Archive for the ‘Stuff’ Category

This video is a great way to explain the phenomena called “Social Media.”  It’s not complicated – it’s just this simple. If you’re confused about Social Media, take three minutes to watch this video. Thanks, Clint Miller for allowing me to re-blog this!

Our family’s rendition of the Super Bowl party

Deme and I are happy to be included in the Kingsley family’s annual Super Bowl get-together and chili cook-off.

Now, a chili cook-off may sound like a simple thing during a Super Bowl game, but this family owns the Coney Island restaurants around Tulsa and they all make excellent chili every day. So, it’s slightly intimidating to enter their contest for the best chili.

Tonight, chili entries were submitted by Chuck and Pope; Michael Kingsley; Deme; Alex; and Barbra. First time contestant and fiancé to Barbra, Alex came out the winner and took home the trophy. Congrats Alex!!

Best thing about Super Bowl evening with the Kingsleys is that the guys watch the game in the den and the ladies visit in the kitchen. Tonight’s kitchen entertainment was Cranium, a fun and interactive game guaranteed to make you do silly things.

Sophia and Allison teamed up; Barbra and Kate teamed up. I was on a team with Evonne and Pope. If you’ve never played Cranium, you should try it. It’s a combination of trivia, cherades, drawing, humming, sculpting and more.

Sometimes the artist has to close her eyes while drawing. Sometimes everyone playing gets to guess the answer. The humming was definitely fun, as well as acting out a person your team-mate has to try to guess.

Barbra did an excellent impression of Clint Eastwood. Pope stumbled a bit over humming “Stop in the name of love,” and Evonne drew an awesome King Kong that I couldn’t guess. We invented a few dances tonight and Barbra got her aerobics in.

Sophia and Evonne are the natural artists, although Kate sculpted an excellent burger. Pope is the wordsmith and Allison is the dictionary. Most amazing win was Barbra and Kate’s drawing of the toucan, guessed in less than ten seconds.

Eventual winners of the Cranium game were Pope, Evonne and myself.

Oh, and we heard that the “Saints” won as well. Coincidence?

Lori is a residential Realtor serving the greater Tulsa area, and specializing in midtown Tulsa real estate. Please visit Lori’s web site, LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.

If you are thinking of remodeling your kitchen, this is a great article to read. When Demetrius and I remodeled our kitchen, I am glad that we included a prep sink and kitchen drawers in our kitchen island, but wished we had made more room for seating. If you will use a caterer in your new kitchen, be sure to run your kitchen plans by your caterer!

Get your check books out and send help. Today – $10 or whatever you can afford.

Give a HOOT about your Tweets: HootSuite vs. TweetDeck

Someone asked me recently if I preferred HootSuite or TweetDeck, and the answer is that I use them BOTH. I keep them both open and minimized at all times.

I prefer HootSuite to post tweets that I want to schedule. For example, on Sunday mornings I try to schedule tweets for events for the coming week. This morning I scheduled tweets for upcoming Martin Luther King events and plays and community meetings – happenings that will occur during the week. Now, I can cross that off my “to do” list. There is an area where you can type in your tweet and another box that you can paste a URL in to that you wish to shorten or shrink. If you wish to schedule the tweet, you select “Send Later” and it will allow you to select a date and time for your tweet to go out!

However, I prefer TweetDeck to better see the conversations that are going on. As in HootSuite, you can add or modify columns (topics) you wish to view. You can see what all your friends are saying and easily converse with them. You can type in a tweet and select the “auto shorten” box to the right, but I don’t believe you can schedule a tweet for a later date through TweetDeck.

In the TweetDeck screen shot, you can see that I am viewing what my friends are posting in the first column; “mentions” in the 2nd column; what’s going on in Tulsa in the 3rd column; what’s going on at Active Rain in the 4th column; and direct messages in the 5th column. If I want to know what people are saying about the Google Nexus phone, I would add #nexus column.

I’m sure I’m not using either program to its full potential, so I’d love to hear your comments about what you use and why!

And, if you’d like to follow me, I’m @LoriCainRE on Twitter!

Lori Cain is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors serving the greater Tulsa Oklahoma area, including midtown Tulsa, Owasso, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Sand Springs and Jenks. Please visit Lori’s web site, LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.

The Bottled Water Dilemma and Smart Water

My husband and I try to be as socially responsible and green as possible. We recycle EVERYTHING. We take our shopping bags with us to the grocery and we are working hard at using refillable polycarbonate water bottles instead of purchasing bottled water.

Our local Tulsa recycling guru, Michael Patton, aka “Recycle Michael” explains that on top of the many obvious reasons not to purchase bottled water (such as not knowing how long or where it is stored), we should be concerned about additional costs that deplete natural resources. So, if you’re buying bottled water from Fuji, we are using fuel to TRANSPORT that water from Fuji – not a socially-responsible thing to do.

We just took a trip to visit my Dad and his wife, so we responsibly loaded our car with reusable water bottles and a gallon of water. However, we left the gallon of water in the car and were unable to drink it on the way home, as the water was frozen.

I drink a LOT of water. So, at our first pit-stop on our return trip, dear husband went into the convenience store to purchase bottled water and he returned with two 1-liter bottles of Glaceau Smart Water. I laughed and thanked him for not purchasing “dumb water” for me.

