What Is Your iPod Wearing?

There are so many choices when it comes to how to dress your iPod. I remember when the silicone sleeve came out - it was like the 80's jelly shoes, iPod Style. Now there are so many types of iPod cases it would be a daunting task to try to list them all. Some of the ones I find most interesting are:

the jeweled bling-bling type case. It can be found at the JCPenney online outlet store, along with matching headphones.

The Tadpole case from ifrogz. This has to be the best case if you're going to allow your munchkin to handle your iPod. They also have Tadpole headphones. (At this writing the Tadpole headphones must be some type of military secret, as they require a user id and password to view them on the site) I have small ears and the iPod headphones hurt me. It's my opinion no small child should be using the headphones supplied with the iPod. The screen protector is a must, even if it's the only thing you order. I use one on my nano without a case. There are groovy grown up things there, too. iFrogs is doing giveaways every Tuesday. Their email says to see the site on Tuesdays between 2 and 4PM Mountain Time.


The Acme Wallet is certainly for grownups. I got my husband one of these for Christmas, and he loves the thing. It is all Italian leather sexy and chic.

I Won The Valentine's Poem Contest at Fuel My Blog!

Thanks to all who voted. I won $200 cash! I wasn't sure what to do with the money because I hadn't made any mental plans for it yet. The pressure is on now, though... Here's an excerpt from the winning email sent to me by Kevin, the site owner of Fuel My Blog :

"If you could do me one favour and send me a picture of what you spent it on, we'll put it on the blog! A kind of finale to the story, we're big in the press in two weeks, you'll get plenty more readers and money making opportunities I can assure you!"

Thanks Kevin! We'll send a picture as soon as we figure out exactly what we're going to do - and do it.

This is kind of limiting. There's no way to go buy $200 worth of toilet paper and paper towls and make it look romantic.

Here are some ideas I've entertained so far: cookware, glasses, (our set of 6 rosenthal highballs was most recently reduced to a single highball) a purse, a coat, towels, textbooks, dinner out, a microwave stand, a lamp, etc. (The list could go on for ages) It's likely the money will half go to a party I'm giving this weekend for the local teens at the Town Hall and the other half will go to baby clothes or formula. We'll have to see - I'm still quite undecided.

If you have any swell ideas of your own, leave a comment.

PostSecret - I'm Telling Your Secret

Every Sunday there are new secrets at Post Secret. Some secrets are funny, some are sad, some are mean. Pretty much like real life secrets - because they are sent in by real life people.

Do you dare post your secret at Post Secret ?

Petite Anglaise: A girl, a frog, and a tadpole

I can't say much about Petite Anglaise because you should read this yourself. A girl from England moves to Paris for a school gig. She stays in Paris well past the school gig. She meets Mr. Frog. They have an incredibly adorable, spirited Tadpole. Things happen - oh boy do they happen! She has upheaval in her romantic life, her work life, her home life -even her blog life! She writes well without becoming uppity or verbose, a quality I appreciate like no other.

Go check her out. Try not to become addicted - I double dog dare you.

Fuel Your Blog... You Never Know Who Might Show Up!

Kevin over at Fuel My Blog has asked me to ask everyone else to add your blogs to the wall of blogs. You never know who might show up in the blogulation (poetic license meaning blog population) over there on the walls of blogs.

For example, I've seen Senator John Edwards has a blog on the great wall. His blog is 3 up and 3 to the right from mine. As it turns out, I know the person with the blog to my left. And the person directly beneath my spot. The "One Red Paperclip" guy has a blog there, too. Remember him? He traded one red paperclip for a house. His blog is 2 over to the right and 3 up from mine.

It's fun to see who's there now. I have a sneaking suspicion it will be even more fun to see who's there later. Get in while you can. I highly recommend. And? It's totally free!

Where else do you get free fuel or great free advertisement?

Prime Real Estate in The Caracas Area?

