Friday, March 28, 2008

Its Raining McCain!


This is so bad its good. The other candidates have women singing for them and uploading videos to YouTube, so its only right that McCain would have his very own McCain Girls! I admit, this is one of the weirdest videos I've ever seen, but its also hilarious. Don't you love these girls? And don't they love McCain?

Ah man, now that song is stuck in my head .....

Discount Shopping with Online Coupon Codes

I love online shopping. Honestly, I'm just not that much of a shopper. I know women who would spend their entire days at the mall and call that a good time. That's not me. I go when I have to and do as little shopping around as I can. Its just not my thing. That's why I like online shopping. I can find what I need with just a few clicks. I can contrast and compare products without having to spend all day doing it. I generally come away feeling like I got a good deal instead of wondering if I had just gone to one more store I might have gotten it cheaper.

I really like the online discount stores that offer coupon codes. Wow, what good deals you can get at those online shops! One such site is 1-coupons.com. They have a huge variety of store and literally thousands of coupon codes, promotional deals, bargain specials and promotion code offers so that you can get the best deals from the best stores you probably already patronize.

1-coupons is a one-stop-shop for a wide variety of item from the best stores out there. You can get discount prices on digital cameras as well as fine quality stunning necklace for your girlfriend, wife or maybe yourself! You can get discounts and coupon codes on flowers to send to a sick friend and pick up some supplies you need for your dog all at the same place and at the same time.

Its easy, quick and you save money. It doesn't get much better than that!

Queen Eliziabeth II Loves Wii

Queen Eliziabeth II
I know this happened over the holidays, but I think its a hoot. Prince William got a Wii over the holidays and was having a blast with it. That is, until his grandmother started hogging the system. His grandmother being none other than the Queen, of course.

Apparently she is a natural at Wii Sports Bowling. The Queen has become a bit of a technophile in recent years. Now she’s added the Wii to her list of must-have gadgets.






source

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Make Sure your Identity is Secure

I was surfing around the internet and ran across the website for lifelock. I have read a good bit about that company before. Apparently, they have been a successful upstart internet company that is very good at protecting the online identity of their customers. When I opened up their website, the first thing I saw was a picture of the CEO, Todd Davis, and his Social Security number. The SSN was HUGE and immediately below it is a statement that it is, indeed, his real Social Security Number. I would be tempted not to believe that had I not read about the company before on some very reputable websites. Since I've read that this is a reliable company I was definitely impressed when I saw that number sitting there at the top of the page. You can read more about them at lifelockblog.

What LifeLock does is protect your good name. They protect your online identity. We've all heard the horror stories of people who have had their credit card or social security numbers stolen. Its horrible. LifeLock helps you have more control over where, when, how and by whom that information is used. That take care of the nitty-gritty details to make sure that your rights to your own identity are protected. Those technical details are what keeps me from doing a lot of things for myself. Its time consuming and I just don't have the technical know-how to do it. They only charge $10 a month and back up their work with a $1,000,000 service guarantee. So why get a headache trying to re-invent the wheel when there are already well respected experts out there that charge so little to do it for you?

I don't want to write that I've never had an identity thief problem because I don't want to jinx it. I have known people who have and I know enough to know that I don't want to have to deal with that. I think checking in with LifeLock is definitely a good idea. Even better, right now they are offering a lifelock promotion code so you can get the service at a very reasonable price.

Bandelier National Monuement

While we were in New Mexico this week, my Beloved Curmudgeon and I decided to go see Bandelier National Monument.

I think it was the word 'Monument' that threw me off. I was expecting a 'monument'. A statue or something like that to look at.


Also, in my defense, I will say that it was a spur of the moment decision to go and since it was a 'monument' I didn't think to change clothes or shoes before we went.

Up until that day, actually up until the moment we set off on this adventure, the weather in New Mexico had been great. No problems. It was something like 89 degrees, but felt like 70 degrees. To a Southerner who is used to 90% humidity it felt cool.

However, once we took off into the wilderness (and I do mean wilderness) to find the Bandelier National Monument, the clouds turned dark and there was suddenly a cold (and I do mean COLD) rain. Pouring rain.

The temperature dropped to 50 degrees in what seemed like minutes. There was hail and sleet and the biggest drops of rain I have ever seen in my life.

Being from the South, as soon as the hail started hitting the car I thought, 'TORNADO'! If you are familiar at all with the New Mexico landscape, you might can imagine how this little Southern heart sank when I looked around for shelter from the tornado that in my mind was certainly in the vicinity.

There was nothing. NOTHING! As far as the eye could see. And the eye can see a very long distance in that area.

When we got to the park and were coughing up the entrance fee, I asked the Park Ranger about tornadoes. She said they don't have tornadoes there. Much to my Beloved Curmudgeon's amusement, I unthinkingly responded, 'But it's hailing'. She looked out of her little building and then looked at me and said flatly, 'yes it is'. Period.

Okay, they don't have tornadoes there.

We proceeded into the park and towards what I thought would be a 'monument'. I think the winding, very high road would have been spectacular had we been able to see the view. But it was pouring so hard and the sound of the hail pelting the car was so loud all I could think about was not running off the road.

As a little aside here. If I ever get nervous about running off the edge of one of those really high windy roads around here My Beloved Curmudgeon always reassures me by telling me that the forest is so thick the trees would catch you before you got very far down.

There are very few trees on the Northern New Mexico mountains. There is nothing between you and the very steep, very far drop off just beside the road and shoulder of very loose dirt. I did think of that a time or two during this trek over the mountain.

On to Bandelier.

When we winded around enough we finally got to the visitors center. We sat in the car and looked at it. There were signs that we could see through the rain about the start of a hiking trail.

