Happy Saturday....................

I am noting the day, because I always have trouble remembering exactly which day it is when the normal schedule gets altered, as it does with a holiday. Hope everyone's holiday (and non-holiday for all my non-Thanksgiving celebrating friends in other countries) is going well. Here are some highlights of mine, in case you are interested.

My system must have sensed something amis on Wednesday evening, because I started taping my Friday night shows. In doing so, I found a Doctor 90210 that I hadn't seen, so I taped that instead. As it turned out, this was a lucky break, because Thanksgiving morning I woke up at 3:30 AM, and had something to entertain me since I am not a big fan of infomercials.

My youngest and I headed off to run the Turkeyman Trot around 7:30 AM, Thanksgiving morning. This year, ORA ran the race with me. This was her first ever attempt at running a 5K, and she did a GREAT job, and I am VERY proud of her. We did a run/walk combo, and while we may have not broken any speed records (though we did "run a few red lights," RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE COPS, as the race is run on the road), we had a fabulous time and even managed to save a kick for the end and pass someone just before entering the shoot! We finished the run in a very respectable time for a first run of 48 minutes, and now she has her time to beat for her next race. Good job ORA, and thanks for running with me.

For the past twenty years, it has been my tradition/preferance to send everyone in the family off to someone else's turkey dinner and spend the day alone. Especially since starting my business, I rarely get time completely to myself, and I love the opportunity to do exactly what I want without considering anyone else. My Thanksgivning feast this year consisted of Nachos with FULL FAT cheese, and a small chunk of WHITE French bread dipped in flavored oil. I can hear my arteries complaining just thinking about it. The nachos were great, the bread not so much so.

Speaking of good tasting foods, I helped my youngest make lemon bars to take to her boyfriend's house for Thanksgiving dinner, and decided to taste them. They tasted terrible. She said they tasted fine, so it can only be that mouth is FINALLY figuring out that healthy foods REALLY do taste better than empty calories. It has been well over two months since I have eaten white/processed/sugar laden foods, and I am still not missing them. How cool is that?

Black Friday...A day I look forward to all year long...Only this year, I had all of my presents purchased, wrapped, and waiting for the tree to go up by last weekend, so there wasn't any real need to participate this year. As I am sure you guessed, that didn't stop me from doing so.

My youngest had decided to get one of the ten laptops on sale at Best Buy. In order to assure the success of this, she was planning to spend the night outside the store with all the other crazies. I know it sounds crazy to allow your teenager to do this, but I trust her and the people she was planning to be with. They got to the store around nine o'clock in the evening (which was the time that last years "first in line" had arrived), to find about forty people in line ahead of her. WOW! Talk about determined! Last year, (my) Mister arrived around two in the morning and there were only about fifteen people ahead of him. After asking the first ten people what they wanted, my youngest determined she would NOT be getting a laptop at this sale price so she came on home. My question is why would the twenty to thirty people behind the lucky first ten to fifteen people bother to stay out in the cold all night when there was no chance of getting what they came for? Did they NOT read the fine print about limited quanties? Did they think one of the first ten would weaken as the night wore on and they would move up in place? (I have to say that if I were 11 or 12 this probably that notion would probably got me to stay...But 20?) Were they really homeless people happy for some nighttime company for a change? I just didn't get it, but my hat is off to them for perservering and hanging in there.

Anyway, back to my adventure...I woke my youngest up around 3:30 AM, (my) Mister left for the two stores he was tackling, and we were on our way by 4:00 AM. We were going to go to Kohl's to get a sweater for my oldest (who's job it was to sleep in with the OPs, being as over eighteen warm body in the house to keep me in compliance with the state.), and I could get my two dollars back through the price matching rules as I had bought two of the sweaters last week and they were a dollar cheaper for the black Friday door buster deals. On the drive there we decided to change our strategy and go to a different store first. When we arrived, there was no line at that store, (Could this be because someone, who shall remain nameless, didn't read the fine print and that store didn't open until seven in the morning?), so we decided to hang out in the line at the computer store next to it, just for fun.

