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Add Spice to Your Winter Days

When the holiday decorations come down and the cold, gray winter days set in, fight cabin fever with these ideas.

Not Just For Kids

ü      Create a grocery store with empty cereal boxes and other appropriate containers. Be sure to remember the grocery bags.

ü      Pull together all your odds and ends, bits of ribbon, leftover pinecones, etc., and create collages on construction paper.

ü      Visit a thrift store and find inexpensive “treasures” for playing dress-up.

ü      Bring home an empty refrigerator box and let the kids decorate it and fill it with a blanket and toys for an indoor clubhouse.

ü      Provide a special play area where children can keep their toys and projects out.

For Families

ü      Hold a winter picnic complete with blanket on the floor, fried chicken, coleslaw and potato salad.

ü      Read a book with each family member taking a different part.

ü      Shake up dinner. Put everyone’s name in a hat. The person selected gets to decide where dinner will be eaten (on Mom and Dad’s bed, on the living room floor, in the formal dining room, etc.).

ü      Let’s make a deal. When you are watching television agree that during commercials everyone has to get up and dance, do jumping jacks or some other activity.

For Everyone

ü      Take a class. Learn to dance or just explore a topic that interests you.

ü      Get outside and ice skate, go sledding, build a snowman or have a snowball fight.

ü      Curl up with a good book and the hot beverage of your choice.

ü      Eat an ice cream sundae complete with your favorite toppings.

ü      Rent a movie based in a tropical locale.

ü      Check the newspaper for free activities. You can usually find a calendar of events on Friday.

ü      Continue exercising. Even if you have to walk around the mall or just do stretches at home, keep moving. Maybe now is the time to buy that new yoga or Pilates video you’ve wanted to try.

ü      Call a friend you haven’t talked to in a while.

ü      Get pampered. Try a massage, a manicure or a pedicure.

Dot This, Dot That, What Does It All Mean?
 

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the official organization charged with creating, assigning and regulating Web addresses. Fearing that entrepreneurs and speculators had snatched up so many domain names that others wanting to get on the Net would be stymied, ICANN recently introduced a bundle of new domains. Some were inaugurated in 2001 and the rest in 2002, but most are still not as ubiquitous or as well known yet as the three classics: dot-com, dot-org and dot-net.

Here’s an explanation of what all the official domain names are intended to denote:

• dot-com (designed for businesses only, but open to all)
• dot-org (designed for nonprofits, but open to all)
• dot-net (designed for companies with big networks, but open to all)
• dot-coop (restricted to cooperatives, like utilities and credit unions)
• dot-biz (restricted to businesses)
• dot-info (designed for information sites, but open to all)
• dot-name (restricted to individual names)
• dot-pro (restricted to professionals, initially physicians, lawyers and accountants)
• dot-us (designed for any U.S. resident, business or government agency)

Until recently, ICANN was the only entity introducing names. Now an Internet startup called New.net Inc. has broken ranks and added unofficial domain names that some surfers might see, though like the newer crop of ICANN names, they remain a rarity. These unofficial designations include dot-inc, dot-llp, dot-ltd, dot-med, dot-agent, dot-law, dot-med and dot-family.

— Adapted from Inc