Can you match my score (100%)

I got all the answers right on the Sleep Quiz. But I did guess on two of them--just because I thought they might be trick questions. About 15 years ago I took one of those sleep diagnosis tests at OSU hospital. Had the best night's sleep of my life even though I was wired to machines. How crazy is that? I think I messed up my sleep pattern--it was during the first Iraq War and I started getting up to watch CNN. Maybe it's a coincidence, but since then I've been waking up about 2 a.m. wondering how long before it's time to get up. After an hour or so I do fall back to sleep. Then the cat gets a hair ball or a snow plow comes by. Also, I just love to nap. That's really bad sleep hygiene, as is evening exercise classes, drinking coffee late in the day, or doing anything interesting after 5 p.m. Your mileage will differ.

Gitmo, Illinois

"During his campaign, Obama maligned President George W. Bush for detaining our enemies, even though they were being held according to the laws of war. Now, Obama has adopted that policy (though for a new facility) and outraged the far Left. “Prolonged imprisonment without trial is exactly the Guantánamo system that the president promised to shut down,” said Shayana Kadidal, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Preoccupied with building the new detention center, the president has failed to set up legal rules for determining who can be detained. Prisoners facing long-term captivity without trial will inevitably seek to challenge their detention in federal courts, a right that they have under the 2008 Supreme Court decision Boumediene v. Bush. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has neglected to work with Congress to establish evidentiary rules governing these proceedings, such as how to handle classified information, witness testimony, and discovery rights. With so many legal and procedural questions still unanswered, Obama remains determined to use taxpayer dollars to buy and renovate a Gitmo look-alike so that he can claim to have carried out his pledge to close the original facility. This is the price the American public pays when a president makes a hasty promise without knowing if it’s possible to keep it." read the full account, A New Guantanamo by Stephanie Hessler

Ray Stevens on Obamacare

Congress--We the people have awakened to your tricks. About 1.2 million views.

Put some oomph into that New Year's Resolution!

Diet and Exercise are the most common New Year's Resolution. Joining an exercise class was one from my 2009 list that I actually kept, plus I had those wonderful 70 sunrise walks along Lake Erie in the summer when I wasn't in the class. Watch this video on Alzheimer's Disease research for a low key, somewhat dry but informative, pep talk on how oxidative damage may be contributing to brain decrease. It's about 16 minutes, but well worth it.

Sorting, stashing and trashing

We (or more accurately, he) packed up the tree and poinsettias to go back to the garage attic today. I had thought that since it is shedding, this might be the year to pitch it, but he said no, it could go another year.

Today I pulled out the extended-family and friends photo albums and was determined to insert the photos we got for Christmas. Nothing is easy, however. I hadn't done this since 2003. I have two family/sibling albums, mine and my mother's (which I had made for her because she always threw photos into a box). So I also spent time combining those albums into a notebook of ungodly dimensions. It's very painful for me to give up anyone's history or photo, but I just had to make some decisions. We had 13 years of annual photographs for one family (not related), so I selected the oldest and newest and a few in between. The baby in the 1993 card now looks older than her three older sisters. Some album pages were in terrible shape. JoElla, my friend from grade school and my college roommate, kept falling out--or her 3rd grade class photo did--now she's a grandmother and I have those photos too. So I pulled out some double side tape and she's in there for good! I inserted a loose photo of my sister bottle feeding her grandson at my house in 1993 and his photo at 17 with his family. Time warp! I've finally wised up after 50 years and I just write the date on the photo--nothing worse than trying to figure out the date from the shades of hair, the shoulder pads, or lack of hair. The worst part was finding spaces for families that have divorced. Or people who have died. Makes me so sad. Our good friends in 1987 with 2 toddlers and a baby looking so happy, and again in 2000 when the oldest was heading off for college, and now it's all gone. I found the wedding invitation from the early 60s sent to my parents from my cousin--I think I'll send it to his daughter who lives here in Columbus.

Time. It just goes too fast, doesn't it?

Christmas 1965, Champaign, IL

So what does work? The common cold

With three events cancelled this week, we're still slogging through my husband's annual holiday cold, or so it seems. My colds usually last three weeks, his two weeks. "Americans spent about $3.6 billion on over-the-counter cold, cough and throat remedies in 2009 . . . In addition, cold and flu sufferers will spend millions of dollars on prescription antibiotics that have no effect on viral infections." according to a NYT health/money article. And I know that, but was out there helping the profit margin at CVS and Wal-Mart refreshing our supply of dated OTC cold "remedies," none of which seem to work. This time I bought real Claritin because I couldn't find the generic Loratadine that I like, and I bought a different unbrand antihistamine because the one we like wasn't around anywhere. We also used the old faithfuls of more bed rest, chicken broth, and a whole lot of football (which is the only plus for holiday colds). For the first time my husband put Vicks on the soles of his feet instead of his neck--that remedy is going around the internet! The article continues:

"So, what does work? While few, if any, medicines can shorten the duration of a cold, some can help reduce the onerous symptoms of upper respiratory infections. Nasal sprays shrink swollen blood vessels and relieve stuffy noses, though the relief is temporary and you should not use spray for more than three days.

Acetaminophen and ibuprofen can reduce fevers and body aches. Rinsing your nasal passages with a saline solution or breathing steam can help loosen mucous and increase nasal secretions, which can help to prevent a secondary sinus infection. Humidifiers and hot showers also help. Drinking warm liquids like tea has been shown to reduce a variety of cold and flu symptoms.

And don’t forget chicken soup. The age-old remedy, as you’ve no doubt heard, actually does help to reduce the symptoms of the common cold."

So far, I haven't caught his cold, but I'll touch a door handle or table top at the coffee shop that a germy 2 year old's parent recently used and I'll then be down for the count. If that's the worst health problem I experience at my age, I'll be grateful for the cold. (My New Year's resolution is "practice gratitude and appreciation.")

HT Tara Parker Pope of NYT

TLC's One Big Happy Family

Today I clicked into One Big Happy Family, the story of the Coles, who are indeed happy, live in a beautiful home in a nice neighborhood, but are all overweight.

"Each half-hour One Big Happy Family episode will follow the Cole family, which resides in Charlotte, NC and weighs a collective 1,400 ponds between the four of them. Norris, the 41-year-old father who weighs 340 lbs., is a stay-at-home dad while his wife Tameka, a 36-year-old who weighs 380 lbs., is responsible for financially supporting the family while also serving as the disciplinarian for their two children -- 16-year-old Amber, who weighs 348 lbs., and her 14-year-old brother Shayne, who weighs 308 lbs."

Since diet and exercise are usually the #1 New Year's Resolution, it's a good program to watch while surfing for bowl games.

June 1, 2010 update: "The day the doctor said Coles would die, he weighed in at 345 pounds. He's now down to 263. His wife was 380 pounds, and she's at 259 now. His two kids were each in the 330-pound range, and they're down to the 290s.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/06/01/2010-06-01_change_your_diet_or_youll_die_so_tlc_family_steers_away_from_fatty_food.html#ixzz0pi4ozho3

$230 million of tobacco settlement diverted

The 10th district Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that Ohio could spend the tobacco prevention money (American Legacy Foundation via The Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation) on an expansion of health care for children. This is part of the lucrative settlement from the 1998 tobacco companies settlement. Between the 1998 Tobacco Settlement and tobacco taxes, Ohio will receive $1.8 billion, but only $7.4 million goes for prevention. Less than the CDC recommends. In my opinion, they might as roll the dollars and smoke them. Tobacco use is up, and I doubt there's hard evidence that educational programs on tobacco prevents smoking or chewing in children; it only educates them about tobacco and its harmful effects. I've been in education all my life, but education does not mean wisdom, or action, or prevention, or right choices. It's just. . . education . . . and the person makes the choices. I don't know a single smoker who doesn't know the facts, dangers, and pitfalls. They know they stink, have yellow fingers and wrinkles, but the pleasure outweighs the negatives and they keep kicking the stop date down the road. Most obese people have more knowledge than some dieticians--they just don't use it. People who talk or text while driving have probably heard dozens of times how dangerous it is--but they don't act on what they know, even if they've seen the accidents or attended the funerals.

