My wife and I have entirely different tastes in furniture. I really enjoy the looks of modern furniture; my wife prefers traditional. It has been very interesting to see how eclectic our house looks with the mix and match furnishings that are in each room. At least I know one thing is for sure, if we split up we wouldn’t have many arguments over the furniture; I’d get all of the modern stuff, the platform beds and the wide screen tv. She’d get everything else.
It’s funny to see the expression on her face when I bring something new home that I want to put in the house. She doesn’t want to hurt my feelings because she sees how excited I am about my “find.” But I can tell by the way she pauses before speaking and the expression on her face that she really doesn’t want what I brought home. I wonder if I’m acting out some passive aggressive feelings when I do that!
I’m really looking forward to the party we’re planning to have this Labor Day weekend. Over the past several months we’ve lined up a DJ and a professional belly dancer to entertain our guests, bought several canopy tents, new Barbecue tools and cleaned up and tuned up the propane grill that we bought last year.
My wife bought a new outdoor swing that has an awning over the top of it and cup holders in the arms. She’s been wanting one of those for a few years now, and was using the party as an excuse to buy it. I wasn’t very happy about it at the time, but it sure is more comfortable than the folding chairs we’ve been using the past few years.
Now the countdown begins. I’m looking forward to a great time!
I got an email a couple of days ago that had a lot of photos included of tiny baby sculptures. The email claimed that the sculptures were made of marzipan. Well, the sculptures were truly remarkable, but I found that they were not of marzipan. They are porcelain. Extreme talent, big money! I wish I had that kind of talent! The artist’s name is Camille Allen, and she sells her sculptures on the Internet. I was enjoying looking at her website and was reading about how some of her scultures are one of a kind, but some are reproduced in resin in bulk in China. I found it interesting that the website explains that the only reason they are made in China is because there are no manufacturers in the USA that are capable of producing them.
I think that is part of the problem with our struggling economy – too many of our industrial jobs have left the country and gone overseas to countries with lax environmental laws and cheap labor. Well, this post wasn’t going to be preachy about our economy….. but it turned out that way!
I’ve heard that Myrtle Beach is getting a large amount of people this summer season. Since the major oil company, B.P. has trashed so many of the other beaches, folks are finding that Myrtle Beach has nice clean water and beaches to offer the general public and is welcoming them with open arms.
Summer is almost over and I don’t have any vacation days left for this year, but I would like to look into visiting Myrtle Beach next summer. I have not been there for a good long while and it would be good to see how it has changed since I’ve been there last. I enjoy the ocean and enjoy a good challenging game of golf and Myrtle Beach has both of these qualities.
I was online earlier and found a website http://avistaresort.com that is advertising some nice looking and sounding resorts in Myrtle Beach that I’d love to stay at next year. It is great that the Internet makes find a good Myrtle Beach hotel a much easier task to tackle. I have plenty of time to find the perfect accommodations and will keep you posted on what I discover.
Reading the tech newsletter that the New York Times sends out, I found an interesting article about big companies using the internet to advertise and they are retargeting their web site visitors to close more sales.
Some internet consultants are retargeting companies with their banner ads. They evidently latch onto you while you are browsing their online store. But if you leave their site without making purchase, they will follow you as you click through to other sites and continue displaying tempting banner ads to try and get you to return to their site and buy their product. That’s a little spooky to me, but evidently there are several big companies already doing this and it is proving to be a very successful technique.
The term remarketing must refer to the fact that you are shown an ad based on your previous browsing experience. The first time you see their ad is their marketing. Then when you leave that site and you see their ad on a different site, that is the secondary or remarketing part.
All this talk about grilling and steaks is starting to make me hungry. I think I’ll stop by the grocery on the way home tonight and pick up a couple of nice thick T-bones. I want some fresh corn on the cob, too.Corn is in season and very inexpensive right now. I might get an extra ear for myself because I really do like grilled corn on the cob.
We will be cooking out and dining well tonight, folks!
While I’m thinking about grilling steaks, I have to let everyone know about this new line of A-1 sauce marinades. I found these in the barbecue sauce area of the grocery store. The name A-1 is what caught my eye, after all, when you say steak sauce, A-1 is the first name that comes to mind.
Well, the good folk at A-1 have brought out two distinct flavors of marinade for beef. There is the Chicago style and the New York style. I bought the Chicago style, and let me tell you, I’m not cooking steaks with anything else ever again!
Since we have been having such extreme heat with little rainfall that people are turning to rain water barrels to harvest water for their yards and gardens. It seems that rain harvesting has become a positive effort to help the huge “Green” effort that is going on these past few years. You can find some pretty interesting rain barrels for sale on the Internet. Amazing the variety of rain barrels that have come on the market for today’s rain harvesters.
