Fairy Blogmother

First Bernie Mac, now Isaac Hayes has died. It makes you feel as if you are getting old when those you turned to entertainment are dying. One of the songs that Hayes did that many forget is “Walk on By” from his hit 1969 Album “Hot Buttered Soul”.

If you are like me, you don’t want to pay full price for anything, especially not furniture. Boyle’s Furniture is having a $10,000 Dream Room contest to promote their company which sells discount furniture as a way to get out the “buzz” about some of the great deals they offer and to give you a chance to win. There are no strings attached to enter, and unlike some contests, no delivery charge to a winner in the 48 States on the mainland of the US.

You can enter more than once, though they limit you to once every 24 hours with the contest ending on August 31st. So, you have plenty of time to enter, and if you win? A dream room full of brand new furniture could be delivered right to your door. If I were to win? My living room would be the focus and that nasty old couch, right out to the curb.

Sometimes even with a newer computer you’ll discover that game that you have just been dying to play on your computer either crashes or won’t play properly because it was designed for one of the different video cards that are out there. I’ve dealt with that several times and the only way most times to get around it? Buy a new video card…It’s also a reason when computer shopping to make sure what type of card is in the computer.

At first I thought the news had to be wrong, but it appears that Bernie Mac died from complications related to pneumonia. One of my favorite comedy routines that he did:

Is your Starbucks one of the 600 that is going to be closing? If so do not despair…you can buy your favorite brand of Starbucks coffee online, at times less than what you’d pay for it at the actual location and enjoy it at home.

Granted it’s not quite the same experience as going to one of the stores, but if it is the actual coffee you crave, there is still a way to get your Starbucks fix…

With the news that our local electrical provider is asking for a large rate increase, if you have not taken a look at your home lighting to make sure you are as energy efficient as possible? Now might be the time. We can’t control much when it comes to what we are charged, but we can control how much we use. As incomes are not keeping up with the increasing costs, every penny saved is one less penny in the hole…

When money gets tight one of the first things you may think about cutting is your insurance, especially if you have term life insurance or renter’s insurance that is not something you are legally required to carry. That said, resist the temptation…if you think your money problems are bad now, should something happen and you no longer have this insurance, your financial situation would be even worse.

Before you eliminate it, make sure you are getting the best deal, if you are and you are falling seriously behind, call your agent and see if there is anything he or she can do to help.

When you hear or read the name mesothelioma it sounds like a form of cancer, and it is. It is a type of cancer that is stated to come from exposure to asbestos that is a bit different because of the time frame that can exist before the cancer appears and as opposed to other predominantly pulmonary-related cancers, cigarette smoking has no known causative effect on mesothelioma incidence. Though it has been stated that asbestos workers who smoke do have a much greater likelihood to develop lung cancer, even more than regular smokers who don’t come into contact with asbestos.

Almost anything can be done in cyber land, from finding love to shopping to even finding free mortgage quotes where it is becoming the standard for companies to offer quotes for free online. Not only have mortgage companies taken advantage of this but insurance companies and a variety of other businesses are using the internet to offer free quotes.

In what is becoming even more of an “instant demand” society, people are becoming more accustomed to want to be able to do business 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

Those of you who read my local political blog have probably already seen the video, but for those of you who don’t read that particular blog? Where I was all day yesterday and where I discovered that Banana Boat’s spray sunscreen? Doesn’t work…

Sometimes when I see one word I start thinking about other words that are related to that, that make me wonder. Take an HDMI splitter as an example. I started thinking about the phrase “splitting hairs” and I wondered when did it start, I knew what it meant as a blogger it happens often:

to argue about very small differences or unimportant details

In searching it’s been around quite some time, mentioned in Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, and appeared in dictionaries of the 17th century.

It used to be not long ago that most of the emails marketing diet products that came in by email were on hoodia, but that seems to have fallen off. The latest marketing by email recently seems to focus on cheap Phentermine which goes to show you that even email marketing goes in trends. That’s with the exception of the standard emails asking if you are interested in enlarging certain body parts, those seem to happen without fail…

While I understand the frustration that David Appell is voicing on Quark Soup when it comes to feeling like the “meat” is missing in the blogosphere, it is similar to what happened when there was the initial explosion of personal webpages. At first there were those who spent hours designing things to look just perfect with music and graphics that made you feel as if you needed to go update yours quickly to compete. Then, it seemed like everyone had one and very few were unique.
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As I sit here typing and watch my daughter, two dogs and my husband snoozing on our bed at 5:37 on a Saturday, it appears they are doing some type of a mini-vacation. To me, since I have a whole bunch of projects that I should be doing right now (and that they should be helping with) if I were to plan a vacation it’d be something like one of those Hilton Head rentals where I can guarantee on a Saturday at 5:37 p.m. I’d be outside enjoying the view as opposed to napping….

While no could say being a wife, a mother and having six blogs was not work, there are times when I miss working and think back fondly to some of my admin jobs of the past. Today when we were registering people to vote at the African American Festival the group right across from us was the mental health center that was my very first full time employment.

I started out as a receptionist then worked my way up to the Administrative Assistant for the Clinical Director. It was a great first job and I learned many things along the way that I still use today, such as attention to detail and multi-tasking…

I’ve never had a cell phone that had a camera or could do video, mine was a very basic model that met my needs very well and I barely knew how to text message. I admit I’m not a text message person, I’m more of a verbal talk person.

My oldest daughter wanted me to have a different cell phone plan so that I could talk to her at a more cost effective price than my plan, so she got me a new phone. The Alltel Hue, which despite my first panic moments of trying to figure out everything the phone could do? Is working out pretty well. I took my first pictures and my first video and sent them to her via text message.

Considering the lack of space we have there have been times when I considered getting a TV wall mount with one of the flat screen televisions, in the dream land of things I’d love to be able do. It would also keep cats from trying to sit on top of the television set, which in itself would be a huge plus given the nightly chasing the one cat off of the television set adventures.

Most people looking for quick weight loss ideas are not looking for how I lost the most weight this past year, a soft/bland diet because of diviculitis created a loss of almost 20 pounds by the time I could eat regular food again. I used to love jello until that experience made me tired of jello (smile). There are other ways to focus on a quick start to weight loss that typically is water weight but does give you a bit of a boost when it comes to longer range weight loss goals.

Yesterday I attempted to make Bruschetta for the first time, I was disappointed by many of the recipes out there so decided to attempt my own. I wanted tomatoes, peppers and onions, which none of the recipes I found online had. I opted to roast a yellow pepper, but I think it would be good even if you did not roast the pepper. It’s easy and quick:

Five Roma tomatoes diced
Red and White onion diced (I used about a quarter cup)
One yellow pepper diced (roasted or not roasted)
Two tablespoons of dried sweet basil
Three tablespoons of Olive oil
Two tablespoons of Wish-Bone® Salad Spritzers® Balsamic Breeze® Vinaigrette Dressing (I opted for this since I don’t have any Balsmic Vinegar)

Mix and voila! You have a nice fresh bruschetta that is great served on toasted bread and if you toast the bread lightly then top with the bruschetta and a dusting of cheese, can be lightly broiled to melt the cheese and still tastes great.

I’ve had more than a few pieces of religious jewelry that are considered favorites through the years. My most treasured two is my “miracle medal” that I got when I was in New Orleans and a simple pearl rosary that my father got me when he was in Rome that was blessed by Pope John Paul. An interesting jewelry item that I’ve noticed has made a comeback is necklaces with a small “prayer box” in which the person is supposed to place a written request for something on a very small piece of paper and then place it into the locket like container.