03.17.2009

Happy Saint Patricks Day!
Here we are, halfway through the month of March. March got its name from Mars, the Roman god of war.
There are no national holidays in March, but there are some state and religious celebrations, including;
Nebraska celebrated their admission to the Union on March 1st.
On March 2, Texas celebrated the anniversary of its independance from Mexico.
And of course, there is Saint Patrick's Day on March 17.
The Jewish fesitval of Purim usually happens in March.

The year's at the Spring,
And the day's at the morn;...
God's in His heaven,
All's right with the world!
-Robert Browning
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Everything you always wanted to know about shoelaces, but were afraid to ask!
http://fieggen.com/shoelace/
At Ian's Shoelace Site, you can find lots of fun, quirky and unique ways to tie and lace up your shoes! You'll also get all kinds of information about shoelaces here, some of it useful and some of it just for fun.
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We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
-George Bernard Shaw

If you're still in touch with the kid in you, check out
http://www.thecolor.com/
and have some creative fun!
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The entire NIV version of the Bible online
http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/?action=getVersionInfo&vid=31
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Coca-Cola was introduced in 1886 on March 29.
The Eiffel Tower was officially opened on March 31, 1889.

March is National Women's History Month. It began in 1978 as Women's History Week. In 1987, Congress expanded it to a month.
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/womenshistorymonth/a/whm_history.htm

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Here are some uses for vinegar;

1. Kill grass on sidewalks and driveways...just pour it full strength on unwanted grass.

2. Lengthen the life of flowers in a vase. Add 2 tbsp vinegar and 1 tsp sugar for every quart of water.(4 cups of water make a quart.)

3. Relieve the itching of a mosquito or insect bite by using a cotton ball to dab vinegar straight from the bottle.

4. To prevent lint from clinging to your clothes, add one cup of vinegar to your wash load.

5. You can remove perspiration stains from your clothes by applying one part vinegar to four parts water, then rinse.

6. Use vinegar to freshen vegetables. Soak wilted vegetables in two cups of water with one tbsp of vinegar.

7. Just in time for Easter! Add 2 tbsp of vinegar to water before boiling. It will help keep the eggs from cracking.

If you have any other good uses for vinegar, send them to me to be used in a future newsletter! Twofriendsnewsletter@gmail.com

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May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow
and may trouble avoid you wherever you go.

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COOL PICK

Psst! Got five minutes? Then go to http://www.5min.com/ and you'll find a huge library of five minute instructional videos for just about everything you need help with! There are over 20 categories (and 140 sub categories) for almost any type of instructional video you need. The site has fashion tips, cooking demonstrations and recipes, travel tips, game instructions, home repairs and more. There is LOTS of information here, all in five minute (or less) video clips. So the next time you need some "how to" advice, log onto 5min.com and find the help you need.
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HEALTHY LIVING

If you're trying to lose weight or just eat a healthier diet, then you know that eating at restaurants can be a challenge. It pays to do your homework BEFORE heading to the restaurant. Nowadays, most restaurants post their nutritional information online, so a quick visit to their website will take the guesswork out of deciding what to order. Another help is http://www.healthydiningfinder.com/ a great website that will give you the nutritional information for restaurants in your area, "from fast food to fine dining."
Of course, there are some common sense tips to help you choose the lower calorie option when dining out. Look for menu items that are baked, grilled, broiled or steamed, and avoid ordering anything fried. Order your salad with the dressing on the side. This gives you control over how much dressing you have. Remember, a typical serving of salad dressing is two tablespoons. (If you get a salad at a fast food restaurant, be aware that most salad dressing packets actually contain enough for TWO servings. Always read the label!) If you must have dessert, choose something that you can share with the person you're eating with. That way, you only get half the calories!

And one final tip...only eat half of your entree. Have the other half boxed up and take it home to enjoy the next day. Most restaurant portions are huge, and so is the calorie count.
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Just for fun....ten creative ice cube trays! (The one that looks like false teeth is gross and funny at the same time!)
http://www.oddee.com/item_96599.aspx
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Here's a great site for crossword puzzle fans;
http://www.onlinecrosswords.net/

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Top o' the morning to ya. Hope everyone has had a good week. I had a good one, but golly did it ever pass quickly. For me when it's snowy and cold and gets dark before 6, the time passes so slowly. Then as soon as it starts to warm up and we change to daylight saving time, everything speeds up. I know time really doesn't slow down and speed up depending on the season, but it feels that way. So let's not let one moment of spring slip by, just in case. ~Toni
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Here is a nice site to help someone--or you--quit smoking.http://wediditstory.com/
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Justice delayed
With wait times like this, Indians with legal claims might just go vigilante. In a recent report from the top judge of the Delhi High Court, the chief justice says the court's docket is so backlogged, some cases may take up to 466 years to clear if the judges keep their present pace. Despite spending an average of 4 minutes, 55 seconds on each case presently, the Delhi High Court still has tens of thousands of cases in the hopper including more than 600 that are at least 20 years old. The Delhi court is indicative of a terminally backlogged national judicial system that the UN claims has over 20 million cases pending. One reason for the backlog? A shortage of judges. While the United States has roughly one judge for every 9,100 citizens, India has one judge for every 91,000 citizens.
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Minnesota