These dry summers are really starting to become a struggle each year. Mother Nature is certainly not happy with us. Winter was hard and then we went straight into the 90’s and higher. We didn’t even get one day of nice spring weather. I can only hope that we get some type of fall weather before the snow start falling once again. Next thing you know it is going to be the holidays and all that goes along with that each year. Isn’t that a pleasant thought to think of right now?
Have a craving for a hot dog. Even better, a chili dog would be great.
The best place to get a chili dog around here is at the Sonic drive in. I like the way you pull into a parking stall and place the order over a speaker, then a server brings the order out to your car.
The Sonic has really good onion rings, and their drink happy hour is a good bargain. Usually I order a cherry limeade or a Route 44 cherry coke.
I moved to a southern state to avoid the horribly cold winters I have endured for 30 years of my life. I figured this was going to be great since I would be outdoors most of the year, I really wouldn’t have much need for Internet and cable services like I needed when I lived up north.
Boy was I wrong. Okay so here’s the deal, some of the year, yes it is just gorgeous, and sunny. Then it doesn’t get frigid cold, it goes the opposite way and gets boiling hot. So hot indeed, you cannot enjoy the outdoors at all. Inside I go again, now with central airbecause this is a must have. Now that I am stuck inside again, well its time for cable.
You really cannot rely on rabbit ears in this rural community, you can’t get a signal. You have to have cable to be able to watch a show. I called the cable company and guess what? They are actually pretty fast at getting out right away, thank goodness. I informed them that I have a computer and they asked me if I wanted a Clear TV Bundle. They explained how it is always cheaper to do cable and internet bundles together the first time, although the cable company can add a service into a bundle at any time. The cable company provided all the tools I needed to get hooked up. And having one bill to pay is just awesome. The more you can bundle the more you save in the end. I love this service and it is very convenient for me. They were fast, on-time, and courteous to do this all on the same day. Thank goodness for bundles, you need them no matter where you live.
Several months ago, I was channel surfing on the satellite TV at my office we got from directv for corporations looking for something good to watch. A channel that I scanned quickly past caught my eye and I had to turn it back. At the time I skipped over it, what appeared to be a man in a graveyard was apparently fighting a zombie or something with a shiny chrome knife. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m a big fan of zombie movies. With this vision passing quickly by my eyes, you can easily understand why my interest was peaked.
Well, when I landed back on the channel, it was exactly what it appeared to be and I thought to myself that I finally found something really good on. The surprise to me was that it was on a regular channel and not on a premium channel. The name of the show is “Supernatural” and it is by far the best science fiction TV series on the air today.
The show follows two brothers named Dean and Sam that are demon hunters. They travel all across the United States looking for demons to fight and send back to the dark realm. All the while, demons and a few angels are chasing after Dean and Sam trying to stop them. Dean and Sam are on a mission to stop the war between Heaven and Hell by all means necessary and the angels and demons don’t want them to stop it. The angels believe that this war must take place in order to finally put Lucifer to rest. The demons simply desire to take over the world. Lucifer has even made a few special appearances. The great thing about this show is that it is so well wrote and directed, it doesn’t look like the normal ugly, brutal demons you would expect and the angels don’t even have wings. Very good show and I highly recommend watching at least one episode to give it a try.
My family and I now have a normal Thursday night ritual. Pop a bag of popcorn and settle in to watch Supernatural.
We all have things that we are interested in and find ourselves collecting pieces now and then, here and there. The flea market is a great place to find all types of treasures, from all over. The one flea market that is open only on Sunday has such a diverse flavor to it. People from all over the world go there and it is best described as being “Spicy” which is cool by me.
It’s a good place to find unique treasures that you wouldn’t necessarily find at most market places. Of course you can always go online and find most of the items but what fun is there in that. On a nice day it does a body good to get outside and spend the day walking and talking with people from a variety of places. I’m sure I could find some Himalayan Salt Lamps or a Native American War Bonnet online somewhere, it might take a little digging, but finding one at the market just gets the endorphins going and makes for a pleasant day all the way around.
Most of us are doing a good amount of our shopping online these days. There are good deals to be found for people that take just a bit of there time and do a bit of “Googling” and follow through with some good old fashioned research. With as many search engines and searching sites available to us with just a few short key strokes it feeds us the information that we are looking for. We truly are a society looking for instant gratification and we usually get just that with all of today’s technology that is bringing us more goodies to make things easier, more compact and faster every time we turn around.
I am need of a new pair of eyeglasses and have heard of Zenni Optical before, so I checked them out online last night for a few minutes. They have complete eyeglasses that start at only $8 a pair and they have a great variety of eye wear to choose from on their website. It didn’t take me long to place my order. I’ll pay $4.95 for shipping and will receive a hard case, a cleaning cloth and they will be UV protected with an anti-scratch coating on them as well. It sounds good to me and if I like what I get I’ll be ordering more and passing the good word around.
