edukatorz.com

Summer is almost over and if you’re single you may be dangerously close to not having a summer fling. Summer flings are the best and make summer extra awesome and they give you something to daydream about in the Fall. Never fear, the Edukatorz are here and will tell you how to get that summer fling in the next few weeks before it is too late.

1) Go to the Beach

Go to the beach, preferably a beach house. If you’re young and single, it should be fairly easy to find a summer fling. If the cast of the Jersey Shore can find flings, you can too. If you mix sand, pools, bathing suits and booze you’ll find your summer honey. Besides, if you’re lucky this other person will live in another city and you’ll have a story to tell your friends about the girl/boy you got to snuggle with late into the night while on vacation. Read the rest of this entry →

Image via FFFound

We don’t know about you, but tend to get chapped lips in the summer. It is super annoying because it impedes our ability to make out. We know we’re not the only ones with this problem so we thought we’d give some tips on how to prevent chapped lips in the summer time.

1) Lip Balm

We’re big fans of Carmex, but a lip balm with spf (to protect from the Sun’s evil rays) or just sunscreen even is the way to go. This may seem like a no-brainer, but so many people forget to do it. Sun damage leads to chapped lips and sun burned lips are painful.

2) Hydrate

If you think you’re drinking enough water, you’re probably not. In the summertime you’re more susceptible to dehydration which helps cause chapped lips. Drink 8-10 8 oz glasses of water a day, no excuses.

3) Moisturize

Yes, lip balm is a moisturizer, but you should be wearing that during the day. At night (when you’re sleeping) is another story. We like to go natural and slather aloe all over our face and lips before we go to bed. It dries quickly and it helps heal sun damage and softens your skin.

Long, hot summers do crazy things to people. You gotta keep cool.

Summertime is brutal with the heat. While some like it hot, our constitutions simply aren’t built to handle this kind of weather. Though we wish we could move into a walk-in freezer during the long, hot days of summer, it’s just doesn’t mesh with our social life. Here are a few ways to keep cool this summer you may not be doing yet.

1) Cool Your Neck

While you should always be protecting your neck, it’s a good idea to cool your neck in the summertime. Scientific studies have shown that athletic performance improves when the neck is cooled. They don’t quite know why, but they think that it may be tricking the brain into thinking it’s cooler than it actually is. We don’t recommend doing this if you’re going to go out and bike a century in 100°F lest you get hyperthermia, but it would help you feel better if you’re running errands around town. Get a cloth dipped in cool water or an ice pack and put it on your neck and it’ll help cool you down. If you’re in a rush you can put your wrists underneath some cool water for 20 seconds and it will help as well.

2) Dress Properly

We’re not always good about this one, but when we are it definitely helps. Make sure to wear light colored clothes that don’t cling to your body. The sun won’t be as attracted to the light colors and you clothes won’t stick as much to your sweaty body. Flowy, non-clingy clothing also make it easier to cool down if there’s a breeze. Think about investing in a nice wide-brimmed hat. Not only will the shade provide you with coolness, but it will save your face from wrinkles and skin cancer later on down the road.

3) Citrus is Your Friend Read the rest of this entry →

Image Via Seth Rader’s Flickr

What better way to celebrate our triumphant return than with the triumphant return of Make Out Monday? (Note: There is no better way.)

Today we’re going to talk about making out when it’s hot outside. It’s been roughly the temperature of the surface of the sun on the East Coast for the past week so this is a subject near and dear to our hearts (and other body parts). Last year we told you how to make out in the heat. Go refresh your memory and read that post, we’ll wait. Ok, finished? You should definitely do/try all of those things, but we realize it’s not all practical. We haven’t been to a pool yet this summer (inexcusable, we know) and even after sitting in air conditioning all day, it can still be too hot to make out. We’re never ones to let Mother Nature win, so here are some tips on making out when it’s hot out.

1) Less is More

Less clothing that is. When it’s hot out it’s acceptable to wear the minimum amount of clothing as required by law (adjusting for social propriety obviously). Now we’re not advocating going around in your bikini (or speedo) everywhere, but we do advocate short shorts (or just shorts for gentlemen), cute dresses and tank tops. Not only does the minimal clothing make it easier to make out later at home, but it’s an added turn on for your partner.

