Summer is here and everyone likes the idea of ice cream. If you are throwing a dinner party or just having some friends over for dinner, you will amaze them when you bring out this ice cream dessert. It looks like a watermelon, even when you slice it. It even has the ‘seeds’. It is easy to make and so impressive.

Ingredients

Lime Sherbet, softened

Raspberry Sherbet, softened. Or you can use cherry or strawberry. It just needs to be red or pink in color.

mini chocolate chips

Line a large mixing bowl with the softened Lime Sherbet. Think of this lining as the skin of the watermelon. Don’t make it too thick, but don’t make it too thin either.

Next, mix the chocolate chips with the raspberry sherbet and fill in the rest of the bowl. The red or pink sherbet is the inside of the watermelon and the mini chocolate chips are the watermelon seeds.

Seal the bowl and refreeze the sherbet watermelon. Once the sherbet has refrozen, remove the seal and turn the bowl upside down onto a large plate. Use a warm towel on the bottom of the bowl to help the ice cream release. Slice the “watermelon” and serve. When served, each piece will look like a slice of watermelon and taste yummy, too.

So you are getting married. Congratulations! Are you tired of the same old glass clinking traditions at weddings to get the newlyweds to kiss. Try an alternative at your wedding reception. Here are some ideas that will get away from the traditional clinking that everyone dreads:

Putt for a kiss- Set up a putting green, and have guests try for a “hole in one”

Bowl for a Kiss-Same idea as the one above, except you have guests bowl for a “strike”

Bowl for a Kiss- (using WII, have the DJ put the game on a big screen with an LCD projector, so all of the guests can play along and have fun too!)

Shoot For A Kiss- (Using suction cup, Bow & Arrow)

Sing a song with love in it- The DJ can stroll from table to table, and guests can sing their favorite song with the word love in it

Share your favorite memory or story about the bride and groom- This one is just like the one above, except you are sharing a story, as an added bonus, (**Have the DJ/Entertainer record them for memories later)

Have guests make their favorite duck or animal calls

Take donations for Charity- (At one couples wedding, they took in over $400 in 20 minutes)

Have your guests demonstrate a kiss-then the bride and groom will kiss

Roll the dice- if it lands on the bride and groom’s picture, then kiss

Have guests spin The Wedding Wheel- (use a wheel, like wheel of fortune, each wedge on the wheel has a different task)

Answer a multiple choice trivia question about the bride and groom

Have your table write a poem about the bride and groom or love

Fish Bowl of kisses- If guests pull a gold one, the bride and groom kiss, if they pull a silver one, then the guests kiss

These are just a few ideas that you could use instead of the traditional glass clinking, the sky is the limit, good luck!

This solar bowl in Auroville, India, is probably the best known and referred to solar bowl in the world. Conceptually it functions to initially harvest the sunshine via a large spherical, concave mirror and thereafter concentrate the sun’s rays on a boiler with water.

Essentially the design is that of a huge spherical dish 15m in diameter (which is similar but not exactly the same as a parabolic reflector) positioned on the ground. The inbound sunshine is captured and concentrated back upwards. At the focal point of the reflection is a cylindrical boiler. The boiler is designed to automatically track the position of the sun, thereby optimizing the reflection of the concentrated sunshine and consequent heat (a temperature of in excess of 300 °C can be generated), thereby heating the water internally and inducing and subsequent steam production.

This steam then drives the cooking process in the kitchen, with in excess of 2000 meals a day being achieved. In essence the bowl serves as a solar concentrator to harvest the solar energy from the sun. A detailed technical explanation accompanied with descriptive diagrams and photographs are available online.

Deepak Gadhia has developed what is reportably the world’s largest solar cooking system in Mt. Abu in Rajasthan in India. Here solar energy is also harvested and used on an industrial scale for cooking where over 30 000 meals a day are prepared and cooked. This solar capture concept is slightly different in that as opposed to one large concentrator, numerous parabolic reflectors are used collectively as a solar cooker. Here the collective parabolic principle is applied whereby Scheffler parabolic reflectors are used collectively to focus sunshine on a receiver to produce heat and steam to cook en masse.

Delicious rice bowls are what you need if you want to have a fulfilling meal. It is a complete meal by itself with rice, meat, vegetables and all other good stuff. It’s also a nutritious option for those who are healthy eaters. So for a warm hearty meal with your family, try these barbecue rice bowls!