Health librarians were salivating when they first got a whiff of this tobacco money back in the 90s. I remember sitting in the meetings wondering what would happen to programming and staff when, 1) the settlement money ran out, or 2) if education were successful and people really did stop smoking, what would happen to the tobacco tax supported programs?

Well, I think adults do smoke less--usually because of a health scare, or the health of a family member, like a child with asthma. But it takes a lot. The other day a woman I know went outside the coffee shop to smoke and slipped on the ice jamming her cigarette into her face. Will she stop smoking? No. Does she not know the dangers? Yes. She'll just be more careful about icy parking lots next time.

New Year's Resolution for 2010

Looking through last year's resolutions, it appears I didn't post them (13) because they were so boring, but instead I blogged about them as they came to mind. I must be the only person in the world who made a resolution to buy a decent floor lamp--#5 on the list. You'll be thrilled to learn that I bought one on Dec. 30, 2009--I would have rejected it in January, but I finally concluded there are no decent floor lamps anymore. I put it in a corner of the living room where I hope no one will notice it, and when I turn it on it reflects on the ceiling and 2 walls, and improves visibility.

I also dusted off a resolution from 2006 to get back to my watercolor, #9 and join Mindy's class. I actually did a few--maybe 10 through the year, and about 70 drawings/sketches. At least I had enough to make it into an art show. I sort of did 11 and 12 which involved cleaning kitchen and bathroom cabinets. I may have been really crazy and did those twice! #13 was to read Dewey, and suggest it to the book group--did that.



And my new word a day--well, that didn't last too long, but I still keep an eye out for words or phrases new to me. Today it was "boom bag raft" (a method to move logs on lakes). The worst day was when I found vaticinated, decoction, phantageusia, ventoseness, noisome, hyposmia, anosmia, retronasal, orthonasal and habromania all in the same book review!

Another 2009 resolution was to read a chapter a day in a 10 volume set of Westminster Pulpit (compiled from sermons of G. Campbell Morgan preached about 100 years ago). I got about half finished then began reading other things and never got back to it.

I did successfully complete #6, which was to join the exercise class at UALC, Lytham Road, 9:15-10:15, M-W-F.

This year's is much simpler. Keep a gratitude journal. Not sure if it will be a blog.

Twelve movies I've never heard of

Apparently, this writer/photo compiler (Matt Pais) thinks someone in each film deserves an Oscar. I wonder if any of these films will come to the dollar theater, which seem to be the only ones I see. Great '09 performances the Oscars will ignore.

Holiday smoochies--not yet

No kisses for Christmas or New Year's yet. They'll have to wait. We cancelled three events this week due to my husband's cold. Maybe next week?

Photo from Christmas 2001.

Friday Family Photo and Memory

If you have old technology stashed away, it's a worry to preserve them if they contain irreplaceable information. Such is an audio cassette of a talk my mother gave on August 25 of either 1995 or 1996--both dates are hand written on the tape. I have contacted Advent Media to see if several items along with photographs and music could be transferred to a CD--but we know too that eventually it will become unusable. There's nothing like print on paper (or ink on scrolls) and black and white photos. Here's the story and the story it holds.

My mother and two other lay members of the Mt. Morris Church of the Brethren were asked to give a brief meditation--the sermon (as I wrote that I realized I could check Google on the date--yes, it was Aug. 25, 1996, my parents' 62nd wedding anniversary). Mother died in 2000, so it has been a long time since I heard her voice. This audio is amazingly accurate--it reproduces her voice exactly as it was in her 80s--it's just not the voice I like to recall. The theme they were to address was something about God in their lives, or God becoming real. I've forgotten exactly.

So, picture this tiny, white haired woman, known by all in the congregation and much respected for her good works and loving attitude, in an aqua blue or purple dress with heels walking to the podium. She announces first that she has no notes and has never told this story before (I had never heard it either). Then she takes the audience back to her childhood when her family was deeply immersed in their church (Franklin Grove Church of the Brethren) and attended twice on Sunday. She says she never doubted God's love, but they just weren't that close. He was off somewhere busy looking after people who didn't have her nice, secure, regulated life. Then she moves ahead 25 years to WWII when she was a very busy young mother of four very busy youngsters living on Hitt Street in Mt. Morris. Again, she reports our family had a comfortable life, and that the war was far away, hadn't really come to Mt. Morris despite the fact that almost all the men had gone to war (see War Record of Mt. Morris, Kable Bros., 1947--virtually every man under 40 was gone and even some WWI veterans had reenlisted). I don't think she noted that her husband, brother, four brothers-in-law plus numerous cousins of my father had enlisted.

Then she carefully described the drive-way our house shared with the Crowells, the garage and the house. Wooden boards provided an approach to the garage from the gravel drive-way that got muddy and slippery in the rain. She didn't describe the car, but I remember it--a 1939, 4 dr, blue Ford sedan--stick shift, of course (photo here). Since most of the congregation was 50 or over, she probably figured she didn't need to describe a clutch and gear shift.

She needed something at the store--she doesn't say what, but it must have been critical, because she left and came back quickly (very small town) leaving the children with the eldest in charge. As she approached the garage, she eased it carefully so as not to nick the siding on the house, and the car stalled on the slippery board ramp. She put it into reverse to back up and try again. The car wouldn't move. She tried again, and again, giving it a bit more gas, the rear wheels spinning. Finally, she got out to investigate and she found my little brother pushing with all his 3 year old strength, saying, "I'll help you Mommy!" She scooped him up in her arms, splattered head to toe with mud from the spinning tires, and placed him in the front seat, and put the car effortlessly in reverse, and drove up the slippery ramp. She says she was flooded with such a sense of joy and peace she never again doubted that God was close and watching. The incident also set aside her sense of absolute self-sufficiency and pride in being able to take care of anything.

She told the congregation she never shared the story because she knew others might doubt it or give a logical reason the reverse gear had failed and saved my brother's life, or even feel badly they hadn't had such an incident of protection when it was needed. So I suppose that's why she waited and treasured it privately, bringing it out like a precious jewel during difficult times when she wanted to know she and her family were secure in God's arms.

Somewhere in the talk she addressed her two great-granddaughters who know my brother as "Grandpa Rocky." So I don't know who else in the family was there that day--probably also my father and my niece, some of my aunts and uncles and my father's aunts and uncles--so this story is for all who weren't there. The photo is my brother, probably a year or two later, because he's wearing an outfit she made out of my father's WWII Marines camouflage issue.

A year after the promised transparency

White House dot gov yesterday, when everyone was focused on the crotch bomber or leaving the office for a 4 day week-end, another 25,000 new WH visitor list were posted for Sept 16-30. It was announced on Sept. 4, and this list appeared on December 30. It's pretty tedious to look through (like the e-mails of climategate), and by the time you're finished reading all the times the words "historic commitment," "unprecedented transparency," "milestones in transparency," and "transparency initiatives" the phrases begin to sound a bit hollow, PR-ish, and oh so campaign trail. Well, they promised December, they didn't say when, or how much. Who knew everyone who walked through as a tourist would be included with SEIU reps, CEOs of banks and equity firms and hundreds of lobbyists (apparently they are OK as long as they are "transparent"). Looks like more of the same MO--overwhelm us with information and then strike when the public is flat out gob smacked. While we look at all the energy CEOs' visits, they'll sneak cap and trade or amnesty for illegals in.

Robert Wenzel says these folks were there:

Further research shows that Goldman Sach's CEO Lloyd Blankfein pretty much spent the entire day at the White House on October 29. He met with the president twice that day (one meeting had 119 attendees the other 16). On that day he also met one-on-one with Larry Summers. He also met one-on-one with Summers on February 4.

