Donkey God

In this day and age of fraud…it would do everyone well to take
heed and be aware that fraud can, and sometimes does, happen via
the use of the Internet.

And the truth of the matter is, we are in danger of fraudulent
actions being taken against us in many other areas of our daily
lives, as well. We live in an age of dishonest actions. No one
is really exempt, even if they never use the Internet. It can
happen while standing at an ATM or even in the grocery line.

Twenty years ago, a friend of mine began receiving phone calls
at home from a complete stranger who apparently had read the
information off of a check she was writing out for the cashier
at the grocery store.

It is possible for others to go through our garbage - if they
are intent on finding information of a personal nature. The fact
is, we are unprotected on many fronts when it comes to personal
information. If someone is bent on committing ‘information
theft ‘ against us, they can find a way to do it without
much effort.

The Internet is a safe place - when used wisely.

Shopping on the Internet is safe…as long as it is given the
same consideration as one would use whenever giving out personal
information anywhere. There are simple guidelines given us for
using an ATM machine, for using Traveler’s Checks, and even for
using cash. Those same types of guidelines work well for most
places we shop.

For example:

• “When using cash - don’t flash”. Flashing your wad of
bills around for others to see is just plain foolish. Keeping
your cash in your front shirt or pants pocket is much safer than
in your wallet in a back pocket - or in a purse that can be
easily snatched from your grip.

• “When using checks - check”. Be aware of who is standing
around you, and how closely they are positioned to you. Don’t
offer your information ‘out loud’… if the cashier needs
your driver’s license number, for instance, write it out or show
your license to them, only. Be as prepared as possible ahead of
time so that less time and less information is required of you
during the check out process.

• “Your Social Security number should be secure”. No one
can demand your social security number for the purposes of
selling you something. It is not lawful. Giving your S.S. number
out too freely can be more risky than you realize. Guard it.

These same types of guidelines work well for shopping online,
too. If you have to give out more information than you are
comfortable with giving…don’t. You don’t need the service or
product being offered badly enough to put yourself at
unnecessary risk. Reputable ‘Online Shopkeepers’ use only
trusted sources, such as PayPal and VeriSign, to collect your
information…thus showing their genuine concern for your
shopping safety…and they display these logos on their website
as reassurance to their customers.

There is one - unavoidable - danger.

Although measures have been taken by reputable online businesses
to help safeguard your shopping experience, there is one danger
that yet remains. You may enjoy shopping from the comfort of
your own home or office - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - so
much that you become ” a regular on-line shopper “.

Yes, there is a danger that this may happen to you…and so far
as I know there is no known cure, either. It is simply too easy
to not put yourself at the mercy of the Mall crowds…so nice to
not have to wait in line…to not have to be presentable in
appearance and to be able to find and purchase what we want
before we have even finished that cup of coffee. It can be after
everyone else is in bed for the night…or before anyone else
has even awakened for the day… And it is always at our
convenience!

But those shipping and handling charges….

Today, most reputable online businesses work hard to keep
shipping and handling costs down. Remember, they are at the
mercy of the shipping and handling rates being charged them by
the carriers. But when you shop online…you also have the
benefit of comparison shopping at your fingertips. When you are
in a single store somewhere, you pay whatever price they are
asking…you can’t run from store to store to store to compare
and save a buck or two. With online shopping you can!

I know what it can cost me to drive here and there to find
something - only to find that the next week it’s on sale !
Because of gas prices…it will always cost me several dollars
to drive and I will pay that - even if I am unable to find what
I am looking for. When you add it all up - shipping and handling
affords you the luxuries and minimizes the frustrations of
shopping.

Of course there will still be times when you prefer to drive -
walk - search - stand in line - be treated indifferently - and
spend more than you wanted to spend…but when you want to enjoy
shopping at your convenience with the ability to instantly
compare prices in the comfort of your own space - there is
always “online shopping” - just be careful, it can be
dangerously satisfying!

