The AllAmerican RunnerDuck Review, a newsletter for friends and family 05-23-03

May 23, 2003

WELCOME BACK: Happy Memorial Day weekend 2003! With the war over in Iraq and all the troops that have come home around this should be a pretty exciting Memorial Day. There are lots of celebrations planned to honor all of those fine Americans who have served throughout the years. We hope that you are able to get out and enjoy some of the events. With any luck the weather will hold better than it has been for the past few weeks. We feel sorry for all those people who have been uprooted, literally, from the tornados these past couple of weeks. We saw on the news where several of the most devastated towns are even planning Memorial Day events. We American's are a tough lot aren't we?

We're coming to you a day early this week so that you'll have your newsletter to read over the holidays. Many of you will be taking tomorrow off as well as next Monday so this will help keep you busy.

We're starting to get excited about hooking onto our trailer and doing some traveling. This past week we finally got the 5th wheel installed in our new pickup. We're really excited to see how that big ol' V10 pulls it. We still have all the wiring and breaks to do but getting the hitch in was a big first step. We belong to Thousand Trails/NACO and have lots of options for camping places besides all the state and federal parks. We've found that it's getting tougher to just drop in on these parks. Many are now taking reservations and you have to get on the list pretty early to get a spot. That's one of the nice things about Port Susan Camping Club, where we keep our trailer, we always have our spot.

We hope you are able to make plans to get out for a nice vacation this summer. The gas prices are down and nobody wants to fly over seas so it's a great time to get out and see the USA!

We are continuing our search for crafters who would like to sell their creations through our web site. We currently only have one persons crafts on display, Ron Godin, but would love to add more. We are talking with a couple of people right now but the more the merrier. Drop us a line and some pictures of your art and we'll see if we can work together.

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Thank you,
Ken and Marilyn

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What's New This Week? Another computer virus to worry about, at least for a little while. A new virus is going around that doesn't appear to do anything but replicate its self through your address book. The reason I say at least for a little while is because this virus will go dormant on May 31st. Some people sure do have a strange sense of humor.
Like we always say, if you get an email from someone that has an attachment be suspicious. Be especially suspicious if it is a file with a .pif extension. This particular virus sounds like it's from support@microsoft and you need to install the attached file. Don't Do It!!! It will probably have a subject line like, 'Your password,' 'Approved (Ref: 38446-263),' 'Screensaver,' and 'Re: My application.'
Most virus protection software will catch these sorts of viruses but you need to be running the software and you need to keep it current. If you don't have virus software I'd recommend McAfee Clinic as a good source. If you do have virus software, keep it running and keep it up to date. Programs like McAfee do automatic checks and updates every time you access the Internet.
Microsoft has a new web page that may help with future viruses also but you'll need to manually check it. Just go to www.microsoft.com/technet/security/virus/default.asp and see all the good information available there.

DigiTalk

Are you still using a 56K modem to connect to the Internet? 28K? Ouch! If you are then you have my sympathy because when I connect to the internet with my cell phone it's at an enhanced 14.4K. Talk about watching paint dry, wow. The single biggest reason people don't have a high speed connection like DSL or Cable is because of the cost. For a fee of $50 per month and up is a pretty stiff shot for a lot of us. The reason I mention this is because there is hope on the horizon. It appears that sales have flattened a little bit on people signing up for high speed connections and to try to get more people interested the big guys appear ready to lower their prices. Don't hold your breath for a huge savings but keep watching the new offers that are coming out. The price for high speed Internet connections should start dropping to around $30 or a little less per month. While that's still a lot of money it's a pretty good savings.
If you do a lot of surfing and use the Internet for things like music, videos and pictures I would strongly consider getting hooked up as soon as the prices drop. DSL can be as much as 50 times faster than a regular modem. Believe me that makes spending time in front of the computer a lot more enjoyable.
Verizon, the ISP that we use, has some pretty good offers going on right now for high speed Internet connections check them out by clicking HERE.

SITE OF THE WEEK

Many of you now have digital cameras and scanners that you use to share pictures with your friends. We all like to get pictures from our families showing that new born or new house but how about that download time. If you send a large file photo the download time can be horrendous. Do yourself and your friends a favor, reduce the size of the image and everyone will be a lot happier. How do you do that you say? Use the software that came with your camera. At least that's one way of doing it. A better way we think is to use this terrific piece of software from Meesoft. It does a fantastic job of reducing the size of your pictures while retaining pretty good quality.

