Also forgot to tell you that Mon. when I saw McKenna she was so excited that I was coming. She ran up to me and hugged me. She wanted to know where we were going to meet next time. She has been watching her baby tapes and wants to meet at the park where we had Placement Day (the day I handed her over to Vicki and Larry iat the ceremony) since she has seen the park on the videotapes.

Subject: Comedy Central's All New Joke of the Day!






Blonde


The Blonde Flight Attendant

An airline captain was helping a new blonde flight attendant prepare for her first overnight trip. Upon their arrival, the captain showed the flight attendant the best place for airline personnel to eat, shop, and stay overnight. The next morning as the pilot was preparing the crew for the day's route, he noticed the new stewardess was missing. He knew which room she was in at the hotel and called her up to ask what happened to her. She answered the phone, crying, and said, "I can't get out of the room!" "You can't get out of your room?"; the captain asked. "Why not?" She replied, "There are only three doors in here," she sobbed, "one is the bathroom, one is the closet, and one has a sign on it that says 'Do Not Disturb'!"

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:28:34 -0700




Terri Rimmer,
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http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1388259/what_happened_to_smyrna_ga.html?cat=54

9 tips for breaking a bad habit

02:05 PM CST on Sunday, January 11, 2009

McClatchy Newspapers

With New Year's resolutions still fresh, here's some advice from local therapists on putting bad habits to rest:

-- Make a list. Write down all of the reasons why you want to stop a certain behavior -- how it's hurting you and why getting rid of it will help. Look at that list often.

Associated Press The average smoker tries to quit about seven times before being successful. View larger More photos Photo store
-- Become more aware. Many habits are hard to break because they are unconscious impulses. Turn them into choices instead: Make a written or mental note every time you do something unwanted such as biting your nails or yelling at your kids.

-- Substitute other activities. It's easier to replace a bad habit than stop it. If you lose your temper often, for example, practice deep breathing or go for a walk.

-- Break it down. Think of the steps needed to shed a habit and tackle them one at a time. To stay motivated, keep your goals simple and realistic.

-- Reward yourself. Before you take on a bad habit, decide what you'll do to celebrate with every baby step you complete.

-- Remove temptations. If you overeat, keep junk food out of your house. If you crave cigarettes with coffee, switch to tea -- and avoid smoky bars or friends who light up.

-- Be patient. Bad habits develop over years, so you likely won't be able to ditch them immediately. The average smoker, in fact, tries to quit about seven times before being successful.

-- Find support. Tell family and friends about your goal. If there's a local or online support group for people with your problem, join it.

-- Get help for addictions. Some habits, particularly substance abuse and smoking, involve a real physical or emotional dependency and may require professional attention.

Alison Johnson, McClatchy

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1373040/robin_williams_2009_performances.html?cat=8

Terri Rimmer,
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The right name for bonus mom pays dividends

06:24 PM CST on Wednesday, December 10, 2008

By JANN BLACKSTONE-FORD and SHARYL JUPE

Bonus parents often ask us for alternative names for "Mom" or "Dad," and we always suggest that bonus families put their heads together and come up with a special name that means something to them as a family. A reader sent us a great story for how they did just that, and in the interest of "peace on Earth, good will toward everyone," we thought we would pass it on.

Question: My fiancé and I went on a beach trip 10 months into dating. He has one child who was 5 at the time. During the trip she started calling me "Mom." I assumed it was because we were filling mom-daughter roles while on vacation.

In the mornings I cooked breakfast and woke her up to eat. Afterward I helped her dress and made her brush her teeth. I was with her all through the day, and then at night I tucked her in and we stayed in the same room. I think this routine for the week we were vacationing became comfortable and she felt comfortable calling me Mom. My fiancé and I didn't correct her, but it continued.

Three months later at Halloween the child's bio-mom dropped her by so we could see her all dressed up for Halloween. While taking a picture with her bio-mom, she called out, "Now I want to take a picture with my other mom." It didn't go over well. I definitely understood her feelings, however, and was content choosing an alternate name, but what?

We struggled to find a suitable name. I didn't want to be "Mommy Joyce" because that's still calling me Mom -- and bio-mom didn't like that. I'm not her aunt or grandma, so the suggestions of Auntie or Nana seemed odd to me. We were getting increasingly irritated that we even had to deal with this issue, but I knew it was important.

