A live version of a song possibly on Ryan Star’s album 11:59 – it’s called “Please Login or Register to see the link.”

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Don’t forget to Email XM – The Pulse – and request “Breathe” by @RyanStar : http://www.xmradio.com/emailus . Select Programming, Pop and then The Pulse.

… something that begins with W !!!

That’s right!  For a limited time only Willo’s Web members will have an EXCLUSIVE look into the lush pet resort world of my dog!!  The next portion of this post will be protected – only authorized members of Willo’s Web will be allowed to read this!

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You have your mission my Willo Webbers.   Now go forth as guardians and report back here!

… is that normal?  Hahahaha!

Well . I did my own “light” version of a last-chance workout last night and this morning.  I bumped up my usual 20-minute stationary biking to 40 minutes – for a total of 18 miles within a 12 hour time frame.  I’m hoping I sweated enough water weight off to get a good weigh-in this week!!  My scale was not nice to me last night .. and I almost threw it out the window.  This morning … it went back to that nice low number.  So it’s anyone’s guess what my official weigh-in will be today.  It will probably reflect no change .. and you’ll be able to hear me scream from around the globe.

I started another 500-mile 10 week challenge over at the Biggest Loser league – and I have to tell you I’m inspired by the people who have joined in.  I keep reading over and over .. “I didn’t think I could walk that far .. bike that far .. but I did it and I feel great!”  Having that 50-mile a week goal is doing some tremendous things to motivate those of us who have been sitting on our bums way too long.  It is truly awesome to watch!

I just wish I had some sort of prize to give to them at the end .. for every person who completes the 500-miles.  There should be SOMETHING that they earn.  Perhaps I’ll look into having little medals custom made and mailing them out to everyone.  But then I’ll be spending more of my personal money to do it .. and I’m not one to go begging companies to donate stuff unless I have something really great go give them in return {ie:  ad on the NBC web site – which would never happen}  Oh well … I’ll think of something.

Now if only I could figure out an incentive for house cleaning … I might actually get that done too.

UPDATE:  That’s a THREE POINT SEVEN {3.7} POUND LOSS THIS WEEK.

This came to me in my e-mail box this morning … such a good message I thought I’d pass it along.

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

• 

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

• 

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.

Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden’s blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of ‘obstructing sidewalk traffic.’

• 

(Lucy Burns)

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

• 

(Dora Lewis)

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.

Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the ‘Night of Terror’ on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail. Their food–all of it colorless slop–was  infested with worms.

• 

(Alice Paul)

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until Please Login or Register to see the link..

So, refresh my memory. Some women won’t vote this year because-why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work?  Our vote doesn’t matter? It’s raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO’s new movie ‘Iron Jawed Angels.’ It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege.

Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women’s history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talkabout it, she looked angry. She was–with herself. ‘One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,’ she said.  ‘What would those women think of the way I use, or don’t use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.’ The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her ‘all over again.’

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco and Bingo night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn’t our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn’t make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: ‘Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.’

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party – remember to vote.

History is being made.

I didn’t exactly choose to live in Florida .. but I’m stuck here now at least until my son Graduates from college. Therefore, I have to suck it up and deal with the annual onslaught of threat from Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. Generally, when it’s a TS or a Cat-1 storm, I’m fine. I know it will be gusty and we’ll get a ton of rain. But when I see that a CAT-4 storm is charging our banks, I tend to freak out just a little bit. Inland – our greatest threat is Tornadoes. I’m scared to death about Ike due to hit land on Tuesday.

So this morning I am quietly freaking out inside my head. I have not reached full fledged panic state .. but come Sunday I can tell you the panic attacks will start up. My biggest concern is my son in Tampa. If the college campus closes – he can either come home or go to an evacuation shelter. Since he isn’t confident enough to drive to Tampa from Orlando yet, that means I have to fetch him and bring him home. But the school won’t make a decision to close until it’s too late .. it’s a 1.5 hour drive there … 3 hours round trip. In the wind and rain.

I’m drinking water in lue of eating comfort food. There’s not much food here to eat which is a good thing .. but I am going to have to go stock up on non-perishables and water because it is highly likely we’ll be without power for at least a week. So if you don’t see me here after Tuesday … that’s why.

In the next few days, if you see me starting to panic, please remind me to calm down. Remind me that water is my best friend!! And remind me that things happen for a reason … if we are meant to get hit by a Cat-4 Storm .. then there’s nothing I can do to control it.

I’m still freakin’ scared!!!!