6th picture folder meme.

Belle didn't actually tag anyone for this one, she said You, you, and YOU, so I figured she meant me, so here's the rules and my 6th picture folder picture.

1. Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
2. Go to the 6th Folder and then pick the 6th Picture.
3. Post it on your blog and tell the story that goes with the picture.
4. Tag 5 other glorious people to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog telling them about it.

Here's mine:

These roses are 7 years old, I know, they look like it too...LoL
They were given to me by an ex-boyfriend, and they were so pretty, that when they started to die, I couldn't stand the thought of losing them forever, so I saved them.
I went out and bought a can of Aquanet, and then hung the roses, the whole bouquet, upside down, and once a day every day for a week, I sprayed them with the Aquanet.
As they died, the hairspray kept them from falling apart, no petals fell, no leaves, the babies breath didn't fall apart either.
They are still in pretty good shape, I dust them off once a month with my blow dryer, and the petals and leaves still don't fall off.
That's probably because I soaked every single part of each flower with the hairspray, they are stiff, so nope, they aren't budging.

I kinda think they are even prettier all dead than when they were fresh.

And like Belle, I'm not specifically tagging anyone, so like she said and I'm quoting, "I'm tagging you, you, you, you, and you. Yeah, YOU! And be sure to let me know if you did it!"

My mommy sent me some lovin' from the oven.

Do you know what this is?

No?
Let me show you.

It's my mom's home made blueberry muffins.

Yum!
My sis and nieces spent the Christmas holiday up visiting our parents, and my mom knows that for years I have tried to perfect her recipe for blueberry muffins but have failed miserably every single time.
She doesn't even have this written down, it's all in her head, so when I asked her for the recipe, she really had to think about it, it's in her head, it's just something she does.
Measurements?
Write them down?
She did write them all down and emailed them to me, but still, I can't get the taste and texture just right.

So when sis and the girls were getting ready to come back to Florida, mom had made me 1 whole dozen of the blueberry baked goodness and stuck them in my sisters suitcase.
Jo stopped by yesterday and dropped them off and I couldn't wait to dig into them.
I opened up the package, stuck one in the microwave to warm it just a little, put a small dab of butter on it and ahhhhh, bliss.

Thanks Mom!

It's going to take some getting used to.

My new monitor arrived, UPS delivered it around 3:15, and I set about taking down the old one and cleaning up the desk.
I had the old monitor on this desk for years, never moved it.
I had dusted it and around it, but it was a CRT, huge, I couldn't really get behind it all that well, and man, let me tell you, there was some serious dust going on back there.
Holy dust bunnies from hell!

I cleaned the whole area, plugged this one in, turned on the computer and the new monitor and wow, what a difference!
My CRT was a huge monster of a monitor, but it was only 15inches of viewing area.
This is a 17inch, but it's a major difference in viewing area.
My old CRT couldn't handle anything higher than 1024x768, and this one can go way, way up.
I have it set at 1152x864 because the higher ones caused some major eye strain.
I'll have to build up to the higher ones.
But it's already a big difference in how websites look.
On the CRT, my blog KatScan fit exactly in the viewing area, there was no black surrounding it that I could see at all, as a matter of fact, I never knew there was a black border. hahaha

I think I'm in love with this new monitor, really, it's beautiful.
The colors, the size, I have way more room on my desk, it was worth every penny I spent on it.
It's going to take some getting used to though, my eyes are not used to this size and stuff, but I do love it.
I cannot wait to load up the Sims2 on this later tonight, it's going to look freaking amazing!

It's almost here!

That's the UPS tracking for my new monitor, it will be here today!
The Acer 17" flat screen LCD monitor I bought, will be here sometime this afternoon.
I'm so excited!

When it gets here, I'm going to shut down, unplug this one and remove it from my desk, clean off my desk, all the dust and whatever else fell behind this one, and get my desk all pretty looking for my new one to get set up and settled into it's new home.
Every time I would watch the teens play WoW on theirs, I was so jealous because it has awesome colors, good refresh rate, just looks and works amazing, but today mine will be here.
Yay!

Come on Mr. UPS Man!
Hurry up!
I can't wait to get it all hooked up and play Sims 2 on it and then Sims3 when I get it in February!
*Squueeeee!*

Pow-pow-powerball.

