On e of my daughter’s favorite things to do is get on my computer and play with virtual paper doll. The kid would sit on my computer chair and play all day if I would let her.

Right now, I usually take her to the Cartoon Doll Emporium website. They have a lot of virtual dress up dolls based on characters she recognizes from TV and the movies. She found her way to the super dolls, which allow you to change backgrounds and elements by clicking through choices on a panel. Most of the dolls use drag & drop clothing. Very cool. I feel confident she can click around the site and not land on anything objectionable. She did click on an ad for the new Barbie Island Princess movie and insisted I buy it for her, but when I talked to her on the phone today she told me her father bought it for her. Yay! One less things she will bug me to buy.

She is almost old enough to be introduced to Webkinz. I don’t have the time to sit online with her and work with her on it, since I use her limited computer time for instances when I need to work quickly to get some dishes done or make an important business phone call. When we get online together, it is usually for a site like Starfall, which is a site designed to help kids learn to read.

Stardoll is another cool dress up doll site, but it acts more like a social networking community and Gigi is too young for that. I’ve got it bookmarked for future use. The Doll Palace also has dolls, but they do not hold my daughter’s attention as well. There is not enough of an interactive quality on the site and the tools you use to personalize things are more difficult.

Overall, though, my vote is for the Cartoon Doll Emporium.

I’m not sure why, but today I have been thinking about the move I made prior to the one last month. When we moved to Gainesville from Tampa, I was allowed to get three quotes from moving companies of my choosing and pick the one I wanted. The, corporate approved it and we were all set. I had a great experience with the movers that company sent out to do our packing an moving.

The move back to Tampa from Gainesville, however, was a entirely different story. Corporate told us who we had to use and that company contracted with some guy who owned his own rig and had his own team. As polite as they seemed, they gave us a lot of trouble. The packing went fine, and in the end nothing was broken. But, when we got here to Tampa and they needed to find a place to park the truck overnight they chose a spot, came back in the morning, and found the trailer had been towed. With no cash in hand, the guy who owned the rig could not get it out of impound, and we ended up paying. We wanted our stuff! Promises were made to pay us back, but you might guess that the money never materialized.

I remember thinking I was VERY glad we had not given into the pressure to sign the moving papers BEFORE the actual drive back down here. They truck owner was concerned about getting the papers into he moving company in time for his check to be issued before Christmas. We refused to sign until actual delivery and offered to just help him find an FedEx depot so he could overnight the papers. I’m not saying they would have taken off with our truck, but you never know.

Plus, it turns out they stole my wedding ring set. The moving company made it an issue of he says, she says and I never got compensated. As fate would have it, I did not end up needing my wedding ring much longer. Nonetheless, it would have been a fantastic thing to be able to hand down to my daughter.

How many horrific moving stories could you, my readers, tell? Moving is just plain stressful. I did not involve much outside help in my last move, but I still hired some guys with a truck to move me into storage back in August. They were prompt and clean and polite, but the expense was kind of a shock.

If you have the time and the ability to do so, please go to the trouble of getting at least three quotes before choosing your movers. There are so many moving companies and they differ in reputation and pricing, among other things. If you have no idea where to begin, Home.bulletin.net has a free toll that allows you to get quotes from local and interstate moving companies.

I think I’ve mentioned Skype a few times in the past. Today my paternal grandmother made a trip out my aunt and uncle’s house so she could check out the whole talking with video thing. For her it was nothing short of miraculous. For me, it’s the most wonderful feeling to know I can see and hear my grandmother a lot more now. She is in her mid-80s and I only get up there about once a year. Seeing her face-to-face is good for the heart. Plus, Gigi loves her great-grandmother and this is a wonderful way for her to keep building new memories.

I was fortunate to have had one full set of great-grandparents around until I was about 12. My last great-grandparent died when I was 24. That was a massive blessing – having a great-grandmother only 60 years older than me. I was the firstborn of a firstborn of a firstborn, so I had the benefit of having most of my grandparents be on the younger side when I was born.

By the time Gigi is old enough to think about marriage and kids, I will be, well….. older. I’m pretty sure great-grandchildren are out of the question for me. Oddly, I’m not sad about it. I just hope this old world is a good enough place for my daughter that she will even want to have children. With each generation, we have a different world, so to speak.

