Happy Howl-O-Ween!

Do this prank to me and I will open up 
a Can of Whoop Ass on you....

I PROMISE!

Talkin' Turkey

Yard Boss
Originally uploaded by clouda9

Just thought I would add this cool shot I took of our Thanksgiving Day turkey. Farm raised and free range - Tom was 'berry, berry' good! Do you raise your own meat birds or does the thought of it just gross you out??

I Go Nuts For Hugs!

Shhh! I know a secret! Alex goes ga-ga 'bout hugs too! Listen to my all time favorite YouTube - I think I've plastered it just about anywhere I can - Feel the spirit move through ya' and go hug somebody today. Practice on your teddy bear if you have to - the point is...just do it!

Just in Time - Halloween Party Ideas

Image by nouQraz via Flickr

For the Kids:

General rule of thumb is to keep it simple. Kids just get excited about dressing up and hauling in the candy. Don’t stress over decorating until two in the morning or plan a bazillon games.

Set the mood with some fun music, dangle some doughnuts from a string on the back porch, set up a bobbing for apples bucket out on the lawn or in the garage, have the kids decorate their own treat bag, plus have a costume judging contest. It really can be that simple.

If you choose to have snacks at the Halloween Party avoid anything with sugar – unless you want the little ones to turn into real monsters! Get creative with veggies and fruit, have plenty of chips with tasty dips, toss in some nuts – peanuts in the shell are fun, just place them in containers out on the porch, pop up some corn as the kids arrive and put bowls full on the kitchen table.

As a group, you might opt to head out to trick or treat in your neighborhood or you can provide each child with some treasures to put in their decorated bags as they head off home.

Doughnut on a String Game:
What you need: doughnuts, scissors, string, tacks or a clothesline, a fun prize

• Buy a bunch of confectioner powdered doughnuts from your local grocer.
• Cut string into different lengths; long enough to hang from the ceiling or clothesline. Vary the lengths to the children playing the game.
• Tie one end around the doughnut, secure the other end with a tack on the ceiling or tie around on a clothesline, making sure to leave enough space for the children to stand and move around.
• Have each child stand underneath a doughnut that is high enough that they have to step on their tippy-toes.
• Have them hold their hands behind their back and at the word GO they must try to take a bite out of the doughnut – no hands allowed!
• The child that takes the first bite from the dangling doughnut is the winner.

Bobbing For Apples:
What you need: tub or basin, water, apples, timer, pen and paper, fun prize

• Fill a tub or basin with water and toss in several apples; they will float in the water.
• Have the kid participating hold their hands behind their back and at the word GO (hit the timer) they must try to take a bite out of one of the apples – no hands allowed!
• Write down name and time of the apple bite for each participant.
• The first one to get the bite out of the apple...in the best time is the winner!
• Fun Fact: On 19 February, 2008 Ashrita Furman from New York, bobbed 33 apples in one minute to establish a world record.

Carrot Curls:

• Use a vegetable peeler to cut a long strip of peeled carrot.
• Roll, secure with a toothpick, and place in a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator.
• In 2 – 3 hours remove from cold water, pull out the toothpick, stretch out the carrot curls and place on a plate.

Celery Boats:

• Cut celery stalks into three pieces.
• Fill each piece with 2 – 3 teaspoons of cream cheese.
• Mix pineapple or finely chopped apple into the cream cheese before filling the boats for added flavor and goodness.
• You might like to top the celery boats with raisins or sunflower seeds.

For the Adults:

It’s easy to have a blast-of-a-party for the big people too, especially if they still enjoy dressing up. And if you think of it as a potluck with people wearing costumes, it takes the pressure down a notch or three.

Going with a theme? Make sure to include that in the invite so people know what type of food to bring to the Halloween Party Potluck. Include your pick of their best recipe to each guest or give them a challenge to try something new.

Just like candy turns our little ones into monsters, so can alcohol at an adult-only Halloween Party. If you are hosting it’s more than okay to say NO to alcohol, divvy it out in a punchbowl – once it’s gone that’s it, or take names and keys of the DD (designated driver)!

With that said, let’s get to the plan for your perfect Halloween Bash! If you are choosing a theme decorate simply to give the feel when everyone arrives. Include the Doughnut on a String or Bobbing for Apples games as a blast-from-the-past, have a guest vote costume judging contest, play a game like Apples to Apples, or just sit comfortably around the television - with all the snacks - to watch a camp or scary Halloween movie.

