I want to let you all know about a cool non-profit that is doing great things: Kiva.org
Kiva.org allows individuals to make $25 loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world (micro finance). By doing so, individuals like you provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc.), empowering them to earn their way out of poverty.
It’s a new, direct and sustainable way to fight global poverty, and the way I see it, I get a higher return on $25 helping someone build a future than the interest my checking account pays.
Anyways, if you have a minute, please check out the site: kiva.org. If you need a more “reputable” validation than my recommendation : ), know that they have received great press in publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal to NPR to BusinessWeek.

Thanks for reading this!
Mike

Well 2006 was a filled with wonderful events and tragic events. My Granddaughter Amara was born, she is so precious, I Love her so much. I put a new roof on my garage and finally was able to upgrade my electrical service to a 200 amp circuit breaker box. My precious Wife had kissing stints put in her veins, what a miracle of science that is, the doctor at Mayo Clinic was unbelievably talented, our home town doctor said he could not put stints in, Mayo Clinic is the best! I had my Gallbladder removed, dang thing had stones and was enlarged. Debs Son David choked twice on food in his throat and had to go to the ER. My Sister in-laws Lynns, Husband Wayne passed away, from complications of an injury to his leg, we were only able to visit Wayne, Lynnie and Tiffany once in 2006, but we had the most wonderful moments with Wayne, he will be in our thoughts forever. My Mother in-law Kathy was diagnosed with Cancer, she had half of her lung removed, then went through chemotherapy, on December 9 2006 she lost her battle with cancer and passed away. This was an especially hard time for me, only because my Mother also lost her life to Cancer and passed away in Dec, Christmas eve morning 1995, they both had Cancer in their Livers. They were both my Mom and I miss them terribly.

2007 we were hoping for a better year, so far my wife was in the Hospital for a Heart Attack, which thankfully, was only a severe panic attack. Now I am down with a Back injury and it ain’t fun, my heart goes out to people who have permanent back pain, I have had little sore muscle pains in my back over the years, that are gone the next day, but never a back injury, NOT FUN!

So hopefully the rest of 2007 ends up a time of miracles and happiness, “mike knocks on wood table” why did I post this, to let ya all know that it was hard to keep updating the site and hopefully I will be able to spend more time on it this year. Hopefully all of you had great a great 2006 and a fantastic start for 2007. : )

I am building a new Computer with some of the best stuff on the market and I am posting the process step by step on this page Building your own computer follow the progress, will post pictures of the process too!!

Well I ordered a Queen size Mattress set from Healthy Foundation.com , I ordered it on the 2nd of January 2003, on their site and it said you would receive it in 2-4 weeks, well we got it today January 8 2003 is that cool or what. I would imagine because the Holidays are over; the shippers were a little less busy, but that was quite a surprise. We had to let it warm up, being foam it was rather hard from being in the cold, we live in Wi. But I just got off it, reluctantly!! and it feels wonderful. Again the folks at Healthy Foundations came through, Great price, Great Quality and 5 Star service, Thank You, David Rosenberg and all the people at Healthy Foundations; from myself and my wife Deb. If you are looking to get a new Mattress set, checkout their web site and find out about their Memory foam mattresses and mattress toppers, very informative, we must have looked at 20 or 30 mattress Sets before we decided on the Healthy Foundations Isotonic Memory Foam Mattress and we also bought a King Size Topper for our old Mattress to use until we got our Mattress Set. Mike

Friday Jan 3, our Washer stopped agitating and spinning, so the geek I am, I went on the web for info on how to repair it. I found this site Applianceaid.com they had all the information I needed, step by step instructions and pictures I fixed it and it was easy, it was the Motor Coupling, from their site I understand these go out quit regularly, it wasn’t Agitating or Spinning, and they had the part for my Kenmore Washer ( with Sears it probably would have been 2 weeks to get the part ) and was able to have it delivered the next day, way cool ! So, if you have an Appliance problem, washer, dryer, garbage disposal, etc checkout their site. I Like It !!! Update: I got the part before noon Sat Jan 4, 5 Star company and the Washer works like new, Thank You Applianceaid.com !

I recently ordered a memory foam topper for my existing mattress, or board, anyways, a topper is a 2″ piece of Memory foam, cool stuff, conforms to your body for a wonderful nights sleep and makes that hard mattress oh so soft. Ya Ya I know get to the point, I ordered this from Healthy Foundations.com the web site gives you all the info you could want and is very straight forward, the order was secure and I received the products on time and in perfect condition, if your tired of that hard mattress, check out their Toppers, I am going to order their Isotonic Mattress set for our new Bedroom Set, those are way to cool and I am excited about getting it, we have checked out tons of mattresses at stores and online and the Isotonic from Healthy Foundation is the best one we found, the mattress has no springs it is made of layers of special foams, check out their site for more info, you will be impressed ! I will be putting links to their site on some other pages also and also I am not getting any money for saying this or posting the links, I’m impressed with them and I am telling folks, cus I sleep so good now !!!!