A telephone call in late February from a man in Deland, Fla., brought new hope to the family. No, it wasn’t a telemarketer selling disability insurance. A male voice on the phone said he thought he may have Deacon.

The family believes Deacon was stolen by people who had hoped to breed him, but they were unaware that he had been fixed so it was a waste of time. And so the dog ended up in Florida for the holidays.

If you have a netbook…what is your favorite feature?

If anyone is following our pregnancy progress, this last week we found out we are having a healthy GIRL, so we are celebrating this in our family!

On to the good news!

Fresh Veggies Need Light
The lights above the produce in the produce section help keep spinach fresh and producing new vitamins. These findings should apply to other fresh vegetables as well. This is good news for figuring out ways to keep produce fresher longer.

Grocery stores often display fresh spinach in clear plastic containers. They keep temperatures constant at around 39 degrees F under fluorescent lights 24 hours a day. Spinach kept under lights has been shown to have significantly higher levels of vitamins C, K, E and folate. Leaves stored in the dark actually lost nutrients.

Diver Wrestles Frisbee Off Shark’s Neck
John Dickinson was diving off the coast of southern Florida when he found a nurse shark laying quietly on the ocean floor. After tugging on its tail, the shark began to swim away. At that point, his diving partner went after the shark, grabbed it with both arms and wrestled with it until he was able to remove a frisbee. The shark swam away safely.

The shark was emaciated because it could not eat properly (wasn’t able to open his jaw because of the ring around his neck). The Frisbee also might have been preventing it from getting the oxygen he needed.

Massive Head of Pharaoh Unearthed in Egypt
Archaeologists have uncovered a huge red granite head of an Egyptian pharoah who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago.

The head of Amenhotep III (approximately the height of a person) was dug out of the ruins of the pharaoh’s mortuary temple. The leader of the expedition says it as the best preserved sculpture of Amenhotep III’s face found so far.

Amenhotep III, was the grandfather of the famed Tutankhamun. He ruled from 1387-1348 B.C. at the peak of Egypt’s New Kingdom. He also presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.

Man Survives 4 Days On Mountain Dew
A trip through the mountains of the Rio Grande National Forest in Colorado got challenging when the car got stuck in a snow drift. Jason Pede managed to survive for 4 days on Mountain Dew and melted snow.

To stay warm, Pede rationed his gas, starting the car only enough to keep it warm in the car. He also burned wood outside the car to stay warm. When the gas ran out, he hiked out to a highway. That is where people found him collapsed.

Acupuncture May Ease Menstrual Cramps
Acupuncture may alleviate menstrual cramps. Menstrual cramps affect almost 50 percent all young women.

Researchers found that acupuncture may be more effective than drugs or herbal medicines. Acupuncture stimulates the production of endorphins and serotonin in the central nervous system. Endorphins are produced naturally by the human body during exercise and they result in a feeling of well-being. Serotonin is a brain chemical.

The causes of menstrual cramps are unknown. Cramps are often accompanied by bloating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness and headache. Doctors trained in western medicine are turning to acupuncture as a complementary treatment to relieve cramps.

Van Gogh Experts Authenticate Unusual Painting
Dirk Hannema always insisted he had several Van Goghs and a few Rembrandts in his private collection, but no one believed him. Now 25 years after his death it seems he did have at least one work by Vincent van Gogh. The painting, “Le Blute-Fin Mill,” goes on public display Wednesday. It is the first Van Gogh to be authenticated since 1995.

Van Gogh painted about 900 works in his short lifetime. Van Gogh died of a self-inflicted wound in 1890 at age 37.

Hannema bought the painting in 1975 from an art dealer in Paris who did not believe it had value.

Victoria Bensch’s parents were panicking when they realized they could not find her at home and she was likely lost in the Arizona wilderness.

The 3-year-old was wearing only a short-sleeved shirt and light pants. Overnight the temperatures dipped into the mid-30s. 15 hours later a helicopter spotted her face down in the dirt with her dog Blue next to her. Although cold, she was stable.

The dog has been credited with keeping the child warm enough to survive.

Since WISE began scanning the entire sky in infrared light on January 14, the space telescope has sent back over a quarter of a million infrared images.

The mission is expected to find many comets, including some that ride in orbits that take them close to Earth’s orbit around the sun. WISE will unlock some of the mystery about comets about how our solar system came to exist.

Apparently, everyone is clamoring for a jar of bag balm. And it is not just for cracked and dry hands either. People use it on squeaky bed springs, psoriasis, facial skin, burns, blemishes, diaper rash, saddle sores, sunburn, trees, rifles, shell casings, bed sores and even radiation burns.

Oh, yes…and it is great for cow udders!

Emergency workers used power tools to break the ice in a frozen lake in the Ukraine where swans had become trapped. The birds were given food and trucks pumped warm water into the lake to keep it from refreezing.

The lake is usually heated by natural hot spring, but they were reportedly plugged due to flooding last year. With the extremely cold weather, many lakes in the region have been covered in a thick layer of ice.