When I was growing up in the suburbs of Washington, DC my family did a lot of camping, fishing, hiking and general outdoorsy stuff. The Northern Virginia area on down into the Blue Ridge Parkway region is absolutely lovely any time of year and you’d be a fool not to take advantage of the activities afforded to you.

We did a lot of shopping at one particular chain of outdoor gear stores. The chain is facing a lot of trouble, as I hear it, and closing locations in the DC area. I’m in Florida now anyway, and the specialty stores in the area cater more to the outdoor activities one would engage in here…, so not much in the way of super warm jackets or sleeping bags.

My dad has a place he built on the banks of the Shenandoah River and my best bet when I am buying him gifts is still to buy outdoor gear. Thankfully, I can order things like North Face jackets and gloves online at retailers such as Rocky Mountain Trail. They carry absolutely everything someone who enjoys the outdoors would needs, and the best part is that since they are located in Colorado they understand the gear you need in cold weather.

People Magazine has named Matt Damon “sexiest man alive” for 2007.

Are you kidding me? Seriously, the man has a giant head with tiny features all crowded together in the middle of his face. It’s not attractive.

He is 37 and I will admit I find it comforting that the honor went to man NOT in his 20s. Maybe the editors are bestowing the honor based on Damon’s body of work or for his willingness to marry a woman with a child. Maybe it is because he is seasoned and had matured a bit. Who know? It certainly cannot be based on his looks.

I know I have said this before, but I want to say it again: I love my Dyson.

I went through a vacuum cleaner every year or so in the past. Motors would burn out, parts would become clogged, or the unit would stop picking things up as well after a while. Finally, back in 2003 I bit the bullet and bought the basic Dyson model. I have never, ever looked back! It is worth every penny ten times over. There is no reason to pay half the cost for a machine you will just have to replace in a year.

The first time I ran the vacuum over my carpets, I pulled out dust that must have been there for years. I had no idea my past vacuums had been doing such a poor job of picking up the fine dust. Purchasing my Dyson was by far the most satisfying appliance buy I have made in my entire life. I’ve even had friends come over and want to look at the Dyson. They usually end up sweeping the floors for me while they are at it. That’s kind of handy.

You can get to every inch of the internal workings of a Dyson. There are well-marked places all along the joints where you can easily remove covers and sections to get at clogs or the stray lipstick you might happen to suck into the machine. That happened to me when I was vacuuming out my van the other week. I was cleaning under the seats and sucked up two lipsticks. I noticed a loss of suction, took apart one of the sections and easily removed both lipstick tubes – all within about a minute.

Now, I bought my Dyson at a local retail store, but I paid what amounted to the suggested retail price. You can absolutely get better deals if you look around online. 1AwsomeVac carries the full line of cheap Dyson vacuums, including the Dyson Animal and the new DC17 Animal vacuums. My mother has the Animal model and I love the attachments that came with it. I borrow it when I want to clean under the beds. I don’t have to move the beds to do a full vacuum job when I use the Animal’s attachments. Yay for my back!

All too often I hear a news story about a local politician or judge who makes a decision or touts a bill that the constituents overwhelmingly do not support. Although this is supposed to be a country based on government by the people by way of direct representation, we often find ourselves feeling powerless to communicate with lawmakers who are not listening to those who elected them.

I’m impressed that loud voices and national attention finally swayed New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to back away from his drive to allow undocumented immigrants to get legal driver’s licenses.

Critics of the plan pointed out that there are many issues at hand, most importantly the possibility of voter fraud.

I know that in Florida, all anyone would need in order to be allowed through the polls is a driver’s license. If an illegal immigrant obtained a license in New York, they could move nearly anywhere and exchange their NY license for one in another state and the paper trail would become so convoluted that

I am concerned about the voter fraud as well, but I see this as a much more basic issue. If someone has entered our country via illegal venues, there is no way in the world we should offer them recognition in the way of an official driver’s license. All it does is give them a sense of acceptance and justification. Why would we want to give criminals acceptance?

Spitzer cites his desire to make New York safer as one of his reasons for devising the plan. He wants to give law enforcement a way to track the illegals, as well as a way to open the doors for them to buy car insurance.

I say, just tell them to go home and drive. They can come back to the United States once they have figured out a way to pass through our borders in a legal way. At that point I am all for giving them all of the opportunities they want. I am not against immigration. I AM against illegal immigration.

When you feel strongly about ANY issue, please please please contact your local representative. Call your mayor, your governor, your city council member, your Senator, your Representatives. Make your voice known. Even the most self-serving of politicians have been known to fold under overwhelming public pressure.