Holiday lights can make a beautiful addition to any home.
1.  Be sure to use only lights approved by UL (Underwriter Laboratories) which will have a tag indicating as such on the cord near the ends.
2.  No more than 3 strings of lights should be strung together.  This prevents the wires from overheating.
3.  Check all the wires before using the strand to ensure the insulation is in tact and all bulbs are seated properly.

Candles bring a touch of ambiance and often times a pleasant scent to any room.
1.  Never leave burning candles unattended!
2.  When a candle is starting to burn low, discard it.  The heat build up can cause glass candle holders to fracture and break.
3.  Be mindful of where the hot wax will be dripping as the candles burn.
4.  NEVER place candles near trees, curtains, blankets, or other flammables.

Trees are often times the highlight of the season, but can be the most dangerous as well!
1.  If you are using a real tree, keep it properly watered and use a stand that won’t tip over.
2.  Choose a tree that has fresh, green needles that are not already falling from the tree.
3.  Never block an exit with a tree.
4.  Always turn lights out before leaving home, or going to bed.

This video, provided by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) shows the importance of a properly watered tree.

I’ve had a project that I have been “picking” at for probably a year.  And another that I’ve been working on since before I graduated college.  Neither of these projects get the attention they deserve.  I can claim that it’s because I don’t have the time, but I’d find the time if I REALLY wanted it.  I let projects sit idle because I don’t know how they will turn out.  They could be tremendous successes.  Or they could be ABSOLUTE FAILURES.  And that fear of failure is what keeps me paralyzed.

Time to reframe my mindset, and finally start pushing forward on some of the “maybe someday” projects.

I’m not sure where I got this from.  It was something I found interested and saved in a notepad file on my computer, and found today as I was looking for another document.  I don’t know the source, or who to cite, but here it is!

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the Prof. went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups:
porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them
to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the Prof. said “If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. That all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other’s cups.”

“Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”

Here are some of the highlights of this weekends festivities!

Saturday July 2:
Niagara Falls:  Fireworks at 9:45 p.m. Seneca Square at Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel, 310 Fourth St. Free. Rain date: Sunday.

Sunday July 3:
Lockport:  Parade at 6 p.m., starting at the intersection of Locust Street and Lincoln Avenue, proceeding down Locust Street and ending at Walnut Street.
Olcott/Newfane:  Fireworks over Lake Ontario at dusk. Best viewed from Lake Ontario shoreline, Krull Park and Olcott.

Monday July 4:
Buffalo:  July Fourth Celebration in the Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf. 6 p.m. to midnight.  Fireworks at dusk.
Lewiston:  Fireworks at dusk, Lewiston Plateau, near Artpark. Can be seen from Academy Park on Center Street. Rain date: Tuesday.
Lockport:  Fireworks at dusk at Outwater Park, off Glenwood Avenue and Trowbridge Street.

For a full list of fireworks and festivals, check out the Buffalo News.

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla
3 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 oz bag chocolate chips
1 package Oreo Cookies (regular or double stuff)

Process:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In one bowl, combine the butter and sugars until well combined. I didn’t have a stand mixer handy, but it probably would have helped. Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add flour mixture your first bowl and make sure the ingredients are thoroughly combined, then stir in chocolate chips. Take a ball of cookie dough and flatten out to about 1/4″ thick, and maybe 1/4″ larger than the Oreo. Put the Oreo in the center, and fold the edges up. Add additional dough to the top. and press to seal.

3. Place cookies on to a foil lined baking sheet and bake 14-18 minutes or until they look golden on top. Give them a few minutes then transfer to a plate to cool. Enjoy! I managed to eat ONE!

If you have a vacant property, it is a good idea to winterize your home prior to the snow actually arriving.  There are a lot of contractors that will provide this service, and the cost of the service certainly outweighs the cost of the damage that could result from not having a property properly winterized.  For the purposes of this article, let’s focus on occupied properties.

