Martha Stewart: The Ultimate Thanksgiving Planner
November 18, 2007
While your family’s Thanksgiving Day gathering and dinner might be a wee bit more casual than Martha Stewart, the Martha Stewart’s Thanksgiving Day holiday area of her website features some great Thanksgiving Day food recipes, Thanksgiving Day crafts and Thanksgiving Day decorations as part of Martha Stewart’s Thanksgiving Essentials.
A woman known for detail, the Ultimate Thanksgiving Planner is a printable planner offered by Martha Stewart with advice on how to plan Thanksgiving dinner days before Thanksgiving Day, as well as a Thanksgiving dinner menu with recipes for spice cured turkey, spice butter, apple chestnut stuffing, chopped beet salad with feta and pecans, cranberry sauce with dried cherries, mashed potatoes and celery root, honey roasted squash, homemade ginger beer, and pear cranberry upside down cake with old fashioned vanilla ice cream.
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Thanksgiving: Healthy Thanksgiving dinner recipes
November 18, 2007
Be food adventurous this Thanksgiving with healthy Thanksgiving recipes!
The Mayo Clinic has published a collection of Thanksgiving Day recipes that replace the traditional Thanksgiving dinner feast without sacrificing taste. According to the Mayo Clinic’s Tools for healthier living, the following recipes have less calories, fat and sodium than the turkey smothered in gravy, candied yams, buttered corn and pumpkin pie we are all accustomed to serving on the biggest food holiday of the year.
From appetizers to dessert, following are links to healthy Thanksgiving Day dinner recipes:
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Boomers: Is it too late to save for retirement?
November 18, 2007
The retirement nest egg. Do most of us have one in place that will provide for a secure and comfortable lifestyle once we retire? Looking ahead to the retirement years, the traditional advice on when to begin a long term investment portfolio is ideally when we are still in our 20s.
For a variety of reasons, the reality is some of us might not have followed that financial advice two or three decades ago. For those who have not set aside money for retirement, a nagging little panic is beginning to set in as the retirement years are gaining on those now in their 40s and 50s.
Although surveys indicate boomers do not plan to retire at the accepted age of 65, when we do start to retire not one of us is counting on Social Security benefits to meet our financial retirement needs.
Is it too late to create a retirement nest egg?
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Leonid Meteor Shower
November 17, 2007
Every year in November the Leonid meteor shower lights up the autumn sky. This year the most spectacular viewing of the Leonid meteor shower will occur on the evening of November 17th. The Leonids are said to be one of the most famous of meteor showers primarily as a result of the meteor shower of 1833 where an estimated one hundred thousand meteors an hour could be seen over North America. At the time, some who witnessed the meteor shower display believed it to be a sign of the end of the world
The Leonid meteor shower gets its name from the Leo constellation which is where the meteor shower appears in the sky.
This meteor shower is made from a stream of meteoroids usually no larger than dust that are left behind by the comet Tempel-Tuttle. As Tempel-Tuttle makes its orbit around the Sun, frozen gases are evaporated and particles are thrown off of the comet. When the Earth passes through the particles left by the comet, the meteoroids burn in the atmosphere and create the meteor shower.
To find the best time to view the meteor shower in your area, go to NASA’s Leonid shower flux estimator.
[Photo Credit: Wikipedia: Leonids] Illustration of the most famous depiction of the 1833 meteor storm published in 1889 for the Adventist book Bible Readings for the Home Circle based on a first-person account of the 1833 storm by minister Joseph Harvey Waggoner on his way from Florida to New Orleans.
Freelancers Union: Low cost insurance
November 17, 2007
Of the many benefits to working as a freelancer, low cost health, dental, disability and life insurance are not part of the benefits. Over 30 percent of the American workforce are freelancers — independent contractors who work without the security of employer supported benefits.
Traditionally, freelancers have been on their own to negotiate reasonable premiums with large insurance companies. As a result, many freelancers have not been able to afford to buy insurance. The dreaded fear of most freelancers is becoming ill or suffering disability.
According to the Freelancers Union,
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World Peace Day: Origami paper cranes for peace
November 16, 2007
November 17 is World Peace Day. Peaceguy Don Morris is one man who wanted to launch a worldwide non-religious, non-governmental, world inclusive, grassroots movement campaign to promote peace. A day when all the people of the world could join in a message for peace. While Morris was visiting Sadako Peace Park in Santa Barbara, California, he noticed paper cranes hanging from the trees and bushes in the park. The inspirational idea of paper cranes as a symbol of the message for peace on World Peace Day took form that day.
The World Peace Day message is simple. Fold little paper peace cranes and hang them in public places. Send paper peace cranes to world leaders or hang paper peace cranes on the fence at the White House. Morris shares,
“They say if you fold 1000 cranes you will be granted your wish. Lets fold a couple of million cranes and wish for world peace.”
Here is an illustrated instruction for folding a paper crane:
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Flying Spaghetti Monster: Noodling with religion and the Flying Spaghetti Monster Christmas tree ornament
November 16, 2007
The followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, known as Pastafarians, will be pleased to know that the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a religion will be included in this year’s American Academy of Religion fostering excellence in the study of religion annual meeting under the auspicious title Evolutionary Controversy and a Side of Pasta: The Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Subversive Function of Religious Parody, with Holy Pasta and Authentic Sauce: The Flying Spaghetti Monster’s Messy Implications for Theorizing Religion, and Noodling around with Religion: Carnival Play, Monstrous Humor, and the Noodly Master.
The concept of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a religion is a loosely ethereal one, as it sprang complete from the imagination of Oregon State physics graduate named Bobby Henderson in response to a Kansas School Board debate on the merit of including intelligent design as part of the public school science class curriculum.
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Handwashing 101: How to prevent a killer cold or flu
November 16, 2007
Of the 51 types of adenoviruses that cause the common cold, a new and more deadly strain of adenovirus appears to be linked to the deaths of at least ten people who came down with the virus, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The concern among health officials is that this new virus can cause serious and potentially life threatening illness in otherwise healthy young adults. Reported cases of the new deadly cold virus has been identified in New York, Oregon, Washington and Texas.
The very young, the very old and those with compromised immune systems are always at risk of developing complications from the run of the mill cold, but this new more deadly strain has health officials are on alert. There are steps one can take to prevent getting a cold and spreading virus germs to others. The most important tip involves the simple practice of effective hand washing.
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Wii: Finding the Wii in time for Christmas
November 15, 2007
Oh here we go again.
Last Christmas season, the Nintendo Wii was on the top of every video gamer’s Christmas wish list. As a mother, it was the first time I felt a certain sense of justification in paying $250 dollars for a gaming system largely because playing Wii requires physical movement. I was not alone and the shopping frenzy for Wii was on.
After visiting every local store that advertised a Wii and finding the shelves empty, I turned to shopping online. I quickly discovered that the only readily available Wii consoles were being sold on eBay at three to four times the suggested retail price. I was determined not to lose my head or wallet over the Wii and I was equally determined to find one to buy. For days, it became a quest to find a merchant with a Wii in stock.
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John Lithgow: America’s Biggest Bedtime Story
November 13, 2007
To celebrate National Young Readers Day and encourage parents to read bedtime stories to their children, John Lithgow will be featured in America’s Biggest Bedtime Story webcast reading of The Remarkable Farkle McBride!
America’s Biggest Bedtime Story is part of a campaign by Pizza Hut’s BOOK IT! National Reading Incentive Program. According to a survey conducted by Pizza Hut, 49 percent of the children in this country are not being read a story at bedtime. Taking as little as 20 minutes at bedtime to read a book to a child has a significant and positive effect on how well they do in school.
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