Mindfrosting

One of the kids told me how to make one of your eyes twitch to make people go away.
Her method: She said to close one eye halfway then wink it fast. You must keep a straight face or let your face follow what you are saying whist getting the eye to twitch rapidly.

I found if too slow and people would just be thinking you’re winking at them. In my case no matter how well or poorly I twitch, it does make them go away, but be warned that if you are good looking you just might cause the person you want to go away - to hang around more than ever.
I need to perfect the rapid twitch ’cause one time the person said “eh, errm, lady, I’m married”. So I had to clariy by telling him my eye had a twitch and that I was NOT winking at him. Sheesh…

A while back one of our cats, Bootsie, went up a tree and could not get down. Any move he made was upward. We figured by morning he would be down and ready to be let inside. But nope. He was at least 50 feet up by then and howling with the most sad voice.

I phoned the local humane society ro ask if they could recommend a tree climber who might come out and do a rescue, but (Monday morning) I was greeted with a message machine telling me they were closed. I called their extension which on their website indicated would get me in touch with a 24/7 help desk, but was greeted with another away message.

So I did a search online and came up with Western Star Tree Service in the Bellingham area. I asked if they had anyone there who would rescue a cat from a tree and was told they did this! Yaaa! Then I asked how much they charged for this service and though the price was high it was worth it to find someone who knows about cats, likes them and who has done this sort of thing before.

Russ from Western Star Tree Service came right out and with some impressive climbing gear and a duffle for the cat he scampered like a monkey right up the tree. He spent time near the top where Boots was lodged talking to him to calm him before securing him inside the bag which he had fastened to his harness. While this was going on we observed 3 eagles (huge ones!) coasting overhead. I figure when Boots was crying it was like a dinner bell to these raptors.

The tree climber brought our Bootsie back down in good and grateful condition. My kids were so happy.

Why is it cats by nature know so many things one of which is how to climb up, but coming back down is not one of them?

My niece has started up a very useful and interesing business. It’s all about - Reusable Cloth Menstrual Pads from Reclaimed and Second-Hand Fabrics! Yes! This is good. Her website is here: Amy’s Rag Bag Go see her site! She is brilliant! “Bloody” brilliant, in fact… excuse my punniness…

Some features for these rags are:

Loop & Tab closure
Very soft and comfortable
They’re cute and versatile.
She has Liners/Backups and Soakers

She has quite a bit of information on her FAQ and Latest News pages plus a way to order and pay thru paypal, by cash or even thru barter! So go visit Amy’s Rag Bag and check these things out.
Say, now I’m thinking “gift item” uhuh, yep! Fun, funny and very useful gift items! Go see! Now! Go! yes! Be brave. You can do this.

James Melloh, Steven Gates, Jesse Denison of the band called Kiss Goodbye will be playing tonight at The Rogue Hero in Bellingham (1313 N. State St) at 10pm. Go to this and hear some great music!

If you’d like to hear a sampling of their music right now visit their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/kissgoodbyeband

My younger brother suggested I create a solar power website dealing with alternative energy information and solar products. So I set up www.solarstance.com

At Solar Stance I added some informational how-to articles and set up some product links and an amazon store. If solar power is something of interest to you take a look and let me know what I should add to this site.

There’s a forum and a page for kids with some fun solar science projects and kits. And now there’s a photo gallery page for those who have added panels or done other alternative energy projects at their homes. To have a photo added just send it in an email with some information about your project and this can go up on the solarstance gallery page. I am hoping the forum will become a well used place for people to share and find useful information related to setting up and using solar power. Here’s the address: www.solarstance.com

This is probably a good time of the year to start planning summer things like family reunions. You’ll find you need a head start in getting everyone’s contact information together, then start contacting them all. And if some need to travel long distances they definitely need a head start. My family had been doing these reunion picnics thanks to a couple of my dedicated and hard working cousins, (Bev and Bonnie Jean… hi you two! Thanks!)

To try to help them I had built a family reunion site specifically for our family and kin. On it is a calendar showing the when and a map showing the where and a few pages highlighting other’s blogs, family sites and home business. Then we had a page of photos from past reunions as well as a page of oldie photos…some very interesting old photos of long gone relatives that we scanned in to add on the site.

Today I went in and added a base site for other’s reunion websites. If interested in having one built for your family reunions you may contact me through this site: www.homecraftedsite.com.

On the base site I put some helpful tips and resources for putting together a family reunion and named the site The Family Cave. To see it go to www.familycave.com. It’s still fairly new content-wise so if you have any tips you would like me to add to it just let me know! Thanks

Upon requesting to my daughter (a teenager) that she tidy up her room, this is what happened. It is not pretty so be warned. She was sitting there surrounded by all manner of items from books to crumpled kleenex to cds in tipsy piles to…well, it was very, very bad. I could not see the floor, the true floor, that is. I asked her why she lets it get this way? Her answer to me was- “I am allergic to open spaces. I need this stuff around me to make me feel comfortable. I have agorophobia.” Then she looked at me with a straight face like she expected me to nod and go away.

After about ten minutes - after I stopped laughing and wiping tears from my eyes I grounded her until the room was clean. Just so you know, as I was laughing, her face was a’twitch at trying not to laugh or even smile. This kid should never play card games for money.

As she was working on her room I had some great down-time creating a little photo gallery website for one of my nephews. He has been taking some neat shots around the Pacific Northwest and Bellingham area. If you’d like to see some of his pictures the site is going up here: http://jasonbanks.clydebanks.com

Ok, so update on the room. It is now passable, but not superb. If it stays clean, or at least some of the floor visible for 24 hours it will be amazing. I wonder if there is any type of cure for “messy room agorophobia”?

