I joined my local Freecyle group just after my daughter was born, so it has been going on 5 years now. I actually moderate several groups and used to volunteer as a group mentor, but when I was in school last year I id not have the time to do that anymore.

If you have not heard about Freecycle, here is a short explanation. It is a concept where you offer things you have around the house you might otherwise throw in the trash. Others do the same. Someone else who can use the item contacts you and you make arrangements to hand off said item.

When I moved the last two times I gave away hundreds of things such as Christmas trees, glassware, baby clothes, a bassinette, changing table, crib, toys, books, packing boxes, and the list goes on. I have also received a lot of great things from my local Freecyle group. A wooden rocking horse my daughter still loves come to mind, as well as one of my Maltese dogs. Plus, thanks to Freecycle members, I have actually had to buy very little in the way of clothing for Gigi in the last couple of years.

I see anything you can think of change hands on the mailing list. In the last hour alone I saw used cisco routers, glass door knobs, a massage table, and toys being offered on the list. And, there always seems to be someone who can use the items. As you move things around this Christmas, take a look and see what you might want to give away. Maybe your children got new toys and there is no room for the old ones. Perhaps your mom gave you a new microwave and the old one is going to sit unused.

Check out Freecycle.org to find your closest group.

My house is on the market. I cannot stress enough that this is not a good time to have to sell a house, but then the real estate industry took a nosedive exactly one month after we purchased our massive Albatross here in Florida and has not corrected in the least since. We have put off listing it for almost two years now, but I just cannot stand co-owning this house with my ex and have insisted that he comply with the court order and put it on the market this month.

My ex chose an agent that lives in the same neighborhood, which seemed like a good idea at first since she knows the area and the particular charms of our community. But, she is unwavering on her commission and I have not been happy with her repeated insistence that we do bits of work on the house here and there before she will even list it. Our house is stunning and relatively new. Keep in mind that her boyfriend is a handyman and thus far has procured a boatload of work out of our house, mostly because my ex is a sucker.

I am urging him to look for a new agent.

I plugged our zip code into the ePERKS.com website and came up with a real estate agent who says he offers 15.5% cash back. Essentially, he is offering a percentage of his commission back at closing. While browsing through agent listings in other areas, I saw people offering even higher percentages and even perks like cruise tickets and flight tickets.

ePERKS also has a section that lists car dealers and home improvement providers, also offering perks to incite you to choose their services.

The girl cannot seem to catch a break. Our local lush is still in the slammer after her drunken romps around town that finally ended in a squad car where she offered a cop a blow job and then promptly hurled all over the back of the car. Classy chick, huh?

Anyway, her hearing that was scheduled for today was recently moved to January, which means she will pass Christmas while still behind bars.

On the tail of her arrest came the announcement that a hardcore sex tape featuring the American Idol finalist has surfaced and will be released by Vivid Entertainment on January 30. A teaser video is actually available online now that shows her driving her car while talking about sex, flashing a breast, in the bathtub, taking a shower, having sex with a man believed to be her boyfriend at the time, and commenting on other American Idol Season Four contestants.

The latest in a line of horrific luck on Sierra’s part is the tidbit that she is allegedly pregnant with the child of a smalltime rap artist. Reports say that Sierra has been placed on a “pregnancy diet” at Tampa’s Falkenburg Road Jail.

For a girl behind bars, she is doing a great job of staying in the public spotlight. If you believe the old adage that no publicity is bad publicity, then Sierra has big things in her future. Merry Christmas, Jessica. I hope the prison turkey and stuffing is tastey.

My daughter’s school has a fun tradition. On the last day of classes before the Christmas break, all of the kids come to school in their pajamas. The day is filled with games and parties. Actually, they still have chapel first thing, since it is Friday, but after that – games and parties. Each class has the chance to go to the gym and sit sipping hot cocoa while the Pastor reads Christmas stories for them.

I cannot even describe accurately how cute it was to see 18 pre-schoolers rolling around on the floor of their classroom this morning when I dropped off Gigi. It was sort of like a warm pile of puppies. I had briefly considered bringing my camera with me when I left the house this morning and sure wish I had listened to my initial instinct.

I’m not a fan of “The Secret”, but I am happy that we are finally at a place in our society where a way of thinking that emphasizes the power of thought and intention is a popular notice. I have always thought that you bring things to you in by the way you think, by what you expect to happen, and by your intensions. Does bad luck seem to follow you around? You are inviting it. Same goes for many of the blessings in your life. I’ve seen my own mother shift the way she thinks and bring healing to her own life. It’s mind over matter in its purest essence.