I bought a Powerball ticket this morning, just easy pick numbers because I've never played Powerball before, and the guy at 7-11 didn't seem to know too much about it either, they just went on sale in Florida yesterday, so it's all new to most of us.
It was $1, and I figure $1 won't kill me to spend with the jackpot sitting at $105 million already right?
Right!

The teens are off to school, not totally thrilled, but they went along on their merry way in the fog and drizzle.
Well, as happy as 2 teens can be walking to school in the fog and drizzle.

Man, it's quiet in here.
I don't know what to do.
I only slept for 45 minutes the whole night, so maybe I'll lay on the couch, watch some morning news shows, and hopefully drift off to sleep for a little bit.

All you moms of kids going back today, what's your plan for the day?

*P.S. Edit*
I just realized at 7:54am, that I didn't explain why I was at 7-11 so early in the morning.
I woke the teens up at 5:45, Mark took his shower, Sebastian took his, and then they asked me if we could make a mad dash to 7-11 to get some food in case the cafeteria is a total madhouse today during lunch because it's the first day back after Christmas break.
I realized that they were probably right, so I got dressed and Sebastian and I hauled ass up the street at 6:10am, bought some of the freshly made ham subs, a Mountain Dew Code Red for Mark, a Pepsi for Sebastian, a bag of chips each, and 2 sticks of beef jerky each.
No, not the most nutritious, but if indeed the cafeteria is absolute chaos, then this convenience store lunch is better than no lunch at all which is what would possibly happen.
I only wish we had thought of this last night instead of so early this morning.

Safe, sound, and a powerball.

Laundry is finished, alarms for 5:45am are set, shoes, backpacks, pens and pencils have been set out and replenished, we are so ready to go back to school in the morning.
I have also gone around and locked up the entire house.
Twice.

I have this ritual I do every single night, I can't help it, it's part OCD, and part disabled single mom paranoia.
I have to go around to every window and door, and make sure they are locked up super tight and with all of my little gadgets and stuff to help make me feel secure.

On the back door, I have it locked with the regular doorknob lock, the chain lock, and one of those really loud annoying personal alarm things.
I have it set up so that if the door is opened at all, even just a little bit, the sensor will dislodge from the door and the alarm will sound.
And let me tell you, that noise is so loud and so ear piercing, that when I have to check the batteries and replace them, (I do it monthly) it is absolutely deafening until I get it set up correctly again.
The teens shove their fingers in their ears, the cats all run and hide, and I just cringe until I get the pin back in with my hands trembling because the noise is just so loud and piercing.

On the front door, I have the regular doorknob lock, a deadbolt, and a hotel flip over bar lock.
It's the kind that you close the door and flip over the latch, and it prevents the door from opening once it reaches about 1 inch of space.
Then I also jam a 2x4 up under the door knob which also prevents the door from being opened.
And I won't even tell you how I secure some of the windows, they are little tricks I learned from George, Mark's Big, who used to be a detective in Washington DC for 25 years, and if I tell you, then you'd know, and then I'd have to kill you.

I do all of this stuff every night because I'm terrified of someone breaking in.
I don't have a CWP, (concealed weapons permit) and I don't have a gun, so I feel like I have to do all of these things every single night to try and feel safe so that if I do fall asleep, (insomnia owns me) I can feel somewhat safe actually being asleep.

I wish I had the money to have a security system installed, like an ADT system, and be able to afford the monthly monitoring of it, because then I'd feel a whole lot better about being asleep or just being alone in the house while the teens are at school.
Home security is a HUGE issue for me, like I said, part OCD, and part disabled single mom.
I cannot fight back if someone came in, and I can't shoot back because I don't have a gun or a CWP, and I can't get one until I'm able to take shooting practice and pass my CWP tests.
In Florida, if someone breaks into your home, if you feel that your life or the life of your family is in danger, you have the legal right to shoot to kill.
I know that if someone did come in and threaten us, I would not hesitate for a single second to kill a dangerous intruder in order to protect my sons and myself.

