Young people are tanning too much, and Erie’s Doreen Buckel wants to spread the word.

Her 28-year-old daughter, Jennifer, lost a battle with melanoma — the potentially deadly skin cancer. Jennifer, like a lot of young women, spent time in the sun and in tanning beds. Doreen Buckel, her friends and family members lined Peach Street to raise awareness of skin cancer during Melanoma Awareness Month.
See the WJET-TV video here of her efforts. Click here to see a WJET-TV interview with Doreen.

According to the American Cancer Society, skin cancer is the most common of all cancers with more than 3.5 million skin cancers diagnosed each year in the United States — more than all other cancers combined. The incidence of diagnosis has increased over the past few decades.

Most skin cancers are caused by too much exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun and tanning beds.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom to three and step grandmom to one.

Last year, my team and I tracked and interviewed countless murder suspects, got the dirt on wealthy families that shaped Erie history and had a rip-roaring good time at the Watson-Curtze Mansion.

I felt like I was at Downton Abbey. And you can too!

It’s a real life game of Clue where actors portray the suspects — and they are stationed in various rooms of the four-story mansion and neighboring Planetarium. Everyone has a story, but you can’t always believe it — because one of them is a murderer!

Is it the doctor? The gardener? The lawyer? The spurned ex-wife? The mistress? The nanny? The long lost son or the guy who pretended to be the long lost son? Clues, clues — you must find all the clues! 

Join us — dress in your best 1920s fashions, enjoy the cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and desserts. And find the murderer!

Saturday, June 15 at  6 p.m. The after party begins at 8 p.m.

Teams of six can register for $250 before May 24. After, teams are $300. The Erie County Historical Society will match individuals and couples with a group if you do not have a team.

If you can’t make the game … join the Roaring 20s themed after party at the mansion. Tickets sold separately at only $20.

Hurry — this event sells out every year! Call 814-454-1813 x24

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three and stepmom of three.

In today’s New York Times that hit homes hours ago, Angelina Jolie wrote an opinion piece that announced a medical choice that many women have chosen — a preventative mastectomy — that reduced her 87 percent chance of contracting breast cancer to less than 5 percent. The video at left is from CNN.

Her mother died at age 56 of breast cancer.

Click here to read Jolie’s op-ed.

Here’s the very informative Huffington Post article.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom of three and step grandmom of one.

It’s great news that Segways are coming to Presque Isle. I’ve ridden on Segways for fun during an interview with the former college president at Edinboro University (that’s me at left flitting around inside the student union building) and for even more fun when my daughter took me on a tour of Pittsburgh a few years ago at Paradise Tours.

In Erie, The Yellow Bike Rental Company added guided Segway tours to its popular rentals of bikes, trikes, surreys, tandems, and roller blades. The four tours a day start on May 25 at $50 per person. I am guessing they will be very popular.

Sign me up!

Here is Dana Massing’s story in today’s Erie Times-News.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom of three and step grandmom of one.

In honor of Mother’s Day, I am reposting The Pennsylvania Conference for Women‘s e-mail message that quotes what women have said about their moms as role models — like the one at left. The Pennsylvania Conference for Women is the largest women’s conference in the state.  It is scheduled for Tuesday, October 29 in Philadelphia. Here are quotes from the website:

How was/is your mother a role model for your career?

My mom’s mantra was “make yourself indispensable” (i.e. do whatever’s needed, not just what you think you should be doing).

My mom always told us to do what makes us happy.

My mom had her own alteration business in 1948 before (and after) she got married. She taught me to be independent and not to settle – whip up a dress and a fabulous meal too.

My mom was a stay-at-home mom but also sold Tupperware and Avon. She had such a beautiful light about her, and people were drawn to her smile. I realized having positive energy and a good smile goes a long way.

Funny you should ask. I am a communications trainer and I reference her years in the banking industry all the time. I learned so much from her about how to treat people, how to be a true professional, and how to be a working mom. I am indebted to her entire generation of women who blazed a path for me and the women of my generation. I hope to do the same for my girls.

My mom didn’t have a high school diploma; she worked in sewing factories, long, hard hours for low wages, also waitressing. She inspired me to get an education so that I could earn a better life. I am grateful.

She told me to invent a product, I did, and millions of sales later I have her to thank!

Growing up, my sister and I witnessed my mother (a single parent) struggle and work long hours as a waitress. After many years she had enough and decided to better herself and her family by going back to school for nursing. While going to school full-time and working (and being a single parent was an even harder struggle), she graduated and has been a nurse for well over 10 years now. I am extremely proud of her hard work and dedication. Her persistence has taught me to succeed in everything I do. I would not be where I am in my career today if it were not for my mother.

My mom modeled communication, she took us to campaign, community, church…taught us to prioritize a balanced life…our God, our family, our community.

My mother started “take your daughter to work day” with two other women. She has paved the way for so many women scientists and inspired me to be a business owner. She’s my hero.

My mother owned a public relations company in the ’60s. She was very successful and always told me I had to find a career that I loved so that I would never have to depend on anyone else.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom of three and step grandmom of one.

Soap legend Katherine Chancellor of “The Young and the Restless” is a household name in soapdom. Jeanne Cooper played the role of the epic rich woman who battled alcoholism. She was a complicated character ever since 1973 — the first year of the soap. I watched in high school, college and later, but drifted away from it.

Cooper’s son, Corbin Bernsen (of LA Law), announced yesterday that his mother had died at age 84. She had been in and out of the hospital with an infection for the past month. She did participate in Y&R’s 40th anniversary celebration earlier this year.

