Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Nigerian Email Scams

Usually I delete these emails as soon as I see them in my inbox. I was tempted to reply to one (using a throw-away email account). The writer said he got my name from his father's diary so I thought about writing back and telling him that I'm relieved that the truth has finally come out and would he please have his father's estate start sending child support payments? I'm sure the writer, who actually claimed to be the son of Borneo royalty and not Nigerian, would have been thrilled to know that his imaginary father had sired an imaginary child.

According to this article, someone has replied to several scam emails in an effort to waste the scammers time, and if possible, get them to spend some money trying to convince him of their legitimacy. Not only does he annoy the scammers, it looks as though he has had fun doing it. Check out his site. You can even buy a mug or a clock with a picture of a scammer holding a sign that says, "I shag sheep."

Entertaining the Troops

Debbye (Being American in T.O.) has a post about Oliver North and his comments about celebrities who are entertaining the troops in Iraq.

We hear more from the popular press about celebrities who criticize the President and the war than we do about those who are actually doing something to show support. It's nice to know that some people do what they think is right without feeling the need to draw attention to it.

Iraqi Healthcare

Iraq the Model has a post comparing healthcare under Saddam and now. If you find joy in every setback, then don't bother reading it. On the other hand, if you want information on how things are improving, take a look.

Grinches

A small town in New Zealand has banned children from sitting on Santa's knee because organisers fear liability if anything goes wrong....
The town has also declared that vying for lollipops in a free-for-all would be too dangerous for the children.

Assuming Santa has passed a background check, the worst that would be likely to "go wrong" is that he may end up with a damp lap from an overexcited child. No fear of overexcitement here, nor much fun.
As a parent, I understand the need to protect children from predators, but this is absurd.

Soup Time

Whenever we get the season's first snow, I get the urge to make soup. We've had a few tiny flakes occasionally over the last few days but today we had some nice big flakes and enough of them so that it has covered the grass in our yard.

I like snow even though I really don't like cold weather. Let me rephrase that, I like snow as long as it doesn't mean school will be cancelled.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, soup...

Vegetable Soup

1 large can vegetable juice (Spicy V-8 would have been good but I didn't have any on hand so I added a few shakes of hot sauce.)
sliced carrots
a few potatoes, peeled and cubed
sliced celery
sausage, cooked
water

I just put everything into the saucepan and cooked it until the vegetables were tender.

Now it's just sitting on the stove, keeping warm until my husband gets home from work.

Hot Friday

My husband is a retail store manager. He was in his store at 5:30 and opened shortly after 6:00 a.m., almost an hour before the advertised opening time because people were already lining up outside the door.

By early afternoon they had already beaten their sales numbers from the same day last year (which was a gain on the year before.) Take thatAdbusters! They also have a gain for the month over last November.

Seems the economy is getting better across the U.S.