Oh I read this story at Hailey’s Beats and Bits and HAD to keep the ball rolling. What an incredible story!

— The Best Gift Ever —

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer’s showroom and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted. As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had
purchased the car.

Finally, on the morning of his graduation his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man’s name embossed in gold. Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, “With all your money you give me a Bible?” And stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things. When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.

He began to search through his father’s important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. His father had carefully underlined a verse, Matt 7:11, “And if ye, being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly father which is in heaven, give to those who ask Him?” As he read those words, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer’s name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words…

PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God’s blessing because they are not packaged as we expected? I trust you enjoyed this. Pass it on to others. Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for…

When I was in high school, there was a popular books called “100 Uses For a Dead Cat.” Some things were pretty funny, but it was a rather nasty book. This photo reminds me of it a little. How to tell if your shoes smell….

This may just constitute cruelty to animals…

Cats are good for more than just testing shoes. Here’s a true story, told to my husband by one of his co-workers.

This co-worker, Jake, has a cat. Every morning, the cat would bound into Jake’s bedroom to wake him up. Like a good cat, this cat would wake Jake up EARLY. Like, 4am! It’s a good thing that Jake needed to get up that early, to go to work; otherwise Jake wouldn’t have been so tolerant of this cat.

Anyway, one morning, Jake woke up later than usual. The cat had not woken him up that morning. Instead, Jake turned in bed to see the cat in his bed, peering down over his headboard, and staring at the wall behind. The cat was absolutely entranced with something behind the headboard. Jake sat up to see what the cat was staring at, but saw nothing.

The next morning, the exact same thing happened! Jake again peered down behind his headboard– maybe a mouse or a spider? He saw nothing.

The next morning– the same thing again! The cat was silent every time, but he was on the bed, paws on the headboard, peering down the wall behind. Jake was perplexed. He determined that when he returned from work later that day, he’d pull the bed away from the wall and see what the cat was staring at.

That evening, Jake moved the bed away from the wall and saw his electrical outlet receptacle. He got down on all fours to look closely. All around the receptacle slots were black scorch marks. Apparently, the outlet had shorted and was arcing. The cat had noticed the arcs! Jake said that his cat probably saved his life!

So, if you have a cat, count your blessings! They can test your shoes and watch your electrical system! Now if only they could help with weight loss programs!

Photo of unconscious cat from Funny Offbeat News (not a kid’s site).

I saw this posted at Forced Green- a great blog- and had to pass this on. Some of these I’ve tried, but others I haven’t. Wow! I’m going to try some of these! Here are my favorites, and I’ve added a few comments.

• Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Cool! I look forward to trying this, as the kids refuse to eat overripe bananas. I usually throw them (the bananas, not the kids) in the freezer for baking banana bread… but I don’t bake banana bread so much anymore… so it’s gotten to the point where whenever I open my freezer, all these frozen bananas come shooting out. Woe to the person with bare feet!

• Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Hm. Wouldn’t the cheese absorb the taste or odor of aluminum foil?

• Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

I do that, and it works.

• To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich, add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

My husband, who makes great omelets (but cannot cook anything else) adds regular milk.

• Expanding Frosting. When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Oh my gosh that is a great tip.

• Newspaper keeps weeds away. Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

I’m a gardener, and this is effective. It also helps to lay newspaper down before laying mulch down. However– be SURE to punch a few holes in the newspaper. A plant’s roots need oxygen and water– solid layers of newspaper may suffocate your plant.

• No More Mosquitoes. Place a dryer sheet in your pocket.It will keep the mosquitoes away.

This I have GOT to try. I’m desperate and will try anything. Although, here in the Northeast we have more of a problem with blackflies than mosquitoes. They are NASTY creatures.

• Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn’t hurt the plant and the squirrels won’t come near it.

