Bringing Some Important Dates to Your Attention Today

OMG, how can it already be Thursday! There are lots of things going on within the next week that I want to bring to your attention, so here we go!

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd. What have you
done for our earth lately? Remember, we borrow the
earth from our children, so leave them with a world
worth living in. 

First of all - Saturday the 22nd is Earth Day. It's a day to remember that we only have a single planet upon which we live and that if we mess this up, it's curtains for us as well as a lot of other lovely and amazing critters who share this world with us. The next race to inherit the earth after us may well be the cockroaches, so let's do our very best to assure that doesn't happen. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Replenish and Restore - treasure this world we live on. My DH and my staff know I'm a bit of a maniac about recycling. I blame/thank my aunt for that. In the early days when she lived in Aspen, she would drive miles out of her way to take her recycling to the center of town where there were bins set up for glass and paper. My mother could have given a darn, but Tante Vera cared about the environment a lot. So thanks, Tante Vera, for teaching by example. I've never forgotten it.

Check your local restaurants. Many areas will have
restaurants participating in this nationwide event.
Follow the link in the paragraph below for more
information. 

Next week, on the 27th is Dining Out for Life. This National effort helps raise funds for AIDS services. You can find out more specific information on diningoutforlife.com but check out what events might be happening in your own area and try to support them. Last year more than $4 million was raised in North America for this cause through this single event and a lot of very generous restaurants and eating establishments.

I wanted to get this, but I'm cheap. I didn't want to spend
the money on it. I'm sure it will go on sale at some
point and I'll pick it up then. I'll just have to watch
for it in the sales emails and flyers. 

Yesterday I walked into Target with a shopping list (I still ended up forgetting a couple of things, despite the list) and $55 of gift cards in my pocket. It was my intention to get a new pair of jeans and maybe a DVD with the gift cards. After shopping and getting lots of things for home and the shop, I checked out the jeans. The style I wanted was sold out of my size - my size was only available in styles that I already had and didn't want more of. Meh! So then I checked out the DVDs. I knew I wanted the Harry Potter offshoot - "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" - but ended up looking, and deciding that I'll wait until the price goes down. I'm not in a rush, I just want to have it. So, yesterday I walked back out of Target with a shopping cart full of paper products and $55 of gift cards in my pocket.

Here's hoping you have a tremendous Thursday. I'm ready to hit the pool and dive into my day running. Lots to do! Enjoy!

I Braved the Mall and World AIDS Day

Yesterday was a bit crazy. We only had a single car because DH had to keep his car at the service station for an oil change and tire rotation. So I had my breakfast and did a few errands, then came back home, picked him up and dropped him at work, then I was free until I had to fetch him after work that night to get his car retrieved.

Even though I love my new Nano mini, I really miss my older green machine and am happy that I will have it again :-)

One of my errands was seeing how much it would cost to get my old iPod Nano repaired/replaced. The screen died on it over the Thanksgiving Holiday and even though I purchased a new, smaller Nano on sale for Black Friday, I still wanted to have a back-up. So I braved the mall. I parked quite near the correct entrance (had no desire to wander the mall at all) and headed to the Apple store. My goodness. They easily had more than 20 employees on duty, and there were at least that many people "shopping" in the store. They were at the Genius Bar getting help with broken machines, they were shopping the walls of stuff for their iPhones, they were looking a the iMacs and iPads. It was a zoo. But, after I got my information and ordered a replacement at a very good price, I left the shop and realized that at least three kiosks outside of the store were also Apple. Hard to believe the castle that Jobs built.

Today is World AIDS Day. The Sydney, Australia Opera House was bathed in red lights and the Empire State Building in New York City will also be lighted in red this evening. I remember when AIDS was first diagnosed and the fear that accompanied it. The hell that some of my gay friends had to go through because of the generalized finger-pointing was truly sad. But medicines have gotten better, general knowledge has increased, and many times the disease, as bad as it is, can be controlled if watched carefully. I'm grateful for that fact because it means that some friends of mine who have had AIDS for many years are still with us today. Sometimes modern medicine can be wonderful.