Guest Vote Costume Contest:

• Announce the costume contest once all guests have arrived
• Provide slips of paper and a pen
• Decorate a box with your Halloween Party Theme or simply have guests toss their votes into a bowl
• As the evening begins to wind down pull the guest votes out to announce the winner
• Options: Set a time for all votes to be in
• Give 1st to 3rd awards - depending on the number in the crowd
• Offer winning prizes from simple to elaborate, dependent on your Halloween party budget.
• Have a printed certificate ready to hand to the winner - easy to make in any word processor
• Give the top winner a bottle of local wine: second and third gifts can be gag gifts or a printed certificate

Top Ten Adult Halloween Party Theme Ideas:

• In the Woods
• Medievally
• My Favorite Animal
• Movie Fanatic
• Day of the Dead
• Going Green
• Freak Out!
• Masquerade Ball
• Vampire Fest
• Walking Commercial

(Bukisa ID #150071)

Content Source: Halloween Party Tips - Kids to Adults - Bukisa.com

Feel The Spark!

From my own little corner of the world this video sparked something in me!

Beautifully Illustrated - Thought Provoking - A Real Experience!

Watch it and feel the spark too!

Twitter's Little Blue Bird Being Assaulted By The NFL

Has  social media monster met its match in the National Football League (NFL)? Will there be a showdown much like the famed Godzilla and (insert your favorite gargantuan creature) weekly death matches that destroyed Tokyo on a regular basis?

Not only has the NFL seen fit to protect it's television revenues by banning Twitter tweets by players and other personnel starting at 90 minutes before game time until after the game, it is now putting a moratorium on the press. No tweets, Facebook updates, or any other Web 2.0 activity that could be translated as real time broadcast of the games.

This is all laughable to me. The mighty NFL who has maybe three teams that don't sell out from week to week and has franchise licensing coming out of the wazoo, not to mention a multi-billion dollar television contract, is trying to squash the little blue bird.

I have to ask myself this; what morons make decisions for the major professional sports? Are the front office idiots so focused that they have no memory of what  their counterparts in Major League Baseball (MLB) did a couple years back? Remember the backlash that MLB received for trying to sue little league teams that used the emblems of MLB franchises? You could almost see the villagers outside of Bud Selig's office with pitchforks and blazing torches.

Okay, I know that the NFL isn't acting against children, or are they? Have you seen some of the tantrums thrown on Twitter?

Gotta wonder how long it will take before sport's journalists will become "paid" spectators at the games, tweeting their little hearts out. The next move by the NFL would surely be to ban cell phones in the stadiums. Then what? Maybe a lobby for a congressional  mandate enacting an Internet "black out" on Sundays?

I realize that the NFL has a right to put up a fight to protect their interests, but in the end, will they have the balls?

Life Can Change on a Dime!

At our age we never thought we'd be so strapped for cash. It's crazy really! In hindsight, there hadn't been any planning prior to my husbands job layoff - our bad! With a job bills got paid, food was on the table, if a sporadic moment happened - lunch with a friend, a night out on the town, that cute pair of shoes - we would just pay cash, not even worry. Well, now that life has changed, the money crunch game is being played out and is more than we can take most days.

As a kid, I remember my mom saying, "Robbing Peter to pay Paul", then it made no sense...now it does! Knowing our situation is not unique to what is happening to a lot of people, my mom's words then are a glaring example of what many are facing and talking about today. There is an undercurrent of 'money stress'. In fact, all you need to do is chat with a few friends or drive through town to see all the businesses that have closed to realize that things have changed in a very major way! It's truly scary on a very personal level and as a whole!

For right now we are busy playing the money crunch game but we promise to get back to you with some strategies that don't include, "Robbing Peter to pay Paul"!

Side Note...totally off track, will kinda.

Life can change on a dime, yet some things never change! Sitting on the porch today writing down my thoughts Wally, our goat, had to check out what I was doing. Before I knew it he nabbed the corner of my paper and took a bite! As I chased him off the porch that wild barn animal left me with some raisinets - code word for goat poop! Eww!

So moral of this whole story - curl up in a ball and die or die laughing! I'll opt for the latter. You?

Zeros, and Zeros, and Zeros~ Oh My!