On October 29, Jamie Dimon met with the president twice, it appears in the same meetings as Blankfein. He also met on that day with Larry Summers but with another person present. He also met one-on-one with Rahm Emanuel that day, something Blankfein did not get to do.

Steven Rattner, who for a time ran the government's auto task force and is co-founder of the investment firm, Quadrangle Group, met with Larry Summers over 25 times.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer met with Summers once. George Soros met with Summers in February.

While SEIU President Andy Stern doesn't show up on the visitors list this time, after topping it last time, his top assistant Anna Burger met with the President 10 times.

Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, met with the President 4 times.

In addition to his many meetings with Larry Summers, Steve Rattner met with the President twice.

David Rubenstein co-founder of the private equity firm, Carlyle Group, was in the 119 attendee meeting with Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon, when they met with the president.

Daniel Weiss, Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy, for the George Soros front group, Center for American Progress, visited with the President (in large groups) 4 times.

Waterford's Times Square Ball

When we were in Ireland in 2007, we visited the Waterford factory and watched the incredibly skilled glass blowers, visited the museum (of duplicates) and the gift shop.



In January of this year, it declared bankruptcy. This year, the company made a Celtic knot pattern dedicated to the theme “Let There be Courage” for the traditional Times Square Ball. They'll need it.



From Nick Obourn here’s a little bit more information on the Times Square Ball itself: The 2010 version of the New Year’s Eve ball for Times Square is a twelve foot geodesic sphere, which weighs 11,875 pounds. The ball itself is covered in 2,668 Waterford Crystals and is powered by 32,256 Philips LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). And believe it or not, the ball is capable of creating a palette of “more than 16 million colors” and “billions of patterns,” according to the Times Square Alliance website

Yes, you found the mother load!

Someone searched "blogs of retired old people" on Google and found me.

So I looked at what else, besides me, this search turned up.

Old Democrats blogging for Obama

Blog catalog using retired folks as a topic

Senior citizen humor--check out the 91 year old stripper

The New Old Age, NYT blog on aging

Retirement home for old horses

Stix Blog

And others. You get the idea. Old people are blogging.

Love stories from my coffee blog

Looking through my old coffee blogs, I see a favorite topic is "love," although I certainly don't write often on that topic, I write so much, it does come up. Here are some favorites.

Boyfriend in the coffee shop (Nov. 27, 2004)

What a surprise when a college boyfriend stepped into the coffee shop that morning. Maybe five or ten pounds heavier, but the goatee and quiet mannerisms were the same--the standing back to assess the situation, about 5 '10", smiling bright gray/blue eyes glancing around, and wispy dishwater blonde hair peeking out from under a baseball cap. Closing my book, I stood up to put on my coat and noticed he was gone.

Carrying my paper coffee cup to the counter to add a little cream before leaving, I realized he was standing next to me at the condiments while waiting for his order. He said to the clerk, "Thanks for your help." That voice. Yes, it was him. Definitely him. I wanted to watch to see if his sports car was in the parking lot.

Of course, it couldn't possibly be him, common sense whispered in my ear. After all, the former sweetheart is older than me and lives in another state. The young man standing there was perhaps twenty five--young enough to be my grandson. But for a moment . . . I wanted to kick him in the knee.

Romancing the coffee bean (Nov. 20, 2004)

She came in the coffee shop today. I hadn't seen her for maybe four or five years. A single mom with the stress of a teen-age daughter with too much mascara and a sullen younger boy. They occasionally were with her on school holidays, pretending they didn't know each other. We spoke briefly and caught up--she's working in a different suburb now, having coffee at another place.

A finish carpenter also stopped by in those days. A fun guy with a twinkle in his eye. We always chatted. Another woman used to call him "the stud muffin" after he left--always a little swagger, full of himself, but oh so in love with his metallic cherry red pick-up truck.

He started chatting up Ms. Lonely Mom. Soon he was walking her to her car, as though it wasn't safe for a woman at 7:45 a.m. in Upper Arlington to walk alone through a coffee shop parking lot. Then one day I saw him kiss her at her car door as he opened it. Oh, so gallant.

That's the last time I saw him. She continued to come in, anxiously watching the door and parking lot. Maybe she was just too needy. Maybe he saw the children. Or maybe he found another coffee shop.

Dump him, Honey (Nov. 15, 2004)

She was the morning, cheery, part-time, counter assistant when I first met her at the coffee shop. An English major. We joked she was going to write the “great American novel.” She was excited about graduating from college, and even took some time off in June 2003 to travel to New York to check into grad school.

I’ve stopped asking her about her plans. She now has an official store name tag. She has a title. And responsibilities. Doesn’t smile as much. She, or her parents, probably spent $70,000 on her education and she is figuring schedules, taking complaints about spilled coffee, ordering supplies, training new college students to take orders and doing quality checks.

Some mornings I see her making furtive phone calls before 6:30 on her cell phone. The smile and bouncy step are gone. I suspect she has settled. She hasn’t settled for marriage instead of career or grad school--the way my generation might have done in the 60s. She’s not even a fiancée. No, I suspect it is “significant-otherhood.” Or maybe just shacking up, with no commitment beyond next week-end.

Dump him, honey. Move on. He doesn’t deserve your talent and sense of humor. Chase your dream. There’s plenty of time later for guys who will waste their lives and yours sleeping in.

And then there was Joey (April 28, 2005)

"The only guy I ever lived with was Mike," she said while sweeping the floor, "and oh yeah, Joey." Her co-worker said, "Joey is Joey." She nodded and said something I couldn't hear. And then the conversation moved on to bowling.

A Poem--Stranger in the Coffee Shop
May 18, 2005

One by one
She whispers to me
mistakes of 1981

leaving college, of course,
and early marriage
with babies, diapers and divorce.

One by one
She outlines for me
her new goals, no fun,

tired and sinking under masses
of expectations,
while taking night classes.

One by one
She arranges her thoughts
because romance has begun,

wearing a skimpy sweater
that would have fit a child
who probably knows better.

One by one
She counts her blessings
eating a cinnamon bun,

while sitting by the fire
with the man who’s joined her
touching her hand with desire.

One by one
she flicks her dreams
in the morning sun

into the fireplace flame
and tosses her head
with no one else to blame

Southwest? (June 14, 2006)

Today I saw a bright pink notice on Panera's bulletin board:

"SW Christian Upper Arlington Mom, 40s and her 2 fabulous sons would like to meet a similar super nice UA Dad."

My mind wasn't in gear, so instead of "single white" I was thinking "southwest." I was trying to figure out where southwest Upper Arlington was.

I hope she finds someone. Probably too old for my advice on how not to marry a jerk.

Former neighbor (June 1, 2006)

We often see each other across the room at the coffee shop and wave. He was our neighbor about 25 years ago--he and his gorgeous third wife. Then they divorced and it was he and his fourth wife--much younger and also quite attractive. They moved after their first baby, who I think is in college now. They too are divorced, and I'm not sure where he lives, but he doesn't look any different. Marriage keeps you young, I suppose. All that adjusting.

Meeting an old friend (Nov. 17, 2006)

He stopped at my table today and spoke. I'd seen him come in with his two young children, but the face didn't ring a bell. Then when he spoke it all came back. We'd gone out to eat together and some parties with others in the building trades before they were married. My husband was his architect, and he'd known the wife professionally also when she worked for an interior designer. We'd attended their fabulous wedding on Lake Erie maybe 10 years ago. He and the kids, who were dressed in scarlet and gray for the big game, sat next to me close to the fireplace and we caught up. Then he leaned over and said, "I'm a single dad now." I looked at those adorable kids--maybe 6 and 3, and just felt sick.

On behalf of world peace in the coming New Year

This is my own comment to commenters at my blog about a world peace demonstration in Cairo organized for students of a private school by their parents. I reread it this morning, and still think that this is where peace really begins--with the individual, at home, in the family, in the community.

