13-year-old Texas boy wins Nat'l Geographic Bee WASHINGTON – A 13-year-old boy from Texas won the National Geographic Bee on Wednesday by correctly identifying the country that is home to the Tungurahua volcano. Tine Valencic of Colleyville didn't miss a single question during the final round of the bee, defeating nine other boys and taking home a $25,000 scholarship and a trip to the Galapagos Islands. The answer that got him the win: Ecuador. "I'm just taking it all in," he said after winning and being lent tissues to dry his eyes by both the bee moderator, "Jeopardy!' game show host Alex Trebek, and the bee's second-place finisher. To get to the bee in Washington, students had to win their respective state-level competitions. The group of winners, all fourth through eighth graders, competed in a preliminary round Tuesday, narrowing the field to 10. In the final round Wednesday at National Geographic's headquarters, students answered questions ranging from identifying the flags of various countries to what country the "bandura" is the national instrument of: Ukraine. Anthropologist Jane Goodall and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both asked taped video questions. To clinch the victory, Valencic won a best-of-five final round, which included a question asking for the Italian name for sediment deposits that connect a shoreline with an offshore island: tombolo. Valencic and his opponent, 11-year-old Nilai Sarda of Georgia, got that one right. But Sarda stumbled on the question about the Tungurahua volcano, believing incorrectly that it was in Peru. He takes home $15,000 for second place. Third-place finisher Stefan Petrovic of Lawrence, Kan., won $10,000. Aside from the three top-place finishers, the finalists competing Wednesday were: Alex Kimn of South Dakota, Kevin Mi of Indiana, Luke Hellum of Arizona, Tuvya Bergson-Michelson of California, Karthik Karnik of Massachusetts, Anthony Cheng of Utah and Andrew Hull of Alaska. The bee will be broadcast on National Geographic Channel over four nights in June and will also be broadcast on public TV stations. Read the article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_geography_bee

I can't remember if I shared this already, but Etsy picked my background for October! Yay! http://www.etsy.com/storque/etc/twitter-artist-series-spooky-ghosts-by-joy-charde-10717/ So exciting!

3 Recession-Inspired Home Remodeling Ideas A soft economy prompted some homeowners to take a new look at their existing footprint. Even as housing-market conditions turn a little brighter, many homeowners still opt to stay put and update their current quarters instead of selling at lower prices. The numbers prove it. Remodeling industry sentiment, as tracked by the National Association of Home Builders' Remodeling Market Index (RMI), hit a five-year high in the fourth quarter. In many cases, these decisions are fiscally motivated and reflective of the times, but the following remodeling trends may be here to stay: Read the rest here: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/3-recession-inspired-home-remodeling-ideas.html

Making the most of extra summer produce USAToday.com - On a Tuesday, well before the weekend rush, Chris Scott pulled up in front of L'étoile restaurant in Charlottesville, Va., to deliver five "Charleston Gray" and "Sangria" varieties of watermelon to chef/owner Mark Gresge. "Every watermelon required its own personal escort into the restaurant, because they were so large," says Scott, whose 8-year-old son, Nathan, tended the melons all summer in the family garden. "After five trips, I rested in my car briefly before driving away." L'étoile has started accepting produce from area gardeners in exchange for a free meal for two. "We wanted to include our guests in a direct way," says Gresge, who transformed the Scott family melons into an elegant "pavé" with cobia fish and pistachios. "We wanted to bring awareness that you do not have to be a farmer to grow great produce." Of course, not every restaurant is open to such barter. But there are many other creative ways to make use of the great abundance of fresh produce this time of year — be it from a home garden or a farmers market. 1. Donate it to a food pantry. For the 50 million Americans who can't afford food right now, fresh produce is a rarity. "We all have the responsibility to not waste food, even from the garden," says Lisa Braddock, who is founder of the Sunshine Harvest Sharing Project, which aims to link up gardeners in Illinois and Utah with food banks that could use the surplus. Nationally, the site AmpleHarvest.org can connect you with food pantries in your area, even telling you on which days each will receive deliveries. What are the other options? Find out here: http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/cooking-recipes/story/2011-08-30/Making-the-most-of-extra-summer-produce/50195688/1?loc=interstitialskip

MIT project tries to turn trash into a game CNN - Here's the problem with recycling: It's boring. But maybe it doesn't have to be. A Boston company called Greenbean Recycle is trying to make the act of keeping bottles and cans out of the landfill into a fun, competitive and engaging game for students at MIT. The new company, which won an innovation prize this week from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, has converted a beefy recycling machine on MIT's campus into a point tabulator of sorts. When students approach the high-tech trash can to dump in their recyclables, they punch their phone number on a touch screen. A bar-code reader in the machine counts the number of cans, bottles and the like that the person has dropped off - and then uploads that data to Greenbean's website. Recyclers can track their progress online, and even engage in competitions with fellow students. "We want to be like the Zynga of recycling," said CEO Shanker Sahai, 38, referring the maker of such social games as "FarmVille." Competitions between fraternities at MIT have been particularly fruitful, he said, with the houses trying to compete against each other to get the top spot on an online recycling leaderboard. Continue: http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/09/mit-project-tries-to-turn-trash-into-a-game/?hpt=hp_bn6

I'm half-way through The Kitchen House .... so far so good, but I have a feeling the book will be a sad tale in the end. What are you reading?

Hi, I'm Momwich - I've been a mommy blogger since my gorgeous daughters were 6 and 2... fast forward a few years and several thousand dollars in girl scout fees, cheer uniforms and orthodontics and they're now 16 and 12 - and I'm still blogging about my parenting fails :) http://www.momwich.net

1.Went to my son's vocal performance (knowing that there was a very good chance I would just watch him stand or excuse himself to the bathroom, since that HAS happened before) and the boy actually sang. Progress:) 2. Support and encouragement 3. This time of year

Here's one I know has probably NEVER been complained about before....... Dear House, will you please either clean yourself or start throwing things at the people who defile you?! Oh, but not me. You can't throw things at me because I've been picking you up for years!! I've earned the right to defile you if I want to!