Category: Shopping

Posted on

Paper Trade Account

This morning I am taking advantage of a nice quiet house, not that it is ever loud, to get online and learn more about the stock market. It seems to me that the huge decline in stocks these past several years or so has brought the price of many stocks down to a price point where there are good opportunities for smart investors. Four years ago if you told me to invest a couple thousand dollars into a handful of stocks, I would not have gotten much for money. The price per share would have been so high that I would not have many shares. Now that the price has dropped to what I call an adjusted level of reasonable price points, the challenge is to find the businesses that offer good value for the investment and that have a good to excellent chance of coming through this recession as a healthier, stronger company.

If you find the right companies for this investment strategy, you will be rewarded in a few years with rebounding share prices. A good friend told me about a web site that is an online stock broker and also a great learning tool. They have a great feature called a “paper trade account” so that you can play the market without risking real cash. Once you are comfortable with the results of your paper trading efforts, you can easily open a real account and manage your real shares. What a wonderful idea that I believe I am going to check out here real soon and would urge others to try out as well, just to get a good idea of how it all works before jumping in.

Posted on

The Old Homestead Crying Out For A New Kitchen Undermount Sink

It really shouldn’t surprise me that so many things are in such bad shape around here, but with so little time and little money to put back into the old homestead it sure is frustrating and very disappointing. The latest thing that I have discovered is the need for a new Undermount Sink in the kitchen.

Now instead of going into town and spending the time and money that it takes for the gasoline that it takes for the trip, I have asked my eldest sister to take a look for me on the Internet to help find some sites that have affordable Undermount Sinks. Since she is very familiar with everything around here just about as well as I am and I trust her judgement since she helps out more than anyone else around the house when she is able. Right now I really have my hands full on the farm, this crazy weather makes farming so much harder to deal with, so any help right now is totally appreciated.

I don’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I tend to buy frozen dinners that you just toss in the microwave for a few minutes. Eat it while watching the TV or sitting in front of my computer. When I’m done eating, everything expect the fork and the glass that I have used goes right into the trash, so there isn’t a lot of dishes and clean up in that old kitchen, but I don’t want to wait much longer to where it will turn into a real pain in the neck.

Posted on

Role Playing Games

My brother has discovered an awesome role playing game on the Internet called World of Warcraft, which I’ve heard about, but know nothing about. He was telling me about the game and wants me to join in the fun and play along with him. From what I understand, you download the software and sign up for the game online and then you buy a wow game card so that you have unlimited access to the game web site for a month.

The game card is like a subscription. There is a place online where you can buy a world of warcraft game card, and they have special deals where you can get a 60 day subscription. Instead of having to drive to the local game store, park your car, go inside the store to get waited on, pay for the game card, then drive home with it, you can just go online and get your wow game card code right away. They send it to you in an email and you have it in minutes instead of all the time you would waste buying it from a local store. That all makes sense to me, as I really would prefer buying things on the internet. I’m just not sure if I will have enough free time to spend playing this role playing game and that I’d be just throwing my money away. I’ll have to go over to his place and watch him play it and see if it is even something that I would want to do.

Posted on

Wrapping My Brain Around Half Chaps

The first time I heard someone talk about half chaps, I just couldn’t wrap my brain around the concept of just half of a chap. Now chaps aren’t something that are discussed much, so I hadn’t really thought about the half chaps that they are now selling of which so many of the equestrians of the world are wearing these days.

So when my oldest niece asked for a pair of half chaps for this Christmas I had to look a bit online and see what they are all about. Theequestriancorner.com is a great website for all kinds of equestrian gear and equipment which has a good amount of half chaps of which I took some time and checked out. They were actually cheaper and better looking than I had thought they were going to be, so I ordered her a pair for Christmas. The look on her face when she opened up the package was just fantastic! Her mom actually got a video of her shaking the box, trying to guess what was in it and then just ripping it open and the look of surprise and happiness when she got it open and realized what they were.

Posted on

Domain Names

My blog was not set up to be a big public blog, but it has gotten some interest from people in faraway places, for one reason or another. I find that very flattering and hope that any visitors to my site find something enjoyable or worthwhile. A few of my real life friends have asked me for help in setting up their own blogs.

So here is what I did, and I’m sure anyone else can do the same. I bought a domain name from a company that sells domain names. I wanted my own name, of course, and this site let me search to make sure it was available, just in case there are others in the world who might have claimed this domain name before I thought of doing it.

Then I found a web hosting company. I used the webhostingchoice.com web site to compare the rates and hosting plans among the top 10 web hosting companies. Once I decided which hosting company to use, I had to transfer the domain to that site so it would appear online. I liked the webhostingchoice.com site because it was quick and easy to find out what I wanted to know. They compared the rates and had a learning center with articles on everything I needed to know to get started.

Posted on

So Many Beds, So Little Time

As I’ve been talking about here lately that after spending some time now sleeping in the bed here at the farm that most be as old as the original farmhouse decor, I have decided that I really need to invest in a new bed that will be better for my aching back. After putting so much time and effort into the place, plenty of blood, sweat and tears have been placed into the daily work routine and I just can’t do it all anymore with a sore back each morning.

