We’re Back

Sorry for the short hiatus, but we just got back from a week-long trip to Disney World. I’m sure that we’ll be posting more about the trip once we get settled back into the “real world”.

Working Through The Pantry

It’s time. It’s time to stop buying more pasta and work through the crazy shapes of noodles we already have in our pantry. Canned soup bought and forgotten. Cake mixes. Tapioca pudding. It’s amazing how much is in our little pantry closet. Our food bill has gone down so much now that we are buying mostly just perishable staples like milk, cheese, and eggs. It’s been great for our Visa bill, too.

Trivia, who knew?

Trivia can be such fun. While surfing today I ran across a really neat blog with some fantastic trivia. For example did you know that in the 1600’s there was a lady named Charlotte de Berry who became a pirate. Or how about the fact that the “chariot, or horse-drawn cart, was invented in Mesopotamia c.2000 B.C.”

One of the great things about the site is that it covers a really wide range of topics, and it often goes into detail about the topics. Unlike some other sites which only list brief facts, the Aviva Trivia Blog really dives in on some topics and gives you a lot more. So if you are really into trivia and I have some friends who defiantly are, then you must take a look at the Aviva Trivia Blog daily for the some really interesting trivia.

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, and the Jury is still out

Just a quick review of the new TV shows this season. After two episodes here are my quick picks. A thumbs up for Studio 60 (NBC) – Aaron Sorkin enough said. Thumbs down for Smith (CBS). I tried to like it I really did, but still it is a now go. And while Shark (CBS) has been good so far, we’ll have to see what the jury says after a couple more episodes. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Home Improvement Wish List

If all our money wasn’t now at the banks of Disney World or our auto repair shops, then we’d probably have new carpets by now. We really need them. Really! The 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 cats, and 13 years have taken their toll. Other home improvement wishes would include new couches and comfortable chairs for the living room and family room. A deck with a screen to keep out the bugs would be great too. But then we’d need nice deck chairs and a table… and maybe a new grill. Someday…

Travel Tip – Resealable Mesh or Plastic Bags

If packing suitcases for anything longer than a 4-day trip:
pack outfits or clothes of one type in mesh bags or use Zip-locks or simlar resealable bags.

For kids, pack whole outfits in a bag (top, bottom, underclothes/diaper, socks, accessories). Depending on the size of the bag and the season (summer clothes are smaller), you may be able to fit 2, 3, or more outfits rolled up separately in a bag. Remember, plastic bags can be a suffocation hazzard! Mesh bags are safer for kids.

For adults, if you use plastic bags (cheaper and easier to see contents, though not as cool) you’ll need at least 1-gallon sized bags, but 2-gallon bags can be even more useful. Pack all your undershirts in one. All your socks in another. Etc.

Later when you are searching for things, you can pull out a bag, get what you need, and put it back in the suitcase without having to reorganize everything.

New way to fight spam

We’ve begun to see a rise in spam getting past our filters both here at work as well as at home. This new spam is basically and embedded picture with nonsense text to fool the Bayes filters. A new way to beat this is currently be developed. If you are using SpamAssassin (the best open source solution in my opinion) then you need to check out the FuzzyOCR plugin. This plugin will use OCR technology to scan the image for text and will mark it is spam. Additionally it store this information so that in the future it will not need to expend the resources to rescan. It is also set to run last, and only if the message has not already been tagged as spam. It is working well in our test.

I love my gym

Three months ago I joined a gym. Never thought I would, but since having our second child I just haven’t been able to exercise. I used to love going to our community’s exercise room. It was small, had no classes, and there was zero available staff beyond the person at the sign-in desk, but it was already paid for as part of our community fees. But what I needed was childcare. I found that in a gym that opened near our house two years ago. I try to go three times a week. I should do more, but I am also walking our elementary schooler to school most days so I get more exercise during the week with that. And between the walking and exercise classes I do take, there just isn’t time for anything more. But, I love my gym. Even though I don’t weigh any less, I know that I am stronger, I sit straighter and taller, and I feel good about myself.

College Reunion and Business School

Our college reunion is coming up in a couple of weeks, and even though we are not going to be able to go, it has gotten me thinking about going back for a Master’s degree. My undergraduate degree was in Industrial Management and Economics, and I’ve been thinking about going back to get an MBA. While my wife did this by going full time for her MBA, I’d really have to be able to get my business degree online because of the flexibility to work around my work schedule. I’ve been looking at Capella University which is fully accredited on-line University. They also offer degrees in things as diverse as Information Technology and Psychology. I really think that it might be the way for me to actually pursue getting a Master’s degree, but I’d love to hear from anyone who has actually done a program with them.

The Ultimate Hawaii Vacation Condos

In keeping with our Hawaii travel theme, I’ve come across some truly amazing Hawaii Condo that you can rent. These properties available from Gebhart Properties are truly first class. The amenities in these vacation homes are beyond what you might find the some of the finest hotels. For example their 2 bedroom 2 bath corner unit condo at Mahana at Kaanapali Resort in Maui is beautiful and only feet from the beach. If you are looking for that once in lifetime experience on your Hawaii vacation, then start and end your search with the ultimate in luxury and style at these vacation condo’s offered by Gebhart Properties. Visit their website for floor plans, virtual tours, and pricing and available.

Log Homes – Informative Site

If you smile when you see a log home and think about owning or building one someday, check out this site all about Log Homes. There are good, to-the-point articles on a range of topics (like how to decide if you should act as your own building contractor), plus lots of links to other log home sites where you can find designs, contractors, and more.

