Lowe's will donate up to $5 million to K-12 public/charter schools and to parent teacher groups - at as many as 1,000 different public schools per school year. Click here to see if you are eligible!Raise up to $5,000 for your school in minutes It's that easy when you take advantage of Lowe's Toolbox for Education grant program. Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation (LCEF) knows how hard you work for your kids and your community and is dedicated to helping your parent-teacher group achieve even more for your school. Apply for our Toolbox for Education Grant now and build on your already impressive parent group success with Lowe's. Now in its 11th year of helping build better schools and communities, the Lowe's Toolbox for Education program has provided over $49 million to more than 11,000 schools across the country. Imagine what you could do for your school Let us know your ideas to make your school a better place and we can help you fulfill them. 2016-2017 Grant Application Update

For more than 65 years, Lowe's has supported the communities we call home. At a time when schools are struggling to support the basic needs of their students, the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation recognizes the importance of financial support. This year LCEF is seeking ways to provide the tools to help educators and parent groups through educational challenges by providing the greatest impact, with basic necessities being the priority. Please keep this focus in mind as you apply for a Lowe's Toolbox for Education® grant in the 2016-2017 academic year. You don't have permission to access /features/index.cfm?id=149Eh HotelHotel BarDesign NightlifeHotel HospitalityHospitality DesignHospitality TravelLeisure BarTravel LeisureBar PortoForwardDiscover the best interior design hotels with bars. See more luxurious interior design details at http://luxxu.net .Hey look, it's a blog post. So as I'm sitting down at the luncheonette counter of the 'Friendship House Diner' (formerly Wendy's) the other day, one of the waitresses is rolling up silverware (well, not SILVER exactly, not in color or composition; but forks, spoons, and knives anyway) into napkins and chucking them into trays to be brought out to freshly 'cleaned' tables.

She's laughing about something and the other waitress is saying, "Well, I guess I can't move to Tennessee, because I won't be able to use my Tennessee pickup line!" I had just suffered through about three hours of bad personal interaction with a 'client' and was looking to leave that behind me, so I wanted in on this conversation. "What's the 'Tennessee pickup line'...?, I ask, "or maybe I don't want to know...," I say. The napkin waitress says laughingly, but to me as to a confidant, "Oh, she has all these pickup lines. The Tennessee one goes something like, "Hey stranger, are you from Tennessee...?" I play along and answer, "Why no, why do you ask...?" "Because you're the only Ten I see in here," she answers back. "Oh man," I say."And then there's the Windex one." "Yeah, hey, is that Windex on your pants...?" (Me looking at my pants, then back at her) "Because I can see myself in them." Then I think of one I heard a long time ago.

"I got a Kentucky one for you, I say." "Yeah, let's hear it!"red kite cosi cot hello ernest blue curtains (I'm staring at the grease-stained ceiling trying to get it right) john lewis mocha blackout curtains"Okay - what's the best pickup line to impress a girl in a hillbilly bar in Kentucky...?"ikea lappljung pair of curtains Napkin waitress goes off to ring someone up at the till, and I spoon through my chili trying to cool it off.casablanca rose rod pocket blackout curtain panel She comes back and starts to roll up more napkins. montgomery pimlico curtains

She says, "Yeah, she's got her own set of lines, not my style at all. concord grommet-top blackout drapery panelMine are more like the, 'If you were a booger, I'd pick you' sort of thing.""No wonder they have those signs in the bathroom about washing your hands," I say. She looks at me nonplussed for a second then laughs and rolls up more napkins. You didn't really think I would start a blog post with a title like that and not talk about the end of the world, did you? Not that it isn't an important topic, but I'm kind of sick of everyone talking about it, and even more fed up with the commercialization of it. A friend of mine posted a picture from the Renaissance Festival saying, 'If the world doesn't end on 12/21/2012, we'll give away 5 free pairs of tickets to the 2013 Renaissance Festival on Monday! Click and share this post to win!' I was thinking, 'Well, this is the end of a Renaissance era, and the beginning of a capitalistic one.'

At least they are only after clicks, whereas the news today is full of stories about people going to Mexico to spend their last days, have an excuse to party, hide in a bunker or whatever, and the locals saying, "It's great that they've bought into this myth, this is good for us!" The whole thing reinforces in me that we as humans can't seem to think outside our world, our little Earth. Our mindset is that because we invented our own religions, philosophies, and cultural traditions, that everyone in the universe must behave like us, because we set the example, it's all we know. It's what 'The World' does. What is 'The World' anyway...? Some sort of quantified description that we invented for our earth culture. Is it the human race, the earth, the universe...? What ends when the world ends...? If the end of the world happens, is that the end of time, too? Can time have an end, or does what lies before and after it have a definition that can be measured? What do we do when our calendar runs out?

Get a new calendar, I guess. I wonder if an intelligence from another part of the universe were ever to get to Earth, what they would think of our attitude and basing of everything on our transcribed history and traditions, which have become our beliefs. Maybe the 'alien' culture will be the exact same way but have their OWN set of rules and traditions and think they are the only race in the universe. What will they think of the Bible? It would be an interesting thing to see. Philosophy would be back in style. There is the phrase, "Think locally, act globally." Maybe it should be more like, "Think globally, act universally." first learned about the star in the cottonwood tree many years ago from my friend and naturalist teacher, Pat Rummenie. As we were walking in the forest, she picked a small, dead cottonwood twig up off of the ground and snapped it at it's "knuckle", (the banded joint that is characteristic of cottonwood branches) and said, "If you are lucky, inside you will see the "Star in the Cottonwood."