Farewell, 2008

It's hard to believe that twelve months have past, but today we say goodbye to 2008. You gave us a year that we will never forget, and things that we never expected.

We never expected that we would be have to pay over four dollars a gallon for gas during this year. And we still have a hard time accepting the fact that we're in a deep recession right now.

We never expected such zeal and enthusiasm for a Presidential election, but you gave us quite a race this fall. You showed us that anything is possible if you believe hard enough; that was proof positive in the Presidential election as well as the summer Olympics in Bejing as we watched Michael Phelps and Dara Torres.

We never expected that a hurricane down at the Gulf Coast could have an impact on the 'Ville, but it did back in September, and parts of our city were without power for over a week.

We never expected jobs to be taken away from us, but as the recession continues, and not only do we see our friends and family affected, but ourselves as well.

We never expected our friends and family to be taken away from us. I still mourn the passing of my best friend in the world's mother, but at the same time, I celebrate her life and legacy.

Personally, I never expected such a change in my life during this past year. Last New Year's Eve, I would have never expected that in the coming year I would have a life-altering change, and would eventually lose over fifty pounds and would be riding my bike over ten miles every day of the week.

But for all of these unexpected things, I thank you, 2008. You made us stronger, and gave us hope for 2009.

Top Searches Of 2008

January - Heath Ledger

February - Moon maps (due to the fascination with the lunar eclipse)

March - American Idol contestants

April - Stimulus checks

May - Suri Cruise, Big Brown

June - Barack Obama, George Carlin's Seven Words

July - Montauk Monster, Dara Torres

August - Underage Chinese gymnasts, Michael Phelps

September - Hurricane Ike, Sarah Palin

October - Tina Fey, Joe the Plumber

November -Presidential election

December - Caylee Anthony, Bailouts

Just Another Manic Monday

I'm usually very happy and the one that people turn to to help them when they're feeling down, but this day started out very dark and gloomy for me, even though the sun was shining and the sky was blue. Editors note: this was not related to the Dark Place mood a few weeks ago, unfortunately; it was a totally different dark and gloomy mood. Technically, it was dark when I left for work, but you get the point. I had some things that I needed to face and sort out last night, but I was unable to get them sorted out last before I went to bed. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much last night. But thanks to a good dose of some tough love, I got things sorted out this morning at work, and all is well now.

There was one ironic twist to my dark and gloomy mood. This morning, I hooked up my iPod in the car, clicked to my current favorite play list "80's Ladies" and the first song that played was the Bangles "Manic Monday." Need I say anymore?

Link Of The Week

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that our family cut out gift giving this year, and instead made a donation to the American Diabetes Association on honor of my Mother, who is a diabetic. It was a bit odd not to have presents to open on Christmas morning, but I felt good about our donation going toward research to find a cure for diabetes. Sure, Christmas is over, but it's not too early to start thinking about next year. I found a website that deals with this very thing -- donating to worthy [and legitimate] charities instead of giving gifts at Christmas. It's called Redefine Christmas. You can find out more about it at http://www.redefine-christmas.org.

Walking In A Winter Wonderland?

It's very hard to believe that Christmas was just two days ago when the temperature outside is humid 70 degrees. Yes, you read that correctly. Here in the 'Ville today, the temperature is 70 degrees. It's extremely humid, too, and very windy. I just got back from the salon from getting my hair cut, and I told my stylist to just blow dry it instead of my usual big hair styling, because I knew as soon as I stepped foot outside in the humidity and wind it would be all over.

It's just not right - it's not supposed to be 70 degrees two days after Christmas in Louisville. I could see it, if it were in Phoenix or Los Angeles, but it's way hotter here than in Las Vegas today. It's just not right. Take last week, for example. On Friday, the high was 68 degrees. Two days later on Sunday, the high was 18 with a wind chill of -15. That's just not right, either.

I guess I'll stay inside the rest of the day so my freshly cut 'do won't get all messed up.

Friday Funnies

Ralph and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool, Ralph suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there. Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled him out.

When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna's heroic act she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as she now considered her to be mentally stable. When she went to tell Edna the news she said, "Edna, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you're being discharged, since you were able to rationally respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of the person you love. I have concluded that your act displays sound mindedness . The bad news is Ralph hung himself in the bathroom with his bathrobe belt right after you saved him. I am so sorry, but he's dead."

Edna replied, "He didn't hang himself. I put him there to dry. How soon can I go home?'

Merry Christmas

It's early afternoon on Christmas Day. By now, the presents have been all unwrapped and Christmas dinners are starting to be prepared. Even though it's just the three of us here at The Compound, it's been an awesome Christmas. We're healthy and happy and that's the main thing. This year, I asked for only one thing this Christmas, and as always, Santa came through. I asked to sleep in on Christmas Day. It sure was sweet getting up at 9:00 this morning. And I went to bed at my normal weekly time last night, too, so I sure did have a great long winter's nap. But I digress.

If you need to have some alone time today to get away from the relatives and all of the festivities, I've got a bonus Link Of The Week that I think you'll enjoy. Visit http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=5q0TO&m=8YnL_UiFQ_Pzs&b=_FbS7ldyKy7YElHHvPmWsg and you can learn about the history of Christmas. I'm hoping that you all already know the real reason we celebrate Christmas, but our friends at the History Channel will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about how Christmas has been celebrated throughout history, as well as telling us about the history of the Christmas tree and other holiday traditions.

I hope everyone has as great a Christmas as we did at The Compound.

Happy Christmas Eve

As I type this, I'm sitting here in front of the computer trying to dry out. We've had non-stop monsoons since yesterday evening. The winds have been about 20-30 mph during the continuous rain, and I didn't sleep at all last night for the rain hitting my window. So as Grandma would have said, I didn't get my nap out. But it's Christmas Eve today - and for me that means an annual trip to an old friend's house for coffee and cookies with her family. It's a Christmas Eve tradition - I go over at about noon every Christmas Eve and the adults have coffee while the kids have hot chocolate, and we all have a blast listening to the kids talk about Santa coming. Well, for their sake, I hope Santa wears some goggles tonight and has windshield wipers on his sleigh, because we've got storms, wind, and lots of rain in the forecast for this afternoon and tonight. To and from my friends' home, there was water covering roads, and in two locations MSD had closed the road due to high standing water. Great. And we're heading downtown later this afternoon for the Christmas Eve service at church. We probably should take the boat instead of the Odyessy.

On my way home from my friends' home, I called The Compound to see if they needed anything. Unfortunately for me, Mom said she would like some bananas for another holiday tradition: fruit salad. Only for my Mother would I brave the grocery store on Christmas Eve afternoon in the middle of a rain storm. The store was packed, but I was able to get my bananas and a bottle of Christmas Red nail polish and get in and out of the store in less than ten minutes -- that's a record for Christmas Eve.

I have an hour before I need to get ready for church, so I'm going to partake in yet another holiday tradition at The Compound: a nap. I deserve it.

More Christmas Song Oddities

The only time of the year that we can listen to the radio in our department at work is the week or two before Christmas; our boss would let us listen to a channel that plays all Christmas music. Well, with the boss out on medical leave leaving me the wannabe boss, of course I let us all listen to the radio for the past three weeks. And for the past three weeks, we've had more then our fill of Christmas songs. If you think they play the same song over and over again on top forty radio stations these days, you ain't heard nothing till you heard this channel that plays nothing but Christmas music until midnight Christmas day. During our few weeks of listening, we quickly became bored with the songs, and decided to start keeping track of some statistics. Here's what we found:

In "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano, the term "Feliz Navidad" is sung 21 times.

In "Santa Clause Is Coming To Town" by Bruce Springsteen, the phrase "Santa Clause Is Coming To Town" is sung 24 times.

In "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms, the word "Jingle" is sung 26 times.

In "The Little Drummer Boy" by a big choir and orchestra whose name they didn't mention, "Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum" is sung 30 times.

In "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" by Dean Martin, the phrase "Let It Snow" is sung 26 times.

In "Here Comes Santa Clause" by Elvis Presley, the phrase "Santa Clause" is sung 18 times.

In "Happy Holidays" by Andy Williams, the word "Holidays" is sung 26 times (by Andy Williams and the background vocals.)

I don't know about you, but that made me tired.

