Have you noticed that the grass in your lawn gets thinner each year while more and more weeds keep showing up?

There is an easy way to fix this and it’s called overseeding.

What the heck is overseeding? You simply buy a bag of grass seed at your local hardware store, core aerate your lawn, spread the seed, cover it with a light layer of compost, and then water twice a day until the seeds sprout. Once they sprout, you can cut back to watering once a day.

After about 4 weeks your lawn will be thick, green, and lush.

The core aerating is an important step — it helps get more water, nutrients and air down into the root zone of your lawn. It also helps remove some of the thatch layer that builds up over time.

The type of seed you buy should match your existing lawn or complement it. For example if your lawn is thin under your trees or in shady areas make sure you buy seed that does well in full shade. Are the areas in full sun burning up? You may need seed that thrives in high heat.

The type of compost you use is not really important. I’ve used sheep manure, steer manure, chicken manure, etc. The steer manure was only $1 per bag while the other two are $5 per bag, so I usually mix them together to get more coverage for a lower cost.

The increased thickness of your grass will force the weeds out and keep them out. The thicker and healthier the grass, the fewer weeds you will have.

Overseed early in the spring and again in the fall during cooler temperatures. Grass seed does better when it’s cooler and hates the high heat of mid-summer.

I’m constantly being told that my yard is the best looking yard on the block.

Why is that?

It’s not greener than the others. Everyone mows once per week. We all water on just about the same cycle. We all fertilize two or three times per year and aerate at the same times.

The answer is that mine just looks more “finished”, more professional.

The secret is in the edging work I do after I mow.

I have the normal gas-powered string trimmer that everyone else has, but my secret weapon is a rotating blade edging tool that swaps out with the string trimmer head so that I have two tools in one. The string trimmer gets all the curved edges, around the trees and drainpipes, etc. while the rotating blade makes a perfectly straight up-and-down cut along the sidewalks and driveway edges. The combination of these two tools gives you a professional look that leaves most people wondering how you managed to get such a perfect edge.

You can get the same setup I have at any big box store — the trimmer is about $110 and the edging attachment is about $60.

Of course, you can pay someone else to do all this for you — which is what I recommend if you don’t enjoy yard work like I do — as your time is precious and should be spent with family and friends rather than out in the yard…

I love playing online poker for lots of reasons:  I can play on my laptop from anywhere in or around my house, I never have to wait for a table longer than 3 minutes, I don’t have to get dressed up and go to a casino, I can jump in and out of games whenever I feel like it, and there are no arguments about which hand beats what or who played out of turn.

Even with all of these advantages, the one thing I don’t like about online poker sites is the waiting between hands. I’m a naturally impatient person, and HATE to wait. Of course playing online is better than live action because the dealer is much faster, but you still get stuck with morons at the table who take forever to make a decision. I always seem to get stuck with that guy who waits until just before the timer runs out to either raise, call, or fold — and he does it every single time!

Full Tilt Poker has just come out with an awesome solution to the “waiting game” of poker. They call it “Rush Poker”, and it works like this.

1. Instead of being seated at a specific table, you are put into a “pool” of up to 2,000 players.
2. As soon as you fold a hand you are “rushed” to a new table and dealt a brand new hand.
3. You play out your hand any way you want, but as soon as you fold or decide you want to fold when it comes around to your turn, you get rushed away to a new hand.

Do you see how cool this is?

You’ll never have to sit and wait for that “slow guy” unless you actually want to be in the hand — most of the time, you just click the “fold” button and get rushed right into a new hand.

I’ve found that instead of playing about 75 hands per hour, I can now play almost 300 hands per hour! That’s FOUR TIMES AS MANY HANDS as before! Do you have any idea how awesome that is?

Another awesome aspect of Rush Poker is that you can no longer be “nailed down” by the other players at the table. If you play with the same people for a long time they start to figure out your style of play — you only call with the nuts, you bluff a lot on the river, you raise on the blind with junk, etc. With Rush Poker, no one can figure you out because you never play with the same group of people for very long — every time you get rushed to a new table all of the other players are new as well…this makes for some very interesting strategy opportunities which I’ll be discussing in another blog post.

For now, just get over to Full Tilt Poker and sign up for an account — look in the Basic View and Standard Views of the poker lobby for the “Rush Poker” tables. Once you’ve tried this new form of poker you’ll never go back to the old slow way again.

So I have this expensive front-loading washer / dryer combo with the fancy drawers on the bottom. These things are awesome — they save water, they save energy, they look cool, all of the detergent, softener, bleach, etc. fits in the neat drawers — so what’s my problem?

The washer stinks!

For the first year or so everything was fine, but then I started to notice a heavy, musty, mildew-type of smell inside of the washer after not using it for a while. I also noticed the smell in our clean towels after drying off with them.

What is going on?

I did a search online and found that this is a very common problem with front-loading washing machines and also found a bunch of ways to help fix the problem. I’ve tried just about everything listed here, and the smell is almost gone now. Go through this list and see if any of these suggestions will help you:

1. Always leave the front door open when not using the machine — this allows air to circulate and helps slow the formation of mildew.
2. If you have an exhaust fan in your laundry room (like you do in your bathroom) make sure you run it when doing laundry. This helps keep the humidity levels down and fights mildew.
3. After all wash loads are done, make sure you dry off the rubber gasket located inside the door. Just use an old towel and dry off all the rubber surfaces you see.
4. Once or twice a month, run an empty cycle with the hottest water setting you have and some liquid bleach to clean your machine. Many machines have a self-clean setting just for this purpose.
5. READ your owner’s manual. Most people never look at the manual, and they miss out on some important information from the manufacturer. For instance, most manuals will tell you to follow the steps listed here!
6. If all else fails, you can try some of the cleaning products for front-end washers. I’ve heard good and bad stories about most of them, but the one that seems to have the most success in getting rid of the musty smell is Smelly Washer Cleaner.

Some people become so frustrated with the front-loading washer smell that they give up and go back to the old-style top loading machines. Just follow your basic maintenance tips and you won’t have to give up your cool new washer!

The Current card by Discover is a new kind of debit card for teens with built-in parental controls and some amazing advanced features.

With the Current Card, parents can add money easily to a card for their teens, set spending limits and have e-mail or text message activity alerts sent in real-time, track purchases to the penny, and access exclusive discounts online.

Teens can choose from one of seven awesome teen card designs and have access to the following features and benefits:

• Parents can set daily, weekly, and monthly spending limits.
• Restrict card use in unwanted shopping categories like liquor stores, hotels, cigarette stores, etc.
• Free direct deposit transfers to fund the card.
• Free deposits from any bank account or credit card.
• $0 fraud liability guarantee.
• Withdraw cash at any ATM.
• Exclusive discounts at popular teen stores.
• Free instant email and text message activity alerts.
• No minimum balances, no loading fees, no credit check.
• All applications with valid information will be accepted – no credit screening!

Sign up for a new Current card for each teen in your family — you’ll have complete control over their spending, but they will have the freedom and acceptance of a credit card that is accepted almost everywhere. Click on the card below to apply: