RT was driving toward Hohenwald, TN this past Saturday morning to get lumber to do some repairs at the log cabin.  He was cruising along a country road, and to his right was a sheer rock wall that rose straight up for about 25 feet with a ditch between the road and the wall.  As he drove along, out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a large shape plummeting down the cliff.  His immediate thought was that a boulder had broken loose from the rock ledge at the top.  As he swerved to the left to avoid being hit,  he caught a better look and realized that it wasn’t a boulder.  A large black angus cow was falling down the wall.  In his rear view mirror he saw the cow land in the ditch, lie there dazed for a couple seconds, and then get up and walk off. Now THAT is not something you see every day!

Ha!  Just look at this graphic I found!  It’s perfect!

Wouldn’t it be great to win a $20,000 home makeover? Just think of what you could do with you home with twenty grand!  The contest is sponsored by Renuzit TriScents which are electric-scented oil air fresheners in two new scents: seaside breezes and morning meadow.  To enter to win the contest, you must make a video or take a photo of your home.  Then write an essay about why your home needs that makeover.  Then just go to the Triscents website, upload your video or photo and essay showing your home, why you need a home makeover and how Renuzit Triscents can help.  Your entry will be judged on how convincing you are! You must visually show your home in order to be eligible. The video should be no more than two minutes long, and the essay should be limited to 250 words.  Not much effort for the opportunity to possibility of winning a $20,000 home makeover!

Renuzit makes it easy for you to enter. Just download and print the Renuzit TriScents Starter Kit coupon so you can find Triscents at a store near you. Use Triscents yourself and become inspired to create your own video of how much Triscents can help make your home even more wonderful.  You can see official rules for the contest at the Renuzit Triscents website.

What is wrong with people?  First we have the woman who sat on the toilet for over TWO MONTHS at one time - and thus her butt was stuck to the toilet and had to be surgically removed.  That was after spending the past two years in the bathroom.  Her boyfriend brought her food and water - which she consumed in the bathroom.  And her boyfriend says that otherwise they had a “normal relationship.”  Yeah sure.

Then there’s ex-NY Governor Spitzer’s favorite hooker who aspires to be a singer and thus is hawking her recording for all she’s worth - which, according to the newspaper, is a very lucrative hourly rate.  Her MySpace recording is getting record breaking hits.

Then there’s the Sudan man who married a goat.  Yes, you heard that right.  Reminds me of the guy who married a dog last year.

 Rounding out the weird stories for the day is the couple who had EIGHT HUNDRED dogs in their mobile home.  That isn’t even counting the caged birds.

I got off work yesterday, and Sweet Stuff and I stopped by the grocery store for a few groceries.  On the way home, we talked to Sweet Stuff’s parents and found that her daddy had already picked up Sunshine from daycare, and that since they were going out for dinner, we would just meet them at their house instead of going to my house.  Considering the fact that we go practically right past their house to get to my house, that was the wise thing to do.  So Sweet Stuff and I waited a few minutes on their porch until they arrived.  Then I headed home.  I put away the groceries, and about that time RT got home.   I sat down for a few minutes to relax before fixing dinner, and suddenly I was just exhausted.   It was like I couldn’t hold my eyes open for even one minute more.   I told RT I was going to lie down for awhile since it was still early and I’d fix dinner a little later.  So around 5:30ish I went to bed for a quick snooze. 

At 1:30 this morning I woke up.  Nothing like an eight hour nap!  I was still fully dressed except for shoes.  So first thing I did was get into my jammies.  Now I’m catching up on a little email and blogging while RT is still sleeping.  I’ll go back to bed in a few minutes because even though I just slept for eight hours, I’m still sleepy.  I started a load of clothes, fixed myself a bowl of cereal, and I’m now wrapped up in blankets on the sofa.  RT obviously fixed hamburgers while I was asleep.  So he survived the evening without me.  I was so out of it, I wasn’t even aware of when he came to bed.

One of the exciting things about this weekend is that there is absolutely NOTHING planned all weekend.  I have all day today and all day tomorrow with nothing that HAS to be done.  No meetings, no appointments, no plans at all.   We’ll go to Sunday school and church tomorrow morning, and later this morning I think I’ll do a little shopping for my upcoming trip to NYC.

This past Thursday we had someone clean the house.  That’s the first time we’ve had someone to help with housework since we moved here in October.  It is amazing how nice that is.  The wood floors look wonderful and all the dusty shelves are now sparkling.  And, the best part, I don’t have a long list of housework that has to be done this weekend.  How wonderful!

There is so much to know about mortgages.  Just the word itself can strike fear in people’s hearts simply because mortgages can be so confusing with all the different types of mortgages and all the options that are available.  Fortunately there are sources of information to help you make the best decision for your situation.  One such source is Money Magic.  Money Magic is a UK firm specializing in all types of loans and in providing their clients with not only the lowest loan rates but also the best mortgage advice. Best of all, the mortgage advice, quotes and information are free.  You can simply surf their website, or you can follow three steps to get a free quote:  (1) fill out an online form, (2) receive a phone call during which you will talk to one of their advisors, and (3) then receive a free quote based on your specific circumstances.

I’ve never really understood what title insurance is.  Well sure, it’s insurance for a home’s title, but what does that mean?  Insurance against what? For what?  If you check the Yellow Pages, you’ll find that there are lots of title insurance companies, but what services do a  title insurance company provide for us?

Each time a land title transaction takes place, It is recorded with the local government.  Typically that is with the county government.  The transaction is then indexed by the names of the grantor (transferor) and the grantee( transferee).  In order to determine who owns the title to the property, those indexes must be examined.  Title insurance is simply protection against loss that arises from any problem that might arise connected to the property’s title.

