YOU KNOW CHRISTMAS IS REALLY OVER when you start getting the Christmas gifts you mail ordered. Bill mail ordered gifts for all six of our grandsons in early November. He was pleased to think he had done all his Christmas shopping - and he stayed pleased until about the middle of December, when it appeared that, not only had the gifts not arrived, no one had any record of his order. He then went out and got six more gifts from a local store.

     Well, now the original gifts are drifting in. Bill is of an optimistic nature, and he says this means he now has birthday gifts for all the boys. (And, just for the record, being married to an optimist like Bill is great.)

     VISIT A BETTER, MORE BEAUTIFUL WORLD. When I was very much into gardening in general and old roses in particular, I liked to hole up in winter in my bedroom, propped up in bed and surrounded by rose catalogs, garden notebooks in hand. And I planned such beautiful gardens! Then I would glance out the window and see the snow, and it all looked so strange, because I'd been in a better, more beautiful world.

     For a few years my actual, physical rose garden also came together as a thing of heavenly scents and great beauty. It's gone now, but perhaps someday . . .

     If you'd like to visit the beautiful world of old roses, read item 11 below.

     And now, you'll find below the latest smorgasbord of Internet goodies. I hope you find one or two - or several - that are just right for you.

----Table of Contents----

1. Yahoo Helps Us With High-Tech Toys
2. Buying a Car?
3. Three Fat Chicks On A Diet
4. How Good Is Your Diet?
5. My Pyramid
6. Free "Action Cat" Greeting Cards
7. Who Would Have Thought They Had A Sense Of Humor?
8. Financial Planning Toolkit
9. Debt Counseling
10. Mourning The Loss Of A Beloved Pet
11. Heirloom Roses
12. Skinny Daily Post
13. Recipe: Apple Butter Pork Loin

1. YAHOO HELPS US WITH HIGH-TECH TOYS

     Well, they've got my number all right, and maybe they've got yours as well. Did you get a high-tech item for Christmas that you don't know how to work? Or you know how to work, say, your digital camera, but you don't know how to work it really well? The Yahoo experts can help.

     And then, maybe you've got a printer or copier that you worked just fine - until it broke down. Those wonderful experts at Yahoo can help you there as well.

     Wish I'd come across this item sooner, but, better late than never.

http://tech.yahoo.com/olb

2. BUYING A CAR?

     Every once in awhile I find a site that is so very good it bowls me over. AUTO ISSUES is one. The site belongs to the Consumer Task Force For Automotive Issues, a nonprofit organization founded by Ralph Nader and Remar Sutton.

     Right now Auto Issues is urging that you NOT use a dealer that wants you to enter into a "Mandatory Binding Arbitration Agreement." These agreements sound good, but they basically mean that you have no defense if the dealership defrauds you.

     Auto Issues will also help you do online research for either a new car or a used one. It's great!

http://autoissues.org/

     BUT - the Internet isn't through giving you great information on buying a car. Click below to find another excellent source of information:

http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/

3. THREE FAT CHICKS ON A DIET

     Here's where you read about the latest fad diets, including what's wrong with them. The Three Fat Chicks say, "Because every dieter will try most of the popular diets at some point in a weight-loss struggle, we give you the real scoop - as well as anecdotes and wisdom from scores of our online community of women."

http://www.3fatchicks.com/

4. HOW GOOD IS YOUR DIET?

     The University of Massachusetts has kindly given us a series of free quizzes that will enable us to tell just how good our diet is. And here they are:

http://umass.edu/nibble/ratings/queslist.htm

5. MY PYRAMID

     For scientifically based weight loss and exercise information, try My Pyramid, the U.S. government's lead website on the topic. It's all there, and the site is easy to use - and it isn't easy to be simple with a complex topic like this.

http://mypyramid.gov/

6. FREE "ACTION CAT" GREETING CARDS

     Your cat-loving relatives and friends will love these cards! You can send them online, complete with cat actions - or, for those who don't do the Internet - you can print them out and mail them.

     And for people allergic to cats, either physically or mentally? Poke around the site, and you'll find cute dogs, fish, rabbits, and hamsters. And then go into the wild with tigers, penguins and hummingbirds. These cards are so neat!

http://www.actioncat.com/cheer.html

7. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THEY HAD A SENSE OF HUMOR?

     Below is the address of the KIDS' PAGE of the . . . (brace yourself) . . . National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. NIEHS for short. It's got fun puzzles and brainteasers for kids in the early through middle grades, and it's also got a section on Hurricane Katrina and one on "Pandemic Flu, What Should I Do?" If your child worries about such things as flu pandemics and hurricanes, he or she may find this page just the thing to explain scary things in a non-scary way.

