Karen’s Opinion

I hope everyone had a nice Easter holiday. If you had to work, I hope you had a chance to reflect. We are certainly living in times of being under stress and being blessed.

The news of the captain, who’d been held in a lifeboat in the Indian Ocean since Wednesday, being rescued uninjured was a joy to hear. Capt. Richard Phillips’ ship, the Maersk Alabama, was stormed by pirates 350 miles off Somalia on Wednesday morning. He was “resting comfortably” on the USS Boxer after his rescue Sunday night, according to the Navy.

I have no idea how this problem can be solved. Pirates! Did you know this was happening?

Speaking of great causes…Bumble Bee Foods is having a wonderful promotion to spur those of us who need a boost to do something to fund finding the cure for breast cancer. By joining thousands of walkers, you can, log in at BeeWellMiles.com, record the amount of miles you walk, and raise money for the Breast Cancer Network of Strength.

How does this work? From 4/1/09-10/31/09 Bumble Bee Foods will donate $0.15/mile for every mile logged at BeeWellMiles.com. That means for every mile I walk or run, I will be helping to raise funds for a wonderful cause. I need to exercise so why not add to the reason I walk and give it a special meaning. The website allows me to get great ideas from healthy living experts and have a place to log my miles. It will be fun to see my BeeWell Miles turn into a donation from Bumble Bee Foods. They are donating up to $200,000! Just think what a difference my walking will make. I will get into better shape too. What if I got my card club and other friends to do this? Just think what a difference we could make in the amount of money raised for this great project. Check it out! (Don’t make fun of my white legs!)

I am amazed at how much energy some of my blogging friends have. Of course, they are young and know more about technology than I do so why should I be surprised?

Take my friend Drew. He is always thinking of ways to help people and how to make the world a better place. He is the one who takes the pictures for that little widget, The BenSpark Photo-A-Day, down there on my sidebar.

Drew and his wife, Alison created an event ‘Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs’ at their local comedy club, the Speed of Thought Playhouse to unite bloggers while enjoying a few brews and crazy, fun comedy. What a terrific idea! A bunch of other people thought it was a terrific idea and had loads of fun. Here is a picture of Drew enjoying the evening full of live blogging and twittering. He was even broadcasting the whole thing!

On April 17, 2009 BenSpark.com in collaboration with Speed of Thought Playhouse present Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs II: Laughing it up while raising money for Walking for 2nd Base!

Please stop by Drew’s blog to read more, join his Facebook group, make a donation to help Walking for 2nd Base (which is part of the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer Campaign) or to simply leave a comment.

Drew has tons of really cool prizes to give away, so you can be sure I’ll be attending to support this wonderful cause and to take responsibility! You can join in on the fun at 8:30 pm on Stickam April 17 2009.

I told you that I got fed up after seeing my cable bill go up month after month. It was ridiculous the way they kept adding a few dollars each month. They acted as if I wouldn’t notice. Hrmmph! They don’t know this penny pinching gal.

I wish we had Charter Communications in our area. Have you heard of them? I am sure you will be hearing more about them because they offer their services in a way that allows you to save money. You can pick and choose what best fits your needs.

In an effort to let more people know about Charter, they are offering a contest that is open to new and upgrading customers. See, they take care of the customers they already have by offering the specials and contests to them too.

They are always thinking up new and exciting promotions to get the word out about their company. Last year they offered great games like Xbox 360 and even gave away a 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid! Man oh man! I wish I was in their service area! During the month of April, Charter is giving new and old subscribers an opportunity to win a grand prize package that includes a 52” LCD flat screen HDTV, a Home Theater System, and one year of free Charter Digital Cable® service with HD programming.

Charter is one of those companies who is always looking for new ways to be better for their customers. They even use Twitter so their customers can reach them and get great customer service. Charter is the best for your cable, high speed or telephone needs. Enter the sweepstakes and you might be one of the daily winners!