Mullet Watch

Just when I thought the mullets were all hibernating, yours truly has spotted not one but TWO mullets - at the same time and place, even. The sighting occurred last night at a 'hood food and beverage establishment. I stopped on my way home to pick up something for the the 'Rents and I for supper, and while I was sitting there waiting for my food, I spotted the two mullets. The thing that really caught my attention was not the fact that I spotted two mullets; it was the fact that their mullets and their clothes were almost identical. Both mullets were dyed jet black and long, and their hosts were wearing jeans, fake animal skin boots, and black leather jackets. Mullet #1 host had a goatee and mustache, and talked with a gravelly voice that really annoyed me. Mullet #2 host was clean shaven and a bit smaller than Mullet #1, and his mullet was thinning on the top. I was eavesdropping on their conversation, and apparently Mullet #1 was telling Mullet #2 about the Food Network show "Semi-Homemade With Sandra Lee."

Mullet count: 33

Link Of The Week

A couple of weeks ago at work, a co-worker and I decided to undertake a pretty big project: cleaning our keyboards. We got a thing of canned air, some Q-tips and our trusty Windex and went to work. We do a lot of erasing in our department, and unfortunately the eraser shavings collect in our keyboards, along with our cracker crumbs, dust and other gunk. But I digress. This week, I found a product I am going to order -- a washable keyboard. Sure, they cost a bit more, but it they work, I'm all for it. You can see for yourself at http://www.wetkeys.com. And I saw on the site that Rachel Ray just loves her Wetkeys washable keyboard. Hey - if it has her approval, then it must be worth buying.

Lines In Christmas Songs That Make No Sense

Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
"Scary ghost stories" - this just makes me say WTF? As far as I know, there are no scary ghost stories about Christmas. Are they talking about something Biblical, or are they possibly referring to Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" when Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future?

Little Saint Nick by the Beach Boys
"He's the little Saint Nick" - what exactly is a "little Saint Nick"?
"Christmas comes this time each year" - all I can say about this line is duh.

Do They Know It's Christmas
"There won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time" - once again, all I can say is duh.

Winter Wonderland
"Later on we'll conspire" - what are they conspiring about? Committing some heinous crime?

I'll Be Home For Christmas
"Presents on the tree" - I don't know about you, but in my 45 years of celebrating Christmas, I've never once seen a present on our Christmas tree.

No Place Like Home For The Holidays
"The traffic is terrific" - all I can say about this is WTF?

Do You Hear What I Hear
"A child shivers in the cold; let us bring him silver and gold" - A kid is shivering in the cold; don't you think a coat or a blanket would be a more appropriate present then silver or gold?

Oh Tennenbaum
What in the world is a tannenbaum?

Flashback Friday

In and of itself, this picture alone is worthy enough to get Flashback Friday status. FYI it was taken on Christmas Day 1964. Yes, that is yours truly all decked out in her Christmas red leotards and saddle oxford shoes. And for the record, I don't look a whole lot different today, except bigger. But I digress. If you look close at the picture, focus in on the awesome silver Christmas tree. Look a bit closer and you can see the base of the tree where the very cool color wheel was. In case you don't know or have forgotten, back in the day most people had aluminum trees with a color wheel in the stand/base that would shine different colors up on the tree. In this picture, you can clearly see the red disk that shone up on the tree (it's at the far left of the picture).

I remember laying on the floor under the tree, looking up as the colors would change and shine on the aluminum branches, and thinking this was the prettiest Christmas tree in the world. Back then, I thought that the blue and silver ornaments were all that. I'd give anything if we had that same tree today. Who knows? I would maybe put it up on the roof of the house for everybody to see.

A Christmas Miracle

I haven't mentioned this before, but for the past few weeks I've been in a very dark place; let's call it my Dark Place Mood. It was caused by a number of things -- first of all, the possibility of a strike at work was heavy on my mind, not to mention dealing with my boss and another co-worker in our cube being out until March as they deal with cancer. Add to that the fact that the 'Rents announced a few weeks ago that they were anti-Christmas this year, and you've got a recipe for a Dark Place Mood. Let me explain the Rents' anti-Christmas feelings. Let me preface by saying that we are Christians and we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and everything else surrounding Christmas is secondary. That having been said, the 'Rents said with money being tight this year with the crappy economy, and the fact that the three of us really don't need anything, we would tell relatives and friends that we normally exchange presents with that we were giving a donation to the American Diabetes Association in their names. They also said that we needed to cut down on the shopping that we do for each other. At first I was fine with it, but then the more I heard people talk about shopping and presents and other Christmas traditions, the more it bothered me. My Dark Place Mood was at it's peak over the past weekend and the first of this week. It was so bad that every day I would silently wish that we could just fast forward to January 2 and start the new year.

On Tuesday afternoon, a co-worker from the marketing department came down to tell me that we have some mutal friends, Harold and Mary. The 'Rents and I had become close friends with Harold and Mary while at Fourth Avenue Baptist Church. But when the church closed and merged and we all went our separate ways, I'm sorry to say we lost touch with each other. Then we all made the mistake of listening to the wrong people; rumours went around our circle of friends that Harold and Mary were mad at the 'Rents and I because of this and that, and in turn they heard the same thing about us. Because of the rumors, we never contacted each other. But I still thought of them a lot; hanging on the wall in the back bedroom is a framed painting that Mary did for a charity auction about 10 years ago and I was the winning bidder. But I digress. On Tuesday the co-worker said that he had dinner with Harold and Mary the night before, and when she saw his coat with our company logo on it, she asked him if he knew me, and the co-worker said they talked for twenty minutes about the 'Rents and me and how much they loved us and thought about us.

I thought about Harold and Mary most of that night, and realized that I needed to put all of the rumors aside get in touch with them. Yesterday, I left a voice mail message for the co-worker asking him to give me Harold and Mary's number so I could break the ice and call them. But I wasn't quick enough. Yesterday afternoon, the phone rang and lo and behold it was Mary. The only thing I heard at first was her say "Puddin!!!" and then I heard her big, happy laugh. We talked for ten minutes, catching up and laughing over silly inside jokes; it was as if we hadn't even lost touch for 5 years. She also told me that they had adopted a baby. Before we hung up, we promised that we would get together within the week, and we also promised each other we would never listen certain-people-who-spread-rumors again.

I guess I don't need to tell you that after the phone call from Mary on Tuesday afternoon, I was out of the Dark Place Mood. I told my two co-workers about the phone call and they were almost as happy as I was. I joked with them about how this was a Christmas miracle just like the forwarded email story about the little boy buying the Christmas shoes for his mother, or the story about the boy not getting a rifle for Christmas because his parents used the money to buy shoes for some poor kids and their widowed mother. But the more I thought of this, the more I realized that this in deed was a Christmas miracle.

Let Them Eat Cake

After much anguish, stress, anxiety and a dozen other emotions I won't even mention, I'm happy to report that a few hours ago the factory workers at work voted and finally accepted their new three year contract. So barring any unforseen problems, us office people are safe from having to work in the factory during a strike. It's been a rough three weeks, let me tell you. We've all been nerved up at work, and unfortunately have had to endure comments and being grilled almost daily by factory workers. Not just because it's my department, but us Production Scheduling folk had more than our share. Mainly it's because we work more closely with the people out in the plant than other departments, plus we're physically out there walking through the factory more than other people in the company, too. But it's over for another three years thank goodness. And the truth be told, I think we have my Mother to thank. For you see, she made a cake for me to take in and give to the guys out in the factory that work on the assembly lines that I schedule. And she said today would be the perfect day to let them eat cake. While they were still disgruntled over their new contract, they all were happy that I brought them cake today. Who knows? Maybe it sweetened them up enough for them to vote to accept the contract. Anyhoo, Mom said she'd keep on cranking out the cakes every so often for me to take in to keep them in a good mood. Whatever it takes, right?

Our First Real Taste Of Winter

I'm happy to report that the weatherazzi was bigtime wrong in their forecasts for today. They were calling for 1-4 inches of snow with a half inch of ice on top of it. We ended up with maybe an eighth of an inch of ice and no snow, thank goodness; today's commute home was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride even with no precipitation going on. But I digress. Last night and today, the weatherazzi was calling for sleet, freezing rain and snow. Some faithful readers contacted me and asked if I would do them a favor and explain the difference between sleet and freezing rain. As always, I was happy to oblige.

