12.23.2008

Hello friends. I imagine everyone is busy, busy, busy with Christmas being just a few days away. I know large areas of the country have had some terrible winter storms, so I hope wherever you are, you are warm and safe. It was bitterly cold here yesterday and today. The thermometer was on 5* here this morning and with the wind chill it felt well below zero. No worries though as it's supposed to warm up into the 50s this week. You gotta love the roller coaster weather of West Virginia! :) ~Toni
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Now for Phyllis...

Last minute gift ideas;
Wow, hard to believe that Christmas is nearly here! Hope you've gotten all your shopping done...but here are some gift ideas in case you remember someone at the last minute.

1. Gas Station...This is a good place to get a gift for that car enthusiast you forgot about! You can put together a car emergency kit very easily. Just buy a bucket and then fill it with things like a can of "fix a flat", road flares, jumper cables, air fresheners,fuzzy dice for the rearview mirror or a leather steering wheel cover. Buy a shammy cloth and tie it to the handle of the bucket to make it look more "gifty".
2. Drug Store...Buy a pretty gift bag and fill it with scented soaps, lotions, sample sizes of different shampoos, ponytail holders, etc. Or you can buy a bucket and call it a "Party Survival kit." Fill it with carpet cleaner, stain stick pen, dishwasher detergent and a feather duster to make it look festive.
3. Grocery store...This is a really great place to find last minute gifts for a food lover! You could purchase a re-usable shopping tote and fill it with gourmet pasta, sauce, a collandar and some bread sticks or biscotti.

MORE TIPS:
Try to create a theme with color. One unifying color will tie everything together and show that you put thought into the item. It might sound strange, but if you give practical items, you know they will be used instead of just being put away on a shelf or "re-gifted" to someone else.
Add extra touches like pine cones, fresh cut flowers or a bag of potpourri to make it look like you put more thought into the gift than you really did.

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I'd like to share my one of my favorite Christmas stories with you this week. I first read this in high school and I've loved it ever since.
http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/1014/

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Finding Her Here by Jayne Relaford Brown

I am becoming the woman I've wanted,
grey at the temples, soft body, delighted,
Cracked up by life with a laugh thats known bitter,
but past it, got better,
Knows she's a survivor --
that whatever comes, she can outlast it.
I am becoming a deep weathered basket.

I am becoming the woman I've longed for,
the motherly lover with arms strong and tender,
the growing up daughter who blushes surprises.
I am becoming full moons and sunrises.

I find her becoming, this woman I've wanted,
who knows she'll encompass,
who knows she's sufficient,
knows where she's going and travels with passion.

Who remembers she's precious,
but knows she's not scarce--
who knows she is plenty, plenty to share.

If you have a favorite poem to share, please send it to http://us.mc01g.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Twofriendsnewsletter@gmail.com
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COOL PICK

This weeks cool pick is a great site for people looking for candy and food that they can't find at grocery stores anymore.
http://www.hometownfavorites.com/
Hometown Favorites specializes in "the hard to find" items you're missing! They started in the late 90's and are proud to say that they have over 2,000 old time favorite foods and candies. Its a fun site to browse because it reminds you of foods you have forgotten. They even have a "Boy They Were Good, But..." section where they list all the foods that are no longer available, even from Hometown Favorites. In addition to food, they also have health and beauty products such as shaving mug soap and such. If you are a retro fan like me, take a tour of Hometown Favorites.
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Merry Christmas!
http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=ER13610552

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Here is a useful tool when going out to eat at restaurants. Sometimes its hard to choose the healthiest thing on the menu. This menu decoder is a big hellp!


http://www.menshealth.com/eatthis/menu-decoder/?cm_mmc=ETNTNL-_-2008_12_15-_-MainBlk-_-NA-_-05

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What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Healthy Living

This week I'd like to share with you my top 5 weight loss gadgets!
1. Food scale. Very important for weighing your food to make sure you have the proper serving size. Studies have shown that most people underestimate their portion sizes when just "eyeballing" it. Get a food scale and be sure that you're only eating one serving.
2. Measuring cups and spoons. These are important for the same reasons as having a food scale. A regular kitchen teaspon or tablespoon will not give you an accurate measure, since they do vary in sizes.
3. Food journal. A study conducted by The American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that people who kept a food journal lost nearly twice as much weight as people who didn't.
You can keep a paper journal, or perhaps you'd like to try an online one at a site such as fitday.com
4. Pedometer. Some studies show that if you wear a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps a day, you can lose up to 5lbs a year without even changing your diet. No, thats not a lot of weight, but wearing a pedometer can help inspire you to walk more, which will have other health benefits besides weight loss, such as improving your blood pressure.
5. Smaller plate. Eating from a smaller plate tricks your eyes into thinking you are eating a larger portion than you really are.
http://www.wisebread.com/optical-illusions-that-make-you-fatter-and-your-wallet-lighter

Merry Christmas, everyone! Don't forget to check with your doctor prior to starting any weight loss or exercise plan!
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Winner! My friend Chicky is the winner of the spot the typo contest! Good eye, Chicky!

