Congo

Refugee family details

I received the details about the refugee family for whom we're buying gifts.  They're from the Congo.  The most needed clothing items are coats and pants.  I'm excited to shop for them. I also confirmed that I can give them a gently used coat since I have so many winter coats upstairs.  For some reason, we are just brimming with coats that have barely been worn.  Giving them one of my coats means I can spend more on the other items.  Woohoo!

Electronic cigarettes

Did you know these existed?  Me neither.  You can get them with or without nicotine.  The "smoke" is water vapor.  Yes, you have to charge the cigarettes up.  So weird. Now you, too, can look like this douche bag.  Though, to be fair, I'd rather sit next to this tool than someone who is actually smoking since smoke bothers me, but I can shake off a tool.

Nook

The nook doesn't exactly have the kind of awe-inspiring creativity I'd hoped it would.  Part of the problem is the rug I bought ($25!) is a very ugly tan, especially under fluorescent lighting, which is the lighting in the nook.  It also clashes with the pink I chose for the walls. However, I think Avery will totally love it.  I need to buy some bolster pillows to line the sides where the carpet doesn't quite reach.  I was also thinking of buying some magnetic paint for some areas of the nook.  We'll see.  I've decided against putting up the bumblebee lights due to safety concerns.  They would have looked so cute, so I'm bummed that my instincts are telling me the risk is not worth the cuteness.

Relatives

My uncle (my mom's brother) and aunt were here last night.  They live in eastern Oregon and often stay at our house when in Portland for medical appointments.  It was good to catch up, though I did a pathetic job of providing dinner last night.  I ended up buying a rotisserie chicken, making plain pasta, and cooking frozen veg.  Ah well, 'tis the way it goes. 

Charity

FYI, on Monday, Groupon will have a deal to buy a $25 gift certificate to Kiva for $15.  Unfortunately, there's a limit of 1/customer.  I do love Kiva!

There's a new website called GiveBack.org.  It's basically a way to keep track of your charitable giving to make taxes easier.  You can add funds directly to the account, or you can earn money buy shopping at various sponsors who will donate from 1-15% of the amount of your purchase to your account.  It's a non-profit, so sign up is free and there's no charge for the service.  It seems a little unnecessary from a tax perspective to me, though I don't do our taxes, D does. However, if I am going to shop at the online stores listed anyway, I would like funds to go to a charity.  Also, for signing up, you get $5 to start with, so that's worth signing up alone!  I believe the site was started by the guy who won Oprah's reality show The Big Give.