Unique Thanksgiving Invitaions...

Make your event a little more bountiful and fulfilling! There are several ways to invite your gang for Thanksgiving !

Ok lets see :

• A traditional mail in invite is very formal and for those who get together with people on a formal basis. Real Simple has some already printed cards. 
  
• Of course phone calls to your friends and family is fun as you can plan the menu and plan on who is getting what.
  
• Nowadays with Facebook being so the way to keep in touch -plan your Thanksgiving day on Facebook.
  
• Of course, Evites and other online party planning sites are popular too.
  

But have you heard of this one :  from Thanksgivinghistory.net : Another great idea for top quality Thanksgiving invitations is to write them on the side of a turkey and send your prospective guests the whole bird. Tree bark is another media on which to write the perfect Thanksgiving invitation. Most people don't know that you can put a stamp and an address on just about anything and the post office will deliver it. In fact, the more Bohemian you can make the Thanksgiving invitations, the better.

So, Thanksgiving was traditionally a time to give thanks for bountiful harvests. Today, it is a time to gather with family and friends and to give thanks for our many blessings.

5 Great bbooks for Thanksgiving

1. 10 Fat Turkeys
2. Thanksgiving 101: Celebrate America's Favorite Holiday with America's Thanksgiving Expert
3. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
4. How to Cook a Turkey: And All the Other Trimmings
5. Mary's First Thanksgiving: An Inspirational Story of Gratefulness

Here is a Thanksgiving joke ! 

Why do you eat a turkey rather than keep it as a pet? 

Because otherwise it will use fowl language on you.

The Ugg Boot Craze..sheepskin ugg boots from down under!

The shopping season has just started and whether you are in the hottest part of the planet or in the coldest UGG Boots are everywhere ! 

The term ugg boots is derived from “ugly boots” !  Aussies love to abbreviate every common term used everyday. They were considered ugly because they were different, bulky and plain...but there is no denying that these Aussie ugg boots are great for comfort and warmth.

Uggs, or Ughs!, as some fashion critics call them, really took off in the spring of 2003, after Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Hudson were photographed in them and demand soared. Today they are still just as popular and you see everyone from Oprah to Victoria Beckham sporting them.

So if you want fashion and comfort....get a pair  for yourself !

8 Ways to REUSE Plastic and Paper Bags

Living Green is easy when you stretch your mind to use regular everyday items for unusual things. Here are 8 ways you never thought you could use plastic and paper bags.

According to the Sierra Club reusing a bag meant for just one use has a big impact. A sturdy, reusable bag needs only be used 11 times to have a lower environmental impact than using 11 disposable plastic bags. When 1 ton of plastic bags is reused or recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil are saved.

Paper or Plastic?

The energy and other environmental impacts embodied in a plastic grocery bag is somewhat less than in a paper grocery bag. But paper is easier to recycle, being accepted in most recycling programs. The recycling rate for plastic bags is very low.

So, which is better for the environment? Neither! The fact is that the difference between paper and plastic RECYCLING is small compared with the REUSING bags.


Plastic Grocery bags

1. Cover your car’s side mirrors and windshield wipers plastic grocery bags, if you park outside in winter and you won’t have to scrape ice off in the a.m.

2. To protect small outdoor plants from frost at night, cover them with plastic grocery bags and tie the handles tightly around the pots. Be sure to take the bags off in the morning.

3. Don't buy fancy bags for travelling...When packing a suitcase, use the plastic grocery bags to keep shoes from soiling clothes and dirty things from clean ones.

4.Wrap drinking glasses and other fragile items when you’re moving. A layer of three or four plastic grocery bags around each piece provides enough protection and won’t leave nasty newspaper ink or annoying pieces of Styrofoam all over everything.

Paper Bags

1. Place unripe peaches, plums, or green tomatoes in a bag. The closed bag traps ethylene, the natural gas released by the ripening fruit (while still allowing a little ventilation), which helps it ripen faster.

2. To add an extra layer of weed deterrence to your garden, place plain bags, with no dye, on the soil around plants before adding mulch.


3. Save paper bags from the grocery store and use them to wrap parcel packages. That brown paper costs a lot more when you buy it in a roll.

4. Instead of throwing away your brown paper bags, reuse them. Cut them into squares about the size of paper towels. When you need to drain fried foods, line a plate with one or two of the squares. Top the squares with a paper towel to prevent the food from coming in direct contact with the paper bag. The paper bag squares will absorb an amazing amount of grease, and the toweling will last incredibly long.

Have you gotten taken yet? April Fools Day 2008

2008 April Fools Jokes

Google does it again !
The Dotcom is at it again with "Gmail Custom Time" and (which purports to let users send e-mails into the past and consequently never miss important deadlines again) and "Virgle", a faux collaboration on an "open-source" Mars expedition between Google and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

No Chair Fare
The Herald Sun, an Australian tabloid, published an advertisement by Virgin Blue advertising the 'No Chair Fare' offering standing room for half the price of the regular fare and free calf massages for flights longer than two hours. Visiting Virgin's website reveals the offers to be an April fools joke. Still hundreds tried to purchase standing tickets by contacting Virgin by phone.

