One Great Whale Story

I saw this at Dawg Run and had to copy it here.  It is after all, "right up my alley"  thanks Dawg Run for informing me about this incredible story!  You will feel fabulous after seeing this, I promise.


An Amazing Story Worth 8 Minutes of Your Time

I Guarantee this will Cheer You Up

Just click the play button and enjoy the show.

Dig This

So I was reading this book about a minister who is administrating the construction of a hospital-nursing home. In addition to many items that are going on, he takes it upon himself to go to the site (which is in a hilly area) and steps to the edge of the deeply dug hole to look into it while the construction equipment is digging away. The construction manager comes over and gives him what for...

It somehow reminded me of DIG THIS, don't ask me why. Watch the video--this is really so cool. A place where one (male or female) can go and have access to the REAL earth moving equipment on ten acres of land meant for digging.



You can dig as much as you like, earth move, flatten, trench etc in the only heavy duty equipment play area in the world. Imagine it caterpillars excavator, D5G and Skid Loader as playtoys for a day.



You get to rearrange the sandbox on YOUR TERMS!

The place is located in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Actually, it is not too expensive...one hour with instructor and the dozer or excavator of your choice for $200. I've seen other less exciting tours for the same or more!
OK, I know, I have WAAAY too much time on my hands ;-)

Got a Gadget...Need Protection

Check this out...



You can get your invisible shield at Best Buy or online at www.zagg.com

Odds and Ends

I stole this little ditty from a monthly electric co-op magazine that I receive from my electric company...THAT NEVER happened in New Jersey.

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend...if you have one" George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second...if there is one." Winston Churchill, in response.

...and verbal abuse was born. (my addition)

But wait there's more...

Here are a few definitions you might enjoy from my friend Ambrose Bierce and his Devil's Dictionary:

Kill, To create vacancy without nominating a successor.

Kleptomaniac, A rich thief.

Dentist, a prestidigitator who, putting metal into your mouth, pulls coins from your pocket.

Coward, One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs.

Nepotism. appointing your grandmother to office for the good of the party.

Yankee, in Europe, an American. In the Northern States of our Union, a New Englander. In Southern States the word is unknown. (See Damyank)

M&M Celebrates Christmas Early

M&M found her Christmas present early and refused to wait any longer to open it...

Christmas Cookie Rules

Christmas Cookie Rules...

1. If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free.

2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories.

3. If a friend comes over while you're making your Christmas cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend's first cookie is calories free, rule #1 is yours also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone and, being the friend that you are, that makes your cookie calorie free.

4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.

5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue.

6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have three and green ones have five - one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones!

7. Cookies eaten while watching "Miracle on 34th Street" have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.

8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage.

9. Any cookies consumed from someone else's plate have no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate. We all know how calories like to CLING!

10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It's a rule!

The First Pilgrim Thanksgiving

I found this very informative piece at Thanksgiving on the Net and thought I would share it with you.

The Pilgrims, who celebrated the first thanksgiving in America, were fleeing religious persecution in their native England. In 1609 a group of Pilgrims left England for the religious freedom in Holland where they lived and prospered. After a few years their children were speaking Dutch and had become attached to the dutch way of life. This worried the Pilgrims. They considered the Dutch frivolous and their ideas a threat to their children's education and morality.

So they decided to leave Holland and travel to the New World. Their trip was financed by a group of English investors, the Merchant Adventurers. It was agreed that the Pilgrims would be given passage and supplies in exchange for their working for their backers for 7 years.

On Sept. 6, 1620 the Pilgrims set sail for the New World on a ship called the Mayflower. They sailed from Plymouth, England and aboard were 44 Pilgrims, who called themselves the "Saints", and 66 others ,whom the Pilgrims called the "Strangers."

The long trip was cold and damp and took 65 days. Since there was the danger of fire on the wooden ship, the food had to be eaten cold. Many passengers became sick and one person died by the time land was sighted on November 10th.

The long trip led to many disagreements between the "Saints" and the "Strangers". After land was sighted a meeting was held and an agreement was worked out, called the Mayflower Compact, which guaranteed equality and unified the two groups. They joined together and named themselves the "Pilgrims."Although they had first sighted land off Cape Cod they did not settle until they arrived at Plymouth, which had been named by Captain John Smith in 1614. It was there that the Pilgrims decide to settle. Plymouth offered an excellent harbor. A large brook offered a resource for fish. The Pilgrims biggest concern was attack by the local Native American Indians. But the Patuxets were a peaceful group and did not prove to be a threat.

The first winter was devastating to the Pilgrims. The cold, snow and sleet was exceptionally heavy, interfering with the workers as they tried to construct their settlement. March brought warmer weather and the health of the Pilgrims improved, but many had died during the long winter. Of the 110 Pilgrims and crew who left England, less that 50 survived the first winter.

On March 16, 1621 , what was to become an important event took place, an Indian brave walked into the Plymouth settlement. The Pilgrims were frightened until the Indian called out "Welcome" (in English!).

His name was Samoset and he was an Abnaki Indian. He had learned English from the captains of fishing boats that had sailed off the coast. After staying the night Samoset left the next day. He soon returned with another Indian named Squanto who spoke better English than Samoset. Squanto told the Pilgrims of his voyages across the ocean and his visits to England and Spain. It was in England where he had learned English.