--Minnesotan baseball commentator Halsey Hal was the first to say 'Holy Cow' during a baseball broadcast.
--The Mall of America in Bloomington is the size of 78 football fields --- 9.5 million square feet.
--Minnesota Inventions: Masking and Scotch tape, Wheaties cereal, Bisquick, HMOs, the bundt pan, Aveda beauty products, and Green Giant vegetables.
--Minneapolis’ famed skyway system connecting 52 blocks (nearly five miles) of downtown makes it possible to live, eat, work and shop without going outside.
--Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline, more than California, Florida and Hawaii combined.
--Rochester is home of the world famous Mayo Clinic. The clinic is a major teaching and working facility. It is known world wide for its doctor's expertise and the newest methods of treatments. --Private Milburn Henke of Hutchinson was the first enlisted man to land with the first American Expeditionary Force in Europe in WWII on January 26, 1942.
--The first Children's department in a Library is said to be that of the Minneapolis Public Library, which separated children's books from the rest of the collection in Dec. 1889.
--The first Automatic Pop-up toaster was marketed in June 1926 by McGraw Electric Co. in Minneapolis under the name Toastmaster. The retail price was $13.50.
--The first Aerial Ferry was put into Operation on April 9, 1905, over the ship canal between Duluth to Minnesota Point. It had room enough to accommodate 6 automobiles. Round trip took 10 min.
--Tonka Trucks were developed and are continued to be manufactured in Minnetonka.
--Hormel Company of Austin marketed the first canned ham in 1926. Hormel introduced Spam in 1937.
--Introduced in August 1963, The Control Data 6600, designed by Control Data Corp. of Chippewa Falls, was the first Super Computer. It was used by the military to simulate nuclear explosions and break Soviet codes. These computers also were used to model complex phenomena such as hurricanes and galaxies.
--Candy maker Frank C. Mars of Minnesota introduced the Milky Way candy bar in 1923. Mars marketed the Snickers bar in 1930 and introduced the 5 cent Three Musketeers bar in 1937. The original 3 Musketeers bar contained 3 bars in one wrapper. Each with different flavor nougat.
--A Jehovah's Witness was the first patient to receive a transfusion of artificial blood in 1979 at the University of Minnesota Hospital. He had refused a transfusion of real blood because of his religious beliefs.
--Minnesota has one recreational boat per every six people, more than any other state.
--Author Laura Ingalls Wilder lived on Plum Creek near Walnut Grove.
--Akeley is birthplace and home of world's largest Paul Bunyan Statue. The kneeling Paul Bunyan is 20 feet tall. He might be the claimed 33 feet tall, if he were standing. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/97/228822746_2200779dee.jpg?v=0
--Hibbing is the birthplace of the American bus industry. It sprang from the business acumen of Carl Wickman and Andrew "Bus Andy" Anderson - who opened the first bus line (with one bus) between the towns of Hibbing and Alice in 1914. The bus line grew to become Greyhound Lines, Inc.
--The first official hit in the Metrodome in Minneapolis was made by Pete Rose playing for the Cincinnati Reds in a preseason game.
--Alexander Anderson of Red Wing discovered the processes to puff wheat and rice giving us the indispensable rice cakes.
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Nutrition facts, calories in food, labels, nutritional information and analysis
http://www.nutritiondata.com/
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This Procter & Gamble site was sent to use by Sharon. It has free samples and coupons. http://tinyurl.com/comp2l
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~Tips from Cheryl~

Making a Soothing Bath
For a skin friendly milk bath, pour a package of powdered nonfat dry milk into warm water. For an herbal bath, mix about 1/4 cup of your favorite herbs like mint, lavender, rosemary, etc. Put into a cloth or nylon net bag and toss into the tub. Soak for a while and relax.

Save Money: Make Your Own Prewash Spray
Mix equal amounts of dishwashing (not dishwasher) liquid, ammonia and water. Pour into a clean spray bottle and label clearly — Prewash Spray. After applying to clothing, wash right away; don't let set for more than 20 minutes.
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StimulusWatch.org and ShovelWatch.org are two of the websites recently launched to ensure that transparency occurs when the Treasury starts doling the dollars. The sites plan to act as virtual accountability groups, and both plead for the help of a nationwide network of readers. StimulusWatch.org already has posted the U.S. Conference of Mayors project wish list released in anticipation of stimulus bucks. On the site viewers can vote on the merits of each project. Currently voted most critical: $4.3 million for a nursing home in Tennessee. Least critical: nearly $100,000 for doorbells in Laurel, Miss.

