Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down specialty stores
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
Pacific Sunwear (also owne d by Talbots)
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores mo re to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down
Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stor~s
K B Toys closing 356 stores
Loews to close down some stores
Dillard’s to close some stores

(If any of these stores are wrong, let me know so I can correct it.  Snopes has confirmed some of these)

First, you need to log into the Box Tops site and create an account.  You enter your state and your school or if you don’t know that, just enter your zip code.  I personally entered the school and state.  From there, you are able to see how your local school is going.  Now, how do you increase that number?  Well, you can collect box tops with that logo on it.  They also have a Marketplace.  Now, until recently, I did not know about the Marketplace.  This works so awesome too!  There is a list of stores that will give a percentage of whatever you buy from them back to the school.  There are stores like Avon, Gap, Kohls, Best Buy, Leap Frog, Target, and Walmart (this is just a couple of them — the whole listing is on the site).  All you have to do is log into the Box Tops Site, click on marketplace, then click on the store you want to shop it.  That’s it.  Once you checkout, the percentage you purchased will then be applied to your school.  If you are Christmas shopping online anyway, why not help out your local school (and if you don’t want to help any of them out, I’ll tell you the school we are sending our money too, and you can use them).

Did you know that Box Tops has donated more than $250 million to schools nationwide since 1996?  Would you like to help raise that number?  Then start collecting Box Tops and use their Marketplace to do your online shopping!  To help you get started, I am giving away a $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble (thank you Barnes & Noble for your support of such a great program!).  What do you have to do?

Each one of these things will give you one entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know why you want this $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble!
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc.

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

<a href="http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/ad1.jpg" border="0" alt="My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings" /></a><br />

This contest will end November 26th at 8:00 pm CST and is for US residents. Good Luck!

As Christmas nears, we are starting to figure out what we should get for our newly remodeled basement.  We think Santa may bring Will a train table for down there, since Madison has a nice wooden train and track, and we really have no place for the kids to play with it.  That being said, daddy would love to get a pool table for down there.  We actually know exactly where we would put it. Once the main things is that the pool table felt would definitely have to match the rest of the basement. I think I would go with a basic blue like Border Billards has.  Having played in many pool halls, I have learned that it is defintely important to have good quality felt on your table, since there is definitely a lot of wear and tear (literally) involved.  When the felt starts wearing out, it definitely effects your game.  Of course, if I do let Bill get a pool table there will definitely be some extra that will have to bought like pool cues, pool cue chalk, pool table covers, pool balls, etc.

Any other suggestions for the basement?  I personally would love a dart board too, but I really don’t want to put holes in my new walls!

Click Image For Full Size

Yeoman 3rd Class Margret Ueberlauer

Yeoman 3rd Class Margret Ueberlauer hands out toys to HIV infected children during a community relations project at the Camillian Center in Pattaya, Thailand. The USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Group is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.