This newsletter was due on the fifteenth. It's late because my computer went down. How did it go down? Well, I was visiting a nice little website devoted to Pachelbel's Canon, a much-loved piece of classical music. Around twenty Pachelbel's Canon enthusiasts had sent in their own versions, made by music synthesizers.

     Because this was such a sweet little site about such a charming subject, a certain lady - the one who tells people how not to get their computers bunged up - happily played about ten versions of Pachelbel's Canon. It was loads of fun! But one of the versions had a bug, either accidentally or on purpose. First my music program blew, then my computer.

     The moral of the story is, Do not be an Internet mine detector, as one day you will get blown up.

RUNNING LATE?

     Last year my nephew Rocky Young did his Christmas shopping on December 24. Around midnight, of course. And at Wal-Mart, of course. And when he got there he found several friends wandering the aisles on the same errand.

     That's the guy way to do it, and I'm not saying it isn't a good way. I often envy guys' carefree attitudes throughout December. Though I will add, guys, that you can't expect the giftees in your life to oh and ah over your wonderful thoughtfulness if your gift looks like Wal-Mart at midnight.

     If you're not planning to hit Wal-Mart at midnight but are still a bit behind, below are a number of gift certificates that will not reveal that you thought of them kind of late.

     Janette

P.S. For those who are understandably sick of the commercialization of Christmas, I've also included sites about other things entirely. The sites under Secret Warranties, for example, are guy sites, and guess who has time to check into that sort of thing at this time of year?

1. OLD-TIME CANDY

     Here's the candy Mom or Dad or Grandma or Grandpa enjoyed as a child. Send them a selection, or give a gift certificate and let them pick the long-lost desires of their heart. Gift certificates are listed in the lefthand column, under Other Gifts.

http://oldtimecandy.com/enter.htm

2. NON-U.S. AND FRUSTRATED?

     My conscience smites me every few months, when I realize that many of the sites I recommend are of no use to someone outside the U.S., as U.S. merchants often will not ship abroad.

     Well, I've been smitten, smited, and smoten again and am recommending again SEARCH ENGINE COLOSSUS, which has search engines belonging to any country in the world you can think of, and some you can't. I hope you find just what you're looking for there. (Also, I do mention in this issue two gifts that can be used for non-U.S. people: item 3, Classical Archives, and item 7, Tea Leaves are Heat and Freedom Lovers.)

http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/

3. CLASSICAL ARCHIVES

     You can give a gift of classical music to anyone in the world who has a computer. (I am forced to add that the computer must have high-speed access - dial-up will not work.) For a $25 annual subscription you or the person you gift can legally download thousands of works of classical music. I can personally recommend this site. It has been the joy of my life for the last six months - so much so that I'll give it a big writeup in January, when the Christmas rush is over.

     For a sample of what they offer, go to

http://www.classicalarchives.com/

4. GIFTCERTIFICATES.COM

     The Internet gets more specialized all the time. You can come to this site and find an offering of gift certificates from hundreds of stores. You can use this site to give a gift certificate from a specific store you know your giftee likes, or you can give a "Super Certificate" which enables the giftee to come to this site and choose the store. (No, they won't let you exchange the certificate for cash, but after Christmas I'll give you websites that will let you do that.)

http://www.giftcertificates.com/index.cfm

5. GIFT CERTIFICATES FOR GARDENERS

     The plant nurseries listed below are more expensive than your average nursery. BUT . . . a $25 gift certificate to one of these gardening sites will buy far more than, say, a $25 gift certificate to an electronics website. Your giftee will get a glorious catalog in January, and your gift can be used to buy something really special that will flourish for years, as both White Flower Farm and Wayside Gardens deal only with top-quality plants.

     WHITE FLOWER FARM has one of the "Cadillac" gardening catalogs. It's a quirky New England mail order nursery that sells plants not available in your average gardening center.

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/gift-certificates.html

     WAYSIDE GARDENS is another "Cadillac" firm with an even greater variety of items than White Flower Farm. They also have unique plants, trees, and shrubs you can't buy in your local gardening centers. You'll find Gift Certificates listed in the lefthand margin under Highlights.

http://www.waysidegardens.com/

6. GIFTS FOR THE COFFEE LOVER

     For the dedicated coffee lovers who roast their own, and the dedicated coffee lovers you think should roast their own:

     A gift certificate to SWEET MARIA'S can be used to buy special varieties of green, unroasted coffee beans. Or it can be used to buy roasters or espresso equipment:

http://www.sweetmarias.com/ store

7. TEA LEAVES ARE HEAT AND FREEDOM LOVERS!

     Teabag tea has a bad effect on me, especially in a restaurant that gives me a teabag beside a pot of water that was once hot, though not boiling, and, while it waited for the waitress to pick it up, got considerably less hot. Even expensive restaurants will do this to you. DOWN WITH LOATHSOME RESTAURANT TEA!

     Tea leaves want freedom, and they like it hot. They want to dance and prance in boiling-hot water. In the U.S., you can find good tea in only two places: (1) any Chinese restaurant, and (2) a few private homes where people do it right. Once, when Queen Elizabeth II was visiting the U.S., an enterprising reporter asked if she had been served teabag tea. She hadn't. I don't know how that came about. Maybe they got a Chinese restaurant to make it.