Korean Style Beef Barbecue Rice Bowl

What you need:

• 1/2 kilogram beef roast in au jus, heated
• 1/4 kilogram jasmine rice, cooked
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 4 cups baby spinach
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup button mushrooms, quartered
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon Korean barbecue sauce
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger root

Heat 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in a pan and cook mushrooms until tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. Place in a bowl and toss in 1 teaspoon barbecue sauce. Set aside. Using the same pan, stir together garlic, spinach and water until vegetables are cooked through. Transfer to a separate bowl. Pour remaining oil in the pan and cook carrots and ginger for 1 minute. Divide the rice among 4 bowls. Divide beef and vegetables among 4 bowls as well and drizzle each with remaining barbecue sauce.

Slow Cooked Chicken Barbecue Rice Bowl

What you need:

For the barbecue chicken

• 4 boneless and skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 bottle barbecue sauce
• 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

For the rice bowl

• 1/4 kilogram cooked white rice
• 3 onions, diced
• 2 cups black beans
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese of your choice
• 1 cup corn kernels
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup ranch dressing

Mix together 2/3 of the bottle of barbecue sauce, salad dressing, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Stir to combine ingredients well. Place chicken breasts in a slow cooker and pour mixture over chicken. Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours. When ready, remove chicken from the slow cooker and remove juices. Shred chicken and return to slow cooker. Pour remaining barbecue sauce over meat and stir to coat. To assemble rice bowls, place rice in serving bowls and top with slow cooked barbecue chicken. Divide onions, black beans and corn among bowls. Top with salsa or ranch dressing or both. Serve immediately.

With any of these hearty barbecue rice bowls, you will surely have an enjoyable and satisfying family dinner!

Facts and Information About Quartz Crystal Singing Bowls

Quartz crystal singing bowls are a special type of instrument all on their own, and while they may share some things in common with their metal Tibetan bowl counterparts, they have their own separate history, properties, healing qualities, and uses. Read on to find out the way by which the quartz crystal bowls came into existence, how they are uniquely special, and what they are primarily used for.

What Makes Them Special?

Crystal singing bowls are made of pure quartz. The human body is said to have many crystalline structures, such as our bones, dna, blood and even certain parts of the brain, and these structures have a natural resonance with quartz. Even our cells contain silica, the same substance found in quartz. These natural affinities make these crystal singing bowls naturally healing to our bodies. Quartz bowls, unlike their Tibetan counterparts, can also be tuned to a specific note. This makes them perfect for sound healing and the targeted balancing of specific chakras.

History

While Tibetan bowls have always been in use for spiritual and religious purposes, crystal singing bowls find their roots in a more modern and, some would say, completely unrelated origin. These quartz bowls came into production in the 1980’s as a byproduct of the computer industry. They were used to hold computer chips that needed to be heated to incredibly high temperatures. Scientists would actually throw them away after using them! After a while, someone realized that these crystal bowls, being made of pure quartz, must have special healing qualities and began acquiring and selling these computer-industry byproducts on their own.

How They Are Made

The bowls are made through a special and fairly involved process. First the purest sources of silica sand is gathered for the manufacturing process. Then, this sand is dropped into a centrifugal mold heated to over 4000 degrees centigrade. This process melts the sand and fuses them particles into one solid crystal. After that, the crystal is tuned to a specific note, one so strong that it is perceptible even 2000 feet away. The sound qualities of crystal singing bowls rival the highest quality instruments ever produced.

These are just a few facts on the special qualities of quartz crystal singing bowls, and as you explore more, you will be sure to find many more fascinating pieces of information about these objects.

Omnivos Therapeutics began its life under a different name, Rhythmic Symmetry. If you are wondering why I changed the company name, try spelling and typing it. Not sure Omnivos is any better but I like it: Omni meaning Universal or All and Vos meaning you so, Universal You. Well, it sounded good at the time. Probably should have put an “e” at the end of it. I digress.

Anyway, I hear people play tuning forks, singing bowls, gongs and didgeridoos without any cohesiveness. I find that regardless of what tools you are working with, using rhythm and symmetry makes for a much better experience.

Rhythm is defined as a “strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound”. Symmetry has several different meanings but for our purposes, let’s think of symmetry as harmony and balance.

When I work with a client or in a group session, I usually select three crystal singing bowls. I play them in a pattern, with rhythm. For example, if I have 3 bowls (call them bowl 1, bowl 2 & bowl 3), I’ll play them in succession a few times:

1 – 2 – 3

1 – 2 – 3

1 – 2 – 3

then reverse the order;

3 – 2 – 1

3 – 2 – 1

3 – 2 – 1

then, change the order;

3 – 1 – 2

3 – 1 – 2

etc…

It is also very important to remember that the silence between the tap is also part of the rhythm. So tap – pause, tap – pause, tap – pause etc with the pauses being the same length, say 2 seconds. After playing the third bowl, leave a little longer time for silence, say 4 seconds.