So yeah, I'd love to have an ADT system and the monitoring, just for my own peace of mind, knowing that if the alarm goes off, that someone is watching for my home's alarm, and that they will send help for us immediately.
I also really like the new Safepass system they have.
If you don't want to remember the codes, or have trouble remembering things like when under pressure, you can just wave the little keyfob in front of it to arm and disarm it.
It would make it so much easier for children to be able to arm and disarm the system too, or older people who have trouble reading the displays, or remembering the code numbers.
I'm really good with numbers, I still remember my best friends phone number from when she lived on Ocean Ave and we were best friends for like all of our growing up, but trying to recall an alarm system code number when you're really tired or under pressure, or heavily medicated, or been drinking, can be cause for some false alarms to happen.

But until the day comes that I can afford to have the monthly monitoring without any worries about money and being able to afford it, I'm just going to have to stick to all of my nightly rituals, my strange, but really good ways of trying to make sure that no one can break in.
Florida just started doing Powerball in our state, maybe I'll buy 1 Powerball ticket per week, and maybe I'll get really lucky and win like a mega jackpot.
Tickets just started going on sale today, and the first drawing is going to be on January 7th.
I might just have to buy myself a ticket for Wednesday night's drawing.
Wouldn't that be awesome if I bought 1 single ticket and won?
I could pay off all of my debts, buy us our own home, and get an ADT security system installed.
It would be awesome.
Yeah, I think I'll buy a ticket tomorrow and hope for the best.

Blind piggy.

That's my little blue piggy bank, he used to have eyes and sunglasses, but as of 7:30 this morning, he no longer does, he's been struck blind.
It seems that Carmine, Shahiro, and Kali, were playing a game of kitty cat tag in the house, and attacked the poor little piggy bank.
It was kinda funny, they all had this guilty look on their faces when I came out and picked up the piggy off the floor, ears bent down, looking away, slinking off to hide under beds.

Today is just another lazy sloth day, the teens are playing video games, I'm doing laundry and watching stupid movies on tv.
Once again, not much happening around here.
Later days.

Total sloth day.

The teens and I have been total sloths all day long.
We did nothing but lay on couches watching movies, eating junk food, and having a few laughs.
I figure tonight and tomorrow will be more of the same with the addition of laundry so the teens can go to school.

I'm actually just gonna chill out for the rest of the night and play Sims and they are off playing video games.
Later days.

He likes yarn.

Carmine is a yarn cat, he really digs the stuff.
I bet if I were to give him a ball of yarn, he'd be in kitty heaven.
We know he really likes it because he chewed a whole in my blanket, and he has been going after some home made ornaments on my tree.

My mom and a few aunts, had made me some crocheted and knitted ornaments over the years, and Carmine has been attacking them constantly.
So much so that I had to take several of them and move them higher up on the tree.
The tree will be coming down Sunday, but he really, really wanted this little yellow peanut M&M ornament that my Aunt Josephine had made, and a Nutcracker one that my mom had made.
I moved both of them higher up on the tree, and he got sad.
I'm not kidding.
He sat below the tree staring up at it meowing mournfully over them.
So I gave him the nutcracker and he's been in kitty heaven all afternoon.

Christmas vacation ends soon!

It's been a very long Christmas vacation with the teens, 16 very long days, and they go back on Monday.
It hasn't been all bad, but there has been a few moments when I wanted to just choke them both for all of the arguing they did.
For the most part though, they have been pretty decent.
You would think that the older they get, the less fighting they would do, but no, not true.
I think brothers are just destined to fight with each other all of the time.

So they go back on Monday, have school for 1 week, and then they get a day off for a professional day on Monday the 12th.
I don't understand that.
Why didn't the teachers have the professional day like today for example.
The kids just get back in the swing of things, and they get another day off so soon.
I have always found professional days totally freaking stupid and have never understood why they need a day off to do that stuff.

Oh well, it'll be nice to have the house back to myself, maybe food won't disappear so quickly, and it will be quiet around here during the day again.
No fighting, until they get back home again anyway.

The ULTIMATE happy cat toy.

One of the biggest issues with owning cats is that some of them like to scratch things, namely furniture.
Both Kali and Nova were de-clawed years ago, but Shahiro and Carmine have theirs, and they have recently (as in when Carmine showed up) taken to really trying to go at the couch.
Today while Sebastian and I were in Publix picking up some more food and other things we needed, I spotted this in the pet aisle.
The Scratch Rattle Roll Scratcher - Mouse.

