Tattler Reusable Canning Lids On Sale in October

For the month of October, Tattler is running a 10% off sale for their reusable canning lids. Great opportunity to try them out if you’ve wanted to but shied away from the price: 2 dozen each of the wide and narrow mouth lids and gaskets are on sale for $35.16, down from the normal price of $43.95. And shipping is free, woo hoo.

If you haven’t wanted to try them because you’re saying to yourself, “I obviously did not read that correctly, because, reusable canning lids?!” – no, you read that right: Tattler makes reusable canning lids. I’ve been using them for, gosh, going on three years now for most of my canning…at this point, they’ve definitely paid for themselves.

Quick product review, what I like about them is:

• I never find myself out of lids when I’ve got 300 pounds of rapidly-decaying tomatoes on my kitchen counter…and allllll the local stores have stopped carrying them in favor of Christmas ornaments
• This has actually happened to me more times than I like to think about
• Yeah, I can mail order…but that doesn’t help the tomatoes already rotting on my countertop…sigh…
• I’m protected from the occasional price-gouging that goes on in Such Times, when there is only one place that still has canning supplies, and they know it, so suddenly that little box of 12 throwaway lids is $6 or some crazy thing
• After you’ve opened a home-canned jar of something, the same lid and gasket (<= the key selling point here!) make resealing that jar and sticking it in the fridge a bit less…leak-prone…thing to do than reusing the same one-use lid for the same purpose
• At least it is around here, because the Denizens are infamous for rummaging through the fridge like starved boars on a forage, knocking things over and not righting them again
• …don’t ask me how many times I’ve found a formerly-almost-full quart jar of some sauce or other lying on its side in a vast puddle of its own innards, quietly dripping all down the back/sides of the thing and making everything in there stick to the shelves as if Gorilla Glue had been applied to their bottoms…
• I no longer have to suffer that twinge of guilt one suffers these days when one casually tosses something onto a landfill-bound pile
• Which means that I no longer suffer the hot flash of anger that I’m made to feel guilty about something like that
• Which further means I am spared the worry that perhaps I need counseling, because show me WHO is saying that you SHOULD feel guilty about this…methinks you are perhaps just a TOUCH defensive/paranoid on this count, my dear…
• This increasingly-indented-cycle-of-psychosis actually goes on for quite a while, so, let’s just stop here, shall we? yes, do let’s… 
• They are Zombpocalypse Compliant. Extremely important right there: We will still be able to can produce, even if WalMart is overrun by zombies.  
• OMG, WAIT, I THINK THAT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED!!!!!
• …sorry, couldn’t resist…

What sometimes irritates me about them:

• They have a learning curve! You do things a bit differently when you use these, and at first? The seal-failure rate is dreadful – it gets better with practice, but y’all should know going in that you may have a session or two of redo ALL the jars before you get the hang of it
• They have a higher seal failure rate than the ‘traditional’ throw-away versions – very careful handling / making sure you wipe the lips of the jar with vinegar etc. will get this to reasonable rates, but inattention to detail will be punished more severely with these reusable lids than their throwaway counterparts
• They take up more storage space – the plastic lids are bigger / heavier-duty than the one-use ones
• The gaskets loooooooove to get separated from the lids
• This may be a Den of Chaos thing more than anything else – The Randomizer lives here and takes great delight in moving things to inappropriate spots on me
• I hesitate to give away a jar of something to someone who doesn’t can or who might not return them to me, since they aren’t exactly cheap – kind of like the difference between giving out something in a take-n-toss container versus your good Tupperware, you know?
• Oh yeah, almost forgot: The gaskets also make awesome cat toys, which means that if you have cats, they will be constantly pulling a Mission:Impossible on you to get at them (she said, picking one up off the floor under her desk, a-HEM…)
• Samantha Schilling and Fleur Fatale are insisting this is in the wrong section and should be in the ‘pros’ one
• But, as they lack typing skills, ha ha, I win

PSA: Vanna’s Choice Contest

Okay, all my knitting / crocheting friends!! The third annual Vanna’s Choice contest is ramping up!

