Woman Accosted on the Greenway

The news reported that a woman visiting from out of town was accosted by a man with a gun at 1:30 on Friday afternoon in the park where I walk. She said he jumped out of the trees, grabbed her, she bit him and got away, saying she saw the gun but he never held it.

I figured that I would skip walking the next day to let things cool down (besides I did a lot of walking in the stores). When I went walking today, a couple of friends I was with told me that NOBODY was out there yesterday (except them) so probably others had the same idea.

This was the first time we'd ever heard of this happening (other than an afternoon flasher years ago). We discussed the incidence at length and came up with all kinds of possibilities. Who knows what was really going on? One walking friend said she wasn't even sure the girl was telling the truth. Others wondered if the man was after the woman specifically. We'd all like to believe it would be unlikely to happen to us -- wishful thinking, I guess.

Two Saturdays Before Christmas

Do not (if you can help it), do NOT go into Wal-Mart on a Saturday afternoon one or two Saurdays before Christmas. The place is a madhouse. The parking is horrible (well, okay, it is almost always horrible at Wal-Mart anyway) and the lines are long. The best stuff is sold out. Better yet, do not even trying driving around this town right now. Whew! I didn't know if I would survive all that.

On the other hand, I also went into a mall. It's different there. The mall is always a jungle  and I lucked out with a close parking spot. It seemed normal. I liked walking through the glitz and glitter there last night and I found a sale in Dillards that made Wal-Mart prices look high.

Webcams

My friend, Chuck Bobo, and coworker (when he is not busy at the North Pole) chats with me via webcam. He tells about his cousin overseas and how they also talk via the webcam. I enjoy our talks very much. The sound comes through clearly.

I have an old video camera that does not take pictures, but it would work great as a webcam, I've heard. I just need to figure out how to make it into one. Do you need a special board to do this?

In the meantime, one of my digital cameras work as a webcam. I've used it before. The only reason I don't turn my camera on everytime is, well, I'd feel obligated to get dressed up, do my hair, clean the area behind me and who knows what else before I'd want anyone to see me (right now, I am sitting here in a robe wearing curlers). Maybe I could post a picture of Cameron Diaz in front of my camera when anyone calls.

Tenders Restaurant

My daughter took me to Tenders yesterday. I'd never eaten here before. They offer fried chicken strips, fries, slaw, Texas Toast and a few other things in a limited menu -- but mostly, the small fast-food type place centers around chicken strips. The strips came with a Thousand Island type dipping sauce. I got a platter with 2 large strips, a generous amount of fries and a piece of Texas Toast for $3.45 - very reasonably priced. Dairy Queen offers the same kind of meal. Their chicken was just as good or better -- and they offer ice cream. (As long as a place offers a milkshake, at least, it is okay with me.)

Still, I would go back to Tenders anytime. It was good, served quickly and the price was better.

Webshots

I've belonged to the free version of Webshots and enjoyed their offerings for wallpaper and screen savers. I wish the subscription rate was less, but I guess that is the going cost for access to quality photos -- and the 800 by 600-sized free shots still look good as wallpaper on my 1600 x 1200 display. Recently, I found a program that converts their photos to JPG at Freewareweb.com.

Young Adult Men

Why do advertisers want to target the young adult male audience so much? A report on NBC's morning news today talked about how sex was being increasingly used in ads to target the young adult male audience, the audience that advertisers want MOST to reach, they said. What is it about young adult males that they are targeted above all other age groups?

Aren't baby boomers the largest population segment? Wouldn't a company want to target their group? Is it just that young adult males have not used up all their credit card allowance? Are young males easier to convince - or harder to convince thus, they get the concentrated advertising (and why is this different from young adult females)? What makes young men the main targeted TV audience? They are certainly not the largest segment of the U.S. population.

I remember a few years ago when Good Morning America changed hosts. They brought in young people to host (in order to please advertisers and target the younger viewers, it was said). They failed miserably. In desperation, ABC brought in two old veterans, Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson and bam! The ratings went back up. So there!

We discussed this as I was walking today with my 84-year-old friend, Wendell. He said it was not his world anymore. TV shows, movies and even much of the holiday music being played did not appeal to him. He still finds plenty to do and enjoy, though not with prime-time TV.

Buckwheat Craze

Thanks to a published report that concluded, "Eating buckwheat lowers blood sugar," my husband and I decided to make buckwheat pancakes this morning. The pancakes were pretty good and I learned a few things about buckwheat. One large pancake packed 33% of the day's worth of fiber plus several nutrients. Buckwheat is more of an herb than anything else. It produces dark-colored food although the taste is very mild.

We'll watch and see if it does any good for our blood sugar (both of us have to watch it). This morning we poured regular syrup over them -- probably ruining the blood sugar benefits - ha!

Here's the recipe I used:

Buckwheat Pancakes

1 pkg. yeast dissolved in 2 c. warm water
2 c. buckwheat flour
1 c. plain flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. molasses or honey or brown sugar
1/2 tsp. soda
1/2 c. buttermilk or soured milk

Mix flours and salt in one bowl and in another bowl add molasses to yeast and water mixture. Mix the two, beat vigorously. Let the dough sit for one hour at room temperature. Dough will rise a little. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Before frying, put 1/2 teaspoon soda in 1/2 cup buttermilk. Mix well and stir into yeast mixture. Let sit for 10 minutes at room temperature. Fry. Serve with warm syrup. Dough will stay in refrigerator 5 to 7 days.

Dollar Tree

A brand new Dollar Tree opened near our home. Everything in the store is a dollar. Children love these kinds of stores. They get a dollar for an allowance and they can buy one of anything in the store.

I did not always have the highest opinion of these stores, but I changed my mind. I needed a phone extension cord and found a 15-foot cord for a dollar. The same was selling for about 4 dollars at Wal-Mart next door. The Christmas wrapping paper was a much better deal, not to mention that it is the ideal place to get a white elephant gift.

There were a few over-priced items -- that sell for 79 cents at Wal-Mart, but the good deals made up for those.

Santa and Reindeer Music

This is an old one that has been going around a couple of years. Click on Santa and any of his reindeer to hear music variations. It's a fun card to play with.

http://web.icq.com/shockwave/0,,4845,00.swf

Check Infomercial Scams

Before buying anything "as seen on TV," check this site: InfomercialScams.com. I wish ... I really wish I could get rock-hard abs in only 4 minutes a day.

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