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This one was sent in by Nancy. Thanks!

http://home.att.net/~sheryl2/FLASH/SEASON/ScriptureTreeChristmas.html

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Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!


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Now for Toni...

If you live in a cold climate have you noticed how the local stores always seem to have a huge abundance of hats, scarves and mittens/gloves? Starting the day after Christmas these items can be bought for very low prices. If there is a homeless shelter or some type of mission in your area, you could check with them and see if these would be needed items and then head for those after-Christmas sales!
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Cheryl sent me this article and I found it very interesting...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98275947&sc=nl&cc=es-20081221
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The state of Hawaii consists of eight main islands: Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe and the Big Island of Hawaii.

Hawaii is the most isolated population center on the face of the earth. Hawaii is 2,390 miles from California; 3,850 miles from Japan; 4,900 miles from China; and 5,280 miles from the Philippines.

Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee. More than one-third of the world's commercial supply of pineapples comes from Hawaii.

From east to west Hawaii is the widest state in the United States.

The Hawaiian Islands are the projecting tops of the biggest mountain range in the world.

Honolulu's zenith star, (the star that rises directly above it) is Arcturus. The Hawaiians called it Hokule'a. (Hoe koo lay uh.)

Hawaii was the 50th state admitted to the union on August 20th, 1959.

Hawaii has its own time zone (Hawaiian Standard Time.) There is no daylight savings time.) The time runs two hours behind Pacific Standard Time and five hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

The wind blows east to west in Hawaii. The highest recorded temperature is 96' F (Honolulu Airport), but temperatures over 92' F generally occur only once or twice a year. The lowest temperature (under 3000 feet altitude) is 56' F. Temperatures under 60' F may occur but rarely more than once a year. Average daytime temp. (July) is 82' F. Average daytime temperature in January is 72' F.

There are no racial or ethnic majorities in Hawaii. Everyone is a minority. Caucasians (Haoles) constitute about 34%; Japanese-American about 32%; Filipino-American about 16% and Chinese-American about 5%. It is very difficult to determine racial identification as most of the population has some mixture of ethnicities.

ISLAND OF NIIHAU
A privately owned island, with livestock raising as its principal industry. There is highly limited access by general public through helicopter landings at uninhabited sites. Legend says Niihau was the original home of the goddess Pele. The island has a population of 230, and is 69 square miles.

ISLAND OF KAUAI
The fourth largest of the Hawaiian Islands. The Waialua River is one of five navigable river in Hawaii. It drains off Waialeale Mountain, which averages 488 inches of rain per year and is considered the wettest spot on earth.

ISLAND OF OAHU
Honolulu is the largest city in the world -- at least it has the longest borders. According to the state constitution any island (or islet) not named as belonging to a county belongs to Honolulu. This makes all islands within the Hawaiian Archipelago, that stretch to Midway Island (1,500 miles northwest of Hawaii) part of Honolulu. Honolulu is about 1,500 miles long or more distance than halfway across the 48 contiguous states.

Iolani Palace is the only royal palace in the United States.

The world's largest wind generator is on the island of Oahu. The windmill has two blades 400 feet long on the top of a tower twenty stories high.

The island of Oahu draws more visitors than any other to Hawaii. One-third of the state's best surfing beaches are on Oahu.

ISLAND OF MAUI
Haleakala Crater (Ha-lay-ah-ja-lah), is the world's largest dormant volcano.

ISLAND OF MOLOKAI
Molokai is known as the most Hawaiian Isle.

Molokai's east end is a tropical rain forest and part of the island receives 240 inches of rainfall a year.

Kalaaupapa was once a leper colony administered by Father Damien.

The island contains the world's highest sea cliffs, Hawaii's longest waterfall, and the largest white sand beach in the state.

ISLAND OF LANAI
The island of Lanai is considered Hawaii's most secluded.

The island was once the home of the world's largest pineapple plantations.

ISLAND OF KAHOOLAWE
Once used as a target by the U.S. Navy and Air Force the services are cleaning up unexploded shells. No one is allowed to go ashore without permission. The island consists of an uninhabited area of 45 square miles.

THE BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII
The Big Island is Hawaii's largest at 4,038 square miles. It is twice the size of all other Hawaiian Islands combined.

