A couple of days ago I picked up a copy of a local newspaper because the headline caught my eye – “Winner’s Death Mars Point-to-Point Races.” Well, to be honest I do not know what a “Point-to-Point” race is, but I was interested in the story. Apparently a “Point-to-Point” race involves people dressing up in their “Fox Hunt” racing clothes and racing horses through a course. I don’t know if there was any jumping involved, but if this is supposed to simulate a fox hunt, I would imagine so.
Anyway, the winner of the race (the winning horse) apparently suffered a massive heart attack the very next stride after passing the finish line! One second the horse and rider are winning the race, the next second the horse is dead! Incredible, and incredibly sad.
My aunt tells me that she needs to have one of her hips replaced. She is very concerned about it because she had heard that there were medical issues on zimmer durom cup devices that were used for hip replacement in the recent past. I told her that I would look into it for her and see what I could find out. I found out that there are a lot of durom lawyers that are involved in some durom lawsuits because the Zimmer Company did in fact make some defective devices that have a lot of problems for some patients.
I told her that I didn’t think that she needed to worry about it, though, because those devices were used primarily in younger people who had longer life expectancies; I don’t think that her doctor would be using that device on her. But I told her that if she was worried about it that she should talk to her doctor about it and find out exactly what device he is going to use. I suggested that she take my sister with her (she’s a nurse) if she was afraid to ask question; I’m sure my sister would help her to ask all of the right questions to settle her nerves.
I’m not a big fan of onions. In fact I hate them. I am constantly telling people that I hate onions so that they won’t try to feed me anything made with onions in them. I go so far as to tell people that I’m allergic to them (although I’m not really.) And yet I like garlic bread. My wife doesn’t understand how or why I could hate onions but like garlic bread. We recently started buying frozen garlic bread slices to heat up in the toaster oven when we have spaghetti or lasagna. It’s quick and easy, and since we buy the kind that has cheese on it too I like it a lot. Even the “store brand” cheese garlic bread is really good.
With the economy being in as much trouble as it’s in, I’m sorry to say that we have several family members who are in danger of losing their homes within the next year. I’m sure hoping that we dodge that bullet ourselves, but it’s going to be a rough road ahead! My wife and I have been talking about fixing up part of our basement to accommodate some family members that might need it in the future. We are planning to put in a studio-type apartment – just in case. We are going to need to buy a lot of things to do that. We’re hoping to get some things for free, but in the meantime we are pricing items as well. It’s amazing how many things you have to get for a project like that.
My wife is especially concerned with the amount of lighting fixtures that we are going to need down there. It is a dark place; after all it IS a basement, and we only have a few of those little basement windows down there. Pretty poor lighting, for sure! So my wife is trying to find good deals on attractive ceiling light fixtures for the kitchen/living/sleeping areas, and something charming for the bathroom light fixtures. She wants to make sure that anyone is is staying down there does not get the feeling that they are second class citizens! It could be depressing down there without enough light!
My wife doesn’t drink coffee, but my I love it! My favorite coffee is Dunkin Donuts. We don’t have a Dunkin Donuts near us, so we used to buy several bags of their ground coffee to brew at home for special occasions, like my birthday or Christmas. Recently our grocery stores started selling the Dunkin Donuts coffee, which made it a lot easier to buy more often. Oddly enough, the whole bean coffee keeps appearing in the house. My wife swears that she doesn’t buy them, I KNOW I’m not the one buying whole beans, but it keeps appearing anyway! I got tired of listening to my wife complain about how she is tired of returning the coffee and exchanging it for ground, so today I broke down and bought a coffee grinder. Now when those whole beans find their way here, I’m ready for them! Bring ‘em on!
Our son “J” has a good friend “P” that goes to Brown University. They don’t get to see each other as often as they would like, because our son goes to Princeton. Whenever “J” gets the chance to go to Boston to visit with “P” he jumps at the opportunity to go. “P” is approaching graduation, and has had several job offers that he is considering that would keep him right in Boston. “J” and “P” really enjoy Boston a lot, and “P” has invited “J” to help him look at some Boston Condos and Boston Lofts that he is interested in renting or buying if he decides to stay there.
