To shop or not to shop

It's five o'clock on Christmas. It's really quiet as everhyone is exhausted from all the tumult from the last few weeks. I just read the paper and face a huge dilemma. To shop or not to shop - that is the question. Macys is having a sale that starts at 7am with a coupon good from 7 until 1pm. Bloomingdales has sweaters on sale that would be perfect for my friend's January birthday. And Sears has a some wonderful jeans the kids wear on sale.

IF I get to the store when it opens I have a fair shot at a decent parking spot. I'm not into walking long distances at mall parking lots these days. After that poor woman and her 7-year old were murdered in Boca Raton outside Sears, there is something to be said for Valet Parking - even in the light of day.

I'm off from work all week. I could be productive and buy new sheets, some bras (buy 2 get 1 free) and pick up some holiday wrapping for next year.

Or I could sleep in and pay retail.

Keep your music to yourself

What I cannot tolerate however is the holiday music blaring from my neighbors' houses. Let them keep FPL in business with all the lights - that's their pleasure. But why do the speakers face OUT to the street and not back at their own bedrooms? When it cools off enough here in South Florida we open the windows. I don't want to hear their digital recordings over and over and over again while that can be heard even with our television on.

I downloaded some of Josh Groban's NOEL songs from iTunes to enjoy in our home this December. Why do my neighbors think their music should be imposed on me? I want to hear what I want to hear - not their noise. For even the most lovely music is noise when it's not wanted.

After six weeks (one of the houses starts in early November) I finally said something. The answer was " My kids like it so I play it." Fine, So play it when your kids are home and awake with the speakers in their rooms, not the street.

To each his and her own. Let us each take pleasure in our own songs at our own level.

Merry Christmas

those little grey hairs make me nuts

I have grey hair. Only a tiny bit - in front of my ears, a few at my hairline. I color my hair myself (have been since I'm 27 to give my natural color a boost).

A few years ago I discovered these little crayons that you can color those greys. They're very oily and yucky. Then I tried the mascara type wands that you brush over the grey. A bit better....I use an eyebrow brush to blend it in.

Then, I found JUST FOR MEN, the hair color guys use to color their beards and moustaches. Not the one-application box, but the one with the two little tubes that you squirt a bit of color out and a bit of developer and blend with a little plastic spatula and apply to your greys. IT'S NOT JUST FOR MEN.....Ladies, this is THE best stuff to use in between the touch-ups at home or the salon.

Clairol makes some kind of root touch-up which is crazy because it's just one application. A box of this Just for Men is good for about ten touch ups... I guess it depends on how much you need.

Bed Bath & Beyond vs Linens & Things - no contest

The Bed Bath & Beyond and Linens n Things are on opposite corners in my town, as they are in many communities. Linens and Things makes a big show of advertised specials, but they are no competition for BB&B.

For one thing, Bed Bath always has lots of friendly and knowledgeable employees on the selling floor who when asked for the location of an item, will walk you there to make sure you find it. Just locating help in LNT is a chore.

I was in both stores today, having been given a $20 gift card for LNT I figured I'd go pick up some overpriced Braun Oral B toothbrush replacement heads. With a coupon (which you can use only two) I'd get what I needed and pick up something else to use up the card. It was a challenge finding something useful for under $10. I finally picked out a new clothes hamper for the kids.

Then I went across the street to Bed Bath & Beyond. Coupons in hand (you can use up to six and they can be expired - something LNT doesn't permit), I purchased a new vacuum cleaner. 20% off meant a $30 saving. My son got the retractable iPod ear buds he was looking for (also 20% off with coupon). My biggest delight was the new health & beauty aids section that was introduced about three months ago. I can't believe I hadn't been in the store since before it's debut! Great variety of everyday items ranging from soap and toothpaste to drugstore type cosmetics and hair color. And super low prices made even better with, yes, coupons! My L'Oreal mascara was about $5.69, less 20%. It's normally around 8 or 9 bucks at CVS or Wal-mart. My hair color was about 8.50.... I usually spend 9.99 at the drugstores. And yes, with my coupon, a bargain.