For example, your home and/or the land it stands on might have gone through some ownership changes.  Somewhere along that chain of ownership, there may be a weak link that could potentially cause trouble.  There could be a problem with authenticating signatures or there might be unpaid taxes.  Title insurance covers you for any claims and legal fees that might arise from those issues.

Title insurance is necessary if you need a mortgage.  All mortgage lenders require mortgage insurance equal to the amount of the loan.  The insurance continues until the loan is paid.  The title insurance is paid upfront when you take out your mortgage.  While title insurance protects the lender up to the amount of the mortgage, it doesn’t protect your equity.  For that, you would purchase an owners’ title policy for the full value of your home.

I’m such a sucker for stuff like this. I used to dream when I was little that I could breath underwater - and that I could fly. I’ve often thought it would be cool to be invisible - see what’s going on and what people say when I’m not around. So I guess my results for this quiz fit in with my personality. You can click the link to find out your super-powers

Your Superpower Should Be Invisibility

You are stealth, complex, and creative.You never face problems head on. Instead, you rely on your craftiness to get your way. A mystery to others, you thrive on being a little misunderstood. You happily work behind the scenes… because there’s nothing better than a sneak attack!Why you would be a good superhero: You’re so sly, no one would notice… not even your best friends Your biggest problem as a superhero: Missing out on all of the glory that visible superheroes get

What Should Your Superpower Be?

Tiara-tip to CalTechGirl at Not Exactly Rocket Science - I saw this at her place first.

I just got my Reader’s Digest magazine in the mail this week.  During a nice, leisurely Saturday morning session of reading, I read the following article (p. 60 of the February 2008 issue):

Contagious Obesity?

By Cynthia Dermody

It seems you can “catch” obesity the way you do a cold.  When thin animals are infected with adenovirus-36, most get fat, without eating more.  The virus has the same effect in people, says Richard Atkinson, MD, director of the Obetech Obesity Research Center in Richmond, Virginia.  He collected blood samples from 502 people and found that about 30 percent of the obese people had antibodies to Ad-36, meaning they’d been exposed to the virus at some point.  They weighed, on average, 50 pounds more than those who hadn’t been infected.  Just 11 percent of thin people had antibodies.

When Ad-36 enters fat cells, it stimulates fat production and instructs cells to store fat faster.  About 15 percent of us have been infected by Ad-36 (which can cause pinkeye, diarrhea and a stuffy nose) and are fat or gaining weight because of it, says Dr. Atkinson.  He hopes to find an antiviral drug to fight the virus’s fat-inducing effects.

Now THAT is quite interesting, isn’t it?

I spent my afternoon at a meeting.  The person who was facilitating the discussion was a man (an elementary school principal) who had THE worst toupee I’ve ever seen.  The toupee in the phototo on the left is similar to what he had.  Obvious, miss-matched, should be embarrassing, hilarious.  It actually was almost uncomfortable because you feel so sorry for someone who doesn’t appear to have a clue that he looks so ridiculous.  He just kept talking abou thow wonderful his school is how he is such a wonderful principal.  Really, I’ve rarely seen such a undeservedly confident person.

Unfortunately, we were sitting around a large conference table, and the toupee’ed school principal was sitting next to me.  He was very talkative and, as I said,  quite proud of what a wonderful speaker he is.  In fact, he’s the kind of person who completely monopolizes meetings. So, out of courtesy,  I watched him a good part of the 3 hours that the meeting lasted.   I wonder if he realized that I was studying his horrible toupee most of the time I was looking in his direction.   My thought was that I couldn’t wait to get home so I could write about his bad toupee.  The color was a fairly good match, but it was obvious that his own hair was straight, and the toupee was curly.  In the back, the toupee stuck out away from his shirt collar - making it even more obvious.  At his temples, you could see his real sideburns underneath the toupee.  And the toupee is not new.  He has apparently been wearing the same toupee for years. 

Since I sat close to him, I was able to see the toupee close-up, and I could see how awful it really was.  I guess educators don’t make much money but SURELY he could save enough money to buy a decent toupee.  Many years ago a friend loaned me a wig, and I wore it a couple times - just for the fun of it.  It was hot and felt miserable.  Yet this man wears a toupee every single day.  I can just imagine how uncomfortable that is.

One day last week I forgot to set my alarm clock, and thus when I woke up it was 7:16 a.m.  I remember the exact time because as soon as I saw those numbers on the alarm clock, I panicked.  There was no time to shampoo my hair.  By the time I shampoo my hair, dry it and curl it, forty-five minutes have passed.  And since I had to also shower, iron my clothes, get dressed and grab a bagel and a cup of coffee, and since I had to leave by 7:30 in order to get to work in time, taking the time to shampoo my hair was out of the question.  The result is that I went all day with greasy-feeling hair. 

As I’ve gotten older, I have found that I can occasionally skip of day of shampooing.  Unfortunately, that day last week wasn’t one of those days.  I had to prioritize my get-ready-for-work routine.  I took the shower, wore something that didn’t need ironing, skipped the bagel and coffee and headed to work.   Although I got to work on time, I went through the day with my hair looking stringy and limp.  And, if I’m having a bad hair day, I’m having a bad day.  Really, it’s almost ridiculous how much the state of my hair affects   

Then I read about the availability of a dry shampoo.  Salon Grafix has a Spray Powder Shampoo that acts like a dry cleaner for your hair.  It has a color match formula, easily brushes off, leaves hair revitalized, clean and shiny, and leaves no white powder or oil residue.

What a good idea!  The next time I wake up too late to wash my hair, or after RT and I ride our dirt bikes and I take off my bike helmet only to find that my hair is now pasted to my head, or I want to work out before a meeting, I’ll get out the Spray Powder Shampoo that I will start keeping in my car, and my hair will end up looking fresh and fluffy again.