FREE condoms for everybody!!!!!!

OK, well, you have to be 18 (yes, because we all know that no one under 18 has sex) and it takes 6 weeks to receive your 1 free Trojan condom. But hey, it's free!

CLICK HERE to get it!

Oh, and it's a limited offer to one free condom per person per year... so, if you don't need more than one this year... you probably won't mind waiting the 6 weeks it takes to receive it ... here ya go.

:-)

YAY TROJAN!

Hillary's Daughter The PIMP

Re: the comment about Hillary's daughter being "pimped out".

I think Whoopi said it best ...

"unfortunate things happen when white people try to use black slang". (or something similar to that)

Does the guy deserve to lose his job? NO

Does Hill need to take a chill pill & concentrate on bigger & better things? YES

OK, so, how do you think she should have reacted to the pimp comment?
I think she should have gotten Chelsea a t-shirt that says "I'M PIMPIN FO MY MAS".

Yup. That's exactly what I think.

Shoveling

We got hit pretty hard today. Looked like about 8 inches of snow, which, when I decided to go to bed last night, was light & fluffy. Then came the sleet & freezing rain all morning & all day. Holy shit. It took me 20 minutes to clear a two-foot wide section the length of our car. Frozen slush. You had to break it up before you could shovel it. And even then you couldn't put much on the shovel - either because you simply couldn't lift it or for fear of the shitty plastic shovel snapping in two beneath the weight of the frozen sludge. All together, I only shoveled for a little over an hour ... with many breaks ... it took all day ... and now my shoulders are wondering what the hell I was thinking.

More movie reviews

Mr Woodcock - Very silly, entertaining, Love Seann William Scott. The bonus is, you get to see him & Billy-Bob in wrestling outfits ... HA!

3:10 to Yuma - awesome awesome awesome! Even if you don't like westerns, this one has an amazing story-line. Great movie!

PiGS - well, they tried ... but it just didn't do anything for me.

Oceans Thirteen - Lived up to its promises. I've been very impressed by all three 'Oceans' flicks.

Superbad - if you only see one movie this year, make sure this one is it. It's absolutely factually rediculous, and completely hilarious. Takes American Pie to the next level. I AM McLovin.

Great FREE Websites For Kids Online

All the experts told my parents that too much TV would damage us ... eh ... we made it through. Now the evil spawn of these "experts" are still waving the same flags ... only this time they've added warning labels on computers too.
Well.
I happen to disagree.
I'm not gonna sit a child in front of the TV or DVD or computer or video games completely unsupervised ... or for hours on end. But you can bet all of my kids have TV's in their rooms.
First, selfishly, it does give us 'mommy time'... Secondly, if their responsibilities are not done (chores, homework) then no phone or electronics.
And third, there are actually some excellent programs on TV, & fun, educational games on the computer.
And 4th ... that's not all they do.
To sum it up ... anyone who tells me that Baby Einstein is going to damage my granddaughter's brain, can bite me.

HERE'S A LIST OF GREAT FREE WEBSITES FOR KIDS.

Sesame Street

Noggin

The Wiggles

Playhouse Disney

PBS Kids

Me

I LOVE watching movies. Comedies especially. I have experienced true love, many times ... I am addicted to chocolate... I used to drive fast... now, old women pass me. I love working on the computer. I'm an animal lover. Always have been. I think that people who abuse animals &/or children should get life sentences. That way the cycle might end. My living room looks like a day care center. I don't do windows & I rarely dust. If my office / desk isn't clean & organized, I get very little work done. When I put my mind to something I go at it 100% ... I have had 1,000,000 ideas ... I didn't always have the family support -- or belief in myself -- to stick with the ideas & follow through enough to see if it'll turn out as great as I think it will in the beginning. I love to laugh. I strive to be healthy. I was given up for adoption at birth. 10 years ago, I met my birthmother & birthfather... we still stay in touch. They're both amazing. I've been a foster mom for 10 years. Sometimes it's too easy. At other times, it's so difficult, we discuss not doing it any more. The system sucks in so many ways. Many of the people I work with, do truly care. While at the same time, I've seen some of the worst the system has to offer, Social Services case workers for one - I have yet to be impressed. Empty threats, empty promises, lies, huge caseloads, laziness ... It's truly sad. I teach children to jump in puddles. I rarely shop for sneakers, because I'm so particular about how they should fit - it usually takes me a month of shopping & trying on sneakers, before I find the right pair. I hate shopping. When I DO finally find the right pair of sneakers, I should buy two pair. I do not own shoes. I have a garage full of crap. Good crap, but crap nonetheless.

