narcissus paperwhites

This flower blooming now at my house is a Christmas gift from a good friend at work. Unfortunately, my camera captures light but not fragrance, so I can share only the image!

Holidays are stressful times...

For the past few years, our family has gathered at my house for Thanksgiving, and we all have a great time. Everyone brings food, and I prepare the turkey and stuffing. We push back all of the furniture and set up long folding tables and folding chairs, and we all sit down together. My brother and sister are both ministers, so the crowded room and informal table setting is blessed with elegant words of grace as well as really good food.

My family with one exception are all fundamentalists. If you have been reading my blog, you know who the exception is. After the meal and an hour or two of visiting, as goodbyes were being said, they were exchanging those little green buttons that they wear to tell you they are in the front line of defense in the War on Christmas, so you won't slip up and say "Happy Holidays" to them, or, worse, do the Xmas thing. They even offered me one.

I said, "No, thank you."

I think the buttons may be good for them, but I hope that we don't all have to start wearing tags so that people can tell what not to say to us.

Anyway, as I was sorting out the kitchen after everyone had gone, I discovered the bag in the photo, obviously used by someone to carry something to the party.

Now what, I ask you, is "Txs Gvng"? Is someone trying to take the "Thanks" out of "Thanksgiving"? Not only that, but they did a good job on the "Giving" as well. Out of context, I would not have known what "Txs Gvng" meant at all, so perhaps the meaning is also under fire.

No, no! Not another holiday war!

More Spam

Another 120 or so new spam messages in two days! I am finding that a lot of this comes from (or references in the source code) "theempirehost.com," which appears to be something that is "coming soon." Anyway, with the new messages the count is over two hundred. These include:

• Wheel of Fortune Spin, 14
• dish satelite TV, 3
• Got2BeDish.com, 3
• rewards gateway, 3
• Pepsi vs Coke,Coke vs Pepsi 12
• Home Depot, 10
• Ebay Tools,Education,Trainers 14
• Customer Center Walmart, 13
• Customer Electronics Circuit City, 13
• Target, 5
• JC Penny, 3
• PrizeDept (Walgreens) 2
• Stop Smoking/SpecialOfferforSmokers, 6
• Christians wanting to sell me something, 6
• dating services (Catholic, black, Asian, Christian, etc.) 21
• Car financing, 12
• easy credit or getting out of debt. 25
• Home Depot, 5
• body image (breast enlargement, weight loss, grow hair, look younger), 18

These 200+ unsolicited e-mails have offered me everything from land in Costa Rica to ringtones, and one wanted to give me free Uggs. There were a lot of offers of affordable health insurance, toys, and best prices and dealz. Five just asked me "Deal -- or no deal, Sarah?" Three addressed me as "Dude."

I used to get a little spam e-mail, but a few weeks ago a relative posted photos to a site called Ringo, and I went there and logged in to see the photos. I went through 30 screens clicking "no" to offers, then logged out without accepting anything or seeing the new baby photographs. The next day the spam flood started. I have not been able to stop it since that time, even with blacklists for the account name I used there. So if Ringo didn't do it, it had the bad fortune to look like the trigger.

Well, enough about spam. I'll empty my deleted items box and go have breakfast.

Don't Like Spam

My service provider sent out a message that they are working on reducing spam. They have much to do. The count for November 30-December 1 is 162 spam e-mail messages, including:

• Wheel of Fortune Spin, 9
  
• dish satelite TV, 3
  
• Got2BeDish.com, 2
  
• rewards gateway, 3
  
• Pepsi vs Coke, 3
  
• Coke vs Pepsi, 7
  
• Home Depot Offer, 6
  
• Home Depot Gift, 4
  
• Ebay Tools, 5
  
• Ebay Education, 5
  
• Customer Center Walmart, 9
  
• Customer Electronics Circuit City, 9
  
• Heidi French (Target), 2
  
• Target Dealz, 1
  
• Jennifer Patterson, (JC Penny) 1
  
• PrizeDept (Walgreens) 2
  
• Stop Smoking/SpecialOfferforSmokers, 4
  

December 1 is not over yet...

More Spam yet to come, I imagine.