When you’re looking at different charities this Christmas season, especially if you’re going to make a donation to a charity in someone’s name as a gift, then this may be the right choice for you. You buy a donation and give the card. The recipient then chooses which charity to give the money to. This is a great idea for giving holiday gifts no matter how hard someone is to buy for.
Archive for November, 2009
Give a gift
Sunday, November 29th, 2009Cardinals heartbreak
Sunday, November 29th, 2009Even though this isn’t quite like the Cardinals of years past in losing every game in this manner, today’s lose was tough to take. After pinning the Titans at the 1-yard line. The Cardinals could not get a stop and let the Titans march all the way down the field, convert two fourth down plays, and score on the last play of the game to win.
Hope Warner’s ready to go next week.
Leinert loses the college championship again, virtually the same way.
Receipts!
Thursday, November 26th, 2009Even small businesses nowadays can have the legitimacy of giving their customers a receipt. Modern society now expects to receive a receipt from almost any place that they spend money. Even taxis give receipts most of the time. For about the same price as a normal printer, anyone can buy a receipt printer that is compact and easy to use. Give your customers what they expect and give them confidence in the goods and services that you provide.
Avatar is closer
Thursday, November 26th, 2009The movie of the year has the hype of the century.
Avatar comes to theaters in just days and I am no less excited then when I first saw the teaser trailer or when I first heard the news of the project in pre-production. The commercials have not shied away from trying to increase the hype, billing this movie as the “Greatest Adventure of All Time”.
I know the movie will be awesome. The only question is whether reviewers will judge the film on its merits or if they’ll judge it against what everyone is imagining the greatest adventure of all time to be.
Danger, James Cameron, Danger.
Holiday Insurance
Thursday, November 26th, 2009Get yourself a present this Thanksgiving, even though this isn’t necessarily the holiday for giving or getting presents, by making sure that you have auto insurance. Thanksgiving is one of the most dangerous holidays for accidents and you don’t want to have your car smashed up on the holidays. It’s just kind of a bummer. Especially if you crash into me this holiday season.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone
Thursday, November 26th, 2009Hope everyone is enjoying some food and family and friends this evening. Maybe sitting down for a board game or headed out for a movie. What a wonderful holiday when all you have to buy is food. No gifts. No decorations. Nowhere to go. Everyone just sits and eats. And maybe watches some football. Some traditions are forever. This year, like most, the Lions lose and the Cowboys win. The world is as it should be.
Family Traditions
Saturday, November 21st, 2009So when I was a kid my parents had certain gifts they gave to each child based on their age. Not everything worked this way – so you didn’t know everything you would be getting ahead of time but there were certain things that followed the pattern. For example, when you turned 9 you got a watch for your birthday and a camera for Christmas.
Now that my oldest is 9 I kept up with this (it being one of the few things I can remember clearly from childhood). He got his watch last birthday and this Christmas I’ll be looking for digital cameras that are 9 year old appropriate and won’t break the bank. Back in my day it was a kodak camera with 110 film. Now I’ll have to consider letting him use the computer to download his pictures.
Outage at Ebay
Saturday, November 21st, 2009Annoyed is the word for my husband right now who is fuming a bit at eBay. Seems their search engine has gone down today. Of course this is the day his listings are ending. And these are the first listings he’s had in about 2 years. Apparently the nexus of the universe and intersected with the SNAFU universe and resulted in him having a 9 minute wait time to see if he can cancel an auction that has 21 minutes left on it.
Here’s hoping…
Trip to Bahamas
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009The winter time is the right time to go to the tropics. Not only will the crowds not be in your way, but you’ll be able to save money and not spend as much on your trip to the bahamas. Enjoy the sand and beach and sun without the heat and bugs and humidity. Have fun on your trip and post the pics on the internet. The islands are calling and you must respond.
Best TV of the 00s
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009With the decade fast coming to a close, there will be continual and ad nauseum lists of best of the 00′s lists. Many are already being posted as we have basically seen every TV series that will air in this decade. (Unless you count 2010 as part of the decade, which you should, even though nobody does.) The standard shows that everyone has includes The Sopranos, The Wire, Lost, among others. I would like to throw Late Night with Conan O’Brien onto the list of shows to consider. It was not a typically great show, but it was amusing in its own, late-night, no-budget way. Conan is a comic genius. Hopefully, the next decade will feature A Game of Thrones as the best show of the 10s.
Progress
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009My body doth shrinketh. Hazah! Except for my belly. According to my doctor during an operation, it’ll never be flat again. Maybe if I could figure out how to lose belly fat – even a little – it’d be ok. I don’t need it flat and I admit that I like being able to see my toes but I’m hoping to one day see entire feet when I look down.
To diet – perchance to dream!
