Gasoline experiment revisited

While using my car for a lot of short trips recently, my gas milage fell below 30 MPG.  This really concerns me because I am still paying nine cents per gallon more than I need to.  I am hoping the MPG will rebound with the change in driving habits back to my regular schedule.  Of course, it could also be damage from the Waldo Canyon fire we had here in Colorado Springs.  Maybe my air filter just needs a good dusting.  I'm going to have to go on line to see where the air filter is and see if I can clean it or replace it on the cheap.

The body wants what it wants.

After several failed attempts to adjust to one of the polyphasic sleep schedules, my body decided it wanted to do the work for me.  What has basically happened is I started listening to my body for what it needs, and it decided it wanted to sleep when it was dark out.  Right now, I am sleeping from about 1 a.m. to when the church's CDC opens around 5:45 a.m.  During the day, I sometimes need a nap but not always.  I am feeling a little dizzy all the time on this schedule.  Of course, that could be because I am now downing three bottles of generic LifeWater per day.  This could be Vitamin B poisoning.  All I know is I am sleeping at a regular time and am accomplishing at least one major task and/or goal per day.  It is hard to argue with the body.

Gumdrops from gelatin, a conclusion

After making four batching of "gumdrops" using gelatin-based recipes, I have come to the conclusion that these are not going to produce true gumdrops.  They are simply various stages of jigglers and gummy candies.  I am, therefore, abandoning the gelatin-based gumdrop recipes and moving on to the pectin-based recipes.

A soap by any other name . . .

As any good frugalista would know, Suave is probably the least expensive soap-like product in the U.S.  That is why I decided to give it a try.  However, I have had a few odd reactions to Suave products.

First, I have some sebaceous cysts on my face and head.  When I use Suave, these cysts become inflamed and painful, eventually requiring drainage.  I do not know why this happens with Suave soaps.

Second, believe it or not, I seem to be suffering from chronic constipation that is associated with when I started using Suave.

The particular line of Suave I am using is Suave Naturals.  To monitor what might be causing these reactions, I decided to purchase the next least-expensive soap.  This happens to be the Kroeger brand at our local King Soopers supermarket chain.  I am going to create a spreadsheet (Google Doc Spreadsheet) to keep track of the ingredients of the soaps I use.  In this way, I hope to determine the offending chemical.

Netbook-to-Tablet project

In a previous issue of Popular Science magazine, I came across an article on how to convert a netbook to a tablet in five steps.  Since then, my mind has raced around wanting to do this project.  Well, I have taken the first steps.  Here is a link to the article.

Once I got that information, I went out to eBay to search for inexpensive netbooks.  I was kind of surprised to see I could get a new netbook for under $40 on Amazon.  Hopefully, I will get one for even less on eBay.

It will be about a week before I update this project again because I have to wait to get a netbook in hand.

Gumdrops, second batch, part 1

Since my first attempt at gumdrops was a minor disaster, I reviewed the recipes I made my concoction from.  There was only one recipe that did not boil the gelatin, so I decided to make an attempt at that recipe without making any adjustments, except for size.

I cut the recipe in half so as to not waste too much sugar.  I put the gelatin in a spouted measuring cup and proceeded to boil the sugar on its own.  The sugar came out nice, but working according to the instructions, the boiling syrup got up to only 210°F.  I added this to the prepared gelatin in my glass cup, added color and flavor, and poured this into the pan.  The original recipe says it makes 24.  However, this half-batch filled 24 molds and had some left over.

I am also testing methods of removing the gumdrops from metal molds.  One mold I left alone; the other I sprayed with cooking spray.

Now it is just a matter of waiting 24 hours to see how they solidify and if I can remove them without much damage.

How much does a cup of sugar weigh?

I really hate using measuring cups.  They are so often inaccurate.  One can overpack things like flour or sugar, and the companies that make measuring cups do not issue guarantees of accuracy.  That is why when I work with recipes, I prefer to convert everything to dry weight measurements.  One reason my gumdrops may have failed is the sugar was inaccurate.  To eliminate that type of problem in the future, I need to know how much a cup of sugar weighs.


According to the sugar packaging, 1 tsp. = 4 g.  If we multiply this up, 1 tbsp. = 12 g., 1/4 c. = 48 g., and 1 c. = 192 g.  However, using my stainless steel measuring cups, I find 1 c. = 210 g.  According to answers.com, 1 c. = 200 g., right smack dab in the middle of the two.  According to the C&H Sugar website, 1 lb = 2-1/4 cups.  The conversion is 1 lb = 453.59237 grams.  Divide that by 9 to get 50.3991522 grams per 1/4 cup.  Multiply that by 4 to make a full cup, and the total is 201.596609 grams per cup.  Therefore, the 200 grams is a more accurate approximation than the weight listed on the sugar packaging.


What all this means, then, is I can convert recipes by 1/4 cups.  If a recipe calls for 1-1/4 cups of sugar, I can weigh out 250 grams and have an accurate input.