research

I've become very dependent on Google.  You really can Google anything.  In the past few days I have typed, "What is a snack that begins with x, y or z?" and come up with a plan to take yogurt and (zoo) animal crackers to the kindergarten this week.  Then I tried, "How to remove silly putty from clothing" and, in addition to the idea of banning silly putty from my house, I got two suggestions. The first treated it like gum, suggesting ice and a scrapping knife.  I got the chunks this way but pressed the color deeper into the fibers.  And cut a small hole in the pants.  Then I went the rubbing alcohol method and I think I got most of it, except I seem to have run out of cotton balls and the tissue was making a mess.  Now that the new pants have a small hole in the leg, I'm less concerned about the red stain anyway.  Maybe that was part of the solution.

Many, many of my menus start online.  "What to make with pumpkin and cranberries?"  Duh, pumpkin cranberry bread!  What are the ingredients in that broccoli salad I always love when people take it to potlucks, the one that has bacon?  "Broccoli salad bacon" made for a fabulous side dish.  Naturally I also had to Google for ingredient substitutions since I seldom have the right stuff on hand and always need to improvise. Once I first Googled "fennel" and then "what to make with fennel", a side effect of joining a CSA, and an ingredient I don't much like.  Generally I find recipes best if I include the word "recipe" in the search.

Gardening is full of Google searches.  "Propagate chrysanthemums -purple heart -winter daphne"  I search for plants mentioned in gardening blogs all the time.  (I plan to buy heuchera as soon as possible.)  I've been considering terracing our yard, but even though Google has helped me find a useful how-to video, I'm still intimidated.  Unless Google is willing to do the work on that one, it might have to wait.

Today I had other needs.  I Googled, "AAA road service phone number" and "VW repair Atlanta".  I'd like to Google "What will a new oil pump cost us?" but I'm afraid to find out the answer and so far, Google has found me pretty reliable answers.