Tampa Bay Parent

This August there will be several cities throughout Hillsborough County where students can receive free back to school physicals and immunizations. Locations in Brandon, Ruskin, Plant City, and Tampa will have opportunities for students to come in with their parents and receive the physicals and immunizations.

For listing times and days visit the following link: Back to School Physicals.

You can also see the flyer at the School District of Hillsborough County’s web site.

Some locations will require that you make an appointment.

At one point, if your DTV coupons had expired you were out of luck. Now the government is allowing households to reapply for a new DTV converter box coupon if their original converter box coupon expired. The deadline for applying for all converter box coupons is July 31, 2009. Each converter box coupon entitles you to $40 off a digital television converter box. The conversion happened on July 12, 2009 and some have been going without a television signal since then. You have just a few day apply for a converter box coupon.

The homeschool fair will have exhibits and guest speakers.  This is a day long homeschool fair with admission  $3 for adults and free for kids. The Dunedin homeschool fair is August 8, 2009 from 9 am to 4 pm.

If you have the philosophy “if its free then it is for me”,Mondays will be a day you will enjoy for the rest of the summer.  McDonalds will be giving away free samples of their iced or hot McCafé Mocha.  The hot McCafé Mocha come in a 8oz cup and the cold McCafé comes in a 7oz cup.  You can get the free sample at participating McDonald’s Restaurants between 7 am and 7 pm today and on August 3,2009.

It is almost time to get back to school. Before you blink, the first day of classes will begin for students in Tampa Bay. Stores have already begun their back to school sales to help you get everything on your school supply lists. This is the best time to stock up for things that your child will need now and throughout the rest of the school year.

Basic necessities like crayons, rulers, paper, and folders have already started to go on sale at most retail stores. Most stores have 25 cent deals on supplies. This week Staples has erasers, packs of mechanical pencils, pencil holders, sharpeners, packs of index cards, and glue for 25 cents each. There is also a $5 off coupon as part of the Staples Sunday sale’s paper if you spend $30 or more in the store.

Office Depot has a 5 pack of glue sticks for 20 cents and a student compass with refillable pencils for 5 cents. Other stores like: Target, Wal-Mart, and Kmart are also having their sales.

Megan Allen is Hillsborough County’s 2009 Teacher of the Year and tonight she was name Florida’s 2010 teacher of the year. Allen is currently a teacher at Cleveland Elementary in Tampa.

The Florida Teacher of the year receives:

awards from Macy’s including a check totaling $10,000, a $1,000 wardrobe, and an all-expense paid trip for four to New York City to attend the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year. The winner serves for one year as the Christa McAuliffe Ambassador for Education. In this capacity, he or she acts as a representative and spokesperson for the teaching profession and travels throughout the state of Florida and the nation.

When Allen and the other 5 teacher of the year finalists were announced they received awards as well

In early May, the five finalists were chosen from 72 school district nominees. Macy’s presented each of the five finalists with a $5,000 cash check, a Macy’s $500 gift card and a $1,000 grant for their respective schools.

The remaining Teacher of the Year nominees from the remaining 67 school districts also get a prize. Those teachers receive a cash reward of $700 and a $250 grant for each of their schools.

MSN.COM has sample questions from the United States citizenship test.  one of the requirements to become a United States citizen is that  foreign-born people must pass the citizenship test.  MSN did admit to selecting the hardest questions from a 100 question sample.   There are quiz questions about historical documents, events, and people in United States.  You are also aksed facts  concerning the government and current people in government. 

Kids that are taking United States history or American government will probably do better than their parents that have been out of school for years.  Maybe this is something that you and your kids could try and then compare results.

You can take the citizenship quiz here.  You can try it as see how well you can do.

I was not to proud of my quiz results.  I thought that I would have done a lot better.

Joey Chestnut ate 68 hot dogs and buns in ten minutes to set a record and win the 2009 world famous Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest this afternoon on Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. He broke his previous record by edging out Takeru Kobayashi who ate 64.5 hot dogs and buns in ten minutes. Kobayashi is a six time champion, but has faced stiff competition from Joey Chestnut the last few years. In fact, Joey Chestnut participated in his first Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in 2005 and has won the last three contests. The contest is held every Fourth of July in Coney Island and has been a tradition for 94 years. Chestnut brings home $10,000 as the first place prize and Kobayashi takes home $5,000 for the second place finish.

The contest has been a sport that was aired on ESPN today. It really is not as fun to watch like football or basketball but it does require some physical mastery. I do doubt that there will ever be a little league hot dog eating contest.

You can get $1 off 2 Breyers Ice Cream and another coupon for $1 off 2 packs of Klondike bars on line at:

https://ssl.unilever.com/BREYERS.COM/COUPON

Happy Independence Day Tampa Bay

Today is full of food, friends, family, fireworks, and fun.  Fourth of July is in celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.   The United States colonies declared the independence from  Britain on July 4, 1776.

Read about the Declaration of Independence and view an online copy here.

We went to Burger King today and ordered apple fries  for my kids.  Apple Fries are prepackaged apple slices that can be served in place of fries. 