This GIANT mouse is made of a really soft fabric like a blanket, it has a sisal spot on it's back which cats love to scratch, it has a rattle ball in it's tail, and the whole thing is FULL of catnip.
It has a really strong elastic so that you can hang it from your doorknob, or you can lay it on the floor for the cats to pounce on.
All 4 of the cats love to do both to it, they love this thing!
As soon as I cut the tags off and hung it from the door, they all went nuts trying to get to it.
They were swatting at each other, jumping on it, licking it, biting it, and meowing like crazy over this thing.

Here's Carmine rolling around on the floor* with it.

The big dark spot on the sisal back is from where Kali started frantically licking at it to try and get the catnip out of it.

continue reading

Last post of 2008.

So many bloggers out there are doing their end of the year posts, stating resolutions and goals, tallying their yearly blogging income, and all the rest of that stuff.
I don't do resolutions or make lists of my best posts of the year, and I never do blogging income posts.
I'm not going to get into what was good or bad about my blogging year, I'm not going to make a list and link back to my best posts, I'm just going to keep going.

I've been through a lot this year, but who hasn't?
I just don't see the need to dwell or beam on what has already happened, it's in the past, done and over with.
I prefer to just keep going.
I have no idea what all is in store for me and the teens in 2009 aside from another surgery.
I don't know where this blog's direction will go, I don't know anything beyond what I know right now, and right now all I know is that I will keep going.
I'll keep going and doing the day to day, I'll keep trying to be a better version of me, I'll keep trying to be a better mother to my sons, I'll keep trying to be a better friend to all of the people I care about, and I'll keep trying to just be a better human being.

That's all I know right now, and that's good enough for me.
Have a happy New Year, see ya in the morning.
Later days!

Kaboom Scrub Free toilet bowl cleaner review follow-up.

Back on October 16th, I had posted about using the Kaboom Scrub Free toilet bowl cleaner for only 3 days.
After just 3 days, I could tell that it was really working, but now that it's been just a little over 3 months, the length of time each refill kit lasts, I thought I should post a follow-up.

I put the refills in the scrub free a few days ago, but I wanted to let you all know how very pleased I am with this toilet bowl cleaner.
It really works!
It definitely surpasses my experience with the Scrubbing Bubbles toilet cleaning gel discs that I had tried.

I know some people are out there thinking that I get way too excited over cleaning products, but with my back the way it is, I need products that actually do what they say they will do.
If a product claims that it lasts for 7 days or 3 months, it needs to last for 7 days or 3 months.
If a product claims the following;
* Never scrub your toilet bowl again!
* Installs in a snap
* Prevents rust & hard water stains.
* Safe for septic systems - Won't harm tank parts.
* Cleans completely, even under the rim.
* Clean Continuously For Up to 3 Months!
then it needs to actually do that, and the Kaboom Scrub Free really does what it says.

We have not had to scrub the bowl at all, not once.
There are no stains of any kind, and it actually has started to remove some of the old rust and hard water stains that have been in there forever.
With every single flush, new cleaning product comes down into the bowl from under the rim, swirls around and flushes down, and then the bowl fills up again with water and new product which just sits there until the next flush.
This combo of new product swirling and flushing, and then filling and sitting, is what is helping to remove those old rust and hard water stains.
You do have to do your regular cleaning of the bowl, wash the under the seat and the seat itself, but I found another awesome product for that which I absolutely freaking love.

I bought some Mr. Clean disinfecting wipes with Febreze, and they do an awesome job cleaning those parts of the toilet and all around the house too.
The Mr. Clean wipes knock out 99.9% of bacteria and other germs like Salmonella and Staph, and I have been using them not only to clean the toilet and the sink area, but all over the house like the doorknobs, the kitchen counter, the microwave, light switches, and pretty much every hard surface that we all touch day in and day out.
With it being cold and flu season, I need to try and keep us all from spreading germs back and forth.
I bought the one with the Meadows & Rain Febreze fragrance, and it smells so good.
After I got done cleaning the bathroom, I was impressed with how nice it smelled in there.
I just love products that work and make your house smell good in the process.

You can still get the Kaboom Scrub Free for free, only pay $4.99 for shipping and handling, (this offer is the kit with only 1/3 month supply of cleaning product, not the same deal I got back in October, that 1 expired) and it's well worth it.
I know that when my supply of refills that came with my order run out, I'll be buying them in the store.

More rock n' roll goodness.

