CarltonFoster.com

i have been reading several websites lately about girl scout cookies and the fact that they have had to reduce the amount of cookies in some of the boxes. not all of the varieties of cookies have been reduced, and the ones that were reduced were only reduced by 2 cookies. compared to items you buy in the grocery store that have slowly shrunk in size over the last 9 years, 2 cookies is not a lot and they were upfront about it. none of the icecream manufacturers gave press releases to cnn. nor did the cereal makers.

i’ve also heard about people complaining about the price per box. in our area it is $3.50 a box. it ranges from $3.00 to $4.50. that price is set regionally by the councils. if you live in an area with a lower cost of living, you will probably pay less than some one in LA or Connecticut.  there are only 2 bakeries that make the cookies. it is up to the councils to choose which bakery to use. they also can decide which of the alternate cookies to choose from. the core cookies like thin mints and trefoils are required, but there is some leeway for other cookies. this year we have lemon chalet cremes and a caramel cookie called dulche de leche. because of the 2 bakeries, the same cookies may be called something different by each one.   if you don’t like the cookies you have bought, call your council. they may have changed bakeries and need the feedback about unsatisfactory cookies.

the big thing i have been reading has been major misinformation about where that $3.50 goes. NONE, i repeat NONE of the money goes to the corporate office in NYC. less than a dollar goes towards paying the bakery for the cookies and towards the sales papers. less than a dime goes towards administrative supplies, $1.72 goes to the local council for the girls’ programs, training, upkeep of buildings and camps.  the troop gets 60 cents to 70 cents of every box sold. then there is a 3 cent troop bonus and a 3 cent service unit bonus. 12 cents goes towards the girls recognitions, but troops can opt out of that and that 12 cents goes towards the girls’ profits.  some of the $1.72 that goes to the council goes towards financial assistance programs.

i’ve seen lots of complaints that the poster’s daughter never got to go to camp just because she sold cookies as others have claimed that their daughter got to go to camp because of the money she earned selling cookies. it is up to the troop to decide how to spend the money earned. if you want to know where the money is going, ask the leaders. if you don’t get a satisfactory answer, please go to your service unit or council.  not all troops decide to use the money to go to camp, especially summer camp. some use the money for supplies, day trips, weekend camping trips, sleep overs, etc.  badges that the girls have earned maybe purchased with cookie profits. you also need to consider the amount of cookies sold. if your troop only sells 20 boxes per girl, the troop isn’t going to have as much money to do things as a troop that has sold 200 boxes a girl.  get involved in the troop so you know what is going on. i’m not saying everyone needs to be a leader, but at least talk to your leaders.

are the cookies the healthiest things to eat?  no. they are COOKIES.  eat one or two and then put the box away. no one says you have to eat them all at once. most of ours will be going into the freezer to be eaten throughout the year, not to be eaten within the week.

the other off the wall complaint has been that GSA donates money to planned parenthood, and that poster refuses to support an organization that supports planned parenthood. GSA does not donate money to planned parenthood.  on the cooperate level, planned parenthood might donate to GSA, but i am not positive about that. it’s nothing i have heard about other than the misinformation about GSA giving them money.  on the local level, planned parent hood has no involvement in local troops or service units or councils.  so don’t let that untrue association deter you from buying cookies.

please support your local girl scout troops and buy a box of cookies. if you go to www.girlscoutcookies.org you can find your local council selling cookies.

thank you!

i’ve been thinking about what to plant in the garden this year. last weekend we went to a couple of garden centers, but didn’t buy anything. today while we were out and about we stoped at home depot and bought seeds and a seed starting kit.  so i have seeds planted for peas, green beens, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, and cucumbers. they are happily sitting on top of the dog’s crate in front of the window.  they should be ready to transplant outside in april. now i just have to figure out what i am going to transplant them into. the dirt in the yard is hard and when you get down a couple of inches, it’s hard clay.  so it’s either building a raised bed and filling it with bagged garden soil, or using containers. we also have rabbits to deal with, so that’s something else to have to deal with.

For the few of you who visit the site, you’ll notice the change in design and software. I removed the Drupal site tonight and changed it over to this WordPress design.

The Drupal site was nice, but really had far more pieces than I needed for here. This should be easier to maintain and read.

Hopefully Janie can figure out how to register and start posting…

I have been trying out a couple of free programs for blog writing so I can do it offline and upload when I am ready.

I tried Microsoft Live Writer first, but had some issues with my Word Press blog not recognizing all the tags. At first I thought maybe I needed to try HTML instead of XHTML, but that only changed the tags and did not fix the issue.

Now I am trying Zoundry Raven. We’ll see how this uploads. No sense using some extra application to write and upload posts if I have to follow up by logging in and editing every post to fix the source code…

UPDATE: Raven handled some things better, like spaces.  But the paragraph tags still showed up, so I am going to have to spend some time with both of these programs and see if I can figure out how to configure them to work with this blog.

Since I had been wanting a new computer to run Linux on, and Circuit City is going out of business, I decided it would be ok to buy a computer from them.  Now, buying an HP desktop from a brick and mortar instead of buying parts and building my own machine has never been my favorite thing.  But, I decided for $700 I’d be lazy and buy an OEM machine this time.

So far, the new machine is doing fine.  Why is this a surprise?  Because it has Vista on it.  I’m thinking of keeping this system with Vista and converting the XP system to Linux.  The older machine still has lots of life left in it, especially if I put Linux on it.

We’ll see how the Vista does over the next couple of weeks before I make a final decision.  I don’t really like having this much Microsoft in the house…