There are two ways to reduce the size of pictures. One is the physical size like going from 640 X 480 pixels down to 320 X 240. The other is to reduce the quality of the picture a little. If you are saving the picture as a .jpg (picturename.jpg) you can reduce the quality by a percentage. This software will allow you to do both plus a lot more.

The good news is that it's really good software and it's free, the bad news is that there isn't much in the way of documentation. Our recommendation would be to download Image Analyzer from http://meesoft.logicnet.dk/ and give it a try. They do have a pretty good examples page of how things work and what the program can do. If you need any help I can help with a few questions but since it's not my software my answers may be limited.

Another good program they have on their site is Commander. It works great for moving files around from folder to folder and also helps in finding pictures within your folders.

MARILYN'S CORNER

Garden Art Wind Chime

Here's another one of those projects that requires a degree of creativity. The picture doesn't show ours really good but at least it may give you an idea.

Here is a list of the things you will need.

Just about any old garden tool or item that will make noise when they bang into one another.
A hand garden rake, three prong.
Fishing line.

Use the hand rake as the main support for you wind chime. It works better if you can bend the middle tine back. Ours was too thick and we couldn't bend it.
Using the fishing line attach all the neat stuff you found to the hand rake. Make items at different heights so that they will bang into each other.
Hang it up and wait for the wind to blow.

The more creative you are the more comments you'll get. We hope you enjoy the sounds of these wind chimes.

We hope you enjoy Marilyn's Corner and look forward to all the fun things she brings you each week. If you have a fun project that would be suitable for our newsletter we'd love to share it with our readers. Just contact marilyn@runnerduck.com and we'll do the rest.

Remember we have all of our past projects archived on our web site at www.runnerduck.com. Just click on the Projects or Kids Only Eggs.

Sand and Garden

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The Tempos
News and CD of the Week

The Tempos first summer concert is coming up June 1st. Start making plans now to attend the 31st annual Early Ford Picnic at Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, Washington. This is one of those really fun events where you get to see hundreds of wonderful automobiles, not just Fords, have a picnic and enjoy the wonderful music of The Tempos big swing band. The music starts at 11:00 and will wrap up around 2:00. Admission is reasonable and the event is well worth every penny.

You can check out our summer schedule at the Tempos web site www.thetempos.com/jobs.htm. If you are making plans to visit Seattle this summer try to fit in one of our fun concerts.

Don't forget that The Tempos big swing band is available for hire. If you have a special event that could use the wonderful music of a classic big band be sure to contact thetempos@runnerduck.com.

Have you ever had a record that you lost or just doesn't play good any more? One of those records for me was Howard Roberts, "H R Is a Dirty Guitar Player". I've always loved Howard Roberts guitar playing but had lost my record long ago. Well as luck would have it they have released it on a CD. As an added bonus it also includes, "Color Him Funky". Howard Roberts passed away a few years ago but fortunately his music lives on through this great classic CD. If you don't have this record in your collection then your collection is not complete.

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Remember, we have a link on our web site, www.runnerduck.com, to our ever popular Grammy® Shopper site. If you haven't been there yet just click HERE to see all the 2003 Grammy® winners complete with links to purchase any one of them.

Questions and Answers

Welcome to our Q&A center.
Got questions? We've got answers.
Got answers? We've got questions.

Q: Gordy Asks: What is a ZIP file. I've downloaded a .zip program from the Internet and now I don't know what to do with it.

A: A .zip file is a format for a compressed file. These are great for downloading and emailing because they take up a lot less space than the original file. The only trick is that they need to be unzipped in order to do anything. The number one program on the planet is WinZip and you can get an evaluation copy at www.winzip.com. I believe you can use the program as long as you like but you'll have to put up with some nagging. I'd recommend that if you are going to be using it much that you just go ahead and buy it.

JOKE OF THE WEEK

Larry wakes up at home with a huge hangover. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins and a glass of water on the side table. He sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. Larry looks around the room and sees that it is in a perfect order, spotless, clean. So is the rest of the house. He takes the aspirins and notices a note on the table.... "Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping. Love you."

So he goes to the kitchen and sure enough there is a hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating. Larry asks, "Son, what happened last night?" His son says, "Well, you came home after 3 a.m., drunk and delirious. You broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and gave yourself a black eye when you stumbled into the door."

Confused, Larry asks, "So, why is everything in order and so clean, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?" His son replies, "Oh that! Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off you said, "Lady leave me alone, I'm married!"