I didn't ask if they accept manufacturer's coupons too, but if so, they'd nearly be paying me to take the stuff out of the store.

I have $1.25 left on that Linens N Things gift card. I doubt I'll ever go in there again to use it.

up the rear and I don't like it

I've been "tapped" on the rear in my car twice in the last month as I pulled to a stop at red lights. Once by a young woman about age 18, and today by another woman about age 30. Were they on their cell phones? What is going on?

The summer is over as soon as the kids are back to school

I can't get over the fact that schools in Florida are in session from mid-August to the end of May. I grew up in the northeast where you ended summer with Labor Day and finished in June. July and August were THE summer months. Camp or summer school started the last week of June and ended with just enough time for a family vacation at the end of August before school started.

We had a heck of time this summer scheduling a summer get-together with family from NY and Pennsylvania because of everyone's summer obligations. My kids went to day-camp in June and July, My nieces and nephews were a month behind. So compromises were made to accommodate the kids who couldn’t leave sleep away camp.

We spent a week at the beach in New Jersey. Five families – four generations in two rental houses a block from each other on Long Beach Island. Why is it I never go to the beach here in Florida but relish the sand and fun of NJ beaches? Or Long Island NY beaches? Or beaches anywhere? I guess it’s because a vacation beach isn’t the same as the hours spent ten miles from home thinking about schlepping beach chairs, refreshments, the cell phone, how far it is to a bathroom and then cleaning off to get back into the car.

It’s still 90 degrees out, it will rain later and Labor Day isn’t for another 10 days…but it might as well be the week before Thanksgiving because we’re now in the homework and soccer practice mode. O bla dee…o bla da

What happened to Tony Soprano?

What a let down. Good tension leading up to the ending. Liked how it looked just like my family (only no one in this house has never had a gun, let alone killed anybody) out to dinner. So, what happened? The biggest non-bang in TV history is what happened.

Did Meadow get it in the head instead of Daddy? Did Tony get it before she got to the table? If she parked faster would she have saved his life? (They never touch the family) Maybe a busboy coming out of the kitchen got it when Tony reached forward to get an onion ring?

Gandolfo had such a smirk on his face playing Tony in this scene, I coudn't concentrate get past the actor to the character.

Well, I had to watch it and not DVR it as I know it's going to be all over the Internet and TV... some things you just have to watch as they happen. I had forgotten what it's like to get everybody settled in so we could watch it. How retro!

So, is Paris really going to Jail?

It's the subject of dinner conversation (until I change the subject) and the fodder of tabloids. Maybe if she really goes away we can worry about bringing home troops, melting icecaps and what's going on in Darfur.

Sony Repair - It's giving me despair.

Our Sony Cybershot W-5, purchased less than two years ago, is giving us woes. Spent about $300 on this nice little 5 megapixel point and shoot digital. It gets used frequently but not weekly. Kids have their own camera, i'm the primary photographer in the family. Hubby likes his Panasonic video cam.

The damn Sony's lens stopped retracting when turning the power off. This happened during a two-day trip to Disney...and it wasn't even subjected to Space Mountain or the Tower of Terror. I contacted Sony to get it fixed, they want $181 (plus shipping, insurance etc) just to open the camera up and look at it.

I sat and fiddled with it last night and finally, in exasperation, pushed the lens back in while turning it off and on, as instructed: http://www.fixya.com/support/t120057-lens_retract Thank God for Google. I entered " Sony Cybershot "lens won't retract" " and got the www.fixya.com site. Bravo to the posters there.

Now, how long do I trust it to keep working? I can't live with a $300 camera planned for obsolescence in two years. That's just plain wrong.

I'm a sucker for discount codes and coupons

I love a good bargain and give me a coupon code any day of the week and I'm
on your website like white on rice.

