One day several years ago, while watching a cooking show in which the host advised viewers to bake a dish on a baking sheet “because you don’t want it to boil over and end up on the bottom of your oven,” my college roommate, Sara, and I both ruefully laughed out loud. And then Sara summed it up: “That is the bottom of our oven.” In our defense, the house had been only half-assedly cleaned before we moved in, and I’m certain that there was gunk in that oven from before our time. On the other hand, that time I overbeat an angel food cake and it erupted out of the bundt pan while baking? I probably should have wiped that up. But the average college student’s tolerance for squalor is well-documented, and we were no different: cleaning an oven was so low on our list of priorities that it never surfaced. At least, not until we moved out and wanted our damage deposit back. That’s when I was initiated into the mysteries of oven cleaning and learned, among other things, that oven cleaner is really nasty stuff. Several years and several laboriously retrieved damage deposits later, I went on a mission to find out how to clean an oven naturally, without harsh chemicals. My latest article describes a very effective method of doing just that.
Saint Paul Media has recently launched a new pest control site. If you found your way here looking for how to get rid of pests, consider this to be a complementary and (perhaps) a more comprehensive guide to pest control.
We’re pleased to announce our new pest control website, Simple Pest Control. It’s a simple, authoritative pest control guide for the average homeowner. Topics covered include: home pest control, garden pest control, lawn pest control, and natural pest control, as well as a list of pest control services. Check it out. Let us know what you think.
We apologize for the messy appearance. We’re in the middle of cleaning up the code on this blog. Please bear with us while this process is ongoing.
-The Management
We’re proud to announce that this month (May of 2010), Saint Paul Media’s websites will have reached 2 million unique visitors in 31 days. Next stop, 3 million!
I’m torn. I own all kinds of products for cleaning furniture: upholstery cleaner, dusting spray, lemon oil. But now I know the dusting spray contains a neurotoxin, the lemon oil is actually petroleum-based mineral oil, and the upholstery cleaner has the potential to adversely affect my husband’s reproductive glands. As a person who turns the shampoo bottle upside-down to eke out every last drop, I’m tempted to use the stuff up anyway (which, let’s face it, could take years). But as a person who values my health and the health of the planet (not to mention the health of my husband’s testicles), I feel a responsibility to get those nasty chemicals out of my life immediately. I could do it easily, too, now that I know how to clean furniture with all-natural products that I already have on hand for other uses. It’s all explained in my latest article.
As a man, your biological imperative is to reproduce and create offspring. Even though we are fully aware of this, there still isn’t anything we can do to stop the oftentimes annoying little voice in the back of our heads telling us to get it on 24/7. And who would want to? An erection is just part of the process of sex, which goes as follows: flaccidity –> arousal – > erection –> penetration – ejaculation –> flaccidity. We all have erections. Seriously, there isn’t one guy who didn’t get an erection while staring at the drawings of genitalia in biology textbooks. It’s totally normal. Click here to read my full article How to Get Rid of an Erection.
Stripper stank, if you’re unfamiliar, is a very peculiar smell that can only be acquired one way: getting rubbed on by a stripper. The particular odor of a stripper is very distinct from that of other women. This gives the people around us the ability to immediately tell whether or not we have not only just been to a strip club but that we did in fact pay money to have our cock and balls rubbed and smashed by stripper grinds and hip thrusts.
I really enjoyed writing this article. Particularly the research portion. Life truly IS pretty awesome. Click here to read the full article How to Get Rid of Stripper Stank.
Stuffed animals or plush toys can mean a lot to kids. In fact, I still have one of the stuffed animals I had when I was a kid—Snoopy. My Snoopy spends a lot of time in a box in the closet. I don’t want to put him out, and I don’t want him to go away. I just want him to stay mine. Someday I may pass him on. But he is in rough shape. A couple holes and a few restitched seams. But he still plays Rock-a-bye Baby when I wind him up. I remember as a child holding him close as the tune played, feeling the music reverberating through Snoopy as the little music box tinged away. Snoopy has a few stains on him. But overall he is pretty clean. He doesn’t smell. So far as I know I have only drooled, not vomited, on Snoopy. Snoopy has moving internal parts, so he would be difficult to clean but not impossible. He would just have to be spot cleaned with quick rinses. Other toys that are submersible should be spot cleaned first, too, to get all the chunks off before a more thorough cleaning in the washing machine. Lastly, air drying is the best way to dry them. Read the full article, How to Clean Stuffed Animals, for detailed instructions.
Depression can be a touchy subject. Controversy enshrouds almost every aspect of the disease, from what causes it, to whether the standard treatments for it actually do any good, to whether it’s even a real thing. The answer to that last one, of course, is that if you’re feeling it, it’s real. And while it’s true that different treatments affect different people in different ways, and not every treatment will work for everyone, depression is by and large a very treatable illness. But that’s the thing: you have to seek treatment. Some people hesitate to open up to anyone about their depressed feelings, afraid that they indicate a weakness or personality flaw. But being ashamed of depression makes about as much sense as being ashamed of cancer. Depression is a disease, and if you want to get rid of depression, you have to treat it like a disease: that is, by seeing a doctor. My latest article explains various tactics for getting rid of depression that you and your doctor can discuss together. But you have to take that first step; depression is one thing you can’t get rid of on your own.
