The wonder of Craigslist

I had, of course, heard of Craigslist before. But we had never used it. Tonight, I understood just how wonderful it is.

After eight years, our Kenmore vacuum cleaner crapped out. It really started about a year ago, when something went wrong with the plug; we attempted to fix it, and we sort of did, until we plugged it in the other weekend and it blew a fuse. We think it had something to do with our fix-it job.

It's a great vacuum cleaner and we figured any handyman would be able to make it almost-new again. The problem is, we're not handy. But we felt really bad just dumping in the landfill. So we decided to try our hand at Craigslist to give it away free to a good home.

Within 24 hours, we had several bites. And, as of 8:00pm tonight, our Kenmore has a brand-new home to someone who seemed to know exactly how to fix it. We felt good that we were able to help someone out, prevent something from going to waste, and find an easy way to make room in our house. Craigslist just might be one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.

I have a feeling this could become addictive...

Colbert sounds the call

I'm sort of a Stephen Colbert junkie. I watch his show religiously, I waste time on his website and I'm constantly amazed by the way he convinces people to support him in the most ridiculous ways - like naming a NASA space node after him.

But he also does some good with that following, like this latest endeavor: Donors Choose. You can go to the donors choose website, pick a branch of the military and donate to classrooms who are listed under that branch. These classrooms have children of servicemen/women and need some extra funding to help make small education projects come through.

It's really a great idea, and hits an important nerve with me - education. So check out the site and see what creative and interesting ideas our teachers are doing for our children. Then choose your favorite and donate. And, not that I'm partial with my father being a Marine Colonel, but donating in honor of the Marines would make things extra special!

It's a doggy-dog world

My local Starbucks is running two donation drives.

Donation #1: For our troops - donate a pound of your favorite Starbucks coffee (or donate a box of tea) to help caffeinate the troops. As a special treat, you can write a message to the troops on the bag. This donation has been running for about three months now, and there are 6 bags of coffee and one box of tea in the donation basket.

Donation #2: For the Orange County Animal Shelter - donate any items (food, toys, grooming products, etc) for the animal shelter. As a special treat, when you make a donation, you're entered into a raffle to win a (1) free Starbucks drink. This donation has been running for about two weeks and there are three baskets overflowing with doggy items.

It seems a little sad that the dogs get all the love and our troops get a few measly pounds of coffee. I was talking to the barista about this and she thought it had something to do with the fact that the pound of coffee costs about $10 and a dog toy could be purchased for about $1.

I hope that's the case...I'd hate to think that we value our dogs more than we do each other.