I have been doing some looking around online to see what types of beds are out there these days, I want to find one that is good quality, fits in with the rest of the furnishings in the old place and it definitely needs to be affordable at this point. Man have I been surprisingly overwhelmed with all of the selections that are now being produced and being offered these days, but I was happy to find one particular site at Time4sleep.co.uk that has a few that have caught my eye and I want to check out further that are in their Antique beds category.

A good quality bed is an investment and not something that I will take lightly, but I really need to make a decision soon, as these cold winter mornings are bad enough without starting them with an aching back!

Posted on

The Right Kind of Bed For A Good Night’s Sleep

Sleep is such an important human condition. Sometimes I hate the way that our bodies require sleep – it is such a disruption to the day or night to have to stop and lie down for 6 hours. But a good night’s sleep is important to your health and ability to function well the next day. On a good night, I might be able lie down for 8 hours. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I’ve slept longer than 8 hours uninterrupted. Most night’s I’m good with between 6 and 8 hours of good sleep.

There are several considerations to a good night’s sleep and one of the most important is a comfortable, supportive bed. This becomes even more important as our bodies grow and mature, with our skeleton and muscles needing proper support and rest. The right bed can mean the difference between a completely relaxing and sound sleep, or a night of tossing and turning with fits of wakefulness. I have had my eye on certain pieces of new furniture that I would like to replace or add to this household. In my opinion, the most important room in the house is the master bedroom. Everything else in a house can be replaced or substituted outside of the home, but the one main reason a man comes home at night is so that he can climb into his own bed.

Shopping for a new bed is worth a little time and effort to find the right bed, considering how important the bed is to a good night’s sleep. I found a web site called www.time4sleep.co.uk with all kinds of bed types – a large variety of styles and different types of beds for every home or person. My favorite beds on this site are the storage beds. There are different types of storage options and they make the bed very practical. Since the bed takes up so much space in the room, it makes total sense to me to make good use of the space under the bed to store items not used often. These beds make storage either attractive or hidden, at a cost similar to beds without the storage features.

Posted on

Always Feeding That Printer

Well the search is on for a good buy on my dell 3115cn toner that I am figuring on needing here pretty soon. It is something that I have kept thinking about doing but it kept getting put on the back shelve time and time again and now I can’t waste anymore time dilly dallying around until the last minute. It really bites when you want and or need to print something out only for the printer to spit out the most god awful copies of the documents that you need right away.

The are many highly competitive companies out there vying for our business for our printing equipment and all of the necessary accessories that keep us happy printing campers. And finding them online makes it such an easier task to tackle trying to find the best bang for your buck. I always look for sales, coupons, discounts and free shipping is a must on every order or it doesn’t get ordered. Hopefully I can find the sweetest deal possible this weekend and order at least two or three of them in an effort to keep me printing for some time and not have to go through this again for a good long while.

Posted on

A New Drill Press Vise On The Top Of My Wish List

Well it looks like I know what I am going to ask Santa Claus to bring me this year. I don’t have the money in my budget for a new drill press vise, so for all the folks that keep asking me what I want for Christmas I can honestly give them a good idea for something that I want and need and will use and will really appreciate this year.

So instead of the same old gift basket(s) crap that usually finds its way to me (people just don’t use their imagine or brains much anymore when it comes to buying gifts for guys) just maybe I’ll get a real man’s gift a tool, or at least the money or a gift card that can be used to buy one, the right one.  This is a tool that I depend upon quite a bit these days with all the work that this place demands of me. It’s a good thing that I don’t need it right away for anything right this moment and I can only hope that nothing comes up in the mean time that warrants the urgent need for one, but one never knows now do they?

 

Posted on

Basket Fillers

Stopped by Wal-Mart this afternoon to see if they had any early gardening supplies, but they are a little slow to stick their garden center and I came away empty handed. However, I decided to check out a few other items while I was there, and I found a few things to add to my basket. They have a new aisle of cheap crap that sells for $1 or $2 and they called “Basket Fillers.” That made me laugh – these poor Wal-Mart shoppers are so in need of direction that the Evil Wally Empire has started labeling things with suggestive names. Think you’re finished shopping? No – your basket is not full enough. You need some basket fillers – go over there and get you some.

I did pick up a pair of pajamas for my nephew. He is a Star Wars fan thanks to Uncle Adam, and there were some new PJs with Start Wars characters on them. My nephew is 6 years old, so I guess he’ll wear a six 6. I don’t know – how am I supposed to keep up with what size clothes everyone wears? At the checkout lane, the cashier looked a little frazzled, so I tried to cheer her up. Fridays and Saturdays have got to be the busiest days at Wally’s World of Wonder. I made a couple little jokes while she was ringing up my items and couldn’t get a smile out of her. Then she picked up the size 6T PJs to find the price tag and I asked her if she thought those PJs were the right size to fit me. That made her laugh – finally.