2) Shady Areas

No, we don’t mean the shady part of town. We mean the park under the trees, under a tent, etc. Lounging around under the shade or on a porch with your make out partner is the perfect place to make out. It’s cooler than other spots and you’re not going to be doing anything but sitting around the shade anyway. Read the rest of this entry →

We took a mini summer vacation, did you miss us? (Just lie and say you did). Coming back from vacation can be tough. It’s easy to stay in vacation mode and get overwhelmed by everything when you come back. Fortunately there are a few things you can do to get back to business after vacation.

Take Care of Things Before You Leave

This is much easier said than done.* Why bother going on a vacation if you’re going to be super stressed beforehand? But you don’t want to come back to a huge mess either. Prior planning makes coming back from vacation a gazillion times easier.

At work make sure all your bases are covered. Make a list of on going projects and make sure you have a coworker to cover them for you.** Also clean your desk/work area – you don’t want to come back to a mess, it’ll just stress you out.

At home try to make your house/apartment/room as clean as possible (or as it’s going to get) so you don’t come home to a disaster zone. If you have pets and aren’t taking them with you make sure you have arrangements for their care. Same goes for plants or anything else that needs to be taken care of. Make sure everything’s turned of before you leave, you don’t want to stress out thinking about how high your electricity bill is going to be or if you left the oven on.

Ease Back Into a Routine

Mentally shifting from vacation mode to life mode is easy if you took care of things before your vacation. But if you didn’t take care of things or were rushed it can be a bit jolting to have to go back to reality after vacation. There’s no point in going on vacation if you’re going to be more stressed out when you get back then when you left. Don’t try to do everything at once, ease back into a ‘normal’ mentality instead of forcing yourself back into it. Take a few hours at work (if you can) to catch up with what you missed when you were out of the office then begin to tackle projects. At home don’t try to do all the cleaning at once, instead do it piecemeal, etc.

*Like arranging guest bloggers or writing posts ahead of time. Oops.
**Make sure to bring something back/get a small gift for your awesome coworker who was nice enough to cover for you.

Vacationing at the beach is awesome (even if you’re uber pale like the Edukatorz). While we’d love to rent out a private beach we alas are not thousandaires and must rely on public beaches. On a public beach we face the possibility of seeing fugly people in inappropriate swimsuits and children while sober. Unfortunately most public beaches do not allow booze (stupid open container laws!), but the Edukatorz are not ones for rules so we have ways around that.*

1) Thermoses/Camelbacks/Water Bottles, etc.

Some beaches do not allow glass containers, so you can either hate the environment and bring plastic bottles or bring something reusable. We like to put our booze in either a thermos or a water bottle. Not only are you doing your part for the environment, but no one’s the wiser.

2) The ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Method

We should hope that you’re as much of a fan of IASiP as we are, (you really should be) and if you are you are very familiar with this method. You put boxed wine in a diet coke can (without the coke obviously) and voila you can drink boxed wine anywhere! While we understand you may not want to always drink boxed wine, we’d also recommend dumping half of the coke out and putting rum or Jack Daniels in it or any other booze you may want.

From Flickr User Andy on Flickr

3) Koozies

Sometimes you just want a delicious beer, but you need to hide that from the rest of the World (and protect your beer from getting warm from your hands), thus the koozie was born. You should already have one of these for any activity that involves drinking beer outside, but keep one around in your beach bag.

* Don’t be a jackass and get so drunk that you annoy other people or almost drown. That’s stupid.

NOM NOM NOM

Fourth of July weekend is coming up and that means grilling. (Though any weekend/day that ends in y is really an excuse for the Edukatorz to grill). While we appreciate the convenience gas grills offer (as well as their Hank Hill seal of approval), we believe charcoal grilled food just tastes better. Charcoal grills are also easier for those of us without lawns who have to settle for stoop grilling or grilling in the park. We can take our mini Weber anywhere really. But alas, many are confused by the enigma that is charcoal grilling, allow us to clear some things up for you.

