Category: Finances

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Aspiring Musicians

A very good friend of mine I grew up with, is an aspiring musician, and is brilliant when it comes to tweaking his voice to sound like absolute heaven. When I moved to this town when I about twelve years old, he was the first friend I made that lived right next door. Ever since we have been inseparable.

I even remember the first day we moved into our new home, I turned on the music in the garage and started doing cart wheels in the backyard, while he was jumping up and down on his trampoline in his backyard with a friend. Both of them were about 10 years old and had toy microphones in their hands, something I found later to be his sisters toy microphones. They were both singing and raping while jumping on that trampoline, it was too funny.

We noticed we all loved music, and we all started hanging out and playing together. I have watched him grow from that young boy into the talented man he is today. The last time I saw him was two months ago, before he moved about forty miles away to live with his girlfriend, whom is also a good friend of mine since forever ago. Before he left he invited me to a show his was performing at, and I was ecstatic to see him perform finally after all these years.

He expressed an interest in finding a microphone he could find for an affordable price, so he could practice at home before his show date. I remembered the night before coming across a site that offered just that, so I told him that there were microphones for sale as well as some sweet looking new and used mitchell guitars at M F’s, and to check their site out.

He called me a few days later and told me that not only did her order a microphone but he also ordered lehle amp that he found that he is absolutely thrilled to have now. I’m happy I could help him prepare for such a great event I can see him perform at, and see how he can change the world with his beautiful voice.

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Green Issues

I figure that we need to go as “green” as we all can possibly become these days. I’ve been told that there are website hosting companies that are doing what they can in order to become environmentally friendly, which I think is pretty darn cool. I’ve always been a recycling freak. I grew up with parents from the “hippie” generation and recycling has always been something that just came naturally due to their generation and their lifestyles.

There is so much more to being “green” than recycling, but it is something that we all can do and should be doing as much as possible. Where I live our taxes pay for our trash removal and recycling pick-ups. They provide us with the bins, one for plastic and glass, the other one for paper.

Each week all we need to do is place the containers on the curbside and the truck comes and picks them up and hauls them away. The only way that they can make it any easier would be to provide a person to stand in the corner of the kitchen or garage and separate and dispose of the items, and that just isn’t realistic now is it.

So I don’t understand why there aren’t more blue bins on the curb on recycling day. It really irks me to know that people are just to darn lazy to make such a small effort that would make such a difference to us all in the end.

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Dad, My Handy Man

At some point I will take the time and look for some new exterior shutters for the place. Each time my parents come over my father points out what a difference a pair of exterior shutters would make for the front of the house. He has even offered to look around for and with me when I’m ready to commit, so that would be cool.

My father has always been handy around the house and the yard, so any time he wants to give me a hand around the place, I’m all for it!

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Finding The Perfect Boss Guitar Pedals

There was no way that I would have thought it to be such a challenge to find the right boss guitar pedal to give to my kid brother for his 19th birthday, which will eventually come this May 17th. I have  been looking online a bit here and there and I just felt that it was all over my head. I know that he really wants a boss guitar pedal, a tc electronic flashback delay toneprint  but there are just too many of them out there for me to choose from, so I am going to play it safe and give him a gift card for $100 and tell him to find the right one and put that money towards purchasing the correct one that he wants.

There is going to be a good sized birthday celebration dinner at our folk’s place. Not sure how many are expected to show up. But then we never know until it happens with this very large family that is know for last minutes circumstances. It’s such a drag that so many of us have moved so far away and we don’t get together much these past several years. So we will see who turns up to help celebrate Steve’s 19th birthday. This will be that last birthday that entitles him to be called and/or referred to as a teenager! It’s a pot luck dinner so I think that I’ll bring my well received meatballs to share this time around. I haven’t made them in a while and they are always a big hit.

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Games For Girls

It wasn’t too awfully long ago that one would have a hard time finding games that targeted the girls that spend a good amount of time playing games online. But there has been a big push to get more games out there and I’m glad to see that it is working.

My 12 year old daughter enjoys all types of games, but there are times that she really wants to enjoy being a young girl, and doing girlie things, so I’m glad that she found a site that is all about  Girl Games at Easygirlgames.com.  She tells me that they are pretty easy, fun and that they have a wide range of games for girls spend their free time checking out. She is getting too old for toys, but still a bit young for boys and still spends most of her time at home, rather than running the roads or hanging at the mall with her friends. So gaming is a good way for her to spend some of her free time.

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Sound Great On Or Off Stage

It really thrills me to hear from my youngest nephew Todd that the amplifier for the acoustic guitar is totally appreciated. And that it is being used, along with the beyerdynamic headphone set, so I am told, almost on a daily basis as well as providing a sound great on stage when they manage to actually land a gig.  I managed to get a few of my sisters and brothers, his aunts and uncles, to contribute enough of their hard earned cash together to get him a good quality amp that I found online for a real sweet deal. It arrived in plenty of time and we didn’t have to pay any shipping or handling, so that was a major plus that helped me convince some of these relatives that aren’t known for wanting to spend any money on anyone other than their selves.