There are few products more popular than the iPodexcept when it
comes to battery life. The batteries in early iPods fail after a
time (300 to 500 charge/discharge cycles or about two to three
years) and just won’t hold a charge. Even worse, there’s no easy
way to change the batteries. Angry owners sued and now Apple has
agreed to some restitution (AppleIpodSettlement). That’s good
news if you’re the owner of a third-generation iPod: You’re
eligible for a free battery replacement or (at Apple’s
discretion) a replacement iPod, providing you still have your
proof of purchase and file a claim by September 30, 2005. The
news is not so good if you have a first- or second-generation
iPod: You can choose between a check for $25 or a $50 store
credit to use on Apple products (excluding iTunes). Well, at
least that’s something. But you’re still stuck with your dead
battery. What can you do? The simple (and costly) approach would
be to go with Apple’s iPod Out-of- Warranty Battery Replacement
Program.

Send in your dead iPod along with a check for $99 plus $6.95
shipping and you’ll receive an equivalent new or refurbished
model with a fresh battery in one to three weeks. Besides paying
more than three times the cost of a battery, which can be
obtained online for around $30, you’re not even guaranteed
you’ll receive your exact iPod back in the mail. Why not avoid
all of Apple’s service fees? You really can replace the battery
on your own: We’ll show you how. Sure, you’ll void the warranty
in the process, but isn’t that part of the fun?

Visit
http://www.goto-site.com/best-buy/replace-ipod-battery.html for
complete instructions and step by step pictures.

It’s raining! I woke up this morning and it was raining, not a
startling fact in itself but for a brief instant my life flashed
up strong as if viewable on a giant TV screen on the ceiling
above my head! It’s raining, it’s 7.30am, my wife and baby are
asleep beside me and I have everything that I or anybody else
could possibly want in life.

In fact a large purplish stamp should be embedded upon my
forehead that reads “this man is satisfied”!

I have a brand new high capacity MP3 player to play the
thousands of songs that I have downloaded from the web on my
super duper new self-built computer, with the flat screen panel
that is just so cool! We have our dream cars parked in our
garage below, the kitchen is being remodeled next week and we
have a holiday home in Spain! I am fit, healthy and good
looking, promotion at work is on its way and the enormous salary
raise will ensure that my bank manager offers me coffee and
biscuits when I visit.

Yet it’s raining outside!

As I look at my son, his face so innocent and pure; as I look at
my beautiful wife who brought this magical being into the world
I can hear ever stronger the pitter patter of the rain as it
lands on the roof above! As I look at my family I can no longer
see the material possessions and wealth that I have accumulated
over the years, they have no place and no meaning; not right
here, not right now!

Take away my possessions and give to me a gramophone, a bicycle
and a coal fire! Take away my computer; a game of monopoly will
fill that gap. I don’t need promotion, my bank manager is an
idiot and coffee is bad for the health. Take away everything I
have in material wealth, everything that I need and want is here
in this bed with me. Take away all of those plastic beeping and
flashing machines that mean so little when I have the most
wonderful of feelings imaginable, that of love! That is all I
need!

It has stopped raining now, somebody has turned off that giant
TV screen that was only moments ago hovering over the bed! The
sun is shining in the sky, the radio has come on with some
gentle morning music and the auto start percolator in the
kitchen is sending fresh smells of coffee wafting up the stairs.
It has stopped raining and normality has returned, with it has
come sense and sensibility, understanding that unless I keep up
with the world I will never be able to give my son the future
that he deserves! I have to be the same as everyone else outside
in the big wide world. I have to be fashionable and trendy, to
have what others have and not to be an outcast or to fall by the
wayside.

Soon my son will start to crawl. Then he will walk. Then he will
want to be fashionable, to fit in and be like all the other
children of his age! He will want to have beeping and squeaking
toys; he’ll need to be connected, to have an email address and
to have the latest Nokia phone at his side. He’ll scream unless
he can wear baggy trousers that seem so ugly yet are so ‘in’, he
will cry unless he can have a game boy, watch TV, listen to his
MP3 and he will want all that is at the height of fashionable
materialism of those his age!