In all my years of post Thanksgiving day shopping I have never witnessed anything negitive. I always end up chating and joking with the people around me to pass the time, and this year was no different. I won't bore you with further details of our morning, except to say that while I tried three different times between 6:30 and 10:30 AM to get the sweater from Kohl's, I didn't do it. Each time the line was wrapped three quaters of the way around the store and I just couldn't manage to get brain to justify the waste of time for one item that was not a MUST HAVE, but a simple desire. Since it has been on sale twice this holiday season, she convinced me that the odds of it going on sale again were be pretty high.

We were home before 11:00 AM, and my youngest went off to take a nap. I made lunch for the OPs, and enjoyed my oldest giving us her Christmas present. Remember I told you that I am not big on "normal" presents? This year we ask that she take all her old junk out of the atic and either get rid of it, or take it to her house. She did this, and it was tons of fun watching her go though it and enjoy all the old memories it brought back to both of us. When she was finished, the two of us took advantage of the warm sunny day and went for a quick four mile run. In the evening, we watched a movie that we watched last holiday season, and I fell asleep for the second time before seeing the ending. I guess there is always next year...

So this morning I am getting myself ready for the fact that the Christmas decorations are going up for the next thrity days. I like my house just the way it is, but I am as good a sport as the next person, and let everyone else have the holiday decorations. At least until the presents are opened, then I WANT MY HOUSE BACK! Last year I think the tree was down and packed up before noon. It is getting harder to deal with in my old age. Enjoy the rest of your holiday (or not) weekend, and I will chat with you again soon.

Giving credit where credit is due.........................

Made it through the THREE hour cross country banquet (though my thoughts were, "I would rather have SIX root canals, back to back, instead of sitting through that again."), and the induction for this years National Honors Society, so I can cross both of those off my list of "last time I have tos." In addition to being able to cross them off, in the four hours of attendance time I was able to get the biggest share of a sock knitted, so it wasn't a complete waste of my time. Boy! That sounds pretty terrible doesn't it, saying that going to a school function for my kid is a waste of my time. Well, at least I am an honest terrible mother.

At the National Honors thing, I sat in front of a parent that made funny comments (the kind I was making to myself, but was alone so I didn't have anyone to say them out loud to)the entire time, so I was VERY entertained. I wanted to introduce myself at the end of the thing, and tell him how much I appreciated his comments, but I didn't want him to think I was eavesdropping so I didn't.

By the time the senior class was crossing the stage, I had dropped a stich and couldn't recover it in the near dark auditorium, so I watched all the kids cross the stage and rated them for style and grace. You might think I am prejudice, but my youngest had the most poise and grace of all of them. One after the other, the kids schlep across, many of the girls either scuffing in flip flops or teetering on a too high heel. And then comes my kid, head held high, eye contact and a firm handshake of just the right duration. She didn't trip or anything, making her mother very, very proud! There was one other girl that MIGHT have beat her out, but she was already up on stage (being one of the officers of the class) so having to weave around the other students and adults on stage was a tiny bit distracting, giving my youngest a clear victory over her.

The other cool thing that happen was after listening to the principal's key note address, my youngest came home all fired up to use his part of the speech that said "stand up for what you believe in, and don't be afraid to be who you are." as ammunition (her word, not mine) to go in and talk to him about the trouble she continues to have with one of her teachers. Granted, when she did just this, the prinicpal told her, and I am quoting here, "It is not the teacher's job to teach, just to make sure you learn," as his reasoning why it is perfectly acceptable for another student to be the only one that teaches the class anything. My questions regarding this comment: Why call them teachers then, why not facilitators, and what happens next year when there isn't a (insert kid's name here) to do his teaching for him? She is not done with that battle, and I will keep you informed if anything interesting develops.

Anyway, I felt duty bound to share the good points of those two evenings, since I like to complain about the not so good points in life so much of the time. Who said I couldn't play fair?

Gave up cheese, but apparently not the whine.................

Someone that was once a pretty central figure in my world died Sunday. Just dropped dead from a massive heart attack while out of town on business. And he was only in his mid-forties!