Hey, you never know.

Each link is searchable by State / last name ... pretty cool .... & hey, you never know.

You may just end up finding some LOST MONEY !!!


MISSING MONEY DOT COM

UNCLAIMED DOT ORG

The Chocolate Garden

I first heard of The Chocolate Garden back in 2001 on TV ... The Food Network did a feature on them.

You know how TV shows featuring foods have the hosts take a bite ... and no matter what, they all say: "Yum, this is amazing"... but you can tell by the looks on their faces that as soon as they go to commercial, they're bending over the trash bucket? Ya. Well not this time. When they tasted the Chocolate Garden's truffles, time seemed to slow ... all you heard was: "mmmmmm". Eyelids were slowly closing in their most unexpected public moments that proved to be nearly orgasmic.

I immediately got online & ordered a two-pack. Six days later I received my order & tasted them for the first time. Five minutes after that, I was placing another (much larger) order.






I may have mentioned before, how cranky I get when I go to 'gourmet chocolate shops', pay too much & end up disappointed. One of the reasons I fell so immediately head-over-heels with The Chocolate Garden, was because these suckers are hand-rolled. The truffles you get in many "gourmet" shops are mass produced, and have a horrendous wax coating that just makes my tongue say: "ewww" the moment I put it in my mouth.

There's no wax on The Chocolate Garden's truffles.

Let me just say this ...

Oh ... My .... God.

Chocolate lovers, you will know - with your first soft bite - these are simply, the world's greatest chocolate truffles.

Period.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry

I suppose it's a sign that I'm getting older .... but I kept finding myself wondering if some of the sexual references in the movie I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY were appropriate for the 14 yr old to be seeing. It's rated PG-13, but I kept thinking ... I should get up & check to make sure it's actually PG-13.

And because of that, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I would have if the 14 yr old wasn't watching it with us.

There were several laugh out lout moments... but also many predictable moments.

Excellent actors, all of them. LOADED with stars. Great message.

Overall, good entertainment.

Free Samples from WalMart

WalMart has a section of their website that offers FREE SAMPLES !!!

A simple name & address form, and you'll get free (sample size) stuff delivered to your door.

I've been using it for 3 months now & I have actually received several sample-size items in my mailbox. No additional junk mail that I have noticed either! (They don't share your contact info.)

The only drawback? You have to fill in the name & address infor every time.

Free stuff = cool.

ENJOY!

I WANT THE BANANA!

We have a YMCA family membership. They have a lot of different aquatic programs. Kids lessons, family swim, open swim, laps, even kayak lessons & programs for older people & people with injuries & synchronized swimming.

Yesterday we took our 3 1/2 year old granddaughter swimming during the family swim time. She loved it. About 20 minutes into our time in the pool, she spots something -- her eyes get big -- she yells: "I WANT THE BANANA!" She's hungry? Now? We look around. There's a big yellow kayak parked upside-down on the side of the pool, waiting for the kayak class.

It really did look like a humongous banana.

:-)

Ghirardelli Chocolate

As a self-proclaimed chocolate connoisseur, I have to say, I know chocolate. Chocolate & I have been having an ongoing love affair for more than forty years.

I've been to the local malls where the fancy-schmancy chocolate shops claim to have the best chocolates in the world, spent waaay too much money for something that tastes the same as a $2 hollow chocolate Easter bunny.

I've tried every chocolate bar known to man.

Belgian chocolates are very good. But even they, pale in comparison to Ghirardelli. (GEAR-UH-DELLY)



There's just something about the taste of Ghirardelli that makes you -- if you're a true chocolate lover -- sigh ... and feel the rush of calm surround your body like a warm, soft blanket.

It's the greatest natural high that I know.

I read once, that they roast their cocoa beans differently than other chocolate manufacturers. Ghirardelli takes the little seeds out of the bean & roasts them at precise temps, in order to get specific flavors. Most other chocolate manufacturers roast & burn the bean ... the result being ... burnt seeds, under-roasted seeds ... varying, inconsistent flavors.



I've even visited the factory in SanFrancisco.

It was a thing of beauty. Huge vats of slowly stirred, thick liquid chocolate. I wanted to jump in. I wanted to swim in it. I pictured myself diving in. Evidently, someone had the idea before me because there were Plexiglas walls surrounding the vats.