Hiking trail!!!!I like hiking trails, but not in heels. [see 2nd & 3rd paragraph] And not when it's pouring freezing huge pelts of rain when I am dressed in summer slacks and a flimsy, sheer shirt covering a thin shell top.

So we sat there.Beloved Curmudgeon was beginning to live up to his moniker, the curmudgeon part. I was thinking we drove all this way, paid to get in and now we are going to sit in the car and look at a building through the rain. I was getting a little not so nice myself, hard to believe I know.

I determined that I would buy a sweatshirt if they sold them in the gift shop and suffer with cold feet. I accepted my heels would be ruined. So we went in.

They did have sweatshirts (at $50 each). We browsed around the gift shop a little and as we were getting ready to leave the rain stopped and the sun came out! I put the $50 sweatshirt back on the shelf.

There was a couple standing under a shelter just outside the gift shop. They were supervising a group of about 15 pre-teens who seemed to be on some sort of school outing.

At the very moment I opened the door of the gift shop, the man of the couple firmly chastised the youth group by saying, 'Settle down, y'all are acting like a bunch of wild Indians.' Actually, I think he said 'you guys' instead of 'y'all'. He had a distinct mid-western accent.

The two 20-something young women behind the gift shop counter looked up, the man looked chagrined and I stifled laughter.

Neither of the 20-something young women looked wild in the least, but they were certainly Indian.

A good thing about New Mexico is that when it quits raining, it really quits. It almost instantaneously dried up. It was like it hadn't been raining at all and there was no lingering humidity. It literally immediately cleared up and dried out.

We sat out on the trail. High heels and all.

I commented to my Beloved Curmudgeon that it was very thoughtful of these pre-historic Indians to set out such nice, easy to walk on trails for us. Not only that, but periodically there were adobe/cement benches for us to sit on. Beloved Curmudgeon just condescendingly said, 'uh huh.' He doesn't think I'm nearly as funny as I think I am!

When we got to the top of the highest point the path would go, I just had to climb up one of the ladders into one of the caves in which the Anasazi people lived.

One doesn't drive that far, braving the elements, then hike that far and climb that high in heels and not take the next step of climbing into one of the caves.

So I kicked off my heels and climbed the ladder in my stocking feet. I crawled around inside the cave and explored as far as I could.

When I was leaving and approached the opening of the cave, the massive mountains across the valley came into view. They were very high and I suddenly realized I could see the top of them from my crouched position inside the cave.

I had one thought in my head. '!!!!!!!!!!'. That was it. '!!!!!!!!!!', I thought.

It's one thing to get up there; it's a whole other thing to get DOWN.


I went to the opening of the cave and looked down at the hiking trail. There wasn't a soul in sight. Most notably, my Beloved Curmudgeon was not in sight.

As aggravated as I get with him from time to time. At times like this I really want him to be there. So I carefully scooted closer to the edge until I was close enough to look straight down. One has to look straight down to see the very vertical ladder one had just climbed up (like the fool one is at times).

I had a momentary lapse of reason and hoped he'd be standing at the bottom of the ladder waiting to help me down. He wasn't. No one was there. Just that very vertical hand made wooden ladder.

Again, my only thought was,'!!!!!!!!!!!!'.

I've lived long enough and gotten into enough jams to know that it's best not to give this sort of thing too much thought. Thinking about it only exacerbates any feelings of panic and panic exacerbates the difficulty of the situation.

So without thinking anything else, I flipped around and felt with my toes for the ladder. Looking back I should have taken my trouser socks off - but never the less, I got down fine and jogged down the trail to find Beloved Curmudgeon. He was waiting for me on one of those convenient adobe/cement benches by the trail.

The Bandelier National Monument really is a fabulous site to see.The fact that this cave dwelling pueblo was built between the 1100s - 1400s makes it even more remarkable.

If you ever get the chance I highly recommend it, just don't wear high heels.


Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Its Time to Get Our Summer Bodies Back!

Its starting to get warm outside and its time to open our pool. You know what that means ... that means its time to get serious about shedding those winter pounds! If you are like me, you might needs a little help with that. Fortunately, there IS help out there.

I was browsing the internet and found some great resources for help with getting back into bathing suit shape. Actually, regardless of how much weight you have to lose you can find help at Weight Loss Diet Help. The website gives you a good overview of different diet plans and weight loss programs. You can get a good idea of what weight loss programs such as Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, eDiets and others have to offer. They also have plenty of coupons you can use to get great online discounts for those programs. For instance, you can order nutritionally balanced and clinically proven foods including soups, shakes, bars, puddings and drinks from Medifast using coupons you will find on their website.

Weight Loss Diet Help provides some really good articles on health and diet related issues. For instance, I found an article there on For Losing Weight, Little Things Can Add Up Big. I tend to think I have to do everything at once rather than taking little steps in the right direction. The articles focus on practical tips for healthy diet, fitness and nutrition. Its very helpful to get reinforcement and to be reminded that the important thing is to stay fit in a healthy manner.

Monday, March 24, 2008

LOST Promotional Video: The Shape of Things to Come



I love these promos - I guess you could tell if you come here at all. This is for The Shape of Things to Come. I. Can't. Wait.

Here's the write up.

"The Shape of Things to Come" is the ninth episode of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of Lost and seventy-eighth episode overall. It will air on April 24, 2008 on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada.[1] The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew Goddard in mid-February 2008 and filmed in mid-March.

Goddard said that writing the episode was "maybe my favorite thing I've done on Lost, and I've been lucky with all the episodes I've gotten so far."[2] Karl (played by Blake Bashoff) is shot dead at the end of the previous episode and Bashoff has confirmed that if Karl's corpse is seen in "The Shape of Things to Come", it will not be played by him.