Actually, it's pretty simple. Freezing rain is rain that falls from a cloud as a liquid but turns to ice on contact with a freezing object. It forms a smooth ice coating, referred to as glaze. Usually, freezing rain only falls for a short time, because as the air temperature changes even slightly, freezing rain either turns to rain or to snow. Freezing rain falling with enough power can result in ice storms. Freezing rain starts out as falling snow that hits a layer of warm air on the way down, that causes it to melt and become rain. Then it passes through a thin layer of cold air that super cools it. When the drops hit frozen surfaces they freeze, forming a layer of ice.

Sleet is frozen or partially frozen raindrops, in the form of ice pellets. Sleet forms as rain passes through a layer of freezing air above the ground. The rain freezes to form hard, clear, tiny ice pellets. These pellets hit the ground fast, and bounce off with a clicking sound.

Now we know the difference between sleet and freezing rain, and we'll be able to decipher the forecasts of the weatherazzi.

Mullet Watch

It's been cold, so I guess that the mullets have been stay indoors away from our watchful eyes. But just days ago, I spotted not one but two mullets at the same time. After doing some quick research in the TWIT archives, I'm proud to report that we have another first in Mullet Watch: I spotted a mother and daughter mullet duo. They were spotted Thursday night in the parking lot of our local 'hood Wal-Mart putting groceries in their mini-van. It was dark, and I saw them from a distance so I couldn't get a real look at the color of the mullets, but just from looking at the age difference of the mullets hosts, I reasoned that they were mother and daughter. Plus, they looked a bit alike. They were equal opportunity local sport fans - the daughter was wearing a U of L coat while the mother was sporting a UK coat.

Mullet count: 28

Note: we've just got a couple of weeks left before the year ends and we start over on the mullet count for the new year. Last year in 2007, we spotted 32 mullets. We're just a few away, faithful readers. Everyone be on the lookout for the mullets in the coming days while you're out shopping. I know we can find some more.

Link Of The Week

I know that there are a lot of "The Simpsons" fans out there; unfortunately, I am not one of them. Sure, I've watched the show now and again over the years, but it's not on my list of favorites. With the popularity of the show, it seems like I'm in the minority, so this week's Link Of The Week is just for "The Simpsons" fans. I found a website where you can listen to every episode of "The Simpsons". Yep, you can listen to every "The Simpsons" episode ever aired - you can listen to it at work in your office without having to worry about your boss coming in and catching you online. Just visit http://www.listentoamovie.com and check it out. You can also listen to every episode of "Arrested Development" as well as movies, too. So "don't have a cow, man" and check it out.

Way To Go, Work Friends

TWIT would like to publicly congratulate three of my work friends (WFs) for a job well done in their college courses. First of all, let me reiterate calling them "work friends" instead of "co-workers" because, well, they're more than just co-workers to me - they're my friends. That having been said, on with the accolades. I'll list them in alphabetical order, as to not purposely give one top billing instead of another.

First of all, way to go AK for getting an A in your Psychology class. You worked hard this semester and you busted your ass with your heavy class load. I tried to help her when she asked me to explain a few things, but I admit I was a bit rusty on my cognitive development theories. But she got an A in the class anyway.

Second, TWIT would like to congratulate JW for only missing 4 questions out of 100 on his final in Astronomy. It was a challenging class for him, with class one night, followed by a lab the next night and that followed by a night in the planetarium. But he endured and aced the final. After looking through his textbook before his first class, I told him he was SOL if he was counting on me to help him through this. I think I did more harm than good when I helped him get ready for his first test, but he made it through. Things are looking up for next semester - he's taking Microeconomics - a class that yours truly happened to get an A in (in undergrad and in graduate school, I proudly add) and I might actually remember a few things if he needs some help.

Last but certain not least, way to go KB, aka Krazy K (I'll give an explanation later). She got a perfect score on her research paper in International Business. When we talked with her a few weeks ago, she was still trying to come up with a topic for her paper -- she had to give a recommendation on something that could be imported to Italy. Well, she talked to the right people - we gave her a suggestion to import pumps to Italy, and it was a hit. She did the research and found out that Italy has major flooding, drainage and sewage issues. We're going to see if we can talk the Marketing department in to sending she and I to Italy to drum up some pump business. I'll let you know how that works out.

Now for why we call her Krazy K - on Halloween, she and the rest of the ladies in the Accounting department were dressed up as a gang. But not just any gang, mind you - they weren't dressed like the Bloods or Crips; they were dressed in green and were "Gang Green." Get it? Gangrene? So since then, we joke about gangs and gangstas, and JW gave her the gang knickname Krazy K. And while we're talking about her, I'd like to welcome her as my newest faithful reader. Thanks for taking the time to read TWIT.

Let me say once again how proud I am of you three. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I commend any adult that goes back to school while holding down a full-time job. I commend them even more for going back to school and having a spouse and kids to deal with, too. I was single and went to college and it was hard to do it while working; I cannot imagine how you three do it while dealing with spouses and kids. But you do, and TWIT and I are very proud of you. Keep up the great work.

Flashback Friday

Last year, I vowed that this year, I would make it a mall-free Christmas. I've cut down my shopping list drastically, and unless there's something that my Mother absolutely has to have for Christmas and the mall is the only place I can get it, this year will be my first mall-free Christmas. And it feels awesome. But I digress. As a kid, going to the mall during Christmas was almost as exciting as Christmas itself. In fact, it was a little bit like going to the fair -- at the mall, you would get to ride the Christmas train.

The small train would be in the middle of the mall where Santa Clause sets up shop, and the tracks would wind around the Christmas displays with fake snow and animated characters. The train conductor almost always wore a very cool train conductor hat, and he usually looked like he was so uncomfortable sitting in the under-sized engine car driving the train.

Sometimes the wait to ride the train was almost as long as the wait to see Santa, but believe me it was worth the wait. If it was available, I would always sit in the very back in caboose, and would wave at everybody as we rode around. Once in a blue moon, there would be nobody waiting to ride the train and I would get to be the only kid on the train as it went around the track. Talk about a thrill. Now at the malls during Christmas, the only thrilling thing for the kids to do is the bungee-jump trampoline thing. How sad for them.

New Product Review

Since I now like tomatoes, I'm always on the lookout for a good tomato soup. But I'm pretty picky when it comes to tomato soups - I don't like Campbell's nor Progresso because they taste too sweet. To me, I think that tomato soup should be basically a bowl of crushed tomatoes with tomato juice. When I saw that V8 has a line of new soups, I got all excited when I saw that V8 has a Tomato Herb soup. I couldn't wait to try it. I thought for sure it would taste pretty much like warmed up V8 juice, except with chunks of tomatoes. Boy was I wrong. It was nothing like V8 juice, nor did it have chunks of tomatoes. It only took one spoon full to find out that the V8 Tomato Herb soup was just like the other tomato soups I've tried -- sweet and with teeny tiny pieces of tomato.

Ordinarily I try not to salt my food, but I had to use salt and a bunch of pepper today to get this soup down. And I could only make it through about half of it before I poured the rest in the garbage. It just didn't taste like I think tomato soup should taste. As much as I love V8 juice, it hurts me to announce that TWIT does not give V8 Tomato Herb soup the Seal of Approval.

Note to faithful readers: if you try a tomato soup that is not creamy, not sweet, and has big chunks of tomatoes in it, please let me know the brand name so I can try some. Or better yet, if you have a recipe for good Puddin-approved tomato soup, please send it to me.

The 2008 CPI

The recession has affected us all, and it's hit the Christmas Price Index pretty hard. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, the Christmas Price Index (CPI) is brought to us by the good folks at PNC Bank, and it's the total price tag for all of the gifts mentioned in the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days Of Christmas." For 2008, the total is $21,080 - up $1,573, or 8.1%, from last year.

The Seven Swans-a-swimming had the biggest increase with a whopping 33.3 percent increase due to their scarcity. True Loves will have to peel $5,600 this year for the Swans compared with $4,200 in 2007, accounting for $1,400 of the total $1,573 increase. Other large percentage increases were also seen in Turtle Doves (37.5%), Partridges (33.3%) and Pear Trees (33.3%). With gas prices at $4 a gallon this summer and fall, shipping costs for the birds and trees had to be passed along to the customer. There is good news, though - True Loves will pay less for the Five Golden Rings this year. Their price dropped by 11.4% as retailers are trying to move luxury merchandise this season.

