Every year Aldi and Target have the cutest cat scratchers for the holidays, and while I haven't seen Aldi's yet for the year, I'm so in love with the ones I've seen Target carry. I love that they have so many price point options this year, but I can't stand seeing them sell out so fast and appear on Ebay. Nope.
For those who use Steam, you already know how many games there are to choose from at any given moment. It's tough to even choose a game to play even when there isn't anything new launching so you often depend on the opinions of friends and other players to find the best games. Not so with Amazon's New World: it launched on Tuesday and immediately became one of Steam's biggest new release games with over 700,000 players logging in to play it.
Soft, shaved ice versus icy snow cone chips: Which one wins the debate for you? For me it's shaved ice, hands-down. After growing up eating snow cones as often as possible--even ordering one every time the ice cream truck came around!--I will never forget getting my first shaved ice as an adult and how much of a difference it was. A snow cone will never come close again.
The new Stranger Things trailer is here and wow, am I excited about season 4! If you don't want any spoilers or haven't yet seen the trailer, please skip to the end!
In the new trailer, we witness a house from an older time--possibly the 50s--and a family moving in before spooky things begin to happen. It gives me American Horror Story vibes! Does anyone else think the man in the family looks a lot like a younger "Papa" from the first season? Many of us think he survived so perhaps we'll find out.
If you're looking for a quick but yummy treat to send someone far away for spooky season, have you thought about dipped fruit or popcorn? There are a lot of companies that offer Halloween-themed treats that can be delivered in most states, and most of them are pretty adorable.
For this week's poem, let's start getting into the Halloween spirit with the poem "Antigonish [I met a man who wasn't there]," by Hughes Mearns! I don't know about you, but my favorite kind of scare isn't the in-your-face scare, or the gory scare. It's the kind that creeps up on you, the kind that tells you more without saying anything at all, and that's the realm in which "Antigonish [I met a man who wasn't there]" resides.
Everyone's talking about Seth MacFarlane's PSA, but Adult Swim has one of their own. It's a fond farewell to Family Guy after 18 years of the show airing on the channel. The show's syndication will now occur on FXX and Freeform rather than the place where so many of us got to know it in the first place, so it's a sad moment for many fans, too.
Who else is here for apple season? I would put apple butter on everything all year if I could! The best treat of the season so far is grilled cheese with apple butter and apple slices--yum! Add some chipotle if you like heat with it and it will really pop. When it comes to sweet apples, though, I love a good baked treat.
You'd better believe I'm already planning what kind of punch I want for Halloween this year! No, we aren't having a party this year, but that doesn't mean WE won't party with plenty of movies, treats and scary goodness! This year I've been really feeling the apple vibes, with Angry Orchard as my favorite poison of choice as of late, but I'm open to trying just about anything.
The Washington Post just shared the tip to grow your plans from seeds in order to save money, and as great of a tip as that is, it should be obvious to most gardeners. The hardest part is saving seeds to grow another year--and identifying which plants can be grown again from their own seeds or not.
Halloween is almost here! Can you believe it? I'm so ready for all things spooky and fall! I don't know if I'm going to do my 31 Days of Costumes--it can get tiring--but I'm definitely going to shoot for several costumes, movies and books. I have a much more ambitious list of books to read than I'd like, so I thought I'd invite the Real Book readers to help me narrow it down.
This year's set of Halloween stickers from Michael's is heavy on the spell or lab labels, which is pretty cool, although they're the pink/pastel goth look rather than the creepy one we'd expect. It's fun to change now and then, and I'm here for it, although I would argue that it was the 2019 stickers that had the best look so far! But I digress.
Who doesn't love a fun quiz, especially if it tells you, say, what kind of animal you were in a past life, or what animal would make the best pet for you? This fun quiz from Buzzfeed asks you to choose a few frogs to determine whether or not you've already met your soulmate or not! Essentially, you need to kiss five frogs to show whether or not you've found your prince. Cute, right? Did they guess it right?
Last year the giant skeleton made its rounds as one of the most popular Halloween decorations, and this year the Cracker Barrel ghost was sold out before I could even see what it looked like (back in August, I think!). So while we hunt for something really spooky to make an impact with our Halloween decor this year, we have to keep in mind that they can sell out fast!
Once upon a time I was pretty good at handling stress. I've always lived in high-stress situations; in high school, I lived in a poor trailer park next door to meth labs, and I took care of my siblings--homework, bath time, meals, the works--while I did all AP courses, ran a handful of student organizations, worked "part time" (the hours were close to full-time), did sports and did my best to get my homework done. Most days I didn't have lunch money (hence the job), and most days I didn't sleep much.
There's a lot of concern about where we're taking society with all of this artificial intelligence, either in existence or in the works, and frankly I think we should slow it down--or shut it down. If it's not something to help disabled people or otherwise benefit us in a significant way, why bother making machines that will only impact our workforce and even create a danger to us all?
A Florida man is going viral today after catching an alligator in his garbage. The footage is incredible to witness as he approaches the animal with his garbage can and uses both his strength as well as all parts of the can to capture the alligator. Having had snakes, raccoons and other smaller critters on my property, I can't imagine what I'd do if I encountered an alligator in my yard!
Happy National Coffee Day! We all know that there are a million little non-holidays that are just for fun (or to promote capitalism, depending on how you look at it) but some of them really speak to us--especially us coffee drinkers. Today I made an iced mocha at home and am loving it, but I'd also love to try something new this coffee day. So my question is this: what is the most unique coffee creation you've ever tried?