I stopped at our Salvation Army store last Friday on the way home from doing some other shopping. I don't stop there very often because it is a rather dirty store and very disorganized, but they do tend to have pieces for our Corelle set.

It was busier than I had seen it before (probably due to being Friday night), but not exactly packed. There was a group of 4-5 high school girls from the inner city school in Harrisburg (a few of them had school gear on) browsing and enjoying themselves. I overheard several of them exclaim that they wished they had money for this or that as they picked up things that interested them.

One of the girls was looking at the books (50c for all paperbacks). She ended up picking out a book she was interested in and then they were looking at the prices. She knew she didn't have the $0.50. I watched her face fall. Then, I pointed out that all the books were 50% off - $0.25! She did have a quarter and she was SO excited to be able to take this book home and read it.

It makes me sad to know that their school district is in the process of deciding if they need to declare bankruptcy. The classes are over crowded, extra programs - including art & music & sports are being slashed just so the kids will still have a building to come to every day. What is wrong with us that we don't put the development of young minds FIRST?!

Today, the world lost a talented fiddler, Star Wars fanatic, and an extraordinary Dr. Who Impersonator.

I lost a dear friend.

Ryan Jones, 1981-2011

Happy Easter!



In other news, I'm thinking of keeping the Passover next year. Hm. I wonder if there are any good Passover-for-DummiesGentiles books out there.

Free Kashi Cereal just for you:
http://www.kashi.ca/

I know some of you are fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder, so I thought I'd post this instead of trying to e-mail it to everyone.

Today only (TUESDAY) - Free download of the audio version of The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/?p=2002

I'm getting notifications! WOOO HOOO! :-D

Quesadilla. On the George Foreman grill. I have everything needed to make them.

YUMMMMMMMM. This is dinner. Stirfry will have to wait 'til the weekend. :-D

(edited to fix retarded spelling that no one noticed but sillyliss)

Today's Net: 21 pages of documentation. I wonder how much *new* documentation there was and how much was deleted? I don't wonder enough to try to figure it out. DONE FOR THE DAAAAYYYYY!

You can vote for which places will be added to Google Street View's special collections! If you don't care what university, please vote for Rochester Institute of Technology, NY. :-D


https://services.google.com/fb/forms/streetviewussuggestions/?utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=van&utm_source=en-van-na-us-gns-svn-com/trike

This is a US-only company. This is the e-mail I got.


Do you know of households that would like to join the PineCone Research Panel? If so, please FORWARD A COPY of this email to each household you would like to refer so that they may click on the registration link shown below. That household should complete the registration form themselves and submit it. REMEMBER THAT ONLY ONE PERSON PER HOUSEHOLD MAY REGISTER. Multiple registrations of the same Household will void all registrations.

Here is the link to the registration:

http://www.pineconeresearch.com/signup/RR570DS1.asp


As a member in good standing, you've already seen the benefits of being part of PineCone Research. So please, share the benefits of membership with a friend. Don't forget, please don't tell them about any of the products that you have seen in our questionnaires or tried in your home. Remember, it's important that your PineCone Research survey and product testing experiences remain confidential. </si>

I "discovered" (ie, heard on the radio) these 2 songs recently and I just have to share them. If I did the whole mp3 player thing, these songs would be among the top played.

It took me a while to track down the title/artist of this first song. I heard it on the radio a few times before I could pick out enough lyrics (and remember them more than 20 minutes) to google it. I love the funky beat and the spirit behind the whole song.

Michael Franti & Spearhead : Say Hey


The way that the lyrics are simple yet complex and syncopated just makes me want to listen to this one over and over.

Owl City - Fireflies (embedding disabled)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI4JLa0hbUw

Oh there were about 80 kids! WHOA!!!

( pssst, back here! )

More than a month ago now, sillyliss posted a Then & Now post with a picture of her at her high school graduation and a picture of her now and asked for everyone to follow suit. And I was going to... but apparently time got away from me. So here's my pictures!

( Behind the cut for your viewing pleasure )

Yesterday I bought a bushel of apples for $21 (btw, that's definitely 40+ pounds, but not totally sure how much). Today, we (mom, liz and me) turned those apples into many, many, many quarts of apple sauce. Some of said apple sauce is at this very moment being reduced to become apple butter. The apple butter will be canned tomorrow after church. ahhh.... I love working in the kitchen. Maybe pictures later this week.

Just got this e-mail! Sign-up if you want to get $3 per online survey.

Dear CATHERINE:



PineCone Research is growing and we invite you to help! We are offering select members the opportunity to recommend membership to a friend or relative who is NOT a member of their household.


Do you know of households that would like to join the PineCone Research Panel? If so, please FORWARD A COPY of this email to each household you would like to refer so that they may click on the registration link shown below. That household should complete the registration form themselves and submit it. REMEMBER THAT ONLY ONE PERSON PER HOUSEHOLD MAY REGISTER. Multiple registrations of the same Household will void all registrations.

Here is the link to the registration:

http://www.pineconeresearch.com/signup/RR570DS1.asp


As a member in good standing, you've already seen the benefits of being part of PineCone Research. So please, share the benefits of membership with a friend. Don't forget, please don't tell them about any of the products that you have seen in our questionnaires or tried in your home. Remember, it's important that your PineCone Research survey and product testing experiences remain confidential.

If your referral has any questions, they can email us at scott@pineconeresearch.com or click on the attached links to learn more about PineCone Research.

http://www.pineconeresearch.com//about.HTM

http://www.pineconeresearch.com//policy.htm

While this is not a paid referral program, we genuinely appreciate your help in spreading the word that PINECONE IS GROWING!

Thank you,

Karen Scott

Web site: http://www.pineconeresearch.com

There is a printable pdf coupon available here:
http://www.the711club.com/coupons/coupon.pdf

For a free 12-oz coffee, cappuccino, hot chocolate, or tea. It is good until 10/31 and you can use one coupon per customer per day. So basically, a free drink every day until the end of the month. SCORE! Download it and print it as many times as you will use it.

Just could not keep this one to myself. There is a 7-11 on my way to work. I'll be there every day.

I am getting so much crap excellent usable stuff out of here. It is so amazing. Maybe we will be able to clear enough of the floor to vacuum. WOULD BE AWESOME.

What I really mean is that I don't like shopping for clothes and do-dads. I LOOOOOOOOVE shopping for DEALS.

Today I hit up:

CVS (got a rain check, and managed to get them to give me $2 back in cash since the reward bucks didn't work)
Rite Aid (used $41.49 in coupons)
Giant Foods (Total before savings: $75.69, total after? 40.33)

Stopped home for a break & to print a few more coupons, then:

Target (Spent: $6, saved: $10.55)
Walmart (Spent: $24, saved: $10)


I'm going to try to focus on the RiteAid and CVS "games" for the next month or so and only buy produce & dairy at the grocery store.

I can't get to my e-mail.... and I can't find any info about any outage! Anyone else having this problem?

edit: Restarted firefox and now it works! The weird thing is that http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ was saying that it was down. Huh.

What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
-Salman Rushdie, writer (b. 1947)