Cyber Monday

Biggest day of online purchases for the holidays. A little hint, prior to making a purchase be sure to open another page and look for promo codes or coupons for that particular store to lower the price. Even if it's just free shipping, it's worth the look. But if you're really lucky you may find 20-30% codes and free shipping.

Also remember, membership in organizations such as AAA and AARP will get discounts on a number of sites.

Check their sites to see which stores are participating.

Good Luck Shopping!

Coastsweep seeks volunteers for Rumney Marsh cleanup

REVERE - Employees from GE Aviation in Lynn, members of the Saugus River Watershed Council, students from Revere High School and state Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein will join forces on Saturday, Sept. 26 to remove trash and other debris from Rumney Marsh.

Joan LeBlanc, director of the watershed council, said more volunteers are needed to participate in the 22nd annual Coastsweep. "Volunteers will help remove trash and debris from Rumney Marsh and participate in a statewide survey of marine debris for the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management," she said, adding that the event presents an opportunity for high school students to earn community service hours.

Volunteers will meet behind the VFW Mottolo Post at 10 Garofalo St. The cleanup will be conducted from 9 a.m. to noon. Refreshments, gloves and trash bags will be provided. Work clothes are recommended.

"Please bring rubber boots if you have them," LeBlanc said.

Coastsweep coordinators have emphasized this year that volunteers should not move any fishing gear or pieces of fishing gear. Instead, participants should note any identification numbers and report the find to the state Environmental Police dispatcher at 617-626-1650. State law prohibits people from destroying or damaging pound nets, fish traps or weirs.

For more information about the Rumney Marsh cleanup, contact the watershed council at srw@shore.net or call 781-233-5046. The marsh is classified by the state as an environmentally-sensitive area and vital wetland.

The watershed council is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1991 to protect and restore the natural resources of the Saugus River watershed.

Coastsweep cleanups also took place last Saturday in Nahant at Long Beach and in Gloucester at Long, Niles and Wingaersheek beaches. Beach debris pickups were held earlier this month in Salem, Beverly, Ipswich and Newburyport.

Good idea . . .

one light bulb at a time . . . A physics teacher in high school, once told the students that while one grasshopper on the railroad tracks wouldn't slow a train very much, a billion of them would.

With that thought in mind, read the following, obviously written by a good American. Check this out:

I can verify this because I was in Lowes the other day for some reason and just for the heck of it I was looking at the hose attachments . They were all made in China . The next day I was in Ace Hardware and just for the heck of it I checked the hose attachments there. They were made in USA. Start looking.

In our current economic situation, every little thing we buy or do affects someone else - even their job . So, after reading this email, I think this lady is on the right track. Let's get behind her!

My grandson likes Hershey's candy. I noticed, though, that it is marked made in Mexico now. I do not buy it any more . My favorite toothpaste Colgate is made in Mexico now. I have switched to Crest. You have to read the labels on everything.

This past weekend I was at Kroger. (Can be true for any store.) I needed 60W light bulbs and Bounce dryer sheets . I was in the light bulb aisle, and right next to the GE brand I normally buy was an off brand labeled, "Everyday Value . " I picked up both types of bulbs and compared the stats. They were the same except for the price . The GE bulbs were more money than the Everyday Value brand but the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that GE was made in MEXICO and the Everyday Value brand was made in - get ready for this - the USA in a company in Cleveland, Ohio .

So throw out the myth that you cannot find products you use every day that are made right here .

So on to another aisle - Bounce Dryer Sheets . . . yep, you guessed it, Bounce cost more money and is made in Canada . The Everyday Value brand was less money and MADE IN THE USA! I did laundry yesterday and the dryer sheets performed just like the Bounce Free I have been using for years and at almost half the price!

My challenge to you is to start reading the labels when you shop for everyday things and see what you can find that is made in the USA - the job you save may be your own or your neighbors!

If you accept the challenge, pass this on to others in your address book so we can all start buying American, one light bulb at a time!
Stop buying from overseas companies!