My daughter handed me an apple fry and I began to eat it and realized that it was stale.  When I looked at the package I saw that the date on the package said July 1, 2009 and today is July 3,2009.

When I called the manager he was polite and was very apologetic.  He said that I could come in any time and get a replacement for the apple dippers. 

I know that it was human error and they meant no harm.  But in the case of food items like apple fries from Burger King and apple dippers from McDonalds it is best to always check the date to make sure that it has not expired.  I never thought to do so before tonight and will be one of my food checks before I leave the drive-thru..

Fourth of July events include fireworks and lot of fun for the family. Fourth of July is a day to celebrate the independence of the United States of America, and a day to enjoy time with family and friends.

Hillsborough County

Tampa

Watch Fireworks in Channelside

This is a free event in Tampa. You can watch fireworks in downtown Tampa at the Channelside Bay Plaza. The Event starts at 3:30 p.m. and includes free entertainment.

Channelside Bay Plaza web site

Busch Gardens

There will be concerts and Fireworks as part of Busch Gardens Summer Nights. July 3^rd David Cassidy will be performing. July 4thStarship featuring Mickey Thomas will be performing.

Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI)

MOSI will have a discount on tickets for 4^th of July weekend. If you buy one ticket you get one at equal or lesser value free. That dates of the promotion are July 3-5.

Temple Terrace

There be a parade at 10 a.m. and fireworks starting at 9 p.m.

City of Temple Terrace

Manatee

Bradenton

Fireworks in downtown Bradenton

The Old Main Street Merchants Association is hosting a downtown party from 5-10 p.m. with food, drinks and live music from the local rock band Rye Road. The band takes the stage at 5:30 p.m. and will move into Cork’s Cigar Bar, 425 Old Main St., after the fireworks display, which starts at 9:30 p.m. from the Palmetto side of the river.

City of Bradenton, Florida

Pasco County

Hudson

Hudson Americana Music Fest on July 4^th

There will be a concert with local artist and fireworks. Gates open at 10 am and fireworks begin 9:30 pm. Tickets are $5 in advance and $7 at the gate.

The Angelus

12413 Hudson Ave.
Hudson, FL 34667
(727) 856-1775

More Information

Pinellas County

Clearwater Celebrate America

There will be a 4^th of July celebration at Coachman Park starting at 4 pm.

This year’s event will feature the Mostly Pops Orchestra with John and Mary K. Wilson at 7:30 p.m., followed by a fireworks show at 9:30 p.m. Food and beverages will be available for purchase and exhibitor and sponsor booths will be open for browsing.

More Info

Dunedin

Fourth of Concert and Fireworks at Dunedin Stadium. On July 3, 2009

More Information

St. Petersburg

North Straub Park.

US 103.5 broadcast live at 4 p.m., activities for the kids including bounce house and Rays staff with interactive games from 4 to 9 p.m. Live music: 5:30 Sweet Caroline; 6:45 p.m. Due West; 8 p.m. Krista Marie. www.us1035.com/common/celebrate/

Polk

Lakeland

Red, White & Kaboom will take place around the Lake Mirror Promenade on Friday, July 3rd from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. The evening’s entertainment will include the pop/rock sounds of the popular local band, MillHopper. The band will play three sets of music ending at 9:00 p.m. to a breathtaking display of fireworks over Lake Mirror. As part of this year’s celebration, we are asking for a canned food item from everyone who attends the free event. There will be several locations throughout Lake Mirror Park that will be accepting the canned food donations.

A study compared the bones of vegetarians to their meat easting counterparts. 

A joint Australian-Vietnamese study of links between the bones and diet of more than 2,700 people found that vegetarians had bones five percent less dense than meat-eaters, said lead researcher Tuan Nguyen.

The issue was most pronounced in vegans, who excluded all animal products from their diet and whose bones were six percent weaker, Nguyen said.

The report does say that vegetarians that  eat eggs and dairy products do not have a a significant difference in bone density when compared to meat eaters. 

Calcium and vitamin D are two things that are required for healthy bones.  Milk is an excellent source of calcium and egg yolks has vitamin D.

Source: AFP

On Wednesday evening I had to place a order for a new A/C adapter for my HP laptop.   Because I was still under the one year warranty I was able to get a new adapter shipped to me and was told that it would arrive in about 6 days.  The adapter arrived this morning before noon.  I was ecstatic to receive it after going over a day without be able to use my laptop.  It was a quick turnaround for HP and I really think that was great customer service.  

I usually get HPs because they are more affordable than other brands.  My relationship with HP is not always a happy one, but I we seem to work things out.   My sound on the laptop stopped and I had to download a new driver, but about every computer brand has had one problem or another.  I don’t think that any computer brand is immune from having difficulties. 

Pasco County health officials have confirmed two cases of swine flu at a youth camp.
A staff member and camper at Word of Life Youth Camp got sick last week with the H1N1 virus, said Deanna Krautner, spokeswoman for the county’s health department. One case was confirmed Wednesday; the other today.

That Camp is following the guidelines to sanitize the facilities.
Word of Life Youth camp hosts many church groups throughout the year. The Florida Word of Life Youth Camp is located in Hudson, Florida.

Source:tbo.com