I just had to laugh at the conversation because our yard is buried in about eighteen inches of snow!  If there are any leaves out there on OUR lawn, we can’t see them!

We hope to have a few of the closer family members stop by this afternoon and then we’ll host another get-together on New Year’s Day for the other family members who can’t make it here on Christmas Day.

Here’s hoping our holidays are warm and bright. Merry Christmas!

We plan to go to the top of Mt Desert and take in the beautiful panoramic view that words cannot even bring justice to describe!  I wonder if we’ll see any cruise ships at anchor in the harbor.  Then we’ll go into town and walk along the Main street, window shopping at some places; going into others.  We’ll all buy a “Cool as a Moose” sweatshirt – that’s a tradition we can’t break!

It will be a long day, but I’m looking forward to it.  One of my favorite days of the year!

The cashier was incredibly slow in processing the order, and I was getting tired and cranky, anxious to get home before even getting to Home Depot!  We headed off to Home Depot, where once inside he met an old friend that he hadn’t seen in months and so he had to chat with him for a half hour before even getting through the door!  So I went into Home Depot and started shopping from the list we had made up, to get things going.

Lesson learned, next time Dad says “would you come with me to…….” if I want to get home within the same four hour period of time, the answer should be NO!

Most of the people that I DO know that have Health Insurance, have their policies through the Kaiser Permanente Company.  Kaiser Permanente has insurance policies for businesses, families, and individuals.  One of the things that makes Kaiser Permanente unique is that it is a non-profit organization – its focus is on healthcare for its customers.  The ekaiserinsurance.com website is an authorized Kaiser Permanente website for the Kaiser Permanente California, Kaiser Permanente Colorado, and Kaiser Permanente Georgia groups.  I’d like to see our family get family coverage for medical, dental, vision, and prescription expenses.

The Kaiser Permanent company has a network of over 12,000 physicians belonging to Permanente Medical groups.  It has more than 400 medical offices and thirty medical centers.  It is America’s largest non-profit health maintenance organization.  The company serves nine states and Washington DC, and has over eight million members.

And when I first started wearing silver jewellry, I was dismayed by how quickly it tarnished until I learned this really cool trick for cleaning it from a forum that I found on the Internet:

You need a large glass jar with a lid, water, aluminum foil, and table salt.  Fill the jar about halfway with water (hot or cold, it doesn’t matter) and add about a tablespoon of salt.  Tear the aluminum foil into strips and put them in the jar. Add the silver jewellry and let it soak for a couple of minutes.  Take the jewellry out and wipe it with a soft cloth.  The tarnish will be gone!  Now I have to warn you that you should NOT use this on jewellry that has stones in it, only silver! I don’t know WHAT would happen to the stones, but I wouldn’t want to take any chances with them!

I tried this a couple of months ago on my own jewellry, and it worked like magic!  A couple of pieces were badly tarnished and I had to do it a couple of times, but it really really worked!

I love the Sterling Silver Jewellry for sale on the Keysilver Company’s website. All of their silver is of the finest grade and carries the .925 stamp.

When I go out on a social event, I love to wear a lot of Silver Bangles and Sterling Silver Bracelets.  I really like to layer them on!  For a casual social event, I tend to gravitate towards the bangles, for a more elegant formal event, I head for the bracelets.  The sparkle of sterling silver is so appealing to me!  I love fairies, and I found the most adorable fairy bracelet on their website that I want to buy!

The Keysilver’s website sells a wonderful selection of bangles, bracelets, pendants, and necklaces.  They offer free shipping all over the world.  I really like their 14 day money back guarantee too!

For example, my mother said that she wanted to go see the Rolling Stones in concert on the July 4, 1972 concert in Washington DC, but she lived over an hour away from arena.  She had to go to the arena a month before the concert (she got lost trying to get there and ended up getting lost in “the bad section of town” and was scared witless) to buy the tickets.  This was before the subway train (now in existence called Metro) had been built and she was forced to try to find it by driving.  So driving there and parking was a big issue.

It’s hard to imagine how hard it was back then to buy tickets to an event because now it is so easy to buy tickets over the phone and over the Internet.

One of the most convenient Internet sites to buy sports tickets is the Viagogo website.  My British uncle says that he used to have a hard time find a way to buy the tickets he really wants, such as ICC World Twenty20 Tickets, The Ashes Tickets, and the RBS Six Nations Tickets.  He says his best friend told him a few months ago about the Viagogo website, and now he uses it to buy all of the tickets he needs, for concerts as well as the Twenty20 Tickets, The Ashes Crickets Tickets, and 6 Nations Tickets.  He told me that he loves that site because he can also sell his tickets through them if for some reason he ends up not being able to go to the events.

Out of curiosity I went to the website to check it out, and was pleased to see that they also have a website that serves the United States of America, so the service is not just limited to the United Kingdom.  It’s always really good to find a company that other people recommend that you can use, too!

Their facilities are clean, luxurious and modern, and boast such amenities as private rooms with plasma televisions and wireless Internet connections.  Residents can have their own luxury private bedroom and bathroom, or share a semi-private bedroom.

The center has a fully appointed gym with stationary bicycles, treadmills, freeweights, weight machines, and access to a personal trainer.  They have a heated lap pool for their clients to swim in, or to relax around.  Residents also enjoy exclusive access to surfing, hiking, and horseback riding.

Their gourmet meals are served in a community dining room, buffet style.  Vegetarian, vegan, kosher, and other special dietary needs are easily accommodated.

The center is nestled on two acres on the private and secluded scenic cliffs overlooking Zuma Beach and the Pacific Ocean.  It is in a quiet location, far from traffic noise from the Pacific Highway.  The view from their balconies can extend from the Catalina Islands to the Channel Islands on a clear day.  This truly is an ideal spot for substance abuse rehabilitation!

The discovery makes them eligible for a $100,000 prize offered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for finding the first Mersenne prime with more than 10 million digits. Good for them!

As much as the world “loves to hate” the USA right now, most of the educated people realize that learning to speak English is a good idea.  She is looking forward to practicing her own English skills with a new practice partner soon.

I went onto the webiste that she was telling me about and saw that it looked fresh and exciting.  It is easy to join and pick out whether you want to meet a dating prospect, or just a friend.  They had some really cool looking coffee mugs for sale with their logo on it, and also T-shirts.  I like the travel mug.