I haven't actually talked with him in several years, keeping up on the going ons of his life through a mutual aquaintance. No more chances for that now is there? Poor me.

Poor me...What about poor him? He won't see his youngest child graduate from high school this spring. He won't get to meet his first grandchild, due to arrive in a few months. He won't get to do a ton of things that he put off while struggling to get his kids raised and out on their own. At the moment I am pretty pissed at these thoughts. Life is just not fair sometimes.

Even as I have these thoughts and emotions, I understand that they are just that, thoughts and emotions. I really do believe that there is life after death and he is going to be trading in the above things for things that are AT LEAST as cool. The regrets I have are really for those of us that are still here, left to deal with our notions of what he will be missing out on.

Being an orphan, my biggest goal in life was to get my kids to adulthood. My youngest will be eighteen this coming April, but for the most part she is already a pretty grown-up teen. I really don't worry that she would be able to make her way in the world if I were to die. I have pretty strongly placed my mark on her, as well as my other two, and am extreamly proud and honored at the way they have all turned out. This doesn't mean I don't get sad when I think about all the moments of their lives that I will miss when I am gone. I can get crazy sad when I think about it. I just MAKE myself be thankful for the gift of getting to see them grow up this far, knowing that I had a lot to do with the way they turned out.

So, putting the whine aside, let this be my thanksgiving post. I am so thankful and grateful for so many things. I am thankful for all the great times I had with the above mentioned friend. I am grateful for the memories of those times that I will always cherish. I am thankful for the knowledge that even though we didn't keep in touch, we continued to stay connected through others and through our continued feelings of fondness (in case you care, a platonic friendship only. While we briefly discuss romance, we opted out, not wanting it to ruin our friendship) for one another. We got one another through some dark times, and my life is better for having known him. It makes me feel better to think the same was true for him.

BIG change?.........................

I saw this short article in the December issue (page 24) of Smart Money, and wanted to share it with you. Writen by: Russell Pearlman, the article is below:

What was the fastest way to earn 33 percent in 2006? Investing in hedge funds? Certainly not the stock market - even after the fall rebound, the market hasn't come close. And loan sharking is still illegal. Turns out the best investment of 2006 was heading to your local bank and buying rolls of U.S. nickles.
Thanks to high commodity prices, the metals in a nickle are now worth 6.6 cents. An enterprising coin collector could, in theory, melt down 1.25 grams of nickel in the 5-cent coin and sell them on the spot-metels market for 6.6 cents. (Yes, it's legal, though not encouraged.) Melt enough coins, and the profits amount to a lot more than pocket change.
There are some costs attached to that investing strategy, though. For one, hiring a blast furnace to seperate the metals isn't cheap. Coinstar handled 3.8 billion coins in 2005 through its coin-counting machines often found at supermarkets, but it hasn't tried to capitalize on the phenomenon. The cost of melting down, 123,000 tons of coins outweighs the gains from the higher metal prices, says Coinstar company spokesperson George White. Coinstar distributes its coin horde to firms such as Brinks, which recyle the coins back into circulation. Brinks declines to comment.
This year the U.S. mint says it will spend $108 million to produce 1.7 billion nickles with a combined face value of just $85 million. The mint has changed U.S. coinage based on metal prices before, taking the silver out of coins in the 1960s after the price of silver skyrocketed. But, so far, there are no plans to make a nickle out of something cheaper - like plastic.

My first thought, after reading this, was it must have been a slow news month for this to make the editing process. Are we better people for having obtained this knowledge? Leave it to the government to spend $108 million for goods worth only $85 million.

My second thought, was to remember when stores and coin machines had a problem with taking Canadian money, as "it wasn't worth as much as U.S money." Big deal, banks gave it out for equal value, why rig the machines to recognize and reject it? What do you think would happen if you took this article to those same stores and told them you wanted 6.6 cents worth for your nickle? Yup, I think they would tell you they didn't really care what you wanted, that you were only getting what they gave you, 5 cents worth.