As the only unskilled laborers in the Christmas Price Index, the eight Maids-a-milking received a raise for the second straight year, due to another increase in the federal minimum wage. Before 2007, they hadn't received a raise since 1997. In the last two years, the Maids have seen their wages increase by $1.40 per hour, an increase of 27%. Still, the Maids will cost the True Love $52.40 this year, only $5.60 more than a year ago -- a bargain in the PNC CPI. Most of the performers in the index - the Drummers Drumming, Pipers Piping and Lords-a-leaping - jumped a modest 3%, which was approximately the cost of living. The price for the Ladies Dancing remained the same.

For the True Loves that prefer the convenience of online shopping, PNC also calculated the cost of the gifts if purchased online. This year's total cost of the gifts if purchased on the web was $31,957 - almost $11,000 more than in the traditional index. But that's the price you pay for convenience. Personally, this is the route that I would take. One of my mantras is "the older I get, the more I'm willing to pay for convenience." And the more I'm willing to pay for Seven Swans-a-swimming.

Unanswered Questions

After yesterday's riveting article about a 70-year old Indian woman having a baby, I received a few requests for more information on this. I was as shocked as you were, and in fact, I was so freaked out that I couldn't bring myself to delve into the subject. I've had time to think about this and do some research, so here are some of your Unanswered Questions.

Has the woman gone through menopause? Yes, Rajo Devi went through menopause twenty years ago.

Is it possible for a woman who has gone through menopause to conceive, carry, and give birth? Yes to all three thanks to Invetro Fertilization (IVF). A donated egg is fertilized with a donated sperm and once it is fertilized the zygote is transferred into the woman's uterus and it becomes a growing embryo. In this case, the baby was conceived through the use of a donor egg that was injected with Devi's 72-year old husband's sperm. The embryo transfer took place on April 18, and the baby was delivered by a C-section on November 28.

I Still Don't Believe It

70-year-old in India gives birth to IVF baby
Elderly woman and her first child are both doing well, newspaper reports.
updated 11:43 a.m. ET, Mon., Dec. 8, 2008

A 70-year-old woman in India gave birth to her first child, a girl, after undergoing infertility treatment, according to a report in the Daily Mail. The mother, Rajo Devi, had been trying for 50 years to get pregnant with her 72-year-old husband, who had failed to become a father in two prior marriages. It was undetermined whose egg and sperm were used in the treatment, the newspaper reported.

Devi became pregnant through in vitro fertilization at a clinic in the northern Indian state of Haryana after doctors determined that she was healthy enough to survive a high-risk pregnancy. The mother and her infant daughter are reportedly both doing well.

Devi is the second 70-year-old in India to give birth this year. In July, Omkari Panwar, a mother of two daughters — and grandmother to five — gave birth via Caesarean section to twins, a boy and girl, after undergoing IVF. At the time, Panwar — although she had no birth certificate, so her age couldn't be verified — became the oldest woman to give birth. In 2006, a 67-year-old woman in Spain gave birth to IVF twins.

Although advances in fertility procedures have increasingly enabled older women to give birth, some medical ethics experts question whether clinics should accept a 70-year-old as a patient. The doctor who treated Devi said he didn't expect any medical problems for the elderly woman and her child, except for the likelihood that the child could be orphaned at an early age because of her parents' old age, the newspaper reported.

OMG is all I can say about this. I don't know what freaks me out more -- the 70-year-old woman having a baby, or the fact that she and her 72-year-old husband had been trying for over 50 year to have a baby. Another thing about this article freaks me out -- the subtitle of the article says "first child" - are they implying that they're going to try to have a second or third child? Yep, that freaks me out. OMG is truly all I can say.

Link Of The Week

I've mentioned before on many occasions how much I love eBay. In fact, hardly a week goes by that I don't bid on something. I know that's a bit much, but I'm being honest. I don't always win what I bid on, but I am a very frequent eBay bidder. Even if I don't bid on something, I'll check out different things on eBay just to keep up with what's hot and what's not.

I found a cool site this week that takes the guessing out of trying to figure out what's hot and what's not on eBay. All it takes is a few clicks and you can find out what the most watched items are on eBay. Just visit http://www.watchcount.com and you can find out. For example, as of Sunday evening, the most watched item on eBay is a self-help CD titled "How I Work In My Pajamas."

Silly Saturday

I don't feel like I've had a day off. I was up at my normal time this morning at 6:45 and headed in to work. Yep, I had to work today. It's the end of the year, and that can only mean one thing for us in the manufacturing gig -- inventory. Believe me when I tell you I did not want to haul it out of my warm bed this a.m. and go out in to the cold and blowing snow to go to work. Well, the blowing snow didn't come until a few hours later, and we only had a dusting, but it did snow today nonetheless.

I ran a couple of errands on my way home this afternoon, and then I just wanted to come home and take a nap. But first, the 'Rents and I bundled up and headed to our friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart to find a present for the California Relatives. I won't tell what we picked out, in case the California Relatives are reading this, but let me just say it's extremely cool, and it's something that I would use if they gave it to me.

After our quick shopping trip I was able to take my beloved nap. It was sweet getting to sleep in the middle of the afternoon - something that you ordinarily don't get to do when you work during the day. But then again, that doesn't stop some of my co-workers. But I digress. My nap was nice, albeit short, but I did get to sleep for awhile before we bundled up once again and headed out to our favorite Italian restaurant for supper. Now we're in for the evening as it's getting colder, and hopefully the most stressful decision I'll have to make the rest of the night is what flavor of tea I'll have later.

Flashback Friday

1. O Come, All Ye Faithful

2. The First Noel

3. On A Snowy Christmas Night

4. Winter Wonderland

5. The Wonderful World Of Christmas

6. I'll Be Home On Christmas Day

7. It Won't Seem Like Christmas (Without You)

8. If I Get Home On Christmas Day

9. Holly Leaves And Christmas Trees

10. Merry Christmas Baby

11. Silver Bells

12. Blue Christmas - (From the 1968 NBC Television Special)

More Thanksgiving Shenanigans

Man Accused Of Throwing Sweet Potato Pie In Girlfriend's Face
Arrest Report Says Hobe Sound Man Didn't Like Food She Fixed For Him

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Martin County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested a Hobe Sound man who threw a sweet potato pie in his girlfriend's face because he didn't like the food, according to an arrest report.

Christopher Ford, 46, was charged with one count of domestic battery for the Thanksgiving Day incident, and was being held on $5,000 bond. According to the report, Ford came home and asked Valencia Rose, 37, for something to eat. But Ford was upset about the food his seven-year live-in girlfriend fixed for him and they got into an argument in the kitchen. So Ford picked up the sweet potato pie his girlfriend had recently removed from the oven and threw it in her face, according to the report.

Ford ran out the back door after Rose's three teenage children heard the argument and came out of their rooms to see what was going on, according to the report. When deputies arrived, Rose's face was covered with sweet potatoes and she had burns on her neck as a result of the hot pie having been thrown in her face, according to the report.

Awww, man. What a waste of good pie.

For fans of The King, today is an historic day. Today is the 40th anniversary of the original airing of Elvis Presley's 1968 Comeback Special. Officially, NBC titled the show "Elvis" but it's more commonly referred to as Elvis' 68 Comeback Special.

Elvis' manager Colonel Tom Parker wanted the show to be basically an Elvis Christmas special, but the producers of the show convinced him that the show was an opportunity to re-establish the singer's reputation after years of cookie cutter movies and mediocre records. The broadcast combined big, choreographed numbers, lavish sets and informal "live" sessions, and was a huge success. The show was the highest rated television special of the year, and was the first one-man TV special to appear on commercial American television.

The reviews of the special said that the informal live jam session was the most popular part of the show. It showed Elvis wearing the awesome black leather jumpsuit, jamming with just a few musicians in front of a small audience is regarded as a forerunner of the "Unplugged" concert concept, later made popular on MTV. The structured portions of the speical were filmed on June 24 and 25. On June 27 and 29 Elvis taped the informal jam sessions, performing two sets on each day; he took a one hour break in between sets to shower and have his leather jumpsuit drycleaned .