(We should have awakened to this a decade ago)

Let's get with the program . . . help our fellow Americans keep their jobs and create more jobs here in the USA.

Remember September 11, 2001

44th Annual Muscular Dystrophy Assoc. Telethon

Fire up the barbies, and the flat screen TVs and join comedy legend Jerry Lewis for his 44th annual Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon this Labor Day weekend, Sept. 6-7.

“I’m determined to keep fighting for a cure for muscular dystrophy because my kids deserve to live long and healthy lives,” said Lewis, MDA’s national chairman and Telethon star.

The annual extravaganza raises millions of dollars for MDA’s research, services and education programs. In 2008, the show brought in a record-breaking $65 million in pledges and donations.

“The Telethon gives us the chance to help put an end to these debilitating diseases, while entertaining and educating the American public,” Lewis said.

A variety of celebrity co-hosts will join Lewis onstage. But sadly, his longtime friend and Telethon co-host, Ed McMahon, won’t be there this year. McMahon passed away in June, leaving behind a legacy of 40 years of Telethon appearances. A special video tribute to McMahon will be shown during the broadcast.

Co-hosting the show with Lewis will be television’s Jann Carl, “American Idol” favorite and star of “Grease” on Broadway Ace Young, and Allison Sweeney of the daytime drama “Days of Our Lives” and host of the reality series “The Biggest Loser.”

Tom Bergeron of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Dancing with the Stars” also will be featured.

Nancy O’Dell of “Access Hollywood” returns as co-host and in her new role as MDA National ALS Ambassador. O’Dell is raising awareness of MDA’s battle to find a cure for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease). She joined MDA’s fight against ALS after her mother died of the disease in 2008.

O’Dell, Carl, Sweeney and Bergeron serve as MDA national vice presidents, and Gilman and Young are MDA celebrity ambassadors.

The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon will present great entertainment again this year, including Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Tony Orlando, Charo, Wynonna, Train, Bo Bice, Terry Fator, comedian George Wallace. Lee Greenwood, Joshua Bell accompanied by Frankie Moreno, Three Dog Night and many more.

A Labor Day icon that set the standard for telethons, the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon typically draws as many viewers as the Emmy’s, Oscars or Golden Globe Awards.

Almost 40 million TV viewers across America will tune in, while countless more around the world will watch on the Internet, thanks to streaming video provided by RealNetworks.

For the second year, an online auction will take place in conjunction with the Telethon. The Telethon Online Auction, which runs from Sept. 1-15, includes a wide array of unusual and one-of-a-kind items, many provided by MDA sponsors and celebrity friends.

Fox 25 News - Zip Trip 02151

Join us on Revere Beach
this Friday morning, August 28th,
when the Fox25 Morning News Team
will be filming it's weekly ZIP TRIP
~ LIVE ~ 5am to 9am
directly across from Kelly's Roast Beef.

Cutest Dog Competition

This is my grandpuppy Mila. Please click on the link below her picture(give a sec for the pic to come up on the website) and give her a vote in the Cutest Dog Competition. You can vote once a day until Friday, August 14th.

Thank you for your support!



Mila - Cutest Dog Competition

Been a little neglectful lately...

will try to get thru my email and post more...sorry!

Tall Ships visit Boston

I wasn't in town when the Tall Ships came, but a friend sent me a few pics. They are a really beautiful site when they're in the harbor.

I always loved how Erma Bombeck wrote:

If I Had My Life To Live Over
by Erma Bombeck
The following was written by the late Erma Bombeck
after she found out she had a fatal disease.

If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television - and more while watching life.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love you's".. More "I'm sorrys" ...

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute... look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back.

Opening Day

April Fool's Day

Claim:   April Fools' Day began in the 1500s when the Gregorian calendar took over from the Julian. Those who forgot the change and attempted to celebrate New Year's (previously celebrated on the 1st of April) on the wrong date were teased as "April fools."

See Snopes.com

Mother's bond is written on their skin

When Samantha Ruch of West Roxbury says her daughter is always by her side, she means it literally. Extending from the middle of Ruch's ribcage down to her right hip is the name Devin tattooed in block letters intertwined with flowers and vines.

