Take the Challenge!

This is a good time to tell you that I will be taking a small break from the blog. "R" and I are doing the most un-patriotic thing possible over the 4th of July holiday, and we are headed out of the country. Just Canada, don't get too excited for me. I do feel a little guilty about leaving the USA, but that one extra paid holiday day allows me to spend 10 whole days at a water-access-only cottage on a gorgeous lake set in the rolling evergreen mountains of the Canadian wilderness. No TV, no radio, no straightening iron (well maybe once or twice), no computer (gasp), no cell phone reception (double gasp)...just complete and total relaxation. It may not appeal to everyone, but once a year it sounds like heaven to me!

But, while I am gone there is something really cool happening in Cleveland called Buy Local Week. COSE and I Buy NEO are asking people all over Northeast Ohio to make a pledge to redirect $100 of existing spending to locally owned and operated businesses in our area during the week of July 3rd through the 10th. If everyone in Northeast Ohio pledged just $100- $48 million could be kept right here. Not only are there great benefits involved for our local businesses and the area's economy- but you receive a discount card valid at over 40 area businesses and attractions during the month of August!

Just click on the link above and pledge your participation in this fabulous challenge. They even provide a list of over 100 ways to spend money locally. Personally, I suggest dining out at one (or several) of Cleveland's great independent restaurants.

If I was going to be in town, or the country, I would be participating. With no computer access or cell reception- it would be near impossible to complete or even contribute to. So "do as I say, and not as I do"! I may just take on a personal challenge once I return.