All this work I have been doing in the yard, and all the while I have been wearing an old pair of Birkenstocks! I never did unpack all of my shoes after the move, so I dug holes and planted trees and toted mulch all in my sandals. I’m sure I could accomplished everything much quicker, and with less foot pain, if I had just been wearing a pair of Danner boots, or anything at all more suitable to heavy work. I need to see if I kept my old boots when I was packing, or go out and buy something sturdy for working in the yard.

Nonetheless, I love putting new things in the yard. I am going to slowly get a rose garden going out behind the kitchen.. Once I know the roses are doing well, I will add some herbs. There are some earth boxes on the back porch and tomorrow I am going to put out tomatoes.

It is still so odd to me to be able to get out in the yard in September and plant vegetables and herbs. We still have a good deal of time ahead of us here in the Tampa Bay area for growing and gardening. In fact, we usually only have two weeks to a month of cold weather.

In the wake of the whole “Leave Britney Alone” laugh-fiesta on YouTube and other media outlets, Chris Crocker thinks he can parlay his time in the public eye into stardom.

Here is why I think he is genuinely deceived. To maintain any semblance of a real career in show business, people have to like to watch you. When you are simply a laughing-stock parody of a human, like Crocker, the public simply uses you as a butt for catch-all jokes and quickly moves along to the next absolute fool on the media radar.

It’s true that America as a whole is not comfortable with people who are openly gay, but many people are beginning to find ways to peacefully live along side those who are different. Crocker, though, is more than a squeaky wheel. He is so in-your-face that most of the viewing audience would probably be so creeped-out by his demeanor that they would refuse to back him. Without the support of the viewers, you can only go so far on the journey to fame.

I, for one, just want to see the spoiled little boy fade away and stop clogging up valuable headline space that we need for more important issues. What a waste.

I am all agog at the world of social networking. I’ve been using forums and bulletin boards since the early days of the internet. Well, at least since 1995. That’s pretty early. Social networking kid of grew out of that online community concept. You set up a profile at one site or another and go form there, getting in contact with friends and new friends, sharing interests, joining sub-groups and basically just socializing. In more recent days, businesses and artists (like musicians) are really jumping on the social networking things an s turning the whole thing into professional networking. That’s cool with me.

My fascination, though, lies in all of the smaller, more specific social networks that are springing up all over the blogosphere. Instead of finding a smaller group in the middle of a catch-all social network, like MySpace or Facebook, internet users are clamoring for smaller networks that cater to specific topics and interests. One of those new communities is Horsemanship Journal. It is specifically aimed at women who love horses.

We all know that most little girls love all things equine. I sure did. I could not get my parents to agree to send me to riding lessons, so I just hung out while my friends Jennifer and Dawn rode. I would wander the grounds and loved to visit this young horse named Little Flight. He was boarded there where my friends rode.

The Horsemanship Journal lets you set up a profile, post photos (of both yourself and your horses), contact other members, and keep a journal that other members can read. It’s owned by Ginger Bevan, who is also a horse lover. Ginger practices Parelli Natural Horsemanship and encourages members of varying interests and practicing various disciplines. The common thread is that all members are women who love horses.

The community is new and constantly integrating improvements. If you love horses, you should go ahead and join now, while the site is new and growing.

I’m heading out in a few minutes to gather another bucket of ripe star fruit for juicing and it make me realize that it is time for another Star Fruit recipe. Here is a Florida-style way to use the star fruit

1 stick butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon molasses
1 egg
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup quick oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup chopped star fruit (carambola)
1/4 cup flaked coconut
1 Tablespoon grated orange peel
12 slices star fruit
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add molasses and eggs; beat until well blended.

In medium bowl, combine flours, oats, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir flour mixture into butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in chopped star fruit, coconut, and orange peel.

Divide batter into 12 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Top each cup with one star fruit slice.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and spring back when pressed lightly. Cool on rack 5 minutes; remove from pan and dust with powdered sugar.

Have you ever gone into an office, store, or hotel to ask for directions and suddenly realized the woman behind the reception desk doesn’t even speak English. OK. Let me ask that another way. Have you ever walked into a place right here in the United States to ask for directions and absolutely been unable to even find anyone who speaks English? I thought I was in the Twilight Zone this evening. That’s all I’m saying.