Donna Freedman 
Getting to Anchorage was an episode of “Revenge of the buddy pass.” Between 11 a.m. and 10 p.m. I was bumped from every single flight. Fortunately I didn’t collect the whole set, i.e., I got a seat on the last plane of the day, at 11:45 p.m.
Fortunately that wasn’t as bad as it sounds.
For six months or so I’ve been saying that I wanted to teach myself how to redesign this site. What I was really saying, of course, was “I probably never will do this, but I sure would like to.”
But then I met web goddess Casey J. Curtis at the Emerald City ComicCon. Don’t all the best stories begin with anecdotes like that?
Talking with her got me off my dime, finally, about the redesign. The timing was perfect: Today is the second anniversary of Surviving and Thriving. To thank you all for sticking with me, I’ve planned an anniversary-sized giveaway.
Would you spend 6% (or more) of your gross annual income to send your teen to the prom? A survey by Visa Inc. indicated that families earning less than $20,000 per year planned to shell out $1,200 for the annual school dance.
I don’t know what’s scarier: The fact that parents are willing to do this or the fact that kids think it’s necessary.
An easy way to reduce your carbon footprint is to bring your own shopping bags. Let me make it easier still.
Here’s what the winner will receive:
I am at war with my body. That was the thought that came to me toward the end of the massage I had on Friday. Sometimes the oddest things come to me when I’m not focusing on a dozen things at once.
Oddest, and usually the most apt. When my defenses are down, the truth sneaks up.
Nope, not giving away a trip somewhere. I’m on vacation, and forgot to plan my giveaway.
But that works in your favor.
Last week I attended the Emerald City Comicon in order to visit with my brother, the independent artist GW Fisher. Four samples of his work can be seen in this post. They’ll also be given away.
I didn’t get a glimpse of George Takei or Wil Wheaton, but I got an eyeful of costumed revelers: superheroes, anime characters, steampunk posers and a tall young woman in a Wonder Woman bikini who left a string of broken geek hearts in her leggy wake.
You probably didn’t, either. Although winning tickets were sold in several states, odds are they weren’t yours.
The odds really do stink, you know. That’s why some wags call the lottery “a tax on people who are bad at math.”
Going out on a fiscal limb here, but…I don’t think the lottery is so bad.
It’s not that I think the lottery is “good,” i.e., an important part of a balanced financial portfolio. I just think it’s not-so-bad in the way that potato chips are not-so-bad. An occasional handful won’t kill you. If you focus on chips to the exclusion of anything healthy, then you’ve got a problem.
My friend Linda B.’s doctor has advised her to eat an ounce of dark chocolate daily. I wish I could get a prescription like that.
Whoever wins this week’s giveaway will be a healthier person because the prize is a trio of organic, fair-trade chocolate bars made right here in Seattle.
I got a big surprise in the mail the other day: a check for $850. That’s the amount of the loan I made to a friend 15 months ago, plus the Western Union fee to get it to her.
In fact, it’s $6 more than I sent. I guess I should consider that interest, or maybe bus fare and aspirin.