Here’s the upshot: You make something using the Vanna’s Choice line of yarns (you can also use small amounts of other Lion Brand goodies).

The deadline to submit is February 1, 2011.

Do not be intimidated by the picture of last year’s winner on that page – click through and have a look at some of the other winners as well. The caliber is high, don’t get me wrong, but I have seen lots of stuff on all-y’all’s pages that can rival anything here.

And there are prizes!!

There are four categories, and each category has the following prizes:
1 x $1,000 grand prize
3 x $500 second prize
4 x $100 Michael’s gift card prize

In addition, one of those four $1,000 grand prize winners will get roundtrip airfare, $500 spending money, and 2 nights hotel accommodation…so that they can meet Vanna White in person.

I am embarrassed to confess that I think that would be awesome.

You can use your own pattern, or somebody else’s (with credit given, of course). You don’t have to send your whole project in, just a picture of it. Only if you are selected as a semi-finalist will you have to send the actual project in.

I’ve used the Vanna Choice for a few things, especially for the Denizens (hello, machine wash / dry, and have I told you I love you today?). It’s a #4-worsted weight, and has a pretty wide color palette. It holds up pretty well too…with allowances given for the fact that the Denizens are horrible on their clothes in general.

…rotten little monsters…

The Baby is also a #4-worsted. Extra-soft, smaller palette, heavier on the baby colors (duh). I’ve used that for some of my charity knitting for the preemies; perfectly decent baby yarn.

And the Glamour…I haven’t actually used. They’re calling it a #2, fine / sport weight. Hmm. Interesting. It’s got “sparkles” in it, or “metallic polyester.” Hmm, think I just realized why I’ve never used it. I hate that stuff. It itches. BUT, it’s a fine-weight and one of the three that would be “in contest,” so if you have sterner skin than I and want something with some shazam to it – check out the Glamour.

In the interest of full disclosure…I’m not affiliated with Lion Brand or Vanna’s Choice or anything else on this deal. Just got the email and thought, Hey, I know some people who might be interested in this…!

And I’d love to have the boasting rights: “Ya, that knitter who won the $1,000 last year? Friend of mine. Reads my blog. A-yup, told her about the contest on mah blog…thousand bucks, BANG!, just like that…and you think blogging is a useless waste of time, HAH….!!!!”

Kid's Medicine Recall

A friend forwarded this to me this morning; I also saw it in the newspaper over the weekend and just spent a little quality time on their website.

Parents, let us network the word out.

Important anti-panic notice: No child has been harmed by these medications as of yet. This is a matter of quality control not having been up to snuff, and they want to recall it rather than take any chances. So if you've given your kid(s) some of this stuff and nothing has happened, it probably won't happen now.

Which makes me feel a darned site better, seeing as how we've had a bout of cold/flu sweeping through the house the last couple weeks and the kids have drinkin' this stuff like soda pop. Sigh. Does kind of piss me off that I just loaded myself up with two bottles of everything Friday morning, though…timing, it is the essence of both comedy and aggravation…

If you click through to their website, they have a NDC lookup function that will let you know if your specific bottle(s) are on the recall list (all of mine, ALL OF THEM, even the ones I just bought) (did I mention that? That I just bought, like, 6,000 bottles of the stuff?!) (oh, I did…OK, carry on then…); they also have a form you can fill out for up to six bottles, and you can choose between a high value coupon (basically, "get a replacement bottle free") or a check refund for the average retail price of the bottle.

You can also call to discuss things if you have more than the six bottles and/or need a little extra assistance. Scuttlebutt is that the wait times right now are bordering on ludicrous (imagine, they seem to be getting a LOT of calls this morning...), so be prepared for an overdose of "your call is important to us, please stay on the line" and elevator music.

Subject: Major recall on kids otc drugs

On 4/30/10, McNeil Consumer Healthcare issued a voluntary recall for the following liquid children's medicines:

Children's Tylenol
Infant's Tylenol
Children's Motrin
Infant's Motrin
Children's Zyrtec
Children's Benedryl

It is recommended to parents and providers that these medicines NOT be administered.

For more information on the recall and for product reimbursement, visit http://www.mcneilproductrecall.com/index.jhtml or call 888-222-6036.

