angelm's Blog

Happy New Year Wish

My Happy New Year wish for you
Is for your best year yet,
A year where life is peaceful,
And what you want, you get.

A year in which you cherish
The past year's memories,
And live your life each new day
Full of bright expectancies.

I wish for you a holiday
With happiness galore;
And when it's done, I wish you
Happy New Year, and many more.

Bad recycling: Pay stub used as bank robbery note

CHICAGO � The robber's threatening note made a Chicago bank job easy to solve: The FBI says the suspect wrote it on his pay stub. An FBI affidavit said the man walked into a Fifth Third Bank on Friday and handed a teller a note that read "Be Quick Be Quit (sic). Give your cash or I'll shoot."

The robber got about $400 but left half of his note. Investigators found the other half outside the bank's front doors. Authorities say that part of the man's October pay stub had his name and address.

The suspect was arrested at his Cary home. A judge ordered him held without bond Monday. If convicted of bank robbery, he faces 20 years in prison.

Man with over $70 chooses jail over $1.57 soda

Wis. � Eau Claire police said a man accused of stealing a soda worth $1.57 chose to go to jail rather than pay up, even though he was carrying more than $70. Police responding to the report of a theft recently say the 27-year-old man appeared drunk. An employee told officers the man had taken a cup from the counter, filled it and began drinking.

When employees told him he had to pay for the drink or leave, the man refused to do either.

A police officer told the man he could pay $1.57 or go to jail, and the man chose jail. The officer handcuffed and searched him, finding the money in his pocket.

The man was issued an ordinance citation for retail theft.

Calif. family finds $10,000 in box of crackers

ETIRVINE, Calif. � The box of crackers Debra Rogoff bought from the grocery store had some crackerjack in it � an envelope stuffed with $10,000.

Yet the Irvine woman was more curious than ecstatic about her daughter's find. After all, who would leave money in such a place?

"We just thought, 'This is someone's money,'" she said. "We would never feel good about spending it."

Rather than go on a shopping spree, the family called police and was initially told the money could be part of a drug drop.

Police later heard from store managers at Whole Foods in Tustin that an elderly woman had come in a few days earlier, hysterical because she had mistakenly returned a box of crackers with her life savings inside. In a mix-up the store restocked the box rather than composting it.

The Lake Forest woman, whose identity was not released, had lost faith in her bank and decided the box would be a safer place for the money.

Luckily for her, the box of Annie's Sour Cream and Onion Cheddar Bunny crackers were bought by the Rogoffs, who discovered the crisp $100 bills in an unmarked white envelope on Oct. 10.

The Rogoffs never heard from the woman and didn't receive a reward, but Rogoff did return to Whole Foods a couple weeks later.

"I asked them if I could have another box of crackers," she said with a laugh. The store obliged.

Hope you all have a blessed Christmas!!

INGREDIENTS
6 (2.07 ounce) bars Snickers � candy
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter (no substitutes)
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Line a 9-in. square pan with foil. Butter the foil and set pan aside. Cut candy bars into 1/2-in. slices; set aside.
In a heavy saucepan, bring sugar, butter and milk to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir until a candy thermometer reads 234 degrees F (soft-ball stage), about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in chocolate chips, marshmallow creme and vanilla until smooth. Pour half into prepared pan. Sprinkle with candy bar slices. Top with remaining chocolate mixture and spread evenly. Let stand at room temperature to cool. Lift out of pan and remove foil. Cut into squares.
****Friend sent me this****

2 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup white flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
chopped nuts (optional)

Take the first 5 ingredients and boil together for 10 minutes. Take off the stove and add the remaining ingredients. Stir well, spread in a pan and place in the fridge. Cut into squares while still a bit warm.

