How to buy for a spoiled relative!

Or better yet buy her Jockeys!

This is the story I have heard over and over. Your Aunt Fiona does not like anything.  She will actually send the gift back...to you...demanding a different size/color/pattern.  Aunt Fiona has been driving you crazy for years.  Because she is an important person in your life or that of your family, you keep trying to get it right.  Better chocolate, red sweaters (she hates purple) or a pair of slippers that don't fly off/make her feet hot.  I understand that you have made an effort. I do feel for you.  So I have been looking around for a way to resolve this issue.  Today I discovered that my grandchildren have come up with the perfect solution.

Each of the oldest grandchildren have friends of the opposite sex.  It just seem right that they exchange gifts but they have no idea WHAT to do.  A serious gift says more than they want.  A thoughtful gift can be misinterpreted.  Then there is the money to be considered...they don't have any.  Like your Aunt Fiona, the perfect gift just doesn't appear to be possible.  So they made the decision to just buy a bad unwanted gifts to begin with.  They did not even try to get it right and saved themselves a lot of time and grief.  A girlfriend that hates pink got a huge bag of pink stuff.  A boyfriend that thinks Snuggies are dumb and did not want a leopard print anything is getting...you guessed it...a leopard print Snuggies.  You get the idea.

So Aunt Fiona wherever you are, you have pulled your last gift nightmare Christmas cheer heist.  You are getting slippers from the "no return store".  They are hot and will not stay on your feet.  You are invited to donate the gift to a worthy charity.  I am suggesting that your family give up!!!

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• Green Gifts Don't Have to Suck: Green Holiday Gift Guide (blogher.com)
• Gift ideas for my boyfriend's dad? (ask.metafilter.com)

How to: Shopping the Coupon (Groupon) Way

Image via WikipediaToday was such a huge Christmas shopping day I don't even know where to begin.  Please keep in mind that I did reveal my son's present on yesterday's blog...he has been banned from looking at Facebook and I am in the dog house.  OOOOPs!!! So when I write today I will try not to let anymore gifts out of the bag.

My husband went shopping for eyeglasses today.  He wanted to use his Groupon coupon..  He paid $50 for a $150 coupon at The Sight Shop.  This chain of shops are located here in the Portland Metro area.  This is the way it worked...he bought the coupon online at the Groupon website and printed the coupon.  He went into the shop, found what he wanted and they printed up his receipt.  When he handed them his coupon, the $150 was subtracted from the bill.  I love a coupon that actually works! 

Signing up with Groupon is simple.   By going to the website, clicking on your city then entering your email address you can see what is available today.  If you complete the registration, you will receive daily updates.

Groupon must be a real winner...Google offered them $5.3 BILLION for the business and Groupon turned them down.  Could be they are sitting on a  gold mine.

I almost feel foolish when I don't have a coupon in hand when I go shopping or at least ask a clerk if they have one behind the counter.  My husband got a new shaft for a golf club head he owned.  The clerk came up with another 25% off when we asked if there was a coupon.  WOW! (Dick's Sporting Goods)

Isn't shopping fun???

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Related articles

• The Groupon Phenomenon (talkingpointsmemo.com)
• Groupon Shares Its Expansion Plan: Groupon Stores and the Deal Feed (mashable.com)

ipad keyboard dock... best igift for your ipad user

Just a heads up...there is a keypad dock for your Apple ipad user...it is too cool.

My son will begin on a masters program through Phoenix after the first of the year.  He will need to have a word program to prepare the work he needs.  We bought him an ipad dock with a keyboard that will allow him to use the ipad for the documents, sent them to a windows computer, copy into his work and go on with his program.  It might save a new computer purchase! 

I just thought you would want to know.

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Missing your lawn ornaments...I know where it has gone!

Missing a lawn ornament...I know where it might be!
Tucson, Arizona

Maddie on Skype in a screen shot...
Koh Samui, Thailand

Amelia via Skype with screen shot...
Koh Samui Thailand.

I am in Tucson AZ...my granddaughters are in Thailand but we are only a screen shot away.  (command-shift 3).

Merry Christmas.

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More Gift Ideas: Wine Club Membership + Ice Wine

The Perfect Gifts for Friends, Clientes, Wine Geeks

A Wine Club Experience
Have you ever belonged to a Wine Club?  We did several years ago and it was wonderful experience.  If we were to do it now we would do things a lot differently.  Many of the wines were very young.  Now we would store those wines for a few years before we began tasting.  It was the mistake made by us because we were inexperienced.

Still I would recommend it as a gift for your wine lover friend, family or even a cliente of your business.  Our favorite wine maker in the Willamette Valley is Cana's Feast.  They have a club called the Cellar Club.  It is so popular that, in many cases, their wines are reserved for the club member's only.  We found that out when we stopped to buy a bottle of their Bordeaux Style wine to be drunk for our 50th wedding anniversary celebration.  We were politely told no...but if we had been a member, the wine would have been made available.

In the last few years wine club memberships have become more and more popular.  So when you find a wine maker that never disappoints, you should take a look at the club membership and how it might work for you.

A New Wine Tasting Experience...Ice Wine
If you haven't tasted Ice Wine as an after dinner drink, you are missing a treat. A good true ice wine is sweet and satisfying when used as a dessert.  I love it.

We first saw ice wine in the Napa Valley.  In those regions where the frost comes very late in the fall, ice wine is very rare and therefore very valuable.  We were not offered a taste of ice wine but the wine tasting rooms had the bottles on the shelf beckoning us to purchase.  The prices are around $50.00 for a 375 ml bottle online today.