The largest contiguous ranch, in the United States, is in Hawaii. The Parker Ranch near Kamuela has about 480,000 acres of land.

Kilauea volcano is the world's most active.

Ka Lae is the southernmost point in the United States. It is located at 18:54:49 N 155:41:00 W. There is a constant 27 knots per hour wind blowing east to west, 24 hours per day and 365 days per year.

Two of the tallest mountains in the Pacific - Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa - dominate the center of the island.

Most of the world's macadamia nuts are grown on the island.

Kilauea Iki is the world's most active and largest volcano.

Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world (measured from its base at the ocean floor).

The island houses the world's biggest telescope and more scientific observatories in one place than anywhere else in the world.

The island is the worldwide leader in harvesting macadamia nuts and orchids.
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Smart sprinkles...let the feasts begin The spices used in pumpkin pie, gingerbread, and other holiday treats contain powerful deisease-fighting antioxidants. Ground cinnamon tops the list, followed by cloves, with giner also packing a healthy punch. Cinnamon and cloves even outscore better-known antioxidants like blueberries and pomegranate juice. Quick ways to get a healthy dose:
~Sprinkle a pinch of ground cloves over a baked sweet potato
~Shake cinnamon into cocoa
~Season sauteed carots with ground ginger (about 1/2 teaspoon per pound of the veggie)
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~Marie's Laughter~

A Blonde is watching the news with her husband when the newscaster says:"Two Brazilian men die in a skydiving accident”.

The blonde starts crying uncontrollably to her husband, sobbing "That's horrible!! Confused, he says, "Yes dear, it is sad, but they were skydiving, and there is always that risk involved."
After a few minutes, the blonde, still sobbing, says, "How many is a Brazilian?"
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Did you buy a poinsettia or receive one as a gift? Here's how to care for it.

Caring for Poinsettias

The length of time your poinsettia will give you pleasure in your home is dependent on (1) the maturity of the plant, (2) when you buy it, and (3) how you treat the plant. With care, poinsettias should retain their beauty for weeks and some varieties will stay attractive for months.

~After you have made your poinsettia selection, make sure it is wrapped properly because exposure to low temperatures even for a few minutes can damage the bracts and leaves.

~Unwrap your poinsettia carefully and place in indirect light. Six hours of light daily is ideal. Keep the plant from touching cold windows.

~Keep poinsettias away from warm or cold drafts from radiators, air registers or open doors and windows.

~Ideally poinsettias require daytime temperatures of 60 to 70°F and night time temperatures around 55°F. High temperatures will shorten the plant’s life. Move the plant to a cooler room at night, if possible.

~Check the soil daily. Be sure to punch holes in foil so water can drain into a saucer. Water when soil is dry. Allow water to drain into the saucer and discard excess water. Wilted plants will tend to drop bracts sooner.

~Fertilize the poinsettia if you keep it past the holiday season. Apply a houseplant fertilizer once a month. Do not fertilize when it is in bloom.
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Terrie sent these to me:

Here are some Christmas related facts that will arouse your interest :

In the Ukraine, if you find a spider web in the house on Christmas morning, it is believed to be a harbinger of good luck! There once lived a woman so poor, says a Ukrainian folk tale, that she could not afford Christmas decorations for her family.. One Christmas morning, she awoke to find that spiders had trimmed her childrenʼs tree with their webs. When the morning sun shone on them, the webs turned to silver and gold. An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees.

At Christmas, it is traditional to exchange kisses beneath the mistletoe tree. In ancient Scandinavia, mistletoe was associated with peace and friendship. That may account for the custom of "kissing beneath the mistletoe".

'Klaxon' is a name that does not belong to one of Santaʼs reindeer. A klaxon is actually a powerful electric horn. Its name comes from a German word meaning "shriek".

In many households, part of the fun of eating Christmas pudding is finding a trinket that predicts your fortune for the coming year. For instance, finding a coin means you will become wealthy. A ring means you will get married; while a button predicts bachelorhood. The idea of hiding something in the pudding comes from the tradition in the Middle Ages of hiding a bean in a cake that was served on Twelfth Night. Whoever found the bean became "king" for the rest of the night.

Frumenty was a spiced porridge, enjoyed by both rich and poor. It was a forerunner of modern Christmas puddings. It is linked in legend to the Celtic god Dagda, who stirred a porridge made up of all the good things of the earth.

The poinsettia is a traditional Christmas flower. In Mexico (its original birthplace), the poinsettia is known as the "Flower of the Holy Night".