Just thought I’d place a shameless plug for some of my artist friends. Perhaps you might get some last minute gift ideas from their pages:

* Artist sammoore (he likes lower case letters in his name) “He is a truly gifted artist with jewelry creation, as well as his multi-faceted art work.” He lives in a log cabin in Whatcom County. Is a Vietnam Vet. He has taught art classes at a local college recently. You can see his jewelry and art here: www.artistsammoore.com Sam also has a Cafepress store where some items can be purchased online. Cafepress is fairly quick with delivery so if you want something as a Holiday gift this might work out for you: Cafepress Store

* Misty Dawn is a massage therapist and runs her Moon Maiden Massage business in Bellingham, WA. She and a friend create beautiful jewelry which are works of art. To see sampes of their work go to: www.moonmaidenmaidenmassage.com/

* Friend, Silversong, who is the founder of Honor Day and The Honor Foundation based in Whatcom County, has a selection of art that you should see:
www.silversongsart.com

* Vicki Denning does Reike, writes and is also a wonderful artist and she also lives in the Whatcom County, WA area.. Her galleries are to be found here: www.goldenspiralart.com

This month The Honor Day folks are giving a concert in Fairhaven (Bellingham), Washington. This concert, the first of a series will be featuring singer, Amara Grace and will be held at The Firehouse Cafe at
1314 Harris Street Fairhaven, WA 7-9 p.m on October 23rd.
UPDATE - UPDATE: Next one is Feb 28th.
UPDATE: Amara is back and will be at the Firehouse on Jan. 6th 7pm to 8:30. - Don’t miss this!

There will be a surprise guest as well as speaker, Silversong, the founder of Honor Day. Tickets are a $10. donation. A percentage benefits the non-profit, The Honor Foundation. You can find tickets at the Food Co-Op and at Fairhaven Book Store.

For more information here’s a link you can follow: Honor Day

Last week we were invited to go out on a catamaran named Rapscallion. The owner, captain, Steve Miller and his lady, Eileen, treated us and two other families to a beautiful afternoon of sailing out from the Blaine Marina (WA).

I have never been on a catamaran before. Our 12 year old was along for this trip as well (wearing her coast guard approved life jacket of course). She went out on one of the boat’s trampolines to experience being suspended over the water as we moved along. One person on the other trampoline appeared to have fallen asleep. On our return we were treated to the sight of over a hundred seals basking on some dock - what looked like maybe the old Semiamoo Spit Cannery dock?

Captain Miller has plans to set his boat up in a sail charter business possibly by next year. So I made him a website for his sailboat, Rapscallion. It is here: www.rapscallionsailcharters.com When his business is all set to “launch” he will have me add some more information and photos to this new website.

We had a wonderful time sailing and are hoping to go again next season. It was cool out there, having wind in our hair and being able to grin like wild pirates without getting any bugs in our teeth. If you ever go on one of these trips bring a coat because it can be extra cold out there, perhaps also a package of moist towelettes (optional) for that occassional seagull flyby dumpie!

If you like to write there are websites where you can showcase/publish your efforts and share critique with other writers and writers-to-be. My favorite is Editred.com. You can sign up for an account for free and of course they also have the option to sign up for a paid account which you might like even better. This features more uploads and allows you to be eligible to enter more writing contests, have an ad free account, etc.

Quite a few members are already published authors - some of which got to this level after joining this writing community. You can receive helpful guidance and encouragement from some very talented members.

My forte for now is poetry, but I certainly enjoy reading member submissions including the flash fiction, short stories and novellas available there. My neice, Amy Silver, features some of her short stories on Editred. I am so proud of her and of course, her fabulous talent as a writer!

It’s happening again! We used to have Cingular and the billing nightmares took their toll on my mind body and time. It was horrible. If you do a search you’ll find this kind of thing hurts so many people causing intense suffering from stress, monetary loss, time loss, family conflict, ruined relationships, to ruined credit reports.
<-"Big Business"
The cell phone company was in the wrong, but it always took so much of my time and the 1-800 boogie and emails to get it straighened out were difficult on me and my family. But I fought because I cannot allow myself to be cheated. Can’t live with being taken advantage of. It would feel worse than the stress and effort to correct their mistakes (or attempts to get/steal my money) to allow them to do this. But it keeps repeating. It feels at this point that these are not honest mistakes on their part but maybe direct attempts to cheat people out of money. What do you think?

So when the Cingular contract had expired at the end of last year I switched to T-mobile. After 6 months with them, dang-it, the nightmare is starting again. (Place very bad word here). I am beginning to think all big businesses are like this…are they? Are they all slime?

Did you know in the fine print somewhere in your contract that maybe you signed away your right to pursue legal action in a class action suit? Well today I found where some folks have stood up to this amazingly nasty thing. I am posting some URLs to pages where you might be able to find the help you need to fight errors, dishonest and bogus billing charges as well as other issues you might be having with your wireless company.

http://tmobilefraud.com
Early Termination Fees
Overcharging Suit:…
where it says this: “The state Supreme Court said a clause in Cingular’s contract that prevented subscribers from starting class-action suits was unfair and sent the case back to the trial court in King County where it began.”
Public Justice
Class Action Rights
An Attorney

Stressed over your cell phone billing errors? Check out some of the links above. Might help.