It has stopped raining and I have everything. I have a wonderful
family whom I love with my heart and my soul. But I also have
the latest in digital technology, membership at the smartest
health club in town, a motorbike of mean proportions and a
gardener to do the weeding! I also have a ten speed lawnmower
(the next door neighbor still has the older 8 speed model) a
pension fund and a platinum American express card!!

My wife hates Monopoly anyway!

A modern day memory foam mattress is what you want. A latex and memory foam mattress is naturally resistant and dust mites find it hard to survive. The amazing sensation created when you sleep on a memory foam mattress is one much like weightlessness and floating.

Sleeping on a memory foam mattress is next to achieving an ultimate sleep with numerous benefits. Sleeping on a bunch of metal springs is probably more like sleeping on a bed of rusty nails when compared to sleeping on memory foam. Because a memory foam mattress conforms to your body shape, there is no need to toss and turn whistle sleeping because you feel as if you are resting on a cloud.

By individually supporting each part of the body, foam can help reduce pressure points and help to eliminate tossing and turning. Magniflex has used this innovation and created a foam mattress with a series of layer combinations for work to mold to and support the weight of each individual body like no other mattress o the market. Magnilex’s Memory Foam collection will provide you with an astonishing level of support and can be found at www.mattresses4backs.com

Memory foam beds are so popular that they have now become mainstream with TempurPedic being the market leader, in fact, lots of companies have started producing affordable, quality memory foam products in competition to Tempurpedic.

Memory foam is basically a Swedish designed mattress technology. The memory foam mattress is hygienically clean, dustless and odor free and typically will last 20 years without sagging or deforming.

There are so many things that you can make with your own sewing
machine. You can have hours of fun creating new things and
designing your own fashions. It does not matter if you are a
little girl or an adult, you can do anything you want with a
sewing machine.

Many people make their own clothes with their machine. Lets face
it clothes are expensive and some of the new fashions of today
can be so tempting, buy we cannot afford the prices. There is a
way that we can afford these great looking clothes and have some
fun too. You can buy patterns at most clothing stores for less
then a pack of socks. Once you have the pattern, you will be
able to create the piece of clothing you have been wanting for
less then you would buy it.

Some of us are very creative and we like to make and design our
own clothes. There are so many ideas that you can get from
looking at magazines and in catalogs. Once we get the ideas in
our head, we can then start designing and creating our own
fashions. Imagine the fun that you can have on a rainy afternoon
or when there is nothing else to do. You can save yourself some
money and learn a lot at the same time.

You do not have to be perfect to use a sewing machine. You can
start out just playing around. The first thing that you can do
is start using your sewing machine by fixing a rip or making
doll clothes. Starting out with small things on a sewing machine
will get you ready for the bigger items and get you prepared to
do almost anything on a sewing machine.

Once you have practiced on your sewing machine and have all the
skills to use it, you can then teach your friends how to get in
on the fun. You can have friends over and show them the things
that they will need to know to get them started with creating
new designs on a sewing machine. You and your friends can spend
great quality time together while creating new designs and
having fun at the same time.

What are you waiting for? Go out, get a sewing machine today,
and find out what all the fuss is.

“I’m most proud of the longevity of my marriage, my kids, and my grandchildren. If you don’t have that, you really don’t have very much.”

-Bob Newhart

Recently we got the news that actor Jude Law cheated on his beautiful fiancee, the actress Sienna Miller, with his children’s nanny. The story, which made international headlines, was the subject of a special “Best Week Ever” segment on the Today Show with Katie Couric.

BW Panelist Sherrod Small explained Law’s behavior to Katie. “He’s a man,” he opined.

Which raises two questions: Are men programmed to cheat? And, if a woman with Sienna Miller’s assets can’t keep a man faithful, what hope is there for the rest of us?