Cooper was a pretty fascinating woman long before she hit soaps. She was in westerns, The Big Valley, Perry Mason, Bracken World, Ben Casey, and a host of other TV programs of the 1950s and 60s.

Here’s a 2009 interview with Cooper, courtesy of the Archive of American Television. She had a facelift on TV. Here’s a link to that interview. 

Her memoir is called “Not Young, Still Restless.” Read an excerpt here. 

Here’s her bio on SoapCentral.com

Here’s a link to the CBS website

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom of three and step grandmom of one.

Yes, it is May 8.

As the Poinsettia Blooms — sounds kind of like a soap opera name, doesn’t it? I like it. I am outside admiring the 13 pots of flowers we planted, but it’s my inside garden that is impressive. Here’s how the funny fauna family fares at Chez Parker:

My November poinsettia is still blooming — even has new red bracts  – it is sure to croak after I write this. Here’s a link to care and feeding of a poinsettia.  I have done none of the things on that website. I think I just got a hardy plant. It’s looking scraggly compared to its former holiday splendor, but it still lights up the living room with color that no other indoor plant delivers.

Over the years of countless poinsettia purchases, I tried only once to do the total darkness thing. My plant bloomed the following Easter … and then croaked.  Advice from the Dept. of Horticulture in Michigan (I chose that site because it had great month-by-month pictures) on the year-round care and feeding of a poinsettia) is this: “You must keep the plant in complete darkness between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. daily from the end of September until color shows in the bracts (early to mid-December).” I have seen variations on this theme, but it sounds like we would need a poinsettia sitter to handle that.

My indoor February shamrock is also flourishing, but that’s nothing new. I had one last year that I re-potted several times because it got so big. I set that one outside where it looked like a small shrub with a perfect shaped mound of green leaves and bundles of delicate white flowers … and then it died.

This one is very different — huge, dark green, leaves and delicate white flowers. We’ll see if it makes it to the outdoors where I am a geranium kind of girl. Geraniums are hardy and  never let me down in color and impact. The ground at this house is unforgiving to most plants — hence the 13 pots. I’ve kept geraniums alive year-round many times. When I was pregnant with my youngest, I had indoor blooms on five plants straight through the winter and into the spring when I moved the plants back outside. They liked the window seat better, but they were a beautiful addition to my old dining room.

Geraniums also keep bees away, I hear. I veered away from them for a few years in favor of some showy pots of colorful pansies and petunias, but I did not fare well with those beauties. They looked great in the spring and again in October. I couldn’t keep up with their needs, and neither could the waterboys — my two sons who were here last year and handled lawn and garden maintenance.

This year, I hope the geraniums are as hardy as the plants I had 21 years ago that moved indoors and kept my family smiling while we awaited the arrival of Ryan, my youngest.  If they don’t, maybe the poinsettia and shamrock will continue to bloom.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom of three and step grandmom of one.

It was quite a week for the 82-year-old “Oracle of Omaha.”

He joined Twitter saying, “Warren is in the house.” He also raised the roof and told the world how valuable women are to every business in a magazine article he wrote for Fortune. Read it here. In essence, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO says we need women in every occupation. Women are “the key to American prosperity,” he said.

He encourages women to be confident, and so does “Lean In,” Sheryl Sandberg’s book that discusses how women often hold themselves back. Read what Erie women think right here in a great story by Lindsey Poisson.

Check out Hathaway’s interview with Rebecca Jarvis on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” here.

Here’s an article on how Gen-Y women will close the salary gap. Read it here.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom of three and step grandmom of one.

I get a lot of e-mails about gifts for Moms, Dads and grads. Last year, I blogged that what grads want is plain old cash. Don’t get clever, just hand over the Benjamins.

Mom and Dad want greeting cards, gift cards and a few hours of your time — simple.

Finally a web site agrees. Here are the results of ShopAtHome.com’s latest survey results:

23 percent of moms and 30 percent of dads prefer gift cards over traditional gifts like perfume or clothes

Both moms and dads (52 and 48 percent, respectively) want their loved ones to spend $30 or below on a gift
22 percent of moms and 17 percent of dads prefer a simple greeting card
59 percent of graduates would like money as a graduation gift
In a press release, Lesley Kennedy, ShopAtHome.com senior managing editor suggests, “If you can save money finding a discounted gift card online and pair that with a heartfelt homemade card, a home-cooked meal or a simple phone call to say  ‘thanks, Mom and Dad.’”

Kennedy added that you can buy and trade gift cards on sites where you can save up to 30 percent on the cost.

ShopAtHome.com was founded in 1986 by husband-and-wife team Marc and Claudia Braunstein. It provides online coupons on the web. The survey took place on ShopAtHome.com’s Facebook page with more than 4.4 million Facebook fans. It had 1,825 respondents from April 18 to 24, 2013.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three, stepmom of three and step grandmom of one.

I am a follower of Gypsy Nesters — a baby boomer couple who sold their nest after the kids grew up. They pretty much travel the globe and tell us about it. An out-of-this-world discovery in Chattanooga, Tenn., is on their website. Here’s a slideshow that includes the home.

I love interesting homes, so to find out more, I discovered this funny video tour of the “utterly alien” house which “landed” in the 1970s. The accompanying voiceover suggests: “Get a glimpse of lifestyles of the upper middle class and not so famous” calling the living room “Area 55.”

Named among the World’s Wildest Houses on “This Old House,” it is described as the dream home of the late Curtis W. King who built it. The three-bedroom, two-bath house was sold in 2008 for a “down to Earth” $135,000 at auction.

That is a retractable staircase –quite an entrance for any Earthling or alien visitors.

Pam Parker has written about real estate, home improvement and remodeling for 25 years. She is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa. She is the mom of three and stepmom to three.