Thursday, November 27, 2003
Dear Heloise: A reader recently suggested that everyone organize a financial notebook. A great idea, yet my experience in working with senior adults has been that legal documents -- wills, trusts, letters of intent, advanced directives -- not only need to be included, but they also need to be discussed with the people responsible for your care or well-being and your estate settlement, no matter what your age. Do it today!
The person I was responsible for had to have a leg amputated during surgery, and had there been no prior discussion of the person's health desires -- which I definitely encourage everyone to write down -- the decision would have been much more gut-wrenching. For example, do you want to be cremated? For family members, written wishes are really a crutch that enables those you've selected as decision-makers to carry out your wishes. Having all pertinent information in a notebook helps everyone! Jo, Via E-mail
FYI: Here's an easy way to know when you have sanded a piece of wood furniture enough: Take pantyhose, place it over your hand and rub it over the furniture. If it snags, you will need to sand a little more. Heloise
Dear Heloise: We love the frozen biscuits that are so popular now, but when baking them right out of the bag, we have found that they are too big and doughy for our taste. My smart husband came up with the idea of defrosting them in the microwave until they are just soft enough to pinch into two halves. Then he just reshapes and presses them onto a baking sheet. The biscuits bake up much flakier this way, plus it's like doubling the number of biscuits in the bag! Marie, Via E-mail
Dear Heloise: I save the sleeve every morning from the newspaper and put my coffee filter/grinds in it. The bag keeps it from dripping everywhere and contains the mess in the garbage can. Don't you just hate when you have to look in the kitchen garbage can for something you might have thrown away and have to deal with coffee grinds? Kathryn, San Antonio
And here's a hint from C.O., via fax: "Weekly garbage collection sometimes causes visits from night-prowling animals and insects. Unpleasant air wafting to nearby residents can also be a problem. To alleviate these problems, I store spoilable excess food in the freezer in a large, sealed plastic bag until just prior to pickup time." Heloise
Dear Heloise: I have always placed my steak forks, as well as any other sharp utensils, upside-down in our countertop utensil bin. This created an issue when one needed to locate a utensil whose handle was similar to unneeded utensils. Now I put only the sharp utensils point-side down. You know you are getting either a steak fork or another "sharpie." J.D., Via E-mail
XSend a great hint to: Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000, Fax: (210) HELOISE or E-mail: Heloise@Heloise.com.
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