Theme Thursday....Bicycle

Ride, Ride Like The Wind

There was no way that I could pass up this opportunity to talk about this again. Christina has been moving forward in her fundraising for The Ride to Conquer Cancer and her riding like the wind in June. She is now halfway with her fundraising and needs to raise the other half. You can help. You may not think that one dollar makes a difference but it does.

Here is what Ronda wrote about the power of one dollar.

What difference will $1 make, you ask?

Well, many years ago, I managed a bowling center. I worked many, many hours. I worked very, very hard. No matter how hard I worked, I never seemed to be able to meet everyone's expectations. Or so I thought.

On the last minute of my last night, New Year's Eve, 1992, in front of a packed house of party bowlers, I was presented a coffee can stuffed full of money. ONE THOUSAND ONE DOLLAR BILLS collected $1 at a time from my employees, friends and customers. They wanted me to know how much they appreciated what I did for them. They wanted me to know that they noticed. They wanted me to take a well deserved vacation, which I did. I will never forget those people. EVER!

Times are tough.
I know.
Money is tight.
I know.
The economy is bad.
I know.

$1 CAN make a difference.
I know.

Help Christina realize her dream by recognizing her hard work with a donation, a side bar or blog post or sending out e-mails. If she succeeds, we all succeed.

Christina only has a little over a month to earn the other half needed for her to participate in the Ride. Wouldn't it be great to have one of our blogging buddies participating in such a worthwhile cause and also knowing that you helped her to get there. So please go here, donate a dollar, donate a few dollars more, join Christina on her Ride to Conquer Cancer.

Ride, ride like the wind and help to conquer cancer.

Theme Thursday...........DRAFT

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time America had a draft program, also called Conscription, for the men of this country. For every war that occurred during these times, the young men of America had to sign up for the draft when they turned 18 and before they turned 25.

Many young men of today have no idea that they are still required to sign up for the "Draft" and that the "Conscription Program" has never ended.

Our military is made up of an "all volunteer" force nowadays. But many people do not realize that we have always had "volunteers" in our military.

One of the main reasons men volunteered was because of choice. If you volunteered you had a choice to choose your military occupational skill, also known as your MOS, or your place of deployment. When a young man was "drafted" he would lose his chance to choose and then had no choice as to where he was sent or what his MOS would be. Consequently the majority of the men drafted were placed into the least skilled and least wanted positions in the military.

Knowing that your chances were fairly great that you would be "drafted", which would you do, join of your own accord, or play the wait and see game? This is why we have had so many volunteers during our major wars in our country. Plus your chances of not coming back from a war zone increased greatly if you were "drafted" and not a volunteer.

Times have changed with todays wars and how we treat our military when they come back home. In the picture above, a young boy is flying the flag for one of our deceased soldiers coming back home from war. During the Vietnam war when our soldiers came home alive or deceased they were not treated well. If they came back alive they could be met by protestors or just totally ignored.

I know because I served during this time. I was a volunteer in the U.S. Army, or what at that time was called the WAC's, the Women's Army Corp.

I volunteered to serve at the time in what I like to call my protest to the draft, and knew that if I, as a female, served that there would be at least one less man out there called to the draft.

Sometimes I like to think that somewhere in the United States of America there is one man who is still alive and to this day never had to serve unwillingly in our military because I served in his place.

I served for the two years required at that time. I have to say that I have no reqrets and was fairly happy during this time. I met my husband and we have now been married almost 36 years. I also met many wonderful people serving during that time, some volunteers and some draftees. There was one thing that you learned very quickly, who were the draftees and who were the volunteers. Draftees ran around with their number of days left in the military written somewhere on them and always on their vehicles, whereas the volunteers rarely did this, mostly because even though they knew that in some weird way they had been forced to sign up they also knew that they were proud that they had volunteered and willingly served their time.

Funny thing was that we all enjoyed watching the draftees count down their days and celebrated with them. We knew our day would come, but we also knew that almost all of the draftees had been through something we had not. Most of the draftees never came home. Yes, we always celebrated their homecoming even if the rest of the country did not.

Next time you see a Vietnam Era Vet, please thank them, even if it is a little late in your doing so, they still appreciate it. I know because I am one.

And when you see any Vet who has served in our military, please thank them, they are the ones who serve to keep our country free and safe for you and your families.

For more Theme Thursdays please go here.

And you knew I just had to show off more of my "art" LOL. Here are four more of them, but I have to say that my grandkids, nieces, and nephews, are now sending them around to all their friends to use as "wallpaper" on their cell phones. Somehow I have just gotten a little "cool" status amongst them.

Plus they are now kidnapping my cell phone and making their own.

Try This Gel Liner!!

SuperShock Gel Eye Liner Pencil by Avon

From the "Look Beautiful for Less" Brochure pg 4-5

I would like to say that my eyes look like this but alas they do not. They actually look better, okay just kidding. I am not a model by any means but when I do wear make-up, I can at least try to look my best.

I have to say that this eye liner is amazing. If you have never tried a gel eye liner, as I had not, then prepare to be surprised. This is a new product for Avon and has only been around for a few months. I read the reviews, and thought that maybe this was worth trying. So I bought the Bronze for me, and the Khaki Shimmer for oldest granddaughter. When we tried it, we both were surprised at how softly it glides on to your eyelids, you almost do not feel it going on. But what really surprised us, was how long it lasts. I fell asleep with it on, and when I woke up, I still had some on my eyelids.