"Although these kum-ba-ya experiences are mostly for show (although far better than the Frenchman charging $67 a piece to teach kids how to be street protesters), if even ONE child returns to his regular life determined that bullying, teasing, ridicule, insulting a sibling, sassing his parents, cheating on tests, envying someone else's appearance, friends or clique, or any area of conflict over which he personally has control, and realizes that is where "world peace" begins--with the individual--then the whole event was worth every penny and hour and committee and planning effort."

The Coffee Artists

At one of my other blogs, Coffee Spills, I link to The Coffee Artists™ Angel Sarkela-Saur and Andrew Saur. Here is a YouTube of their experience in Milan after being invited by the Accademia Italiana Maestri del Caffè (AICAF) to demonstrate their art. Go to their web page--their 5 x 7 prints are very reasonable.

End of the year 2009 contributions

Time to get all those appeals and write the checks (or click the pay pal) before midnight tomorrow. Again this year we're sending a contribution to Pinecrest for their Good Samaritan Fund. Last year Pinecrest provided charitable care in the amount of $1.9 million. The Good Sam fund helps those people whose funds have run out and we donate in memory of my parents. Back in the days when Pinecrest was "The old folks home" I used to sing Christmas Carols there, and now some of my generation are using their fine facilities. No matter what community or church you claim, they all have financial struggles, with some states months behind in the Medicaid reimbursement. By-pass the bureaucracy and go directly to the source. They'll spend it wisely, I'm sure.

Lutheran Bible Translators are another fine group we support. There are still many peoples on earth that do not have scripture in their "heart language." Their Christmas card told about Rev. Tim and Lisa Beckendorf, working with the translating team for Khwe in Botswana. The national language is Setswana. Khwe is one of about 30 "click languages" found almost exclusively in southern Africa; clicks represent consonants. Some languages use only 5--others as many as 80, with 70% of the words beginning with clicks. Click languages are believed to be among the oldest of all human speech. We who speak and read English have so many resources--be generous with the translation projects. It takes many years just to develop an alphbet.

We're donating to Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio--they offered a silver ornament, but I really don't need one more thing. Organized in 1912, LSS still carries on the general charitable and religious work for which it was started through food pantries, homeless shelters, senior living residences, affordable housing communities and other services. I would wish that these services were less dependent on the government, but then that means more support from the Christian community, right?

I've been supporting the Pregnancy Decision Health Centers for years, helping women bring their babies to term rather than aborting them. Some babies are adopted, but most will go home with their mothers who just a few months before may have been abandoned by the baby's father or grandparents and will continue to have a tough struggle. If every Christian would cut their funding to Planned Parenthood, which funds abortions, and instead helped the mothers, this world would be a more peaceful, loving place.

Lower Lights Christian Health Center was started some years ago by Dr. Dana Vallangeon, and there are now 3 doctors on staff. It's at 1251 W. Broad St. in Columbus. It serves people who don't have health insurance or have a gap in their services. $100 will pay for one visit, and it's all done with the love of Christ. One program is called Rachel's House, transitional living for women who have been incarcerated. Another project is AIM, which supplies mentors for people attempting to leave a cycle of poverty. I've heard Dana speak, and she is an amazing woman of seemingly endless energy, ideas and love.

We heard about a family whose rented home had a fire and then the mother couldn't work due to illness after they relocated. A special Christmas Eve offering was to go for the family but the community was hit by ice and snow and attendance was small. So we sent a check to the pastor who knows their situation.

A group that had sort of fallen off our radar is World Mission Prayer League, 232 Clifton Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403, and when I looked them up, I could see why. They don't do mailings and solicitations. They depend on prayer, and they do have a blog!

"We are committed to some very simple ideas: the power of community, the essential ministry of prayer, the adventure of a simplified lifestyle...and the urgent challenge of sharing the wonderful news about Jesus. We are today a community of more than 5000 members across the United States and Canada, and in sixteen countries around the world."

Think Hollywood and TV are just a cesspool of no interest to Christians? It's discouraging when you see the hostile, anti-Christian story lines of Law and Order and NCIS. Well, think again, think 168 Project. Some years ago a young man from our congregation, John Ware, went west to make films and decided the industry needed the light of Christ. The 168 Project allows amateurs and professionals alike some experience in writing, directing, producing and distributing films with a Biblical theme, and it's all done in 168 hours. 396 films have now been produced and they're hoping for another 100 entries this year. Each film is about 10 minutes--just perfect for small group discussion. You can purchase by the year, or "best of" disks. John tells me they've expanded into a prison ministry and are starting a program in China.

For other programs like missions sponsored by our church, COCINA, Lakeside, Cum Cristo (Cursillo), we'd given earlier in the year.

And this time of year, there are many bad people with scams. I heard one today about a phony "Make a wish" appeal. The internet is swarming with them. It's not hard to find out who is reliable and frugal--almost all reputable charities have web sites and there are tracking groups that report administrative costs (some are exhorbitant) and Director's salaries (non-profit doesn't mean low salaries!). So do your homework.

We need a movie night at our house

The switch to a new cable company didn't happen. At the last minute we discovered that the salesman was a "private contractor" and had promised some things the company couldn't provide, like the price and the rewiring. Plus we found out we'd have to have 4 boxes, and we only wanted 2. We may still make the switch, but we're wiser now.

In the process, I cleaned out more cabinets since they were going to be moved (empty) anyway. We have a DVD player in the living room and a VCR in the family room. We don't watch many movies at home, and I'd definitely forgotten how many we have. I think we could designate one night a week for movies and we'd be good for about 2.5 years just using the VCR. The the other half year for the smaller DVD collection. Here's some I thought looked worth viewing: African queen; about 15 Blondie movies; Dirty dancing; Fabulous Baker Boys; Fried Green Tomatoes, Lonesome Dove (series); My big fat Greek Wedding; Outbreak; Overboard; Road to Morocco; Russians are coming; Ruthless people; Stratton story; Thornbirds; White Christmas, Working girl. Most of these we've seen either in theaters or on a movie channel. We rarely watch movies at home. But maybe with a bowl of popcorn. . .

This sounds like my closet!

Don't recall how I got to Silly Rabbit of Sarasota, FL, probably a random click, but it's a vintage clothing store that sounds like my closet!

Chic 20th century vintage clothing for men and women. Vintage fabric and crafty supplies. Great dresses, hats, shoes, purses, coats and accessories for men and women. From boho hippie chic to new wave, mod, disco, rockabilly, to classic Jackie O and everything in between, we have been collecting, wearing and selling vintage clothing for a zillion years. We love it all; but only pick the best quality, most gorgeous fabrics, mintiest condition, and chicest trends. All killer No filler!

Although I wasn't much into rockabilly.

I like to buy things at the Discovery Shop because 1) it's near by, 2) cheap, 3) you can still find quality clothing made in the USA, and 4) nice people (volunteers) working for a good cause (cure for cancer). And if you're willing to pay more than $5-10, you can get some really terrific stuff. I've bought things there brand new with the price tags on that apparently were part of a New Year's goal to lose weight, and got hung in the back of the closet until reality set in a few years later. Like my pink Talbot jeans.

From my closet--49+ year old "going away" dress from my wedding in 1960.

Face time, not Facebook

Today's surprising conversation at the coffee shop at Coffee Spills, where I record that sort of trivia.

Obama finally gets on board

Maybe it's the time change; or the rainbows. Maybe the TOTUS of the POTUS finally arrived in Hawaii. But today Obama changed his lackadaisical, let-me-get-to-the-golf course attitude. From CNN.

Rebecca's holiday tip

My husband has come down with a cold, and we've had to cancel two social eating events. Both were with good friends from our condo association, so it will be no problem to reschedule--but my, I sure don't need the calories. I've even been nipping into my husband's special stash of sugar free cookies from Cheryl's. Unlike home made sugar-free, they actually are delicious and have the right texture. All my good intentions of October are fleeting memories. Rebecca has a word for us diet and exercise failures at her wonderful (and forgiving) blog, Power, Love and Self-Control.