The teens finally decided what they wanted to buy with their BB gift cards they got for Christmas.
They put them together and bought Guitar Hero World Tour for their Xbox360.

It only took them about 2 weeks to decide what to get, and so they decided on that.
It's totally cool with me, I love playing GH too, so we have 2 guitars, 3 controllers, and there's 3 of us, so all of us can play together or just 2 of them or just 1 of them.
Sebastian loves to play the GH games, Mark does too, but Sebastian loves to play music, listen to it, and so he's totally psyched about getting it.

We ordered it online instead of going all of the way to BB, it's much easier to order online than to go into the physical stores and deal with other shoppers and cranky, non-helpful sales clerks.
Ordering online can sometimes be a pain in the butt too.
It took me exactly 17 tries to get BB to accept their own damn gift card.
I wanted to call and try to get help, so I called the # on the back of the card, and wouldn't you know it?
It's a completely automated system, you can't speak to anybody at all to get help with gift cards.
I finally just typed in the # 1 last time and slammed the enter key I was so frustrated, and amazingly it went through.
Same exact #, nothing different about it, the website just finally decided to recognize the gift card #.

Anyway, they will have their game in about a week, peace and happiness has been restored to the Cooper household.

Things needed and wanted.

Most parents make sure that their kids have an awesome Christmas, they want them to be happy, and most parents don't get a ton of Christmas gifts for themselves for that reason.
Most married parents do buy their spouses presents though.
Single parents on the other hand usually have very little money to start with, so they make sure their kid(s) have a good Christmas, but who buys them presents?

My parents always send me some money, but I usually combine it with the other money that gets sent for the teens, so I can buy them more stuff, and I have some good friends who always send me some really nice presents too.
I got some very nice things from them this year, the perfume off of my wish list, a gift card to Publix, a magazine subscription to a great cooking show chock full of yummy recipes, and a Visa gift card to spend on whatever I want also.
But after getting my reimbursement payment, I decided to get myself some things that I wanted and things that I needed for my computer.
I work from home on this bad boy, so every now and then it needs some things to help me keep it running smoothly, and some fun stuff too.
So I bought myself the following things, the total spent on these items wasn't very much at all, just $263.21, and a couple of them were on sale at really good prices.

An Acer 17" flat screen LCD monitor, $117.99, not a bad price, just like the teens monitor.

A SimpleTech 1 GB memory stick, was on sale for $35.24, down from $195.00.

An AMD ATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256 MB AGP Card, was on sale for $39.99, down from $129.00.

And then The Sims 3 Collector's Edition is my for fun item, not on sale, but not a bad price at $69.99.
The collectors edition comes with a 1gig Sims plumbob USB drive, you know, shaped like the thingy that is always over their heads and houses?
Yeah, this thing,
but it's actually a USB drive key chain, you can never have enough USB drives, and it looks like this,

An exclusive Prima tips and hints guide, a European sports car download for the Sims to drive around in, extra theme music from the game, and a Sims3 neighborhood poster.
All of that stuff is worth (to me) the extra $20 it cost me over the regular version of the game, I can use the USB drive, the tips and hints guide will help me figure out all of the new things they've done to the Sims3 game play, and the poster is just a cool extra.

I needed a new graphics card, my other one crapped the bed big-time, causing me to freak out and uninstall all of my Sims2 games thinking the game had gotten corrupted, but no, it was the graphics card. *slaps forehead*
I lost everything I had done in the game, all of it.
Makes me kinda sad, but now that the new graphics card is installed, I re-installed all of the Sims2 discs so I can play right up until Sims 3 gets here.
That's quite a few discs, we didn't have all of the expansions, but a good deal of them.
We have Sims2, Nightlife, Open for business, Pets, and Seasons, and they are so much fun to play.
When my new monitor gets here, between that and the new graphics card, the games are going to look amazing!

My monitor and memory stick should be here in a few days, they will get installed, and it will be the awesome.
I bought the exact same monitor that my sis bought the teens, so I know that it's a really good one and that it looks amazing, and the memory stick is so that the Sims3 will be able to run with no issues or errors.

I figured that I deserved some new stuff, and my computer is where I am almost all of the time, so I chose to get some upgrades and some fun stuff for me.

FCAT fix is flawed. Duh.

Critics say that the FCAT fix is flawed.
You don't say?