Two versions of the Comeback Special were initially aired by NBC. The first included Elvis singing "Blue Christmas" - the only Christmas song the producers agreed to use. When the special was rebroadcast the following summer, it was replaced by "Tiger Man."

The Comeback Special did in deed start Elvis' big comeback. After the special he began his stint in Las Vegas and toured across the country. The hit records returned, including one of my favorites "Suspiscious Minds" in 1969.

Recession, Here We Come

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's something I need to tell you: in case you didn't know, the U.S. is in a recession. Yep, it's true. The official announcement was made yesterday. In fact, the government said we've been in a recession since the end of 2007. Thank you Capitol Hill for that breaking news, but I think this is one thing that us working people already knew. I had a couple of requests from you, faithful readers, asking if I could try to explain a recession and depression. Always eager to please my faithful readers, I consulted my college and graduate school microeconomics textbooks and here's what TWIT has to say about a recession:

The media's definition of a recession is a decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters. Before we go on, let's define GDP -- it's the value of all final goods and services produced in a country in one year. The folks at the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) take things a bit farther with their explanation. They look at unemployment, industrial production, real income and wholesale and retail sales, and they define a recession as the time when business activity has reached its peak and starts to fall until the time when business activity bottoms out. When business activity starts to rise again, it's called an expansionary period. The NBER defines a depression as any economic downturn where GDP declines by more than 10 percent.

The Great Depression of the 1930's was actually two separate depressions -- an incredibly severe depression lasting from August 1929 to March 1933 where GDP fell by almost 33 percent, a period of recovery, and then another less severe depression from May 1937 to June 1938, where GDP declined by 18.2 percent (the last depression in the U.S.). The worst recession in the last 60 years was from November 1973 to March 1975, when GDP fell by 4.9 percent. The last recession (not counting the current one) was November 2001 to November 2002.

All that having been said, an old joke among economists gives probably the best definition of a recession and depression: a recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job.

Are They Trying To Tell Me Something?

I believe our spam filters aren't working very well at work - over the past few weeks, my in-box has been jammed full of emails about buying penny stocks, fake Rolex watches and skin care products that are guranteed to eliminate blemishes and erase wrinkles. Amid all of these emails, one spam email in particular caught my attention. In fact, I've received this email three times in the past week. The subject line reads "Do you know all your birth control options?" and goes on to ask the riveting question "What birth control methods are okay for a woman in her mid-forties to use?"

I know that spammers use cookies, spyware and other methods to ensure that their spam gets to your in-box, but how in the world did they know that I am 1) a woman, and 2) in my mid-forties? Should I feel vioated? Should I worry about my identity being stolen? More importantly, should I worry about not knowing all of my birth control options?

In case you're wondering, the email said that women in their forties can use any form of birth control. Whew - I feel better now. Believe me when I tell you that the form of birth control that I am currently using is truly 100% effective. In fact, if I do become pregnant, you can start looking up in the sky for the star in the east.

Link Of The Week

If you're anything like me, you're sick to death of hearing about Black Friday. Personally, I wish they'd never came up with that phrase. But I digress. Black Friday is over [thank goodness] and now we have Cyber Monday to look forward to. In case you're not hip on that one, tomorrow is supposed to be the busiest day of the holiday shopping season for online shopping. I'm sure that companies all across America are dreading tomorrow because they know that a lot of their employees will be online shopping instead of working tomorrow.

If you can sneak in some online shopping tomorrow at work, make sure that you get the best deal possible, and don't forget to check for free shipping. Do a quick Google search for the website you're shopping from to see if you can find a free shipping promo code. Or better yet, check out FreeShipping.org. Visit http://www.freeshipping.org and you'll find over 850 retailers that offer free shipping in some shape or form. Good luck with your online shopping tomorrow - I hope your boss won't catch you.

Light Gray Saturday

If yesterday was Black Friday, based on the [lack of] crowds I just saw at the 'hood Walmart, today has to be Light Gray Saturday. This was the first time I'd ventured out of the house since I came home from work Wednesday, and if I hadn't needed a few health-related items I would have kept my fanny on the couch. But I bundled up and headed to Walmart, and believe me when I tell you the total time of the round-trip was 15 minutes. There was noone in the store, and for the first time that I've ever seen, all of the shopping lanes were open and there were no more than two people in each line waiting to be checked out.

I expected it to be a madhouse, but was very pleasantly surprised. I grabbed my few items and checked out and was back home before I even had time to complain about the crowds or traffic. On the way back home I kept wishing that I had felt better and had more money so I could have stayed longer and done some shopping today. But then again, there's Cyber Monday.

Flashback Friday

As I type this, I just finished eating supper, and it's hard to comprehend that millions of people started shopping over twelve hours ago. It's Black Friday - the first official day of the holiday shopping season. I had no intention of going shopping today, and thanks to a wicked sinus infection, I've done no shopping since I came home from work Wednesday night; in fact I haven't even left the house. But I digress. When I was a kid, the term "Black Friday" hadn't been thought of yet. To my family, it was Turkey Sandwich and Fritos Friday.

Turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving was as much a tradition here at The Compound as the actual Thanksgiving Day meal. Mom and Grandma would slice the turkey and would start toasting the bread for our turkey sandwiches. I can still picture Grandma standing in the kitchen spreading a generous amount of Miracle Whip on the toast before she placed the turkey on it, and then she'd finish it off by giving it a few shakes of salt and pepper. Mom would usually warm up some dressing or dumplings and have those, but the rest of us would have our turkey sandwiches on toast. As a special treat, we would have Fritos with our sandwiches, along with any leftover green olives. If Mom had remembered, we would also have a carton of french onion dip to accompany the Fritos, but I was happy to eat them sans dip.

Sliced on toast is still my favorite way to eat turkey. Even though we don't have it often, I still prefer my turkey in sandwich form instead of as an entree with a big meal. Some habits are hard to break.

Things I Am Thankful That I Do Not Have

1. A home mortgage

2. Cancer

3. A car payment

4. Teenagers

5. A parent in a nursing home

6. To get up at 3:00 tomorrow morning and stand in line at a store for a $19 DVD player

7. A mutual fund

8. 50 extra pounds to carry around on my body

9. A video game system

10. A MySpace page

Black Wednesday, Part 2

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse then they already were today, they got worse. I just hung up the phone after talking to my friend/department head/company president/COO informing me that the factory voted 168 to 8 against their contract. Yes, you read that right -- against. In a nutshell, this means that next week the factory could be on strike and yours truly will be working out on an assembly line. Yep, things just got worse.

Black Wednesday

Since MSN.com informed us yesterday that the economy in the crapper right now, I'm sure that lots of folks will be cutting back on their Thanksgiving dinners and on their Black Friday shopping. With the stock market crashing, banks and big financial institutions closing, the home mortgage crisis and the uncertainty of the Big Three automobile manufacturers, there's not going to be a lot of good cheer on this Thanksgiving weekend. I, for one, have jumped on that band wagon. For you see, at my company today was Black Wednesday -- the day we got our third quarter retirement fund statement.

After I was able to resume most normal bodily functions, re: breathing, I did some quick calcultions and it wasn't pretty. I should have just stuffed the paper in my file drawer and went on about my business, but no - I had to start figuring percentages. Granted, you'd be hard pressed to find a company that contributes as much to our retirement fund as mine, but still -- money gone is money gone, regardless of who put it in my retirement fund.

Here's some of the startling facts: let me preface by saying that I've been 100% vested in our retirement fund for 17 years. Now for the statistics: for the third quarter of 2008, I lost 6.5% of the total amount of my retirement fund. Wait - the news gets better: comparing quarters in 2008, for the third quarter, I lost over seven times what I lost in the second quarter. Keep reading - I'm not finished yet: I lost more in the third quarter of 2008 then I earned in all of 2007. I'm glad my office is on the first floor, or else I'd be tempted to jump out of the window.

Understatement Of The Year

A major headline at the MSN homepage today:

"The ecomony is in a slump."

No shit.