"NEVER GIVE UP is my tip for today. And I need it!

No matter how many home-made caramels you ate. No matter that you ate 12 dark chocolate truffles from the bag. In the car. Before you got home from the gift exchange. No matter that the day went by and you didn't get your 30 minute walk in. No matter that the scale shows you gained 2 pounds for the first time in six months of consistent loss or maintenance. No matter WHAT. Never give up. Begin where you left off and keep going strong!"

Like me, Rebecca is a multi-blog person. Visit all of them. I love her thrift shop blog.

The costs of health care

The next time you hear a politician or pundit lamenting the costs of health care remember this: As of 2006, an estimated 11,400,000 adults and children were LIVING with cancer in the United States, and that number is estimated to increase to nearly 17,000,000 by 2020. (JAMA, citing http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2006/) It costs a lot of money to LIVE with a chronic condition--more than to die of a fatal one. People living with a chronic condition are also benefitting from research on diet, exercise and weight, and when you throw that into the mix--and we all benefit from that--the bill goes even higher.

Now they can blame Bush!

"Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans." ABC News. I knew they'd find a way.

Ohio State School for the Blind to march in the Rosebowl Parade

Thirty two musicians and 36 volunteers will be marching in the Rosebowl parade when the Bucks meet the Ducks on New Year's Day. Blind musicians aren't particularly rare, but marching together? That takes a lot of effort, practice and heart.

"This is going to be hard. Six miles is a long way, longer than the parades they've marched in to prepare for Pasadena. In the past year, they've been playing and playing and playing. Performances in Lancaster, at churches, in Cincinnati, at the Ohio State University skull session and in the Circleville Pumpkin Festival parade.

Practice has not made perfect. That's the honest truth.

Eleven band members have perfect pitch (hearing them hum during marching-only practice is beautiful enough to make you hold your breath).

But when they pick up their tattered and battered and borrowed instruments, not every note is hit just-so.

Having perfect pitch "doesn't mean you have the finesse you need. It doesn't mean you have the articulation skills you need," says Carol Agler, the blind school's music director and co-director of the band. She turns no one away who signs up to play at the beginning of the year. No auditions are required, just desire.

It hasn't made a lick of difference to the audiences who have heard the blind band play."

Story by Jennifer Smith Richards. Go Marching Panthers!

As a brief Monday Memory, I mention watching my grandmother play the piano at our home in Forreston, IL. They didn't have a piano in their home, as I recall. They didn't visit often--we would go there--because she got car sick. I'm not sure how old she was--maybe mid-to-late 50s. She began losing her sight in grade school so wasn't able to go to high school, and was completely blind by her early 20s. So I was really surprised that her hands and her ears remembered from all those years when she was a child and took piano lessons. Thirty some years later she was residing in the nursing home in Oregon, IL and her roommate was a woman a few years older, named Olive. She had been Grandma's piano teacher. They had such a wonderful time together, and when Olive went back to her home/care giver, they talked on the phone just like young girls.

Detroit Attack

The CounterTerrorism blog, Dec. 27, by Roderick Jones asks:

"What has caused this [new round of inconveniences for the passengers]? At this point, it is the reaction of United States Department of Homeland Security to any terrorist event involving aviation [which then spreads throughout the global aviation system], which heightens the operational success of militant Islamist terrorists against aviation targets. The noted, counter-insurgency expert David Kilcullen expertly puts this into focus [in his book Accidental Guerrilla] by highlighting the detrimental effects of US counter-terrorism policy. In short al-Qaeda does not represent an existential threat to the US, it has no path to victory looking at any reasonable scenario including the use of WMD-- but the US can defeat itself by unnecessary over-reaction and a fundamental misunderstanding of basic risk management and terrorist theory. Once again this is being demonstrated by the events in Detroit and the DHS reaction, which creates more disruption than the attack itself, destroys DHS and US credibility by mandating absurd responses, which focus on securing events after they have happened (for example, turning off in-flight entertainment because passengers can see a map - passengers can still look out the window or use their watches).

If the US and other states are to contain terrorism they needs to adopt the more thoughtful responses, which have been developed within and outside of government. The work of inside/outside experts such as Killcullen largely moves in one direction conclusive direction -- less is more and multi-agency approach is paramount. The central thesis of Kilcullen's book is that the west creates 'accidental guerrilla's' by using military force and thus creating 'guerrilla anti-bodies'."

Apparently, even when we change presidents, it's still our fault. Call me crazy but I think profiling for militant islamists (act smartly and speak softly) might be called for instead of pulling my husband over and asking him to practically disrobe when we were already late for our connecting flight. But maybe that's what he was implying and wants to keep his day job.

Napolitano claims the system works?

If you include a sharp eyed, very brave Dutch vacationer as part of your "system." Nothing worked, lady, including the terrorist's parents alerting authorities that their son had disappeared and been radicalized, his name, Umar farouk Abdulmutallab, being in a watch database, the Netherlands not agreeing to use our information (wasn't our president going to use his charm on the European nations, not clout?), his side trips to Yemen, his paying cash for his ticket, and his smuggling explosives aboard when the rest of us can't even get a water bottle or shampoo smuggled in. Now she wants to inconvenience the rest of us with a final one hour proscription against bathroom use (no one will want to sit next to me since I've had vomiting and diarrhea on my last two international flights). I hope she's retracted this ridiculous statement that no one, not even her boss, believes.
Link. Now he'll get a pro-bono lawyer and sue the airlines for his burns, I'm guessing.

Update from all sides of the political spectrum: Hell No, it didn't work! And she has now admitted it didn't, but her words on CNN Sunday were "taken out of context."

Update 2: This administration's backpeddling is just amazing. A day after his fourth day wimp-out that sounded like a weather report followed by a game of golf, Obama comes out with "new information" trying to pretend a little fire in his belly, but he's hopeless. Either he was hopelessly uninformed yesterday for that speech, or he doesn't care, never has, never will. Obama's second speech link. Never mind, couldn't find one except Tadjikistan.

Snow by Loreena McKennitt

I think some is predicted for tomorrow. Christmas day it was 47 here with green grass. I looked at a number of videos of this lovely song--and this one had the words and most looked like what we have when it snows.



Music: Loreena McKennitt; Lyric: Archibald Lampman (1861-1899)

Life isn't fair

A mother and her two young adult children. Read it here. "The fact is the worst age for a human being on this planet is between 13 and 23. If we’re honest with ourselves and each other we’ll admit that those were our STUPIDEST years . . . "

Read the manual day--a new holiday

I need to invite my children over for a "Read the Manual" day so they can create a log for me about buttons, bangles and basics. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by new and high tech. I just want to go back to the days of #2 pencils and black and white TVs. For my son, I'd ask him to go through the manual of my new Town and Country (800 miles on it) and help me put it through some of its paces. I'm still unsure just what it does and doesn't do. I could swear it locks sometimes when I don't lock it after parking. I have learned that some of that extra 14" is in the rear cargo space, and that it's easy to pull my back when bending and reaching. I've put a low tech laundry basket back there so my groceries are a bit more accessible.

My daughter is the go-to-techie source. I need to stop her long enough to learn how to use my I-Touch, now six months old and used about 3 times. Also, we have a new flat screen TV in the living room (our Christmas gift to each other) which we are trying not to play with much until we switch cable companies and will have to relearn channel numbers and settings for new cable boxes (high definition and DVR).

However, she bought us a small flat screen (13") TV for the kitchen and an under the cabinet AM-FM-CD player. These two appliances will take the place of my tiny B & W $14 TV-radio that was even too cheap to work with a converter box, otherwise I'd be using it. We aren't very good at figuring out our disc player or VCR, and have to call for help each time we use them. Our new cable service is supposed to include boxes for all the TVs, but I don't think I want that. Two is plenty.