Last spring, Florida lawmakers sought to ease the pressure the FCAT applied on public high schools by developing a more rounded appraisal of student performance. But those good intentions may end up putting more schools in the "needs improvement" category.

...

The results: Dozens of schools would drop a letter grade on the state's report card and the number of "failing" schools would double. In Hillsborough alone, one simulation shows nine high schools would fall a letter grade, with one of them, Leto High, getting an F. Only one would improve - Armwood High School, which would rise from D to C.

While some of the state's original data is old - Leto has since boosted its grade to a C - Hillsborough schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia says the new assessment adds a financial burden for districts forced to cut millions. Previously, the only standard measure of a high school's success was the FCAT. The new grading formula calls for additional measures, such as graduation rates, advanced placement courses and college-placement tests. Bringing all that together costs money, Elia said, and the Hillsborough district, for one, is preparing to cut as much as $55 million this fiscal year. And a failing grade from the state may force a school to develop a costly improvement plan.

The emphasis on the FCAT needs to be cut, it's so much pressure on students and teachers alike. The teachers know that their schools grade and money for the school, comes from how well the students do on the FCAT, so the teachers spend a crazy amount of time teaching the students how to pass the test, instead of teach the subjects students really need to know in order to do well at college.

On one of the news programs, either Dateline or 20/20, a few months ago, they talked and followed students at several different high schools across the country who all had testing like the FCAT.
Most of the students they followed did very well in school, they were top of their classes, high honors, straight A students who consistently passed with great grades, the comprehensive testing every year, but when they got to college, the work was way too hard, it was subjects they had never done before, they found out when they went to college, that there were courses they should have taken in high school, their guidance counselors told them they were taking every single course they needed to be taking to get into college, so these kids thought they were well prepared.
But they weren't.
One straight A, high honor roll, valedictorian student they spoke to, said when she got to college, she totally floundered, she discovered that she should have been taking 6 other courses in high school that were available to her, but the guidance counselor and teachers had told her she was already taking everything she needed, that she was a straight A student, that she'd be just fine in college, but she wasn't.
She failed every single class she was enrolled in, and ended up having to drop from her chosen classes to all general courses, and she had to take all 6 of those extra classes that she should have taken in high school, in order to just try and catch up to where she should have been.
She was so upset with herself, she said she felt like a total failure, felt stupid because the work was so much harder, she wasn't as prepared as her teachers and guidance counselor told her she was, and she also blamed the comprehensive tests she had taken throughout school.
On top of all of her college prep classes she was taking, thinking those were going to be enough, she was also constantly studying to pass her states comprehensive tests every year because they counted so much towards her ability to get into the college of her choice.
She said her teachers had the students take practice tests 5 days a week, they were always going over those tests and questions, and she thought she knew what she needed, she thought she was well prepared, but she was nowhere near prepared for college at all.

The FCAT is not a good way to help the students at all.
It helps the schools get money, but the teachers spend so much time prepping students for those tests that they don't spend enough time teaching the students what they really need to know in order to be well prepared for college.

I know the schools need money, but our students educations should always come first.
They should place way less emphasis on the FCAT, heck, do away with it completely, and start teaching the students what they really need to know in order to prepare them for college and beyond.
They can't teach all of the college prep classes because they are spending far too much time prepping students to pass the FCAT so the schools get a passing grade and more money.

Sterling Pear ornament storage box contest.

Blessed Nest Perch is having a contest to win a Sterling Pear ornament storage box, and you could win one just like the one pictured.
I would really like to have it because I don't even have a box for my ornaments, I have them in a big padded bag, each ornament is wrapped in paper, and then I put the bag in my wicker chest in my closet.
Not a very safe way to store all of my most favorite and cherished ornaments huh?
Surprisingly though, in the 10 years we've lived here, not a single one has gotten broken.

You can enter to win that gorgeous ornament storage box by going to Blessed Nest Perch, and doing one or all of her really easy ways to enter the contest.

No sale on the Twin Draft Guard.

I asked in the entry below about buying things from the As Seen on TV website or calling the 1-800 #, and said how I was interested in the Twin Draft Guard they sell.

When my post showed up in my Twitter feed, BJByrne said;

@mskat do a google search for a review on anything you are looking to get. A lot of the "as seen on TV" is not the quality you expect.