The first time I ever went to Caracas my plane arrived after dark. As we rode from the airport right at the beach (therefore at sea level) up to the valley of Caracas the mountainsides shimmered with lights. I imagined the glory that must be the homes residing on that prime real estate. Wow... there must be so much weatlh in the oil-rich country of Venezuela. We arrived in Caracas that night and ate al fresco at a romantic restaurant. We stayed a very hice hotel. For a few days I went to places around Caracas. The largest mall in South America, many nice restaurants, etc. When it was time to leave the ride back to the airport happened in the light of day. Prime real estate, indeed!

A Valentine's Poem

If I had my way on Valentine's Day
I would wake up next to you.

If I had my way on Valentine's Day
I would talk with you over lunch.

If I had my way on Valentine's Day
You would come home to me.

If I had my way on Valentine's Day
We would share our evening in peace.

If I had my way on Valentine's Day
I would fall asleep in your arms.

Simple dreams do come true.
I'm so glad I get to spend my Valentine's Day with you!

I'm submitting this poem to the contest at:
http://www.fuelmyblog.com/Valentine%20Competition.htm

Please go there and vote for my poem to win! My husband has taken me lots of wonderful places. If you vote for my poem I could win a hotel stay or $200 cash. I could take him to a nice place with $200!

Easy Chicken Tacos: A Crock Pot Love Story

Want something easy to do besides salsa? Try making these easy chicken tacos:

3lbs chicken breasts (or whatever kind of chicken meat you prefer)
1 packet taco seasoning
1 large can whole or diced tomatoes (or tomato sauce in a pinch - or fresh tomatoes)
1 good sized onion

Mix the tomatoes, taco seasoning and onion in the food processor for a couple seconds.

Fill crock pot with chicken and pour the other stuff from the food processor on top.

Once the chicken is cooked, shred it and stir it back into the mixture.

I find this to be a bit salty. If you wish you can add a whole potato for 30-45 minutes to absorb a bit of the salt.

Get flour tortillas, cheese, sour cream, black olives, your homemade salsa, some onion and tomato, and whatever else you like on your chicken tacos. Enjoy!

*If you have any left over you've got a great start for tortilla soup or an easy snack. For the easy snack get the tostitos made for dip (they look like tiny taco salad shells, made for dip) fill with some chicken, top with some shredded cheese, and put in the oven a couple of minutes to melt the cheese.

Salsa Made Simple

For my first entry on this page, I'll start with something I do well. I make great salsa. It's so easy, you can do it, too! You were warned, it's addicting.

Take:

Two small or one large can of tomato sauce (or whole or diced tomatoes)
One half bunch of cilantro
One half jalapeno pepper (or more if you want it really hot!)
3-4 handfuls of onion, chopped
1 tsp - 1 TBS garlic, to your taste
A dash of salt - optional
1 TBS lemon juice -optional

Give it all a whirl in the food processor until the salsa is the consistency of your liking. Enjoy!

Aint That A Shame?

It is a shame. Today I'm looking at my daughter's Sony Vaio PCG-K13 notebook computer. It's stopped working. We have no recovery discs, restore disks, whatever you choose to call them. I've tried the place online that claims they have every disk you could ever need - or they'll get it for you. But they've failed me. http://restoredisks.com/

Now I'm turning to anyone, anyone at all on the internet who can help me find the required disks to get this thing going again. Sony gave me some song and dance about how Microsoft only allows them to manufacture so many discs. Apparently this number is less than one per system, because we got none with this machine. Yes, now I know we were supposed to make our own when the thing was new, but we didn't understand that at the time. Hewlett Packard, Compaq, Toshiba, Dell, and Apple have always had discs available for purchase if we lost the ones that came with our machines. Sony is 0 for 2, as far as I'm concerned. No disc with the machine, no disc available for purchase. Booo Hisss.

If you can help please click the comments link at the end of this post and leave a comment. I'd gladly pay for the discs.