All in all, my visit to the Ghirardelli factory was one of the most memorable experiences of my time in SanFrancisco... even though I didn't get to go swimming.

The grocery stores carry double chocolate ghirardelli brownies & ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. The next time you're gonna make brownies or chocolate chip cookies, I challenge you to spend the extra $1.50. You WILL NOT regret it. :-) I promise.

Ever changing

Feels like life is changing ... again. Everything always changes, I know. But a lot of the time, I don't see it coming. Sometimes I feel it coming, but I'm not aware enough of the significance of it all ... then I can look back & say: "gee, I should have seen that coming." But now ... everything is changing. I can see it, I can feel it ... & I'm scared. And I'm excited.

My daughter is moving out of the apartment upstairs, into her own apartment (in town). And she's taking my grandbabies with her. It's just so convenient having them right here. But I know it'll be more normal -- for her -- if she's not living with mommy at 23 yrs old.

And it's been crowded. We're foster parents. And we have a fairly large old house. Since I work at home, and since my daughter moved in (& required the entire upstairs) ... my workspace -- my OFFICE -- is shared with our bedroom. It's squished. It's hard to concentrate. It impossible to organize. My office space is less than half the size it was before. So yes, I'm looking forward to having my office space back. If a feng shui person saw this space right now, they'd run screaming.

All of it though, is leaving an uneasy feeling in my gut. A lot like butterflies. Fear of the unknown I suppose. Also, partly, me losing control of the situation. (Did I mention I have control issues? -- well, they're not really issues, so long as I'm in control.)

Scary.

I think I made a mistake.

I like to think I'm like most moms out there. We all try to do our best. We all try to do better with our own kids than our parents did with us. We all try. And we all make mistakes.

I think I made a mistake. I kind of got sidetracked on this blog ... I mean, I was keeping it all about greeting cards - and the truth is, I WANT to write about other stuff too.

So ... stuff that once didn't belong here, will now be here. YEE HAWWWW! Such freedom! Woo Hoo!

I hope to blog here about; life, marriage, funny things my daughter & granddaughters say & do, product reviews, pet tales, food, and maybe even a dash of poetry.

In other words, you all (if there is actually anyone out there reading my blog) will get to see the real me - the true me ... you'll see what a whack-job I really am.

Lucky, Lucky you!

GrammaBurp on Zazzle!

Ahh, the benefits of having friends in the business ...

CLICK :-) HERE

Greeting Card Market Flourishing

Greeting Card Market Flourishing

A new study conducted by Unity Marketing finds that greeting cards were the fastest growing category in the overall stationery market in 2006. This showed a big comeback for the product after four years of steadily declining sales, rising over 11 percent from 2004 to 2006. The report further showed that, in 2006, the market for greeting cards climbed to over $10 billion.

Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing, noted that from 2000 to 2004 the sales of greeting cards were in steady decline, but in 2005 sales began to turn around, as, she says, a result of a shift in consumers' shopping preferences away from mass retailers and discounters. "In 2006 specialty card and gift shops regained 6 market share points. As a result, the mass merchants are holding on as market share leader by a thread," says Danziger. She notes that a drop in the number of specialty retail shops in the card and gift segments had an impact on sales. Now there is a revival of specialty retail for greeting cards, and due to the quality products, people prefer these shops to the mass merchants and discounters. Danziger explains, "A few years back the mass merchants, such as Wal-Mart, were the biggest, baddest competitors in the greeting card business, driving prices down and capturing the largest share of business. This resulted in a winnowing out of the weaker specialty retailers that couldn't survive the mass retailers' onslaught. But this new study shows that the tide is turning. The specialty retailers that remain are robust competitors able to attract more affluent shoppers who will pay more for the better designs and higher quality greeting cards available through these stores."


Published by Talcott Communications Corporation. Copyright © 1998-2007
Talcott Communications Corporation. All Rights Reserved

1 state 2 states red states blue states

GrammaBurp cards can be found in twenty-one US States. I was looking at my color-coded map that I use to keep track of what states carry our cards & it hit me ... the pattern is similar to the red states / blue states maps ... especially he newer ones ...
Blue represents states we're in.
MY MAP LOOKS SOMETHING LIKE THIS ...


THEIR MAP



So ... republicans hate us ...
LOL

Our New Addition

HA - I love this one ...