Did you know that a burst pipe can cause over 250 gallons a day of water loss?  If you have a 40 gallon hot water tank, this would be the equivalent of filling and draining that tank 6.25 times… IN ONE DAY!

Frozen pipe prevention is a fairly simple task, requiring a few hours of labor and materials that you can find at any hardware store.  You’ll need to get pipe tube insulation – this comes in many lengths and diameters.  Measure the outside diameter of your pipes before you head to the store.  The inside diameter of the insulation should match the outside diameter of your piping to ensure a proper fit.  In addition, you will want to get a roll of pipe insulation tape to run along the seams of your insulation.  Installation is very straight forward.  The insulation should come with a full depth cut running along the length of the tube – just slide the insulation over the pipe and seal it with the insulating tape.

Ideally you’ll want to insulate all of your pipes.  However, the pipes most prone to freezing are those along exterior walls and in crawl spaces, as well as floors and ceilings.  If your basement is especially cold, you may want to consider insulating all the pipes just to prevent a freeze.  If severe weather is in the forecast, and you think a pipe freeze may be a possibility, you can turn the faucets on just a trickle.  The movement of the water should help prevent freezing.

Outside the house, be sure to fully drain and detach any garden hoses.  Outdoor faucets can be covered with an insulated faucet sock, which run between $10 and $15 at most hardware stores.  You can also use a piece of home insulation in a pinch – just be sure to cover the entire surface area of the faucet up to the wall, and be sure to secure it with a strong, weather resistant tape.  This may not be the most aesthetically pleasing solution, but it beats a frozen pipe.

So, you didn’t insulate your pipes and now you have a frozen pipe?  There are a couple options at this point.  The first option is call a plumber!  Frozen pipes can burst if they aren’t heated correctly, and if you feel unsure, you may want a professional to handle the issue.  However, if you wish to do it yourself, read on!  First and foremost, do not use a blow torch to heat the pipe! The rapid heating action from the torch can cause the water to boil, which can lead to a burst pipe!  Instead, use a hair dryer.  Point it at the frozen area, and move back and forth along the pipe until the ice melts and the water flows freely again.

Frozen pipes can be a real pain, especially in Buffalo.  Armed with a little bit of knowledge, you can take preventative measures to help stop a problem before it starts.

Parking: We ended up parking about a block from Coca Cola Park, which cost us $5. This wasn’t too bad, but it does contribute to the overall cost of the event so I decided to list it here.

Admission: Another $5 just to walk in the door. This wasn’t too bad either, since they have to pay for all the park support staff, EMTs, security, etc. I felt it was reasonable considering I never saw a garbage can filled to the point it was overflowing. The staff was very good about keeping things neat.

Crowd: We arrived around 6pm, and the crowds were reasonable considering it was around dinner time. We never waited more than maybe 5 minutes at any stand we were at throughout the evening, and we were there about 2 hours.

Beverages: This was something I was disappointed in. The beer tents were way overpriced – $5.25 for a can of beer, $3.25 for a bottle of soda, and $3.00 for a bottle of water.

Taco WIngs!

The first place we tried was Swings from Buffalo, NY. I wanted to try their lemon pepper wings, but they were out. Apparently the people frying the wings for the entire event couldn’t keep up with the demand, which was rather aggrivating. They know what they were getting in to – expect to be able to cook enough wings! At any rate, they had a “taco” flavored wing. It was a very average wing. In all actuality, it tasted like a typical Buffalo wing sauce with a packet of McCormick Taco Seasoning dumped in it. I rated it a 3.5, Andy and Matt both rated it a 3.0. We all determined that it was a very average wing.

After Swings, we wandered over to The Wing Coup out of Salt Lake City, Utah. They had a Loco Lime flavored wing that smelled really good from a distance. Unfortunately, when we arrived they too were out of wings. Come on! We decided to swing back through after trying another place.