The Tooth Fairy

We knew the time would eventually come for the Tooth Fairy to visit our house. If all goes well she will be visiting our house in the very near future (maybe even tonight). Yes, the oldest has her first loose tooth. In fact she has two of them, and they are her bottom two middle teeth. Back in my day I think I got a dime or maybe a quarter for each tooth. From what I hear today, the going rate is $5 for your first tooth and $1 for each one after that. I know it’s been 30+ plus years, but boy talk about inflation.

A Cheap Vacation to Hawaii

If you’ve been reading our blog for awhile you’ve noticed that we keep dreaming about what it would be like to travel to Hawaii. While I was surfing today I ran across a site called Fairfield Getaways and they have the most amazing Cheap Vacation Packages. In fact they have an Oahu island package for 5 days/4 nights that for just $369 for 2 adults and 2 children. It includes hotel (at a 3 star hotel) and a luau dinner package. If Hawaii is too far for you, they also have packages in places like Florida, Texas, and even Virginia, and all at amazing prices. So if you’re looking for a quick get away or a longer vacation then check them out.

School’s In – Fundraisers are on

Our elementary schooler has only had 8 days of school so far and already she’s been stuck with two school fundraisers. What to do. They are good for the school, but I don’t like the tactics.

The first was Box Tops for Education (little rectangle symbols on top of some cereal and other food boxes – turn in the rectangle and the school earns 10 cents worth of supplies). That’s easy, but I turned in our box top collection on the first day of school! The school wanted 30 from each kid, and said kids would earn a prize for every 10 brought in. We scoured our pantry and found 17 more. Amazing. Sent her in with 10 so she could get her prize. Also coached her saying that some kids will get 3 prizes, some will get 2, some will get 1, and some will get none. It’s all ok. She seemed to understand and later was thrilled about the one new pencil she received. Good.

But if it’s ok, why was I worrying about making sure she’d at least get something… I guess I hate for her to feel left out. But now it’s not about raising money for the school, but about getting my kid more stuff (which she doesn’t need) so she doesn’t feel left out.

The next program was a basically a Read-A-Thon. The kids try to read for 300 minutes in one week. Meanwhile families pick 10 folks to ask as sponsors. The sponsor receives a letter from the child and either sponsors by the minute, makes a flat donation, or throws the letter away. Ten is a lot of sponsors… you want to choose people who really care about your child, who don’t have kid’s of their own with their own fundraisers, who won’t feel financial strained, and who won’t be offended by being included. If your child doesn’t send all 10 letters then they don’t get the 2 prizes (much more significant prizes this time). If you want to participate but not send the letters, you need to contribute $50 (tax deductible).

All in all, I like the idea of a fundraiser where you don’t have to buy overpriced items that you wouldn’t normally buy. I’d rather the money go to the school. And reading is a tough cause to knock. But – this tactic of tempting kids with prizes and making kids feel left out if the parents don’t participate is pretty low. It’s only just starting.

Gifts with Grace – Fair Trade Handmade Crafts

Thinking about the holidays yet? No, not us really either. But we just received our gift catalog from Lutheran World Relief and SERRV International. As they put it, they have a wide variety of “fairly traded handmade crafts from artisans around the world.” Some of it is really unusual, cool stuff. You can view their online catalog or request one to be mailed to you. Good stuff – good cause.

Ethical On-Line Banking With Smile

Even though I’ve been on the Internet for over 19 years and a large part of my job relates to things online, I’ve always been a little leery of online only banks. That was until ran across an article about online banking with Smile. Smile’s whole premise is about being as ethical an upfront as possible in all of their dealings.

In fact they publicly list their banking code where their state among other things that in their dealing with customers they will give you information in about the products and services in plain understandable English, that they will quickly correct their mistakes and quickly handle your complaints. They have won awards for their customer service and that 95% of their customers would recommend them.

If you are looking for a bank with good service and good rates then you should do yourself a favor and check out Smile.

Man do I hate cars

As I’ve mentioned before we’ve had our car in the shop. Well we got it back on Monday night, and on my way home from work on Tuesday the check engine light came on again. Needless to say back to the shop it went. They finally found the problem today and will have it fixed tomorrow and will do this part for free, but they found a problem with the exahust system now. Granted the car is a 1997 and has 160+ thousand miles, but it is costing an arm and leg to get it fixed.

Hermit Crab is Happy

Yesterday I cleaned out our Hermit Crab’s habitat and put brand new sand in it for him. It was reptile sand – store employee said it was basically the same as Hermit Crab sand, but it cost less. It actually seems finer than the hermit crab sand we’ve used in the past – but I like that. It lets you see the crab’s movements by the tracks left in the new fine sand. The crab seems to be very happy with it. He’s moving all over the place – even got to the ceiling last night.

Digital Camera Online Store for UK

If you are in the UK, here is a large site to check for digital cameras and camcorders. You can find and compare Digital cameras from PC World quite easily. Just a few of the many brands that they carry are Canon, Olympus, Samsung, and Casio. PC World also has retail stores in the UK so you can check things out online, compare details and prices, then visit an actual store to try the cameras out. You can even purchase online and either have your camera and accessories delivered or you can pick them up at a store. The website also has lots of other computer and digital products and accessories for you to check out.

Pink iPod

Yesterday our daughter earned something she’d wanted for a long time – some sort of music player. Friends have CD players and other music devices, and she felt left out. But after 2 months of working towards a goal, she earned her music player: an iPod shuffle in a pink case. She is ecstatic.