The Baltimore City Health Department has a terrific men's clinic, which offers free care of many types. They do more than offer an ample supply of medical services; they also help with things like help finding a job and a house. Their website says in part:

Services

Primary care
Assistance in filling out applications for housing
Referrals for dental and specialty care
Pharmacy and medical assistance
Substance abuse treatment
Vision services
Employment assistance
Health screenings
Medication monitoring
Community health care outreach

Walk-ins are fine, but you also have the option of making an appointment. You can get vaccines and testing for HIV. STIs and diabetes while you are there.

http://baltimorehealth.org/mhc.html

On May thirteenth you can go to a free seminar on the ins and outs of buying a residence in Baltimore.

Topics include:'

Incentives to Buying a House in Baltimore
Obtaining a Mortgage
Using a Realtor
The City’s Vacants to Value Program
Tax Benefits to Buying and Working in a Home
Benefits to living and working in one of the city’s 3 Arts and Entertainment Districts

Get all the info and register for the event here: http://whatweekly.com/mindyourbiz/

This Sunday, April 28, the Walters Museum in Baltimore is hosting a free tour called Castles and Cathedrals. It takes place at one pm and lasts for one hour. The focus will be on Medieval art. You can learn more about the Walters' Medieval art collection at this link: http://art.thewalters.org/browse/category/medieval-europe/

More details about the tour can be found here: http://thewalters.org/events/eventdetails.aspx?e=2941

The Anne Arundel Medical Center has a new facility that gives patients and family members a place to stay that is a great price for the Annapolis area. Called the Hackerman-Patz House, the house is right on the Anne Arundel Medical Center campus. Their website states:

Guest accommodations at the Hackerman-Patz House include:
20 guest rooms equipped with a queen bed or two twin beds and sitting area
Mini refrigerator, telephone, internet, cable television and DVD player
Handicap accessible room options
Our common areas include:
Multi-purpose media room, playroom, and guest laundry
Great room, kitchen, and terrace
Wireless internet throughout the house

http://www.aahs.org/gethere/hackerman-patz.php#welcome

The Walters Art Museum (which has a mummy!) is hosting a free Victorian Festival on April 13th. You don't need to preregister, just pick up and go. There are plenty of things to do as per this list from their website:

Share your stories using a printing press and send a secret message using morse code. Create and play 19th century parlor games from the past, hop into our early childhood area to meet Peter Rabbit and enjoy captivating performances all day long. Strap on your suspenders as we create Victorian art together!

You can get the details here: http://thewalters.org/eventscalendar/eventdetails.aspx?e=2973

It's time to start dreaming of warm weather and gardening. This could be the best time of the year, when our gardens are still imaginary, which also means they can be perfect in our heads.

If you're planning on growing peppers and tomatoes, as many of us are, it might be time to start your seeds indoors.

Once again Tomato Bobs is having their fifty cents sales, where seed packets are discounted to fifty cents. Each month there will be different seeds for sale. For February there are tomatoes, peas, carrots, lettuce seeds for fifty cents. There are also several vegetable seeds on sale for a dollar and many of the new peppers (which come in a big variety of choices) are marked down also.

http://www.shop.tomatobob.com/Sales-and-Specials_c19.htm?page=all

Mike Holmes, of Holmes Makes it Right and Holmes on Homes on HGTV, has written an interesting piece on plugging the cold spots and drafts around your house. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/homes/What+really+causing+that+draft/779520...

He stresses that the usual suspects are often not really the problem. Case in point, window frames are often rotting and putting in all new double glazed fancy windows is going to be expensive and not do anything to solve the problem. He also talks about the attic, and has some facts that surprised me, like that the attic should be the same temperature as the outdoors.

The Pratt library in Baltimore has three terrific animated films coming up in the next couple of months. This weekend is Brave, ParaNorman is in February and Hop is in March. http://www.prattlibrary.org/booksmedia/blog/prattchat.aspx?id=78066&blog...

You can see my comments about Brave here: http://qualitytimeweekly.com/content/brave and ParaNorman here: http://qualitytimeweekly.com/content/paranorman

Here's a nice tutorial for anyone who wants to make a circle skirt and is a little confused by a full circle, a half circle or a quarter circle. Courtesy of By Hand By London. Even if math isn't your strong suit you should still take a look at this tutorial if you want to male your own very simple skirts.

http://byhandlondon.com/2012/09/06/circle-skirt-maths-explained/

I don't have the details but there are a lot of warnings about being careful post super storm/hurricane Sandy. Lots of autos and other valuables were damaged in the storm and will declared totaled or unsalvageable by the insurance companies.

The problem with this is unscrupulous con artists will buy up, or just plain haul away, the damaged goods, then clean them up and sell them as though nothing whatsoever happened. With autos you should be able to get the history of the vehicle before purchasing, which should tip you off (at which point I would report the seller) but I'm not sure how you should protect yourself against purchasing other damaged goods.

Some websites specialize in "salvageable" items, which you can often buy in lots, and they usually tell you where these things come from, but I would still be very careful.