Last night my daughter had something sticky in her hair. It quickly grew into a massive knot. We tried washing it out but to no avail. I used some peanut butter and got a little of her hair free. With her hatred of having her hair comb and the time it would have taken to get out the knot, we decided to cut her hair. She hates getting her hair cut and misses her long hair.

Her hair cut is cute. It’s shorter in the back and longer in the front. It made me want to get my hair cut. I enjoy cutting my hair although the idea makes my husband cringe. But I’ve decided that he insists on growing that thing on his face (goatee) then I’m going to cut my own hair.

I washed is this morning and took the scissors to it. I read a couple of good tips on cutting your own hair that made a big difference in quality. Next time I wash my hair I think I will cut it shorter. I’m really want a short hair do but want to gradually get used to having shorter hair.

I am the first to admit that I know very little about investing. It is something that I eventually would like to do with some of our money. It seems our money is spent before we know it, and there is nothing to show for it. At least with an investment, we could see growth with it. That’s better than the money just being gone.

My husband has a great story about his mom picking stocks. It was in the early 1980s when his dad was thinking about investing. My husband’s mom thought IBM might be a good choice. IBM wasn’t necessarily a cheap stock, but home computers were just beginning to emerge. It would have been a good time to get in with technology stocks. Too bad my father-in-law didn’t invest in IBM.

Since I love the Internet, I am interested in exploring online stock investing. The options for buying stock used to be so limiting. The Internet has really made it possible for more buying avenues. There are many online brokerage resources that can help you buy stocks. With all the many tools available, it is easy to find good performing stocks and hopefully make good investments.

Online stock investing is definitely something I want to explore in the near future. It is also a good idea to diversify where you put your money. For us, it will be a good step in the right direction just to put our money somewhere instead of spending it. We are at a point where we need to plan for the future. Investing is one subject that we need to seriously consider.

For the past three days, “Jeopardy!” has had a special tournament with two past winners – Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter – who took on Watson. Watson is an IBM super computer. He only rings in if he is certain of the answer but that still isn’t a guarantee it is the right response.

They played two games with the top winner taking home $1 million. Second place was $300,000 with third being $200,000. All of Watson’s $1 million winnings will go to charity. Half of Jennings and Rutter’s winnings will go to charity.

It was fun to watch the two games. I thought the humans did well. Watson was really impressive. He won with over $77,000. He seems to like sevens. A lot of his daily double bets had sevens in them. Wonder if that was a programming ‘Easter egg’ or a mathematical equation.

Still it was a nice break from the regular “Jeopardy!” games and being somewhat tech savvy, I found it highly enjoyable. Maybe Watson can come back or take on ASIMO – the Honda robot. Now that would be an awesome exhibition.

This week has been all about cleaning. It is already mid-week and I feel I’m getting very little accomplished. But one thing that is clean is the toilets.

Recently we tried two cleaning methods for cleaning the toilet that sounded promising. One tip was to use vinegar. Pour two cups of vinegar into your toilet and leave in overnight. You wake up to a nice, clean commode. I do have to admit that I only used one cup of vinegar. My results were not even close to what I would call a clean commode.

The next method was to use a pack of citrus Kool-Aid overnight in the commode. That didn’t work either. It was supposed to clean without any scrubbing.

I was really hoping that one of these cleaning options would work. The idea of not having to scrub the toilet is one I really do like. Taking 8 hours or more to clean the toilet is really too long of a commitment.

Here is a tip I tried from my Mom. She uses Arm and Hammer Scrub Free with Bleach in her commode. She sprays a little after using the facilities. It not only cleans but helps with odors. I tried this and I can actually see where it cleans. The instructions do not say to use it in the toilet. It is for cleaning surfaces like bathtubs and sinks. I find this a great option for keeping the commode clean.

I do have to admit that I like the idea of using a more natural, less abrasive product. So I will continue to try alternative cleaning products.

“Jeopardy!” is my daily guilty pleasure. I can be in the middle of cooking, cleaning, crafting and will stop everything when “Jeopardy!” comes on. It is so rewarding to get a few answers right and even more so when I know final jeopardy.

This week is special. Two returning champions – Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter – are taking on a very special contestant – Watson. Watson is a super computer designed by IBM. The three contestants will compete in two games that will last three days. Yesterday they did a few stories on Watson and how he ‘thinks.’ It is quite interesting since Watson only rings in if his sure of his answer. There is a complicated algorithm that shows Watson’s top three answers for a question. If his top answer passes the threshold, he will ring in. There were a few answers he didn’t know and others answers were off the mark.

Today they should finish the first game. Both Ken and Brad are doing good. I figure they will really pick up their game once they get used to button mashing again. That’s the real trick to doing well on “Jeopardy!” – timing. Oh yeah. I guess knowing the question helps, too.