This a little hard to explain so if you go to YouTube and search on Omnivos Therapeutcs you’ll see several instructional videos including one on playing crystal singing bowls with rhythm and symmetry.The main point is that sound therapy should not be approached like a 2 year old banging on a cooking pan.

I did a singing bowl meditation and a local health expo. It was 9:30 AM and about 35 people were there. I played for about 1/2 hour using my rhythm and symmetry method and the feedback was positive. The next day, another sound therapist did the morning meditation using singing bowls, rattles, rainsticks and other shaman instruments. Two separate people who attended both sessions came to tell me that the second session was disturbing to them because the person playing tapping, rattling and in their words, “making noise”. I knew immediately what happened, no cohesiveness to the session.

• Antique singing bowls are created from seven revered metals that happen to be alloy of bronze (copper, silver, gold, tin, mercury, lead and iron) which signify the actual seven divine planets along with the zodiac signs. Modern ones mostly do not include each of those metals. A majority of today’s bowls are comprised out from two to five metal ingredients. The composition of 7 alloy metals is undeniably essential to create real antique bowls, as all these seven metals are accountable to produce the trademark 7 sound waves.
• Do not get distracted by finding heavily intricately made designs on the surface. Century’s traditional antique singing bowls were not engraved with such complicated motifs. A number of traditional Himalayan singing bowls might appear ordinary and simple in their form, dimensions and also artwork, but yet are really beautiful when it comes to sound making power.
• Designs featured on exteriors of the Himalayan singing bowls are the exact places which suggest whether it is classic or modern. In general, motifs connected with Buddha as well as symbolic gestures on the external area serves as a clue for a recent manufacture, simply because traditional Himalayan bowls by no means have such carvings. In the same way, if the designs look as if they were crafted in a hurry, in that case it’s phony one; actual types usually feature wonderful proficient craftsmanship.
• Original antique singing bowls happen to be very subtle throughout their exterior look. Hard, rough exteriority is often a sure mark that the bowl is in fact newly made.
• Classic antique singing bowls come with a normal diameter around 10 to 12 inches. Some of those bowls you can purchase with way more depth compared with that dimension is yet another signs relating to duplicity. Antiques are actually rarely ever seen bigger than one foot in size. Large and bulky bowls are normally fresh new.
• Do not be fooled by observing grime and even antique external surfaces color on Himalayan singing bowl straight to believing that the bowl should be quite old. In fact, in these modern times several dishonest dealers chemically deal the new bowls to provide them an old faade. You simply could very well confirm by yourself of its real antiquity simply by studying the particular tone produced plus metals used in the healing singing bowls.
• New reproduction of old healing bowls usually has markings of sandpaper friction. If you happen to glance minutely over the surface, small, parallel, horizontal, up and down and equal scrubbing scrapes are likely to be noted on the outside of such duplicated bowls.
• Current crafted healing bowls of today generally do not consist costly components like silver and gold. Classic types manufactured by early workmen only possessed these components in them.
• ‘Old is Gold’ – this slogan certainly remains accurate for classic Himalayan bowl. Ageing process is absolutely necessary in an antique singing bowl. Considering that, the process of getting older provides richness to sound and consequently gives beauty to the golden tone on the exterior. Beware of frauds who distribute duplicate healing bowls proclaiming the products as vintage. In some cases they chemically treat the exterior, cast them in fire or bury them underground for very long to create duplicate models appear old and moreover vintage. Mostly the standards of metal and moreover quality of sound will likely prove their valuable antiquity.

I am sure you have heard many players say that the game of lawn bowls is played 70% above the shoulders.

Unfortunately no one tells you how to address the mental side of your game.

Why is it you can bowl a perfect draw shot, and then be two metres out with your next bowl?

Well there is a lot more to it than lack of concentration.

You see, your mind controls your arm to deliver that perfect weight and line, your body simple responds to commands from the mind.

Hypnosis will connect your subconscious mind to all those shots you have played so well in previous games, it doesn’t matter if you are drawing or driving.

After using hypnosis for a few weeks you will find that when you step onto the mat your conscious mind will concentrate on your delivery technique while your subconscious mind will automatically produce the line and weight needed for the shot.

The best hypnosis concept I have come across is using a technique called the “Spotlight of Perfection.

While under hypnosis you imagine a golden circle of light surrounding you as you step onto the mat. You then imagine playing different shots and recalling past experiences.