“P’s” father is a very wealthy man, and he is setting up an appointment with “P” and “J” to go look at the luxury condos and lofts with an agent of the Bushari Group Real Estate. Hopefully they will find something that they like close to where “P” would be working, but close to public transportation as well.
I was reading on the Reutors website that New York City’s taxi cab fleet be changing. The Mayor of the city, Michael Bloomberg has announced that there is no an agreement in place with car manufacturers that they will supply the city with 300 new hybrid cars each month. Each hybrid taxi car is expected to save its drivers about $6500 each year in fuel costs. There currently are over 1300 hybrid cars serving as taxies in New York.
I think that is good news on several different levels. First of all, it is good news for the drivers, who are usually struggling for income in the first place. Second, it is good news for the environment; using less fossil fuel is always good for the environment! So, congrats to New York City taxis for going green!
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been spending a lot more time out in the workshop in my garage. I’ve been checking over my tools and accessories; seeing what works and what doesn’t. What needs to be repaired or replaced. Organizing, cleaning, getting ready for warmer weather when I can spend more time out there tinkering.
I’ve noticed that over the past couple of months a lot of my hand tools have been used and simply “put down” and not “put away” in the tool chest. I wish I could say that someone else is to blame for not putting them away after they were used, but I know that I’m the one that used them last, so there is no one to blame but myself! I hate when that happens!
I’m glad to say that most of my tools and hardware are in pretty good shape! I’m going to have to buy some new tubes of goop and a few rolls of duct tape; mostly minor things. Oh, and I did find a hammer that had lost it’s head! So I’ll need to replace that one! But for the most part, I’m fairly pleased with my workshop tools for now.
Well, I’m in a quandary. We love to buy the Angel Food Ministries food packages. They are a great deal, good food, and really help to stretch our food budget. We picked up our Angel Food box of food today and were delighted to find that the dessert this month is blueberry pie. When we got home we opened the box, thinking we would have a slice of it.
Much to our surprise, the pie was a frozen, uncooked pie. So we were unable to enjoy a slice of it immediately. What was disconcerting, however, is that there are not baking directions on the box! We don’t know how to cook it! We’ve spent over an hour trying to find instructions for baking it on the Internet, but no luck. So we are winging it. We started out at 350 for 30 minutes, but the crust wasn’t brown enough. So we turned it up to 400 for another 10 minutes, still not done enough. All in all we’ve cooked it now for about an hour and the crust is brown now, and we’ve taken it out of the oven. It smells good; we are waiting for it to cool off enough to eat it. I hope it turned out okay!
I’ve been telling my wife that I want to buy a new pair of motorcycle boots to wear this year when I’m riding my Harley WideGlide. My old boots are worn out, and I need a new pair. She’s concerned that I’ll be spending too much money on a pair of fancy boots. I told her that I was thinking about buying some factory seconds from the copshoes.com website. Factory seconds are usually a good deal; they usually look fine, last fine, work fine and and cost less. My brother in-law told me about this website; he told me he had bought a pair of Timberland Boots from them and he was very happy with them, and with their customer service. He said that he was surprised to see that they had the full line of the Timberland Force Multiplier Series; he said that they are hard to find!
Well, I heard that President Obama commented that he can’t bowl very well. Something to the effect that when he bowls, he looks like he’s participating in the Special Olympics. And I’ve heard that there’s been a lot of hoopla about how that was a disparaging comment “insult” to the people who do actually participate in the Special Olympics. Well, I don’t think that President Obama meant to insult anyone. Everyone knows that the people who participate in the Special Olympics are handicapped. And that handicapped people are “differently abled” and sometimes have to expend extra effort to achieve what many of us take for granted. It’s too bad that there is always so much attention paid to people’s errors; I think that it was not ill-intended and I wish people would find better things to complain about!
