We donate household stuff to Goodwill, Purple Heart, Lupus Foundation (I've got RA),NCC (National Childrens Center), and Loudoun Women's Shelter. Glasses go to Lion's, and our older phone's and computers to various women/family support groups as they need them. Cash and annual auction items go to HART (Homeless Animals Rescue Team) a group that rescues dogs and cats from high-kill shelters and disaster areas for adoption in our area (they saved our beloved Tucscon from the kill list in Abingdon so that we could adopt her) and Phoenix Landing Foundation, a parrot rescue group (many, many people buy parrots without knowing the level of effort involved in their healthy maintenance or the long lifespans of many types of parrots, so lots of those poor parrots end up in need of loving, understanding homes.) Through Reston Interfaith, we supply Thanksgiving dinner to several families each year, and though them we also adopt several families of kids for Christmas gifts each year. Through Christmas in July, we donate building materials. We also support the ASPCA, National Wildlife Fund (though their poor use of funds and grants annoys me), World Wildlife Fund, Sierra and participate in various fundraisers for various local organizations and medical research foundations during their annual drives. All in all, for us it's probably split about evenly between local and national scope for the groups we try to help suppport.

In 1900 the smallest denomination of coinage in the US was 1 cent (the half-cent was discontinued previously). In 2002, the smallest denomination of coinage in the US is 1 cent, but that one cent has less than 1/20th of the buying power than it did in 1900. If people in 1900 could do without half-cents (or 1/20th cents), I think we can do without the 1 cent token. The real workhorse of coinage is the quarter these days anyway... hey, that's pretty close to the value of a penny in 1900, go figure. At some point the US public is going to have to give up this cent. It appears to me that it is already happening to some degree. In addition to situations mentioned above (garbage can coinage, not picking up cents, etc.), please note that all of those "Have a penny, leave a penny. Need a penny, take a penny" cups at the registers are there for a voluntary rounding to the nearest nickel. Most establishments stock those cups with a roll of cents prior to starting the day. The cent is really no longer needed for daily transactions. Things can still be marketed in cents, just rounded to the nearest nickel upon completion of the transaction. That is no different than the way gasoline is priced since it is priced by the 1/10th's of a cent (and for some reason we function just fine without a 1/10th cent coin). Don't get me wrong. I pick up pennies and don't throw them away, but I also realize that they take up far more volume and weight in comparision to their store of value than other coinage does. I recently "cashed in" my son's "piggy bank". 40% of volume in pennies, 5% of cash value. Quarters, 40% of volume, 80% of cash value. Brian

Just wondering what is happening with the paper train. Is it up and running again? If it is, I'd like to be added to the list. Let me know what the status is. I've been checking back and keeping my eyes open but haven't seen any further updates. It would be a shame if it got stalled at someone's house and never got back to Penny who was so generous to start it with her own supply. She deserves to get the paper back- especially since it was swapped a few times already and I'll bet there's lots of beautiful papers in there she doesn't have! If the person who has it now is having trouble getting the postage to send it on, I'd be willing to pay for it COD or postage due so there would be no cost to whoever has it now to get it back on track. If that's the case, email me and I'll send you my snail mail address so you can send it COD or postage due. I could have it swapped out and back in the mail to the next person in a few days. Let me know! Happy scrappin'! -Sarah

Glassquilt that looks lovely but I doubt I could afford it. Sharon and Donna, you're welcome to come and raid my stash any time you want to drive down. Well, I worked on it about 3 hours last night, about 6 hours today. I sorted it in color families first, then I separated out the solids and sorted them. Then I separated the big cuts from what I call "smalls" - eighth and quarter yards and smaller. Then there were so many polka dots and stripes I put them in separate piles. But this was also going through my existing stash and doing the same thing and melding the two groups together. But I didn't get to the top shelf in the closet yet, my back is screaming at me. The top shelf has really huge cuts of fabric, some decorator type fabric and all the browns, tans, beige and blacks on it so that's going to be a job. I also want to brush up on Bonnie Hunter's scrap system for the smalls. I guess I'm gonna be busy for awhile! Not to mention I've started another quilt. Does anyone know where a person can get cloned??