About a month later my fiancé looked over at me and said, "What about Mare? Mare [pronounced Ma-Ray] means "ocean" in Italian. She first called you Mom when we were at the beach; it only seems appropriate." The name and the meaning behind it touched me, and I told him it was even better than being called Mom!

The name has gone over very well, and although I hear the occasional "Mom" that makes my heart flutter, we continue to gently encourage the use of my special name.

Answer: This is exactly what we mean when we say find a special name that means something to your family -- it doesn't have to be a variation of Mom or Dad, just something special to you. The reader reports that Mom was very grateful for their attempt to find another name and has just invited her to a "get to know each other" lunch. What better situation for a child than to be brought up witnessing her caregivers openly respect one another.

Ex-Etiquette is written by Jann Blackstone-Ford, Psy.D., and her husband's ex-wife, Sharyl Jupe. Reach them at ee@bonusfamilies.com.

Subject: blonde moments
>
> Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with that expensive
> double-pane energy efficient kind, and today, I got a call from the
> contractor who installed them. He was complaining that the work had been
> completed a whole year ago and I still hadn't paid for them.
> Hellloooo,...........just because I'm blonde doesn't mean that I am
> automatically stupid. So, I told him just what his fast talking sales guy
> had told me last year, that in ONE YEAR these windows would pay for
> themselves! Helllooooo? It's been a year! I told him. There was only
> silence at the other end of the line, so I finally just hung up. He never
> called back. Guess I won that stupid argument. I bet he felt like an
> idiot.
>
>
>

New Family for the Parrot

A housewife buys a parrot to keep her company during the day.

The clerk warns that the parrot was donated by a brothel, where he may have picked up some colorful language.

The housewife doesn't mind and brings the parrot home. When she uncovers the cage, the parrot says, "Brawkk! New Madam. Hello Madam."

When her three daughters come home from school, the parrot says, "Brawkk! New Girls. Hello Girls."

Finally, her husband, Phil, comes home from work, just in time for dinner.

When he walks past the parrot, the parrot says, "Brawkk! Hi Phil!"

Subject: Comedy Central's All New Joke of the Day!






animals


Everyone's Doing It

Q: What's bright eyed and bushy tailed? A: A squirrel on crack.



Keep Laughing with our library of 10,000 Jokes!




Filed Under: animals, kids

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Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and he'll feed himself for a lifetime. Give a cat a fish and you'll feed it for a lifetime. You'll never teach a cat how to fish because now it expects you to do it.

Martha Stewart's Holiday Calendar
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 15:29:33 -0500
Dec. 1 Blanch carcass from Thanksgiving turkey. Spray-paint gold, turn upside down and use as a sleigh to hold Christmas cards.
Dec. 2 Have Morman Tabernacle Choir record outgoing Christmas message for answering machine.
Dec. 3 Using candlewick and hand-gilded pine cones, fashion cat-o'-nine-tails. Flog gardener.
Dec. 4 Address sympathy cards for all friends with elderly relatives, so that they're all ready to be mailed at the moment death occurs.
Dec. 5 Get new eyeglasses. Grind lenses myself.
Dec. 6 Fax family Christmas newsletter to Pulitzer committee for consideration.
Dec. 7 Debug Windows 97.
Dec. 10 Finish needlepoint colostomy bag cozy.
Dec. 11 Buy some cockroaches from the less fortunate; decorate eggs.
Dec. 12 Update enemies list. Place in hermetically sealed vault. Remove air, replace with nitrogen.
Dec. 13 Visit crematorium. Collect dentures. They make excellent pastry cutters, particularly for decorative pie crusts.
Dec. 14 Install plumbing in gingerbread house.
Dec. 15 Replace air in minivan tires with Glade "Holiday Scents" in case tires are shot out at the mall.
Dec. 17 Childproof the Christmas tree with garlands of razor wire.
Dec. 19 Adjust legs of chairs so each Christmas dinner guest will be the same height when sitting at his or her assigned seat.
Dec. 20 Dip sheep and cows in egg white and roll in confectioner's sugar to add a festive sparkle to the pasture.
Dec. 21 Outfit neighborhood rats with tiny antlers.
Dec. 22 Float votive candles in toilet tank.
Dec. 23 Seed clouds for White Christmas.
Dec. 24 Do my annual good deed: Go to several stores. Be seen engaged in last-minute Christmas shopping, thus making people feel less inadequate than they really are.
Dec. 25 Bear son. Swaddle. Lay in color-coordinated manger scented with homemade potpourri.
Dec. 26 Write and mail Christmas thank-yous. Order cards for next Christmas. Estimate number of cards needed by allowing for making new friends and actuarially appropriate death rates for current friends and relatives.
Dec. 27 Build snowman in exact likeness of God.
Dec. 29 Enter Style Invitational; win.
Dec. 31 New Year's Eve! Give staff their resolutions. Call a friend in each time zone of the world as the clock strikes midnight in that country.
Jan. 1 1998 Catch up on gardening. Sew leaves back onto trees. Do all cooking for 1998.