This ‘mild’ winter we are having is really bitterly cold. Next week we are due some warmer temperatures. I cannot wait. As I look at our clutter and think about our storage building, I know what I will be doing in the nice weather. It is time to start spring cleaning.

We have way too much stuff. The problem is that most of it I believe I could sell either through rummage sales, online auctions, or local consignment sales. I keep more than I clean out. Not this year, though. There is no need to save items for a rummage sale that may or may not happen. I do better with small items for online auctions since it keeps shipping costs lower. I do enjoy the consignment sales but will limit items to the really ‘good’ stuff. With these guidelines, I hope to make a huge dent in our clutter.

I’ve recently realized something very obvious. You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results. I will never be clutter-free if I don’t let go of stuff. Clutter weighs on my mind and keeps me tied down. It is definitely past time to break this relationship off with most of our stuff.

Let’s just hope that next week’s warm weather is here to stay for a little while anyway.

We are huge comic book fans. We buy comic books occasionally but used to follow many titles. My husband worked at a comic book store, so we got comics at half price. Since I started reading comics, I love the X-Men and the X-Babies. Recently we went to a comic book store where I picked up an issue of X-Babies from 2009.

Last night it was the bedtime story for my daughter. As a geek, I was thrilled when she really got into the story and was asking about each character. She already seems to have a favorite – Kitty Pride. One proud geek moment was when I was telling her about Wolverine’s power to which she responded “yeah I know.” My little geek is growing up nicely.

I was only able to pick up issue one. It’s a four part run, so now the search is on to find the other three. The fun of reading comics is doubled – even tripled – when you read them to your child. She really enjoys comics that makes me happy. I love that we have a common interest – especially one so close to my heart.

One of our favorite games for the Nintendo Wii is the New Super Mario Brothers. So it isn’t so ‘new’ anymore, but we still love playing it. With the help of Daddy, we were able to save the Princess. This game has tons of replay value, so we play it a lot even though we have beaten the game. The good thing about Super Mario Brothers it is multi-player. If a player is in danger of dying, they can ‘bubble’ – put their character in a bubble and off of harm’s way. This is something that our daughter discovered. Wild button mashing does pay off. A lot of times she will ‘bubble’ through most of a level – except the ones that have Yoshi. She loves to ride Yoshi.

Today my daughter wanted to play Super Mario Brothers and after finding the Wiimotes, we began to play. It has been a few months since I played and felt very rusty. I did notice something about playing with my daughter that is different from the last time we played. She is much more mature about the game than before. She would get upset if her character was killed or if she lost her Yoshi. Sometimes it would get so bad that we would just stop playing. She was a terrible sport.

Now she is a lot better. She did not get upset once when things went wrong – and they went wrong a lot since I was rusty. We played maybe six months ago – if that long. It is amazing how such a short amount of time she has really grown up.

It was a lot of fun playing the game with her – especially since she was being such a good sport. Hopefully this trend will continue. She really is growing up too fast.

Today I helped my sister-in-law at her farm. They have several goats that have given birth within the past week. Sadly one nanny died – leaving behind two orphaned goats. Two goats had twins. Today she had to find the two that didn’t have a mama so that she could take them home to feed them.

By process of elimination, we found the two. Apparently goats will not let other kids nurse. They will head butt them. We took them back to her house where she prepared them a bottle using these gigantic baby animal bottles. We tried feeding the kids and were not very successful with these huge bottles. My sister-in-law decided to try a Dr. Brown bottle instead. I think the smaller nipple and the ease of the milk coming out made the difference. The kids drank a little over an ounce each. They seemed to be tired of eating after that.

So the animal bottle might be better when they are a little older or when they are use to drinking from a bottle. Right now the Dr. Brown bottles are working well. So, save a couple of baby bottles. You never know when you might need them.

Last week I did two things I hate doing – got a haircut and clothes shopping. In fact, I did both in the same day. It was exhausting but glad to get both knocked out together. I mean if I must do it, then it’s best to get both over with as quickly as possible.

It has been at least two years since my last hair cut. Sure I whack on it occasionally and it shows. Hence the real reason I needed a hair cut. I had a lot of split ends naturally. I was given the following advice on how to take better care of my hair.

First, do not wash your hair with hot water. That is apparently a no no. You should use lukewarm water. Hot water can cause damage to your hair. I always wash my hair in a very hot shower. Lesson learned.

Do not brush your hair wet. Use a comb as a brush will cause split ends. I bought a wide-tooth comb as I find these to work the best with my hair. Surprisingly the comb works very well for my daughter with her long, tangled hair.

Finally use a good shampoo. I have been using whatever is on sale at the time I am buying shampoo. I picked up one that formulated for oily hair. We’ll see if that really makes a difference. I do like the way it smells because it reminds me of a salon.

I hope by following this advice that this will help my hair have less split ends.