Welcome back! Coffee's always on around here. Pull up your favorite chair and a grab a cup. Enjoy your visit today! And don't forget to stop back by again soon.

Breakfast is overrated.

I hate breakfast foods. Really, I do. I’m allergic to eggs, don’t like pancakes or sausage, can’t stand oatmeal or cold cereal, don’t eat bacon. I mean, what’s left after that? Hashbrowns? Who wants to eat hashbrowns every. single. day. Not me.

Waffles are okay – I like them, but as a mom of 4 children, who has time (or energy) to make waffles before school? I sure don’t. I already get up at 6:00am insanely early (for me, anyway, being a nightowl) and I refuse to get up any earlier just to cook. LOL

Okay then, what does one eat for breakfast?

Nothing.

Yes -I know, I know – everyone says it’s imperative to eat *something* for breakfast when you’re loosing weight. And yet, I usually just can’t. Nothing is appetizing at 6:00am.

But 10:00am? My stomach is ready for food at 10. Maybe it’s because it was conditioned to eat at 10 because that was our scheduled “lunch” time all during high school. I can eat lunch at 10 am. Or, I mean, breakfast.

Then again, maybe it has to do with that nightowl thing. I mean, if you get up 9 or 9:30, then 10 is the perfect time for breakfast.

And who says you have to breakfast food for breakfast? Is that a rule somewhere? I thought food was . . . well, food. You eat it, right? Who cares then?

Fruit is good. Ham sandwiches are good. Toast with almond butter is good. And smoothies. I can do smoothies. Or granola with a little warm hemp milk.

If you’re not a breakfast person (or even if you are), what do you try to eat for breakfast? And when? Early or later, like me?

I’m curious to know how you all handle the breakfast thing.

If it were up to me, there would not even be a thing called breakfast. LOL We’d skip right to lunch about noon or so and go on from there.

So, there’s my rant for today! Please . . . share your thoughts with me in the comments.

Until later -

Be blessed,

I don’t know how many posts I’ve started over the past several days and then not finished for one reason or another. Something happens, I get side-tracked, I lose my train of thought and then they end up getting saved to my drafts.

Today there is a lot to talk about so with any luck, this one will make it to the blog!

Earlier this evening, a car went sliding down the hill after hitting a patch of slick ice/snow just shortly after dark (and shortly after freezing began!) and after doing a 180 turn around, managed to land *just* outside our pasture fence. (Not the first time it’s happened . . .)

I think the only reason she didn’t actually go all the way over the fence, is that she hit one of the taller posts. Had it been a shorter post or a spot with no post, she’d have gone into the pasture for sure.

Fortunately the driver and her daughter are fine. Shaken, but fine. The car is mostly fine, just a dent in the front where she hit the post and also some damage to the cowling under the front end where it hit an old post in the ditch. Depending on when they come for it tomorrow, I may get a picture or two of the car.

Here’s a picture from last years big snow so you can see what I’m talking about. The car went into the pasture just beyond the mailbox (on the right side of the frame). There’s a drop-off there and a pretty deep gully before the pasture begins. Fortunately she missed the gully too or it would have been much, much worse.

<--Warning! Short rant ahead -->

I hope she realizes how lucky she is. And I hope next time, she reconsiders the need to go out after it’s gotten dark in this kind of weather. Especially down this hill.

Oh and this accident? Only happened in about an inch, maybe two inches of snow . . .

It really amazes me how many people who don’t know how to drive in bad weather, actually go out and drive in it! Or at least, TRY to drive in it. That’s why I don’t. It’s not me I worry about – it’s everyone else! I can drive in snow just fine. I just choose not to. And especially not after dark when the temps are freezing and it’s turned icy.

Anyway, that’s all of my lecture/rant/soapbox for now. LOL

<--End of rant ;-) -->

This afternoon I was looking for a site to kind of be a central location for all of m social networking and online stuff. Like an online business card, of sorts. I searched for quite some time and was about to give up and just design something myself when I found a site called chi.mp. The cool thing is, it also acts as an openID. So, I set it up! And so far, I really like it.

You can find me at helloannie.mp. Check it out and if you sign up, let me know.

And yesterday, I found a cool thing called blogrollr. Basically, it keeps track of the sites you visit automatically (kinda like google web history – only so far, I think it’s better). I can see where I’ve been, how many times I’ve visited there and can even rearrange things or “blacklist” things so they’re not in my public feed.

