Lots of Work

Guest post written by Derick Burks

Having your own business takes up a lot of your time. People say to me, “oh, it must be nice to be your own boss, and not have to answer to anyone,” but actually, it is a ton of work. When I go home at the end of the day, I can’t easily leave work at work because my work is my life. It is my company. I am always on the clock, so to speak. Tonight, although I am not at “work,” I am following up on a discussion with a representative from www.t1internet.net. We spoke this afternoon about my company and their different packages and he directed me to the website to look at the different options. I told him I would do that tonight and then call him with my thoughts in the morning. This is the kind of thing I’m talking about. There is always something else to do, to research, to follow up on, when you own your own business. It is a lot of work, but not a day goes by that I’m not grateful.

Setting up new utilities

This guest post from Lewis Beck

The thought of moving to a new house is really quite a daunting task for me. First of all I have three small children that still expect to be fed and take naps and all the normal routine things that we do at the house every day. Second of all our house even though it is not all that large holds a lot of stuff. We have stuff everywhere in ever nook and cranny. All of the stuff is the main reason why my husband and I decided to move in the first place and now that we are actually moving it is the reason why I don’t even want to think about the packing process. I know we have hired movers to come in and pack up most of the big stuff and transport it to our new home with more room for more stuff and new stuff but I am exhausted just thinking about doing all the work. Luckily the least of my worries is going to be getting my utilities set up with Dallas Texas Electricity Companies. They make it really easy.

American Idol is Back

Thanks for the article from Glenda Hanson

It’s time for the return of American Idol! It’s hard to believe we have reached season 11. This should be a good season without all the drama of new judges or concern about who likes or doesn’t like who. For example—everyone thought Paula and Simon just HATED one another. Then who does Simon pick as a judge on his new show? PAULA! All drama manufactured by the tabloids to get free press. When the new dates and times showed up on my Cable TV Advisor I put them on my calendar so I would not miss an episode. Unlike many people I like to watch the early episodes with the auditions. It’s fun to try to pick who will make it the farthest and who will even be successful outside of the show, in spite of how far they make it. I don’t always agree with the judges opinions at the auditions or who they pick to move on. I wonder if not getting chosen might even be the best thing for some of these folks? It would be interesting for AI to do a follow up show on people who didn’t make it in the auditions.

Staying at home

Guest post from: Constance Rodgers

Staying home alone with the kids was always what I wanted to do, but when my husband started having to go out of town for business I thought it might be a little more than I bargained for! Those first few nights at home alone were pretty much terrifying…every little noise and bump made me jump out of bed and run into my sons’ room. Eventually I had to go to my neighbor’s house and ask him if he would sleep in the guest room! (He’s a former Navy SEAL…) My husband heard about all this and thought the whole thing was ridiculous. He immediately went to look at flushing home security and looked into a security system and he bought me some mace to keep in the bedroom. We beefed up the locks and I must say, I do feel safer now sleeping in my own house, which is a good thing! I can’t believe I made such a big fuss as a grown woman but when you’re scared, you’re scared and there’s nothing you can do about it!

Our family is walking towards fitness together

Guest post written by Sandy Bowman

Our family isn't really naturally thin. We definitely have to do some work to be that way. But since I got promoted lately and my kids took on harder classes I can see that we've put the weight on and nobody feels good about it. So we've decided to try out a family workout just as a way to make sure that we get around to it. It can also serve as some nice bonding time too, which is harder to do once your kids get a little older like ours.

I went online to find out a good workout that we could do together without any equipment. As I was doing that I found some information on wildbluedeals.com/. I looked through it and after that I decided that we should change over our home intenret service to this new one.

I think that the perfect family fitness activitiy for us is going to be fitness walking. Plus, that will allow us to talk and just get out there to see our neighbors a little bit.

A Great Day Out

Guest post written by Rosa Watral

My boyfriend Frank and I decided to go out in Manhattan to help my grandmother with a few errands this past Saturday. We mailed some of her letters, scouted out a store for her where they sell Miracle Ear hearing aids, and we also picked up some groceries. I love my grandmother so much, and I was very happy to help her out. IÕm really glad that Frank was willing to come along, as wellÉit was definitely nice to have an extra set of hands with grandmaÕs weekly groceries haul!

While we were out, we did a few things for ourselves, too. Frank took me out to this incredible restaurant for lunch around Union Square that serves specialty mac and cheese. It was absolutely delightful! We heard about this place on TV and it was every bit as good as it was made out to be. He couldnÕt have picked out a better place to have lunchÉI think weÕre going to go back next week, it was soooo good! It was also nice to have a little break between all of shopping activities. In all, the day was a success. We found everything for grandma and had a nice little date, as well.