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/home.htm

8. FINANCIAL PLANNING TOOLKIT

     And here's another extra-good site. Other places on the Internet will give you these financial tools, but most of them charge, in one way or another. CCH doesn't. And naturally a person wonders why it doesn't. I think it's because CCH is, they say, "a leading provider of business, legal, and tax information and software to the business community in the U.S. and abroad since 1913." And what they're giving away is personal financial information. And a grateful recipient of freebies may choose to buy their financial advice for businesses.

     In the San Francisco financial district, there's a modern sculpture that is basically a big, black rock. People call it "The Banker's Heart." The people at CCH are being soft hearted, so do take advantage of it.

http://www.finance.cch.com/

9. DEBT COUNSELING

     You may be beyond using financial planning to "fine tune" your finances. You may be in deep doo-doo, and you don't know how to get out. Well, you've got company. And you've got help.

     U.S. bankruptcy law now requires that people receive debt counseling before they declare bankruptcy. So a bunch of debt counseling services sprang up, some of which take financial advantage of people already in desperate straits. Isn't human nature wonderful? Here's an article that lays it all out:

The Consumers Guide to Credit Counseling

     And here's where the good people, whom I think of as knights in shining armor, come galloping up to help. You should be able to find some in your area by contacting the National Foundation for Credit Counseling whose website is below:

http://www.nfcc.org/

10. MOURNING THE LOSS OF A BELOVED PET

     One of my readers asked about a website for people who have lost a beloved pet, and I realized many of us may wish for such a thing at certain times in our lives. The Internet has a number of these "Rainbow Bridge" sites. Below is the address of the original "Rainbow Bridge." The site begins, "Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge."

http://www.rainbowbridge.org/

     And below is the address of another Rainbow Bridge site that is "a gentle and compassionate website for pet lovers who are grieving over the death of a pet or an ill pet. Here you will find personal support, thoughtful advice, The Monday Pet Loss Candle Ceremony, Tribute Pages, healing poetry like Rainbow Bridge and much more."

http://www.petloss.com/

     If you need more personal counseling after your loss, you might want to try the offerings at this website:

http://aplb.org/frame.html

11. HEIRLOOM ROSES

     Fifty years ago the old roses were almost gone. Roses which had been grown and loved since the Middle Ages were disappearing in favor of the hybrid teas. Lovers of old-fashioned roses went to old cemeteries and the gardens of abandoned houses, snipped starts, rooted them, and, when they bloomed, tried to figure out from old gardening books exactly what they had rescued.

     Now the old roses are back in vogue, with hundreds of them brought back from near-death, and many new roses have been created in the "old rose" style.

     The heirloom roses look very different from the hybrid teas we grew up with. Hybrid teas have big, beautiful flowers on little scrawny bushes (or big scrawny bushes). Old roses have big, lush bushes covered in roses, but the individual flowers are small. Most of them have the very double form you see in old paintings. The oldest ones don't usually repeat bloom, offering instead an explosion of beauty in May or June. Newer varieties often do repeat bloom, though their first burst of bloom may not be as grand and glorious as that of the old-timers, which give their all just once per year.

     THE OLD LADY OF OLD ROSES website is a good place to start. Do click on "Roses in the Landscape" in the lefthand column. It gives you an idea of how old roses can transform a garden. One of the photos is of the Fantin Latour rose, which I used to have. It was glorious. Absolutely glorious.

http://www.oldladyofoldroses.ca/

     The next three sites are, (1) a very large heirloom rose nursery, (2) a site with old rose pictures, and (3) a rose garden design to create "a better, more beautiful world."

http://www.heirloomroses.com/

http://www.justourpictures.com/roses/ogrs.html

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg0609475719891.html?12

12. SKINNY DAILY POST

     "The Skinny Daily Post is a group blog kept by JuJu and Jane. Juju lost 100 lbs., Jane lost 275 lbs. They work hard on habits that will help them keep their weight off." It's a big deal, because these people not only took it off, they're keeping it off, which is a lot harder to do. It makes fascinating reading.

http://skinnydailypost.com/

13. RECIPE: APPLE BUTTER PORK LOIN

     The person who submitted this recipe says, "This is the best pork recipe I've ever made. This pork is seasoned with a spiced apple butter, and roasted in apple juice. If food can be warm and cozy, this is it - a great Sunday dish!" And if you figure a high-protein diet will reduce hunger pangs and help you take in fewer calories in the long run, this Apple Butter Pork, made with a lean pork roast, may be just the thing.

     Allrecipes has user reviews, and they make important points about how long the meat should be cooked, so I'm referring you to their site. Find the recipe and the user reviews at:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apple-Butter-Pork-Loin/Detail.aspx

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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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