Wishing everyone a ...

Gift Card Shoppers Beware

Just an FYI........
I wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as 'Bankrupcy Planning). Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, and Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down specialty stores
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down
Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January
Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stores
K B Toys closing 356 stores
Lowes to close down some stores
Dillard's to close some stores

Project

Here's a long overdue showoff of a project.
It started back in May... but there were bumps along the way.
(You may notice the door prior to installation doesn't quite match the final picture!)

We LOVE the door!
It's *more* window... so the cats love it too!

Fundraising

As I've already mentioned in September, a fellow Blogger has been reaching out to those far & wide, seeking help for his daughter with an assistance dog. Training one of these dogs is very expensive. So far they have raised an amazing $5,080. But they still need help -- it costs $13,000 to train an assistance dog.

The ways to contribute have expanded, and I wanted to share this information with my "far & wide" people...

• morganbosley has created a lovely fundraising photo & photo card set with Amelia in mind -- all the money goes directly to 4 Paws for Ability


• The Freemans are putting together a fundraising cookbook -- donations can be made in the form of recipes!


• the standard forms of donation are still welcome too... online donations via Network for Good or PayPal, as well as check donations

Helping the family to raise training money allows Amelia to have her dog much sooner. (Otherwise it would be a 2-5 year wait.) Any donation, large or small, money or recipes, is greatly appreciated!

Random Humor

more animals

Sorry...

... yet again. I've been really lax with posting -- for quite some time now. (Bad me.) I think of ideas when I'm away from the computer... then it slips my mind when I'm near it. Plus, I've been diligently working on a project elsewhere in the house. All in hopes that it will become a Christmas gift for someone. I know if I put that to the side, it could easily become unfinished (and I don't want that to happen -- I've invested too much time already.)

Update on my last post:
My eye infection at least had good timing. At the end of that week I had an eye exam already scheduled -- the doctor was able to give me a thumbs up for keeping my contacts out all week. Also provided me with a different antibiotic eye drop to finish the healing. The disadvantage to the eye appointment was the timing of the exam itself -- turns out with the infection, my eye was swollen, thus altered my "results." I wore my new glasses for about a week, giving me plenty of time to get used to them. But they just weren't right. I was seeing colors that weren't there (light blue on one side of an object & a yellow/brown on the other) -- I felt like the world turned into a 3D movie, but I left my glasses at home. As I already mentioned, my eye exam wasn't accurate, I found this out Tuesday when I had my Rx rechecked. The color "thing" was no surprise to him. So yet another order has been placed. Hopefully it will arrive soon. (And more importantly, be accurate!)

(Mainly for Mutti...)
Another thing I learned is that an astigmatism is not as simple as the shape of your eye being different. There are different forms of it. Mine is in the lens of the eye, which can continue to fluctuate (getting better or worse) until the age of 43 (there abouts). I mention this because at my first exam I was told the astigmatism in my right eye got much better, however the nearsightedness got much worse. (Which is why I was told to give my glasses a chance -- they were such a different Rx.)

Falling Apart

Ok, so I didn't want to go writing another post about how crappy I've been feeling lately. I kept away for a week for that reason. But since I've seen the I'm not dead yet post, all I can picture is Monty Python... 'tis but a flesh wound.


While for me there is no flesh wound, but I feel like I'm falling apart nonetheless. The congestion has been rediculously long lasting and painful -- my jaw & teeth have been hurting due to the sinus pressure. Then I began feeling pressure in my left ear. Which lead to various other issues: pain, a fluid like movement (irritating, but tolerable), a high pitch sound when I blow my nose. Then this morning I woke up with what could be pink eye -- red, itchy, burning, lovely discharge (off and on).

Hense, I'm falling apart. I can hear a voice in my head saying, "They shoot horses that limp." So at least I'm not limping.

Bueller... Bueller... Anyone... Anyone?

Yeah, I've been skipping the whole blogging thing as of late. I've been sick... and tired... and sick and tired of being sick and tired. (Know what that's like?)

During this time frame, the hubby & I were able to share the love of BBC America. A good long time ago, he mentioned the name of a show... I looked it up & set recordings for it. Well, we shared the enjoyment & now I'll share it with you -- Top Gear.

1) Love the accents. 2) Funny! 3) Cars. Ok, so the car thing doesn't really matter to me, but it may be the pull some of you out there need. It's what they do with the cars -- it's just pure humor. I wish I could post the video directly here, but alas I cannot.

I can however offer you a link: Car-Boat Challenge It's just one example of what they do. Here's my other favorite: Caravan Road Challenge

So hopefully when you're not sick, or tired, or both, you'll go check it out!