Louis Prang, a Bavarian-born lithographer who came to the USA from Germany in the 19th century, popularized the sending of printed Christmas cards. He invented a way of reproducing color oil paintings, the "chromolithograph technique", and created a card with the message "Merry Christmas" as a way of showing it off.The "Urn of Fate" is part of the Christmas celebrations in many Italian households.

The Urn of Fate is brought out on Christmas Eve. It holds a wrapped present for everyone. The mother tries her luck first, then the others in turn. If you get a present with your name on it, you keep it; otherwise, you put it back and try again.
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These came to me from Cheryl. She and I worried the first one might be a little too late in the season, but then I decided that the holidays aren't the only time we use extension cords, so:

When you use extra cords for holiday lights and decorations, don't run any extension cords under rugs. They can get frayed, worn or chewed by pets, which can cause them to short out. This could start a fire.

Have Coupons You Aren't Using?

Donate them to charities, senior citizen or community centers or food banks. Some communities have coupon exchanges. Contact your church or library for more information.
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When I was in elementary school I lived about 10 miles from the little town of Cyclone, West Virginia; I'm about 100 miles away now. Anyway I saw this in the local paper and thought it was very interesting and hoped you would too. ~Toni

CYCLONE — After nearly 4,000 miles — from a small school deep in the mountains of rural West Virginia to the northwest coast of England — a diminutive white balloon floated across the Atlantic Ocean to be found by Katrina McGregor during a routine beach clean-up.
The 3,720-mile transatlantic journey began as a gesture of sentiment for sixth grader Whitney Osborne, a way to honor her aunt, Linda Ritchie, who had recently passed away as the result of a car accident. Osborne released the white balloon, a note honoring her aunt tucked inside, during a Veterans Day balloon lift Nov. 10 at Road Branch Elementary and Middle School. Students released 252 red, white and blue balloons, complete with area veterans offering a 21-gun salute.
McGregor, 53, found the still-inflated balloon 14 days later while cleaning up at Heversham Moss in the Kent Estuary. She had to pop the balloon to get to the message inside.
McGregor, who lives in Storth, recently wrote to the students and staff of the school indicating she and her mother had completed additional beach clean-ups but have yet to find more balloons.
Lizzie Anderson, a reporter with The Westmorland Gazette in England, was the first to contact Road Branch principal Rebecca Cooke.
“I first thought she meant New England,” Cooke said.
However, as the conversation continued, Cooke said it became apparent from Anderson’s accent it wasn’t anywhere in the United States. Anderson indicated they knew the balloon was from America because “honor” had been spelled without a “u,” Cooke explained.
“I had a mental map in my head ... I can’t believe it got out of the mountains,” Cooke said. Osborne, likewise, still can’t believe the balloon floated across the Atlantic Ocean. “Daddy told me, but I really didn’t believe him. He’s always kidding around with me,” the sixth grader recalled of her father, Eugene Osborne.
One of the teachers from the school mentioned it to Osborne at church, then the reality of just how far the balloon had traveled began to register.
“I figured it would get stuck in the trees,” Osborne said. “I wouldn’t have dreamed it could have gotten out of these mountains,” added Geneva Osborne, Whitney’s mom.
“Even if it had gotten out of the mountains into another state, maybe Virginia — that would have been something,” Cooke emphasized.
“We live in a rural area on the coast, but Ireland is between you and us, and plenty of mountains,” McGregor wrote in her letter to the school.
“I am very honoured to have found it and have kept the press cuttings ...” McGregor said, using England’s spelling of “honoured,” with the “u.”
“I would dearly love to come over and meet you all, but it costs a fortune for the flight (a few thousand and return), so I live in hope that sometime I may have chance to come over,” she said in her letter.
Cooke was impressed McGregor wrote an actual letter rather than sending an e-mail and emphasized the entire school would have the opportunity to write to her.
Osborne would also like the chance to visit England and meet McGregor.
“Maybe someday I will,” she said.
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Pepsi has a new logo. Developed at the cost of more than $1 million, the "more dynamic and more alive" soft-drink logo will likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement worldwide.

Layaway. A mainstay of the Great Depression, paying for a purchase over time (and delaying the instant gratification a credit card permits) is popular again. According to the Wall Street Journal, Kmart, TJ Maxx, and other retailers are reporting a rise in layaway since the credit crunch.
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I tried Dawn Plus Hand Renewal (Aloe Vera Scent). It's okay, but I prefer original Dawn still the best. This new didn't bubble as good as I like and I didn't see the condition of my hands improve. Bottom line, I'll be buying original Dawn next time.

Have you tried any new products? Write a review and send it to me and I'll put it in a future issue.
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Photo editing made fun

Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. It's fast, easy, and fun.

http://www.picnik.com/
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Hope you like this word origin...