And lastly, a really simple and totally cool To-Do list I found yesterday as well. It’s called TeuxDeux.com and though it’s kind of an odd way to spell it, it’s very useful. I’ve tried A LOT (a really lot!!) of to-do lists and this one is cool. Just trust me. Simple. Effective. And just what I wanted.

Hope you had a great weekend! Here’s to a good week! Can’t believe it’s the last week of school before Christmas break. That is just totally unreal.

In the arena,

Oh – one more thing – a toolbar thingy for your website called Wibiya. I have no idea what it means or even how to say it really, but it’s pretty useful. I just installed it on my website today so if you’re reading in a reader, go check out the site and see how it works. Then you can go to wibiya.com and get one of your own. And a little disclaimer – NONE of these links are affiliate links. They’re just stuff I use and enjoy enough to share.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Here’s something that should make you mad – the US government is ignoring the fact that the real cause of the so-called ’swine flu pandemic’ is factory farming. And in their ignorance have decided the best way to handle the ‘problem’ is to vaccinate millions of innocent school-aged children.

Excuse me? You want to vaccinate MY CHILDREN due to your stupid commercialization of farming? You want to vaccinate MY CHILDREN because the FDA overstepped it’s bounds years ago and made farmers who wanted to stay in business – in order to feed their own families, no doubt – to put additives in their animals foods and inject those same animals with antibiotics and the like?

Well, you know what? I think not. We will definitely opt-out of the program and I will not be allowing my children to get this vaccine.

And I think the best course of action is for the government to stop meddling in farming. I think we should call for a revamping of the FDA and any organization that handles our ‘health and welfare.’ Clearly, they do NOT have our best interests at heart.

We can see THAT in the effects of the bail-out monies given to loads of corporations as well. Now the government not only has control of our food supply, our farming methods and our educational systems, but it also has control of free trade.

America is going in the wrong direction and our citizens better sit up and take notice SOON or there will be no America worth fighting for. The lives and sacrifices of our veterans will have been made in vain.

Don’t let it come to that.

Get educated and remember that government is supposed to be “FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE.”

Other links of interest:

In the arena,

The government works FOR us, not against us. Let your voice be heard. Don’t give up any more of your rights.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Or at least the missing parts:

1. Live feed
2. Friend’s comments on pics, etc
3. Updates on who friends become friends with and the like
4. Poke messages on the home page
5. The ability to “like” comments

While I like the new layout, I don’t like that the above items are missing. It’s annoying and lousy.

Just bring the list of things back and the new facebook will ROCK!

Seriously. Just quit messing with things, Mark.

Thanks.

In the arena,

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. ~ Arthur C. Clarke (1917 – )

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

That’s what we call it around here – Daylight Stupid Time. The time of year when governments make everyone turn their clocks ahead an hour. It makes no sense. It’s just stupid.

And it makes me tired for days!

I mean, sure, it’s nice to have a little longer daylight in the evenings of summer but you know what? It sure makes it hard to get sleepy kids to bed when it’s bedtime.

“But it isn’t dark yet! Why do we have to go to bed now?”

That just isn’t worth it for me. Besides, I’d rather have an hour or so after the sun goes down to snuggle up with a good book before *I* go to bed.

Without having to go bed at midnight or later just to do so.

People survived just fine for centuries before this ridiculous idea was enacted into law. And I think it’s well passed it’s usefulness. If it ever were useful to begin with.

Seriously, just GET UP an hour earlier if you want more daylight! (And this coming from a night owl so don’t bash me on that one, okay?)

(Though I can definitely empathize with you if you’d rather not get up at the crack o’ freakin’ dawn.)

Which brings me to a totally unrelated subject . . .

I am so TIRED of snow! And winter. And cold. Can it just be over now, please?

And no, to answer your question – making us change our clocks back an hour earlier a FULL TWO WEEKS ahead of the normal schedule is NOT – I repeat – NOT going to make spring come any sooner!

I think maybe we should send all politicians to Siberia or somewhere and then just start over.

You could elect me for president, then.

And *THAT* would be REAL change.

I promise.

In the arena,

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. ~ Benjamin Franklin, the politician who first conceived daylight saving time.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

You know what I find incredibly irritating?

It’s all these health and weight loss gurus, health industry article writers, and others on the losing weight bandwagon who make comments like this –

“You have to figure out what causes you to overeat in the first place. Find the emotional component.”

