hole in the bottom or couldn't handle the load.

I like this way much better but again, owners of multiple cats, consider this before purchase.

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BIG PROBLEM WITH NEW KEURIG COFFEE MAKER


So I got a new Keurig coffee maker and life as I knew it got easier.

But it didn't get cheaper.

The price of my morning coffee just jumped double, even triple!

Which is not to say there are not workarounds.

There are a slew of "basket" type things that allow coffee to be manually put into them and then can be inserted into the Keurig.

I've lived all my life as a cheapskate but most times I was cheap cause I was poor.

Which is not to say I'm rich now but, eh, hey, I really don't want to have to refill those little baskets; part of the allure of this coffee maker is the ability to toss in a pod of pre-packaged coffee grounds and brew up a cup of coffee.

The pre-filled coffee pods, damn they're expensive.

While I'm willing to pay extra for the convenience, I do want to keep as much of my money as I can.


This past week I almost walked out of BJ's with a box of 80 Keurig pods. I thought my bill was high so I stopped before store exit and checked my receipt.

$40.00!

Yeah, it was for 80 pods but I'm using three of these things a day to equal my half pot from the Mr. Coffee! 80 pods would not even be a month's worth!

I returned the pods and will now ponder how to keep the convenience of the Keurig while holding on to some of my retirement cash.

$40.00 a month is too much for coffee. It cost me about $10-$12 a months with my Mr. Coffee.

There's got to be a middle ground.

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