This year I am buying the wife a rain chain that she has been eyeballing ever since seeing the rain chains at her sister-in-law’s house over the summer. I have to admit that these chains rain are a nice concept. It is a well known fact that water is therapeutic, I’ve always enjoyed seeing, hearing, smelling as well as feeling water, so having a rain chain or two or three or however many you choose to have is a positive thing.

We have worked hard on our backyard to make it attractive and comfortable as possible and I think having a good looking quality rain chain would be a nice addition. It’s just trying to decide which one of the many I’ve seen online to go ahead and commit to and order. I had no idea that there would be so many to choose from. I don’t have a lot of time left with Valentine’s day only a few weeks away.

Been enjoying reading your blog – especially the video remix of President Obama’s encounter with the fly! What a riot! Have a great day, man!

So we looked into having her take the Megabus from DC to Raleigh/Durham, and then a bus from the station to the hotel. Well the bus stops a couple of blocks away from the hotel, so she could use that for the trip down, but the bus that would return her from the hotel back to the Megabus station does not run on Sunday, so that would not work. A taxi from the bus station to and from the hotel would be very expensive, and since she has never been there before I am a little bit concerned about her being stranded someplace. Another concern is how many suitcases is she going to need to take with her; we don’t know yet what clothes she is going to be packing. We need to find out if she needs to pack any formal wear, or just business/casual attire for the entire weekend.

She’s already found a couple of ladies to share the hotel with the nights that she is going to be there, so that is good. I sure hope none of them snore! She is a very light sleeper. And I hope none of them need to sleep with the television on, either, because she never manages to sleep with any kind of flickering light or noise. That reminds me, I’ll tell her to be sure to pack some ear plugs and a sleeping mask to wear.

Our youngest son found out that she needs to go to the convention and that we’re having issues getting her there, so he volunteered to use a hertz coupon to rent a car, splitting the cost with us, and driving her to and from the convention. It turns out that he has a girlfriend that goes to college at Duke University and he wouldn’t mind going down there and visiting with her for the week-end! Problem solved!

With the advent of the Internet, and the rapid acceptance and dependence of the Internet, I find it so much easier to use the Internet to do a local search for any business than going back to the old paper version!  And yes, we DO have the old paper version in the cupboard by the telephone, but I gravitate towards using the Internet first.  I really like how once I find the listing that i need I can often get directions to the place if I need them!  The paper version doesn’t do that at all!

Knowing how crazy this area gets when it snows a little bit, I was really glad that no one in the family needed to leave the house for anything. Being the weekend, no one had to go to work. So if it has to snow, this was good timing. Of course the school children would have preferred to have a snow day from school, but the parents are relieved that they don’t have to scramble to get back-up babysitters for the snow day. Thank you Jack Frost, for the weekend timing of the storm.

So far I have not timed my visits to the website right for grabbing an insanity deal, but I have purchased a few of the items that the website sells at outrageously low prices. In some ways, this new website has put a little bit of fun into shopping that I haven’t had outside of going to an auction house. To be perfectly honest, I don’t know how long this website has been online, but I have a feeling that it will be a success for many years to come.

In addition to selling various products such as handbags and jewelry, the website also sells travel packages and electronics. I was looking through the section that they call “Insanity Deals” and saw that they had sold some really expensive electronic products for some really crazy low prices. There is no way possible that anyone made any kind of profit from those “insanity deals.” Not being an expert on marketing, I would imagine that those products are what are sometimes referred to as “loss leaders” by the big chain stores – products priced so low that the sale actually loses money, but the hope is that while customers are in the store that they will find something else that they really like and spend money buying the other items.

Not the old illegal “bait and switch” routine, more like the “while you’re here looking around, maybe you’d be interested in buying some of this other stuff” type of marketing.

My attention was quickly grabbed, and I watched the entire show. The pace picked up with a few little twists and turns, and now when my wife says she wants to watch it again, I will not complain the next time!

Using one service provider for our internet service and cable has made my life a lot easier. I recently switched to a bundle deal with a new company because I was having trouble with my last cable company. I could never get a hold of anyone or work my way through the phone tree. I would often find mistakes in my bill and it would take me thirty minutes to get everything straightened out on the phone. Sometimes things didn’t get straightened out and I would end up having to call again! I was spending at least an hour a month talking to the cable company on the phone. Now since I have bundled with a new company, I can pay my bill on-line for both services. The service is not spotty and I actually ended up saving a pretty good bit of money. The best part about my new service is that I don’t have to get on the phone every single month to correct my cable bill. My internet speed is actually must faster than it was before too, so I can stream internet movies and watch videos on YouTube. I wish that I had thought of this sooner!

I got this new Canon digital camera for Christmas and it didn’t come with the usual Canon battery chargers and I really didn’t think it was a big deal up until now. I really hate last minute issues, but I guess it could be worse. I could have found out that the darn thing was broken and have to run out and spend money on a new one instead of buying Christmas presents for the people that I care so much for at this point in my life.

We haven’t gotten away, just the two of us in so long. I think it would be a good thing for us both. I’m banking on using the Internet and Googling “Beach Resorts Myrtle Beach” and seeing what I can come up with on such short notice. With such horrible weather conditions outside today it seems that it would be a good way to spend the day looking around online.

We will see what I can come up with, maybe print off some of the information that I find and put it in an envelope and put it under the tree for her on Christmas morning. That should be a smile on her face and when she is happy, I’m happy as well!