Although we really should be thankful for all we have year ’round, on Thanksgiving (the one just celebrated here in America or one of the others celebrated around the world throughout the year, we pay a bit closer attention to all of this.

I have so much to be thankful for, this was an especially exciting year to celebrate.  I have a good job, something far too many people cannot say.  I enjoy what I’m doing at that job, something WAY too many people cannot say.  I am working toward my doctoral degree and enjoying it immensely.  I have a brand new home that I love dearly and that passed an amazing test yesterday by helping me successfully host 20 people for dinner (thanks to the kindness of several others who did the cooking, considering I burn water).  But most importantly, I’m surrounded by the most incredible people, my friends, and my family.

I am especially thankful for my parents.  My dad passed away nearly two years ago, and I miss him so much every day.  He is still such an important part of my life and he always will be.  My mom, as anyone who knows her will attest, is the most amazing person I have every met.  She is such an important part of my being able to have the strength to do the things I do.  I am so blessed.

It is not hard to find the joy in our heart when we think of these things we have to be thankful for – it is keeping that feeling within us throughout the other 364 days a year.  My one wish might be that we all find the most joyful moment and feel that as often as possible.

Over the last year I’ve friended a lot of people I knew in high school.  Nearly all of these people I’ve not seen or spoken to since 1981.  If you’re counting, it’ll be 30 years next year.  Thanks to the power of Facebook, I’ve been back in touch with a few.  Someone I’ve been more actively “Facebooking” with posted this to her status.  She had some wonderful responses, to which I tried to contribute my small part.

I liked the idea so much I did the same thing on my own status, with attribution of course.  I’ve only just posted this a few minutes ago, so I don’t have any responses, but I’m sure I will get a few and I’m guessing they will be very moving.  I will post what I contributed in the comments section of this blog.  If you feel so inclined, I encourage you to share with the collective wisdom.  For me this is not a war cry, it is a plea for peace for those we’ve lost.

Many years ago my father’s mother bought this sleeper sofa.  I remember this sofa from their apartment. When my grandmother moved from that apartment (at the age of an amazing 91!) she got rid of most of the furniture and somehow this sleeper sofa ended up with me.

It has served its purpose for these many years but now it is time for me to part with it.

It is not in the best shape, but it could still act as a sofa or sleeper in the right location.  One of the back legs comes off when you move the unit, but how often do you move a sofa?  Also, the original fabric is tacky, first of all, but also old and threadbare, as you can see here.  But if covered properly, it would be more than suitable.  Even if you toss a blanket over it, as I have, it works.

The cost for this wonderful addition to any extra space?  The time it takes to drive to me and pick it up.  If you can think of someone who might be able to use this, let me know – otherwise it’s either Good Will or the curb

I have an opportunity to buy a 20″ iMac, this is what it has, I’m wondering what you all think its worth.

• 20-inch viewable widescreen
• 2.4 GHx Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• 6MB shared L2 cache
• 1 GB of SDRAM
• 250 GB seriel ATA hard drive
• Side-loading superdrive
• ATI Radion 2400 graphics processor with 128MB of memory
• 1 firewire 800
• 1 firewire 400
• 3 USB ports
• plus some other stuff that’s probably not consequential

My friend Stephanie sent this along via email, so I thought I’d share in my blog as some of them (if true) seem really handy.  Feel free to share if you’ve tried any of these and/or if they are urban myths.

• A sealed envelope – Put in the freezer for a few hours, then slide a knife under the flap. The envelope can then be resealed (hmmmmmm…)
• Use Empty toilet paper roll to store appliance cords. It keeps them neat  and  you can write on the roll what appliance it belongs to.
• For icy door steps in freezing temperatures: get warm water and put Dawn dish washing liquid in it. Pour it all over the steps. They won’t refreeze.   (wish I had known this for the last 40 years!)
• To remove old wax from a glass candle holder, put it in the freezer for a few hours. Then take the candle holder out and turn it upside down. The wax  will  fall out.
• Crayon marks on walls? This worked wonderfully! A damp rag, dipped in baking  soda. Comes off with little effort (elbow grease that is!)..
• Permanent marker on appliances/counter tops (like store receipt BLUE!) rubbing alcohol on paper towel.
• Whenever I purchase a box of S..O.S Pads, I immediately take a pair of scissors and cut each pad into halves. After years of having to throw away rusted and unused and smelly pads, I finally decided that this would be  much  more economical. Now a box of S.O.S  pads last me indefinitely! In fact, I  have noticed that the scissors get ‘sharpened” this way!
• Blood stains on clothes? Not to worry!  Just pour a little hydrogen peroxide on a cloth and proceed to wipe off every drop of blood.   Works every time!  (Now, where to put the body?)    LOL
• Use vertical strokes when washing windows outside and horizontal for  inside  windows. This way you can tell which side has the streaks. Straight vinegar  will get outside windows really clean.  Don’t wash windows on a sunny day.  They will dry too quickly and will probably streak.
  