My answer to the first question is a definite no. Men are not programmed to cheat, but every time somebody comes along and says they are (I’m thinking about Goldie Hawn in a recent People interview), the bar is lowered. Women start believing that men are incapable of fidelity, and they stop expecting it.

Men are capable of monogamy. If you want a monogamous relationship, expect monogamy. Don’t make excuses, and don’t take a guy back after he’s fooled around with your best friend. It doesn’t matter if you do look like Sienna Miller, if you take a cheater back, you get a cheater. (It’s also not a good idea to poach other women’s men; you don’t walk away with a prize, you know; you get a guy who’ll break your heart one day).

To prove my point, a retrospective of Bob Newhart’s career aired on PBS two days after the revelation about knucklehead Jude Law. Now, maybe you think Bob Newhart is an old man, not very sexy, no Jude Law, but in 1963, when he married his wife, Ginny, he certainly wasn’t bad (and he makes people laugh, a real turn-on).

A good deal of the show dealt with his marriage and his devotion to his wife and children. At one point, Newhart and his wife were shown sitting together in the audience at a recent awards ceremony looking crinkly and in love. (Lest you wonder if old Bob cheated on Ginny while he went out on the road, he arranged his schedule so that she and the kids could go with him.)

Another example of a happily monogamous man is Aerosmith’s Joe Perry. He and his wife Billie married in 1985. Since then, he doesn’t leave home unless she’s on board, and he’s still writing songs about her (check out his new CD, “Joe Perry”).

Isn’t that what we all want when we set out to get married? To be loved for being ourselves, to accomplish goals with the man we love, to be allowed to grow old with him gracefully, to sit happily across the table from him 20, 40, and 60 years from now?

So, set your bar high. Forget about men like Jude Law. Hold out for a Bob Newhart or a Joe Perry. They exist, and you deserve nothing less.

About the Author

Terry Hernon MacDonald is the author of “How to Attract and Marry the Man of Your Dreams.” Sign up for her free newsletter at http://www.marrysmart.com and get tips on attracting a man who’s worthy of you for a change.

Here are some ways to dress up the “traditional” favorites at
your Christmas dinner.

PIE CRUST

1. Make your usual pie crust, 2-crust version. Line the pie tin,
put in the filling, and now it’s time to play. Roll out the
second crust and start cutting shapes - using cooky cutters or
free form with a knife. At Thanksgiving, for instance, up at my
son’s house I was stuck without the “necessary’ equipment so I
improvised, just carving out a leaf using one nearby as a model.
First one doesn’t work? Pie dough is very forgiving. Roll it up
and start again. Your “second chances” are infinite. You could
also use something from a child’s coloring book for a pattern.

One idea - cut out 3 rounds for holly berries (use bottle cap or
such if you don’t have small round cutter). Then use knife to
cut out spiky holly leaves. Or use a Santa Claus cooky cutter.
Place these on top of the pie filling and bake away.

If you have the time and the inclination, when the pie is baked
and cooled, then use frosting to decorate your crust decoration.
To save time, use those little tubes from the grocery; no one
cares how it tastes. Licorice for Santa’s belt, etc.

2. Using whatever you have for the top crust - shapes, lattice
or solid, apply egg yolk and then sprinkle w/ colored sugar.

3. Do the usual only very different, i.e., make a pumpkin
chiffon pie. At serving time, crumble candy canes and sprinkle
on top.

CANDY CANES

Candy canes go so well with chocolate. You can make a chocolate
dessert, like that instant pudding concoction, and then sprinkle
crushed candy canes atop.

SWEET POTATOES

Make your usual sweet potato recipe and put it in the Pyrex®.
Then whip up meringue nice and stiff, with lots of sugar. Circle
the bowl with the meringue, and then make dollops on top with
peaks. Then you can (1) sprinkle it with colored sprinkles, or
(2) in the center put 3 maraschino cherries and some pineapple
leaves, like holly. Or put marshmallows around the rim and
decoration in the middle. You can shape the pineapple leaves
with scissors.