"At the time, it was just me and my daughter," said Ruch, 28, who was divorced when she got the 10-inch-long tattoo two years ago. "Devin was my right-hand girl, and I wanted to represent that."

At one time, stretch marks were the most permanent reminders of childbirth on a woman's body, but now it might be footprints, teddy bears, baseball gloves, names, birthdates, or even the child's portrait inked in the place of the mother's choosing.

It's more and more common that women get tattoos that represent their children, according to Scott Matalon, 44, who estimates that his Allston shop, Stingray Body Art and More, does at least one mother tattoo out of approximately 50 tattoos each week. "Like having a child, there's something deeply personal about getting a tattoo," Matalon said. "For some people it's also therapeutic."

That was Tracey Litt's feeling after a disappointing birth experience with her daughter Zola, now 6. Litt, 44, a home inspector from Somerville, had planned for natural childbirth but was forced to have a Caesarean section. As a way to move past her feelings, Litt, already sporting seven tattoos, got another on Zola's second birthday. Now the C-section scar that crosses Litt's bikini line is flanked by two small Chinese symbols: mother on one side, daughter on the other. "It says this is the scar that connects us." Litt explained. "It was my way of making sense of the birth."

"People who like tattoos want to dedicate part of their body to show their love for their kids," said Chris Keaton, owner of the Baltimore Tattoo Museum in Maryland. He thinks the trend started in the 1980s when prominent athletes and actors started getting visible tattoos and people wanted to emulate them.

Boston Globe - Full Story

First Day of Spring

U2 tonight in Somerville

A Barbie World

No wonder Barbie looks so great at 50—the ultimate blonde bombshell has 25 hair and makeup pros on call.

Like Linda Blair, Marie Osmond, Mackenzie Phillips, and Irene Cara, Barbie turns 50 this year.

We don't know how the rest of them are coping with the Big Five-O, but at the halfcentury mark, Barbie is still one of the most powerful beauty icons in the world. That's no small feat considering that Barbie has had more than 50,000 makeovers since she was born in 1959. The original Barbie set the mold for all the looks to come, with her exaggerated black eyeliner and sexy red lips. (Her famous blonde hair, it turns out, was dictated by all the kids and mothers who didn't buy the brunette model.) She's since had a Jackie Kennedy bouffant (Bubble Cut Barbie, 1962), taken her glamour cues from Farrah Fawcett (Superstar Barbie, 1977), and gone goth (the new Hard Rock Barbie). Even when she's straddling a Harley or tricked out as an astronaut, "Barbie always has what the high heel has -- a kind of hyperfemininity," says Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

Finding and executing Barbie-worthy beauty trends is an actual job -- many, many jobs, in fact. Mattel employs some 25 "hair-and-face designers" (including two licensed cosmetologists), plus teams of marketing mavens and other idea people who visit the Paris runways, trek to the streets of Tokyo and Hong Kong to check out what teenagers are wearing, and stay au courant with everything from "magazines like Allure to fashion-industry trade shows like Première Vision," says Evelyn Viohl, senior vice president of product design. Celebrities are examined ("We're especially inspired by ones who constantly change their look, like Gwen Stefani"), and hairstyles are auditioned for the designers' friends and kids. "We talk about her as if she were a real person," says Viohl. "We find ourselves getting into deep conversations about stuff like what colors she would never wear in a million years." Fifteen artists wield teeny, tiny sable brushes for up to three hours to put makeup on each new Barbie prototype -- foundation (regular Barbies wear one of seven tones, with "L.A. Tan" being the most popular), blush, lip gloss or lipstick, eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, and shadow. As with most life-size women, Barbie's preferred eye-shadow color is brown, with more than 300 shades of chocolate, taupe, espresso, and café au lait in her makeup arsenal.