How some of the big retailers on line can offer such measly discounts is beyond me. So I thought I'd do a little comparison shopping.

Some friends are going to Alaska and British Columbia this summer, so for their anniversary I decided I'd buy a couple of tourbooks.

I thought I'd look at the following three titles:

Frommer's Alaska 2007 List Price:$19.99
The Lonely Planet $21.99
Alaska for Dummies $19.99 (I love those "Dummies" books - always right to the point and comprehensive).

I went to Barnes and Noble's website first. I was already on the AAA website getting free (for us as members) tourbooks and I noticed that AAA members get an additional 5% discount if you go to BN.com from the AAA site. The Barnes & Noble average discount was a measly 10%. Even adding the 5% AAA discount and the free shipping, this was simply NO BARGAIN.

I went to good ol' Amazon.com next. The average discount was 30% plus free shipping for
orders over $25. And no sales tax. Good deal.

Next, I Googled "Borders." It turns out, Borders Books & Music sells through Amazon.com, however, you can get on their email list and have coupons delivered to your email box periodically. There is one for 20% right on the website. Some of the ones they send are 30% but have a short window of use - like just a specific three or four days.

I wound up ordering through Amazon.com because the party is a week away and
I know I'll have the books in time. Had I been in a crunch, I'd have used
the Borders coupon and went to the local bricks and mortar store and bought
them there (and paid the sales tax).

FYI - If you don't need the most current edition, try Half.com They are affiliated with eBay and you can get some great deals. I've bought books listed as "good" or "very good" and they looked nearly perfect.

My garage sale went bust

My neighbors and I had a garage sale today. The weather was good and we thought the merchandise was interesting. Some kids stuff, CDs, bed linens, clothing, furniture, dishes... you know, the norm. The ad in both the newspaper and Craigslist called for 8am and of course the early birds started showing up at 7.

By 8am I made $20. By noon we made $60. It did not go well. The kids would not part with the stuff I made them clean out of their rooms. They are already back on the shelves.

If a brand new pair of pants with the $50 tag still on it is marked $5 why do people need feel the need to haggle at 8:15 in the morning? Is it to take advantage of my uncaffeinated state? Or should I have marked it $10 and taken 5?

Unless one is moving and has a lot of big stuff that they don't want to deal with, I'm now of the opinion it's better to donate to a local charity that will come and take it away for free. Take the tax deduction and feel good that someone who needs the cash more than me is going to make good use of the stuff. My time is to valuable.

The upside of the experience is my neighbors and I had a nice chat under a tree. The last time that happened we were suffering the aftermath of a hurricane.

IKEA is coming!

Sometime this summer, supposedly, IKEA is due to open in the already overly congested Sunrise area near the Sawgrass mall. I've already got my friends with SUVs targeted to take me.

I am so excited. I love IKEA. I buy their smaller stuff when visiting the in-laws up north and pack it in an extra suitcase brought just for that purpose. The kids need new desks for their rooms and I need a new table in the family room. Oh, and some meatballs for lunch.

The furniture isn't as durable as Ethan Allen or Thomasville, but it's not disposable either. If you buy it with the knowledge it's only good for five or ten years, it's worth it. Lots of goodies like throw rugs, CD organizers and laundry sorters are incredibly priced. And there is NOTHING in the world like their cool little organizing drawers and shelves. The same ones that cost three times the price at Pottery barn.

Years ago, their beds and picture frames came in European sizes so you'd have to buy special sheets and the posters from US museums wouldn't fit. I hope they've adjusted this stuff for the US market. I'm not planning on buying any beds or posters.

I happened to be crusing their website looking at the lamps. I have to buy two lamps, one for my daughter's room and one for my desk. I'm very disappointed with the selection. A number of years ago I changed almost all the light bulbs in the house to CFL (compact Fluorescents). The Ikea selection still require a lot of a halogen, which are hot and not energy efficient... neither of which are appealing to a house in Florida with kids who never remember to turn off the lights. So I think I'll just go to Target or Wal-Mart for the lamps.