BOULE DE NIEGE

Very simple, cheap, elegant looking. Buy ice cream - for
Christmas it could be peppermint, coconut or pistachio. Let the
ice cream soften just enough to work with, and then scoop it
into a round Pyrex® that you’ve greased lightly with Pam®. Put
it in the freezer until well frozen again. Then take it out,
soak the dish briefly in larger bowl of warm water til you see
the ice cream melting on the edges, turn it over on a pretty
serving platter, and out it comes in a dome. Tear strips of
waxed paper and place them all around the plate, under the ice
cream. Now whip cream til stiff, put in pastry bag, use a tip
such as Wilton 2D and pipe, pipe, pipe, little shaped blobs,
each one next to the other till the mound is completely covered.
Gently remove the waxed paper, wipe the serving platter with a
wet rag, and place the ball back in the freezer till frozen.
Once it’s frozen, cover it - I put a stainless steel bowl over
it - and let it stay there til ready to serve.

At serving time you can add some decorations piping colored
whipped cream, or using cherries and leaves again, but my
favorite is to leave it elegantly white. “Boule de niege” is
French for snowball!

BEEF WELLINGTON

Make a mixture of Dijon mustard and those colored peppercorns
that are red, green and white - a “four-color mélange” is
available here:
http://www.happycookers.com/wc.dll/products/divulge/3-1918.html
. Coat the beef with this before you encrust it. You can also
use this on turkey, Prime Rib, or Crown Roast. For a photo, go
here:
http://www.zinos.com/cool/zinos/author_area/preview_article?;AR00
8410 .

P.S. Be sure and put dough cut outs atop the Beef Wellington,
too!

INDIVIDUAL TRIFLES

Here are some really cute star-shaped Christmas bowls (
http://www.happycookers.com/wc.dll/products/divulge/1-21856.html
). Make trifle and put them in these dishes. Then smooth over
the top with whipped cream.

MASHED POTATOES

Mash them and put them in a serving bowl. Then sprinkle just
enough cayenne and parsley flakes for color.

PARFAITS

Here’s a super easy, cheap, and very eye-appealing dessert.

Version 1: Fill fluted glasses with vanilla ice cream, or
peppermint. Drizzle green crme de menthe and chocolate over it.
Add maraschino cherry - red or green. If you use red cherry, add
green mint leaf.

Version 2: Use vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce, and
sprinkle crumbled candy cane over it.

TRIFLE

Trifle is, as I’m sure you know, a cold dessert made with
liqueur-soaked sponge cake, layers of fruit, jelly, custard and
whipped cream. It makes a great Christmas dessert because it can
be made well ahead of time, it’s got cheap ingredients, it’s not
familiar to a lot of people and they think it looks intricate to
make, and … the presentation!

For instance since the ingredients are so cheap, why not buy the
Spode Christmas tree soup tureen - “just” $348.95 (instead of
$535.00) at amazon.com kitchenware. j.k.

However, put the trifle in a tureen and then put a layer of
whipped cream on the top smoothing it completely (use a warm wet
flat spatula). What makes it special is people will keep trying
to “pick up the lid” which is the whipped cream, and there are
fingerprints all over it and lots of laughs and “oohs” and
“aahs.”

VEGIES

Put chopped red peppers in among the peas, Brussels sprouts or
broccoli; chopped green pepper in with the tomatoes. Cut stars
out of cheese and place atop casserole.

Don’t do all of these things; that’s too much. Choose one or two.

AND DON’T FORGET TO DRESS THE HOSTESS

A Christmas apron is always fun. Here’s a Santa one with
matching hat: http://avalonusa.com/christmas/aprons.htm , a sexy
Santa girl apron ( http://www.incrediblegifts.com/sagichap .html
), and my personal favorites - affordable white cotton with
ruffles, Christmas tree, gingerbread men, spoon and candy cane (
http://www.asianhomeandcrafts.org/apronbib.html ). For more
sources, go here: http:/ opten.org/public/BI/BI324.html .