Squanto's importance to the Pilgrims was enormous and it can be said that they would not have survived without his help. It was Squanto who taught the Pilgrims how to tap the maple trees for sap. He taught them which plants were poisonous and which had medicinal powers. He taught them how to plant the Indian corn by heaping the earth into low mounds with several seeds and fish in each mound. The decaying fish fertilized the corn. He also taught them to plant other crops with the corn.

The harvest in October was very successful and the Pilgrims found themselves with enough food to put away for the winter. There was corn, fruits and vegetables, fish to be packed in salt, and meat to be cured over smoky fires.

The Pilgrims had much to celebrate, they had built homes in the wilderness, they had raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, they were at peace with their Indian neighbors. They had beaten the odds and it was time to celebrate.

The Pilgrim Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native Americans. They invited Squanto and the other Indians to join them in their celebration. Their chief, Massasoit, and 90 braves came to the celebration which lasted for 3 days. They played games, ran races, marched and played drums. The Indians demonstrated their skills with the bow and arrow and the Pilgrims demonstrated their musket skills. Exactly when the festival took place is uncertain, but it is believed the celebration took place in mid-October.

The following year the Pilgrims harvest was not as bountiful, as they were still unused to growing the corn. During the year they had also shared their stored food with newcomers and the Pilgrims ran short of food.

The 3rd year brought a spring and summer that was hot and dry with the crops dying in the fields. Governor Bradford ordered a day of fasting and prayer, and it was soon thereafter that the rain came. To celebrate - November 29th of that year was proclaimed a day of thanksgiving.

This date is believed to be the real true beginning of the present day Thanksgiving Day

The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years. During the American Revolution (late 1770's) a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.

In 1817 New York State had adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.

Interesting Concepts

1. God wants spiritual fruit...NOT religious nuts.
2. There is no key to happiness; the door is always open.
3. Silence is often misinterpreted but never misquoted.
4. Do the math; count your blessings.
5. Faith is the ability NOT to panic.
6. If you worry, you didn't pray - If you pray, don't worry.
7. As a child of God, prayer is like calling home every night.
8. The most important thing in your house is the people.
9. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.
10 Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Anticipation

Sometime ago, at years' end, I started the ritual of writing down all the new and different things that happened to me or that I did during that year. You know all the new stuff. I guess it started because I always found the New Year's holiday depressing; sort of a let down after all the 'hoo-haa'. Three years or so into this new habit I looked back over the lists that I made and discovered that I was indeed way more adventurous than I gave myself credit for.

I guess at some point I will go ahead and give you all a separate blog on the highlights of those exceptional activities (when I have the lists with me) but for now suffice to say that looking back on that activity has spurred a new one. Anticipating the new stuff to come. Wow, this is really big for me, because I have pretty much been a 'plodder'. Set a goal and go after it one step at a time.

Before I took the eight week trek to the southwest this year, I found an ad for The Great American Cooking Expo - Chicago. Since food is my passion, I ripped the ad out and slipped it under a fridge magnet. Just in case I forgot about it during the trip; I wanted a reminder that I could still have fun once the trip was over. I had gone to two of these expos in Philadelphia when I lived in New Jersey and enjoyed them very much.

So I returned from the trip and never noticed the ad on the fridge BUT I did notice another ad in Sunday's paper and got excited all over again! I went to the website and found something else that got me as excited as any child could be in anticipation of Christmas.

There on the right side of the Expo homepage was an ad for a passionate non-professional cooks'-- cooking school...YES! This is what I have been searching for - - for a very long time. I actually found one in lower Manhattan just before I moved away, but being a big city driving scaredy-cat, never was able to attend any of their classes.

So now I am looking forward to the EXPO which takes place on November 14, 15, and 16. I think I'll try for the 16th since they have many cooking demos that I would like to see. What I am really looking forward to, is the 3 day basic cooking course that is being held by Viking That of course will take place after the EXPO, on November 18, 19 and 20. I would have done it this weekend, but I have a triple birthday celebration to attend so that, of course, takes precedence!

Nobel Peace Prize runner up Irene Sendler

Just a story of another unsung hero...

May 12 marked the death of a 98-year-old lady named Irena.

During WWII, Irena received permission from the Nazis to work in the Warsaw ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist.

She had an ulterior motive...

Being German, she knew the Nazis' plans for the Jews and smuggled infants out in the bottom of the large tool box she carried. Larger children were placed in a burlap sack in the back of her truck. Also in the back was a dog that she had trained to bark each time the Nazi guards allowed her out of the ghetto and back in.

The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog, and its barking covered any noise made by the infants and small children. Irena managed to smuggle out approximately 2,500 children before she was finally caught. When she was captured, the Nazis beat her severely, breaking both her arms and her legs.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the children she smuggled out of that Warsaw ghetto and kept them in a glass jar buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents who may have survived so she might reunite the child with its family. Most, of course, did not survive the Holocaust, and the vast majority of the surviving children were placed in foster homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but she lost to Al Gore, who won the award for presenting a slide show on Global Warming.

True story. Check it out at http://www.irenasendler.org