My big thought was, this really proves that value is something that varies, depending on people buying into the idea. How much would Coinstar have to profit in order for them to decide it was worth melting down all those nickles, leaving the rest of us scambling to find change for a dime? Why do diamonds cost more than other jems? Because our culture places a higher value on them, no doubt an idea that was started long ago by someone that was either famous in their time or a great marketer. New, young, hip, are in, while old, old, and old fashioned are out. Why does our society veiw one as more valuable than the other? (And for the record, I vote for old, old, and old fashioned all the time. It saves me a ton of nickels, literally!)

Trends and fads will come and go, nickles will go up and down in value, but make sure you have firm sound values that you can pass on to future generations regarding what is really important to you. In the end, this is all that matters.

Good things come to those who wait...


Remember the jacket I was telling you about that I wouldn't buy because of the whole "use your credit card get an additional 15% off?" Well, the store had a really good sale the other day, and the jacket was still there, marked down an additional 50% off the already 50% off price. In addition to this, my oldest sent me two gift cards she received from the store for ten dollars each. Add together all of my savings and I ended up paying eleven dollars for a jacket that was originally sold for two hundred and fifty dollars. Pretty cool hu?

It actually looks better on me than the hanger, following all the rules of "What Not To Wear," and makes my waist look pretty narrow. What's not to love?

The power of angels, believe it or not....................

Don't think I am being disrespectful as you read the story I am about to share with you. I believe that each of us have angels looking over us, ready to do anything for us that we ask them to do. I also believe that nothing is too big OR (in this case) too insignificant for them to do out of love for us. All they require is that we ask them for help. Okay, here is my story...

As I said yesterday, my washer quit working last Thursday. One of my residents has night time incontinence. Friday morning her bed was soaked. I went to the laundry mat, threw the stuff in the washer, and went and ran for the twenty minutes it needed to wash. Everything was fine.

Again, not to be disrespectful, but so you get the significance of the point I am trying to make, said resident has been creating a load of wash every night for months. Get this...While I was without a washer, she never did more than dampen the pad underneath her on Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night, or Wednesday night. Thursday night (after the washer was fixed) Every single iten on the bed, clear down to the mattress pad was soiled and needed to be washed Friday morning. I know this sounds nuts/crazy/insane/ but it is exactly what happen.

Soiling the bed is not a VOLUNTARY thing that she does or does not do, it is not in her control. For this reason, the only other thing that makes any sense to me is that my angels took care of the problem to help me out from having to run to the laundry mat every day. Isn't that the coolest thing you ever heard?

Please don't be upset if you have a different opinion of an Angels jobs. Try and entertain the fact that there are enough angels around to do all the pious religious stuff that needs to be done. Each of us have at least three angels just to do things for us, like find lost kesy, good parking spaces, extra time to do the things we need to get done. Again, all you have to do is ask for their help, and then be willing to recognize it when it happens. Give it a try, what do you have to lose except a lot of stress in your life.

Making waves with the washing machine..............

You know how you take things for granted until they are gone? Well, a week ago my washing machine stopped working, and all of you out there responsible for keeping the clothes clean share my pain I am sure. Let me also share some interesting facts we learned on the jouney to repairing said washer...

History first...We purchased the Maytag Neptune brand washer brand new just over three years ago. Not only was it expensive, it was suppose to be top of the line, best machine, and yes, I was slightly mifted that it broke down after such a short time.

(my) Mister called a repair place for me and found out that it would be eighty dollars($80.00) just to have someone come out and diagnose the problem (when able, they were already scheduling into Monday, four days away), and then the cost would rack up from there for parts and labor. Slightly more mifted, and boy did I go into the wrong business.

(my) Mister called me back a short time later, and told me he had found a repair manual that he could purchase from Sears to diagnose and possibly fix the problem himself for only thirty dollars ($30.00), a full fifty dollars less than having the guy come out, and it could be here in less than twenty-four hours. Another reason I am blessed to be married to him. I never even knew such a thing existed, but even if I had it would have done me no go. I guess it does pay for him to have all that electronics junk in his work room, but it is still a mess down there.