The “One Minute Shift” features on the website for the Institute of Noetic Sciences give you messages of wisdom and thoughts on our higher awareness, all in a one-minute format that anyone can fit into even the busiest daily schedule. They feed the thirst so many of us have to explore the power of thought and how our inner consciousness relates to the world around us. How does science meet spirituality?

Shift In Action is a program that offers an entire library of media like the video I am including in this post. The site explores alternative thought and the very real power of our minds and intensions.

I’m ashamed of the fact that so many teachers here in Florida seem to be making such pathetic decisions when it comes to their students. The latest news here in the Tampa area is that a male math teacher at a Bartow High School math teacher was arrested yesterday for offering a 16-year-old old student an “A” in exchange for oral sex.

Apparently, Isaac Nathan Tillis — who is 29 — n 29 was asked by one of his students how she could improve her grade. He said she could do extra work, but she would also have “to do something for him.”

The student asked him what he meant and he went on to whisper in her ear, pantomime oral sex, and follow all of that up with a note on a restroom hall pass that said she could get an “A” if she gave him a blow job.

Classy.

The student informed Tillis that she did not do things like that and left. Yesterday, though, she met the teacher again. This time the p0lice had wired her and the entire thing was caught on audio. The teacher walked the student to the restroom in the teacher’s lounge, pulled down his pants, and then told the student to perform oral sex. The student said a pre-arraigned code word and the police then entered. Tillis was caught bare-arsed, so to speak.

He was charged with solicitation for unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

What a blooming idiot. Did he really think he could be so brazen about soliciting sex from a child and not be caught? The guy deserved to be in jail. Due to Florida’s Code of Ethics, he will certainly lose his ability to teach here, which is the least that he deserves.

Who says the American Dream has to be a sprawling McMansion? I say the American Dream is a life without debt and a massive house does not usually fall into that particular dream.

I am so over big houses. I say that from much experience. I grew up in big homes, but just big enough. When I was married, we had a perfect sized home before moving back to the Tampa area. Then, we bought a house that was just too big to take care of and now that I’m divorced, we are having a horrific time selling it in the current housing market. People are not generally looking at houses in that price range now.

If you look around Florida, you will see that a majority of the homes built during the era of “old Florida” were small ranches. Most of my fiends who actually grew up in Florida were raised in small homes. People had just enough space to live comfortably, but not so much that they had a hard time keeping up with maintenance and finances. People paid off their homes and then went on to travel and add swimming pools and live without the stress of massive debt hanging over their heads.

Now that it is just me and my daughter, I actually sit and envision my dream home for the two of us and the home I dream about is small and tidy and cottage-like. I cannot fathom having more than we need. When I think about what I want to leave to my daughter, it is a place to live, no debt, and a college education. If I overextend my finances on a home, then I am not leaving money for the other things I wish to provide for my child. I’m nothing if I’m not wise and logical.

Appropriately, I found a site called The Jewel Box Home, which celebrates homes that are generally less than 2,000 square feet. The site does, however, say that larger homes can be considered Jewel Box homes if they are modest in their design, practical and efficient.

I think in this day and age of environmental focus, smaller home living should be the focus for more people. Of course, that might be easier for someone like me to ay, since I have never been into status symbols and actually get a thrill out of bucking trends. Also, when I have walked into homes with soaring two-story foyers and open areas over the family rooms, I immediately think how great it would be if that space were being used for actually living space. I hate waste, even in floor plans.

When I was living in Gainesville, my home was one story and just over 2,200 square feet. Every single person who came into my home commented that due to its efficient use of space, it had move living area than most houses approaching 3,000 square feet. It was true and I miss that house. In all actuality, I would love to one day reproduce the floor plan.

Anyway, back to the Jewel Box Home website. It has decorating tips, entertaining suggestions, and feature articles about living in smaller homes. One article I am looking forward to reading once they publish it is the upcoming Living with Children in a Jewel Box Home. Check it out. It’s an inspiring site that adds validity to living modestly.

There is a lot of debate about whether or not the adult boyfriend of underage Jamie Lynn Speers should be prosecuted now that it has been confirmed that he impregnated the minor.

I say yes! Absolutely yes.

