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Did you know that Alzheimer’s is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States? I didn’t know that.

The Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® is designed to raise awareness — and help financially support research for a cure.

We may not be personally affected by Alzheimer’s — however, every 71 seconds someone is diagnosed with this disease. By joining together we can become champions in the fight against Alzheimer’s.

How can you help? Join the more than 200,000 volunteers who will sign up for a Alzheimer’s Memory Walk this year — or if you can, sign up and form a team of walkers and act as a team captain! A typical walk is 2 to 3 miles — and usually held on a weekend morning in the fall. If you are unable to physically take part in a walk consider helping out in other ways. Often local walks need other types of ‘behind the scenes’ assistance both before and during a walk with event planning, etc. Perhaps you are able to financially support another walker. Consider all your possibilites! Visit the website and you can search for a walk near you.

By teaming up with the Alzheimer’s Association, you can walk with a purpose – and move us closer to a world without Alzheimer’s. Together, we can MOVE a nation.

It’s just too hot! Yesterday I took the kids to the pool but even there it was way too hot for me. And allergy season is in fully swing for us.

We visited the doctor a few days ago and he said anyone with allergies to grass is miserable right now — that’s just about my entire family.

So… I’m staying inside today and I am going to hide-out in my sewing room which is just about the coolest room in the house — way down in the basement with no windows — but plenty of AC.

My daughter needs a new pair of black pants for her martial arts class — and I need to finish a pair of pjs I started months ago for my granddaughter — I started the pjs and realized they were too big for her and thus they became one of my ‘unfinished’ projects — or UFOs as I like to call them.

How are you keeping cool?

Dada Entertainment (a ringtones and MP3 music provider) has just started an Ringtone Affiliate Program where bloggers can earn money by contextually integrating Dada.net’s content catalog on their websites. Full details of the affiliate program can be found at OpenDada.com — basically bloggers are paid for leads sent to Dada Entertainment.

What is OpenDada, you ask? It’s a simple and effective program to facilitate integration of the Dada.net content catalog– and provide website owners an easy avenue to earn income. Affiliate benefits include:

• Gain access to developer tools allowing easy integration of content, or use our code as a reference to pursue creative applications.
• Increase traffic to your website and applications through a partnership with Dada that also allows you to earn money.
• Receive payments for each new Dada.net subscriber you refer in addition to daily e-mail updates that provide you the info you need to boost revenues.

If you are looking for an affiliate program with benefits such as these take a look at OpenDada.com.

My son has been in the market for a car — not a new one — just a used one.

His current car is pretty much dead. Actually, it still runs but it failed inspection because of a power window that will not go up and down. Fixing the window will costs about $350 (and that’s a discounted price). The car is 17 years old (92 Nissan) with nearly 200,000 miles — and it sounds like a bomb ready to explode. In other words, it needs more work than just this window. It’s time for something new.

A neighbor was selling 1999 car for $5800 with 125,000 miles — nice car — but a little pricey for a car 10 years old. There is one other possibility for him — a relative in Philadelphia may be buying a new car and will sell his 2001 Chevy to him for under $2,000 — now — that sounds much better. We are all hoping he finds a car soon — as the month is running out.

Do you own a real estate/property business? Have you outgrown your excel-based software? Do you need a fully hosted, collaborative software for planning, site selection, project management, maintenance and lease administration of your global sites and assets.

Siterra delivers leading web-based software to plan, build, manage and grow high value operating sites, assets and real estate properties. They provide 24/7 Property Management Software to meet your growing business needs. Siterra Leases is the leading solution for seamlessly managing large-scale portfolios of commercial property and retail leases. If you are in the market for this type of program you may want to check out their website.

Generally, our three youngest children do not see movies rated PG13 - and even some PG movies we haven’t allowed. I haven’t seen the newest Batman movie yet — therefore, I can’t make an assessment as to whether it is appropriate for my children –yet. I know a lot of parents who are taking their under-13 kids to see the movie. Some PG13 movies have been seen by my younger children. I judge it all depends on why the movie is rated PG13 — and then it’s up to the parent to decide if it’s appropriate for their child.

What I found interesting about this newest Batman movie is that our 22 year old son is the one who warned us not to allow his younger siblings to see the movie. He’s a movie critic — at his age he has the time to watch a lot of movies — and he did minor in film study at college.

He was at the movie theaters at midnight last Thursday night to see this movie.

According to him the Batman movie is awesome — great — and he used a ton of other adjectives to describe it.

Still … he didn’t think it was at all appropriate for younger kids.

Makes me wonder … is it the movie that bad for kids? AND — has my son really grown up and become a discerning adult.

Do you have a child needing a musical instrument for this upcoming school year? As many parents know, new musical instruments can be very expensive — and the cost is not always justifiable when a child can easily lose interest in the subject after a brief time.

One way to safe some money is by purchasing a used instrument — which is often less expensive than renting — and also has a resale value after you child is through with lessons.

At UsedPrice.com you can find the fair market value of many different musical instruments (and much more including — appliances, stereos, etc.). Their online price guides and used equipment calculators are easy to use and accurate. For instance, by using this site I found that an acoustic guitar value is quite good — and I might just sell the one we have collecting dust in the closet. LOL

First, a little about my homeschooling experience: I have five children and at one time or another I have homeschooled each grade from K-12. However, we have not always homeschooled. We have experienced both public and private school options — and have had both good and ‘not so good’ experiences with each of these forms of education.

A google search provides an overwhelming amount of choices for homeschooling materials and full curriculum providers. A few of the largest curriculum providers which I have used are:

• K12.com (started by Bill Bennett — the former U.S. Secretary of Education)
• CalvertSchool.org (used by many military and state department families)
• Seton Home School (setonhome.org) (Catholic school curriculum)

Each of the above listed programs provides everything needed to homeschool your children — books, lessons plans, phone guidance — you name it and they have it.

It is not necessary to use a curriculum provider as I have listed above — however, many first-time homeschoolers choose to do so for the convenience factor. It is often helpful to use a solid, well-known program when first starting out in order to get a ‘feel’ for what is expected at each grade levels. After a few years of using a curriculum provider many parents feel confident enough to develop their own plan — often using bits and pieces of what they like from each program.

In addition, if you are beginning with a high school age student you may want to consider using an online school which provides lesson plans and transcripts for college applications. Note: it certainly is not necessary to use an online school — but it does make the application process to college a great deal easier.

If you own your own restaurant business and/or are in the market for restaurant furniture you might want to check out the Contract Furniture Company.

Their website is extremely easy to navigate — allowing customers to browse their huge selection of commercial furniture — including a variety of restaurant tables and chairs. They carry wrought iron, wood, resin, and other furniture to match any restaurant’s theme.

Contract Furniture Company has affordable prices — and a great selection of the most current popular designs in outdoor restaurant furniture. They also carry a full line of more classical type restaurant furniture — also at great rates. They have 30 years of experience in the furniture industry and are located in the New York and Los Angeles, CA areas.

Our Disney World trip reports can be located here. There’s details about our train ride via Amtrak’s autotrain. And our arrival at the Polynesian resort and room details. I’m about to post a few thoughts on the Disney Dining Plan. In the past we’ve been big fans of the dining plan … not this year. If Disney doesn’t make some changes I doubt we’ll purchase the meal plan again.

I’m finally finished with the laundry — or at least the part we brought home with us. Of course, new piles are waiting!