Some Good Changes for 2010.

Diners Club International Ends Partnership with Mail-Order Bride Company:
"In a story that we initially couldn't believe was true, about a partnership between the credit card company Diners Club International (owned by Discover) and Vietnam Brides International, which enabled card holders in Asia to buy women on credit. Mail-order brides are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking and exploitation, and Change.org's human trafficking community rapidly responded to the story by demanding that Diners Club end their policy of treating women as commodities to be bought and sold. After thousands of letters, hundreds of tweets and only 48 hours, Diners Club responded to the campaign, apologized, and canceled their partnership with Vietnam Brides International."
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Department of Labor Releases Confidential Slave Labor Report:
"In 2005, The Department of Labor (DOL) was mandated by Congress to issue a report on the countries and companies using slave and child labor across the world. Yet since that time DOL had made the document confidential and resisted its release, fearing negative reaction from trading partners. After we exposed this resistance on Change.org, in partnership with the anti-slavery organization Project, more than 6,000 Change.org members called on DOL to end their resistance and comply with Congress's intentions. Within a few weeks of launching this campaign the full confidential list was publicly released, providing a wealth of information that is now being used by NGOs worldwide in the fight against slave labor."
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Change.org Members Dismantle Food Labeling Ploy
The food industry launched a new nutrition labeling scheme this fall called Smart Choices, hoping to sell more highly processed foods such as Froot Loops by marking them as “healthy” based on their fortified nutrients. This would have been an easily dismissible marketing tactic except that researchers associated with several prominent nonprofits – including the American Diabetes and Dietetic Associations and the Tufts School of Nutrition – were members of the Smart Choices board and giving the program false legitimacy. Thousands responded by calling on these three nonprofits to disassociate themselves from the marketing scheme. Two days later all three organizations responded by publicly denouncing the Smart Choices initiative, dealing a significant blow to the program’s claim to legitimacy. Within a few weeks the deceptive multi-million dollar initiative was suspended, giving the public a rare and important victory over the sort of deceptive food marketing that has contributed to America’s obesity epidemic.
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Here are 5 people who are in the proverbial dog house: http://animalwelfare.change.org/blog/view/five_people_in_the_2009_doghouse

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About some of the Pit Bulls saved:
http://news.bestfriends.org/index.cfm?page=news&mode=entry&entry=A5FA8ABB-E5AB-575C-E288C54E52B91634
“The ‘Vick”-tory dogs are proof that these animals can be rehabilitated. Best Friends, other rescues, and these wonderful dogs across the country are proving this right now. I am very thankful for these people that are working so hard to find these dogs some justice.”
http://www.bestfriends.org/vickdogs/
It wasn't their fault.  At least these poor dogs have a second chance, see how they are now:
http://www.badrap.org/rescue/vick/now.html

Here is one of the Vicktory Dogs, Little Red .

"Little Red's face tells a thousand sad stories. She arrived at Best Friends clearly having nursed many puppies. She was covered in facial scars, and had teeth that had been filed down. Her face and her teeth make her look like a "bait" dog -- a dog who is less tough than the others, who is used as a practice target for dogs training to fight."

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Here is a video about a Pit Bull service dog, putting away it's toys. opening and closing fridge, and getting her mistress's purse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz_zdxVlBbA

It was just too cold and gloomy to do anything outside.  I just couldn’t get warm, even in the house, today.

Yard Sale Over. Bubble & Squeak.

My bones are tired. Jay helped me put some stuff in boxes, so we could fold up all six little card tables.   Then we just carried all the big long tables, that had been in the yard into the RVport, and covered them up.
A quick drive around the roads to pick up the yard sales signs, and I took Jay home.

Now all I want to do is soak in a hot tub, wash my hair, and have something to eat that I don’t even have to chew. 
So I am making Bubble and Squeak with the left over cabbage and mashed potatoes from yesterday. 
Put it in a bowl,  mix it up with an egg or two, add some Allspice, plop very big spoonfuls into a little, not too hot olive oil or healthy marg., and sauté until brown on each side. That, with the left over cooked spiced apples, should do me OK.

It was a lovely sunny, though only 60 deg. day.

Yard Sale and New Year Day Dinner. Fussin’ w. Computers.

I got everything uncovered for the yard sale this morning, and thought maybe I could have my laptop in the living room working off the Wi-Fi.  That way I could keep an eye on the yard sale.

The router is in the room next to it.   I messed with it for ages, and couldn’t get it to connect.  I called AOL, who directed me to my cable company, who kept me on hold for over 45 minutes.  Of course, as soon as a real person came on the line, yard sale customers started showing up again.   The tech had me do a bunch of ‘ipconfig’ things on Command Prompts, but never got the Wi-Fi to work.

The yard sale wasn’t as busy as it has been other years, at a different time of year though, but some more stuff was sold.  Tomorrow is another day of it.

After I had closed up the yard sale, I went down to Claudia’s for cabbage, black eyes peas, spiced apples, brown sugared carrots, mashed potatoes, and really good pork tenderloin.

When I got home, I was reading my mail, and got a virus which Microsoft Security Essentials eliminated, but I must have clicked on something that I didn’t outta, and had to call AOL again for them to help me get connected again.

The tortoise, we have found out by posting his mug shots on the tortoise forums, is not a Russian.  He is a Gopherus berlandieri, and comes from deep south TX.   What he was doing around here is a mystery.  I bet he could tell some tales.  He is very unhappy in the bathtub that we have rigged up for him, trying to dig out.  Just as soon as we have some better weather, I am going to put him back in Jay’s fenced yard, and take him good food down there every few days.  I know he will be a lot happier. Later, we found out where he came from, and returned him to his people.

This last decade has been not so good. I have lost my DH, mother, brother, granddaughter, my best doggie friend, (Levi), my lovely white cat, (Honky), and  now little MaeMae.

We have lost a lot of great famous people, and some not so great, too.  But the older you get, the more people you lose. 

But it has been better on the home front, as the decade before, I lost one house to fire, rebuilt, and lost that one to a flood.

Another busy, sunny, but cool day, today.