This is a crucial crux in a debate that is bandied about on a daily basis. It is common practice to prosecute an 18 or 19 year old for sleeping with a 16-year-old. It happens in almost every state all of the time. So, if this very public situation were to pass without legal implications, it will set not only a horrific example, but also a precedent that our society cannot afford to shoulder.

The information the family is leaking only make this situation sound worse. They met at church? That does less to impress me than it does to horrify me. Of all places in our society, you would hope and pray that when your daughter meets a boy at church he is not going to be the one to get her into bed.

In Tennessee, where the couple live, there is a very real possibility that he could see as much as 10 years behind bars, according to the laws in that state. He is over 18, she is 16, and I am pretty sure they are more than years apart in age.

If Jamie Lynn Speers is indeed a “role model”, as the tweens of our land have stated in the past, then she needs to continue to be an example of what typically happens in a case like this. The public needs to see that the adult in the situation (in this case Casey Aldridge) needs to be charged with statutory rape. Speers should also be fired from her Nickelodeon series “Zoey 101”. She should not continue to collect a paycheck playing a virginal 9th-grader on a children’s network.

What is not typical in this situation is the ability that Jamie Lynn Speers and her white-trash mother have to turn a profit based on the pregnancy. OK! Magazine broke the story and will pay Jamie Lynn $1 million when the baby is born. Money cannot buy a good reputation, good morals, or common sense, but it will keep Jamie Lynn from having to collect WIC and live in HUD housing.

While we’re at it, Lynne Spears just needs to be kicked in the teeth. What is she so busy doing that she is not protecting her young daughter from this kind of behavior? Yes, while Jamie Lynn is still a minor, her parents are indeed quite responsible for reigning her in. In fact, they have the absolute right to have forbidden her from dating this older guy in the first place.

I have Orlando on the brain, because I am getting plans together for my daughter’s birthday this coming February and we will be going to Orlando overnight with one of my best friends and her daughter, who is one of my daughter’s best friends, so that we can got o the Princesses and Pirates party at the Magic Kingdom again. We loved it last year. We will also more than likely hit another park the following day.

So, I got to thinking about how although Orlando is the absolute perfect family vacation destination in perhaps the entire world, there is actually so much to do there that it can get overwhelming for those who visit from out of the area. There are theme parks, theme restaurants, museums, water parks, golf courses, botanical gardens, wild animal exhibits, easy access to amazing beaches, outlet malls and just about any cuisine you could ever ask for. There are inexpensive hotels, lavish resorts, and a plethora of privately owned homes available for rent. You can craft a vacation to meet any budget and still have a blast.

And, this is the most wonderful time of the year to visit Florida. We have sun and flowers and blue skies and, lovely warm days, all without the humidity, crowds and bugs.

I think the best place to start when trying to navigate Orlando is to find a reliable city guide, like the one at Hotels By City. Although the site is primary an expansive guide to the world’s hotel, it also doubles as a reputable overall city guide, highlighting area attractions and more. Of course, if you are looking for a Europe hotel guide, this is the site for that, too.

I knew I was assigned to bring fresh fruit to my daughter’s classroom Christmas party for Thursday, but just this afternoon I found out I need to bring Christmas cookies for the Friday school-wide Christmas party. Yikes. I was a little unprepared for the additional baking. I was going to make a praline cake tonight, but instead I will make the cookie my grandmother makes each Christmas. Actually, my grandmother makes about a dozen cookie varieties and as many types of candy, so she can give out plates of goodies. This is one of my favorites off her plates.

There are many names for the cookies, which are essentially mild peanut butter drop cookies with a chocolate kiss pressed onto the top. I call them Peanut Butter Blossoms.

8 oz. pkg. milk chocolate kisses
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1-1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
more granulated sugar for rolling
::: ::: :::
Heat oven to 375 F. Remove wrappers from chocolate. Beat butter and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup brown sugar; beat until light and fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.

Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture. Cover tightly and chill for 4-8 hours in fridge.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate piece into center of each cookie; cookie will crack slightly around edges. Let stand on cookie sheets for 3-4 minutes, then remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 48 cookies

Edited to add:
I thought you might like to see my finished cookies. They turned out great. These are very delicate, sweet treats. I was pleased with the texture.

I’ve seen some worthless news articles. I assume they are filler for a slow news day, although I cannot imagine what reporter with even an ounce of brains cannot find legitimate news to write about in this day and age.

