Cyber Monday Deals

I love cyber Monday deals! I also love the fact that you can price compare anything and everything. Yesterday, while I was searching I found some pretty good deals, but not a lot of great deals. Some stores offered free shipping, some only offered lower prices.

We have had a big screen TV for years, a few years ago it needed some work which cost us $500! Unfortunately, the TV still doesn't have sound, the video 2 port doesn't work, and twice we have had to pop/reset the TV. We can only have one thing hooked up at a time (wii or DVD player). While it is a good TV, it is old and I don't plan on dumping anymore money into. That said- I ordered my husband a new TV for Christmas. I price compared and shopped around, got free shipping and no taxes. I think it was a fantastic deal. My neighbor got the same brand and size TV in the spring for $600 more than I paid for our new one.

It pays (or should I say saves) to shop around and wait for the right deal.

Video on Demand

I started looking into Video on Demand- I found that Netflix offers one through the Roku and Blockbuster offers one through the 2wire.

So far, this is what I have found:
Netflix you must buy the Roku for $79 to $99, but you can only get up to 17,000 titles to watch, all of which are TV (cable) shows. Not movies that were released on DVD.

Blockbuster you must buy the 2wire (can't find price for the box alone), or you can pay $99 up front for 25 movies and they will give you the box free. However, their movies have been released on DVD, and their site states that prices after you run out of the 25 start at $1.99, but I can't find what pricing would be "up to"......so what's the chance that you can pay $4.99 a movie.

Amazaon also offers movies through Roku- but it is $3.99 a movie.

Really, where is the savings? First- Netflix is a joke if you are only able to pull up TV shows. Blockbuster obviously has hidden or higher fees they don't want you to know about. Amazon- clearly your not really saving any money.

So what is a good alternative to watching new releases without paying an arm and leg? I don't know, but I'm still looking for the answer to that. If you know of any other services, please share. I sure do want to save money but still enjoy renting movies.

Anniversary

Today is our 17 year anniversary. I can't believe how fast time has passed by. Not really sure just yet, but I'm hoping we get a nice steak dinner this evening.

Hubby told me I could order a few books I have been wanting, so I called the local book store and ordered 5 in the next series I want to read. He also got me a "New Moon" calendar for our anniversary. I got him an MP3 player, a new wallet, and some new travel mugs. We don't go over board on each other, but it is nice.

I still have to do some baking today for tomorrows feast. We are inviting a friend over and that is it. We should have a nice dinner and a good day.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Chicken and Dumplings

Yesterday, I decided to make chicken and dumplings for dinner. My daughter and I made homemade egg noodles for it, we boiled 5 boneless skinless chicken breasts in water with a little butter, salt and pepper. Once the noodles had dried and the chicken was boiled, we emptied some of the broth into another saucepan and cut the chicken up and threw it in there.

Then we placed the egg noodles into the big saucepan with the remaining brother and boiled them for 20 minutes. Once done, we pulled them out and put the dumplings in for 20 minutes. When it was finished, we added the entire saucepan with the chicken and broth back into the big saucepan and added the egg noodles. In all- it took a total of 2 hours to make.

But the family loved it.

Tonight- meatloaf, mashed potatoes and biscuits.
Tomorrow- leftover chicken and dumplings.
Wednesday- our 17 year wedding anniversary- so I'm hoping for Outback baby!

Vampire Academy

Since I'm done reading the Twilight Saga and the Sookie Stackhouse series, I opted to read the Vampire Academy, I finished the first two chapters thus far, but so far it leaves me a bit confused- it tells me about three kinds:
1- the Dhampir- half human and half vampire
2- the Moroi- guardian of full-blooded vampires
3- the Strigoi — the evil, undead bloodsuckers

Of course, they don't really explain that in the first two chapters, if they did, I must have missed it. I had to search for that online just to figure out what it all meant. I really don't like it when writers try to come up with their own terms for things and give no explanation or idea what they mean.

Ok, enough about that. So I'm about to start chapter three. So far it is very mediocre. I can only hope it will get much better. Have you ever notices those who read Twilight first are partial to Twilight, those who read Sookie first are partial to Sookie and none ever seem appreciative of the other books let alone like the other ones. I have to say- I loved both, while both are far different, I enjoyed them equally. I only hope that the Vampire Academy will end up on my favorites list too. I have two other series I'm dying to read- one is by J.R. Ward (the box set- all lovers but still about vampires). But I don't own this one, and for the other series, well, I'm keeping that one a secret until I read it.

Sookie Stackhouse Series

I never ever picked up a book and started reading for pleasure until just a few months ago.