I was seriously thisclose to purchasing the Twin Draft Guard, the commercial makes it look like it works really awesome, fits any door, only needs like 2 seconds worth of adjustments to make it fit your door perfectly, and the blow dryer test they do really had me convinced that it was exactly the draft dodger that I have been searching for.

But I took BJByrne's advice and did a Google search for "Twin Draft Guard review", and came upon many, many unsatisfied customers.

I also did a search for "Infinity Razor review", because while I was on the As Seen on TV website, they had some special savings if you bought certain products, and one of the deals was like $5 off the Infinity Razor.
I had both items in my cart, ready to purchase based solely on the uber convincing commercials I had seen and the product information on the website, but after doing a search on the razor, I found that it too, is a complete piece of craptastic shit.
They claim that the razor is super sharp, that you'll never need to purchase another one, but I read quite a few reviews from people saying that the blades show up dull fresh out of the package, that it takes 4-5 hard strokes to get even a halfway decent shave, and most people ended up having to use one of their old razors to finish the job.

So I dumped both items from my cart.
I'll have to keep using my caterpillar stuffed animal for a draft dodger for now, and I'll have to keep buying blades for my Venus Embrace razor.
So far, the Venus Embrace razor for women is the best razor I have found to use since having spinal fusion.
The handles are slightly longer than most other razors, men and women's razors alike, and because I can't bend and reach as far as I used to down my legs, can't bend and reach as far as most other women, a longer handled razor is a must.
I even tried duct taping a long wooden ruler to my razors to help me be able to reach lower down my legs, but the tape gets wet and softens after just 2 showers, and the wood also gets wet and softens, and then breaks, and then you get splinters in your hand as well as nicks on your legs because the ruler snapped in half and caused you to slip when the splinter jammed into the palm of your hand.
So not fun at all.
I was hoping the Infinity Razor would be true to it's claim because the handle looked like I could tape a round wooden spoon handle to it, and also because for awhile after surgery I have trouble going shopping for replacement blades, (hell, I have trouble going shopping for anything after having surgery) so the "blades never dull" claim sounded like an awesome thing for me because I have another spine fusion surgery coming up again.
I'll just have to go stock up on Venus Embrace cartridges before I go in for surgery.

Anyway, thanks BJByrne for reminding me to do product reviews first.
I usually do, but I guess the commercial for the Twin Draft Dodger had really permeated every inch of my brain after seeing it a million times, and I was all gung-ho to buy it without question.

As Seen on TV shopping?

Have any of you ever bought anything from the As Seen on TV website, or called the 1-800 number and bought something from them?

I'm a total home gadget junkie, I admit my affection obsession for all of the kitchen and cooking gadgets, I never buy any of them though, I just covet all of them.
But they have one that I could really use right now, the Twin Draft Guard.
I have a gap at my front door, I know that all my cool AC air goes out under that gap, I know the blistering Florida heat comes in under that gap, and I am always yelling at the teens to "fix the caterpillar" so as to try and not waste the cool air from the AC, and my money.

We have a 4 foot long stuffed caterpillar that was one of the teens stuffed toys when they were really little, placed in front of the door as a draft dodger, or door snake as some people call them.
It works really well, but just like in the commercial on the product page, we are always having to adjust it after someone comes in or goes out, it's a total pain in the ass.
I'm always saying, "Fix the caterpillar", or "Caterpillar!" to whoever is the last one in.
When we all leave the house, the AC air is just going out, meaning my electric bill money is just going out, the heat coming in, and well, that sucks.

The Twin Draft Dodger is $10 + shipping, but I've never ordered from As Seen on TV before, and even though I know they have been around a very long time, I just don't know if it's safe to order from them.
Has anyone ordered from them, and if you have, what was your experience like?

Thanks!

Carmine chewed a hole in my blanket.

He did, and I caught him doing it, so I filmed him.
Little bastard is so cute I can't be mad at him.
And yes, I think I am falling in love with the little fuzzball, I sound like a total dork, and I cannot believe I uploaded it to youtube, but oh well.

Dead Possum!

Dead possum in the street. ha! i hate possums!

Carmine the kitty pictures.

I uploaded just some of the pictures the teens took yesterday of Carmine the kitty, to my flickr account.
They had taken a ton of pictures, not all of them good either.
Blurry, fingers in the way, hair strands in the way, out of focus, just messy, so I only uploaded some of the better ones.
Christie had asked to see them, so there they are for everyone to see, and my flickr is public so anyone can see all of the pictures I've uploaded there.

