All of her life, Carri Weller had struggled with her weight. With food. With all of things that go into making lifestyles healthy. On the cusp of her 30th birthday, though, Weller had decided she had seen enough.

It’s not every day that a person can put the words “Atari 2600” and “education” together.

Call them sunshine ladies, the entertainment committee or the coffee lady. Title or not, almost every company and organization has a small group or individual who makes coffee for morning breaks, fills the candy dishes, organizes birthday parties and gives a whole lot extra of themselves without expecting anything in return.

For Sally Schierer, baking is no different than sewing a purse, by hand, from scrap material, growing a lemon tree from seed or stroking paint on a canvas. "I'm a creative person. I like to take something and make something else out of it," she says. "I do it all through the house, the garden and the yard."

After Eric Knowlton's promotion, he started thinking about his shoes. At 300-plus pounds, tying his shoes in the morning was a challenge.

Weekly food rail, with tips on soaking dry beans, an easy recipe for Dorito casserole, the latest from The Beer Nut, and more.

Most of us take speaking skills for granted. For some, learning to communicate is hard-earned. In his nine years, Cole Bennett hasn’t been able to verbalize his thoughts. But he is learning now, thanks to a speech-generating device. He is learning to communicate with Tobii Assistive Technology.

Tori Michaels' work in life is often misunderstood, feared even. "There were people who actually grabbed their children and ran away. They said I was working with the devil," said Michaels, a feng shui consultant who moved to the Peoria, Ill., area from St. Louis a couple years ago.

In Port-au-Prince, the common Haitian practice of constantly singing and praying out loud sounded so strange to the two nurses from Massachusetts. It was stranger still to discover, amid terrible destruction, that Haitians sang songs of thanks.

Erik Piantedosi, owner of Piantedosi Butcher Shop in Plymouth, says shoppers are “better off going to an independently owned (shop), so you can see the meat when we cut it.”

Weekly health rail, with items on Diabetes Alert Day, the most obese metropolitan areas, tips for storing vitamins, and more.

According to a NASA scientist, the Chilean earthquake has moved the Earth’s axis and shortened our day.

On one side, a collection of health-conscious renegades say aspartame is bad and should be banned. They blame it for causing leukemias, lymphomas and other cancers. They claim it exacerbates problems with lupus, multiple sclerosis and diabetes and may even be responsible for the epidemic of diabetes. That's just the beginning. Web sites with names like sweetpoison.com and aspartamekills.com leave no doubt about their position.

One of the easiest ways to add flavor is with marinades. With a marinade, a simple piece of meat, poultry or fish goes from plain to tantalizing. Suddenly, you are having dinner in Europe, or Asia, or the Caribbean, depending on the individual components.

Dog Lady offers advice on picky pooches, and why a man's late dog doesn't show up in his dreams.