My P-Touch and Mah Jongg

The 2007 Mah Jongg card arrived in the mail. I grabbd the trusty Brother Ptouch label maker and put labels on all the cards when the girls played Thursday night.

DVR - and how NBC should beef up their website

Our family is a DVR family and we subscribe through the cable company. It's a great peacemaker - no more "OMG - YOU were supposed to tape Boston Legal." The DVR is set to record it at any time on any station. You can't do that with Law & Order, it's on every hour of the day on some channel. So we set that for just the specific night and time.

But every once in a while we goof. I'm a die hard ER fan. Loved it from George Clooney through John Stamos. But somehow or another the DVR didn't pick up the new episodes after January 1 of this year. Didn't realize it until three or four weeks into the year.

If it was my beloved Grey's Anatomy or Desperate Housewives, I could tune into ABC.com and catch it online. But NBC only gives a text synopsis with a two minute clip. This is not good.

I know I should be grateful that ABC is providing this wonderful service, but I grew up when ABC, CBS and NBC were all equal. Maybe not in the ratings, but in the format and content they provided. So I expect their Internet content to be on par with one another.

Jeff Zucker. .. are you a blog reader? If someone who is working for him reads this, please whisper in his ear.... I want my favorite NBC show on the website.

Jeffrey Zucker, President, NBC (Photo from NBC.com)

Can you move the odometer on the stationary bike?

At least for guests. My in-laws stayed the weekend in the guestroom and my mother-in-law actually noticed that the mileage on my bicycle hadn't increased since their visit here a month ago. She said she remembered the number because it was the same digits as her birthday - 1018.

Now I'll have to use it just to show her it is NOT the clothesrack she thinks it is.

Plastic Sleeves

I have a million and one reasons why to save the plastic sleeves your newspaper comes in. Okay, maybe a few.

First, and foremost - they should be recycled. Bring them back to the supermaket with the rest of your plastic bags.

Now, the Clutter Fairy's uses:

• they are great for dog poop. Insert hand into bag, pick up poop, pull bag over fist and tie. Tie again over the whole thing and it won't smell so much in the garbage can.
• use as a disposable glove. I use them when cleaning the toilet bowls and other things where clorox can get on my hands. I even rinse and then dry, and then recycle. Yes, I'm a freak for recycling things
• cover your feet when you have a sprained ankle ace bandage on your foot. I usually use a rubber band (try not to cut off circulation) and do two layers. Works well for protecting a hand wound too.
• back to the dog.... I store individual servings of the dog's food in a bag and tie when he's being boarded at the kennel. Larger than a sandwhich size bag and cheaper (free)
• send them to school in the kids' backpacks if they have a collapsable umbrella - they put the umbrella in the bag and their locker or backpack won't get wet.
• put the wet umbrella in one when shopping. That way I don't have to suffer a dripping umbrella all over the mall. I can just tuck it into my tote. (keep them in the car)
• I put my shoes in them before they go into the luggage.
• I also keep some in my luggage. I take one on the plane and use as my own individual garbage bag. No, I'm not a neat freak - but I hate stuffing things in the back seat pocket (and the airlines don't like it either). They always come in handy in hotels - like for something to put all those little toiletries in and not have to worry about them leaking into your suitcase.
• My husband takes them to the gym - they're just large enough for him to put his small towel into when he's finished with it (cheap gym - no clean towels unless you pay extra).

We're wired

The number of devices in this household is only exceeded by the number of spare wires, USB connections and telephone cords in the "spare parts" drawer in the linen closet. And yet, when given an extra flat screen monitor by my brother-in-law for my home office, there is not one appropriate power cord to work.

on my desk at any given time are:
USB connection for iPod
USB connection for Treo
USB connection for digital camera
USB connection for Wacam tablet

Then there is the wire for the phone earpiece (I won't go wireless - let the next generation decide if it caused brain tumors among their parents), the wire for the monitor (there'd be two if i could get one), the wires for the speakers, the external hard drive, the two printers, the scanner, the two telephones (one cordless so I can pick up and hunt down whomever needs to come to the phone), the DSL, the wireless modem, and of course, the extra USB hub itself.