Terri Rimmer,
You've been published on Associated Content! View your content here:
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Please be an 'angel' for a cold, lonely dog‏
Dear Terri,

As nasty winter weather sets in, neglected, backyard dogs face freezing cold, snow, wind, and rain. For many of these animals, a sturdily constructed doghouse can mean the difference between life and death. That's why PETA's wonderful "Angel for Animals" program is so important. Won't you be an "angel" for a lonely dog this year?

As an "angel" for animals, you can sponsor a specially designed and built doghouse that will provide a needy dog with shelter to see him or her through this winter--and the worst weather for many years to come.

Your sponsorship can immediately change the life of an animal like Spook. When PETA first met Spook, this lonely black dog was shivering outside in the cold. Spook was so big that everyone in the neighborhood was afraid to go near him. Our caseworkers saw that he wasn't aggressive, just energetic and anxious to play. So we unchained him and ran around with him in the yard. We gave him treats and lots of love and attention. Unfortunately, we then had no choice but to chain Spook up again and leave him there.

When PETA can't legally remove abused or neglected dogs, we do everything that we can to make them more comfortable. So we returned to Spook with a custom-built doghouse filled with warm straw bedding—which will give him a warmer place to curl up for years to come. We also gave him a tangle-free running line, an afternoon of playtime, tummy rubs, and a good scratch behind the ears: things that mean the world to lonely backyard dogs.

Last year, PETA provided more than 400 sturdy doghouses, thanks to generous "Angel for Animals" sponsors. With many more dogs in urgent need and temperatures dropping fast, we want to top that number this year, and I hope that we can count on your support. There are so many ways that you can help, including the following:

Your "Angel for Animals" sponsorship gift of $265 can provide a doghouse to one needy dog.


Your "Angel for Animals" sponsorship gift of $530 can provide doghouses to two neglected dogs.


Your "Angel for Animals" sponsorship gift of $1,325 can provide doghouses to five lonely outdoor dogs.
No matter how much you can afford to give, I urge you to respond today. I know that times are tough right now, but it is in times like these when unloved animals suffer most. Nearly all the dogs we reach with our "Angel for Animals" program live in underprivileged neighborhoods. We will fight as hard as we possibly can to ensure that these animals are not mistreated, forgotten, or ignored. Right now, these animals are facing another long winter with nowhere to hide from the stinging cold.

But you can give a doghouse to one lucky dog—likely the first "home" that he or she has ever had. Please become a PETA "Angel for Animals" doghouse sponsor today.

Thank you for helping a neglected dog this winter. Your simple act of kindness can bring one of these dear souls years of shelter, something that they all deserve.

Kind regards,


Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

P.S. Looking for a unique and meaningful gift this holiday season? Give a doghouse sponsorship! When you do, you'll be recognizing that compassionate person as an "angel" for animals. Each "Angel for Animals" sponsorship means that one more needy dog will get a solid-wood doghouse to protect him or her from the cold—and from the summer heat and sun—for years to come.