A recent Associated Press article I read yesterday might just take the proverbial cake. Of course, it is about a bit of data collected by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that I sincerely pray no institution was foolish enough to fund. In a world where we need every penny we can get for things like AIDS and breast cancer research, there are people throwing money at studies that will tell us that “More Americans Googling themselves”.

What the hell?

First of all, I take immense offense at people who use “Google” as a verb. It is a company, and an unscrupulous one at that. There are tens upon tens of search engines that are just as useful as Google, so please people – get over yourselves and stop dumbing-down your own vocabulary by using worthless pop-isms like “Google” as a verb.

Note to Anick Jesdanun who wrote this article: You are paid to use language and you should use it responsibly. Most people are no more than sheep who repeat what they hear and read. At least try and set a good example by using proper, logical written language. It is not your job to latch onto pop culture-isms and run recklessly through the streets. It’s your job to be a professional in the world of the written word.

But, onto my main beef.

So, more than double the number of people who admitted to entering their own names into a search engine in 2002 now admits to doing so? How is this significant to my daily life? Why should I care? I can see how tracking people who search for information on a Corvette suspension (my most recent search ), or strawberry jam, or online banking might be useful information. Those things tell me about buying trends and economic interest. Please, though, tell me why anyone should care enough about people searching themselves that it should merit a top headline link on a site like CNN? We have a war on. We are dealing with shootings and drug issues and an upcoming election. How about 7-year-old Alexis Goggins, who willingly took bullets for her mother? Those are things I expect to see taking up valuable headline real estate.

What a waste of information collection.

One of old-Florida’s mainstays has always been Weeki Wachee and its infamous mermaid show. The water park turned 60 years old in 2007.

The mermaid show features women dressed in fins and sumptuous outfits, performing in an aquarium. It’s drawn visitors to the deepest springs in the United States for generations and over the years seen its overall popularity wane. It is currently owned by Southwest Florida Water Management District and it was announced yesterday that the springs and the water park are going to be donated to the state of Florida as of October. Hence it will become a state park, ensuring the continuation of tradition.

UPDATE: I spoke too soon. Despite any announcements, attraction officials say they want to first explore the possibility of becoming part of the Hernando County park system.

A lot of my readers are individual business owners, as in they do it all themselves, without a bit of help. That can stretch you to the limits once your business starts expanding. Sometimes it is all you can do to keep up with orders and answer all of the e-mail your business generates. In the midst of all of that you still need a way to connect personally to your customer, both existing and new. People are looking for real people with real voices when they approach a business.

If a new customer finds your site and wants to contact you, they probably have to use an e-mail form or pick up the phone and call. What if you could turn one click into immediate one-on-one communication with that potential customer?

Here is a very handy tool: Ifbyphone – free phone calls from your web site. The system gives you a link that can be placed on a webpage, Powerpoint Document, in an e-mail and even in a Word document. Your customer simply clicks that link and enters their phone number. Then, their phone rings, your phone rings and you are connected in real time! Nothing could be simpler. Plus, there’s absolutely no technical expertise needed.

The best part is that you don’t have to know anything about web design or phone systems or anything technical. It’s a simple system that anyone can use. And, you can sign up for a free account. Check out their site. They have a live demo so you can see how the system works right now.

Here is their press release, in case I left anything out:

Ifbyphone Releases revolutionary Phone-Me-Now: the world’s first Zero Configuration Click to Call With 100 free minutes per month Phone-Me-Now
Promises to be biggest Killer App of 2008

Chicago, IL: December, 2007 – Ifbyphone, a voice infrastructure and applications development company providing enterprise class services to Small and Medium sized Businesses (SMB’s), has just released a solution destined to revolutionize the web to voice space: Phone-Me-Now, a zero configuration click to call application. To introduce Phone-Me-Now to hundreds of thousands of businesses that will be able to use it as a sales tool, Ifbyphone is making it available free of charge for 6 months and providing the first 100 minutes per month of usage for free as well.

This patent pending solution can be integrated in less then 60 seconds into any website, email or hyperlinked document and requires no experience to configure. It’s literally the Internet’s first instant voice mash up tool.

“While many companies provide click to call services we were troubled by how complex they are to use. Users had to cut and paste HTML or javascript, rendering these services outside of the technical reach of thousands of businesses. Once we designed this patent pending solution we configured our existing smart click to call services to work with the Phone-Me-Now interface.” says Irv Shapiro, Founder and CEO of Ifbyphone. The zero configuration Phone-Me-Now service is literally the Holy Grail of web to telephone integration and ease of use.

