Imageglow Candle Giveaway

Imageglow Candles offers unique pillar and lantern style candles that have images embedded into the wax so that when lit, the images glow. Check out the beautiful candles here and then go to Mom Fuse and tell her which ones are your favorites. You can win an Imageglow Trio Set in the pattern of your choice. Enter here. Contest ends March 6.

The Multi-Purpose Center

I spent Friday volunteering at the Multi-purpose Center. One of the part-time ladies is going to be quitting soon and Anne wanted me to learn how things go so I can fill in sometimes. It went pretty well. The main problem was trying to remember what different categories of things cost in the re-sale shop. The other lady made me a list, bless her heart, that I could refer to and that really helped. There were also several donations that came in that day that I sorted through and put on the shelves. That part of the job is fun. You never know what you'll find when you open a bag or box. Volunteers can take home something for free in return for working and I found a really nice purse in one of the boxes so it now has a new home. (Jim surprised me by not making any comments about me not needing another bag. Thanks honey!)

One of the problems facing a small shop like this is people who want to spend only a couple of dollars and pay for it using a twenty dollar bill or larger. The shop just doesn't keep that much change on hand. An even bigger problem is donors who use the shop to get rid of things they should have thrown away. Signs are posted on the door and inside that donations should be good enough to give to your family or friends - not stained, dirty, ripped, or worn out. Plastic dishes come in that have been blistered in the microwave and/or stained. Clothes come in, (including underwear), that are stained or maybe have paint on them, or they're torn. The Center doesn't have the facilities, money, or time to wash and dry or repair clothes. Some things immediately get thrown away but most damaged clothes are bagged and sold to a company that recycles them. Other donated things are sometimes broken or have missing parts. People will come after hours and leave bags and things just sitting outside that have to be gone through and disposed of. The Center has to pay for garbage pickup just like everyone else and this just adds to it.

The Center also sells small appliances like coffee pots, housewares, bedding, figurines, books, puzzles, toys, and though they don't have room to sell them, they take info from people who have larger things like furniture to give away. Last year I started several spider plants and donated them to the Center to resell. local gardeners are very generous and will bring their excess produce or a farmer will donate beef or pork or a hunter will donate a deer to the food pantry.

The shoppers are a varied bunch of people. One local man who sells antiques and ships them all over came in to buy some used blankets to wrap them in. Others were looking for clothes for their fast-growing children or grandchildren or just for themselves. Working men came looking for used clothes that they can wear and not have to worry about ruining. Maybe someone needed a glass carafe for a coffee maker or a frame for a picture. You never know what you'll find at the Center. A big rush came right before we were about to close at 4:30 and we actually had to hurry a couple of people to get them checked out so we could leave. (Hey, it was Friday night, ya know!) The Center is open M-F, 8 - 4:30 so that gives people plenty of time to shop, sign up for heating help, WIC, get emergency food help, or sometimes just a sympathetic ear.

Is Spring Coming Soon?

Rain has been falling and the skies are gray
All the snow has melted; it's a dreary day.
Everything is brown no matter where I look.
The only comfort I get is in the pages of a book.

Spring is surely coming; I mean it does each year,
But until the grass turns green I always have a fear.
I know we'll have some snow in March and maybe later on,
Sometimes it's on the tulips before the winter's gone.

So today I'll read my book and dream of warmer places,
Picnics at parks, and crowds of people at car races.
It's just a matter of time before my dream comes true.
But I'm ready for warmer weather NOW! How about you?
© Kat Bryan 2009

Win a Stainless Steel Water Bottle

Check out the neat stainless steel containers at The Tickle Trunk . They have a wide variety of products from various sized food storage containers and cups to water bottles and they're inexpensive. No worries about chemicals transfer from plastics and a lot longer lasting. Then go to http://www.writingsofawahm.com/and leave a comment telling what your favorite is. You could win a stainless steel 18 oz. water bottle. Contest ends: 03/07/09

Review of The Reunion by Simone Van Der Vlugt

Two weeks ago I won a copy of The Reunion by Simone Van Der Vlugt from the British site http://itsacrime.typepad.com. This was a Dutch novel that was translated to English and it takes place in the Amsterdam area. The book arrived in Monday's mail and I finished it about 2 that morning. (What's that? No, I never go to bed before 1 or 2 or sometimes even 3. I get too caught up in a book or a blog or entering contests or something and time gets away from me.) The book is promoted as a 'thriller' but there was nothing thriller-like about it. It's just a mystery with a lot of emotional angst.

The book is about a young woman, Sabine, whose highschool classmate Isabel, disappeared 9 years ago while biking home from school. While Sabine was there when she disappeared, she has no memory of what happened that day. The basis of the story is how tramatic events can be repressed by the mind. After Sabine reads an announcement in the paper about a highschool reunion, bits and pieces of her memory start to come back. At the beginning of the book, she has just returned to work after being off a year and getting treatment for job burn out and depression. She's finding it very hard to concentrate on her job as she's constantly harrassed by a co-worker, she's drinking and eating too much, getting into bad relationships, and having bad dreams as her memories start to return. In other words, her life sucks. Occasionally there were words that were used differently than what I expected which threw me a little bit. This, for example, "....my two-room apartment is a tip. After the utilitarian neatness of the office, my scruffy furniture seems even more tightly crammed together." I'm not sure if tip means messy or small. The odd, unpronouceable names for streets are distracting, too, but I know they're necessary for the location.

As for the disappearance of Isabel, the author does do a good job keeping you guessing who was responsible. My guess as to who the villian was kept changing as I read the book clear up until the end so the book was good in that respect.