Terri Rimmer,
You've been published on Associated Content! View your content here:
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Check outhttp://www.nidcr.nih.gov/FindingDentalCare/

Use Your Kroger Card to Benefit PanCAN:
Customer Letter
Step One:
Read through this letter to understand the advantage of being a part of the Kroger Neighbor to
Neighbor Donation Program.
Step Two:
Take the letter with you to your neighborhood Kroger store the next time you go shopping.
Step Three:
Present the letter with your organization’s barcode to your cashier upon checkout. After they
have scanned your KrogerPlus Card you will be enrolled for the current year of the Kroger
Neighbor to Neighbor Donation Program. Every time you shop at Kroger and use your enrolled
KrogerPlus Card, Kroger will contribute a percentage of your eligible purchases to the Kroger
Neighbor to Neighbor Donation fund. Once a card is scanned with the barcode, it will be active
for the remainder of the program year.
Q & A
How many Kroger Neighbor to Neighbor accounts can an organization have?
One per organization. (Example: ABC HIGH SCHOOL account could represent: PTA, cheerleaders, football,
basketball, band, etc.)
Can a household “link” their Kroger Plus Card to more than one organization at a time?
No, the system allows for one organization per household. To change organizations, you must present your
KrogerPlus Card and the new organization’s barcode to the cashier.
Do I have to enroll each program year?
Yes, all organization’s and participants must re-enroll for each new enrollment period. The current Neighbor to
Neighbor Program is effective May 1, 2008 to April 30, 2009.
How much can my organization earn?
The Kroger Neighbor to Neighbor Donation Program will donate $1 million annually. Each organization will earn a
percentage of the $1 million equal to the percentage of total earned contributions attributable to that organization.
How are the funds distributed?
Contributions will be paid via check and mailed to the organization’s address and primary contact identified on the
organization application form. For schools, it will be mailed to the principal and the funds distributed at their
discretion.
Please feel free to contact a Kroger Neighbor to Neighbor Donation Program Representative with any additional
questions at 866-995-7643 or email to neighbortoneighbor@kroger.com. Additional information is also available at
www.krogerneighbortoneighbor.com.
Kroger cashier: Please scan customer’s KrogerPlus Card at the beginning of the order, and then scan the above barcode.
The customer’s KrogerPlus Card is now enrolled in the Kroger Neighbor to Neighbor Donation Program

Robin Williams - London
By Terri Rimmer
Published Yesterday
Comedian
Rating: Unrated
Fans of manic stand-up comedian and Oscar winner Robin Williams will once again get to experience the workings of the comic’s mind when he performs in London Nov. 13 and 14 with John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson among others.



The outrageous veteran Hollywood star Williams returns to perform there after a 25-year absence, this time entertaining the crowds for Prince Charles’ 60th birthday, according to research. The 57-year-old will be featured in the event, titled “We Are Most Amused.”



Williams, once described by one writer as a “walking, talking Improv,” traveled the country on a solo stand-up which included three sold-out shows at Upper Darby’s Tower Theater in 2004, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the summer of that year Williams cracked up crowds all across Brentwood in California, performing his unique brand of stream-of-consciousness stand-up in medium-sized venues that sell out fast, stated writer Jenny Peters.



“The son of a Ford Motor Company executive and a fashion model-turned-housewife, Robin Williams didn’t start out on the fast track to comic stardom at all,” writes Peters. “Williams’ incredible high-octane, motor-mouthed stand-up performances quickly became legendary, making him so popular and famous that television quickly beckoned.”



Years later a Charlie Rose interview was by turns enlightening and a laugh riot. (Source: signsonsandiego.com).



In 2003 the high point of an evening featuring St

eve Martin at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute was Williams who made a surprise appearance.



“In that setting, it was easy to see genius in comedy as not so different from mathematical genius: Both comedians demonstrated an incredible ability to think quickly on their feet, fold remarks back on themselves to form jokes, and draw clever connections between seemingly disparate topics,” wrote Sara Robinson. (http://www.siam.org/news/news.php?id=314).



In 2002 Williams went on a similar live tour as the one he started this September to “recharge his batteries,” as he communicated to a reporter. He attributed the best live comedy performance to the late Richard Pryor’s Live in Concert in an interview.



Williams is also involved with numerous charities including The Gorilla Foundation, Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Pediatric AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), the Make-a-Wish Foundation, the University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital Pediatrics, and The Africa Foundation among many others. He also co-founded the Windfall Foundation.



“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world,” Williams once said.



His wild comic talent follows in the footsteps of his child idol, comic Jonathan Winters and Williams has been described as “like no other” by Science Fiction Weekly.



For ticket information on the London shows, see robin-williams.net, empiretickets.com, or ticketmaster.com online.

Terri Rimmer,
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