For all her trendiness, Barbie is still a toy for little girls -- which is why you'll never see a Heroin Chic Barbie or a Pole Dancin' Barbie, however much those influences may have permeated fashion in the real world. That's also why Barbie sometimes adopts styles that better reflect the sensibilities of the fourth grade than those of Fifth Avenue -- especially where hair is concerned. Little girls definitely like it long: The bestseller of all time, Totally Hair Barbie in 1992, had 10 1/2 inches of hair down her 11 1/2-inch frame. And though there are now redheads and dark-haired dolls of all ethnicities, blondes still rule in sales. (There have even been blonde African-American Barbies, à la Beyoncé.) The original single-process shade has been updated with seven gradations of blonde tones that are now woven together to create an array of highlights and lowlights. Each hairstyle takes hours to construct and involves a top-secret gel and 10 to 20 minutes inside a low-temperature dryer. And this year, Barbie's even getting her own special detangler (which, alas, doesn't work on humans). "Her hair gets knotted when kids play with her," Viohl says. "After 50 years of making dolls, we finally cracked that nut."

So how has Barbie prepared for her big birthday year? Well, she's inked a deal to launch a makeup and skin-care line for fans young and old, teamed up with 50 big-name designers for a fashion show -- and, judging by the height of her new eyebrows, we're guessing she's also gotten Botox.

Remember to turn your clocks ahead tonight

Tonight we turn our clocks ahead for Daylight Savings Time.

March?

Can you believe it's March already? Hopefully spring arrives soon because I can't take anymore of this cold weather and snow. Next weekend we turn the clocks ahead which is always a sign of spring, and the boys of summer played an exhibition game on TV today. Red Sox 2, Twins 1. (Yankees lost to the Reds!)

World's Most Pierced Woman: 6,005 and Counting

The world's most pierced woman, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, has added to her collection with a 6,005th piercing, the U.K.'s Telegraph reported.

Elaine Davidson, of Edinburgh, Scotland, made the Guinness World Record official in 2000 when she had a mere 462 piercings -- 192 of which were in her face.

Nine years later, the Brazilian-born nurse has thousands of piercings including more than 1,500 that she says are "internal."

Surprisingly, Davidson says she doesn't like getting pierced.

"To break the record you have to get to a high level," she told the Telegraph. "I wanted to break the record. My family [doesn't] even like tattoos or piercings. But I am happy. I decided to change myself and be me."

Excessive piercing can be dangerous, according to medical experts. In addition to the risk of infection in and around the area of the piercings, people who are well-pierced are considered at high risk for blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis and HIV, which can be spread by reusing needles.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday, February 25th is a day of fast and abstinence. All Fridays in lent are days of abstinence. Good Friday, April 10, 2009 will be a day of fast and abstinence.

Ash Wednesday officially begins Lent and the Easter cycle. Palms from last year's Palm Sunday are burned. The ashes from these palms are used during the Ash Wednesday services. The custom of placing ashes on the heads of people is an ancient penitential practice. (Jonas 3:5-9, Jeremiah 6:26, Mt 11:21)

During Lent the Catholic Church will take on a more somber theme. Our priests will be vested in purple to mark the liturgical season. The joyful acclamations of Alleluia and Glory to God will be dropped. Weddings are discouraged during this season.

Fasting and abstinence are two disciplines practiced during this time. Fasting has to do with the quantity of food eaten. Abstinence refers to the kind of food denied oneself . Denying oneself a basic human need such as food for a period of time is done for different reasons. It promotes self-discipline. It supports one's prayers. It cleanses oneself of previous abuses and sin. And it prepares us for the great feast of Easter. Another practice during lent includes alms giving.

During lent we "give up" something. Popular forms of fasting may be: giving up desserts, candies, gum, soft drinks, alcohol, watching television, and junk food. These popular forms of fasting and abstinence promote personal discipline and self-control.

Lenten Regulations

Persons who have reached the age of 14 are required to abstain from meat. All persons between the ages of 18 -59 are required to fast.

Fast = one full meal is allowed. Two other meals, sufficient to maintain strength, may be taken according to each one's needs, but together should not equal one full meal. Eating between meals is not permitted; but liquids, including milk and fruit juices, are allowed.

Abstinence = no meat is allowed.