GoodSearch.com will do your web surfing heart good

I usually use Google as my search engine when I do online lookups, just out of habit. But I just found out that if you use www.goodsearch.com , you can raise money for your favorite charities simply by doing your normal web-search. Do only your normal web-searches, however, because fraudulent use of the search can cause a charity to be removed from their listings, and that would be a bad thing!

But give it a shot... the website again is www.GoodSearch.com - and if you can't think of a charity, type in Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (Michael J. Fox will be enough to bring up the listing.) That website ( www.MichaelJFox.org ) is where I read about Good Search, and it's an excellent site for information on Parkinson's Disease.

Toys R Us BIG SATURDAY SALE Today Only

Saturday 11/24/2007 only. These are some great deals! Also we get free shipping with purchase $49 and up.

50% Off BRATZ Adjustable Quad Skates at ToysRUs.com

Save $50 STEP 2 Neat & Tidy Cottage at ToysRUs.com

Save $40 FIRST ACT Electric Guitar Pack at ToysRUs.com

50% Off NEW BRIGHT 1:14 Scale RC Hummer H3 or Chevy Silverado at ToysRUs.com

Save $30 HOME DEPOT 2-in-1 Deluxe Workshop at ToysRUs.com

IMAGINARIUM Arch Train Table at ToysRUs.com

FREE Transportation Train Set When you buy the Imaginarium Arch Train Table at ToysRUs.com

Save $30 LEAP FROG Learn Around Playground at ToysRUs.com

Mad Science Dinosaur Curator Set at ToysRUs.com

40% Off STEP 2 Scribble Center at ToysRUs.com

Save $15 MEGA BLOKS Dora Gardening Bucket at ToysRUs.com

50% Off Dance Styles Studio at ToysRUs.com

50% Off BRATZ Gold Medal Gymnastics Dolls at ToysRUs.com

Over 60% Off Dream Life Game at ToysRUs.com

33% Off VTECH Learning Laptop at ToysRUs.com

Free interactive and collaborative greetings

I have just become aware of a new site called Tribbit. The best way I can explain what it is is to say that it's like a collaborative, interactive greeting card. The site is free to use.

It's an online interactive card that allows you to celebrate and recognize special people and events. You can set up the basic page to honor people (for birthday, anniversary, wedding, new baby, retirement, etc) and then you invite other people who know that person to come to the page and add their thoughts, pictures, poems, stories, even voice files!

You give everyone a certain time to add their input to the page. Then, you send the page link off to the lucky recipient. It must be very touching to receive a Tribbit page - just knowing that everyone worked together to honor you would be very special! You can also use it for memorial tributes. The website has all kinds of ideas for uses. You can even set up a Thanksgiving page.

(singing in Opera Man voice) "Frrreee free free-eeeeeeEEE!"
Methinks Opera Man like!

Kid talk

It was time to take my 4 year old son to Pre-K. We were actually early so there was no rush. I said, "well, are you ready to mosey?" My son replied with a serious face, "No, I don't have time for that, Mommy. I need to go to school!"

Art Calendar Magazine

I recently discovered a magazine called Art Calendar. At first glance I thought it would be boring, because of the word 'calendar' in the title. I couldn't have been more wrong! This magazine has so many great ideas and tips for the business of art. The Calendar part comes in at the back of the magazine, where there are listings of publishing opportunities for artists, grants for artists, juried competitions and more. Only free festivals and competitions are listed in the calendar - the rest have to be listed in the ads section...so it saves a lot of time for the reader/artist.

As we all know, the magazine stands usually have plenty of magazines for how to create art, but seldom do we find anything for the business of art. The magazine has a cover price of $5, but if you can find a copy in your area, there is a subscription card inside that offers a discount.

Check out the Art Calendar magazine website at http://www.artcalendar.com

Darla
http://www.pencil-portrait-drawing-artist.com

How do you feel about Fruitcake?

Ask someone how they feel about fruitcake, and you'll likely get a pretty definite answer from them as to whether they love it or hate it. There's usually no middle ground on their opinion.

For me, it depends on who makes the fruitcake.

Here in Georgia, we have a company called Claxton Fruitcake Company. (It's sort of a point-of-pride that we have a company that makes fruitcakes.) Laugh all you want, but that's the way it seems to be. I'm not a big fan of fruitcakes, but I might buy this one, just because it's from Georgia. It's not my favorite fruitcake though - the Claxton Fruitcakes are rectangular ('just right for a doorstop'...oh my gosh what a terrible thing to say!) They run about $18.

When and if I eat fruitcake, I like the ones from Collin Street Bakery of Corsicana, Texas.
It's sort of a family tradition, because Grandma Anderson used to send them every year. After she passed away, my mother started sending them.

Collin Street Bakery has been making their DeLuxe Fruitcake since 1896, never veering from their original recipe. Why mess with a good thing?
If fruitcake isn't your thing, they have all kinds of other cakes - pecan cake, apple cinnamon pecan cake, pineapple pecan cake, etc. The DuLuxe Fruitcake is about $22 and comes in a beautiful round decorated tin. One of my favorite things about it is that the cake part is just delicious, and the pecans are never bitter. It makes a gorgeous presentation but I still can't get my kids to eat it (picky)

A little Georgia trivia for you, we pronounce pecan as "pea-CAN"... up North, it's often pronounced "p'cawn," but I think in Texas, it's a combination of the Northern and the Southern and comes out as "pea-cawn"

Oops - I went off on a tangent there.