It’s pretty cool that over the past couple of years I have been doing more and more of my shopping online. Last Christmas holiday, I didn’t have to go to the local mall or any of the other numerous brick and mortar stores in the area. The only things that I had to go out and purchase were the food and of course the gas that it took to get there and back. There are places that will and do deliver food products but they come with a price. It’s hard to get anything for free around this part of the country, except for online purchases.

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Make An Impression With Vistaprint

Who isn’t familiar, by now, with Vistaprint and their very affordable business cards that so many of us have ordered and are using right this minute, some where, by somebody out there. I mean think about it –  having a business card is a very big deal and business is booming for Vistaprint who is well established and well known from all the attention that it has received via the Internet and the TV.

What gets me is that I had no idea that they had other products and items for sale, which I found online at Vistaprint dot com only because I was looking at BestOnlineCoupons dot com, which is a site that I always look at before buying anything online. The have the best coupons and coupon codes, promotions, free shipping offers, all kinds of special offers for online shoppers like myself. So I’ve made it a habit to look there first and I can tell you that I have saving a good chunk of change by getting into that routine.

This time around I found Vistaprint coupons and tons of other listings for savings for Vistaprint orders, like a Vistaprint free shipping code along with some Vistaprint coupon codes that can add up to real savings. Codes are becoming the way to go online these days. It drives me crazy when I order something that I found on the Internet and when I’m filling out my name, address, etc it asks if I have any coupon codes and I find myself lacking one I just don’t feel right and take a peek at BestOnlineCoupons dot com and see if I can find one, most of the time I can, considering the sheer amount of online merchants that they have listed there to be taken advantage of.

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Memories of Beauty Pageant Contests

I spent the afternoon cleaning out my closet. After I got the clothing situation under control, I just had to do something about all the shoes that used to be so organized, but has turned into one big pile of smelly footwear that just gets on my last nerve, so I took control over that real quick like and moved onto the shelves that I had so much crap crammed on that I’m surprised they hadn’t fallen down from it all.

I found a box, way in the back of the top shelve that I haven’t seen in so many years. It has the home made crown and banner from my oldest daughter’s first beauty pageant that she was in. The youngest age bracket for that pageant was for 3 and 4 year old girls, my daughter turned 3 only 2 days before the actual pageant so she just barely was old enough and was the youngest contestant by far in the entire pageant. We video taped it and I wish that I had put that video tape in the box along with the other mementos from that wonderful day. She did so well and actually came in and blew the other toddlers away, many of which had all ready been in pageant contest and came home with the largest and prettiest crown of the day.

I still have the little sailor suit and hat that my mother purchased for her to wear, but some how the pageant fancy dress has disappeared throughout the years, it cost me $48, a lot of money back then for a new mother to come up with at that time, but it was worth every penny of it and at least we have the video to watch and enjoy for many years to come.

 

 

 

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Clocks, Clocks & More Clocks

My oldest niece is a dolphin fan. She wants to go to college and become a marine biologist and I think that she can do what it takes to make that dream come true. She gets good grades, has a great attitude and is all in all a real good kid. She has a birthday coming up and I want to get her something that she will like and appreciate, so I’ve been looking around at dolphin related products and found a really nice dolphin wall clock that I think would look good in her room, it is only $58.77 from 1-800-4clocks.com.

dolphin-clock

They have a huge selection of clocks to choose from at 1-800-4clocks dot com, grandfather clocks, grandmother clocks, wall clocks, mantel clocks, atomic clocks, old antique and new clocks as well. It was fun looking through them all last night. I saw many that brought back memories from my childhood. My grandparents had the most wonderful mantel clock that I’ll never forget and wish that it had been left to me, but alas one of my cousins beat me to it, sigh…….

I have to tell you that they also have the most wonderful blog on this site as well. I don’t usually spend too much time reading companies blogs but I found the most interesting post there titled “Clocks White House History Throughout Time” that I would encourage anyone to take a few minutes and read. With the White House in the spotlight so much these days, I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard about all the clocks that have graced the White House’s walls and mantels, it really is an interesting read.

 

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Web Hostings

I was doing some looking around online this afternoon at work. Most of us had a few minutes to spare before heading out into the rush hour traffic so it’s time like this that we take advantage of having Internet access at our desks. The topic of conversation lately has been web hosting. I had no idea that there were so many web hosting companies offering so many varieties of options. One of the girls at work discovered that there are several webhosting sites that are going green, which we all thought was pretty cool, so we checked them out real quick like.

There is a great web site that has ratings and reviews of various webhostings at webhostingrating dot com. It really has a lot of good information that we have all enjoyed and learned from. When we get our teeth into something we really chew on it for a good long while until we spit it out to be done with it and we have just about worn this subject out at this point. But I am going to look at a few more options and I want to read some more of the reviews and then we can move on to another subject for next week. Lord knows what that will be!