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/
http://www.shovelwatch.org/
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Wash the washing machine and dishwasher. Lime and other mineral deposits clog the drainage systems in these large appliances. Run cycles through each machine without clothes or dishes. In the washing machine, run a full cycle using hot water, and add a gallon of white vinegar at the beginning; in the dishwasher, set a bowl containing three quarts of vinegar on the bottom rack, and run a cycle with the hottest water possible.
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Go here to help donate Campbell's tomato seeds and to request a packet of your own.http://www.helpgrowyoursoup.com/
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Another (very lengthy) installment of unusual town names; this week California:

*5 Brooks
*Badger
*Badwater
*Bagdad
*Bee Rock
*Bivalve
*Blunt
*Booneville
*Bumblebee
*Bummerville
*Cabbage Patch
*Chiquita
*Clapper Gap
*Confidence
*Cool
*Cow Creek
*Dairyville
*Dixieland
*Doghouse Junction
*Dogtown
*Dunmovin
*Fair Play
*Fallen Leaf
*False Klamath
*Forks of Salmon
*Fruitland
*Frying Pan
*Gas Point
*Globe
*Grand
*Hallelujah Junction
*Harmony
*Hellhole Palms
*Hells Kitchen
*Honda
*Honeydew
*Hooker
*Idlewild
*Java
*Jupiter
*Keg
*King Salmon
*Klondike
*Last Chance
*Little Penny
*Mad River
*Mormon Bar
*Mystic
*Orange
*Peanut
*Plaster City
*Rancho Cucamonga
*Roads End
*Rough and Ready
*Scarface
*Secret Town
*Siberia
*Skidoo
*Sky High
*Skytop
*Soapweed
*Soda Springs
*Squabbletown
*Stovepipe
*Sucker Flat
*Surprise
*Tarzana
*Teakettle Junction
*Timbuctoo
*Toadtown
*Truths Home
*Volcano
*Weed
*Weedpatch
*Wimp
*You Bet
*Yreka Zzyzx
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Is purple your favorite color? Here's what it means around the world:

--The Egyptian queen Cleopatra loved purple. To obtain one ounce of Tyrian purple dye, she had her servants soak 20,000 Purpura snails for 10 days.
--In Thailand, purple is worn by a widow mourning her husband's death.
--A “purple heart” is a U.S. military decoration for soldiers wounded or killed in battle.
--Purple is a royal color.
--Purple robes are an emblem of authority and rank.
--“Purple speech” is profane talk.
--“Purple prose” is writing that is full of exaggerated literary effects and ornamentation.
--Leonardo da Vinci believed that the power of meditation increases 10 times when done in a purple light, as in the purple light of stained glass.
--Purple in a child's room is said to help develop the imagination according to color theory.
--Richard Wagner composed his operas in a room with shades of violet, his color of inspiration.
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To let the cat out of the bag is to reveal a secret. But where does the phrase come from? What is the cat doing in the bag and what has this to do with secrets?

The phrase is a reference to an old scam in which a cat would be surreptitiously substituted for a suckling pig that had just been purchased at market. The cat would be placed in the bag in the hopes that the customer would not look into it until they were some distance away.

The phrase dates to at least 1760, although the scam itself is much older, dating to the 16th century at least. From London Magazine of 1760: We could have wished that the author...had not let the cat out of the bag.

Also related is the phrase to buy a pig in a poke, which is a reference to the same scam (a poke is a bag or sack). And there is a similar phrase in French, vider le sac, literally meaning to empty the sack and used to mean to tell the whole story or finish the tale.

It’s commonly asserted that let the cat out of the bag refers to the cat o’ nine-tails used on board ships as form of punishment. The whip would be kept in a special bag to protect it from the sea air and to let the cat out of the bag was to confess a crime worthy of flogging. A neat tale, except there is absolutely no evidence to connect the phrase with a nautical origin.
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Trade your old movies for someone else's at http://www.swapadvd.com/index.php This site has an excellent search engine, printable shipping labels and a queue that tells you about when to expect the DVD. Trades aren't made one-for-one, meaning you don't need to find a Batman owner who likes mermaids. After posting a list of 10 DVDs, you earn a credit that allows you to request a movie. As you send yo ur DVDs to other traders you earn more credits. The only cost to you is the postage to ship your DVD, about $2.
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When the golden sun is sinking,
and your mind from care is free,
And of others you are thinking,
will you sometimes think of me?