Darn it all, I was all set to have an action packed day filled with all sorts of tasks to complete. But now, it’s dreary and soggy, so all I want to do is to lie down and snuggle a cat. Or two. Or three. Maybe Karen the kitten and I will take a quick snooze, then I can get up and do what I want. I have a great post planned, full of drama, excitement and car chases, but it seems its either time for a nap, or a cup of cocoa with marshmellows. I ask you, is it even possible to write a post filled with drama and excitement while enjoying the snuggly warmth of  Swiss Miss hot chocolate?

P.S.- I exaggerated about the car chases. There won’t be any mentioned in my blog in the foreseeable future. I have to admit that I never ever drive over the speed limit. Am I the only one that sticks to the speed limit? Do you speed occasionally, or only in an emergency, or every time you drive?

I don’t know why the Almond Commission is emailing me, I never thought we were on a first name basis. But apparently, they like me so much that they wanted me to know about this cute little tin that carries a snack portion size serving of almonds. They didn’t tell me to keep it secret, so I thought I’d spread the word to everyone about it.

The downside is that the shipping is kind of high if you only buy one, so buy a ton of them and give them out to everyone on your Christmas list. Almonds are supposed be pretty healthy for you, as long as they’re not hidden in a pile of Almond Joy bars. Speaking of Almond Joys, last week I ate my first one this year. Man, those things are so darn tasty! But, I am digressing. (Shame on me, I was going to try to encourage everyone to give a healthy gift and instead, I’m probably fomenting a run on candy bars at the local convenience store.) Let’s all forget about Almond Joys for now, and focus on the reason I started this post, the cool little almond tin that costs $2.48 plus shipping. I think the tins would be great stocking stuffers, and they’re being offered to us courtesy of my new BFF, those hip and swinging dudes at the Almond Commission.

Sharper Image fans, I am about to save you some money! But first of all, in the interest of transparency, I’m going to tell everyone that I am part of the affiliate program at SharperImage.com. I joined awhile ago, mostly so I could be the first to tell friends and family about their hot deals. I haven’t paid much attention to their (numerous, yet interesting) affiliate communiques, but if you plan on ordering from them this year, then you do NOT have to pay shipping if you use this link:
Free Standard Shipping with any $50 purchase: expires 12-31-07

If you are not familiar with Sharper Image, take a few minutes to look at their site, they have some of the coolest stuff on the PLANET! I just found a Ion Audio USB Turntable, which turns your old vinyl records into MP3s or CDs. (Does anyone have any vinyl records anymore? I remember them, but I don’t think I’ve had any for eons.)

They have cutting edge gizmos for every room in the house. I could spend hours drooling over the kitchen alone. Who knew there were so many cool electronic gadgets just for the kitchen. They also seem to have cornered the market on every type of robot imaginable, they even have a R2D2 Interactive Droid.

I loved Sharper Image before I became an affiliate, and I doubt I’ll make much money from their program. As a matter of fact, this post is more a labor of love than anything else, because someone I know asked me about finding iPod accessories and now, I can tell them to come to my blog, click on the link and get free shipping on everything they need from Sharper Image. Ho Ho HO!

I have to confess that I’m a fan of rice cakes. Yeah, I know everyone says they taste like styrofoam, and while I wouldn’t quite debate that point, I would like to point out that they’re not as bad tasting as some claim. Karen the kitten loves them too, especially the white cheddar flavor. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that she merely sucks off the cheddar flavor and then spits out the rice in a secret location.

My only complaint is that they need more variety. Why doesn’t Quaker Oats make them in a nacho flavor? Or even Tabasco? Awhile back ago, we tried Wasabi Flavored Funyuns, and those were pretty darn good. I was surprised at how much I liked them, and I’m disappointed that I can’t find them any more in my local stores. I wish Quaker would buy up the unused Wasabi powder and use it to spice up a few batches of their rice cakes.

I do eat a lot of rice cakes, mostly at the keyboard lately because I’m spending so many hours working online. Sometimes, it feels like that’s all I’m doing is sitting with Karen on my lap, while I work on the laptop. The other day, I thought my days at the laptop were going to have to go on hold for awhile, because I thought I had broken it. As I was closing the lid, I heard a small, sickening crunch. I was afraid that somehow, I had cracked the screen, and almost didn’t want to open back up to see how bad the damage was. My daughter was in the room with me, and we both gave each other those big moon eye looks, like “OH NO!”

So, I gave out a big sigh, and opened the case very slowly… didn’t see anything at first glance, so I opened it up all the way. Screen was fine, but way in the back, at the hinge, was a crushed kernel of a rice cake.

Do you suppose Karen put it there?

Robyn recently mentioned atheism in a post here, so this since she brought it up, I’m dedicating this post to her:

I really like Mark Lowry. Not only is he funny, he’s also very insightful. I don’t know how he manages to go from talking about Home Depot then transition into atheism so flawlessly, but I guess that’s one of the reasons he’s so popular. In this video, I love what he says on the subject of atheism and I couldn’t say it better myself:

My daughter finds the coolest things online. She found this great site, CrazyEgg.com, that allows you to track your visitors actions on your site. If you’re concerned about building traffic to your blog, and if you want to try to figure out what your visitors do on your blog, then give CrazyEgg a try. They have a limited use free version, which would probably be fine for most bloggers. You can track four pages for free. I’d suggest that you start with your home page, and then follow the heat maps to see which other pages you should track. I’m not doing a good job of describing it, just go visit their site and see all the cool stuff they offer.

On their site, their description says they are for those that:

• Want more ad revenue
• Care what visitors do
• Need to make improvements
• Like things that are easy

On a personal note, I feel much freer to express my opinions, now that I am no longer blogging for bucks. I have a ton of reasons as to why I stopped writing for money, and I don’t have the time (once again) to go into it all. Maybe after Christmas, I’ll write a lengthy tell-all.. or better yet, I’ll record it all and put it on YouTube! ROFLOL!

Bottom line is, I am working on a better way to make money online. However, even if I was in dire financial straits, I couldn’t envision myself ever doing any more payment per post work again. I’ll share my reasons one of these days, when I’m not typing ninety miles an hour. Right now, I just wanted to tell everyone to give CrazyEgg a try.

African american incidental uv transference and its pernicious lies seems to have spread further on the net than I had previously imagined. I am sitting here dozing off at my computer, but I wanted to say this:

If you do research the topic, do NOT believe all the anecdotal posts on the footnotes of blogs and forums. Go to reputable medical sites, like webmd, or mayo clinic. I know wikipedia isn’t totally reliable, but there’s nothing there either. The only thing you’ll find online is stinking garbage in posts on blogs that say something like:

“We’ve learned the best way to avoid skin cancer is to avoid black people. Reportedly their African American Incidental (UV) Transference (AAIT) is the leading cause of our melanomas. After the loss of my wife, by the AAIT, people in my community started taking it VERY seriously. We are fortunate and don’t live around a lot of blacks. My wife, however, worked with them. We’ve got our children in a private school with no black children. We hate to raise them in this kind of environment, but this is the world we live in today.”

Even if you don’t believe in traditional medicine, go find some alternative therapy, especially sites that talk about the Budwig diet, and you’ll find that no one in their right mind believes that one person is physically capable of storing and transmitting UV rays. If I weren’t so sleepy, I could go into the physics of the whole thing and talk about angstroms and light waves and stuff like that. But I can barely see the screen, so if you don’t believe that AAIT is a pile of garbage, make sure you take the time to do your research and use reputable sources.