Using Phone-Me-Now is as simple as typing: www.phone-me-now/your-business-number into any web site, Word Document, Powerpoint Presentation, Spreadsheet, PDF or email. When a reader clicks on the link they are prompted for their telephone number and the Ifbyphone systems call your business, calls the reader and conferences the call. Phone-Me-Now works with any telephone number you register on your Ifbyphone account.

“We wanted to eliminate any barriers to basic click to call, and know that Phone-Me-Now will immediately set an industry standard for rapid deployment. If the Internet is all about speed and response, what could be a more appropriate Killer App for 2008 than Phone-Me-Now, which puts a business owner in instant voice communication with their customers,” adds Shapiro.
Free Phone-Me-Now accounts can be updated to additional Ifbyphone packages that include:
- Click to Call with Custom Dialog Forms
- Integrated Call Routing and Reporting
- Find Me
- Virtual Voice Mail
- Virtual Receptionist
- Outbound Voice Broadcast
- Web Configured Voice Dialogs (Hosted IVR)
- Call Recording
- Backend Database Integration
- A Complete Call Management API

All Ifbyphone solutions work with any telephone system and are fully portable if a company moves from one telephone transport vendor to another.
# # #
About Ifbyphone
Ifbyphone is a hosted voice application and platform company with a simplified approach to the deployment of stand-alone and web-integrated voice services for small and medium sized businesses (SMB). Combining advanced telephony and web services, Ifbyphone’s web-integrated voice applications turn the small business telephone into a powerful tool, increasing lead generation, improving sales conversion and enhancing the customer experience. Ifbyphone makes it easier for customers to connect with you from online and off. All of Ifbyphone’s applications are accessible via a click on a Web site, an inbound call to a toll free number, an outbound call or with the help of a programmable API. Our configuration and deployment tools look and feel just like Web applications, and require no previous knowledge of telephony programming or terminology.

Previously available only to large enterprises, Ifbyphone is delivering these converged voice and web solutions at affordable monthly fees, with no major upfront costs. The company’s services are available online and through a network of SMB value-added resellers.

I’m squeamish. I know I am. It is what kept me from going into the medical field. I have the mind for it, but not the nerves. Nonetheless, I have always been fascinated by the exhibits that show preserved human bodies to demonstrate the inner workings of muscle groups and movement.

One popular exhibit is “Bodies … The Exhibition”, but I’ve never gone to see it when it has been close due to the fact that I’ve always been uncomfortable that the bodies used in that exhibit were unclaimed cadavers. It seems somehow sad and wrong.

“Bodies Revealed”, however, uses only the bodies of people who willingly donated their bodies to science. Somehow that seems more acceptable to my particular conscience.

Anyway, “Bodies Revealed” is coming to Sarasota’s G.WIZ hands-on science museum on Friday, December 21. It is a limited engagement with the length of the exhibit to be determined directly by the popularity of the exhibit itself.

G.WIZ, The Hands-On Science Museum is located at the Blivas Science & Technology Center in Sarasota, FL. You can call 941.309.GWIZ (4949) for more information. Check out their website at gwiz.org for hours of operation and ticket prices.

I love that the internet gives me access to thousands and thousands of cool t-shirt designs. I’ve found some of the funniest, hippest, most cutting-edge designs online and ordered them with the click of a mouse. And, when all else fails, t-shirts are the best gift option out there. Everyone wears t-shirts.

Have you ever wished that you had a way to put one of your signature pithy sayings onto a t-shirt? Or, maybe you have a great design in mind, but no way to actually get it onto a t-shirt? I’m looking at an amazing concept right now on the BlueCotton website. They have a tool called Design Studio.

Design Studio lets you design your own t-shirts. You choose from an array of clipart, fonts, effects, and colors. You cam move elements around, resize them, mess with the color schemes, just about anything you can think of. In the end, you come away with a design as unique as you are. You can use it to make a cool logo shirt for a fundraiser, a design for a special birthday, custom fraternity t-shirts, a saucy slogan for your girls’ weekend out, or anything else you can dream. The possibilities are endless.

Give Design Studio a try, especially if you have a Christmas gift you’re stuck on. This is the perfect gift solution for absolutely anyone.