CONSERVATION TIP

Now here's one you may have never heard of before, "Keep the refrigerator full even if it's just with water bottles full of water". Believe it or not this can save quite a bit of energy. Every time you open your refrigerator door a bunch of cold air is pulled out. If there is less air to pull out because the refrigerator is full then there is less air to cool back down when you close the door. The water retains the internal temperature of the refrigerator and does not need to be re-cooled. Now that's a pretty cool idea ;-)

If you have a conservation tip please send it to conservation@runnerduck.com and we'll post it in our newsletter.

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THIS WEEK'S FREE RECIPE
Copper Pennies This was one of Marilyn's mom, Betty's favorites. It's a vegetable salad with a tiny bite.

2 Pounds small Carrots

Slice in rounds, Salt and parboil for 5 minutes, drain.

DRESSING

1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 teaspoon Dry Mustard

1/2 teaspoon Salt

3/4 Cup White Vinegar

1 Cup Sugar

1 medium sized Green Pepper, diced

1 Can Water chestnuts, sliced

1 Onion, diced

1/2 Cup Oil

1 Can Tomato Soup, undiluted

Mix together and pour over the Carrots.

Once you try it you'll find yourself making it over and over again. Thanks Betty!

Remember, if you have a recipe you'd like to share please send it to marilyn@runnerduck.com.

Every month we post a new recipe on our web page. Be sure and check out the May recipe at the RunnerDuck Kitchen Store.
We'd be happy to post your favorite recipe there or in our newsletter and give you credit. Just drop a line to marilyn@runnerduck.com.

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COOKBOOK
SUGGESTION OF THE WEEK

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"Salad Suppers" by Andrea Chesman

Salads can make a wonderful supper and we often do just that for a quick meal. Whether it's grilled chicken over romaine lettuce tossed in a garlicky Caesar dressing, or roasted vegetables over greens, or tuna with crunchy vegetables, salads are a cook's quickest, coolest option for a complete meal. Chesman includes scores of healthful possibilities, from Warm Asparagus and New Potato Salad with Pan-Seared Trout to Vietnamese Beef Salad, plus a host of dressings, from Buttermilk-Dill to Mango Chutney Vinaigrette. We think you'll love this cookbook.

Be sure and visit the RunnerDuck Cookbook Store for other great savings on cookbooks and cooking supplies.

PROJECTS

Cedar Planter Box

I love projects like this because it cost me almost nothing. I made it all from scraps that I had lying around. Cedar fence scraps made up the bulk of it.

Here's what you'll need:

24' X 6" X 3/4" Cedar.
6"'X 2" X 2" Maple or your choice of wood.
Deck screws
Finish nails
Glue

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Click on the picture for bigger view of this project.

Cut the three bottom boards 4 3/4" X 27".
Cut ten side boards 5" X 7".
Cut four end boards 4 11/16" X 7" and two end boards 2 1/2" X 7".
Cut the top boards with a 45 degree miter on each end, two 3 1/2" X 28 1/4" and two 3 1/2" X 15 1/2".
Cut six frame boards 2" X 2" X 24" and six 2" X 2" X 9".
Assemble the three frames with the 9" pieces to the inside of the but joints. Use glue and deck screws. It's best to pilot drill the screw holes through the long pieces.

Align the bottom boards with about 1/8" space between each board. This will allow water to run out.
Set one of the frames onto the bottom boards, center it, glue and screw it in place.

Mount the second frame on top of the bottom, centered, glued and screwed as above.

Now build the top by gluing and screwing the last frame onto the mitered top.

Glue and nail the side and end boards onto the bottom frame. The 5" boards go on the sides. Space them beyond the frame one board thickness on each end.

The two 4 11/16" boards go on the outside of the ends and the 2 1/2" goes in the middle.
Put the top inside the side and end boards.

Glue and nail the side and end boards onto the top.

That's it! It's pretty easy to build and really looks great.

If you have a project that you would like to share please drop us a line and we'll help get it published in the RunnerDuck review. We are looking for woodworking, gardening, crafts and kids projects so send us your thoughts at projects@runnerduck.com .

The RunnerDuck Goodies Store
Check out all the great products in the RunnerDuck Goodies Store. Show the world that you love RunnerDuck!

There is lots of other cool stuff at the RunnerDuck Goodies Store.

If you want to talk about something just drop us a line at duckmaster@runnerduck.com any time, we like to talk about most anything. We are always looking for content for our newsletter so if you have something to add we'd love to publish it. Assuming it meets our strict family oriented requirements!

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