DID YOU KNOW?
Jack-o-lanterns trace back to an old Irish tale about a man named Stingy Jack. Unable to enter Heaven because of his stingy ways and turned away by the Devil, Stingy Jack wandered the world, searching for a resting place. To light his way, Stingy Jack used a burning coal in a hollowed out turnip — hence the name “jack-o-lantern”, meaning Jack-of-the-lantern. The first jack-o-lanterns, in fact, were carved out of turnips!
Source: from the Care2.com website
If you’re located in Michigan, here are some classes that are being given by the Clean Energy Coalition’s retail venture, the Energy Outlet.
Their ”Green Classroom” is offering four public workshops designed to educate residents and businesses on renewable energy and conservation techniques and products.
They are scheduled for October 2009:
Wednesday, October 7, 7:00 – 8:30 pm Saving Green: A First-Time Home Buyer’s Guide to Buying and Owning a Home Cost: $10 for reserved seating + 10% off EO coupon Presenter: Sara C. Maddock, Certified EcoBroker / Prudential Snyder & Co. Realtors
Wednesday, October 14, 7:00 – 8:30 pm Green Remodeling: Opportunities & Benefits for the Average Homeowner Cost: $10 for reserved seating + 10% off EO coupon Presenter: Doug Selby, Owner / Meadowlark Builders
Saturday, October 17, 10:30 am – 12 pm Rain Barrel Making Class Cost: $10 for reserved seating + 10% off EO coupon plus $67 material cost for one barrel kit ($77 total) Presenter: Tammy Packard, Partner / Two Chicks and the Elements
Wednesday, October 21, 7:00 – 8:30 pm Commercial Building Owners’ Guide to Lowering Your Energy + Operating Costs Cost: $10 for reserved seating + 10% off EO coupon Presenter: Joshua Brugeman, Director, Project Green / J.S. Vig Construction Co.
For questions, or to reserve your seat, contact CEC Project Manager Deb Heed at 734.483.9000 or email her at deb@cec-mi.org.
You know, lots of times when the news media refers to “Los Angeles”, they don’t mean the City of LA, they mean the county of LA, which is huge. The areas that the fires are burning are in the San Gabriel Mountains (in the San Gabriel Valley), specifically near the towns at the foothills of the mountains.
Last week as I watched the fires rage from miles away, I could see the flames leaping 80-100 feet into the air. My poem was inspired by these wildfires burning near La Canada, FlintRidge and Altadena, which are towns just north of my house. We are in no immediate danger of being evacuated, but over 40,000 people (and their animals) have been evacuated so far. The fire chief says that due to the steep terrain, little rain and lots of dense underbrush they don’t expect this fire to burn itself out for another 80 days!
They named this fire the Station Fire because it started near a ranger station in the San Gabriel Mountains near the 29 mile marker; they still don’t know the cause of the fire yet.
Be Well,
Diane Tegarden
Pasadena resident
Care2 is an organization that promotes online environmental and humanitarian activism by getting big corporations to donate to worldwide causes when YOU go to their website and use your mouse to “click” on your favorite causes. The corporations donate because they are getting some good advertising out of it, YOU get to help your favorite causes and Care2 gets sponsorship and readers. Everyone wins!
All you have to do is go to their website to learn more about the click program, at:
http://www.care2.com/click-to-donate/
Here are some testimonials from the program sponsors:
For years, Oceana has counted on the support of Care2’s online activists who help protect the oceans by signing onto petitions, letters and pledges. It’s all the more rewarding for us when Care2 members use the click to donate program to contribute real dollars for our ocean conservation efforts.
Matt Littlejohn
Vice President, Strategic Marketing and Communications, Oceana
Care2 members are now sponsoring 16 children in 7 countries. Your daily clicks have provided food, health care and education to 14 children living in poverty. Thanks to your clicks we are now able to sponsor 2 new children: Fridah in Zambia and Santanu in India. You’re making an immeasurable difference in the lives of these children – thank you!
Randy Paynter
President and Founder of Care2.com
Make it a better day for someone you (don’t) know! Diane T.
Wordsmiths,
I’ve been reading “The Young Folks Shelf of Books”, a ten book set of fairy tales, folk tales and myths from around the world, written by various authors. The book I’m reading now has folk tales from Russia and I ran into the word “versts”, and had to share!
verst (noun ) meaning an obsolete Russian unit of distance equal to 0.6629 mile (1.067 kilometers) or 500 sazhen long, which makes a verst equal to 3500 feet!
Etymology: used since 1555, French verste & German Werst; both from Russian versta; akin to Latin vertere= to turn
source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary
Sample sentence: “I’d hate to walk a verst in his shoes!”
Feel free to share your new, weird words with me!
home grown peaches
This morning I was out at 5am, it’s cool and bright, the early birds were squawking, my pup Melanie was rooting around in the grass and my cats were pouncing on the insects buzzing about….beautiful big full moon above the pine and eucalyptus trees invites me to sing…I sing the circle setting song of the Hopitu Shinumu, feeling connected to the land and the life all around me….
August in the Hopitu Shinumu calendar:
the full moon of August is called Pawepana, meaning Lake Moon
Agricultural Significance-peaches are ripe and food is abundant, the corn is harvested for the second time
Personal Significance- have fun and enjoy the sweet things in life, accept change as natural, personal growth.
Celebrations- The Festival for the Peach Harvest comes at the end of the month, with plenty of sweet peach desserts, dancing in the light of the full moon and joyful celebration of friends and family.
Friends, check this out, you can help the homeless with a click of your mouse TODAY!
I’ve entered the My Curves Most Amazing Member contest, if you’re in a giving mood, please swing by the CURVES website and vote for my amazing story to win!! If I win, I’ll be donating 10% of the award to a local charity for the homeless, so let’s get the vote out!
Here’s the link-
http://www.mycurves.com/mostamazingmember/profile.php?id=991
I only have until July 31st and you can vote once a day, so please remember to get over to the website and help the homeless of Pasadena by placing your vote now!
Fit and Feisty at 52! Diane Tegarden
Word for the Day-what’s in a name?
Veronica-
1. Any of various plants of the genus, Veronica, which includes the speedwells.(Latin)
2. a.The representation or image of the face of Jesus which, according to legend was impressed upon the handkerchief offer to him by St. Veronica and on the road to Calvary. b.The handkerchief itself. c.The representation of Jesus’ face on a textile fabric similar to the legendary veronica .
3. A maneuver in bullfighting in which the matador stands immobile and passes the cape slowly before the charging bull (Spanish) *********************************************************************
What words have surprised you this week? Sometimes it’s not a matter of a word that’s entirely new to you, but rather a new meaning you have found in a word you were already familiar with, like Veronica! Post away my pretties…..
Howdeeeeeeeeeeee Wordmeister brethren,
today’s word came about when I was writing my latest article at the Examiner.com about wood fired hot tubs. The spell checker didn’t recognize the word “immersible” but gave me the choice to use…immiscible.
So, since I’d never seen that word I had to look it up and voilà, we have our word for the day!
immiscible means a substance that does not form a solution, like oil and water, it is incapable of mixing!
What’s your new word and where did you run across it? If you haven’t been exposed to one lately, how about grabbing a dictionary and flipping through it at random, pick a page without looking at it and see what you can come up with that is new to you!
See you on the flip flop,
Diane T.