     At the site below, you will find wonderful kinds of loose tea to dance and prance in your boiling water. These people do not have anything so plebeian as a gift certificate, but under Holiday Gift Sets they offer a $50 "gift voucher." This is a German firm with stores in four continents, so most people worldwide should be able to receive a gift of their tea.

http://www.teagschwendner.com/US/en/Homepage.TG

     And now for some sites that have NOTHING TO DO WITH CHRISTMAS!

8. SINGING FISH.COM

     YouTube began it, and now millions of people watch amateur videos every day. If you're interested in a particular subject, come to SINGING FISH, a search engine that offers free audio and video content on the net. I put "cat films" into the search box and got 45. At top left there's a "family filter" that you can use to filter out things that aren't family safe.

http://search.singingfish.com/sfw/home.jsp

9. SEASKY

     It's hard to believe, but this beautiful offering is a personal website. The Internet has brought about an incredible surge in creativity for thousands of us, the author of this site among them. Seasky will help children and adults explore the sea and the sky and even has sea and sky related games.

http://seasky.org/

10. SECRET WARRANTIES

     Yes, they exist, according to MOTOR WATCH, and, if you know what they are, you can save a lot of money on car repairs. The site says, "Secret warranties (sometimes called silent recalls, service actions or campaigns, informal warranty extensions) are tracked by our database. When we find a secret warranty, we list it in the MotorWatch newsletter." The site also gives the latest official safety recalls - which means that, if you have that particular problem, you don't have to pay for the repair.

     This is an odd site - a guy's guy site, and as I'm very non-guy I had a hard time with it. I googled it, though, along with its sister (brother?) site, Nutzandboltz.com, and they have good online reputations. Knowing about secret warranties and recalls could save you a lot, especially if you have several vehicles.

http://motorwatch.com/

     Motor Watch's brother site, Nutzandboltz, really does sell nuts and bolts. And rivets. (I told you these were guy sites.) It also has the author's lowdown on dating and singles sites, mortgages, home equity loans, and much more, all presented in a pared-down, no-frills way.

http://nutzandboltz.com/main_index.html

11. A CORRECTION

     In the December 1 issue, item 4, Neighborhood Grocery Coupons, turns out to be in error. One of my Montana classmates, Sandra Thomas Barnes, says that grocery store coupons from the Internet "are absolutely worthless in Greensboro, NC. None of the grocers will accept them. Say they are 'phoney' and that people are just printing them up by the hundreds."

     You do not have to be a friend of mine to send in a correction. I'm delighted to get input, even if it's negative.

12. IS ANOTHER COMPUTER JOINING YOUR FAMILY?

     If your child will be using the new computer that arrives this Christmas, you may be interested in a suggestion from Mike Hodapp. Mike is my resource for computer expertise, and he's also a deeply experienced parent. The kids' computer at Mike's house is in the family room, the place where his family does its living.

     Parents are the ultimate computer safety device.

13. RECIPE: AN ARTISTIC CUP OF TEA

     I won't say this is the only right way to make tea, but it's close to it. Bring a pot of filtered or spring water to a rolling boil. While waiting for the pot of water to boil, rinse the teapot in hot water, so that it is warm. Pour out that water, add the loose tea leaves. Pour the pot of boiling water into the teapot and put on the lid. Let it steep three to five minutes. I like to then pour the tea through a filter into a second teapot. That keeps the tea from getting stronger and stronger, and it keeps certain types of tea from getting bitter. (You can eliminate one step by steeping the tea in the pot in which you boil the water.)

     Notice I didn't say how much tea to use. It all depends on the kind of tea and how strong you like it. The British say, One teaspoon per cup and one for the pot. If you're using black tea, that makes a fairly strong brew. If it's a Darjeeling or curly Oolong, it's a medium brew.

     The Japanese believe making tea is an art, and it is. Only you can produce an artistic cup of tea that is exactly right for you.

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MISSED SOME ISSUES?

     Have I got a solution for you! Now that we are using a frame for each issue, you can just look over to your left and find all the back issues nicely set out. Simply click on the ones you missed. That means too that if your e-mail service provider gets sticky and decides that Tour the Sites is spam (it is NOT spam), you can foil it and find the newsletter at this address.

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WARNING!

     If your e-mail box sometimes gets full, you are in danger of falling off the subscription list of Tour the Sites. Not because I want to lose you, but because, if your box is full when I send out a newsletter, you are automatically kicked off the list. I don't like that policy, but I don't have any say. If you change your e-mail address or get a new kind of spam filter, you may also fall off. So do keep an eye on your newsletters, which should arrive around the first and fifteenth of each month. If you haven't gotten one for a month, let me know and I'll be happy to put you back on the mailing list. Because I'd really hate to lose you.

Janette
Newsletter@tourthesites.com

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© Copyright 2006 Janette G. Blackwell. All rights reserved. You may copy and use portions of this newsletter for noncommercial, personal use only. You may forward a copy to someone else as long as the copyright notice is included. Any other use of the materials in this newsletter without prior written permission is prohibited.