Jun 242011
 

I like to shop online.  For me it’s so much easier than driving to a kazillion stores and finding nothing I want.  And in my neck of the woods, there ain’t a whole heck of a lot of places to choose from.

Christmas is the best time for me to do online shopping.  95 percent of the presents I buy are done while sitting on my lazy butt.

It’s a good thing that the UPS guy and I have a good rapport, because for two straight weeks in December he is at my house, lugging boxes from that familiar brown truck to my front door.

One of my favorite sites to go is Amazon.com.  You can buy almost anything there.  My original intent with this site was books, and still is, but they literally have everything there including the kitchen sink.

Many years back, I decided to try out their prime account for a year and see if I could save myself some money on shipping charges.  At $79 a year, I figured that it was a good investment, and if I didn’t like it I could cancel and go back to their normal shipping policies, which aren’t so bad.

I haven’t looked back since, and last night I received a nice little perk for my years of keeping this prime account active.

As I opened up my browser to their webpage, I am greeted with a cute little letter from the founder and CEO of the company informing me that they have added an additional 1,000 movies and TV shows to their line-up of offerings that you can watch directly from their site.  AND, by being a Prime account holder, I can watch them for free.

WHAT???

Am I the only one on the planet that didn’t know that this service has been available for who-knows-how-long?  I mean, I use this site A LOT and was totally clueless.

But I was also curious…. and cautious.  I don’t know why, maybe it’s the skeptic in me that screams “If it’s free, there’s a hitch.”  So I threw caution to the wind, hit the link and looked at what they had to offer.  I selected a comedy special that looked interesting and with trepidation hit the “select” button.

There were no pop-ups telling me I had to download special software in order to view the program.

There was no “limited time only” advertisement for something I didn’t want to buy.

All I had to do was agree to their “terms of use” and I was ready to go.  And for the next hour I relaxed and laughed away all the anxiety of the day.

BONUS:  There were NO COMMERCIALS!

I also discovered that I could add movies and shows to my cart to view at a future date.

Score.

Granted, the selection isn’t “new releases”, but it isn’t all stuff from the 1950’s either (although, there are some golden oldies to select from).  I have only skimmed through their offerings, and was happy with what I saw.  As always, you can purchase these movies and TV shows, and a host of other options that they have to offer, but I’m not interested in that stuff.

I’m a simple kinda gal.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some movies I want to add to my cart to view later.

 

I was neither contacted nor compensated by Amazon.com for mentioning this service.  The opinions expressed are purely my own based on my personal experience with this site.

Jun 222011
 

When Nichole and Corey come for a visit, they usually bring two cars since they don’t have enough room to fit 5 kids and 2 adults plus the necessary extras like clothes, toys, etc., into one car.

Also, I always get a text from Nichole letting me know when they are on their way, and generally one or two more if they stop for potty breaks/food or when they are getting close, so we know when to expect them.

Along with the texting is always my standard chiding about texting while driving.  I can’t help it, I know how distracting cell phones are (I own one too), and I couldn’t even imagine trying to text while I was driving.

I’m just not that talented.

So the following is the texting conversation that occurred last Friday evening.

Nichole:  (5:41 pm)  en route 🙂

Nichole:  (5:42)  🙂

Me: (5:43) 🙂

Me:  (5:44) Quit texting and driving 🙂

Nichole:  (5:44) lol

Nichole:  (6:32)  leaving men (this is the town of Menomonie, which is 30 miles from their house)

Me:  (6:24)  Kk

Nichole:  (7:26)  rice lake (about 45 minutes from our house)

Me:  (7:27)  Woot!

Nichole:  (7:27)  looks like rains comin

*Here’s where the texts start to fly*

Nichole:  (7:55) 70 (the highway they get to that is 30 miles from our house)

Nichole:  (7:56)  Had potty break on wayside

Me:  (7:56)  Love the updates lol

Nichole:  (7:57)  Thought u would 🙂

Me:  (7:58)  Lol!!

Me:  (7:59) Quit texting while driving!

Nichole:  (8:00)  Lol

Nichole:  (8:00) ponds r green

Nichole:  (8:02)  well that was a biggun! ooooo horsies!

*About this time I’m starting to become a little suspicious… there are LOTS more texts than normal, and they are a lot longer than they should be, if Nichole was driving.  So I up it a notch.*

Me:  (8:02)  You know this could quite possibly end up as a blog post

Nichole:  (8:04)  lol blog if u dare

Me:  (8:04)  Quit texting while driving!!

Nichole:  (8:05)  Bring it 🙂

Me:  (8:05)  Game on!

Me:  (8:06)  Bwahahahaha!!

Corey:  (8:06)  Hi be there in fifteen

Me:  (8:08)  Kk  quit texting while driving

Corey:  (8:08)  Lol :-p

Me:  (8:10)  Let me guess, nichole brought you into this little game 🙂

Nichole:  (8:09) Evil mama

Me:  (8:11) 🙂

Corey:  (8:10)  Who dat?

Me:  (8:12)  Lol

Nichole:  (8:11)  Hehehe

Nichole:  (8:11)  Hehehe

Me:  (8:15)  Evil child 🙂

Nichole:  (8:14)  wonder where I get it?

Me:  (8:16)  You’re dad.  now quit texting while driving

Nichole:  (8:17)  Lol sure blame it on him

Me:  (8:18)  🙂

Nichole:  (8:18)  be there in 3

Sure enough, they pull into the driveway 3 minutes later and confirm what I had been thinking.

They got themselves a vehicle that could fit the whole family, and they wanted to surprise us, which they certainly did!