• Spray a bit of perfume on the light bulb in any room to create a lovely light scent in each room when the light  is turned on. Before you spray though – make sure the light is not turned on or hot – otherwise the bulb may crack.
• Place fabric softener sheets in dresser drawers and your clothes will smell freshly washed for weeks to come. You can also do this with towels and linen.
• Candles will last a lot longer if placed in the freezer for at least  3 hours prior to burning.
• To clean artificial flowers, pour some salt into a paper bag and add the flowers. Shake vigorously as the salt will absorb all the dust and dirt and leave your artificial flowers looking like new! Works like a charm!
• To easily remove burnt on food from your skillet, simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover bottom of pan, and bring to a boil on stove top.
• Spray your TUPPERWARE with nonstick cooking spray before pouring in  tomato based sauces and there won’t be any stains.
• Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.
• When boiling corn on the cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring out the corn’s natural sweetness
• Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half, and rub it on your forehead.   The throbbing will go away.
• Don’t throw out all that leftover wine: Freeze into ice cubes for  future use  in casseroles and sauces ………  Left over wine? What’s that?
• To get rid of itch from mosquito bites, try applying soap on the area and  you will experience instant relief.
• Ants, ants, ants everywhere .. Well, they are said to never cross a chalk line. So, get your chalk out and draw a line on the floor or wherever ants tend to march. See for yourself.
• Use air-freshener to clean mirrors. It does a good job and better still, leaves a lovely smell to the shine.
• When you get a splinter, reach for the scotch tape before resorting to tweezers or a needle. Simply put the scotch tape over the splinter, and then  pull it off. Scotch tape removes most splinters painlessly and easily.

Now look what you can do with Alka Seltzer

• Clean a toilet. Drop in two Alka Seltzer tablets, wait twenty minutes, brush and flush. The citric acid and effervescent action clean vitreous China .
• Clean a vase. To remove a stain from the bottom of a glass vase or cruet, fill with water and drop in two Alka Seltzer tablets.
• Polish jewelry. Drop two Alka Seltzer tablets into a glass of water and immerse the jewelry  for two minutes.
• Clean a thermos bottle. Fill the bottle with water, drop in four Alka Seltzer tablets, and let soak for an hour  (or longer, if necessary).
• Unclog a drain. Clear the sink drain by dropping three Alka Seltzer tablets down the drain  followed by a cup of  Heinz White Vinegar.. Wait a few minutes, and then run the hot water.

Haiti is the poorest country in the region.  At about 5pm on January 12th a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit very near the capital city.  You can only imagine the devastation.  Only this morning, as the sun comes up, can a real assessment begin but the outlook is not good.  Many people have died.  Many people are without their homes.  It doesn’t matter how shanty one’s home it, it is still home.  Food will become a problem.  Water will become a problem.  Electricity will become a problem.  Relief will become a problem.  Yes, many are motivating to do something about it, but there is something we all can do.

While watching American Morning on CNN this morning I saw that you can text the word HAITI to 90999 and $10 will be donated to the International Red Cross, billed directly to your cell phone.  I did this immediately.  $10 is so little to most of us, but will mean so much to them.

Please PLEASE use your cell phone right now.  Open your text messages and send the word HAITI to 90999.

To those in my Twitter social network, I’m adding an incentive.  If you tweet the message below, within the next 24 hours, I will match the $10 donation via a text message to the Red Cross.  Here are the restrictions.

1. You must make the donation yourself
2. You must send the tweet exactly as written below
3. You must be following me AND I must be following you back
4. You must do this by 9:00am Eastern Time on January 14th.  Why is this important?  Because they need the money NOW!  The first few days are always critical.
5. Only 1 match per person in my Twitter social network, although I encourage you to donate as often as you can.

The text of the tweet must appear as follows:

#haiti needs your help. Donate $10 by texting the word HAITI to 90999. I did. Make a difference RIGHT NOW! Pls RT #ajk

I am a Mac person.  I’ve not owned my own PC for a long time, I’ve not worked on PCs for a long time, I do have a NetBook but I use it only for school and really don’t need to do much with or to it.

My mom, on the other hand, has a PC at her house – where I am visiting for the holiday.  For some time she has been unable to print to her USB printer.

She is using an eMachines running Vista home and trying to connect to an HP Deskjet F4135.  Any  additional information can be provided on request.

Nothing will print to the printer – it just sits in the queue as pending.

The system will not allow a print job to be deleted or stopped once its in the queue.

The system will not allow the printer to be uninstalled – it goes through the steps to uninstall, but nothing happens.

Both the print queue and the printer menu end up showing “not responding” in task manager

All Windows updates have been added.

The system will not allow an HP update.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Here is it, about 24 hours after being released from Mountainside Hospital.  I reread my previous blog and did want to clear one thing up.

I was scheduled to travel today, returning on Tuesday.  I mention in the blog that the doctors said I could travel if I felt up to it; however, this is not to say they were suggesting it OR that I was going to do it.

As much as I was really looking forward to this short trip to Salt Lake City, I am not making the trip.  Right now, rest is the order of the day.  I’m guessing, rest will be the order of the day for a few days – plus, some changes in lifestyle.  These are changes we should all be thinking about – eating right, exercising, and stressing less.

Someone in my network hit the nail on the head.  We are very good at looking out for others, and being concerned, but we often overlook the important things for ourselves.  Perhaps if more of us looked after ourselves the same way we look after those around us that we love, we might not have to worry about the health care system quite so much (or so often).