Meanwhile, I've started in on the low tech jobs, I know how to do, like

1 putting away ribbons and boxes, and finding things I can't use anymore like the Clairol make-up mirror. Do you reuse ribbons and paper? We do. I took the time to sort the tissue paper by hue this morning. I rolled up ribbon and separated them from the ready made bows.
2 write thank you notes and sympathy notes and get-well notes (life goes on during the holidays too)
3 clean out every possible storage area in the kitchen to accomodate the newbies. I don't have a large kitchen, and counter space is at a premium. Do you have a kitchen junk drawer? I do. Everything from scotch tape to night lights to paper clips to candles for emergency.
4 take the cat to the vet to see why she's sneezing.
5 I'm anticipating our two new membership/magazines one on birds and the other on Great Lakes history from our son. That just requires a cup of coffee, a good lamp, and curling up on the couch for a good read. Can hardly wait.

Recipes I've never tried

Have been found while I was cleaning my kitchen shelves, rearranging things to find just the right spot for the new TV.


They include

The Saturday Evening Post Family Cookbook, c1984--supposed to be healthy stuff, bran raisin bread, carrot muffins, barley soup, which is probably why I bought it (library sale, $2.00

Joyce's Amaretto Peach/Blueberry pie with a note from her, 2005

Florida Key Lime Pie, on a post card purchased in Florida

"Fun food for football," real easy munchies from Columbus Parent Magazine; includes Mexican Chili dip and those meatballs made with grape jelly--plus a few I've used before--super easy

Chocolate chip ice cream pie, creamed chicken and biscuits and others on some fancy cards that must belong to someone else's set. "Grandma's Kitchen" www.grandmaskitchenreceipes.com

Hillary Rodham Clinton's chicken and rice deluxe clipped from the Columbus Dispatch.

Poached Salmon--hand written recipe, with note, "Norma--call me" but I don't remember who wrote it.

Blueberry muffins using Splenda

Sausage cheese balls using Bisquik.

Slow-cooker lasagna from the Dispatch

Corn stuffing--I think I might have made this a few Thanksgiving days ago.

Soup recipes from our Germany river tour in 2005, on MS Switzerland. They were fabulous on board as I recall. Probably not quite the same from my stovetop.

I think they'll all fit inside the Sat. Evening Post book, so I'll keep them.

Vintage make-up mirror

CLAIROL True-to-Light, 3 Way Lighted Make-up Mirror. Purchased for Christmas 1979. It has 2 adjustable fold out side mirrors, and a large center mirror. Center mirror can rotates for magnification. The light bulbs are replaceable (2026 lamp)--or were 30 years ago. It has 4 settings for Day, Office, Evening, and Home plus ON and OFF button. Gently used by former 30-something housewife turned librarian who rarely wore make-up.

These things are outrageously priced on the various on-line web resale sites. I'm cleaning closets today, and it will go for a song, a poem, or possibly nothing if I take it to the Discovery Shop. The guide book says the lamps last 4,000 hours, so I figure there are at least 3,750 left, and I turned it on--everything works--I just don't want to be that close to my face anymore.

As you age, you need less make-up, not more. I dab a bit on about 5 a.m. in the morning--takes about 2 minutes after I wash and moisturize my face (with Watkins if I have it). Some foundation, a whisk of cheek blush and I'm good to go. Mascara and liner makes my eyes itch. I rarely wear lipstick anymore because it has a tendency to want to climb into my lip lines. Not a pretty sight.

The other day I was talking to an old friend and we were trying to remember the name of a woman we knew 30 years ago. I'm sure she was younger then than I am now, but he described her as the woman with all the make up and smeared lipstick. Then I remembered her! Isn't that just so sad? To be remembered by the wrong hair color, or the make-up collecting in your wrinkles, or smeared lipstick. Oh. Dear. Soul.

J.R. Watkins Lemon Cream

At Hokulea's blog, Christmas cancelled, she writes about trying to help customers whose orders have expired. Although I don't understand the procedures or what she does, it sounds like sometimes you can get a caring, kind representative like Hoku at a large company. And it doesn't hurt that she has a very specialized skill (makes jewelry) and knew what to do to expedite a ring. So here's my try--again--to get a cream I like that has been discontinued, only I wrote a paper letter and put it in an envelope with a first class stamp, and hope I get a Hokulea clone:

Dear J. R. Watkins Customer Service, I apparently sent my daughter on a wild goose chase when I asked for your Shea Butter Lemon Cream in a jar (4.6 oz.). This product no longer is available, anywhere, either from your sales staff or local stores like Walgreens. So she purchased Shea Butter Body Cream in a tube (3.3 oz.) which the web site more or less said was the same thing. It isn’t. Read the label. I know ingredients are listed in order of quantity, and although many are the same in the two products, many are different in quantity and type. The first five of the jar product are water, shea butter, glycerol stearate, PEG-100 stearate, and steric acid. The first five in the tube are water, shea butter, glycerol stearate, steric acid and cetearyl alcohol. Both lists are followed by Macadamia seed oil. Both PEG-100 stearate and cetearyl alcohol are an emollient, an emulsifier, and a moisturizer, and the cetearyl alcohol is also an opacifier and a thickener. That’s the difference I see on the label, and probably makes the tube product work. But I don’t like tube products--too much of the product is left inside the tube, plus I just like the jar product. You don’t mention on the label that it is a moisturizer for the face, but I use it on my face, and it doesn’t interact with my cosmetics. Do you still have some in the vault of discontinued products that I could buy? I’m 70, and not to give you a sob story, but I think my skin looks fine for my age, and I don’t want to try something new. Please check around for me, and get back to me soon--I only have 2.5 jars left (plus 2 tubes). The lavender is OK, but I love the Lemon Cream.

Update: Here's something I wouldn't have thought of when thinking Watkins--an architectural tour.

Update 2: I now have 3 more jars of Lemon Cream Shea Butter sent to me by Lynne at Seasons for Success. Excellent service!

New Christmas carol for the troops

Matt Hodge, a Campbellsville University graduate student, has dedicated this new carol to the troops. It was recorded by the Campbellsville University Choir.

Campbellsville University is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky open to all denominations. Founded in 1906 by the Russell Creek Baptist Association, Campbellsville University is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 2,601 students who represent 93 Kentucky counties, 27 states and 31 foreign nations.

Santa Clauses in the cash for cloture deal

Michelle Malkin in Beltway Christmas peeks inside this Congress' stimulus spending where more money went to higher income areas than low income and then analyzes the costs to the taxpayer for the fatso, flatulent Demcare. She reports Democratic districts have raked in nearly twice as much porkulus money as GOP districts -- without regard to the actual economic suffering and job loss in those districts.

• $54 million no-bid contract was awarded to a firm with little experience to relocate a luxury Bay Area wine train due to flood concerns. [Pelosi]
  
  
• $1 billion for the dubious FutureGen near-zero emissions "clean coal" plant earmark championed by disgraced Democrat and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin. [Burris]
  
  
• billions in high-speed rail stimulus earmarks to fund a pie-in-the-sky public transportation line from Los Angeles to Las Vegas [Reid]
  
  
• Wall Street regulatory "reform" bill larded with $4 billion in payoffs to minority special interests -- including former failed Air America radio partner Inner City Broadcasting Corp run by Percy Sutton [Rangel and Sharpton and Frank]
  
  
• $12 million in TARP funds for OneUnited, a minority-owned bank that is one of her key campaign donors and a company in which both Maxine Waters and her husband own massive amounts of stock.[Waters]

Then she looks inside Santa's bag for all the goodies we just had to have before the Christmas recess.

