MRS. FIX IT CLEANS GREEN!
Mrs. Fix It joined us this morning to tell us how you can make cleaning your house more "green". Click here for the info.
DIETARY INFO JUST A TEXT MESAGE AWAY
If you want to know exactly how many calories and grams of fat it'll cost you if you go for that Mocha Frappuccino-- Diet.com can tell you. It features a new text-messaging service it calls "Nutrition on the Go."
Text DIET1 -- 34381 -- with the name of the restaurant, the menu item and the size. You'll get a return message with the nutritional information.
The service was launched last month. It provides nutritional information for 36,000 menu items at more than 1,700 restaurants nationwide, mostly chains. Among them: McDonald's, Starbucks, Panera Bread Co. and Chili's.
Anyone with a text-messaging tool on their cell phone or Blackberry can send a message to DIET1 -- that's 34381 -- with the name of the restaurant, the menu item and the size, if it applies.
You should get a return message with the nutritional information just like you find on packaged foods. The information provided already is available to the public from the restaurants themselves and from the USDA. But the text-messaging lets you get the calories and nutritional data right there in line at a fast-food place or at a restaurant table before you order.
Diet.com doesn't charge for the text messages.
BABY NAMES
MSNBC.com had these tips for choosing a baby name ...
Each partner makes a Top 10 list, then swaps lists and ranks each other's suggestions.
Put the name you're considering on a blank business card. This can especially help for a girl because some of the cutesy girls' names would not carry over well into adulthood
Don't share your names with others, because it can open the door for too many criticisms and sway your opinion. Just announce the name after the baby is born and no one can say anything (at least not to your face!).
And Speaking Of Baby Names, Here are the Strangest In Hollywood...
Forget Suri or Shiloh -- those names are tame compared to some of the stranger names in Hollywood! Here are some of the oddest celebrity baby names ...
Apple (Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow)
Moxie CrimeFighter (Magician Penn Jillette)
Hopper (Sean Penn and Robin Wright)
Pilot Inspektor (Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf)
Sosie (Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick)
Destry (Director Steven Spielberg and actress Kate Capshaw)
Aurelius Cy (Supermodel Elle Macpherson)
Kal-El Coppola (Nicholas Cage)
Bluebell Madonna (Spice Girl Geri Halliwell)
Audio Science (Actress Shannyn Sossamon)
Sage Moonblood (Sylvester Stallone)
Kyd (David Duchovny and Tea Leoni)
YOUR LIFE STORY IN SIX WORDS
Smith magazine is an online magazine devoted to personal storytelling. Memoir editor (Rachel Fershleiser) started a contest in which people wrote six-word stories of their own, as memoirs -- then put hundreds of them into a new book, "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure."More than 15,000 entries poured in from around the country, some filled with heart, others with happiness. Entries included the likes of "Adopted baby. Got pregnant. Instant family" and "Love annihilated thirty year age difference."
Celebrities were among those getting into the act.
Stephen Colbert's contribution: 'Well, I thought it was funny."
Joan Rivers wanted to do more than talk with hers: "Liars: hysterectomy didn't improve sex life."
And celebrity chef Mario Batali's was steamy: "Brought it to a boil, often."The editor says, "There are a lot of people who never get asked, 'What are you thinking about? How has your life been?' "
Here's mine... "Julie's husband... Gracie's dad... Hawaii, Bakersfield".
ABSENTEE WEDDINGS!
This seems bizarre, but in Montana, you can get married... and neither you nor your spouse has to PHYSICALLY be at the wedding.
It's called a double-proxy wedding... and if you get one, your union will be legally recognized, even though you weren't even there. Here's how it works...
The bride and groom hire stand-ins to take their place while a judge performs a wedding ceremony. Vows are exchanged, and at the end, the stand-ins say "I do". They then sign the marriage certificate and file it with the court.
The whole process costs just over $1,300. But there's a catch...
Originally, double-proxy weddings were arranged to accommodate soldiers who wanted to get married while they were off fighting in World War Two... but people began abusing the law by arranging for foreigners to get legal, American marriages.
So now, to qualify for a double-proxy wedding, either the bride or the groom has to be either a resident of Montana OR a member of the armed forces on active duty. Click here if you qualify and are interested!