I'm not a great photographer at all, not even good, it's not even a hobby, I just like to take pictures to have the memories.
I would LOVE to be a great photographer like Robyn, or Jen, those ladies are simply fantastic, and I love their eye for those just so perfect shots, the beautiful colors they get, the softness and beauty they capture, but I'm just a mom with a Sony Cybershot that I got at a wickedly good sale price, ($128.88) and I felt tremendous guilt spending that much money on something for myself, so because A) I suck at taking pictures and B) I could never, ever, in a million years spend this kind of money on a camera, I will stick to taking just mediocre pictures of our cats, my kids, and other weird and random stuff I feel like taking a picture of.

I took this picture of Mark the other night petting Carmine who has commandeered one of the boxes from Beall's that had one of the hoodies for the teens for Christmas.
Mark is seriously in love with this cat.

One of these days, they're gonna kick me out.

Mark and I went and did the grocery shopping tonight, Sebastian wanted to stay home and play WoW because by the time I was ready to go, he was knee deep in some sort of quest, mission, whatever, thing.

Anyway, I had a lot to get, more cat litter, cat food, toilet paper, soda, a lot of food and stuff, so the cart was pretty well loaded up, but everything fit in the cart in a neat and orderly fashion.
I'm checking out and one of the managers was doing the bagging for us, and I told him to please put all of the heavy items, the soda 12 packs, the 4 bags of cat litter and cat food, on the bottom where I had them, and to please not put any of the many cleaning supplies I bought in with any of the food.
I absolutely hate it when a bagger puts the box of fabric softener in with the loaf of bread, and by the time you get home, your bread not only smells like fabric softener, it tastes like it too.

What did he do?
He put all of the sodas, cat litter, and cat food, in the top part, and started putting cleaning chemicals in with food items.
I told him no, move the heavy stuff to the bottom and keep food with food, cleaning supplies with cleaning supplies please.
He shot me a wicked dirty look and then moved the items, but I bought a lot, so he just started throwing bags into the cart, smashing bread and chips, throwing stuff on top of my purse, he dropped a 5lb whole chicken onto the box of donuts Mark picked out, and I lost it.

I started yelling at him, I couldn't help myself, he was an asshole, he knew what he was doing, and knew he shouldn't be doing it, yet he did it anyway.
I started moving all of the bags around, properly putting them in good places so as not to crush other food, and then the cashier handed me my receipt, asked if I wanted help out, I yelled NO, and started to walk away.
That's when a bag with a huge package of paper plates that he stuck on the bottom, rolled off, and as I was picking it up I started yelling again.
"Asshole! Douchebag! Moron! A fucking manager should know better than to bag things like this, the 14 year olds who bag groceries, know you don't bag things like this! What kind of fucking asshat bags groceries like this and thinks it's ok!?!?!?"

Another manager came over to me, asked me to keep my voice down or they'd have to ask me to leave, I said "I was leaving anyway, the food is bought and paid for, crushed, thanks to that asshat manager, but I own it and I AM leaving right now!"
She was trying to apologize, she called the other manager over to apologize, and I told him to stay away from me, and the woman manager asked me why I was so upset so I showed her the package of donuts he crushed with a 5lb chicken.
I told her that my son picked those out from the bakery, and this idiot dropped a 5lb chicken on top of the box, he did it on purpose, he was looking right at the donuts when he did it, he didn't try to stop, he didn't even blink when he did it, and he also put chemicals with foods, and did not listen to me about the rest of the items being placed in the cart the right way.

She said she was sorry, she'd get us more donuts, I said I don't want any, I just want to leave now, I need to go home, my neck and back are hurting, I have been in here for over an hour buying over $200 worth of food and other products, and I would like to leave.
She kept trying to say she was sorry, I said I'm going NOW, and I walked out.
We went outside and waited for the cab, and she came out and handed me a gift certificate for $25 because of what happened, and that's when I realized that I didn't use the gift card I brought with me because I was so busy trying to make sure my food didn't get destroyed, that I forgot to use it.

Most of the time, like 99% of the time, Publix is a really great store with really great employees, but there are times and employees that make that 1% of bad times really, really bad.