Christmas Eve
by
Julie Lineker

The children lay in bed this special night
Holding their breath with eyes closed tight
They know the magic won't be right
If they are found awake after midnight
Shhh, at last they hear a sound
Tinkering bells in the background
Do they dare open their eyes
And peep out at the dark skies
Will they only see the snow
Or is Santa parked across the road
They hear a creak, is it the door
Or is it the cat creeping across the floor
No this time they know for sure
It definitely was the bedroom door
Not one child dares to breathe
Or make a sound in bed this eve
They knew it was he creeping across the floor
Even quieter than the year before
Will he leave me a doll's house
Some toy soldiers and a sugar mouse
There's a lot of rattling, a creak, a groan
Now he's finally leaving our home
We wait in bed for what seems like hours
Until we're sure the house is ours
Then we are all out of bed
Feeling around to see what's been left
Our sacks are full, O what joy
We have been good girls and boys
We feel around and shake each one
To us Christmas day has begun
But suddenly out of the dark
GET BACK TO BED! The grown-ups bark.

Alaska pulls plug on Snowzilla the giant snowman

ANCHORAGE, Alaska � Snowzilla is no more. Municipal officials in Anchorage have given a cease-and-desist order to builders of the giant snowman that made appearances the last three years in an east Anchorage neighborhood. The giant snowman was a favorite for photographers and camera crews from Russia and Japan filmed the temporary sculpture. Snowzilla in 2005 rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.

He was built in the front yard of the Powers family home and Billy Powers said his children collected snow from neighbors homes to add to the height and breadth.

The snowman was built even higher in succeeding years, but not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors who came to see him.

City officials deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard.

A few weeks ago, code enforcers left red signs at Snowzilla's bottom body ball telling its builders to cease and desist. The city also tacked a public notice on the door of the Powers home.

City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.

When the notices went up, Snowzilla still didn't have a full torso or head.

"The kids had spent hours and hours of work on it," Billy Powers said Sunday.

Now, Snowzilla is just a big pile of snow rubble. Powers said he doesn't plan to rebuild.

___

Man finds cash in same store twice and returns it

Maine � A Maine man found a wallet stuffed with cash on the floor in a home improvement store. Two days later, he found a loaded money bag in the same store. Gil Steward was shopping Tuesday at The Home Depot in Auburn when he spied the wallet, which was stuffed with nearly $1,000 in $100 bills. He returned it to The Home Depot store's service counter, and it was returned to a very grateful owner.

On Thursday, same hour and same store, Steward saw a green money bag on the floor. Again, it was returned to its rightful owner.

His wife, Dee, said her husband thinks he's being tested. As for Steward, he said he plans to play the lottery this weekend.

Wildlife experts ponder gender of Santa's reindeer

, Texas � There may be a perfectly good reason why Santa doesn't get lost on his annual Christmas globetrot: His flying reindeer just might be female and don't mind stopping for directions.

The gender of Rudolph and his or her sleigh-hauling friends � the subject of goofy Internet chatter every year around this time � is now being pondered by renowned wildlife experts at Texas A&M University.

"Santa's reindeers were really females, most likely," said Alice Blue-McLendon, a veterinary medicine professor specializing in deer who cites the depictions of Santa's helpers with antlers as the primary evidence. It turns out reindeer grow antlers regardless of gender, and most bulls typically shed their fuzzy protrusions before Christmas.

But Santa's sleigh helpers might also be castrated males, known as steers, said Greg Finstad, who manages the Reindeer Research Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Young steers finish shedding their antlers in February and March, just as non-expecting females do. Bulls generally lose theirs before Christmas, while expectant mothers retain their antlers until calves are birthed in the spring. This allows them to protect food resources through harsh weather and to have enough for developing fetuses, he said.

Sledders most often use steers because they maintain their body condition throughout the winter, he said. Bulls are tuckered out from rutting season when they mate with as many as a dozen females in the months leading up to December. That leaves them depleted and too lean to pull a sleigh or sled through heavy snows, Finstad said.

Many females are pregnant after rutting season, which lasts from summer and into the fall. That would mean long hours of backbreaking work for an expecting Rudolph, as well as Donner, Blitzen, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Comet and Vixen.

"You don't hook up your pregnant females to a sled," Finstad said. "That is not good animal husbandry."

But other aaspects of the Christmas story support the all-girl sleigh team theory, Blue-McLendon said.

For example, would a boy reindeer really sport a shiny red nose that almost glows?