What is sitting on my floor in the corner is a pit of snaking wires, cables and cords. Twice a year I try to untwine them all. It's useless. I just pick them up, vacuum, and put them back down.

My car is also a snake pit. I have a power cord for the iPod that adapts to the speakers, the power charger for the Treo (as well as one for my husband's Blackberry), cord for the StreetPilot and cord for the video game du jour (plugged into rear power for offspring). Forget the glove compartment, I just reach under the seat and pray something doesn't bite.

I love Gizmodiva

I am the gadget princess in this household. While the kids are satisfied with their Nintendos and my husband has his Blackberry, I am a gadgetaholic. I have an iPod, a Treo, all the stuff for the iPod, a DVR in my home office (do you think I'm going to share?) and StreetPilot in the car. Only the mortgage, the college funds and my own good sense keeps me from going overboard.

So where do I gawk and drool? Gizmodiva.com Everything from fitness gadgets to bathroom humidifiers... telephones to coffee makers. Remember when we used to lust over the stuff in the SkyMall catalogue on airplanes? This is Soooo much better. it's the kind of stuff I dream about.

Coupons - you cut me up

I love coupons. I think if I won the lottery I'd still thrill to getting a five dollar CVS coupon in the mail or finding an online discount code for Amazon.com or 15% off Lands End (two of my favorite ways to keep out of the shopping malls). But every coupon is pulled from whatever magazine or newspaper I'm reading and left where it is. Or they wind up at the bottom of my handbag. I've finally rounded them up to two places. A big ol' plastic bag hanging from my refridgerator and a plastic envelope in the car. The challenge, of course, is getting rid of the ones that have expired because i forgot they are there and never used them. Maybe i can get the kids to edit them. Hah, right.

There is no point in keeping a big stock of paper clips

I went into my closet to grab a few boxes of paper clips. I'm teaching an arts and crafts project for my kid's scout troup. The thing with old paper clips is they get really cruddy after five or ten years. Yes, I've had them in my supply closet for at least ten years. I moved into the house with them from when I used to have an office in town.

They still work (holding paper together) but there's something kind of yucky about them. I feel guilty about throwing them out (can you recycle paper clips???) but where do they all wind up? The bank must have a lot of them. I always clip together my checks with my deposit slip.

I loved that movie about the Paper Clips project in Tennessee. Too bad they don't need any more donations.

The Life and Times of a Chronically Messy Person

Martha Stewart would be all over me like white on rice with a big "tsk tsk" and "get your house in order, dear." That is, of course, if she ever were to look my way. I doubt I'd run into her in the isles of K-Mart. For one thing, I don't shop there. And I doubt she does either.

I have someone who spends a few hours a week working for me and her job is unclutter my life. Clean out my files, vacuum the floors, and tidy up my closets. I don't let her do our laundry because that's too personal (yet she can throw out old boxes of Tampax and an eight year old diaphram found under the bathroom sink). And the kids have to clean their own rooms. I mean, I did it, why do I need to pay someone to pick up after them? At least they don't leave food around - that would do me in.

My mind is cluttered up sometimes too. I work from home and my desk is a mess. They say "a clean desk is the sign of a sick mind" so I guess if a shrink were to examine me I'd pass the tests. But everything is chaotic. Kids coming and going, husband's hours are erratic, dog sheds and parents need (and deserve) my attention too.

I Blog for others. It's part of my job as a PR professional. One of my best friends keeps telling me to write in a journal every night. I stopped writing in longhand years ago. If I can't type I can't compose. So I'm joining every other member of the Web 2.0 world and contributing my say.