As the economy continues its downward spiral, more people are going to be seeing their credit rating go from good to poor. Job losses are undoubtedly going to make it difficult, if not impossible for many people to keep current on their mortgages, their car loans, and their credit cards. Once the economy starts to pick up again (soon, I hope!) I suspect that there will be a huge demand for information about how to repair credit.
I think that there will be an increase in businesses specializing in credit repair; they will claim that they can help you to fix credit ratings that have plunged. Most of these companies, however will probably just charge money for the common sense advice to check with the credit report companies to make sure that you are not being charged for credit problems that someone else with the same name as you in another part of the country is having, and they will explain how to challenge the credit report. And they will advise you to make payments on time. They might even suggest that you take out secured loans for a short period of time. So be careful how you spend your money on credit advice! Much of it is simply common sense.
I cannot believe that the people at the AIG company are so vital that they would quit their jobs if they didn’t get their bonuses and that the company would not be able to survive without them. There is one thing I have learned in the business world, no one is irreplaceable. I think that AIG should not give out those bonuses, and if they lose “valuable employees” then I think that they should just let them walk. To be giving out bonuses now, when the company had to borrow so much money from us is unthinkable! I suspect that if AIG ever comes to the government, hat in hand, asking for bailout money that they will be turned away. They have shown their true colors!
Ben has been telling me that he has decided to try to make some money by selling off some of his old collectibles. So he has been going through his basement and his garage and his attic and pulling out some items that he thinks that he wants to sell. He’s tried hold a couple of garage sales, but one was rained out, and the other really didn’t generate much traffic or sales. He thinks it is probably because he lives so far out in “the boonies” that people just didn’t feel like traveling the distance to get to his place. So he thinks that garage sales just aren’t the answer for him.
He has some friends that sell things on Ebay and have made pretty good money doing it, but they have started complaining recently that there have been some changes in the Ebay process that they are unhappy about. Ben has never been a real good computer wiz, and he doesn’t want to take the time or effort to learn how to do the Ebay process himself. So he is going to take his items to the local isold it store and have them try to sell his items on Ebay for him.
This morning my wife and I went to see the specialist who has been trying to help me clear up my health issues. It was a long, two hour drive in rush hour traffic. I felt sorry for my wife having to drive in that mess, but we needed to go, so go we did. And once we got to the doctor’s office, he was running behind (as usual) and we didn’t leave his office for two hours once we actually arrived! Then the long drive back, this time NOT in rush hour traffic so it only took an hour and fifteen minutes. That kind of morning takes a lot out of you! Anyway, I started off this post thinking that I was going to write about the beautiful tulip trees and forsythia shrubs that are starting to bloom. I noticed them while we were driving. I also noticed the daffodils are out, and the temperatures were a comfortable 60 degrees, so it certainly did seem spring-like today!
My sister is taking my daughter to Orlando today. They are flying down to spend the week in my sister’s time share condo in Orlando. I’m green with envy; I love to go to Orlando! It is one of my favorite vacation spots. Unfortunately I have had to postpone my vacation plans due to some medical issues that I need to deal with. As much as I love going on vacation, I just am not in any shape to go anyplace spectacular right now. So I will just have to live vicariously through my sister and daughter’s vacation for now!
I know that they are planning to take in all of the great theme amusement parks, and some of the great dinner shows that feature spectacular stunts and horses. I really loved going to them the last couple of times I went to Florida!
One of my favorite theme parks to go to is Universal Studios Orlando. They have some really great shows! The last time I went there it was with my wife and we had such a great time going to see the shows. My wife isn’t a big fan of thrill rides, so she sat out the rides while I went on a few without her. We’ve never made it over to Islands of Adventure park because we keep hearing that it is mostly roller coaster rides and my wife really has no interest in doing any of those. Maybe if we heard that they had some good shows there to see we would head over there the next time we go there.
