For several weeks now my hubby and I have been discussing buying a new digital camera.  The one we’ve been using is falling apart - literally.  The door that holds the batteries in place has broken and we have to tape it shut.  And we lost the cord that attaches it to the computer to download the pictures, so now we have to use a memory card to insert into the camera, remove it and put it in the computer and then download the pictures from the memory card. 

That’s not that big a deal except that it is stored in the camera right beside the batteries, so when I want to get pictures off of the camera I have to untape it and then tape it up again.  It is only a 5 megapixel camera, which was top of the line when we bought it, but times have changed and we’d like a better one that doesn’t need to be taped together!  I don’t know if maybe the newer ones are easier on batteries, I sure hope so!  The camera we have now is only good for about a dozen pictures and then needs new batteries, which is a huge pain in the neck!

Anyway, we are going to be looking at a website to compare digital cameras to see which one is the best digital camera for our needs before we go out and buy one.  We know that we want a small one to make it easy to take with us when we go places, but we don’t know yet if we want a compact digital camera or an ultra compact digital camera.  I’d like to get the one that has the most megapixels and the most zoom, but it appears that the price of those are more money than we want to pay, so we have to decide which feature is most important to us.

Posted: July 5th, 2008 under Blogs, Business, Computers / Software, Entertainment/Fun, Family, Finances/Money, Internet, Life, Online, Shopping, Technology.
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I saw on the today show (I think it was yesterday) a story about how the price of gasoline continuing to rise is going to be causing the price of milk to jump to $6.00 a gallon in very short order! I hope that they are mistaken, milk is already more expensive than soda! It is hard enough to get kids to drink milk INSTEAD of soda because kids prefer the sweetened drinks. But if the price of milk continues to increase, I’m concerned that for economical reasons the parents will be encouraging the kids to be drinking sweetened drinks in place of milk, which could lead to health problems down the road such as obesity and diabetes.

As part of the news story they were showing some new milk cartons that they say will start to show up on the store shelves soon. I’ve already seen them at Costco; they are squarish and a little bit awkward to handle. The newscasters reported that the reason for the switch to the different jugs is because they can stack them tighter in the truck, which reduces the transportation costs. Well, I’m all about reducing costs!

Posted: July 2nd, 2008 under Business, Finances/Money, Food and Beverage, Health, Issues, Life, News, Parenting, Shopping.
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I received an email from a friend telling me that she found a Small Business Web Design service on the Internet and she wanted me to check it out and tell her what I learned and how I felt about it.  I guess the fact that she knows that I’m home on maternity leave makes her think that I just lay around the house all day watching television and eating chocolate bonbons.  I wonder if she’s related to my hubby’s boss?  It seems that almost everyone around me thinks that taking care of a baby is a “nothing to it” leisure past time that only takes a few minutes a day!  They don’t realize that it is a more-than-full time job with few to no breaks.  When one leaves the house every day to go to their “paid job” they at least get a coffee break in the morning, a lunch break, and a coffee break in the afternoon where they can sit down, put their feet up and RELAX for a few minutes without worrying about a thing in the world!

But I digress.  As good a friend as I am (and knowing how ditzy my friend is) I agreed to check it out.  The company is called ebizwebpages.  Of course, they have a website at www.ebizwebpages.com.  They offer software programs that make it easy to build web pages.  They DO NOT provide the domain name, or web hosting, the consumer has to provide that on their own.  The software program is an easy to use program that guides the consumer through the entire process of building their website.  The consumer can add their own text, upload their own images, and customize it any way that suits their fancy, and have their web page done in as little as fifteen minutes. 

This company charges a monthly fee for their software program, and offers customer support if the customer has any questions or problems.  They have links on their website where the interested consumer can download a ten-day free sample to see if they would really be interested in signing up for the service.

Posted: June 23rd, 2008 under Blogs, Business, Computers / Software, Finances/Money, Internet, Online, Shopping, Technology.
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When we went to camp last weekend, I was noticing that the yellow bug light bulbs that we use outside at night had burnt out.  So I decided to replace them with the new CFL yellow bug lights, trying to save energy.  I take saving energy very seriously; we need to reduce our carbon footprints as much as possible.  I’ve got a baby who is going to be growing up in this polluted world, and I want all of my children and grandchildren to live in a clean world!  Anyway, I know that the CFL yellow bug lights are too tall to fit into the existing light globes that our outdoor lights have, so I want to buy new outdoor lighting  fixtures.  The ones we have are old and rusty anyway; it’s high time we replaced them. 

So I’ve been looking on the Internet at the www.farreys.com website that sells a large variety of lights and lamps.  And I’m looking for outdoor lamps that have really tall globes.  I’m pleasantly surprised to say that I’ve found quite a good selection from several of the different brands that they sell.

When my hubby gets home from work tonight, I’m going to show him the  Forecast lighting, Fine Art lamps,  Kichler lighting, Quoizel lighting, and Maxim lighting bookmarked pages that I’ve selected as the best options for our camp.

Posted: June 23rd, 2008 under Blogs, Business, Computers / Software, Finances/Money, Home and Garden, Internet, Life, Online, Shopping, Technology.
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Over the past several months I’ve been dismayed over how much food our family throws away.  It seems that no matter how hard I try to plan to cook the EXACT right amount of food for a supper, I frequently have leftovers.  In my haste to clean up after supper, I usually just put some kind of plastic wrap over the top of the serving dish and put it in the refrigerator.  Weeks later I discover it got pushed to the back of the refrigerator and is now growing green and gray mold, and it gets thrown out.  Very frustrating!

So I have bought some of those partitioned plastic covered dishes and now after supper (if I have leftovers) I take them out of storage and prepare the dishes for a complete meal.  Meat goes in one section; veggies go in the other two sections.  Then I put THOSE in the refrigerator, and the next time I’m hungry, instead of rummaging around looking for a “quick snack” or making a PB&J sandwich, I’ll pull out one of those prepared meals and warm it up and eat it.  It’s quick and easy (the dishes are dishwasher safe) and I’ll be throwing away less spoiled food!

Posted: June 23rd, 2008 under Blogs, Family, Finances/Money, Food and Beverage, Life, Shopping.
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