The First Thanksgiving, 2008 Style

I was surfing online today and read an interesting article on the MSN home page about the first Thanksgiving. In case you didn't read that article or similar articles on most of the big search engine sites, or in case you didn't already know, turkey was not served at the first Thanksgiving back in the day in 1621. Instead, venison was the main entree served, along with duck and goose. I couldn't help but think of that tonight at supper when the 'Rents and I had grilled venison steaks. I'm pretty sure the Pilgrims and and their dinner guests the Wampanoag Indians didn't eat their venison grilled with a mesquite marinade like we did, but we all did have venison nonetheless.

The first Thanksgiving was truly a meal of thanksgiving - it was the Pilgrims' first big spread to celebrate their first harvest. Unfortunately we didn't have a big harvest to celebrate tonight at supper, but I guess we could have celebrated the 'Rents both being almost over their colds they've had for two weeks; if that's not worth celebrating with a big meal, I don't know what is.

As for side dishes, the Pilgrims didn't have mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, nor even sweet potatoes like most people have for Thanksgiving dinner today. They didn't have potatoes at that time, and most likely the main starch they had was Indian corn. They also had turnips, onions, spinach and carrots; unfortunately we didn't have anything like that with our venison steaks tonight - we had roasted potatoes and salad with raspberry vinaigrette.

There was no pumpkin pie on the menu at the first Thanksgiving either. They had pumpkin, but it was probably sliced and heated over the fire; there was no flour to bake a pie crust, and sugar and other sweet spices were very scarce. They also had plums and gooseberries for dessert. Unlike the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags, the 'Rents and I didn't have dessert tonight, so they were one up on us. And we had no intruders at The Compound during our dinner tonight. Unfortunately the Pilgrims couldn't say the same thing; the Wampanoags weren't invited to the Pilgrims first Thanksgiving -they were curious and just showed up. Not only did they show up, but they stayed there eating and visiting with the Pilgrims for three days. Now, that's overstaying your welcome if you ask me.

Link Of The Week

Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and on Thursday most people will be eating the traditional turkey et al. Personally, I'd rather have a nice sirloin steak cooked medium rare on Thursday but unfortunately I was outnumbered. But I digress. I found a cool site that week that talks about food - serious food. Actually serious eats. In fact, that's what the site is named. You can see awesome photos and reviews of food, and you can look and gawk at all the food and won't gain an ounce from looking. Visit http://www.seriouseats.com and check it out.

A Pirate's Life For Me

You couldn't turn on the TV or get online this week without hearing about pirates hijacking a Saudi Araibian oil tanker. The tanker is anchored off of the coast of Somalia with a full load of 2 million barresl of oil - about $100 million worth of crude oil. I did some research and found out that 8 ships have been hijacked this week. Since the beginning of the year 39 ships have been hijacked in this area, out of 95 attacked. As of today, 17 ships remain in the hands of the pirates. I don't know about you, but why isn't the media calling these hijackers what they really are - terrorists? When I hear the word "pirates" the first thing that pops into my mind is a picture of Captain Jack Sparrow from "The Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. Everytime I've heard the word "pirate" this week I've thought of Johnny Depp instead of a masked, heavily armed terrorist.

Today's Somali pirates are way more advanced than Long John Silver and his crew could have ever hoped to be. The Somali pirates are supported by their communities and by rogue members of their government. Instead of wearing an eye patch or a hook for a hand, today's pirates dress in military fatigues, and sail the seas on power boats and large ships. They use satellite navigational and communication equipment and have an intimate knowledge of the local waters - a far cry from the wooden ships with sails with a lookout up high in the bird's nest. Unlike the swords and cannons used by their predecessors, today's pirates are armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and grenades - not like one of Blackbeard's men climbing up a tall mast holding a knif between his teeth.

On a related note, when I heard the media talk about piracy, the only thing I could think of was illegally downloading music from the internet and making CD's to sell or give to friends.

Flashback Friday

This week's Flashback Friday idea was given to me by my good friend, co-worker and faithful reader and muller spotter JMc. He was looking at a website about the 70's and sent me this picture of none other than the group the Bay City Rollers. He went on to tell me how they were his wife's favorite boy band back in the day. He said that as a young teenager, she went to one of their concerts held during the Kentucky State Fair. Before the concert, she had won a goldfish (yes, an actual live goldfish) out on the midway and took the fish with her to the concert. Unfortunately, the fish died during the concert, apparently as a result of shook to death during the concert as a result of the vibrations from the loudness of the music, the screaming of all of the teenage girls, and the jumping around his wife did during the concert.

I never was a big Bay City Rollers fan; I was into Andy Gibb. But they did have one song I thought was awesome, and one that I found and put on my iPod - "I Only Want To Be With You." And who could forget the ever popular "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night."

Tall Nancy Update

I would argue with any blogger that I have the best faithful readers in all of blogdom. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a photo of a recent Tall Nancy sighting. Yes, we have photographic proof that Tall Nancy does in deed exist. Actually, the photograph was taken by the father of faithful reader and my best friend Diva Stacy. The documented Tall Nancy sighting was a couple of weeks ago when Tall Nancy was walking her grandkids home from school.

Now that you know what she looks like, you can be on the lookout for her - I'm sure it's just a matter of time before she pops up in your neck of the woods.

Happy World Toilet Day

TWIT would like to wish everyone a happy World Toilet Day. Yep, I didn't know a thing about it either until a co-worker emailed everyone in the company about it today. I know it's kinda late in the day to find out about such a holiday - I realize that doesn't leave you much time to celebrate but you've got a few hours left on World Toilet Day. Take a hint from Puddin - I've already marked November 19, 2009 as World Toilet Day on my new calendar so I'll be able to fully celebrate next year.

If you'd like to learn more about World Toilet Day, here's a bonus Link of the Week: http://www.worldtoilet.org/getinvolved.asp?no=19

Crazy Tuesday

It's been a crazy Tuesday, faithful readers. It's been a crazy day at work, at home, and abroad. I've been through through the spectrum of emotions today, and over all, I think the emotion that comes through the most is the feeling of thankfulness. And it has nothing to do with this time of the year, either. No matter how bad or odd things are, I'm still very thankful that I still have my job during these very unstable recessionary times. I'm also very thankful for my health and the health of my family and close friends. Yep, with the way things are today, I'm very thankful.

Sorry About Your Luck, Barack

I read something today that really made me feel sorry for President-Elect Obama - I read that he's going to have to give up his beloved Blackberry when he takes the office of President. From what I read, Obama uses his Blackberry all the time; his aides said he's almost addicted to it. But before he takes up residence at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about email security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in official public record, and also faces the threats of subpoenas. He said he hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, but his aides and advisors say that probably won't happen.

This raises an issue that I've never thought about -- the President of the United States not having a computer, much less being able to email. I guess I just never thought of this before - I just assumed that the President would have a computer and be able to get online and check out whatever he wanted to. Boy was I wrong.

Just think - the President isn't able to send emails out to everyone in his email address book. He's not able to send an email telling his friends to forward the email to ten of their friends or else they'll get back luck and be run over by a semi the next time they cross the streets. He's not able to forward an email to his friends assuring them that his brother-in-law's aunt's cousin's neighbor is a lawyer and they said it was true that they would receive a $100 gift card from Applebee's. He's not going to be able to forward the email about Penny the little redhaired girl that was kidnapped and last seen in a Chevy Astro mini-van. He's not going to be able to receive the inevitable email link to the 2008 version of elf bowling, either. Worst of all, he's not going to be able to follow TWIT. Maybe he can sneak off to a public library and get on one of the computers there.

Link Of The Week

In my recent years, I've become more civic-minded; I volunteer and donate to worthy charities and causes. I'm also on the lookout for easy ways that we all can help out worthy causes. This week, I came across a worthy cause that is easy for us all to help out - all it requires is a few clicks. Visit http://www.ripple.org and all you need to do is just click on the choices - water, food, education or money, and advertisers will donate to very worthy charities. Add this link to your favorites at work, and take a minute out of your very busy work day to help out those less fortunate then us.

Biggest Loser Update

I know it's been a while since I've given a Biggest Loser update; that's because I've been waiting for this opportunity to come along. I'm ecstatic to report that as of this week, I've reached a milestone in my personal Biggest Loser journey: this week, I've lost over 50 pounds since I started this journey back in February -- 51.6 pounds to be exact. And I'm not stopping now.

