What's the last good deed you did?

I was leaving an office building downtown and noticed a guy on the sidewalk.  As I opened the door and took a few steps, I then observed he had some paperwork in his hands, he was looking at the meter and searching his pockets for change.

I had my wallet out 'cause I'd just put some change in my space, so I offered him a quarter, put it in the meter for him and asked if that would be enough.  He said it was and kindly thanked me.

I stop by and check on the 84 year old man across the street every now and then.  He never invites me in, but we usually have a nice little chat on his doorstep.

Donated to a non profit last night!

Held a door open.
Shoveled the neighbor's walk (he's got a snowblower, but it doesn't do stairs very well)

Saved the IT guys a trip to pick up two laptops from our downsizing (we're keeping the laptops for another project)

Every morning on my way home from work, if I'm working nights, and on my way to work if on days.  I drive by an elderly friend of the families, pick up her newspaper, poke a hole in the plastic, and hang it from her door knob.  That way all she has to do is open the door and get her morning paper.   I also serve as her handyman.

-- Took all the decent but unused coats in the house to the clothing drive for a local Eagle Scout project.

-- Went to the swim club budget meeting.  (Not really a good deed, but they seemed worried about having a quorum, and it's just an hour, so I went.)

-- Was patient with my grandmother (which gets harder every day.)

I had the local city PD escort/drive a drunk girl home after she was kicked out of a cab for puking on the cabby's floor. I could have transported her to a hospital to sleep it off at the cost off about 1400 bucks (600 for the ambulance and 800 for the ER visit) but I genuinely felt bad for her since her friends obviously ditched her.

Bripod - 2009-01-22 7:23 PM In November I decided that as a gift to my MIL for her birthday I'd make her whatever dessert she wanted [we kids were having a potluck to celebrate with her, that way she wouldn't have to cook or pay for us all to eat out for HER birthday!]. She's the type of person who almost hates it when people go out of their way for her. It's the acid to her alkaline, if you catch my drift. Finally she caved in and told me that when she was growing up her mom would make an angel food cake [with the little color dots because she and her siblings knew that they made it taste better!] and covered it with "sticky white frosting" which is basically a meringue that tastes like marshmallow creme. So I went ahead and made that for her and I'm sure she loved it. Now it's my brother-in-law's birthday coming up in Feb that we're co-celebrating with my wife's birthday which was about a week ago. I found out that his favorite dessert is cheesecake so right now in the oven is my very first attempt at a cheesecake. Once it's done it's going into the fridge and then after it has cooled completely my wife and I are going to sample it, then she's going to take the remains to her co-workers as a nice little Friday treat [if it's any good--if it's not then we'll spare them and just give it to the neighbors ]. If it does come out good then I'll make my BIL's vanilla custard pie cheesecake on Saturday so it has time to cool by lunch on Sunday. I think there's something about food that just tells people, "Hey, I took the time to prepare this for you because I love/appreciate/respect/want to honor you." I have decided that this dessert thing will become my own "tradition" for each family member or friend's birthday.

Two cheesecake hints..I love to experiment with them but don't like cheesecake so I never eat them, they are the most requested thing I make for potlucks and family gatherings.

to avoid the top cracking, fill a glass 13x9 baking dish with warm water and place on the bottom rack of the oven when cooking the cheesecake on the top rack.  The humidity from the water stops the cheesecake from cracking.

Let it cool as almost completely before putting it in the fridge, will also help avoid cracks in the top.

I keep myself busy, but there are two that stand out.  We had a bunch of snow in seattle over the holidays and the garbage trucks were unable to make the rounds for 3 weeks.  A few days after Christmas the city set up neighborhood collection sites.  I loaded my mom's outback with 2 weeks of trash and a month of recycling.  There was a bit of room left so I added all of my next door neighbors overflow.

I drove the very slippery half mile to the site and the Disposal folks unloaded the outback.  It didn't take to long, so when I got back home I emptied all the trash cans and half of each recylcing bin for the cul-de-sac (4 houses). 

I don't know if they ever realized that I played garbage-man over the holidays.

the other...It was just for fun.  It was awesome having all the snow here.  I really wanted to pass the wonderful snow experience on for others to enjoy.  The thing is, most people here were already overdosed.  I thought over all the people I know, trying to decide who a bit of winter wonderland would mean the most to.  And I decided...

I made a special Christmas gift box:

I stuck it in the freezer overnight and the morning of the 23rd of December I filled it with snow (after placing in a well wrapped block of dry ice) and prepared it for the post office.  From what I hear, there were some really excited girls in Bartow, Florida on Christmas eve.  Mike's (Triguynewbie) girls experienced snow for the very first time, despite the fact that it was sunny and 75°F.