I think that Seiko Automatic Watches would make great college graduation gifts! I can remember how grown up I felt when I got my very first watch. I was quite young, but my father gave it to me along with a speech about how time flies and how time is more valuable than money. I never really understood that until I got a lot older. But now that I AM older I think that giving a really nice watch as a graduation gift really would be fitting – a reminder of how valuable time really is, and how little of it we have to enjoy the gifts of life, love, and laughter.
Last night while watching television before retiring for the night a commercial came on informing us that the real estate tax benefit has been extended, once again. That is good news for a lot of people that are looking and are now in the position to purchase a home. There are great deals on houses right now and sales are picking up more and more. I have a close friend who is a real estate agent who has been struggling due to the economy, like so many of us are. But she tells me that sales are picking up and that there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, which is awesome news, all the way around.
I’m told that qualified home buyers are being urged to act as soon as possible and to have a written binding contract by this April 30th and to be able to close by June 30th of this year of 2010. I found this video and thought I’d post it here for grins and giggles. And for more information I urge you to visit http://bit.ly/5D6mKg for all of the pertinent information concerning this extension. There are strict guidelines involved and this site gives a pretty good over view of all that you need to know.
When we first bought this house, we knew that we were going to want to do a little bit of remodeling down the road. Well, we’ve done a little bit here and there, and now we are taking a look at what we can do with the kitchen without spending too much money. Kitchen remodeling is a high-budget project! But fortunately I think I can do quite a bit of the work myself. Instead of replacing the cabinets, I’m going to take off the doors and repaint them and replace the knobs.
I’d like to buy two undermount kitchen sinks to increase the efficiency of the kitchen. My wife is always telling me that we should have extra sinks in the kitchen, to accommodate several people cooking. Since we both like to cook, I think that is a great idea! They don’t have to both be full sized, but an extra sink would be fantastic!
Today I was shopping at a local drug store and witnessed a shoplifter getting caught. He was leaving the store, and set off the electronic alarms. The store manager happened to be near the door at the time and called out to the man to stop. Why the man stopped and came back, I’m not sure! I think if he had bolted he would have gotten away! But he stopped and came back into the store. The manager asked the man to show him what was in his pockets. The man started going through his pockets, pulling out things like cell phones and packets of gum.
The manager asked him to remove his coat, but the man pretended to not understand English. At that point, the cashier that was waiting on me excused herself and went over to the two men and started talking to the man in halting Spanish. The man took off his coat and handed it to the manager. The manager promptly found an unpaid razor. Then the manager showed it to the shoplifter and the shoplifter feigned surprise and apologized. The manager told the shoplifter that he had to leave the store and never come back. And he told him that if he did ever come back that he would call the police.
So that was an interesting event to watch. I”d never seen the apprehension of a shoplifter before!
This is the time of year when my wife and I start seeing advertisements for flower and garden shows. We have made it a tradition to go to them if it all possible. We set aside the day and drive to the show and take our time and walk around the displays. There are usually some really spectacular landscapes put up! After we go through the landscape displays, we like to go through the vendor area. The vendor area is full of trade show booths filled with all sorts of goodies. Some are actually garden related, but some are just food, or crafts. That’s OK, though. The food vendors usually give away free samples! And my wife enjoys looking at the crafts and getting ideas on expanding her own crafty interests!
Most of the booths are very well appointed with table skirts. A few are not, however, and I have to say that those tables really look naked in comparison to those that do! Some of the larger vendors that sell equipment go all out with the addition of banner stands and pipe and drape dividers. I always find it interesting to see who is doing what with their display booths.
Lately my wife has gone on a kick about wearing work clothing for everyday life activities. She especially likes wearing men’s work clothes. She says that she can find a better fit in the pants because she can buy the pants by waist and inseam, which she can’t do with women’s clothing. And the work wear tends to have good, deep pockets, which you can’t find in women’s clothes. And she LOVES pocket! She says she sure gets tired of dragging her purse around, and with the extra cargo pockets found in a lot of workwear clothing she can put most of her important stuff right on her and not worry about a purse!
I have to admit that I never really thought much about how women have to carry purses because their clothes don’t often have functional pockets in them. I don’t think I’d like to be such a slave to fashion that I gave up my pockets either! And I can certainly appreciate not wanting to lug a purse around – you always have to worry about it being stolen, or left behind, or where to put it where it won’t get too dirty or wet. And men’s wear tends to be less expensive and last longer than women’s clothes too, which makes them a smart purchase!
I’ve been having a little bit of back pain lately and have decided to try one of those Wellpatch pain patches for a backache. Boy that patch sure was cold going on my back! After a short while, though, I could feel the chemical burn on my skin. I’m a skeptic about things like that working, but it does seem to be helping a little bit. Maybe it’s the placebo effect; I don’t know. But I think the next time I have a back ache I’ll give it another try!
General life, Home and Garden, Relationships, Shopping | Dean | 
September 2, 2010 10:41 pm | 
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