It's not been easy getting rid of fifty pounds - for a month and a half I stalled and see-sawed for weeks; gaining a pound one week, and losing a pound the next. But I kept on and persevered and Wednesday morning when I stepped on the official Biggest Loser scales at work, I got a bit weepy when I quickly did the math and realized that I had reached my first goal of fifty pounds.

When I first started this journey back in February, I never considered it "diet"; to me, it is a change in lifestyle - a change that I hope will continue with me throughout the rest of my life. I don't really miss the fast food, junk food, and going out to eat at restaurants - things that I enjoyed. Instead, now I enjoy the feelings of joy and accomplishment I have when I put on clothes that I used to wear and have to take them off and find something smaller to wear. Believe me - as much as I would love to sit down and eat two or three Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes, there's nothing that can compare with going to the store and buying t-shirts in smaller sizes - nothing like it in the world.

When people comment about me losing fifty pounds, the first thing they usually say is "Do you feel better?" At first, I had to think about it before I answered. My answer is "Yes, but more mentally than physically." Sure I have more energy, and have said before that I never thought in a million years that I would be riding my bike for ten miles every day of the week. But to me, that's really beside the point; the point is that I set a goal for myself, and with determination, discipline, and encouragement from the 'Rents, Diva Stacy and others, I reached it.

Flashback Friday

Editor/Publisher's note: I've always referred to soft drinks as "pop".

I've mentioned before how when I was a kid, getting to drink a bottle of pop was a big deal - not like it is today, where kids take soft drinks for granted. I would get to drink a pop on Friday nights, when we would have our Friday night fish and again on Saturday night when we would have popcorn while watching TV. Other than those two times on the weekend, I would drink iced tea or milk. My soft drink of choice as a kid was either cola or root beer - two of my favorite soft drinks to this day. Back in the day, we had a store that sold nothing but pop, appropriately named The Pop Shoppe.



We were fortunate and had a Pop Shoppe in our neighborhood. It was a simple store, but a great idea - they sold different flavors of pop in short, returnable glass bottles (called "stubbies") that came in a red plastic case of 24. Unlike the grocery stores that would frown upon a customer who would put four Orange Crush in a carton with four Cokes, you could mix and max flavors in your 24-pack at the Pop Shoppe. They had cola, lime, cream soda, grape, orange, pineapple, root beer and wild cherry. Plus they were cheaper than the price of 24 name brand soft drinks.

The Pop Shoppe opened it's first store in Ontario, Canada in 1969 by two businessmen from London, Ontario. Their idea was to start making pop and sell it out of their own stores, cutting out the middlemen and selling it cheaper than other pop manufacturers. By 1975, the Pop Shoppe had expanded and had stores in 11 U.S. cities - one of which was good ol' Louisville, KY. By 1977, sales at The Pop Shoppe had reached 1 million bottles per day. Sales started slowing down in the U.S. and in Canada, but The Pop Shoppe managed to stay in business until the mid 80's. In 2002, an entrepreneur named Brian Alger resurrected The Pop Shoppe, and started marketing it in mainstream stores and food service operations instead of stand-alone shops. You can still find The Pop Shoppe in Canada, but unfortunately none have reopened in the U.S.

My favorite memory of The Pop Shoppe is from my softball playing days. From the sixth grade up until my early twenty's, I played on our church softball team, and during the late 70's our coach, Chester, would bring a cooler full of pop from The Pop Shoppe to every game. Win or lose, when the game was over we would always get a bottle of pop from The Pop Shoppe. But there was one stipulation: we had to drink them there at the ball field - we couldn't take them home to finish because he wanted the bottles back so he could turn them in and get his deposit back.

Show 'Em How It's Done, Shania

As a kid and up until my early adulthood, I would not miss any music awards show - especially the many country music awards. I'd watch them all, and the next morning I could rattle off who won what, what the performers sang, and who wore what. Lately, I could not care less about the awards shows, mainly the country music awards. Reason being, there's nothing really country about country music these days. I couldn't stomach much of last night's CMA awards, but from what I've seen, heard and read, George Strait was just about the only true country artist on the show last night. But I digress.

My beloved Shania Twain made a rare "comeback" appearance on last night's CMA Awards to present the award for Entertainer Of The Year. This was the first time she'd been in the public eye in a few years. She won the prestigious Entertainer Of The Year award in 1999, and last appeared at the CMA awards in 2004. Her presence marked the singer’s first public appearance since announcing her separation from husband Robert “Mutt” Lange in May. I have to say that her divorce sure doesn't seem to have bothered her one bit. She looked better last night then I think she's ever looked. I loved the blonde highlights, and her dress was absolutely stunning.

As I looked at the pictures and videos online tonight from last night's awards show, the only thing I can say is that Shania showed all of those little blonde cookie cutter singers how it's done. And she's over twice their, age, too. She's 43 years old, and put those twenty year old girls to shame. You keep it up, Shania; show those young girls how it's really done. TWIT thinks that you will always be the hottest woman in country music.

Happy Birthday, All My Children

Today is a historic day in television. TWIT would like to congratulate "All My Children" on its 10,000th episode. The show first aired in 1970 and has been going strong ever since. The show’s creator Agnes Nixon (shown between "Dr. Joe Martin" and my beloved "Erica Kane" was there to celebrate the historic moment when the 10,000th episode was taped last month.

File Under: WTF?

Communion-wafer caper: Suspect grabbed
The 33-year-old was cornered by other churchgoers until police arrived
The Associated Press
updated 6:11 p.m. ET, Tues., Nov. 11, 2008

JENSEN BEACH, Fla. - Police in Florida said they arrested a Connecticut man after he tried to steal communion wafers during a church service. The Martin County Sheriff's Office said a 33-year-old man was cornered by fellow churchgoers when he grabbed a handful of wafers from the priest during communion services Saturday.

The Stuart News reported that the man was being held down by six or seven offended parishioners when deputies arrived at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church in Jensen Beach.
Police say two parishioners, ages 82 and 61, received minor injuries in the scuffle.
The man was charged with two counts of simple battery, theft and disruption of a religious assembly. He was being held Tuesday on $2,000 bond at the Martin County Jail.

I feel like I want to say something about this, but I just don't know what to say.

The Legend Of Tall Nancy

According to the MSN homepage, in the past few months we've had another rash of bigfoot sightings here in the U.S. And now with winter fast approaching I'm sure we'll be hearing of Yeti sightings in the Himalayas. Locally, others and I have spotted a local legend: Tall Nancy. I never could remember her last name, and apparently neither can anyone else, either, because we all refer to her as Tall Nancy.

The Legend of Tall Nancy started back in the 1950's - Tall Nancy worked with my mother at Brown and Williamson. When B&W closed their Louisville operation in the early 80's, Tall Nancy went to work at National Processing Company (NPC). Imagine my surprise when I started working at NPC, none other than Tall Nancy was working in my department. I ask you - what are the odds of that happening - Tall Nancy working with both my mother and I? But that just scratches the surface on the Legend of Tall Nancy. She also attends church with my best friend Diva Stacy's father, and a few of Diva Stacy's in-law kinfolk also know Tall Nancy.

But there's more to the Legend than that. Tall Nancy has been known to pop up anywhere - I've seen her at the grocery store, at concerts, while Christmas shopping, and even while making visits to the hospital or funeral home. Everytime I've seen her, she's always been the same - always a smile on her face, and the first words out of her mouth are "How's your mama?"

Tall Nancy is a great lady, and was a great friend to my mom and to Diva Stacy's dad. Who knows? Maybe we should start a "Tall Nancy Watch" in TWIT.

It's That Time Of The Year

During the past couple of weeks, the temperature has gotten noticably cooler. Correction: colder. I've worn jackets to work for the past couple of weeks, but today was The Day -- it was the day that I got out a winter coat and gloves before heading out to work. Yep, you heard me right - Puddin wore her winter coat today. And I sure was glad I had it on.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to someone about winter coats, and I told them how pumped I was because most of my heavier coats were too big for me to wear this winter. I tried them on and finally found one that fit pretty good. I'd told myself that I would make do with the coats I had; I wasn't going to peel for a new winter coat this year, with the intention and hope that it, too, would be too big next winter. I did some digging in the basement and came up with a decent fitting Sunday coat, a heavy coat, and an every day coat that would get me through the winter. It was times like these that I was happy that I never threw clothes away. But I digress.

