Side effects of not getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night

• emotional instability
• higher stress
• challenges with learning and memory
• weight gain
• higher risk of heart attack

Here are some tips to ensure you're getting enough sleep.

• Be consistent in your sleep patterns. Go to bed and get up at the same time each day.
• Keep a sleep journal. Write down your problems before you go to bed so you're not trying to solve them in your head at night. You can then get up in the morning and review your journal to solve the day's problems.
• Keep the right atmosphere. Leave the laptop, tv, etc out of the room. Keep the room dark at night and let the sun light in in the morning.
• Don't have a large meal or alcohol right before bedtime.
• If you don't get to sleep within 20 minutes, get up. Do something relaxing for a little while and then go back to bed.
• Get sleep disorders taken care of (e.g. sleep apnea, narcolepsy)

To help keep your grill clean this summer pat your meat dry, removing the marinade, before putting it on the grill.

A couple of general cooking tips:

• Acids will break down meat and start to ‘cook’ the meat and start to dry it out. So if you're marinating with an acidic marinate don't leave it in the liquid more than a half to a couple of hours (depending on the meat).
• To keep your meat tender cook it slow - really slow!

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. Find out more about this truly American Holiday at usmemorialday.org.

Prep the outside by washing it with warm soapy water or stainless steel cleaner. Don't use anything abrasive like oven cleaner or a steel wool pad that will scratch the surface.

Clean the catch pan with a putty knife. Remove all the old grease and droppings to prevent grease fires.

Turn burners on high & close lid. Let the grill heat up for a while then brush the grill with a brass bristled brush.

Separate bananas from the stalk as soon as you bring them home from the grocery store to keep them from ripening too quickly. They will last a little longer this way.

Use cheap shower caps to cover food in the ‘fridge. They are easily washed and re-useable. Use they plain type and you can see through the top and know what is in the container.

To clean grout, I pour a little baking soda on the grout line, add enough hydrogen peroxide to make a thin paste, scrub a few times with an old toothbrush and wipe clean. It’s cheap and much more effective than commercial grout cleaners. Be sure to test in a small area first.

And now that you have that grout clean, keep it that way by spraying it with a mist of water & bleach (about 70/30) every day or so.

Shop for sunglasses in the fishing department. Sunglasses for fishermen are typically polarized and as much as $10 less than those up front.

Instead of buying a one-time-use, floor cleaning refill clothes (like Swifter) use a microfiber cloth. Fold it in half and strap it to the plastic mop head using rubber bands. Spray the floor with a spray bottle filled with floor cleaner. The microfiber cloth can be laundered with your other laundry.

Brushing your hair during an interview? The following entries contain the top interview mistakes made by potential job candidates. The information was compiled by CareerBuilder.com after surveying hiring managers and human resource professionals:

Purina recently honored five pets by inducting them into the 2008 Purina Animal Hall of Fame. Using their keen sense of hearing and smell the five animals were honored for saving human lives. Two men, two women and an infant owe their lives to these loyal pets.

Cnet is warning consumers of a malware outbreak resulting from infected music and video sharing files.
McAfee Avert Labs reported that over 500,000 detections of a Trojan horse, buried in media files, have been found on computers redently from services like Limewire and eDonkey.

The rigged MP3 and MPEG files open advertisements that triggers the download of the infected executable files. In the end you are left with fake MP3 files taking up space and damaged MP3 players.

Need to fold a shirt quick and have it look nice? You'll need to use this method a few times to make the shirt look professional but it won't take long and it's really fast. Try it! how to fold a shirt in japan

Today is the 30 year anniversary of Spam. Yes that annoying unsolicited email that you receive in your computer every day has been around for 30 years. It was the brain child of Gary Thuerk. Gary worked in marketing for a computer company and sent the first Spam through the ARPANET, a predecessor of the Internet.

Gary sent an unsolicited mass email to 400 recipients inviting them to an open house to view a new model of computer. Gary explained that his company tried to reach a lot of the people by phone and when that method failed he decided to email some of them an invitation. Even back then some of the recipients of the emails were unhappy to receive the message.

Named after a famous Monty Python skit that repeated the word Spam over and over again, Spam became known as anything repetitive and annoying.

According to the latest BBB/Gallup Trust in Business Survey, one in five people surveyed specifically cited good customer service as a prerequisite for building their trust in a business.

A dissatisfied customer is not a lost cause. According to a recent Harvard study, an unhappy customer can be turned into a repeat customer 80 percent of the time if the business takes action and provides effective customer service. For businesses with a staff of one or one thousand, the BBB offers the following advice for keeping customers satisfied:

Customer service starts with a vision: The first step to providing good customer service is a mission statement or vision for the business that clearly states an institutional priority for providing excellent customer service. To emphasize that customer service is highly important to the company, some businesses include customer satisfaction as part of employee evaluations.

Make customer service representatives accessible: A recent survey by Vocal Laboratories found that, when asked which factors were most important in providing good customer service, 82 percent of respondents said “Make it easy for you to reach a live person (if necessary)” – the most popular response. Disgruntled customers need to know that their complaint is actually being heard and will only become angrier if they feel they are given the runaround or can’t talk to an actual person.

Training, training, and more training: A well-trained, knowledgeable and courteous staff is a business’ first line of defense against losing a customer. Businesses should establish regular training sessions where Customer Service Representatives (CSR) are updated on emerging products and services that the business provides. The BBB also recommends that CSRs undergo formal training in dispute resolution – including how to handle irate customers.

Grant authority to staff to resolve disputes: The Vocal Laboratories survey also found that, when asked which factors made for bad customer service, 37 percent of respondents answered “The person you spoke to didn't have the authority to help you.” Whoever in the company has responsibility for fielding complaints from customers needs the power and authority to resolve common problems without having to talk to a supervisor. This practice will speed the customer service, and customer satisfaction process.

Don’t forget to follow up: Customers who voiced major concerns and problems still need to know that the company cares about them even after the issue has been resolved. A good way for businesses to show customers that their satisfaction is a high priority is through simple outreach via notes, e-mails or phone calls.

Learn from common complaints: Learning from customer complaints is one of the best ways to find areas for improvement within a business. Management should continually monitor complaints for trends and recurring problems. Working to resolve the underlying issues leading to common complaints can have a major impact on the experience of many future customers.