I’ve heard this and I also heard that sometimes a squirrel will be stupid by touching the cayenne pepper and then rubbing his eyes. This causes the poor squirrel intense pain and may even blind him. So I don’t use pepper. Squirrels eat bulbs, which are under the soil. I have found that if you lay chicken wire in the ground (above the bulbs but below the soil), the squirrels can’t scratch through to get your bulbs. I’ve also heard that if you plant daffodils (which squirrels hate) next to your tulips and lilies (which squirrels love), they will be less inclined to dig up your plants.

• Reopening envelope. If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

I am ALWAYS forgetting to include something so I waste a lot of envelopes. This is a great tip.

• Conditioner. Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It’s cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It’s also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t like when you tried it in your hair.

Question: won’t this dull the razor blade? Here’s an extra tip– to make your blades last longer, dry the blades when you are done.

• Goodbye Fruit Flies. To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2? with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Ah! Fruit flies are the plague of WalMart. We never have fruit flies until I buy WalMart produce! Since WalMart has effectively killed off competition and it is now the only store I can shop, I’m stuck with fruit flies. I can’t wait to try this tip!

• Get Rid of Ants. Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants They eat it, take it home, they can’t digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don’t have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

I’ve heard this same tip with using grits. The ants never went with my grits, so I’ll try cornmeal. We are having an invasion of ants currently– it’s massive and like something from a horror movie– I’m looking forward to trying this, too!

I grew up by the shores of Oneida Lake, the biggest inland lake in New York State. We have TONS of lakes, ponds, rivers, and creeks. Boating is really big here in the summer. The Erie Canal is one of our most popular boating attractions. And there’s also the Great Lakes Ontario and Erie that are big with boaters. But every year we hear in the news about another fatal boating accident. Usually it’s some boater who got absolutely wasted on alcohol or drugs, was driving his boat at breakneck speed, and kills someone. Totally irresponsible, and it’s heart wrenching to hear about it.

So if you have a boat or you know someone who does, gather then ’round the computer to watch these videos.

Boating, like driving, is an activity that should be taken seriously. There are lots of sites that offer Boating Education Online. Enjoy your summer but please boat safely!

ROFL! I’ve been a cat owner almost all my life. I LOVE cats, but they can drive me insane! Our kitty Fuzzy is nuts. This cat has shredded my wallpaper, climbed my curtains, and woken us all up at 3am with his noisy antics. We used to have him in the house, but he was banished after he attacked my cockatiel bird. The bird was in a cage, seven feet up hanging from the ceiling, but Fuzzy leaped onto the TOP of the cage! Out out out!

So when I found this video I cracked up. The cat is so cute, but… yeah, I know exactly what the guy means. lol

From the All Cute Cats blog.

School’s out and we’ve nothing to do, all of a sudden. Someone please tell me why kids moan and groan about homework all year and then when summer comes, they are “bored”? So we’re trying to think of cool things to do without spending all our life savings on gasoline. I just found out today that we may be able to get some complimentary tickets to the Baseball Hall of Fame in nearby Cooperstown, NY. :D That would be so much fun! We’ve never been there. I’m not a huge baseball fan but if it’s free– hey, why not!

I’ve always preferred what I call the “finer” sports– gymnastics, ice skating, and tennis. There is an elegance to these sports, something not found with, for example, football, where men are pounding into each other while they chase a ball. :S When I was a very young lass, I never missed the gymnastics competitions of the Olympics, and I never missed the televised tennis Wimbledon games. How I remember Billie Jean King and her fabulous, athletic style! I’d LOOOOVE to go to the UK– to Wimbledon– to see the matches live. I’d love to daintily eat the strawberries and cream and perhaps get a glimpse of the royal family in the seats. Someday we really are going to go to the UK (I want to research my genealogy), and I’ve heard that Wimbledon debenture tickets are easily obtained. The tickets are calling my name……!

I know I have visitors from the UK to this blog… have you ever seen a Wimbledon match? Is tennis as popular in the UK as it is here?