Saturday Afternoons On ESPN

Post contributed by Toni Jensen

There is nothing better then spending weekends watching sports on television. And while people complain about the East Coast bias and stuff, there is still nothing that matches watching ESPN on a Saturday afternoon on my satellite television from TVbyDirect.com. It doesn't matter what time of the year it is, there is always something great on Saturday afternoons. With that said, from late August thru December, it's the best time of the sports year: college football season. From 9am until 10pm, there is non-stop college football on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. Whether it's the Big East, Pac 10, Big 12 or The Mountain West Conference, I am there on my couch watching my Favorite Sports Network.

It's not just the quantity of what ESPN shows, but also the quality. When you watch college football on ESPN you are watching not just the best announcers and studio analysts, but also the best production team you'll find. There are some networks out there who butcher football games into their own personal graphics and promotional tool (here's looking at your FOX), but ESPN has a tendency to let the games speak for themselves. That may not sound like a big deal to people who don't regularly watch sports, but to someone who spends their weekend in front of their television watching sports, it is a very, very big deal.

Looking forward to a warm winter

Guest post written by Gloria Patterson

When you move into an old house, you obviously are going to have to make some sacrifices. Well, I kind of knew that going into buying our house, but I put it at the back of my mind until we braved our first winter there last year. We definitely had to bundle up more than usual in the house and this year I didn't want to have to do that.

Short of ripping the the house down and starting all over again, which is exactly what we were trying to avoid, really the only thing that I could think that would help us would be installing a new heating system. I got SEARS heating and air to come out and replace our heating system so I thought that it would help a lot.

When I told the installers about our issues they also suggested making it less drafty by also replacing our windows. It ends up that a lot of energy is lost by bad windows and I have noticed that itÕs a lot colder beside them so weÕre going to do that too.

Where to Find Good Deals on Knitting Supplies

Content by Mac Kline

I have a huge collection of knitting needles. I think I have just about every size of circular needles and double-pointed needles as well as multiple pairs of each size of straight knitting needles. In addition, I have an assortment of knitting accessories that includes everything from row counters to stitch holders and cable needles. You might think I paid a lot for all of these tools, but that's not the case. There are bargains to be found if you just know where to look.

One of my favorite places to find bargains on knitting supplies is at garage sales. I once bought a large garbage bag filled with yarn for just $5! The prices on knitting needles, crochet hooks and other craft supplies at garage sales are often quite cheap, but you have to be careful because some people don't know what they are worth and will set the price higher than it ought to be. You will usually find the best deals on boxes or bags of supplies that are sold as a group.

In addition to shopping at garage sales, you can get great deals buying craft supplies at estate sales that are handled by an auctioneer. Craft supplies are usually sold by the box at these sales, so you might end up with a large box of supplies for $10 or less.

I have also bought quite a few lots of knitting needles and other craft supplies on eBay. I use www.cleartvbundle.com to connect me to buyers and sellers all over the country and try to find large lots that will still be a great deal even after figuring the cost of shipping. You don't have to spend a fortune to build a large collection of knitting supplies.

Puppy training

Guest post written by Drew Douglas

The idea of a puppy definitely outweighed the memories of the difficulty training our now old cocker spaniel Harry. But we thought that Harry needed a companion to help liven him up and act like a young dog again so we got a cocker spaniel puppy named Daisy a few weeks ago.

It’s been a little tough doing this all over again, but I’ve noticed that Harry has taken a liking to his younger counterpart and treats her very well just like an older brother should. My wife pointed when I was rewarding Daisy with a treat after we made a successful trip outside that I was talking really loudly. Even though I was commending Daisy she acted like she thought I was yelling at her instead until I gave her dog treat. I made an appointment at miracle-ear, looked at some hearing aid reviews and bought some that week.

It made house training Daisy a little easier and she’s responding better to my commands. I also noticed some other things that I was missing out on before.

Making new friends

Guest post written by Maribelle Carter

I’ve had social anxiety for all of my life, so when I moved to a new retirement community away from most of my friends and family, I was really hesitant about being around all those new people. But I’ve made lots of new friends and I’m pretty proud of myself for conquering a lot of my issues in befriending these people.

One night when we were playing Scrabble, I was having a tough time participating in the conversation because I couldn’t hear everything everyone was saying. Then someone asked me if I had any grandchildren and I answered that I used to have two cats. I do have grandchildren, I just misunderstood them. They all laughed and then the man asked me again and I understood him.

I was pretty embarrassed but the man who asked me the original question pointed at his ears and said he had gone to miracle ear cincinnati before moving here. Then two women chimed in and said they both got hearing aids in houstonand hearing aids in brooklyn before relocating. After that I made an appointment and got some.

Although the incident was embarrassing, I’m glad that my new friends helped me laugh through it.