this journal is friends-only. i'm a pretty friendly person, so if you're interested in being added to my f'list, just comment here!

[eta...] this is a recent change. was tired of getting trolled by anonymous commenters.

shamelessly stolen from navygreen...

I am collecting Coca-Cola® Rewards Points. If you're not playing along yourself, and you've got some codes you can toss my way, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm going to leave this entry at the top of my journal for a while, so it'll be easy to find. Also, I'll screen comments. :-)

Thanks for any help!

i'm hoping to finish our state quarter collection. anyone have any of these? and are you willing to part with them?

denver mint:
2008 hawaii

philadelphia mint:
2002 ohio
2003 missouri
2007 wyoming & utah
2008 oklahoma, new mexico, arizona, arkansas, hawaii

let me know if you've got any - i'd be happy to do an even trade via paypal or something!

(i also happily accept any nebraska quarters, since that's my home state. haley might like some indiana quarters as it's her home state. bill's from ohio but i don't know that he cares about collecting those.)

can you believe this?!?  french fries & candy bars aren't junk food in schools??

Dear Friend,

The USDA’s school nutrition standards were developed in the 1970’s and aren't consistent with current nutritional science. USDA doesn't even consider candy bars, snack cakes or french fries to be junk foods. The standards don't even address calories, saturated and trans fats or sodium.

I added my name to a petition calling for an update to these standards and I hope you will too.

http://momsrising.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/t/1546/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1925

The petition will be hand delivered to Congress June 24th. The more signatures we have, the greater our impact.

Thanks!

hey all...

the breast cancer site is trying to raise funding to sponsor 250 mammograms in the month of may. there's only a couple days of the month left, and they're only 71% or so to their goal.

can you go to the site and click once a day? and forward it on to your friends, asking them to help fund mammograms.

save the boobies!

i seem to have misplaced my cell phone this evening. we went to a concert at the chapel on campus, because ariel was playing violin, and a friend of ours from college was one of the soloists. i was playing games on my phone the whole time (it actually helps me listen better), so the last time i *know* i had it was at the end of the concert before we started applauding.

after that, i picked up haley's books and put them in my purse, we put on our coats, and waited a few minutes in our row for ariel to walk past. after we talked to her, we walked out to the narthex area, and waited to talk to our friend for a bit. i know i didn't have my phone in my hand, because i reached into my purse at one point to get my business cards out (so i could give him one). then we walked through the union on our way to the car. i stopped at one of the computer kiosks to reset it (some people just don't know how to logout of a public computer), and then kept walking.

we went to culvers to get a sweet treat after the concert, and it was just after we walked in the door that i realized i didn't have my phone. it wasn't in any pockets, and wasn't anywhere in my purse. i didn't want to rush out though, as culvers was only open another half hour and i didn't want to spoil the treats. so after that, ariel drove me back to the chapel so i could look for my phone.

the chapel was open, but my phone wasn't where we were sitting, nor anywhere between the seat & the car. (i even checked a garbage can where i had dumped some candy wrappers.) we came back home, and i called campus police. i told them i had lost a pink cell phone, and the dispatcher said, "you sure did!" so billwith2js drove me to the station to pick it up. well, it was actually a camera, not a phone. (ironically, the same pink camera i carry in my purse all the time. and no, it wasn't mine -- i still have mine in my purse.) so they took a description and my contact info, and will call me if it's turned in.

then bill & i headed back to the union, so check there. we parked where we had been parked before, and walked through the union the reverse path, even checking the computer kiosk. it wasn't there. we checked at the union info desk, but no phones had been turned in. so we walked back toward chapel, but it was locked up by that point. sigh. then we went back to the car, and bill tried calling it, just to see if it were hiding in the car. it was set to silent, but we didn't hear/feel any buzzing. then we even drove through the culvers parking lot just to see. no luck -- not even any signs of any smashed anything.

i'm not hopeless at this point. it's possible that someone has it and just hasn't turned it in yet. i'm going to check with sprint about the possibility of freezing the phone just until it's found. i wonder if they could trace it at all through the location feature. (doubtful; i think i may have that turned off.)

i'd really appreciate any prayers or wishes for the phone to be found. i have all my data (since it's a palm, all the data is backed up to 2 computers, actually) so replacing it wouldn't be the end of the world. but it would just be nice to confirm that there are good samaritans out there who will turn it in. :)

Help promote the American Title contest and win a handknit gansey scarf! Visit contestant Jessica Darago's blog at justjayj.livejournal.com/275687.html to find out how.

gakked from wendywoowho

"Reba MacKenzie stood stiffly in the center of Mrs. Walker's parlor, waiting for eternity to end."

Isn't that a helluva first line for a book?

Jessica Darago, also known justjayj, is a finalist in the American Title V competition -- think "American Idol" but for romance novels. The winner gets published.

Help her survive the first round, send an email to:
votes@romantictimes.com
with the subject line:
The Serpent's Tooth

Full details here: http://www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle3.php

Her novel is great, but you don't have to read it to vote for her. Just vote for her!

And, please, spread the news. Help the authors out, vote early, vote in every round, and rally behind your favorite. I'm betting your favorite will be the same as mine: Jessica Darago's "The Serpent's Tooth."

---

THE AMERICAN TITLE V CONTEST HAS BEGUN!

The American Title contest is a joint project between Romantic Times Magazine and Dorchester Publishing. Each year, Dorchester selects a handful of submissions to compete for a publishing contract, and YOU, the readers, get to choose the winner.

To spread the word about the contest, finalist Jessica Darago (author of The Serpent's Tooth, a gothic historical), is raffling a $10 bookstore gift certificate to anyone who copies this message into his/her own blog. You don't have to vote for Jessica, or vote at all, to win. (But Jessica sure hopes you will!)

The winner may choose a gift certificate from Amazon, Powells, Fictionwise, or even iTunes (because audiobooks deserve love too).

To enter, copy this message to your own blog and leave a link to your post at http://justjayj.livejournal.com/259245.html

To vote for Jessica, send a blank email to votes@romantictimes.com with "The Serpent's Tooth" in the subject line.

Visit Jessica at http://justjayj.livejournal.com for more information and a link to read all of the American Title entries.