I’ve moaned and groaned about my various problems with dropping Entrecards. A lot of time the cards don’t show up, and I have to reload and reload to get them to appear. But something mysterious has been occurring ever since I started Entrecards and I think I’ve finally pinpointed the problem. I’d appreciate it if anyone else who is experiencing this would leave a comment. Maybe something can be done.

I have Verizon DSL (ethernet and wireless). We have five computers connected to the network here. They are usually not all on at the same time… usually it’s just two or three online at a time. I am the only person in the household who drops Entrecards. Whenever i start dropping cards, our DSL connection drops- this usually happens after about 5 minutes. The disconnect lasts anywhere from one minute to four or five minutes. The DSL connection affects all the computers in the house. So when I drop cards and the DSL disconnects, my husband cannot surf news or watch videos and etc, and my daughter upstairs loses her IM chat and can’t surf the web. WEIRD. we all have to wait until the DSL goes back on, which is anywhere from one minute to five minutes. WEIRD. This has been going on for the longest time, too!

I think I am finally starting to put the pieces together. I saw this at the Entrecard forum. Apparently, someone else is having this problem, too. All the dudes at Entrecards are puzzled, but so far nothing has been done. The forum thread was initially posted 130 days ago!

My firmware for my DSL modem is updated. And I use the Internet very heavily a lot of times. But this seems to be an Entrecard filtering issue.

I’d like to know if anyone else has this happen? did you find a fix? This is affecting other things, too. When I use Firefox, the DSL disconnect screws with the browser, and Firefox crashes. I have been going crazy looking for a fix on that, too, to no avail.

Any geeks out there have any suggestions?

I’m exhausted today. Usually I am pretty perky, but lately my energy has been rock-bottom. I pulled out my back (*again*!!!!!!!!!!!! grrrr!) and have been off my feet for a few days. So my therapy at the gym has been put on hold until I get better. I drink too much coffee, I know, and that tends to give me instant perkiness, but then saps my strength later. And I’ve gotten out of the newly-formed habit of taking my vitamins. I guess I really wonder if the vitamins do anything?! I never feel better after taking them. I’d read that those big vitamin pills are very inefficient, because your body finds it hard to absorb the ingredients. There is NO WAY I’m ever going to be taking vitamin shots, though!

I’ve been reading and hearing about something called Sublingual B-12, from Trivita. It’s a unique kind of vitamin, because you don’t swallow it. Rather, the little tablet goes under your tongue, where it dissolves. This aids in the absorption of the nutrients. I have been pondering trying them out, and they way I’ve been feeling lately, maybe I should procrastinate no longer. I think I really should try Sublingual B-12 from Trivita today. :D

Well, I recently criticized Al Gore in a post, and since I’m a fair person, I’ll post something about President Bush. He hasn’t turned out the be the president most thought he would be (he ain’t no Republican, that’s for sure). I guess you could say he’s “falling” in the polls. Check out this game!

LOL!

I’m not a big fan of Al Gore, lol, and I’m getting a little tired of him shaking his finger at people! But I am 100% in favor of conserving energy and being thrifty and resourceful. I hate waste! And it seems that whenever I plug in my behemoth old vacuum, the lights in the rest of the neighborhood dim and my electric meter jumps up (as well as my electric bill). Energy is so expensive here in New York State, so a lot of us housewives have been hunting for ways to save on those big bills. The time has finally come–an Energy Star-approved cordless vacuum! It’s the new Dirt Devil AccuCharge! This thing should have a sticker of a smiling Al Gore. Then maybe he’ll quit nagging and whining, lol!

The new AccuCharge Stick Vac and Hand Vac use 70% less energy. That knocks a huge chunk of energy off my bill! We have a lot of carpeting (and it’s old, so it’s harder to vacuum), and every bit helps. It is TERRIFIC that companies are recognizing the need for more efficient, energy-conserving appliances. The Dirt Devil AccuCharge not only gets Energy Star approval– it gets Freaky Frugalite approval!