My sister tells me that the Universal Studios has a Mardi Gras celebration that puts other Mardi Gras celebrations to shame, and that they are planning to spend a day or two at the Studios at Islands of Adventure that they want to go to the Mardi Gras. I’ll be interested to hear what they have to say about the celebration; what they see and what they do. I’ll bet they have a great time!
I was just watching the local news on television and saw that earlier today a small plane crashed in an area not too far from here. The only one aboard, apparently, was the pilot, and he survived. He survived because the plane had an emergency parachute option on it that deployed and allowed the plane to land softly. I didn’t know that was an option on any planes! The story said that the pilot because disoriented in some fog/clouds and was afraid he was going to crash, so he deployed the parachute. The plane is totaled, but no one on the ground was hurt, and the pilot is alive. That’s pretty awesome!
I have noticed that ever since we moved here, various people have been trying to convince us to convert our television system to Direct TV. My brother in-in-law has been trying to get me to convert to Direct T V because he has it at home and he says that the Direct TV Options are a lot more numerous than the other types of television service. He is always bragging about how many channels he can get, and how he can “TIVO” shows that he wants to watch later. He especially loves the sports channels and the movie channels.
He has a HUGE wide screen television that takes up the entire wall of his living room. I mean it completely overpowers his room! I don’t see HOW that can tickle his fancy; it is overpowering. I know it sounds strange to hear a guy say that, so you know it must be true! Every time we go over to his house he wants to show it off to us. I don’t mind, but it annoys my wife. She says that we are going over to visit him, not watch his giant television!
I think it is so funny how many people go on and on about how unlucky Friday the 13th is supposed to be. My wife and I were married on a Friday the 13th, so I happen to think it is a good day! Next month my wife and I will have been married for eight years. It really doesn’t seem that long! We were talking yesterday about how we have actually known each other for fifteen years! Good grief, time has flown right by! I like to make sure that on the 13th of every month to make sure to wish my wife a “Happy Anniversary” and make sure that she doesn’t have to cook supper. I know she certainly appreciates that! So she thinks the 13th is a good day too!
As we are approaching our retirement years, we talk from time to time about how we can best afford to retire. We keep hearing about how many people we know seem to manage to move to other countries where the American dollar is strong and they can live like kings on less money than we are using to live very modestly. Some of of friends tell us that they can afford nice homes in Retirement Communities in Mexico AND hired help to tend the lawns and clean their houses, and they have less money coming in than we do!
One of our friends, Jeff sent me the link to one of the Mexico Retirement Communities spots that he is thinking about buying that is oceanfront property on Banderas Bay. I was checking it out; it is an American developed community of resort apartments in towers that are on the west coast of Mexico. I was viewing the pictures on the tour, and the place looks absolutely spectacular!
Jeff has invited us to fly out there with him and his wife to check out some Retirement Communities Mexico. He has offered to pay all of our expenses to go with them. How can we refuse an offer like that? So now my wife and I have to pull out our calendars and see when would be a good time to go out there. I’m going to want to do some research about the climate and see if there is a better time to go, or any time to avoid.
I’ve always wanted to go to Mexico, and this seems like a great opportunity to do just that!
I was so pleased to notice today that when I was driving into town the daffodils are blooming in many yards. I love daffodils; to me they are the harbingers of spring. I know that crocus and hyacinths are supposed to be that but it seems that I just don’t see them anywhere! I’ve noticed that some flocks of birds are flying north overhead and it makes me realize that the long cold winter is finally over. Spring is officially more than a week away, but all the signs are there. I think the groundhog was wrong, and an early spring is here!
The temperatures were in the seventies today, and the weatherman says that tomorrow will be just as nice! This is the reason we moved here, beautiful weather like this! The wind feels great, the sun warms our skin, it just cannot get any more perfect than this! My wife is already trying on her summer clothes to see what fits and what doesn’t; what needs to be mended and what needs to be donated to charity. I’ll be grilling burgers on the grill more often…..Ahhh…. the rites of spring are upon us!