The origin of the phrase mind your Ps and Qs, meaning to be careful of one’s behavior, is not known. Explanations for the phrase abound. Some are plausible, some are not. Let’s start with what we know.

The phrase dates to at least 1779 when it appears in Hannah Cowley’s Who’s The Dupe?:

You must mind your P’s and Q’s with him, I can tell you.

There are other forms that are older, such as this from Samuel Rowlands’ 1612 The Knave of Harts:

Bring in a quart of Maligo, right true: And looke, you Rogue, that it be Pee and Kew.

And there is this from Thomas Dekker’s 1602 Satiro-Mastix:

Now thou art in thy pee and cue.

The pee here is a reference to pea cloth, a course woolen cloth common in men’s clothing of the day. The cue is mysterious.

One plausible explanation is that it comes from the difficulty children have learning to write. The letters P and Q can be easily confused when first learning to write. William Combe writes in his 1820 The Second Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of Consolation:

And I full five-and-twenty year Have always been school-master here; And almost all you know and see, Have learn’d their Ps and Qs from me.

While this explanation appears some decades after the phrase’s appearance, it is perhaps the most plausible explanation. A variant on this explanation is that it is not children who are confused, but rather apprentice printers. Since type is the mirror image of the printed letter, it is easy to confuse the letters P and Q when examining blocks of type. While the printer variant is plausible, there is no evidence to confirm it.

Another plausible explanation is that it is a reference to “prime quality.” P and Q is used to mean prime quality in the dialect of Shropshire and Herefordshire. So to mind one’s Ps and Qs is to assure that something is the very best. The 1612 Rowlands’ quote could be interpreted in this fashion, although the use of P and Q or pee and kew to mean prime quality is not attested until the 19th century. It seems more likely that this is a retroactive interpretation of the phrase rather than the origin.

Then there are the less plausible explanations. One of which is, of course, that the phrase is nautical in origin.

The explanation is the the P stands for a sailor’s pea jacket and the Q is for queue, or pigtail. Sailors would often wear their hair in a queue and after many weeks at sea without washing it would become greasy and could stain a sailor’s pea jacket. The pee in Dekker’s 1602 quote above is a reference to pea cloth, but it is not in a nautical context and while today pea cloth is associated with sailors, in the 16th and 17th centuries it was not, being widely used in all walks of life. Furthermore, queue, meaning pigtail, does not appear until the mid-18th century, well after the early versions of the phrase had appeared. So this nautical explanation is all wet.

Another commonly suggested, but implausible, explanation is that it is a variation on mind your pleases and thank yous, a plea for gentility and manners. There is no evidence to support this, nor does the please and thank you phrase appear anywhere except in explanations of the Ps and Qs origin.

Finally, perhaps the best known implausible explanation is that the phrase is a reference to pints and quarts. According to the explanation, taverns would keep customers’ tabs on chalkboards, tallying up the numbers of pints and quarts of drink each patron consumed. To mind one’s Ps and Qs was either a plea to the barkeep to be careful to mark the right column or to the patron not to drink too much. The explanation appears in Harper’s Monthly Magazine in January 1852:

Who ever knew, until comparatively late years, what was the origin of the cautionary saying, “Mind your P’s and Q’s?” A modern antiquarian, however, has put the world right in relation to that saying: In ale-houses, in the olden time, when chalk “scores” were marked upon the wall, or behind the door of the tap-room, it was customary to put the initials “P” and “Q” at the head of every man’s account, to show the number of “pints” and” quarts” for which he was in arrears; and we may presume many a friendly rustic to have tapped his neighbor on the shoulder, when he was indulging too freely in his potations, and to have exclaimed, as he pointed to the chalk-score, “Mind your P’s and Q’s, man! mind your P’s and Q’s!”

As we can see, this explanation only dates to the mid-19th century and it fails to account for the form learn one’s Ps and Qs, which as we have seen existed prior to this explanation appearing. We can safely dispense with this explanation.
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In for a penny
A penny not paid could land Eileen Wilbur in legal trouble. The city of South Attlesboro, Mass., billed the 74-year-old Wilbur for one cent she owes on her utility bill. The letter also threatened Wilbur, who is blind, with a $48 tax lien if she doesn't pay up. A city spokesman said the collector's office automatically printed bills for all residents who owed money. A penny for Wilbur's troughts? "They wasted taxpayer money on the letter," she said, noting the 42-cent postage on the notice.
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"A lot of disappointed people have been left standing on the street corner waiting for the bus marked 'Perfection'." ~Donald Kennedy