Joseph Phelps Eisrebe Ice Wine 2007 375ml $49.94

The price is driven up because wine makers further south gambled a plot of grapes in hopes that the grapes will freeze and not turn to mold or raisins!  The frozen grapes are sweeter and more intense...but the output from a frozen grape is also much lower than it's fresh predecessor long in the barrels aging.    As a result, you don't get to taste it in California.  Those producers of true ice wine are not only taking the rist of loosing acres of producing grapes but they are also getting less juice from the grapes.  It is a very expense test of nerves...or at least it used to be.

However, we are finding now that the vintners can freeze the grapes (cryoextractions) and come up with a factory standard ice wine.   Winemaker Magazine had this to say about cryoextraction:

Some would say that mechanical freezing (also called cryoextraction) provides a more reliable and accurate extraction of grape essence. Further, southern grapes are naturally endowed with more sugar and can have their low acidity enhanced with the judicious application of tartaric acid. On the other hand, true icewine producers would argue that cryoextraction does not duplicate the effects of the longer hangtime, exposure to the elements and loss of juices that naturally frozen grapes experience.

Where is the romance in that?  I liked it better the other way...it is just so wonderfully natural. I was glad to find that there were others that thought true ice wine might be better...and not because of romance.

As you travel north, the greater the likelihood that the grapes which freeze on the vine at a standard 18 degrees fahrenheit and become useful in the making of true ice wine. This happens every year in the Okanagan Valley in Canada.  The ice wine from that region should be less expensive.  If you were to visit the area, you will be allowed to taste to your hearts content. They are assured a freeze early and can bank on their true ice wine.

We were in the Okanagan Valley for a golfing trip a few years ago.  I remember noticing the ice wine bottles and asked if we could taste.  To my delight we were offered a variety of wines to taste.  I thought it was a wine miracle.

We have a bottle of 2004 Ste. Chapelle Ice Wine Riesling Idaho that we received as gift.  We have had it in the wine cache for about 3 years now.  That is the lovely thing about this kind of wine.  You can open a bottle, have an after dinner taste, re-close the bottle to be sipped again at a later time.  It will be good on the shelf for up to 4 years.

Santa is Coming
I know it is less than a week until Christmas but there is still time...I have not done one bit of shopping so I know. We will be back on Oregon tomorrow so we will shop there...no sales tax!!! I will buy wine  at our local wine shop.  I will also be looking at wine club memberships...I think that they would be a perfect Christmas gift.

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Jon Stewart...Pia's Aunt Adele Wants to Meet You

Image via CrunchBase

I noticed on Twitter today that someone had linked to a blog called Courting Destiny.  The post was simply delightful but it also contained a message that reflects Pia's thoughts on important issues.  The author, Pia Savage, is a native New Yorker and a well known blogger from the city.  Her Aunt Adele would like to meet Jon Stewart.  Here is her plea:  A Letter To Jon Steward.

I am asking you to go to the blog, read and then retweet her message.

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How To Help: Homeless People, Bundle of Sticks and Me

Image by Always at Home via FlickrI don't suppose this will get much notice on Adsense.  After all HOMELESSNESS...what can we do?  Conservatives think that we should just donate or tithe to our church and they can take care of welfare etc.  But in the end we all know that what people should do and what they do are two different things.  I guess humans were not standing in line when the bundle of sticks was explained.

In case you didn't stand in that line either here is a short explanation of how the bundle of sticks works:

1. All the money you get is not yours.  You earn your money then you must pay taxes.  If you had been standing in line at the bundle of sticks seminar it would have been explained that even though you are paid money to work and taxes are withheld you don't even need what is left...it would be nice if you shared what you have. It's called philanthropy and even the least among us can be a philanthropist.   However, no one is going to put you in jail if you aren't.  That is where the problem lies.
2. The home you live in is NOT yours to do with as you please...the government keeps a stick (i.e. right) that allows them to regulate where you park your car, how you use your house (don't set up a house of prostitution...that really sets them off) and even if the house can stay where it was built.  They can actually buy your house from you even if you don't want to sell it so a highway or a sewer plant can be built. It's called Eminent Domain.
3. Just so we are clear...all the money is not yours.  As we know, if you are not threatened with jail, you will not send money to the government so your children can swim, go to school or walk on the street safely.  Humans are funny that way!

So that brings us to the homeless here in Tucson Arizona.  Arizona is running on empty.  Social programs rank in importance with schools (the worst in the nation) so if the homeless are to be fed, helped to find jobs or given counseling the federal government in the guise of the Veterans Administration and churches must do the job.

Last night I was asked to help cook a meal for around 10 homeless men and one woman.  A group of us from our RV resort went to the church, set up the meal and sat down to eat with the men.  It was just wonderful!  I was so  apprehensive about the evening.  I don't know what I visualized but that was not it.  We laughed at each other.  They talked about sports and jobs hunts.  My heart was touched.

St. Pius parishioners come to the church and spend the night 7 days a week.  The VA provides transportation to the church.  The homeless are fed, sleep on cots and can shower or wash clothes.  They are given breakfast and then bused back to downtown Tucson to spent the day...outdoors.   When night falls the cycle begins again.

Now my first impulse was to go buy stuff...a sweat shirt for "Cleveland", videos (action movies) and maybe even a new set of stainless steel tableware for the church.  But what I will do is donate food to the food bank and return to sit and eat.  These people were proud and tired but they did not ask for anything and were probably instructed not to.    I would not do anything to change their self image or interfere with the system.  I will listen to those people that run this program and follow their suggestions.

Donations:

St. Pius X
Catholic Church
(520) 885-3573

Have a wonderful day.

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