• $300 million "Louisiana Purchase" [Landrieu]
  
  
• $45 million "Cornhusker Kickback" [Nelson]
  
  
• cash for cloture votes also included a Hospital Helper of $100 million [Dodd ]
  
  
• bennies for insurance companies and hospitals in Michigan
  
  
• "frontier freebies" for hospitals in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming
  
  
• New England's Special Syrup for Vermont and Massachusetts -- similar to Nebraska--$1.2 billion over 10 years. $10 billion to Vermont for “community health clinics”. [Sanders]
  
  ACORN/community organizer-friendly provision for minority health bureaucracies in Illinois [Burris]
  
  $10 billion socialized medicine sop to Vermont for "community health clinics" serving in essence as universal health care satellite offices. [Sanders]

HT Bill L.

Last minute shopping on the 24th

Today my husband was putting away the wrapping paper and ribbons when he found a gift card from last Christmas that had a receipt on it and it had been tossed into the sack. Beginning 1 year after purchase (12/24/08) a $2 monthly charge would go into affect. By this time I was a bit gooey from slathering the turkey and cooking the liver for the kitty (oh, she loves it), so I suggested he run up to Barnes and Noble (1/2 mile) and buy himself a book. He did that about 1:30 p.m., but when he got back, he wouldn't let me see what it was, so I suspect he didn't buy a gift for himself. This was really last minute shopping.

Google’s PageRank

I was using the command, "link:collectingmythoughts," and came across Who links to me site and it reported that my Google PageRank was 6. So I looked that up. It doesn’t get its name from “page,” as I thought, but the surname of one of the founders of Google, Larry Page. It‘s been patented and sold to Stanford University for stock worth many millions, but Google gets to use it. I glanced through the formula/algorithms, but I'm math challenged.

“PageRank is an independent measure of Google’s perception of the quality/authority/credibility of an individual web page. It does not depend on any particular search phrase. For the public (you and me), Google conveniently reports this as a number from 0-10 (10 being the best).”

Well, that’s nice, I guess. Six is better than five or four. Given all the webpages out there, it's nice to know I rank that high. Probably nicer if I were selling something. Anyway, if I ever ask you to be a guest blogger, don't mess up my ranking.

My solution for the health care dilemma

I haven't crunched the numbers, but just knowing how the government pads everything and costs go up everywhere when their sticky fingers go into the pie, I think my plan would not only be better, please everyone but would also be cheaper.

First, it would only be for U.S. citizens, native or naturalized.

Second, it would be clear and easy for anyone to understand; changes would have to fit into 10 pages or less.

Third, it would be the best health care found anywhere in the world based on the life expectancy and useful working years of a 40 year old.

Fourth, it would be completely portable and not dependent on an employer or a union.

Fifth, the federal government, not the states, would be responsible for the poor, and no pork would be allowed in determining those benefits, and children would need to be under age 18. The states, however, would have the task to getting the poor into the proper, competitive, market-driven program.

Sixth, Medicare is such a mess, I haven't figured that one out, because my generation has become accustomed to socialized medicine and don't want any claw backs. But then, neither has your esteemed and brilliant Congress. Whatever I come up with couldn't be worse than the current overpriced and easily scammed system.

So what is it?

The current health care system for federal employees.

"The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program can help you and your family meet your health care needs. Federal employees, retirees and their survivors enjoy the widest selection of health plans in the country. You can choose from among Consumer-Driven and High Deductible plans that offer catastrophic risk protection with higher deductibles, health savings/reimbursable accounts and lower premiums, or Fee-for-Service (FFS) plans, and their Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO), or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) if you live (or sometimes if you work) within the area serviced by the plan."

Just the choices and options and the number of companies providing the services would bring costs down drastically. If a federal worker moves from HHS to HUD, she doesn't lose her insurance--it's portable. If he's unmarried and has no risky behavior, why shouldn't he take a high deductible and save oodles? If she wants tattoo removal and lasix surgery, she'd be able to buy it with her health savings plan (that's going away under the new take over). If genetic testing shows there's a problem down the road, she'll have plenty of notice.

What's for Christmas dinner

Most of the food is ready. I dashed into Giant Eagle this morning--ran out of butter and milk of all things. Don't like that store, but it was close. I thought I'd beat the crowd since it was still dark. For our Christmas Eve dinner we're having roast turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, colorful green beans (with red peppers and white mushrooms, onions and bacon), carrots with a dab of honey and herbs, and my daughter is bringing a sugar free cherry pie with real whipped cream. Yes, I know it's not terribly original, but the left-overs are good. Church service is at 9 p.m. at Lytham Road. Then tomorrow we're serving communion at 10 a.m., so I'm serving two kinds of soup--broccoli and chili (already made and ready to be warmed up) with assorted spreads on bread and crackers, a few sweet sour meatballs, and probably some homemade applesauce if I have enough apples. I think we'll skip a rich dessert since none of us really need it. Only one member of the family lost weight in 2009, and the rest of us are enlarging our footprint and our sitprint.

I've had a real problem with my chili. For years, I made it with Brooks chili beans which has a nice sauce and flavoring. That was a tip from my mother-in-law 50 years ago--she never used anything else and always made fabulous chili. After 3-4 stores and not finding it, I bought another brand. The beans were pale, the sauce tasteless, so I've added a can of dark red kidney beans, and now it looks like something a new bride would make with the neighbors pitching in.

Now all I have to do is shift a little clutter and vacuum. I woke up about 1:30 thinking of everything I needed to do, but most of it I've forgotten. Oh well. I never have been a list maker.

Senator Brown responds

Just so we know. . . "there is continued debate related to provisions that would establish a public option, insurance reforms, tax credits, and an excise tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans. Additionally, the Senate continues its dialogue on Medicare issues, including provider payment rates, program eligibility, patient access, medical malpractice, and further improving Medicare benefits for the more than 44 million current enrollees."

In other words, they have no idea what they are voting for because no one can figure out the bill, nor have they read it. There's no bone here for pro-lifers, probably because he doesn't have my position on record (I think pro-lifers are being tricked into voting for Reid's bill and Pelosi's), but there is an oblique reference to tort reform, and lots of squishy phrases like "patient access" and "provider payment rates." All I asked was why he didn't get a huge bribe for Ohioans like Nebraska and Louisiana and caved so early in this game of the government buying up and running private industries.

Ornament for the White House tree

We've been hearing some stories about some of the odd and hyper-political ornaments on the White House Tree--like Obama's face on Mt. Rushmore, Mao Tse Tung and drag performer Hedda Lettuce. The left wing bloggers/journalists are criticizing the right for being upset (although they don't refer to themselves as left wing). Actually, Mao wouldn't be the first marxist at the White House. Last year the only ornament out of 370 submitted that was rejected was political. The artists was anti-everything, including life, and that's not particularly appropriate for a Bush Christmas tree. That the Obamas kept the highly political ornaments that pleased and agreed with them, reflects their tastes.

Too bad bloggers at both ends don't focus on some of the really great ornaments, like my friend Jeanie's, a local artist, retired teacher and member of my church. She created an ornament to reflect the history of the Ohio Theater in downtown Columbus.

"The tree on which Auseon's bulb hangs is one of several trees First Lady Michelle Obama asked artists nationwide to help decorate. Obama said she wanted as much input from the country as possible when it came to celebrating the holidays in the White House.

That meant recycling about 800 ornaments left over from previous administrations and sending them out to community groups nationwide for artists to decorate. . .

She artfully covered the orb in glittery red and green ribbon and rhinestones, mixing in pictures and facts about the theater's history in three days.

"It's very ornate," she said of the piece which incorporates decoupage vintage photo of the theater on the bulb's face and nearly a foot of hanging ribbon.

Looks aside, the bulb's design is meant to tell a story, Auseon said.

"I just hope that ... they might go up to look more closely at it and, as they look more closely, that the story might reveal itself and that they'll think, 'Hey that's really neat,' " she said." SNP News

From an archival viewpoint, I would have preferred that White House ornaments not be recycled, and I don't know how far back they went (at least the 8 years of the Bush administration) and I don't know if they are federal property or belong to whoever lives there. But it would seem a "blank" canvas ornament/bulb could have been sent to the artists rather than reusing the old ones.