Choosing Charcoal

Charcoal is really easy to find. Grocery stores, hardware stores and even convenience stores will have charcoal in the summer.* Charcoal is a matter of preference and different situations dictate different charcoals.

There are two types of charcoal used for cooking – charcoal briquettes and natural hardwood lump charcoal. The only real difference between the two are that charcoal briquettes have extra additives and natural hardwood lump charcoal do not**.

If you’re super lazy or are going to be grilling in a park we recommend using self-starting briquettes or lighter fluid. Some people are not a fan of them since they have petroleum in them to help them light and maintain a fire. We don’t think it’s really an issue if you let the briquettes cook down enough (see below).

For those of you who want to go au natural or want the taste of a particular wood (that’s where charcoal comes from) we recommend using natural hardwood lump charcoal. Though if you’re crunched for time or in a park this is generally more of a pain in the ass.

Putting the Right Amount Charcoal in the Grill

We’d be remiss if we didn’t tell you to put enough charcoal in the grill, but don’t go overboard, you’ll just be wasting charcoal. It really depends on the size of your grill. If you have a big 26 inch grill we recommend around 80 pieces of charcoal (you don’t have to count it). From there we recommend around 60 pieces for a 22 inch grill, 40 pieces for an 18 inch grill and 25 pieces for a 14 inch grill.

Lighting Charcoal

It’s easy to light charcoal when you’re using self-starting briquettes or adding lighter fluid this process is easy. Simply take a long match or long lighter and light the self-starting briquettes at 2-4 different points in the grill. When using lighter fluid, don’t go overboard. A light covering will do, extra lighter fluid just means it’s going to take longer for it to burn off.

If you’re going natural and using hardwood lump charcoal you gotta get a chimney starter. Simply put newspaper in the bottom chamber of the starter and charcoal in the top and light the newspaper with a long match. After about 10 minutes the charcoal should be hot enough to dump in the grill.

Knowing When the Charcoal is Ready to Grill

Just because the charcoal is lit doesn’t mean it’s time to grill. Wait until the charcoal turns gray before cooking anything. This is especially important it you’re using self-starting briquettes or lighter fluid because you want all of the petroleum to cook out. At that point put the grill over the briquettes, wait a few minutes for the grill to heat up and you’re good to go.

A note on temperature. The temperature you’re grilling at clearly depends on what you’re grilling. To know how hot the grill is simply put your hand over the grill (don’t touch anything you idiot): if it’s at a low heat you should be able to hold your hand there for 6 to 7 seconds; if it’s at a medium heat you should be able to hold your hand there for 4 to 5 seconds; and if it’s hot you should be able to hold your hand there for 2-3 seconds.

*We like to stock up on charcoal near the end of summer so we can grill if we want to in the colder months.

**Lump Charcoal also gets hotter so if you want a super hot grill, this is the way to go.

It has been a sweltering summer so far and we’re not made for the heat. While some like it hot, we’re not in that category and it makes making out a bit of a problem. But we won’t stop making out just because of the weather so here are some tips for making it comfortable while you make out and dare we say hotter?

1) Air Conditioning

Air conditioning is your friend, duh. If you’re in air conditioning you have no excuse to NOT be making out with someone.

2) Ice Cubes

Ice cubes cool you down naturally, but they can also heat you up. Take a few and help cool off your make out partner by strategically pressing them to his/her body. You can also play “pass the ice cube” while you’re making out; it’s very fun.

3) Pools

Same rules as public beaches apply to public pools – keep it PG. But if you have a private  pool, well then all bets are off, we recommend skinny dipping.

4) Fans

Have your significant other fan you (or I guess make out in front of a fan). It can set up some fun role playing for you and your partner (Cleopatra anyone?) and you’ll stay cool.

5) Hydrate

Staying hydrated is important in the heat and when making out. Keep some water around (even if you have ice cubes) and drink when thirsty. Not only will it prevent dehydration, but it’ll be a good way to get the salt from your sweats off of your lips.

6) Shower Time

We’ve been known to take a cold shower when we’ve been without air conditioning, it can be quite refreshing. Try making out with your partner in the shower on a hot day, it’ll cool you off while being incredibly hot at the same time.