Inhumane Conditions In The Slaughterhouse Since 1993?? They Told Us California Cows Were Happy Cows!!

With this week-end’s meat recall, 143 million pounds of beef, the largest recall in history, comes an even more disturbing possibility. A video has surfaced that shows inhumane conditions may have occurred since 1993. That’s 15 years!! Did the government do anything to safeguard that consumers eat healthy food? Did the greedy big business slaughterhouse have the least thought about the public school children who would eat tainted meat? Are California cows happy cows as the advertising slogan claims? You decide.

Check out Tad Cronn’s article and look at the video he posted.

Getting To Know Your Friends — Christmas Edition Part 2

This is just for fun, although I’ve added some household tips and Christmas ideas, so you might find it worth your while to read on. I’ve been tagged by a friend and I’m sharing the fun along with my readers. You too can participate either in your blog or through e-mail if you don’t have a blog. If you missed Part 1, it’s right here.

Welcome to the Christmas edition of Getting To Know Your Friends.

Here’s what you’re supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!!

Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then either publish it in your blog or send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person who sent it to you … ‘Tis the Season to be NICE!

7. Do you have a Nativity scene? Of course! Several actually. Like with our Christmas trees, I like to have at least one in each room. I have one I splurged on as a teenager. It is a Fontanini, which I bought from the San Francisco Music Box Company. The manger has a real Reuge movement which plays “Silent Night,” bringing me warm childhood memories of my entire extended family singing that carol in German, French, Italian and English. Each year I add at least one new piece to my nativity. I have another nativity made of porcelain and also with a music box. My mom gave it to me because it is small and one solid piece so that I could take it with me wherever I traveled. This one plays “O, Little Town of Bethlehem.” We have a nativity we inherited from my mother-in-law. It is nothing special, but has great sentimental value to us. I have one Santon from France which is dressed in fabric clothes. I love that little old lady very much, and she reminds me of the Santons my aunt and uncle collect during their travels to the small villages in France. Each one is designed after a real person in the village.

8. Who is your hardest person to buy for? It was my mother-in-law. She was one of those people who has everything, needs nothing, buys anything she might remotely want or wish for, long before anyone else even had the chance to get it for her. When you encounter someone like that, I advise you do as the Wise Men did, and bring lots of gold. Diamonds work well, too.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Our son has loved everything we have ever given him. He is so enthusiastic with every gift, it is a real joy to see him react to even the most basic item.

10. Worst gift you ever received? A scale so I could GAIN weight. I was in high school and my very own parents thought 90 pounds was not an appropriate weight. My feelings were very hurt.

11. Do you mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Both. I send far fewer cards than I used to, but I still send to my relatives scattered around the world and a few dear people who have remained friends over the decades. I do not feel obligated to send a card to every person I have ever met. I send a few e-cards to people who write to me via e-mail throughout the year. I do not write annual Christmas letters, obviously not because I do not like to write, but because if there is someone out there who hasn’t kept in touch with me (and vice versa) since the previous Christmas, then I’m sure they would not be interested in my Christmas letter. I also do not send Christmas cards to atheists, even if they celebrate “christmas” with a tree and gifts. Christmas is about the birth of Christ. The tree and the gifts should be symbolic, not an atheist excuse for consumerism and greed. I also send a few Hanukkah cards.

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Hmmm. … One year I found myself having to shop on Christmas Eve, one year I did some year-round shopping, a couple of years I did most of my shopping during all the AFTER Christmas sales and clearances for the following Christmas, so I was a full year ahead. I highly recommend being a year ahead of the game. Not only will you enjoy the Advent season far more if you don’t have to battle those crazed people in the malls, but you’ll save money twice (once because everything is on sale and another time because you’ll have beat inflation since by the next year, all the prices will have gone up. I wouldn’t recommend buying technology-related items like computers or iPods of course.) I prefer making my own gifts for those I love. I just pour all of my love into it. It’s usually projects which require many hours, but the people I love are well worth it, and I think it is much better than a store-bought gift. I also love to create memories more than buying something for under the tree. As I get older (and hopefully wiser) I find myself buying fewer and fewer gifts as a reaction to the world getting more and more commercial. One huge pet peeve is that the store clerks are no longer allowed to wish us a Merry Christmas. What a bunch of double-standard, bah humbug Scrooges all these store owners and managers are!