Anyway, we decided to go that route, and that is when the real story begins. The repair manual arrives, and (my) Mister starts taking things apart and checking out the machine. For the next twelve hours or so all of our conversations consisted of, "Find out what's wrong with it yet?" "Not yet." "Sigh" "Sigh" In his defense I will say that he did attempt to share what he was learning, but how a washing machine works is definitely low on my list of things I want to understand. My concern is much more about the fact that it DOES work, rather than HOW it works.

Phase two of machine repair was HOURS (and I can hear him saying, "It wasn't that long," even as I type) on the computer trying to figure out I am not sure what, again my fault...I just want to wash clothes okay? As it turns out, we were not the only people who's washer quit when it was still quite new. In fact, there had been two class action law suits brought over the exact washing machine, for exactly the problem we were having. Interesting stuff, but it still wasn't enabling me to wash clothes without hauling them to the corner laundry.

To not bore you with more details, I will say that in the end we had to purchase both control panels, which is (from my limited understanding) about the same as buying all new guts, kind of like replacing a car engine to have a brand new car with an old body. The cost of these two boards was four hundred dollars ($400.00) plus shipping, and yes I know we saved a small fortune with (my) Mister doing the repair himself. We debated over simply taking the four hundred dollars and buying a cheap washer and running it to death since buying high end had served us so well, but the one we have is a stacked model so we would have had to still have the dead one around. Hang in there, the story is almost finished.

You know me, I can't leave anything alone, and I finally HAD to contact Maytag and tell them of my displeasure with their product. In doing so I found that had we had problems earlier, and contacted the company, they would have told us of the defect and we could have gotten in on the class action suit which would have paid for our parts. Since we did not initiate contact with them, they were not obligated to contact us so we might participate in the suit. The nice young lady on the phone then went on to explain that while she takes many, many calls a day for the same exact thing she would love to help me, but was unable to. And just for kicks, I ask her what kind of washing machine she owns, and surprise! it WASN'T a Maytag. Isn't that interesting? I thanked her for her time, and ask to speak to someone who could help me.

I next spoke to a very nice young man that told me he would also love to help me, but unfortunately the in the terms of the settlement the judge forbade Maytag from paying for anymore parts for this particular brand of washing machine. Nasty old judge, how dare he keep these nice people from helping folks like myself, when that is exactly what they wanted to do. Ya! Right!

I told this young man that I understood that legally Maytag was in the right to not compensate me monatarily, but just because they were legally right, did that make them morally right? I went on to say that I was fine with the fact that I had been screwed over regarding repair costs to a product that they had legally admitted was defective, but would still like them to take a moral stance and adress the problem with their customers. I went into my "I might be only one customer, but I have a big mouth, and have been known to stop strangers on the street and warn them not to purchase crap" speech, but I will spare you that whole thing. I finished by telling him that I for one would be thrilled to receive a letter from the company taking responsibility for the problem, and offering me condolances for having to have gone through the trouble we were experiencing, and that doing this would only cost them the price of a piece of stationary and a stamp, but would go a long way in my book towards keeping my future business. When I finished with that last line, there was truly shock in his voice when he replied, No one has ever suggested that before."

That is because we live in a society that has become depersonalized. These companies are not dealing with people like small, family owned businesses did back in the day. They are dealing with marketing companies, and lobbiest groups. They don't need to look a real live person in the eye and tell them, "I am really sorry that you have another six months to pay on the washer, if you want to use it you will have to come up with the money to fix it. As much as we would love to help you our hands are tied." (Yes! That was my plug for another reason not to use credit.)

Sorry to have gotten off on a tangent...Of course this young man could not help me, but happily put me through to someone whom he thought might be able to. After repeating my story for a third time, this lady's take on the matter was, "Sorry, but at the current time we don't have a program in place to write such letters." I told her that I wasn't concerned with the establishment of such a program, but was talking to her now, person to person, and asking for her to help me feel better about her company. She then told me she would contact the correspondance department (they need a whole department? Everyone just can't do their own corresponding I guess.) and see if they couldn't get said letter out to me.

So, here I sit, waiting to see if such a letter actually arrives, happily washing clothes again, thanks to (my) Mister's repair skills and knowledge of electronics. Better him than me!