These shots and experiences are stored in your “Spotlight of Perfection”, when you need that perfect 24 metre draw shot your subconscious mind searches your library of shots and pulls out that weight and line information.

Your conscious mind looks after the technical stuff like delivery technique.

Through hypnosis your subconscious mind is also programmed to store the memory of all good bowls that you play into your spotlight of perfection for future use, so you see, your shot selection just gets stronger and stronger.

My own bowling performance has increased dramatically with the use of hypnosis. The session I use only takes 30 minutes and it’s a really great way to relax before you head off to your game.

Even if you are a top bowler and think you can’t get any better you will find that with the use of hypnosis you can just squeeze that little bit more to raise your performance level even higher.

If you are an average bowler then you can expect some major improvement in your bowling using hypnosis.

Hypnosis really does allow your mind to control your body to deliver that bowl where you want it.

Life’s too short to let your game stagnate as the years slip by, do yourself a favour and get your head right for next season.

Sticky approaches have been a problem for many years before I knew how to bowl. Not long ago I had an experience that changed the way I deal with approaches.

I was bowling one night when all of a sudden I stuck while delivering the ball on my final step. I took a header over the foul line and injured my knee in the process. A fellow bowler gave me some talcum powder to help me slide better but this only worked for a few times. (Note that bowling establishments frown on using talcum because it could cause a bowler to slide too much unexpectedly). Of course now I’m a bit tentative wondering if I’m going to slide when I make my approach.

The lanes pro-shop pro came over to see what all the commotion was and went back to his shop and came back with a sliding device that slipped over my sliding toe of my shoe with an elastic band that wrapped around the heal. It worked like a charm and I tell everyone about it since that day.

If you are a bowler who likes to frequent different bowling lanes than I would recommend buying a shoe with interchangeable soles. These soles are easy to change and comfortable. They come with several different soles for different lane approach conditions. This makes life a lot easier.

For the novice who doesn’t bowl much or is happy with their present shoe I recommend either buying a sliding pad from your pro-shop. You can get an idea of how this will work but cutting off the toe of an old sock and slipping it over your sliding foot toe. This tends to fall off and bunch up but it will give you the idea before you make the purchase.

I hope this article will give you a few more suggestions on what to do the next time you run into a sticky approach. May this help you learn how to bowl without injury.

As football fans all across the nation eye the Sunday, February 5th date with excited anticipation, the insurance industry has the day marked heavily in red as well. While there certainly are plenty of sports enthusiasts among the companies and agencies, there’s another reason for the circled calendar date – and it’s as valid as they come.

“Sports fans everywhere are bound to participate in the nationally broadcast event. Whether in real time at the Houston, TX stadium or by watching the games together with friends and or family at parties, bars or restaurants, you can be sure there will be a lot of camaraderie, along with food and drinks – including the alcoholic kind. That’s where the worry sets in,” comments one car insurance specialist.

Of course what this agent and others like him refer to in regard to the big national football league playoffs is that sometime following a great deal of alcoholic beverage drinking, fans will be making their way back home, with many drinkers the ones behind the wheel and responsible for their own life as well as the lives of their passengers and other motorists on the road.

“Studies indicate that party-goers who drink are involved in many road fatalities, injuries and damages,” reveals the same auto coverage expert. “And not only is that bad news for those that operate all forms of vehicles, including cars, trucks, motorcycles and so on, but also for those that write the policies that insure them.”

But with the bad news comes the good news!

Within the commercial world connected to the indemnity industry there is auto coverage that offers protective services for the insured motorist that does not want to or should not drive back home from a party. These free bonuses to policyholders include free taxi, car service or ride-sharing company drives back home for participating auto or auto/boat/homeowner bundled insurance members via payment compensation with a receipt.

With this amazing offer, come other ideas that vehicle drivers as well as party hosts would do well to follow.

Three Smart Tips for the Sports Event Party Goer and Party Host

• Fans who intend to drink alcoholic beverages at a sports gathering should be proactive with safety BEFORE participating in the social celebrations by appointing another driver who will not be drinking to do the driving and transporting back home.

• In general, those hosting the parties are not off the hook in regard to responsibility and liability. These hosts are advised to publicize the contact information of neighborhood taxis and car services, so that drivers have an alternative to getting home.

• Offerings at the sports or other such parties where alcohol is served should also include food and non-alcoholic drinks.

For more on insurance benefits that include taxi service home from alcohol-serving gatherings, contact an experienced independent insurance agent.

Oh yes, and after making the necessary arrangements, don’t forget to enjoy the game!