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? If I am given a gift which I have no use for, I will give it to someone I know will be able to use it or enjoy it, otherwise I give it to charity. I see nothing wrong with making others happy.

14. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear lights. I think it looks much better. I still have some old strings of colored lights and they do get used around the house, but not on any of the trees.

Part 3 is here.

Black Friday Shopping: No Lines, No Crowds, No Waiting

Does that headline sound like the biggest oxymoron of the millennium?

It won’t once you experience on-line shopping with all the sales, deals and savings offered at my Amazon Affiliate Black Friday page at Infinity Goods.

Today, Friday, November 23, 2007 between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, you will be able to stay home in your PJs and take advantage of special affiliate sales. No crowds, no bumper to bumper lines in the parking lot, you won’t even have to get showered and dressed before the sun is up, yet you can still shop to your little heart’s content and enjoy all the Black Friday sales, deals and savings. At infinitygoods.com we normally carry selected items of interest to families, but on Black Friday we’re linking to the entire Amazon Web site so that you’ll be able to save on all the sales, deals and savings available to Amazon Affiliates. So be sure to go to our store today. It will definitely be worth your while because there will be hourly deals from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST along with thousands of products on sale for a limited time. There will even be gift wrapping for only $.99 per item to make the busy holiday season that much easier for you.

Happy shopping without the crowds!

Infinity Goods wishes you a great Thanksgiving Weekend

and a happy holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!!!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Thursday 13 #7 — Thankful for God’s Comforts

 

Happy Thanksgiving To All!!!

Thank you for coming back to Thursday Thirteen. On this day of giving thanks I let you know about 13 things I am thankful God gave us and which comfort my spirit and soul. You’ll notice a major theme with water.  All photos from Flickr’s public files.

1. Lakes
2. Beaches
3. The smell of a redwood forest
4. Rain taping on a window or on my face
5. Birds singing
6. Cuddling up in a comfy chair with a warm blanket and a great book next to a fire while the rain taps its music on the window pane
7. Hot tea
8. The sun creating rainbows through a church’s stained glass windows
9. Early morning fresh air
10. Being perfectly still and quiet, watching nature unnoticed
11. A brook or small cascade gurgling
12. The cool softness of moss
13. Morning dew

 

Don’t miss my posts about Black Friday and Holiday Shopping.
Thanks to the Internet we can have our cake and eat it too:
Let’s shop all the Black Friday sales WHILE we stay home in our pajamas!!
Now that’s a good reason to TGIF!!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Black Friday Holiday Shopping Sales, Deals and Savings

The morning after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year here in the United States and it even has it’s own name, Black Friday. While most people go shopping at ungodly hours like 4 to 6 a.m., I usually stay snug in my bed just so I don’t have to fight the crowds. This year we can have our cake and eat it too. With our store, infinitygoods.com, being an Amazon Affiliate, I was told of a special Black Friday opportunity. If you link to my store on Friday, November 23, 2007 between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, you will be able to stay home in your PJs and take advantage of special affiliate sales. No crowds, no bumper to bumper lines in the parking lot, you won’t even have to get showered and dressed before the sun is up, yet you can still shop to your little heart’s content and enjoy all the Black Friday sales, deals and savings. At infinitygoods.com we normally carry selected items of interest to families, but on Black Friday we’re linking to the entire Amazon Web site so that you’ll be able to save on all the sales, deals and savings available to Amazon Affiliates. So be sure to go to our store on Friday. It will definitely be worth your while because there will be hourly deals from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST along with thousands of products on sale for a limited time. There will even be gift wrapping for only $.99 per item to make the busy holiday season that much easier for you.

It works for me and it will work for you too. For more Works For Me Wednesday participants visit Rocks in My Dryer.

If you missed any of my previous household tips, just click below.

Don’t Waste Those Eggs!

Bookcases at the Breaking Point?

Organizing Household Binder

Holiday Shopping List

Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas

Trading Card Storage

Freezer Solution

Large desk calendar inside guest closet

Child’s haircut without tears

Homemade bread stuffing

Plastic colander bath toy drainer/holder

Reuse plastic grocery bags in the car

How to increase Web site traffic?

16 Blog/Web site tips

Toy storage

In the meantime, Infinity Goods wishes you a great Thanksgiving

and a happy holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!!!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.