As I said earlier, I sure was glad I had on a heavy coat and gloves this morning, because it was cold. It was 33 degrees when I left for work this morning and I'm not ashamed to say I was cold. Yes, I said I was cold. I know, I know -those are two words you will almost never hear me say.

Link Of The Week

October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I'm sure everyone has done their part to help out the very worthy cause. Well, October is over and we're well into November, but I've got one more way you can effortlessly help fight breast cancer. All you have to do is take a few minutes to play a quick memory game and the good folks at Pepperidge Farms will donate $50,000 to Susan G. Koeman For The Cure. Visit http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/pink/game.aspx and for every game you play, Pepperidge Farms will donate $1. Get to playing, faithful readers.

Seven Unbelievable Things I Did Today

1. Rode 11 miles on my bike in a wind storm.

2. Operated [safely] a chainsaw while sawing tree limbs

3. Climbed on top of a WWII tank during the end of the previously mentioned wind storm

4. Cooked a pot of white chili (and you know I don't cook)

5. Won a box of peanut butter fudge and a fifth of Makers Mark

6. Downloaded a Miley Cyrus song onto my iPod

7. Wore a denim jacket that I couldn't fit into six months ago

Flashback Friday

1. Please Don't Keep Me Waiting
2. Dancin' 'Round And 'Round
3. Talk To Me
4. Deeper Than The Night
5. Borrowed Time
6. A Little More Love
7. Never Enough
8. Totally Hot
9. Boats Against The Current
10. Gimme Some Lovin'

My iPod Top Twenty Playlist For November

1. Womanizer - Britany Spears
2. Disturbia - Rhianna
3. Paralyzer - Finger Eleven
4. When I Grow Up - Pussycat Dolls
5. See You Again - Miley Cyrus
6. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
7. Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aguilara
8. Paper Planes - MIA
9. Everybody's Got Their Something - Nikka Costa
10. This Is How You Remind Me - Nickeback
11. Juicy - Better Than Ezra
12. If You Want To Get To Heaven - Ozark Mountain Daredevils
13. Train, Train - Blackfoot
14. Midnight Confessions - Grass Roots
15. No Sugar Tonight - The Guess Who
16. Gimme Shelter - Ashley Cleveland
17. These Boots Are Made For Walking - Geri Halliwell
18. Taking Chances - Celine Dion
19. Rock Me Gently - Andy Kim
20. Oh Black Betty - Blackfoot

Got An Extra Button?

It's been awhile since TWIT has had the pleasure of a guest writer, so without further ado, today's journal entry is brought to us by my best friend Diva Stacy. Here's what she has to say:

I bought some new clothes for fall. As I pulled them out to wear for the first time, I cut off the tags. Along with the tags came the little white envelope that reads "Extra Button". I always put the envelope in the back of my top dresser drawer for future use.

I was just thinking though....I don't ever remember actually using one of those extra buttons. That's not to say I never needed one, but I just never think about it. Even if you did think about it, how would you actually find the one you were looking for? They are all in the same white envelope and it's sealed up. You'd have to open them all to find the one you needed.

I guess one day I'll clean them out. I'm sure I don't even own most of the clothes the Extra Buttons belong to anymore. But for now, I'll keep on tossing them in the back of my drawer.....just in case.

I Was Gypped

Free sex toys — and much more — for voting
Businesses across nation ready to reward citizens for casting their ballots
By Mike Stuckey
Senior news editor
msnbc.com
updated 10:49 a.m. ET, Mon., Nov. 3, 2008

Just when you thought it was safe to focus on the issues in this historic election season, a chain of sex toy shops has joined retailers, restaurateurs and other businesses across the nation in the time-honored tradition of rewarding Americans who go to the polls.

Babeland, with stores in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, is offering a pair of self-gratifying incentives for voters who present their registration cards, ballot stubs or “word of honor” that they voted next Tuesday.

The rewards are no-so-subtle reminders of this year’s campaign rhetoric. For men, it’s the “Maverick,” a "sleeve" for self-pleasuring. According to a press release, “He’s always there to lend a hand, he works for every man, and he bucks the status quo.” Women can choose the “Silver Bullet” mini-vibrator, which is “a magical solution to difficult problems” and “a great stress-reliever during these troubled economic times!” The promotion lasts through Nov. 11.
Babeland spokeswoman Pamela Doan told msnbc.com in an interview that the promotion is a first for the company, which she describes as “a sex-positive, women-friendly retailer for sex toys and accessories.”

Although the company is relying on press releases and bloggers to get the word out, “We’re expecting a good response,” Doan said. “Both of these toys are very popular. The Maverick retails for $20 and the Silver Bullet retails for $15. It’s a good reward.”

'Sex crosses party lines'As to whether Babeland expects voters who take them up on the offer to lean one way or the other politically, Doan said, “Sex crosses party lines. … We’ve tried to make this into a nonpartisan reward because we welcome everyone. That’s our philosophy and our mission. We didn’t want to reward only Obama supporters. We have a lot of Republicans who shop at Babeland too.”

If the sex toys don’t float your vote, there are plenty of other less racy rewards to choose from in the afterglow of casting your ballot. How about a free cup of Joe? Starbucks stores across the nation and Eat’n Park outlets in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia are among many U.S. restaurants offering complimentary coffee to anyone who presents a ballot stub or “I Voted” sticker. Voters can get a beer on the house at Todd Conner’s pub in Baltimore’s historic Fells Point neighborhood.

Those with a sweet tooth can stop by participating Krispy Kreme or Ben & Jerry’s locations to receive special treats. Krispy Kreme will be handing out star-shaped doughnuts with red, white, and blue sprinkles, one each, to voters, while Ben & Jerry’s is serving up free scoops of ice cream to everyone who shows up on Election Day between 5 and 8 p.m., whether they voted or not.
But just as voters should weigh carefully the seemingly endless promises of politicians as they make their decisions at the ballot box, they should also read the fine print on Election Day rewards.

Take the offer extended to voters by Zov’s, a three-cafe chain in Southern California. “Show us your ‘I Voted’ sticker and enjoy a free slice of Zov’s All-American Apple Pie,” it says on its Web site.

To borrow from a past president, that all depends on what the definition of “free” is.
To score the pie, you must not only prove you voted, but also “buy any menu item, or order Zov’s family take-out dinner for 2 or 4.”

Damn. I didn't even get an "I Voted" sticker this morning, much less a sex toy or a piece of pie.

The Happiest Work Day Of The Year

Ask any kid, and they'll probably tell you that behind Christmas, Halloween is their next favorite holiday of the year. What's not to like about it? You get all the free candy you fit into your bag. Ask any adult, and they'll probably tell you that the next business day after Halloween is their favorite day of the year. Why, you ask? The next working day after Halloween is the day that working mothers and fathers bring in leftover Halloween candy and dump it in lunchrooms and break rooms in companies and businesses all over America for their co-workers to eat. What's not to like about it? You get all the free candy you can fit into your pockets or carry in your hands or cram into your mouth whenever you make a trip into the lunchroom.

Our company is no exception to the after-Halloween candy free-for-all. In fact, people started leaving candy corn pumpkins in our lunchroom a couple of weeks ago. Let me interject that I am proud of myself for not touching any of the Halloween candy; my new mantra is "Better on someone else's ass than on mine." That having been said, the community candy hasn't even been a temptation for me this Halloween. But I will admit in years past I did look forward to the day after Halloween so I could get my Nerds and Reese Cups fix. Actually, I would usually get enough to last me for a week.

There is a picking order in the mounds of leftover candy. The good chocolate candy usually goes first -- Reese Cups, Butterfingers, Milky Ways, Snickers and Three Musketeers always go first. Then you have the Skittles lovers digging through the piles. And let's not forget everyone favorites, the Smarties. You could usually find Smarties wrappers in just about every garbage can in our office. Charms Blow Pops and Tootsie Pops usually go fast, too. And speaking of wrappers - it always intrigued me to find trails of candy wrappers leading to and from our lunchroom. It was funny how grown men and women didn't want to get rid of the evidence.