From The Wing Coup, we moved to Pesci’s Pizza out of Clarence, NY. We were all pretty pleased with these wings. They were very rib-like. Ultra tender, and fell right off the bone. Matt had the Cajun Bourbon wings, and described them as very smoky, more smoky than spicy. He rated them a 3.33333- you get the idea. Andy tried the Wild Turkey Bour-B-Q. When asked to describe them, all he could come up with was “Ribs.” I guess that gets the point across. He rated them a 4.2! I tried the Maple-Cini wings. They were pretty good. The best way to describe them was as a “dessert wing”. The sauce was super sticky, and it took a couple before I really started to enjoy them. I have them a 3.25, since they were good, but not something I would want a lot of.

Nasty Lime Wing

After Pesci’s, we headed back over to The Wing Coup. In retrospect, this was the worst decision of the night thus far. We all tried the Loco Lime wings, which was regrettable in so many ways. They smelled very strong of lime. Too strong in fact. But that was really just foreshadowing. These wings looked as though someone had dropped them into a soiled diaper and used that as the sauce. Not pleasant. As we tried these wings, we all cringed. Eating these wings felt like punishment.  Basically, squeeze an entire lime into your mouth. Then dribble some chicken grease on top. Then swallow. Just plain gross. Please stay in Salt Lake City. Andy rated them a 0.7. Matt rated them a 0.05. I gave them a 1.2, which in hindsight was probably too kind.

After grabbing some $3 bottles of water to cleanse our palates from the garbage we had consumed, we moved on to Alliger’s House Of Wings, from Sayre, PA. I tried the honey mustard wings, which were very tasty. You could taste the separate honey and mustard components, and it aws enjoyable. I rated them a 3.75. Matt tired the Honey BBQ, which he said was a very solid 4.0. Very sweet, very tasty. Andy tried the Sicilian (Hot Traditional) wings. He gave them a 2.8, and said that they were just plain garbage. Not what a “traditional” Buffalo wing should be at all.

Our final stop of the night was Arooga’s Grille House & Sports Bar. The waitresses were stunningly hot. Sadly, this was the only worthwhile thing they had going for them. We each ordered a separate type of wing and passed them around. We tried the Tiger style first. Basically, these were onion powder, clove, and garlic flavored. They were so overpowering that none of us could stand them. I gave them a 1.2, Andy gave them a 0.2, and Matt refused to score them. They were that bad. After that we tried the Kangarooga flavored. I gave them a 0.37. Matt gave them a flat 1. Andy gave them a -5.0. These were just awful. Matt’s comment: “Is that carrot I taste?” They were that bad. The last wing of the night was the Mango Habanero. We all gave these wings a 0.0. They were hard, the sauce was thick and gooey, and really, they tasted more like fish than chicken. Arooga’s could do well by staying away from the Buffalo wing altogether.

Overall the experience was good.  The crowds were not too bad, the prices were reasonable (considering it was a festival), and I had a good time catching up with Matt, and hanging out with Andy.  Would I go again?  Maybe in a couple years, but I don’t know if this is an event I need to hit up every summer.

Ingredients:
2 sleeves of graham crackers
1 1/2 sticks of butter (yeah, I know)
2 packages of either chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or butterscotch chips (mix it up.  I used a bag of chocolate and peanut butter mixed and a bag of butterscotch)
1 12oz can of sweetened condensed milk
about 3/4 bag of mini marshmallows

Process:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Toss your graham crackers in a large freezer bag and roll over them until crumbled into fine bits – almost to the point they are a powder.  Melt your butter in the microwave, and stir into the graham crackers until well coated.  Press the mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 9×13 pan, and toss into the oven for 5 mins.

After 5 minutes, pull crust from oven and sprinkle on your chips.  Make sure the entire crust is covered!  Drizzle your can of condensed milk over the chips, and then cover completely with mini marshmallows.  Toss everything back into the oven for about 20 minutes.  You’ll know it’s done when the marshmallows are starting to turn brown on the top.

Let this cool down a bit before you move it to the fridge, and let it solidify.  Cutting before it is completely cooled will turn it into a huge mess, so wait until it is cooled.  Cut into squares / small bars, and serve!  This dessert goes great with vanilla ice cream.