Turns out this water is vapor distilled water plus electrolytes. I went to their web site for more information (most of the print on the bottle is too small for me to read) and found more scientific information about this water than I could absorb (pun intended). Their slogan is “purity you can taste – hydration you can feel.”

It is a pretty cool looking bottle. And I can read on the bottle where it says, “enjoy the inside, recycle the outside.”

The Bottled Water Dilemma and Smart Water

If you want to try to figure out all the scientific information provided, go for it. I’m returning to my purified tap water, thank you. But, if you’re stuck on the road with frozen water and forced to purchase bottled water, go for the “smart water.” Somebody needs to pay for this really awesome marketing!

And, darned if I can locate on the bottle WHERE this water is manufactured, but I did notice that it has printing on the INSIDE of the bottle. It says, “spring water is for swimming, smart water is for drinking.” Hopefully it’s made in Canada and not shipped all the way from France! For more information about this product, check out their web site or call 1-877-GLACEAU.

Lori Cain is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors serving the greater Tulsa Oklahoma area, including midtown Tulsa, Owasso, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Sand Springs and Jenks. Please visit Lori’s web site, LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.

Handbook For 2010

Health:

1. Drink plenty of water.

2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.

3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy

5. Make time to pray.

6. Play more game.

7. Read more books than you did in 2009.

8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day

9. Sleep for 7 hours.

10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:

11. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

13. Don’t over do. Keep your limits.

14. Don’t take yourself so seriously.. No one else does.

15.. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.

16. Dream more while you are awak.

17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.

20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.

21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

23. Smile and laugh more.

24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree…

Society:

25. Call your family often.

26. Each day give something good to others.

27. Forgive everyone for everything.

28. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.

29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

30. What other people think of you is none of your business.

31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:

32. Do the right thing! Trust God for everything….

33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

34. GOD heals everything. In HIS own time….

35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

37. The best is yet to come. Wait and See…

38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it. You have work to do….

39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Lori Cain is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors serving the greater Tulsa Oklahoma area, including midtown Tulsa, Owasso, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Sand Springs and Jenks. Please visit Lori’s web site, LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.

Such an important message about spaying and neutering our four-legged family members from a Cambridge, MA Realtor – cute and thoughtful video!  Enjoy!

Lori Cain is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors serving the greater Tulsa Oklahoma area, including midtown Tulsa, Owasso, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Sand Springs and Jenks. Please visit Lori’s web site, LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.

Excellent way to begin the new year – Dr. B’s fabulous brunch

There is no shortage of good cooks in our family as you know.

Cooking, to us, is not just an expression of love – it’s almost a form of communicating – a true expression of what lies within.

My Dad’s wife, Dr. B (Bonnie) prepared a brunch worth writing about.

She made spinach frittata with wild rice and blue cheese – yummy combination and a great recipe to promote fresh spinach. She also made a newfound recipe that her mother made years ago, spoon bread.

The highlight of the brunch was her French toast casserole from a cookbook called Bon Appétit, Y’all! by writer Virginia Willis – a collection of amazing southern cooking recipes and stories.

The French toast casserole was made with challah bread, milk, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, butter, brown sugar and topped with pecans. Dr. B served it hot from the oven and we added MORE butter and syrup – it was Heavenly.

Of course we had juice and a variety of fresh fruit, but somehow I kept returning to the frittata and French bread casserole.

Dr. B comes up with some pretty amazing meals – I especially like her soups made from pumpkin or winter squashes.

Excellent way to begin the new year – Dr. B’s fabulous brunch

If the rest of the year goes as well as this great meal did, we’re in fine shape.

Happy New Year to you – Kali Orexi and Bon Appetite, y’all!

Lori Cain is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors serving the greater Tulsa Oklahoma area, including midtown Tulsa, Owasso, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Sand Springs and Jenks. Please visit Lori’s web site, LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.

None of us know the full story yet – only what we’ve read in the local paper. A Tulsa trucking company, Arrow Trucking, SHUT DOWN yesterday and sent office employees home with a cardboard box holding their belongings.

The real tragedy is that they left approximately 1,500 truck drivers out on the road with no way to return home. They cut off the driver’s credit cards which would allow them to re-fuel, so they can not make it to their destination to drop off their load or make it home for the holidays. Few had the $600+ needed to personally fuel their trucks.

I “heard” about this travesty yesterday early morning and read about it in the newspaper today.

When I got home this afternoon, I posted on FB, inquiring what was done to get the drivers home, and someone sent me a link – sure enough, a FaceBook page had been set up to help the stranded drivers. I immediately went to TweetDeck and found messages coming in from across the country. People were offering their homes, meals and cash – posting their travel schedules (for their personal holiday trips) and offered to assist getting drivers closer to their destination.

The response has been overwhelming and it has been heartwarming to read the responses and genuine offers of assistance.

It looks like the majority of truck drivers have received assistance — and another trucking company, Swift Trucking, has given their drivers permission to assist the distressed drivers home – HUGE blessing.

The power of community is awesome and particularly appreciated in this horrible circumstance – men and women suddenly unemployed and stranded away from home two days before Christmas. And thank God for the power of Facebook and Twitter to organize their safe return.

I am truly speechless over this out-pouring of kindness.

Lori Cain is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors serving the greater Tulsa Oklahoma area, including midtown Tulsa, Owasso, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Sand Springs and Jenks. Please visit Lori’s web site, LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.