The Camomile Lawn

Mary Wesley wrote the novel, which I have never read. Peter Hall directed the miniseries, which was a treat. I wasn't familiar with the actors, but I think they did a great job. The story is about a group of cousins who grew up in England during the war. Their lives are quite intermingled and separate at the same time. I especially loved Calypso, Polly, and Sophie. Maybe because they're girls? Their characters were the deepest, I thought. Relax some weekend and enjoy this group. It's a little dark in places, so I wouldn't sit down with children to watch it. It's not that kind of entertainment. It does draw you in, though. Have a day with the cousins.

Library Hotel, NYC

Do you want proof I'm a geek? Here it is! I haven't stayed at the Library Hotel
in NYC yet, but as soon as I get a chance, I will.

The rooms all have different categories of books. I'd like to stay in the Fairy Tale room and the Romance Room and the Classics Room and the Erotica Room and the Poetry Room. I want to stay in the Paintings Room and the Photography Room and the Music Room and the Fashion Design Room. I want to stay in the Ancient Room and the Romance Room. I want to stay in the Museums Room and the Logic Room and the Ethics Room. I want to stay in the Philosophy Room and the Paranormal Room and the Love Room and the Psychology Room.

Okay, I obviously need many nights at the Library Hotel.

Walden Country Inn and Stables, Aurora Ohio

The Walden Country Inn and Stables is a unique place. This must have been a labor of love for the architect. The design is so interesting, so unexpected. You feel cozy and taken care of and special just because of the way the building feels. The rooms are spacious and luxurious.

We stayed in A loft suite (about twelve hundred square feet!) and really enjoyed it. Even the private stairway had flair. You have a fireplace. The huge bath is across from the bed instead of in the bathroom, which also has a shower. If you want to spend a romantic getaway in a room that lends itself to blissful relaxation go stay at Walden.

Don't order room service from their on site restaurant, however. It takes forever to get your tepid food. As a bonus I got the nastiest case of food poisoning in my life. Waking up the morning of checkout with projectile vomiting is not in their brochure, but it was an unexpected part of our stay. They claim to have movies for rent, but when you pick up the list in the room and call down and ask for a title they are put out. They don't really have those movies for rent, they go and get them from a local rental place. I also don't recommend paying big bucks to ride their horses. One of our horses was entirely spooked by the mud in the trail and decided to run into trees and be otherwise impossible. We all had to return (the two of us and our "guide") after just a few terrible minutes (we didn't get through 5 minutes of our hour long ride) and they still charged us at full rate for the both of us.

Remember I told you the building is awesome, and worth the stay. The staff was mediocre - and I'm being generous. For the room alone, go. Eat and entertain yourself elsewhere.

see their brochure here:
http://www.waldenco.com/brochure/walden.swf

Going to Orlando? Stay at Sheraton's Vistana Resort

You can thank me later. Vistana is close to Disney, across the street from a real, albeit a little depressing, grocery store. It's chock full of nice amenities, including a store or two on property. The pictures online just don't do it justice. Nice apartments, with their screened patios, washer/dryer, full kitchen, grand master bathroom give you all the niceties of home.

The giant pool in the picture is a fun place with lots of people, but there are a bunch of pools and hot tubs all around the property that feel much more private, and are usually right outside your back door. You can sit on the patio while older children swim. You can see the nightly midnight fireworks show from Disney's Pleasure Island from the Vistana property.

They have their own on site Pizza Hut and 3 or 4 other eateries. You can play tennis, rent bicycles, watch the chameleons, use the fitness centers or the game room. Or you could just relax. There's a television in the living room and the bedroom. I can't remember if there was a television in the 2nd bedroom?

Daniel Deronda

There's something to be said for the BBC. When they take a novel and do an adaptation, they don't insist upon squeezing it into a 2 hour film. This 4 part adaptation of the George Eliot novel of the same name was so good that my dentist couldn't resist watching while he was supposed to be working on my teeth!

I wont give away the story - that would be rude. If you enjoy a good period piece add it to your Blockbuster or Netflix queue!

Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man

Tonight I had the pleasure of spending some time with Leonard Cohen. He's earned his title of "Man with the golden voice". He's quite a card, and yet not full of himself. I'd seen other films, documentaries on Leonard, and there were very few minutes of repeats in this film.
Part of what makes it so enjoyable is others singing his songs. Nick Cave, Beth Orton, Bono, Anthony, The Wainwrights, and Jarvis Cocker - to name a few. If you can watch/listen to this and not get chills at some point your soul has already died. It's funny, interesting, beautiful, odd.
No link this time. Add it to your Blockbuster or Netflix queue.

Biltmore Estate, Asheville North Carolina

Go here. Definitely. Take a day, or better, take two. The house and surrounding shops are worthy of a whole day. The gardens and surrounding areas area worthy of a day, too. They have an inn, a winery, and other odds and ends to keep you engaged for a couple of days, easy. Asheville is beautiful on it's own.

The drive itself is awe-inspiring, rather than tedious. Face it, nobody wants to drive around in some of the other vacation desitnations in our Country. Who wants to drive around the surrounding areas of DisneyLand or DisneyWorld? Not I. When it's the Biltmore Estate getting there is fun.The House is fabulous inside and out.

There is so much to see, you have to work hard to see it all in one day. It's just grand. What other way can you describe places like The Biltmore, Versailles, Stan Hywet, etc? It's awesome to stand in the big old library and see how many books they had. We would love to have a library like that at our house!

Go, explore, have fun, create memories. I wont bore you with all they have to offer.

Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, Akron Ohio

Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens have been one of those awesome mysterious places to me since I was a little girl. We used to go there on school field trips. The girls especially loved going into the gift shop and determining how many trinkets we could get with our couple of dollars.

The Sieberlings built Stan Hywet (Old English for "Stone quarry) in the early 1900s.The Sieberlings founded the Goodyear Tire & Rubber company and built this lovely country estate with their rubber money. It's not as big as the Biltmore Estate, but its every bit as grand.

Last I knew there was still one lady, a descendant of the Seiberlings, living in the gate house. Want to know what's even more interesting about the gate house at Stan Hywet Hall? It was the place where Alcoholics Anonymous got it's start.

If you're ever in Northeast Ohio, check out the Hall and Gardens. Take your camera, it makes for a lovely backdrop.

Miss Molly's Tea Room in Medina, Ohio

Miss Molly's Tea Room and Gift Shop in Medina, Ohio is a quaint place for mothers and daughters and favorite dollies. It's for Red Hatters and a day out with the girls. It's for going alone and observing. If you have a truly romantic husband, it's for couples.

Sometimes you'll get a great waitress like Michelle, other times you're waitress will be more of a character than a waitress. They're always nice, and the food is always interesting and good, so you can't go wrong.

The lovely attached gift shop is worth the trip all by itself. As a matter of fact, I know many people who have shopped in the gift shop many times, but never had lunch at Miss Molly's. Lunch at Miss Molly's is a treat. I'm not sure how many varieties of loose tea they have, but the list is a full front and back of a menu long, so my guess is somewhere around 50 varieties of loose tea, along with a few varieties of tea bags, gourmet coffees and cocoas, iced tea, lemonade, and the typical soft drink fare.

Miss Molly's will even open up special just for your group of 25 or more. Children's parties are Saturday mornings or Friday evenings. Reservations are recommended, but not required.

The Buddha Bar, Paris

From the outside, the Buddha Bar doesn't look much different than anyplace else in the neighborhood. I sort of wondered why we were headed into the place at all, not being big bar hoppers. I was told it's a place to see and be seen in Paris. A late night hot spot where people like Madonna like to hang out. I like to explore new places, so I wasn't about to protest, but I didn't expect to be impressed.

I say expect to be impressed. Plan on going and having a lot of fun in an energetic crowd. They eat, they drink, they dance. Mostly, they socialize.