Let me rewind a bit- my daughter read all of the Twilight saga, when "Twilight" came out on DVD, I watched it with her probably a dozen plus times. When MTV did their music awards not too long ago, they showed a preview for "New Moon", needless to say it had taken my breath away and immediately I picked up the book and had to read it to find out what was going on and what was going to happen. I couldn't wait for the movie to come. Anyone who knows me knows I don't read for fun. Once I finished reading New Moon, I read Eclipse, then Breaking Dawn, then I read the online alternative of what was suppose to be book 5, then I went and read Twilight. Once I was done- I felt hungry for more! I knew Stephanie Myer didn't plan to write anymore books and that had my wondering what to do next.

A friend of mine recommended the Sookie Stackhouse series, boy was I glad she did. At first, I thought the first book was a little slow, but I kept up with it. By book 2 I was hooked, by book 4 I was in love! In only 2 weeks and 2 days, I have read all 9 of the books.

I just learned book ten is due out in May 2010, and three more books will follow ending in 2014! I wish it wouldn't take so long for them to come out, but hey, I guess I will just have to wait. The books are better than the TV show "True Blood"- just a lot more detail.

My only real complaint about the entire books is:
The covers suck!!

Really- the first one was good, but the rest are very cartoonish for my likes. I anticipated she would have kept a theme going from the first cover on the first book- nope, not at all. The covers for the other books are all cheap. I'm very glad I didn't see the covers before I bought them or I probably would never have bought them. So Ms. Harris- if you read this- really reconsider your covers for the next books. I really find the covers on these ones almost child like and dull. But that is my only complaint. The stories are great! I'm looking forward to reading the future books.

Christmas Gifts

I'm about done shopping for my kids, this year we are sticking to a budget and that is helping me buy just the right gifts.

For my family (parents, in-laws, grandparents, etc), I make handmade scrapbook albums fully scrapbooked of my kids photos. This year will be great since I have lots of cool photos from our camping trips. I got all the photos sent it to be printed today and I ordered the papers for my albums.

Since it will take a few weeks for it to all come in, it will give me plenty of time to get the layouts just right.

Great Fall Weather and Clean Up

We were in the 60's this weekend, which isn't very normal here in Michigan for this time of year. But we took advantage of it and cleaned out the two storage sheds.

We had three truck loads of garbage to get rid of, plus I got rid of many storage containers, dog and cat carriers, kitchen stools, and a few extras on a freecycle list. Now my one storage shed will be used mainly to store my holiday gift decorations and all my crafts that were left over from craft shows. I have some really gorgeous wreaths out there but I just can't sell them easily online because shipping would be difficult. It isn't like I can find boxes to fit a wreath.

The other shed is now organized enough for us to get our bicycles in there, a few odds and end things like a central air unit we no longer need, a small window a/c unit, and our riding lawn mower.

I have a few items I need to list on craigslist to get rid of too.

On a good note- I sold 11 lots of books on craigslist over the weekend to one lady who works for the Detroit Public Schools. There were 272 books in all. She got a fantastic deal and it cleaned up a lot of space on our book shelves.

On a bad note- my computer was attacked by a darn virus over the weekend, I ended up losing all my files! All my precious photos I took over the summer and everything. I feel more sad about my photos than anything. They were photos of our wonderful camping trips and of my sister and my nephews visit with us. It is all gone. Needless to say- I have learned a lesson. I am buying a USB flash drive now to start saving my important files to so this never happens again.

Thoughts on the Sookie Stackhouse series

I'm done reading books 1 through 3 and just a few chapters into book 4. When I first started reading book one, I was real disappointed at first. Mainly because the very first sentence in the book talks about vampires- it left nothing to the imagination and didn't seem to have a lot of mystery to it.

After being convinced by friends to keep reading, I was glad I did. Although I don't like the way the first book started off, I do like the fact that the story keeps sucking you in the more you read.

I have to say now that I have watched all of Season 1 and Season 2 of HBO's "True Blood" (which is based off these novels), it was cool to put faces to names and helps bring the story more alive in my head as I read.

My favorite character in the book is Eric. A 1,000 plus year old viking vampire, he is very tall, blonde, blue eyes, and sexy! Book 4 is starting off with Eric being found running with no memory. I can't seem to put the book down longer than 30 minutes at a time because I find myself wondering what is going to happen next.

So all I can say is I'm glad I listened to my friends and kept reading. The story is good, far different than the story line in the "Twilight Saga", but interesting for its own story. If you haven't read any of the Sookie Stackhouse series yet- do so! You will enjoy it.

Wake up

I think American's need to wake up!!

Realize- our country see's the medical field as profit.
If you are healthy- chances are, you will not see a doctor.

But if your sick- they rather keep you sick than treat you correctly because the more your sick, the more money they will make.

We all ready know- MOST cancers are curable- but MOST people do not know that and won't get cures because physician's can NOT make money on you if your healthy.

I do believe our country is all about big business and profit. With this "swine flu" going around, it is raking in money in every direction. Keep in mind though- if you get a "h1n1 vaccine"- you are NOT eligible for compensation if you have a reaction. They have excluded this vaccine from the NVICP.