A Christmas Carol
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009A Christmas Carol was wonderful. I’ve always been partial to the older version that comes on TV each Christmas season, but this is definitely right up there as well. It’s the first time I’ve had to separate my kids based on the fact that some could handle the scariness and some I knew could not. If you’re thinking of taking your kids, I’d draw the line somewhere above 4 years old and probably above 6 (though my 6 year old made it through with just a couple heart attacks).
I’ve never read the book, but this movie well reflects the other version a with a few differences. The Ghost of Christmas is a flame instead of a woman. Jim Carrey does four different voices and they are so different you’ll have difficulty figuring out which ones they are without the cast list in the credits. The motion capture animation is usually really good with the notable exception of Scrooge’s nephew whose mouth moves in odd ways and who gestures in odd ways. He doesn’t have a big part, so it’s no a big deal.
I”d recommend watching this movie and even adding it to the collection once it comes out on DVD (or blue ray – whichever).
Need help?
Thursday, November 12th, 2009With the thousands of diets and fads and stuff out there for you to lose weight, it is amazing that people still come up with new ideas. They started at least a hundred years ago, and change every year. So if you want to get the best weight loss supplement, then you better do some research and find the stuff that’s been around and has a track record of actually shedding those pounds!
That’s not milk
Thursday, November 12th, 2009I heard my brother and a friend discussing how long something should last past the expiration date the other day. Personally, I’m a firm believer in the EXPIRATION date, as being the date that it is no longer fit for consumption, at least by me. They agreed that it was probably still good. I glanced over and saw my friend drinking out of a plastic gallon-size jug. But the liquid in it was orange. I think, “I don’t care how cold your fridge is, if it’s orange, the milk has gone bad!”
It’s okay. It was orange juice.
Still didn’t stop my friend from shooting it out of his nose, laughing.
Cushion time
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009We have some outdoor chairs with cushions that recently have started to fall apart. Thinking that they were designed as outdoor cushions, that I could leave them in the sun. Evidently the Arizona sun was not a part of the testing process. Thankfully, I’ve found an online outdoor cushion store to find exactly what I’m looking for in a cushion that will last a lot longer than the cheap cushion that came with the chairs. I’m looking at a woodland stripe.
We’re Dune-ed
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009There are rumors flying through the smog in Hollywood that there may be yet another crack at a Dune movie. The first one was an amazing, but sadly flawed, attempt to squeeze a monumental novel into a movie, even a long movie. The SciFi miniseries somehow didn’t fit any more of the book in a less than impressive version. If someone can do to Dune what Abrams did for Star Trek, then I will be first in line.
Dune is a truly epic story with so many important parts that a single movie will never be able to do it justice. I’m wondering if they can turn it into an amazing HBO series or a couple of movies.
<fingers crossed>
Purist Faucet
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009Even though the economy is only just now starting to come back into a slightly more hopeful zone, it may be the perfect time to find a new faucet for your bath, sink, or kitchen. Or your faucet may just finally be too old to fix this time, and it’s high time to replace it. In any case here is a picture of one of my favorite faucets that I can hopefully get installed soon.
Meatloaf pie chart
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009Get it! Meatloaf. Pie. Chart. Heh heh.
Anyway, below is a chart representing all of the things that Meatloaf would do for love.
In addition…
Subsets of what Meatloaf would do for love:
- Run right into hell
- And back
- Never lie to you (that’s a fact)
- Never forget the way you feel right now (no way)
- Be there ’til the final act
- Take a vow
- Seal a pact
- Hold you sacred
- Hold you tight
- Colorize your life
- Make it all a little less old
- Make you some magic
- Build an emerald city
- Give you something you can take home
- Cater to every fantasy you got
- Hose you down with holy water
- Take you places you’ve never known
Offer to do the above for love is valid as long as:
- The planets are turning
- The stars are burning
- Your dreams are coming true
- Wheels are turning
- Fires are burning
- Your prayers are coming true
Still won’t do:
- That
Exit Stage Left
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009Stage right even
Every business has one thing in common. Big or small, successful or not, they all have exit signs. The internet is an excellent resource to find exactly what you’re looking for when you need a specific exit sign. If you need a lighted sign or braille, find just what you need to guide your customers safely out of your place of business. Hopefully, after they have made a purchase.
48 Hour Film Noir
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009There’s nothing quite as much fun as making movies. Making a movie in only 48 hours compresses the fun into one sleepless, exhausting weekend. It was our first experience with this kind of competition, and we certainly learned a lot. Hopefully, we can give it a go the next time the competition comes up and use what we learned this time to make an even better mini-flick.
The film genre we picked was film noir. That is a highly-stylized, crime drama genre most popular in the 40′s and 50′s that usually featured high contrast shots, strange camera angles, a femme fatale, and a detective.