Celebrating the 29th of February - Leap Year 2008

Were you born in a Leap year? I am sure you don't know. The Leap Year Calculator is a great place to find out whether you were born in a Leap year. It is so much fun. Here is what you can do to remember this special day. Write to an old friend then bring it to the post office and ask them to hand stamp it with the date.

The Leap Day - 29th of February !
The 29th of February, or the Leap Day has been associated with age-old traditions, superstitions and folklore. It occurs every four years in years evenly divisible by four except for centenary years not divisible by 400. A leap day is more likely to occur on Mondays or Wednesdays. Leap Day and the events because of Leap Day, are often mistaken for Sadie Hawkins Day, but that is in November. The only similarity is in the fact that the woman has the opportunity to do the asking. February 29 is NOT Sadie Hawkins Day. It is Leap Year Day, or simply, Leap Day.

Leap into the depths of your brain with a Leap Year Quiz

1. When did the idea of Leap Year begin?
2. What’s the Leap Year capital of the world?
3. When was the last Leap Year?
4. February 29th is also called Sadie Hawkins Day—True or False?
5. People born on Leap Day are called _______________?
6. When do these people celebrate their birthdays each year?
7. What are the chances of actually being born on Leap Year Day?
8. People with leap year birthdays are what percent of the population?

Answers:

1. 45 BC
2. Anthony, Texas
3. 2004
4. False
5. Leapers
6. Either February 28th or March 1st, it’s their choice
7. The odds are 1 in 1,461 8. Less than one percent

So what ARE you going to do with this EXTRA day ? How do people celebrate the Leap Day?
Here are some Leap year traditions.......

Wedding Proposals
It's an old Irish tradition for women to ask men to marry them on Leap Day. In Scotland, if a man refused a lady's proposal, he had to either give her a kiss, a pair of gloves or a silk dress. As the story goes, the tradition of women romantically pursuing men in leap years began in 5th century Ireland, when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about the fair sex having to wait for men to propose. Patrick finally relented and set February 29 aside as the day set aside allowing women the right to ask for a man's hand in marriage.

Leap Day Cocktail
This one was created at London's Savoy Hotel for a Leap Day party in 1928.

2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1/4 ounce
fresh lemon juice
1 lemon twist, for garnish

Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add the garnish.

Leap Day Smoothie

1 scoop of vanilla ice cream or plain yogurt
1 banana
1 tablespoon of
peanut butter
1 cup of ice

Blend till frothy. Enjoy !

Where's the coldest spot in the universe?

Where's the coldest spot in the universe? By Tom Shachtman
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/12359501.html
Smithsonian magazine, January 2008

This week it felt like Chicago was the COLDEST SPOT in the universe ! But Physicists in Massachusetts come to grips with the lowest possible temperature: absolute zero

Where's the coldest spot in the universe? Not on the moon, where the temperature plunges to a mere minus 378 Fahrenheit. Not even in deepest outer space, which has an estimated background temperature of about minus 455°F. As far as scientists can tell, the lowest temperatures ever attained were recently observed right here on earth.

The record-breaking lows were among the latest feats of ultracold physics, the laboratory study of matter at temperatures so mind-bogglingly frigid that atoms and even light itself behave in highly unusual ways. Electrical resistance in some elements disappears below about minus 440°F, a phenomenon called superconductivity. At even lower temperatures, some liquefied gases become "superfluids" capable of oozing through walls solid enough to hold any other sort of liquid; they even seem to defy gravity as they creep up, over and out of their containers.

.......for more go here

A good read !

Hope ! Dream & Change !

Someone once said, There is not telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream ! Dream you should.... dream big and dream the impossible! Did you know that dreams are only thoughts you didn't have time to think about during the day. Dreams are what makes life worthwhile. Without dreams we would have no hope. And without hope there would be no reason for waking up in the mornings !

I think of all these things as I hear the candidates give us hope for a better future, a hope that they will bring about change. Arent you intrigued? Intangible words like hope, dream and change can inspire us and make the most sense. These words somehow give us direction and purpose.

Coupled with the tangible things that we do these intangible words can actually make the most difference in our lives.

Just a thought !

$200,000 buys you a Ticket to Ride in SPACE !

The SpaceShipOne Project, the "First Private Manned Space Program" was unveiled today, 24th January, 2008, by noted design wizard Burt Rutan and his company, Scaled Composites, Inc. British billionaire Sir Richard Branson hailed the "year of the spaceship" as he unveiled the designs of two crafts which could help take the first tourists into space. Work on SpaceShipTwo, and its mothership White Knight Two, is nearing completion and flight tests will begin later this year. Sir Richard said this "historic occasion" could help "to answer key questions about Earth's climate and the mysteries of the universe".

Wow, I did not think that this would happen in my lifetime...what else can man do?

News feed and Video from : Reuters