It’s used, but they got a good deal on it and with all those kids, they needed something that would fit everybody.

And the texts from Corey?  That was Nichole on his phone.

Sneaky little #&@*!

Jun 212011
 

I wish that I could share with you the beauty of the trees as they sway back and forth in the wind, the shimmers of silver from the underside of their leaves waving in the breeze.

I wish that I could share with you the smell in the air, the slightly sweet scent of nature that comes along with the humidity as it is washed away by the rain.

I wish that I could share with you the sound that the raindrops make as they fall in the forest surrounding my home.

I wish that I could share with you the sound of the wind, as it crescendos through the trees, coming closer to my window and lowering its voice as it moves away.

What I can share with you is the beauty of an Iris after a June rain.

I don’t think that words would have done it justice.

Jun 202011
 

When Nichole and Corey came up a couple weekends ago, they wanted to take Rick & I out for an Anniversary supper.  It was imperative to Nichole that we choose the joint, but since our favorite restaurant had closed, we just couldn’t wrap our head around some place that we really wanted to go.

So we let Nichole give us her idea, and we ran with it.

Famous Dave’s has their first BBQ restaurant located in our area. (Fun fact:  “Famous” Dave Anderson is an LCO tribal member.  Who knows, it could be useful in Trival Pursuit or Jeopardy.)

Before you even get in the restaurant, you are surrounded by beautiful flowers that just begged to have their picture taken.

They had more varieties of Columbines than I had seen in my life.

And don’t get me started on the Bleeding Hearts.  Not only was there pink…

…they had to throw in white just to make my heart flutter.

And this Blue Heaven?  I think I drooled a little when I saw it.

Maybe I was just hungry from the smell permeating from the restaurant.

What, you think that I’m the only camera crazy person in the family?

We had 20 minutes to wait before being seated, so the guys left us alone to snap away.

And since we are in the Northwoods, no place is complete without wood carvings with Eagles nestled amongst the flowerbeds…

…or just strategically situated around the grounds.

How’s that for greeting your customers?

Don’t worry, she got me back.

Did I happen to mention that it was located on the water?

They have a wonderful set-up outside for dining or just enjoying an evening of drinks with friends.

But we decided that indoors was the place for us.  Bad part is, the lighting was pretty crappy in the restaurant for photos, so please excuse the quality of what’s next.

Now, if you’ve ever been to (or heard of) Famous Dave’s, you know that they are known for their BBQ.  And what goes better with that than sauce, specifically ones that have been created by the restaurant sporting interesting names like…

…Devil’s Spit.  This stuff begged to be tried.  There was a challenge being implied simply by the name.

So we did.

Nichole is always up for a dare.

Truth be told, we only took samples on our fingers to play it safe.

And it was good, with a nice little after-burn.

And when we saw this one, we had to get a picture just for Rick’s Mom.

Nichole & Corey decided to split “The Garbage Can”, which was an assortment of BBQ chicken, ribs, pork, beans, coleslaw and wedge fries, all served on a garbage can lid.  It is gooooood.

Rick & I tried their prime rib.  D E L I C I O U S!!

And since Nichole let it slip on purpose told the waiter that it was our anniversary, we received a complimentary ice cream sundae for dessert.

Uffda!

It was a wonderful night of great food and family, and I’m so glad that they made the special trip up just to help us celebrate our 20th.

So what did we do after we were done eating?  Well, we went to the casino, of course.

After all, they didn’t have the kids along with them, so they needed to have some fun too.

Jun 192011
 

To start off, Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there.

There, I got that out of the way.

Moving on, Rick & I spent the day at an auction that was behind the house and down the street.  If we hadn’t gone, I think that the sound of the auctioneer from the loudspeaker would have drove me crazy all day long.

Rick likes auctions, and since this one was so close it would have been a crime not to go.  We could walk there and come home whenever we needed to.

Here are my general observances from today’s experience:

  • It is amazing how many people I knew there.  It’s almost like a family reunion without the hugs.
  • People. Will. Buy. Anything. For. A. Dollar.
  • The people that show up for these things are dressed slightly better than when they go to Walmart.
  • The auctioneer must have had a bladder made of steel.  He went for 5 hours straight without needing to go to the bathroom, yet drank about 2 gallons of water.
  • It is totally acceptable for children and/or dogs to run around wild.
  • It must be a rule that hot dogs/brats/pop be sold by the auction company (I think this is where they make the real money).  Now if they would have sold beer, they really would have seen those bids go higher.

All in all it was a very pleasant day, and the weather cooperated nicely.  Rick walked away with some great deals, including a radial arm saw and an air compressor that sold so cheaply he was sweating it a little wondering what was wrong with them.  There are never guarantees at things like this, so you take your chance and hope for the best.

Bonus:  They both work!  He’s in heaven.

He now says that if he ever gets laid off from work, he’ll have something to do.

I reminded him that he owns his own company, so he couldn’t use that as an excuse.

He ignored my comment and walked away with a great big grin on his face.

************************************************************************

You might be wondering if I gave him a Father’s Day present.

Yes I did, only it was combined with his anniversary present last month.  It’s not easy buying gifts for Rick, because it has to be something that he’ll really use.  And those fall into 3 major categories:  Tools, espresso and anything related to computers.

A pressure washer is something that he’s been talking about for a while, and when he mentioned it again a couple months back, I knew he still had interest and set about finding one that would meet his standards.

He loves it and he’s already cleaned the outside of the house with it.  When he has fun with his tools, it doesn’t seem so much like work when he uses them.

At least that’s my observation.

He may tell you differently.

 

Cartoon courtesy of Google Images