One of our nieces is pregnant and has just started “showing.” So my wife has been looking for some cute, trendy, and inexpensive maternity clothes to buy for her. She found a great selection of maternity clothes on the Internet at the kikisfashions.com website. The clothes there are a bargain compared to many other places that she has been looking at! They are holding a big sale, offer several maternity tops for under $10, and are offering a coupon code for bloggers and their readers to use to get an additional 20% off! The coupon code is “blogfriends.”
My wife says that the clothes are very cute compared to the maternity clothes she had to wear back in the 80s when she was pregnant with our kids. Makes her angry that she couldn’t find cute clothes like that back then!
I read this morning on one of the Internet websites (I think it was Yahoo) a story about a chimpanzee in a zoo that stores up rocks and then throws them when he is angry at the zoo visitors. The article was making a big deal about it because the scientists were saying that this shows that chimpanzees can plan ahead.
Then the article mentions the incident with the pet chimpanzee that attacked his owner’s friend. It goes on to say that the owner speculated that the chimp had attacked her friend because she had a new hairdo, was driving a different car, and was holding a toy stuffed animal in front of her face, trying to lure the chimp to come inside the house. That’s the first I’d heard of all that! Well no wonder he attacked her! He was feeling threatened by a stranger on his turf! How sad is that!
If someone told you that you could save up to 80% on auto parts by ordering them online, what would you do? Me too! My nephew told me that the next time I need to buy some parts for any of our vehicles, to check out the greatautoparts.com website. I just went there and found that it is easy to use, just type in the year and make of the car and the part number and it will tell you the price. Pretty easy! You should try it too the next time you need to order an auto part!
I was glad to hear that the Dulles Metro rail has finally been approved and is going to actually start construction! I heard that on the news this evening. That is going to make life a lot easier for a LOT of people, including our family because we use the Dulles Airport a lot. I’ve been wishing that there was a Metro rail station there ever since we moved into the area.
Now if we could only get the Metro rail station to extend out to Gainesville! That would be really great!
Our youngest son tells us that he has been offered several New Jersey Jobs once he gets out of college. He is going to college in New Jersey now, and he says that he really likes it there. The climate is similar to where we live, and he has made quite a few friends. It is convenient to New York, which he has really been enjoying going to on the weekends. He has been enjoying going to the shows and the museums, and really having a good time enjoying his new found independence. So he is giving serious thought to the job offers.
New Jersey is only a couple of hours from where we live, so although we would really prefer that he live closer to us, we are counting our blessings that at least he is going to be on the same coast!
My sister sent me the link to see a cool video of a bear in a Japanese zoo playing with a stick. The way he is playing with the stick makes it look like he is practicing a form of martial arts! I decided to include it in my blog. I hope you get as big a kick out of the video as I did!
I recently was looking at a website that offers some comparison information about web hosting companies. There is a lot of competition out there for web hosting services, that is for sure! It can really get confusing; trying to figure out what is the best company to take your domain to. I appreciate the fact that there are a few places you can go to that honestly compare the different web hosting services, and one of those websites (webhostingchoice.com) that I was looking at recently even has a “Learning Center” that is designed to help people to better understand how the process works, and includes some cautions to help avoid being scammed, or taken advantage of.
Don’t you just hate it when you give out your email address to someone, hoping that they will use it with some commonsense and only contact you when they really NEED to communicate with you and then all you ever get from them is those stupid “chain” letter emails? I find that to be a constant problem, and I really hate having to send those people polite replies asking them to NOT do that! I like to think I am a nice person; I KNOW I’m a busy person, and I HATE getting those kinds of emails “forward this to 8 of your closest friends within five minutes or something bad will happen to you.” I DON’T forward it, I reply back to it and then delete it. I don’t know anyone who likes getting those kinds of emails, and it surprises me how many people are so superstitious that they are afraid to “break the chain” by deleting the email.
