Watch This Wednesday: Mythbusters Dishwasher Lasagna

By now, I am sure most of our readers will know about Mythbusters. In this clip they join forces with the Food Network's Alton Brown to test dishwasher cookery. They make a lasagna. How does it turn out for them? You'll have to watch the video to find out.



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Kelly's Korner - Can you name these kitchen gadgets?

 

Hey, All,

We were moving my mom last week and I was going through the kitchen drawers and found some old gadgets that I thought were really interesting.  Two I knew what they were, but I am appealing to you all to help me identify the third.

The first one is this:  Hint - It will help make some great pies. 

The second is this:  Hint - For the weak of wrist.

Now this is the mystery gadget:  I have not a clue as to what this "knife" is used for and, so far, neither has anyone else I've shown it to.  If you know what it is, please let me know.

 
 
 
 
 
 
  I love kitchen gadgets of all kinds so if you have some old, unusual, or mystery gadgets, please send me a picture and I'll share it.

Have a great week!

Monday Motivation

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”–John Wooden

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Friday Morning Videos: Making Cider in A Washing Machine

Down here at W.L. May Company, we hear about a lot of ways people rework their appliances to serve other purposes. This is an idea we had not considered. With some pretty simple modifications, these folks have turned their old washer into a cider making machine. Not sure this would pass muster with the health departments inspectors, but it does look like it works.



For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE

Vacation Planning

Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library

When was the last time you gave yourself a vacation? Studies show that time off can increase productivity, problem solving skills, creativity, and enthusiasm for your job. This is as true when you run the business as when you are a worker at the business. As the owner of a company it is hard to leave things behind to take time off, it can be easier if you prepare in advance for that time off.

As this goes to post, I am on vacation. When I was planning my time off, I took into consideration that this is a traditionally slow-ish time of year. Considering my calendar and previous years mean that I can try to take off time when it will (hopefully) have the least impact on my clients and co-workers.

Another kind of vacation planning

I do both social media and am a parts expert at W.L. May. Like many of you, I wear a few different hats. Starting with social media, one of the ways that I prepared was to write and schedule my blog posts before I am off the clock. I use the Blogger software for this  blog and it has a schedule feature that will allow you to post articles to be published at any time I request. This allows me to prepare blog posts to appear while I am away. 

To prepare my social media, I could schedule Facebook posts and Twitter tweets using a service like HootSuite or Buffer. If I were to take that approach I would not truly be able to disconnect because I would want to keep an eye on those pages to stay involved with any interactions on those pages. To allow me to fully disconnect while away, I am using teamwork and having those sites monitored by a team member (Kelly in this case). This is the approach I would recommend, if possible, since the less interactions performed remotely, the more you are actually spending time AWAY from your business, which is how to maximize the effects of your time away.

That covers the blogging and social media side of my job, but I am a parts guy in addition to being a blogger. The parts side of the equation also takes some preparation. To my mind, the most important thing is letting my regular clients know that I will be away so that it does not come as a surprise if they call and I am not here. W.L. May is a team oriented company and our parts people have a "go-to" person that we can suggest our clients speak to when we are away (Todd in this case). This allows for coverage, in the case of vacation or illness, with a parts expert that our client already has some experience working with. You may notice, I have 2 people helping to cover for me, this helping to spread the work around a little bit with the goal of minimizing the impact to both my clients and my co-workers. 

One of the best things about a vacation-Coming home!

While away, other regular daily duties are handled by the "go-to" person as well. I met with my back up before leaving to advise of any unusual circumstances that might arise during my absence. Is this all overkill? Maybe, but it leaves my clients and co-workers prepared for me to be gone. Using these techniques, I am more comfortable leaving things in the hands of someone else while I am away and I have found that when I return, things fall back into place quickly. 

Of course, you may have other steps to take before you can take off-we would love to hear what YOU do to prepare for time off. Let us know in the comments section. However you go about making time off happen for you, I urge you to do those things. You might well find yourself happier, more efficient, and more profitable after taking a little time to recharge.

For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE

Watch This Wednesday: It's Not A Cat Burglar, It's A Dog Burglar!

Recently in my appliance news subscriptions, I received the story of a new addition to the Animal Planet lineup of on air talent. From the Pocono Record: 

Like many of us, Leo has bad eating habits. He likes to raid the refrigerator between meals. The freezer, too.
Only Leo happens to be a dog. A very naughty dog.
Animal Planet will film Leo's antics today at his owner Susie Forrester's Stroudsburg home.
Leo is a 9½ year-old yellow lab. His reign of terror began about five years ago when Forrester, a pro photographer, got divorced and moved into a new home. Now she can't keep him away from the refrigerated food.
Leo caught the attention of Animal Planet after a video of him opening a fridge and pilfering food was uploaded to YouTube a couple of years ago. It caught the attention of the cable show, and Leo will be featured in its "Bad Dog" segment sometime in July.

Naturally, as a lover of all things appliance, this story intrigued me and caused me to do a little YouTube searching. There are a few videos I found of dogs being naughty and raiding the refrigerator, I think our Stroudsberg pooch is in one of the first two videos.

The first video most likely resulted in a call to someone in our business:



The second video features a slightly more crafty dog who looks out the window to make sure the coast is clear, and then begins his crime spree. This video also features a view from inside the refrigerator. Its pretty chaotic camera work for the first few seconds but then they get the camera situated and the fun begins.



And the last is clearly a different dog, but someone showed that old dog a new trick!



We hope you enjoyed these mischievous dogs. If you have a dog that does some tricks, or some petty theft, we would love to hear about in the comments.

For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE

Kelly's Korner - "Natural" Easter Eggs

Hey, All,

So many things pop up on the internet under Facebook, Google+ and other social media sites that pique my interest and then I go searching for more information and find out a lot of things I never knew before!

So yesterday this thing popped up about naturally dyed eggs, and with Easter so close I thought I'd share this with you all.  Some ingredients need to be gathered before hand and it may take some time to do so that's why this is a few weeks early.

This is the site that caught my interest:  http://www.goodshomedesign.com/diy-easter-egg-dye/
And I thought - "Ooooh, so pretty!"  Then I started delving into other natural dyes and found other sites that dye eggs using fruits, veggies and other things (does wine count as a fruit?) to make really interesting dyed eggs.  Who knew that if you boiled red cabbage leaves with eggs that they would turn a royal blue colour?  Wow!

Then I found this website:  http://www.livescience.com/44258-easter-eggs-natural-dyes.html





And then this one: http://www.blogher.com/natural-egg-dye-rainbow-options

Please read through all the articles as they have lots of information and some warnings.  But I was thinking this would be a great thing to do with the kids as a science experiment, art project and Easter decorating all in one!  Supervision is definitely a must while using the stove and dyeing.  You might want to experiment yourself before letting the kids loose with this also.

I don't know if you are at all like me but I tend to have both hard boiled and fresh eggs in the fridge and sometime don't remember which are which as they are all still white.  So if you tossed some onion skins or cabbage leaves or whatever catches you fancy with your eggs when you are boiling them, they will be very easy for anyone to tell which are the boiled ones.  And you'll have pretty eggs all year long!

Have a great week!