These experts and wannabe experts make it sound like anyone who weighs more than is ideal for their height and body structure is a glutton or a pig shoveling food into their mouths non-stop.

Well, guess what?

All people who have a little extra weight (or sometimes even a lot) aren’t food hoarding slobs. I am NOT overweight because I eat too much. This has nothing to do with second helpings or fast food drive-by’s.

No, it’s called being a M O M.

Your OB/GYN will tell you to gain a certain amount of weight during pregnancy, that a certain amount is good for you and for the baby. It means things are developing nicely. So you do. Or maybe you gain 5-10 pounds more than you should have because you just can’t be as active as normal. While that’s not bad in and of itself in most cases, the problem is losing it afterwards.

Now, I did lose the majority of the weight I gained with The Teenager. Yes, I did gain more than I should have due to being more inactive and it took me a good 3 years to lose it. Of course, within months of finally losing it, along came G-man. And even though I didn’t gain as much as I did with The Teenager, I still had trouble losing it that time around as well. Even more trouble, actually, due my back injury.

With Little Girl and Short Dude I didn’t gain all that much – right about the recommended amount. Trouble is that over the years, I’ve become more inactive due the back injury. There is simply A LOT of stuff I cannot do even if I want to. I have restrictions even still on what I can do and it’s been over 10 years since the injury occurred.

For example, I am not supposed to vacuum, push a shopping cart, or lift more than 15-20 pounds. I can’t stand longer than 20 minutes at a time nor walk longer than about 20-25 minutes at a time without pain. Sometimes a tremendous amount of pain.

It’s not bad eating habits that got me here. So, changing eating habits is highly unlikely to help. We eat a mostly vegetarian diet – lots of fruits and vegetables, little to no red meat and very few processed foods. We eat lean meats and fish in moderation. We eat whole grains, drink lots of water and keep healthy snacks around.

And being told you’re overweight because you don’t know when to stop eating is aggravating and quite degrading. I’m tired of commercials and advertisements and programs with some stick thin idiot telling me I’m a slob, I’m eating too much, I’m a food shoveling pig and I need to put down the sweets.

Give me a break!

I’m trying to not let idiotic assumptions by supposed health experts dampen my spirits, but you know? That’s easier said than done.

Shouting at people about bad food habits, assuming they’re pigs because they could stand lose a few pounds is just plain rude.

And I’m tired of being treated that by an industry that makes billions a year pushing products that probably aren’t all that great for you, either.

If I’m going to lose weight, it won’t be by buying your products or services. It’ll be through hard work and a daily battle with myself that I’m worth it.

In the arena,

You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

First, a question – If you have to PAY for something – even if it’s at a 50% discount – is it really a GIFT??

Um . . . not only, no! But hell no!

I got an email today from someone I respect and whose work and products I admire. I usually read their newsletter from beginning to end every time it’s in my inbox.

So, today, their email arrives and says there’s a gift of one of this persons products and it’s just for customers and newsletter readers only. A special gift for Christmas. Just go to the link and grab it.

And when I get there, I scroll down the order page to see what info it requires for the order and to get the details of exactly what’s in the “gift” . . . only to find out it costs $150!

What the heck?

“Since when do you PAY for GIFTS??” I thought.

I went back to the email to re-read it to see if I missed something. And no, it CLEARLY states it’s a GIFT.

Now, I’m pretty sure I understand what the term gift means . . . but just in case, let’s look in the dictionary . . .

Yep, just as I thought . . .

GIFT
NOUN: 1. Something that is bestowed voluntarily and without compensation. 2. The act, right, or power of giving. 3. A talent, endowment, aptitude, or inclination.

This, to me, is clearly false advertising and the respect I had for this person has just plummeted to the bottom of the ladder. In fact, I’m thinking of unsubscribing from their newsletter and never reading or listening to anything of theirs ever again. And I might even send them an email and tell them so.

Additionally, I think it’s not only false advertising but it’s extremely unethical.

What do you think?

In the arena,

Want to work with an award-winning writer? Now is your chance! Hurry and book for the 2009 before the calendar is full. I still have some space available. Check out the Hire Me tab above for info on how to contact me and your reserve your spot now. And don’t worry – I’ll never promise you a gift and then turn around and ask you to pay $150 – or any $$ – for it.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.