Dancing

We danced at the Peppermint Palace to Jerry Story for the last time in 2009--he's heading to Gulfport, MS, to call for New Year's Eve. Of course he invited everyone to join him there. I was introduced to Jean Ballinger, who had just arrived back in town from her holiday travels. She's a single dancer and looking for partners. We talked about our dancing together while Ken is recovering from surgery. She's an excellent dancer and was dancing with Don today (he usually dances with Louise).

The end of 2009 is quickly approaching. I've made several year end donations over the last couple of weeks. We like to support NPR, PBS, and Escapees CARE. I make contributions to the American Kidney Fund in memory of my mom and to Alcoholics Anonymous, Cleveland District, in memory of my brother. And we support other causes throughout the year.

Some of these donations were made through the Capital One No Hassle Giving Site. It operates through Network for Good and has the (for me) great advantage that you get to choose how much of your personal information to share with the recipient. You can donate anonymously, thereby avoiding the "thank you" and solicitation mail. That saves the recipients mailing costs, and it saves us from having to pay to forward all that stuff. Also, Capital One covers all the administrative costs of your donation, and you get cash rewards, so your charities get more. We got the Capital One card in the first place to use in Canada, since Capital One is the only credit card company that not only does not charge a special fee for international transactions--it also covers the fee charged by Mastercard or Visa.

We had fish tacos for dinner, made with frozen tilapia fillets marinated in lime juice. They were actually fish tostadas, since I had the tostada shells and not the taco shells in the cupboard. I also made banana pudding with homemade vanilla pudding. This is the first time I made the homemade pudding, and it came out pretty good, especially with bananas, graham crackers, and whipped cream on top.