Reid quotes his hero, the other King

After comparing Republicans to opponents of outlawing slavery during Civil War times (remember, that was the forerunners of the current Democrats, but let's ignore history) just days ago, Haughty Heartless Harry Reid now quotes peacemaker Dr. King Rodney King (badly) and asks if we can't all get along. Reid is probably the most contentious politician hiding behind the blandest personality and most unpleasant demeanor I can remember in my life time. Story at Gateway Pundit. He was one of the worst and most vicious of the Bush bashers, declaring the war in Iraq lost and giving comfort to the enemy. Who elects people like this?

The Democrats.
Constant in criticism, sniveling in surrender, but bold against the unborn and the elderly.

Today’s new word--dyad

A dyad consists of two. It’s two units treated as one; a couple, a pair. It comes from the Greek, dyas. I’ve never used this word. Have you? The context was academic, of course.

“The FAST team structures repetitive, positive interactions sequenced in dyads (parent to youth, parent to parent) and in small groups (the youth's family, peer groups for parents, peer groups for youth).” Huh?

Oddies and endies in e-mail

I'm always surprised that so many people in other countries have died and left me, little ol' me, bunches and baskets of money! Here's today's catch. Did you get one?

"On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the estate of Late Engineer Reinhard Hermann, I once again try to notify you as my earlier letter to you returned undelivered. I hereby attempt to reach you again by this same email address on the WILL. I wish to notify you that Late Engr. R. Hermann made you a Beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Seventeen Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($17,500.000.00 USD) to you in the codicil and last testament to his WILL. This may sound strange and unbelievable to you, but it is real and true. Being a widely traveled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were recommended to him by one of his numerous Friends abroad who wished you good."

The spelling and sentence structure is improving however, (must have out of work college students employed in these schemes) and this guy was UK not Nigeria, and an engineer, member of the Helicopter Society, and a philanthropist, not just a scumbag prince or potentate. Still, the capitalization of nouns doesn't look right. But maybe that's the UK way.

When Fed Ex called for our address yesterday I was hesitant. That's another scam going around, although that one usually comes via e-mail--a "delivery problem." But in that case, the insurance company had left out part of our street name, and since there are 15 or so streets around here with a similar name, and ours doesn't appaear on some maps because we are private, they couldn't find us.

One of the Christian groups to which I subscribe has apparently sold their mailing list--or maybe an organization went belly up and some other company got possession, because I've been receiving a really odd collection of end-times, money appeals, and book announcements in the past week or two. Groups I've never heard of and haven't visited their web sites. Although data mining is very sophisticated these days. I just hate to visit Amazon and then have the site tell me where I've been and what I looked at. It's just creepy. Like each click has a little RFID embedded. Since I visit Christian bloggers and many of them have ads, and you have to leave an e-mail address to comment, it's possible these companies found me that way.

But Helicopter Society? The UK philanthropist? Who falls for this?

Vote for Grande Conservative Diva Blogger

Gay Patriot is having a poll to vote for your favorite Conservative Diva--I'm not on the list--no one knows who I am, but Tammy Bruce is. Right now, Neoneocon is leading. She got my vote. But I just might vote again.

My note to Sherrod Brown

Ohio Senator--Democrat

"Why didn't you hold out for the bribe and corruption that Nebraska and Louisiana got? What exactly did you get for voting for this mess?"

Mindful meditation

Your child probably can’t sing Christmas carols at school this time of year, but you will find wide acceptance of Buddhism in classroom exercises, taught as “mindful meditation.” In the western way of thinking, if you’re not “doing” --reading scripture, praying, singing, volunteering--then you’re not technically practicing a religion. But in the eastern way, it’s the technique, not the teaching or the doing, that matters. You can "believe" anything you want. That’s because the godhead is inside, not outside, the body in that faith tradition. Therefore, lots of schools close their doors to our traditional religious practices--prayer, religious symbols in the classrooms, daily Bible readings, Bible stories of heroes, teaching creation, and songs--while welcoming warmly religions from other cultures with wide open arms if they can masquerade as something "healthy" like meditation, thought control for a good purpose, anxiety and stress control, and drug and alcohol reduction tools. It's ignorance of religious thought and teaching on the part of your school board and administration that allows this.

If you are a Christian, "man up" and object to your child being taught that god is within. That's a religion. It's not our religion, it's not our culture, and what's sauce for the Christian is sauce for the Buddhist, Hindu and Humanist. Don't let the word "meditation" fool you. In the Christian and Jewish traditions, that is mediation on God's word. It is content, not a blank mind stilled to allow anything in with the power of suggestion from the teacher or guru.

NYTimes

Meditation therapy

How to, from Shambhala Sun

Alcohol relapse prevention U. of Wisconsin

With children, academic studies

Mindful schools

Mindful techniques to use with children

Staples on a dollar and a head

I was looking for information on whether it is legal to staple a $20 bill to a letter and came across a story from Florida where a woman took her 8 year old to an ER for a small head wound caused by a pillow fight, and left with one staple over the wound and a bill for $1,654, of which $754 was covered by the family's insurance. Both the article and the readers' comments are mostly filled with the outrage over the cost of medical care for such a small accident. Duh! I wonder why?

It appears that few read it, or know anything about insurance, medical care or the costs of doing business--any business. Isn't it odd that other workers seem to want to be paid for their labor, to get their benefits paid by their employer, to receive unemployment and worker's comp, but doctors, nurses, lab techs, schedulers, and janitors in clinics should work for nothing or minimum wage? Isn't it strange that your landlord, electric company, gas and water utilities, gardeners, and street pavers all need to be paid and factored into your business costs, but not hospitals (she took him to the ER) or "doc in a box" clinics. And I found it odd that most people can grasp, when they get the bill, what 4 years of college costs, but are in la-la land about tacking on another 4-8 years of medical school to those costs. It appears from the article that no further testing was done to pad the costs (regardless of what Obama says about wrong foot amputation), so we can assume the doctor recognized from his training that a superficial head wound would bleed--a lot.

That ER where Mrs. Tobio took her child is also treating people who have no regular doctor, no insurance and no intention of ever paying. By law, it has to treat them too. So that cost is picked up by the people who do have insurance. And the doctor that stapled the wound has to carry malpractice insurance so that's factored into his costs--and no tort reform will be included in the current Senate or House bill because the lawyers have a powerful lobby. Also, in order to save costs, and they've already saved a bundle, the Tobios carry a very high deductible policy--$2500--choosing instead to cover the out of pocket expenses and pocket the savings. Some years they win, and some they don't. Even a few months of savings covered that $900 they had to pay. And their state regulates who they can buy from so that reduces competition and increases cost. That too isn't addressed in the current "reform."

When I was a kid, I was jumping on a bed like a trampoline and hit the ceiling cracking my head open. I don't remember if Mom took me to Dr. Dumont or not--there were puddles of blood everywhere so she probably did. Head wounds bleed like crazy. He probably used a needle and thread. I still have a bump and it's covered by my hair. But parents would not settle for that today. Childhood bumps have to have first class, non-scarring treatment. And no one had health insurance.

The reporter did her job--she got the scoop on what the real costs are behind that little staple in Ben Tobios head, but that's at the end. Most readers commenting, never got that far.

His staple paid for all the things the hospital does not, or cannot under current laws that regulate government programs such as Medicare, charge for, Sullivan said: bed sheets, plastic medical tubing, privacy drapes.

"Staples may be something we can charge for, so those things end up with what looks like a very high charge based on what the cost is," Sullivan said.

"At the same time," he added, "what drives the cost of health care is people get in a facility and they want the best doctors, the nice MRI machine that costs $1.5 million; they want the best of everything because we have very high expectations in a time of need, and there is a cost to that."

If I make coffee at home, it costs about ten cents a cup; if I go to Panera's it's about $1.80 plus my driving costs which includes auto insurance.