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.

Link Of The Week

When we got cable wayyyy back in 1982, the first channel I checked out was MTV. I'd watched it a friends' and wanted to have the MTV experience on my own. I never got tired of watching it. Fortunately for the family, we had cable on the TV in the living room so I could watch my MTV and not get on their nerves too bad while they were watching the also cool Nashville Network. But I digress. Back in the day MTV was awesome - it was nothing but videos 24/7 - a far cry from today's MTV with almost nothing but reality shows 24/7.

If you want to watch videos from MTV non-stop, have I got the site for you. It's none other than MTVmusic.com. You can watch probably every music video that has ever been made. Just visit http://www.mtvmusic.com/ and see for yourself. While you're there, please check out the live version of Heart's "Crazy On You". You won't be disappointed.

Rushing The Season?

With everything else going on, Saturday is just about the only time that I can run errands. So after we had breakfast this morning, Mom and I headed out to take care of bidness. I had a mental list of the places we needed to go and things we needed to buy. Never mind that two of the places that we needed to go weren't open, but I digress. The first stop on our list was the Wal-Mart in the 'hood. The parking lot wasn't too jam packed yet, and we were able to get a fairly close parking spot. We headed in, and imagine my surprise that the first thing we heard when we set foot in the store was Kenny G.'s version of "Silver Bells" playing throughout the store. At first I thought it was just a very bad fluke; then the next song was Johnny Mathis singing "Winter Wonderland", and things just spiraled from there. Yes, it was only the day after Halloween and they had started playing Christmas songs in the stores.

At first, I thought I was just imagining things, but then when Johnny Mathis came on the speaker, Mom looked at me with a major "WTF?" look on her face, and then I knew I was in deed not imagining it. It was only the day after Halloween and we were already deep in the throes of Christmas music. At least they could have postponed Christmas music for a week and played patriotic music today, in hopes of stimulating people to do their patriotic duty on Tuesday and vote, but no - we go straight into Kenny G. tooting out Christmas music on his horn.