I have a confession to make. As a kid, I hated fireworks. I hated loud, sudden noises, even if they were accompanied by pretty colors in the night sky. I hated going to the Fourth of July celebrations with my parents, where inevitably I would end up under the picnic blanket, hiding from the scary kabooms overhead. Apparently, I was on to something. Each year, there are more than 10,000 people treat...

It?s only fair.Last week I talked about fun websites for girls that I found on Kids.gov and around the web. Since then, I?ve been hearing from moms and dads who are looking for safe and fun sites for their sons, too.I?m starting the hunt back at Kids.gov, where this month?s featured government website for kids is the National Security Agency?s CryptoKids. The site?s fun characters and games help ki...

The state of Pennsylvania owes me money. Happy 4th of July to me! My uncle was perusing the PA treasury website when he found a search field for people who may be owed money from the state. For fun, he started entering family members? names, and BINGO! I?m the big winner. Turns out, upon graduating in 2005, I failed to pick up my final paycheck from working at the University of Pittsburgh?s student...

My garden was, ahem, a wee bit overgrown, so I spent the whole weekend on my hands and knees weeding. Apparently while I was ripping out weeds with wild abandon, I came in contact with some poison ivy and now I've got an itchy, itchy poison ivy rash on my wrists, just at my glove line.There's a funny thing about poison ivy and me. Poison ivy and ragweed are the only things in this world to which I'...

Those of you who use your car for business purposes can rejoice a little bit. The Internal Revenue Service increased the optional standard mileage rates for the rest of the year because of rising gas prices. For every business mile driven from July 1 to December 31, 2008 taxpayers can use the rate of 58.5 cents to calculate deductible costs, 8 cents more than the 50.5 than the first half of 2008. T...