"Females like accessories," said Blue-McLendon, who in 2003 led the school's cloning of a white-tailed deer. "I think that fits because females like bling. We like shiny stuff."

Fast-food worker laughs, tells robber to get a job

SAN ANTONIO � A San Antonio fast-food restaurant cashier laughed at a robbery suspect and told him to get a job if he wanted money during a failed holdup on Tuesday evening.

Police said the suspect approached the worker and demanded money, but the cashier laughed and apparently didn't realize the man was trying to hold up the place.

The suspect then allegedly pulled out a box cutter and demanded the cashier's wallet. The employee complied, but had no money in his billfold.

The suspect fled, but was caught by police who responded to the robbery call.

San Antonio police said the suspect is expected to be charged with aggravated robbery.

___

Seuss lawyers stop holiday Who-ville in Louisville
, LOUISVILLE, Ky. � There will be no Who-ville in Louisville this Christmas.

The city of Louisville is scrapping plans to use the iconic Dr. Seuss village and characters as part of its annual Christmas display after receiving a cease and desist letter from Dr. Seuss Enterprises.

"It appears these lawyers' hearts are two sizes too small," Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson said.

Barbara J. Orr, the San Diego, Calif., attorney who sent the letter, did not immediately return a Monday afternoon phone call seeking comment.

The city had planned to use "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" as part of its theme for the annual Light Up Louisville holiday celebration. The display called for an area called "LouWhoVille," complete with costumed characters from the Dr. Seuss classic such as Cindy Lou Who and the Grinch.

But the cease-and-desist letter from the law firm DLA Piper, which represents Dr. Seuss Enterprises, said the "Who-ville" name and image, as well as the Grinch, are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission.

The letter demanded the city and the Louisville Convention and Visitors' Bureau halt any use of the characters for the Christmas display and agree not to use the characters in the future without permission. It threatened legal action if the city and tourism bureau did not comply.

Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Abramson, said the city complied with the request and renamed the display "Lou-ville."

Boy, 4, breaks into Texas store, plays with toys

� Unauthorized Babe in Toyland BEAUMONT, Texas � Police called to a variety store by a burglar alarm overnight found a toddler inside, playing with the toys. Police said store surveillance video showed the unidentified boy trying to open one of the front doors to a Family Dollar store about 3 a.m. Monday, only to find it locked. But the second door was unlocked and the child went inside.

That triggered the silent alarm.

Detective Randy Stevens said the child apparently unlocked a door at his nearby home, got out, then crossed a multilane street to reach the store.

A canvass of the neighborhood turned up a family member searching for the child.

CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam said Child Protective Services claimed oversight of a 4-year-old boy during a review of the incident. The boy will be allowed to stay with other relatives, not the parents, during the CPS review period.

___

Obama top wise man in Naples nativity figures

President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle are appearing in Italian nativity scenes this year, alongside the baby Jesus and wise men, according to Naples craftsmen selling figurines in the run-up to Christmas.

The production of handmade figurines for nativity scenes is big business in this southern Italian city and has been for centuries.

But beyond the thousands of angel, sheep, Mary and Joseph figures filling market stalls before Christmas, craftsmen say Obama has become a top seller.

"The ones we are selling the most of are those of Barack Obama, America's new president, along with his wife Michelle," said craftsman Genny Di Virgilio.

Tradition requires that the nativity scene be built up over time until Christmas Eve, when baby Jesus is put in the manger as the very last element of the display.

As always, figurine-makers provide a chance to choose a more light-hearted approach for the scene providing replicas of personalities who have made the news during the last year.

Beyond Obama, they are also selling figurines of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni and even Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

While cherished by many, some people say the arrival of celebrity figurines spoils the traditional sense of Christmas.

One nun, Angelica, scoffed at what she called a "cartoon version of a nativity scene."

Grandfather Pasquale Oliva, looking into a shop window in Naples agreed with her.

"Something as beautiful as the traditional nativity scene shouldn't be spoiled by these figurines of personalities and I don't think children like them."

However, his young grandson Francesco was quick to disagree, snapping "yes" when asked if he liked the modern twist on tradition.