Surprise! The White House announced that the national budget deficit is going to reach 9 trillion dollars within a decade. Which will be more than all the previous deficits combined. As impressive as this feat is, this news really shouldn't come as a big shock to anyone. The government has been printing money at blazing speeds since the beginning of the year, and I'm betting that Federal Inkers may be the only group, in the whole country, getting massive overtime . It would be foolish to believe that the government is not understating that number. After all, when you're talking this many zeros, 0000000000000, what's a another zero or two between fellow countrymen?

Now, I'm not blaming President Obama entirely for the ongoing debt accumulation, because I still feel the blood of the nation's financial health is on all of our hands, as it taints hands of the generations that came before us. Irresponsible fiscal policies, from home to the House, has been the norm rather than the exception. But, Mr. Obama seems to be hell bent for leather on throwing what is becoming increasingly useless paper in the gaping yawns of the economic and social firewalls.

America's health care system has been a joke for decades and needs more than money thrown at it. It needs more than retooling to make it look like any other NHS any where in the world. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with the health systems of Britain or Canada. but America needs to really think this through. We need to take a deep breath and look at how we can get the job done with out bleeding money like an open faucet.

From the U.S. Department of Health Human Services on February 4th, 2009:

$198 million in new Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) discretionary funds to strengthen program integrity oversight activities.  These funds will be used by CMS, the Inspector General, and Department of Justice to fight fraud and abuse in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit and Medicare Advantage programs, and expand financial management oversight of the Medicaid program.

Lord, I bet you could give that job to the Sopranos for a lot less than this per year.

Our government practices graft on such a subtle level that it is almost sublime. American citizens regularly wince at the extra dollar we fork over to the government while not feeling its slimy hands slide in our wallet for two more. This usually comes in the form of pork barrel budgeting and monolith bureaucracies.

The man who ran on the platform of change is just another politician. In the midst of a crisis, he acts with his keen instincts, toss money and secure another four years. Leave one war, and step up the efforts in another. Just like most of those before him, our current president is looking like he knows how to handle his position.

All The New Digs

I thought I had gone daft, or maybe I was drunk in the least.

I pulled up to the front door here, opened it and just knew I was at the wrong blog. I even looked to make sure I had the right keys. After taking my shoes off and gently feeling my way around, I knew the keys were right (thank god Correen hadn't called the locksmith, yet), and I was at the right place.

WOW! Ni-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-c-e. I'm digging the chair at the beach, but I better be careful not to fart in it, because we share it. I wouldn't want HER to fart in it. Look, there's my ugly mug on the left hand side, and I see it as soon as I open the door. Impressive. She even left some Tootsie Rolls out for me, and even unwrapped them, although it looks like some of them rolled onto the beach. I'll just brush a couple of those off. Yum!

This is the second time this week I've to open the door to new surroundings. The first was an unexpected eviction from my blog home at WordPress .com. No notice, just a splash page that was more like a cold bucket of water thrown in my face. Apparently I had violated the TOS there in some fashion, so WP thought it would be cool to lock me out. I have mailed support a few times, but not a peep.

Instead of being pissed about it, I went ahead and fired up a "stand alone", which is something I've wanted to do for a while anyway. My new blog will be about writing and Squidoo. Just another place to widen my footprint.

Some folks scoff at change, but not me. I think it's a Gemini thing. I get bored easy and look for freshness in my life, or is it because I have some kind of attention defic............LOOK! A piece of shiny foil floating by........

How Do You Stop a Puppy From Eating Tootsie Rolls?

A Tootsie Roll? To a Puppy it equals litter divin' for Kitty Poop! I know, yuck, yuck, yuck!

If you are looking for the long answer cure, I'd suggest you head on over to your vet or better yet, the puppy psychologist because I have no clue other then what we are NOW trying really hard to remember to do! I've got the quick cure, even for those puppies and big dogs that LOVE Tootsie Rolls with a little bit of crunch..eww!...just got a visual!

I can't get lax for even a second...my puppy knows right away if I do and that he's grossed me out!! It's probably my loud screeching that pulls his attention away, otherwise I'm sure he'd keep dining diving in! So what are we doing?

We've placed the Tootsie Roll kitty litter box in a 'gated community'. It's now in the hallway between the bathroom and the living room...sheesh like that was such a brainchild!

Gotta say, when I have to pass between the gate it helps me remember what happened the last time I forgot to close it! I'm getting trained...along with the puppy! Now that's a win--->win!