Well, autumn is officially here, and it’s time I started getting the lawn and garden ready for fall. I noticed that my harvest of cucumbers simply didn’t happen, which was discouraging because I really love cucumbers! I’ve been cleaning up the flowers that have gone by, and mulching the garden. Planting daffodils and day-lilies for next year’s floral display.
Mowed the lawn, using the bagger attachment. Boy do I LOVE the bagger attachment! I wonder how late into the season the grass will keep growing this year. I don’t like mowing into winter, but it sure beats shoveling snow!
There is a great new search engine in town called local.com that helps connect consumers with local businesses. This new search engine acts like a local yellowpages and combines the citysearch, yelp, yellowpages, and superpages websites to give you a comprehensive local search engine that “does it all.”
What I think is so remarkable about this search engine is that it offers free advertising to businesses. This is a great boon to businesses, as advertising is one of the biggest budget busters in most business ventures. To be able to get listed in a search engine such as this for free is a great value!
The website offers driving directions and business contact information, as well as business hours and reviews from a variety of websites. Users of the website can also contribute to the website by writing their own reviews.
I was shocked to read in the Time.com website that a bomb attack was carried out on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. From what I understand, no terrorist organization has claimed “credit” for the bombing, but it is clear that the Marriott was the target of the attack. Fifty three people died, and two hundred sixty six were injured as a result of the attack.
The bombing was carried out by way of a suicide truck forcing its way through the gates and exploding. I have to assume that it was a suicide attack; and assume that the driver of the truck is dead. Assumptions are being made that the Taliban is involved/responsible for this attack.
I think terrorist attacks are the most contemptible feats possible. These are acts of cowardice, not courage. These people believe they are going to some kind of great martyr-dom heaven, but I believe that they will be going to the “other place” that is not quite so pleasant!
When my wife and I have gone on vacations together, we have tried a variety of lodging accommodations. We have tried the standard hotel/motel room, we have tried renting hotel suites, and we have rented vacation condos. To be honest they have all worked out fairly well, but for the most part we have preferred renting out condos. The hotels and motels were nice enough, but we frequently found our sleep disturbed by noisy people walking down the hallways in the wee hours of the morning. And in a hotel room, or even a hotel suite we found it difficult for one person to watch television without disturbing the other’s sleep.
We much prefer renting out vacation houses or condos. It’s easy to find a place we like through the homeaway.com website!
We like the spacious feeling of being able to stretch out, and not be cramped all up in just one room. We really like the convenience of having our own kitchen so we could put restaurant leftovers in the refrigerator and heat them up later in the microwave if we wanted. And the best convenience was being able to go to the local grocery store and buy breakfast foods so we could eat breakfast right there in our place and not have to try to find a restaurant for breakfast. We really don’t mind eating one or two meals out during the day on vacation, but we don’t want to eat ALL our meals out! We like the extra amenities that often come with renting a vacation condo – access to a swimming pool, a nice private patio/balcony, and private jacuzzi tubs right in our own bedroom suites! And the price of renting a vacation condo is usually less money than renting just one cramped room in a hotel!
So for us, when we are planning a vacation that is more than just a one or two night stay, we usually try to rent a vacation condo, and a hotel is usually our last resort option.
When we lived in Maine, every time my wife had a birthday (or other gift giving occasion) I would give her a “Cat’s Meow” Village piece of a local landmark. When we moved from New England to where we are living now I thought I would continue the tradition, but I have not been able to find a local store that sells the pieces! I went to the Cat’s Meow website and their store locater tells me where to buy them, but when I go to that store listed on their website, the store claims that they don’t sell them anymore and they have no idea where I can go buy them. Very frustrating!