Here's more information about fruitcakes, the tradition and origin of fruitcakes, from Merry-Christmas.com:

"Like many Christmas traditions, the idea of giving fruitcakes as gifts is thought to have originated in ancient times. No one ever recorded who took the first cake and added fruit, honey, nuts, and alcohol to make an edible gift for their family, but records indicate that this tradition was occurring in Rome prior to the birth of Jesus (B.C.).

One of the main reasons fruitcakes were given as gifts in early times is that the ingredients combined in such a way as to greatly reduce the spoiling of this food. This was a huge advantage when the average family had very little control over their food supply, and allowed people to travel longer distances since they could carry a food supply with them that would not spoil.

The fruitcake as we know it today evolved from plum cake recipes in England. It became a natural food to have for holiday celebrations, since it could be made in advance (sometimes many months in advance) and then families could be prepared to give their visitors a treat."

95 year old blogger making history

I just read about this lady who is 95 years old, and she's quite the blogger. She's turned into a cyber celebrity! This interview is so nice: LINK

....and due to the publicity, check out her blog visitor map! I have never seen a map like this so filled up! LINK

We hear a lot of stories about how harmful the Internet is, and I know it can be - but this shows how it can ease isolation and bring people of all ages closer together.

My artwork appearing in new book from Schiffer Publishing

I received word yesterday from Renee Mallett, an author, that at least one - but perhaps two of my artworks appear in a new book called Fairies, Mermaids, and Other Mystical Creatures (Schiffer Publishing) ... click the book title and you can see the book on Schiffer Publishing's website.

I was very excited to submit work for this book, because I know Schiffer Publishing from my days working for Waldenbooks and I know they only make very high quality books. Schiffer is mainly known for their military history books.

If you want to order or pick up a copy in your local bookstore, then an easy way to order is to use this ISBN 9780764328039 ... that's all you need usually. They can look up the book by that number. When it is available from more sources, I'll link it here.

Fall Out Boy Concert

My twin daughters turn 14 near the end of this month, so last night I took them, along with one of their friends, to the Fall Out Boy concert at the Gwinnett Arena for a birthday celebration.

Opening acts were the Plain White T's and rap group Gym Class Heroes (they're the ones who have the song called Cupid's Chokehold, that samples Supertramp's Breakfast in America. Original and still best, in my opinion.

I had never been to the Gwinnett Arena before. They were very efficient and it's a nice place. Clean bathrooms. I should know, I was in them twice LOL....I would definitely go to the Gwinnett Arena for a concert again.

I think the last time I went to a rock concert was in about 1986...it was Sting, in Savannah GA...and I think it was the Dream of the Blue Turtles tour.

A lot has changed since then...the security level first of all - the Fall Out Boy concert involved metal detector wand and bag searches. No chain jewelry, no chains connected to your key rings, no large purses, no food, and of course - no drugs, no alcohol, no guns.

As I had my bag checked, one of the security guys asked me, "how did you end up here? Did you lose a bet or something?!?"

Another thing that has changed is nobody waves their lighter in the air anymore - they wave their cell phones. It's a lot safer than the lighters and can look just as cool, but that was a little strange to see.

FOB (Fall Out Boy) also invited people to post a text message to them to be 'crawled' across the two sidescreens. The messages ranged from the typical "FOB Pete Wentz will you marry me?" to "Kristal I don't love you David" (some punctuation would be helpful in some of the messages!) One message that had everyone laughing was "Meredith, I love you. Meet me under the stage in 10 minutes. j"

As I watched the Plain White T's and Gym Class Heroes, I thought to myself how the stage production hasn't really changed that much. I really thought it would have advanced a LOT since my last concert...but it seemed not very advanced or different.

But when Fall Out Boy came out, it was a whole different thing. Torches in the back of the stage blasted so fast and tall that we could feel the heat from it all the way in our seats in the mid-level, section 119. They shot off gunpowder...and each song had lighting in different colors. One time in rainbow colors that went over the crowd at ground level. I saw at least 4 people get carried off from being overcome in the crowd down there. Three of those people had trouble right after the crush of excitement when Fall Out Boy came on the stage.

I looked over at my daughters and their friend, and they looked just like the films you've seen of the Beatles when they first came to America and the girls went wild. They were all screaming their heads off at a high pitch and my daughter was pulling at her hair on each side. No kidding, it looked like Beatlemania!

If you are over 40 like me, or sensitive to noise, I recommend you take some earplugs though...it was all very loud! But in the end, it was the kids who wanted to leave early!

A major negative of the concert from a mom's point of view is, all of the band front men liked to use the "F-word" a lot. After it was used in the most insignificant way possible for the 20 thousandth time, I realized that they were just doing that because it shocks the parents and if it shocks the parents, the kids really love it. So I stopped being shocked and just smirked at how stupid that was. I still didn't like it though.

Oh yes, and my daughter just came in here and I told her I was blogging about the Fall Out Boy concert, and it is of earth shattering importance to her that I tell y'all that Pete Wentz's ankle is broken. Ok so there I told you.