Happy Free Coffee Day!

Starbucks has a 'green' promotion today – bring in your own tumbler, and they'll fill it up with drip coffee free.

Which is one of my favorite words in the English language.

Knitting for children can be so satisfying. It's like almost-instant gratification…I'm already only four centimeters away from having to pay attention to the pattern again to do the tops of the panels on Captain Adventure's sweater:



(Note the tumbler full of free coffee. WOOT!!!!)

Boudin deal - act fast!!!

If you live near a Boudin bakery and love real sourdough - head's up! Boudin now (and probably for quite a while, but I've been out of touch) has a frequency-buyers reward card. If you grab one and register it before the end of December (EEP!), they're thanking you with one FREE one-pound loaf every month for thirteen months! That's about a thirty dollar value, folks, just for signing up for their card!

...I am a very happy native right now...for me, this is "the" sourdough. Even my own doesn't come anywhere close to their chewy sweet-and-sour masterpiece...it's good just to eat, but even better used to sop up the broth of your favorite soup. And if you're ignoring the diet enough to spread some real butter on it first and then dipping it into, say, a three-heirloom-bean soup flavored with a smoked ham hock and simmered all day in the crock pot?

Well, it just doesn't get much better.

Now quit reading, San Francisco, and go get that card!!!!

PSA: 40% off at EcoStoreUSA

EcoStore USA is offering 40% off their products through the end of the year - and free shipping on orders over $25.

Take a note on something up front here: Their prices seem high. $11 for a bottle of laundry liquid ($6.60 on sale) seems steep...but I've found I can do a super-full load in my extra-large front load washer on about a tablespoon of this laundry soap. It's extremely concentrated - so while the bottle might seem small for that price, you really use a LOT less than you would with "regular" laundry soap. The price per load for me works out to about the same as Tide at the average on-sale price at Target.

I love their laundry liquid and their rosemary orange shampoo in particular. The shampoo has been great for my scalp, which decided a couple years ago that it would become extremely itchy for no danged reason, most of the time. I've tried about everything on it and frankly what worked on the itch tended to do other things - like blister my scalp, yes way. (That was a prescription deal. Prescription. Shampoo. Just think about that for a second. I had no idea they even HAD such things before I had some. Anyway, I think it had sulfuric acid in it or something. Possibly alien spit and radioactive tar juice. Anyway, it cured the itch but left BURNS ON MY SCALP. All things considered? I'd prefer the itch, thanks all the same.)

That rosemary-orange shampoo, though, actually helps a lot. And makes me wonder if I'm allergic to something in "regular" shampoos. But let's not delve too far into that, because hello, digressionary paths of endlessness.

The best thing about their laundry soap for us is that it leaves nothing behind I can't then pour onto my lawn or roses or even onto my vegetables. Since I've become this rabid water-conscious micro-farmer (oh yeah, that whole 'big garden' thing), I'm pretty intense about trying not to waste water if I don't hafta. I haven't had any ill effects from using the laundry-produced gray water anywhere yet.

Unless you count the times I didn't get the hose all the way into the water tote, and it squirted all over the laundry room and into the hallway and even the downstairs bathroom. Good times! (Jury rigged a heavy fishing weight solution that weighs down the hose so it can't do that anymore. Only took about FOUR flooding-the-laundry-room experiences before I figured that one out.)

And reusing the gray water really does cut down my water bill. It spiked up to almost $130 a month for a while there, but using the laundry water instead brought it back down to the more-normal $60-ish...without having to give up my roses or the front lawn. Or make the kids go without baths.

In related news, it is really shocking just how much water goes down the drain to clean a load of clothes, even if you have an "efficient" washer. It's an "out of sight, out of mind" kind of thing, and I'd never really thought about it much. After all, I've got one of those energy star, California-friendly, "high efficiency" washers with smart-sense technology blah blah blah, right?

One week's laundry equates to nearly 300 gallons of water. 300 gallons!! DANG!

But I digress. (Oh. There's a surprise.)

Great sale. Great products.

And they didn't pay or even ask me to say so.