I then told my daughters about it and they each bought one. They loved it too. Then we bought one of each color. My daughters and oldest granddaughter are now wearing it everyday. Their only complaint, along with mine, is that you have to sharpen it with a pencil sharpener and some of it is then wasted. I cannot remember them ever complaining about wasting any other eye liner pencil before they tried this. It also comes in Steel and Plumful shades. My daughters favorite is Steel, which looks like silver.

And for any of you men who are into the "Man Liner" thing, I am sure that you would like this too. Plus this would be a great gift to get your Mom or wife for Mother's Day. And while you gaze into their beautiful eyes, you will know that you had something to do with making them look gorgeous.

So go to Avon.com and place your order.

In the meantime I hope you all enjoy some more of my artistic talent that I have recently discovered I possess. LOL

I have found that there are websites for everyone to post their "art" and that it is almost virtually impossible to do two of the same. Oldest granddaughter and her friends have now had me send these to them so that they can use these as "Wallpaper" for their cell phones. I thought that was about the best compliment oldest granddaughter could give me.

I hope you enjoy these new ones. I only have about 100 other ones by now. These are from a different program then on my previous post. I actually am surprised that I think I have a talent for making these. Please feel free to let me know what you think.

Do you see the little fairies?

This one reminds me of corral in the ocean.

Does this look like it belongs on a tropical reef?

A beautiful wind tunnel?

I am not sure why, but this last one makes me think of those old static dusters that they used to sell. They probably still sell them but I have not seen them in a while. But it also reminds me of those Star Trek Tribbles and how they started to multiply. What do you think?

Theme Thursday...........LUNCH

Artisan


I am not artistic at all and so when I came across this app, I was like "WhooHoo", I can be an almost Artist. LOL

I have been "Out To Lunch", so to speak playing with this new app. And dang it if every other line on my bank statement is for a new app. I need to quit shopping for new apps or else. Well actually most of the apps I have downloaded are "Free", but then I like it, and am willing to take that extra step and buy it. Well I think I have bought about ten, maybe more, of them and all at 99 cents, I figure that is not too bad. Ten dollars is about the cost of a movie ticket out here. All in all I feel like I am getting a good deal.

Looking Unlike Nothing Created Heretofore by me.


I am not even sure how I got these two to be black and white, but they look like lace to me.


I am thinking the fascination is the same as when one looks into a Kaleidoscope. The only difference is that I am creating these with my fingers on a screen. And then if I like one and am lucky enough to stop the scrolling then I can save it. I am not sure if I will ever do anything with these and I know that it is not true art but it is good enough for my brain to think it is creating art.

Maybe sometime I will actually figure out this program but then again I may never figure it out. Although I think youngest granddaughter will enjoy playing with this.

Okay, on to the bowling app. Wow, cool, sounds just like a bowling alley.......

To visit more Theme Thursdays please go here.

Theme Thursday...........BOX

iPhone
About a month ago I got an iPhone out of a box. I did not know what hit me that day. My hip size grew an inch because this thing is attached to me at the hip. I barely knew how to turn it on that first day after taking it out of the box. So I did what any so called smart phone user would do, I looked in the box for the directions.

Uh, there really are no directions in the box. There was a quick start guide in the box, but no directions. Okay.......what do I do now. Call the grandkids.....they just sigh and say, "Oh, Grandma, why did you get one of those and I didn't!"

The little whiners are not getting this from me. I mean I cannot get it off my hip. So they are no help. Call almost SIL and ask him about how this thing works. He has no time. Okay, he is no help.

Duh, why didn't I think of this first. Just play with it and figure it out. Well I haven't figured it all out, but play with it....oh yeah!

I found this game Block-Off, in the apps along with a few hundred others and you can see that I have now wiped out the scores of every other player on the planet. Oh yeah. Move on to next level. Wiped out most of those scores too. Same thing at each level.

Then I get to the hardest level which is "Nuts". I have three more to go before I wipe them all off too. Okay, maybe I have gone a little "Nuts" with this game, but what can I say, I like colored boxes and matching them up and wiping them off the screen. And this game is almost like a game that is on my DS ,of which oldest granddaughter and I always compete to see who gets the highest score. That is why this game was too easy. Oldest granddaughter and I have been competing on the DS for about 3 years now.

Or is it because I am a little "Nuts".

Oh as to how to use the iPhone. My phone company sent me an email with the directions on line. Maybe when I quit playing this game I might find time to read it. I did watch a quick video that showed me as much as I needed to know to make phone calls, text, take pictures, and download more apps.

But did you know almost all of those apps cost money. This game was free and comes with advertisiting. If I bought all those apps then I would be too broke to pay my phone bill and use this iPhone as a phone and not a toy. Ah screw it, I wanted a toy and they can wait for their payment.

For more "Box" Theme Thursdays, please go here.

And now I am saving up for my iPad, I cannot wait to take it out of it's box.

Update: Maximus Minimus went down today at 5:20pm. WooHoo!!! And by 38 points, let me tell you that will be a hard difference to make up. Double WooHoo!!!!