green tea ROCKS

‘Oly Bejeezers These Gas Prices…

The other day I cried.  Why?

At 2:30am one day Premium (which is apparently necessary recommended for my CX-7) was $3.99/gal.

8.5 hours later at 11:00am, Premium at the very same gas station was listed at $4.03/gal.

2 days later, $4.05/gal.  When I saw this is when the tears started flowing.

I didn’t even check the price on my way home tonight, I’m so terrified of seeing another increase.

I’m not so sure if I’l be any of us will be able to take much more of this, and I sure as hell am regretting not buying a Prius.. it would have been so much better for my wallet the environment.

Technorati Tags: gas prices, gasoline, car, automobile, hybrid

Rambling bout my shoesies

I’ve been really into shoes lately.  The past month I’ve bought at least 1 new pair each week.  Let me tell you, sales kick ASS.  I walked into Naturalizer the other day because they had a sale going on, and honestly I did not think I would be coming out with anything other than an idea of what to buy my grandmother, but I came out with two pairs of SUPER cute shoes for fifty and change… I didn’t think it was POSSIBLE… seriously.

If you’ve got a Naturalizer near you, I so  suggest going there ASAP because some of their kicks are hot but still oh-so-comfortable… I’m a PISCES, my feet are extra sensitive to discomfort.

Technorati Tags: shoes, naturalizer

Update on life and the crappy blimpie salad

:: Update to my earlier post regarding the questionable quality of Blimpie’s salad:

I did receive an email from the Area Developer for Blimpie locations here on Long Island, but all he asked for was the location of the Blimpie’s I went to, never apologizing for the atrocity I received, nor emailing me back to let me know if the situation over at that Blimpie’s had been taken care of.

Oh well.

In other news, I’ve been kinda busy and/or otherwise occupied lately.

1. I started working full-time outside of the home in January.  Good stuff.
2. We moved…. from NYC back to the ‘burbs to the neighborhood where I grew up.  mrQ, who grew up in the city, has his complaints but overall I’m pretty sure he likes it here, lol.
3. I pay more attention to my site “for Mamas with a little dose of Diva in ‘em” MamaDivas.com

It’s exciting to, after over 2 years of being a housewife and stay at home mama with a part-time, freelance… job, transition to being a housewife and stay at home mama with the added title of full-time working woman. (queue: She Works Hard for the Money).  This, as you can imagine,  forces me to exercise better time management as well as the self-discipline that goes with that.

Ooh, by the way, a belated Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!

Technorati Tags: blimpie, salad

Blimpie Subs and Salads Makes Sad Little Salads Out of Condiments and Not Much Else

Does everyone remember the Charlie Brown Christmas special? You know it… Charlie Brown was in charge of purchasing the Christmas tree, and he came home with this pathetic, piddly little thing.

Well, like the sad little Christmas tree that Charlie Brown brought back to the Peanuts gang, Blimpie salads are beyond disappointing. The grilled chicken salad was a sad little creation consisting of CONDIMENTS, a few very tiny and quite bland pieces of chicken and nothing else. NOTHING. I kid you not.

The description of the grilled chicken salad on the website reads:

Grilled and flavorful chicken pattie sliced into strips then served on a bed of fresh crisp lettuce.

Yeah… okay.

Here’s what we received:

Now what does that look like to you? Does it look like a salad, or does it look like condiments?… and ridiculously unappetizing looking condiments, for that matter. There was nothing “fresh” about it.

The salad is supposed to look like an actual salad and contain actual salad greens and not just shredded condiment lettuce, as per the Blimpie’s website and even the signage located within the store.

I don’t know if this was an error on the lone clerk’s part, if it’s just that particular location (in which case I would revoke their franchise license because of the disgusting interpretation of Blimpie recipes), or if there is such a discrepancy between the advertised salad and the actual recipe and guidelines provided by Kahala. Still, you would expect that you might not get something exactly as glorious and appetizing as what you see in an advertisement, you’d still expect a salad to be a SALAD and not a jumble of just whatever happens to be lying around.

Oh, and when I asked the clerk if I could have cucumbers in the salad, she said “No, we don’t have cucumbers.” Mmk.. kinda strange, but I guess that’s just not on the ingredients list. Whatever.

See, I was ordering this for my dad, and when I saw how gross the salad was, I didn’t think anything of it (well, I questioned his judgement regarding foodstuffs), because I assumed that he’d gotten it before. Apparently, the only reason why he ordered it at all was because he’d seen signs advertising the salad, so he decided to try it for the first time. Silly me, I figured he’d eaten this unappetizing concoction of not-so-fresh condiments before (because if he’d known the salad was so gross, why would he request it?), so I just went ahead and paid. You can be sure that he was beyond pissed to find that his order was damn near inedible. The only thing that cheered him up that day was that the Giants beat Green Bay for the chance at Super Bowl XLII. (Go Giants! WOOO!)

Alll of this leads me to believe that quite possibly it was just the clerk’s error, or that this particular location’s franchisee is a cheap [bleep] who doesn’t quite “get” the whole customer relationship thing. Kahala, if you’d like to know which location is degrading your reputation with these abominations that are intended to pass as salads, please don’t hesitate to contact me, and based on the feedback you provide, I’ll update my blog to note that this was an individual clerk/individual franchisee issue and not something that should reflect on the franchise as a whole. Otherwise, please provide an explanation, not to me, but to ALL your customers and potential customers, as to WHY the salad was served up that way.

So, in conclusion, I highly suggest that before ordering a salad at Blimpie, ask to see a sample salad, or visually confirm WHICH lettuce will be used.. then make your decision.

Technorati Tags: salad, gross food, Blimpie, subs, Kahala Corp

Sh-sh-shoe fetish! Hollywould for Target rocks my socks!

I just had to share these cute pumps with ya:

Alright, so that photo isn’t all that hot, but these shoes are gorgeous!.

Anyway, why am I dedicating this post to these patent-leather pumps?  Why, because I found these sexy babies by Hollywould at Target (further clarification: Hollywould for Target)… for $15, yes that’s FIFTEEN dollars, marked down from a still-ridiculously-affordable-considering-the-quality-and-cuteness $29.99.  Ahh, glorious Target, bringing an affordable version of chic to the masses.

On the site, they’re listed for $20.99, but maybe your local store will have them listed for the same price I got them for.  And yes, they DO look just as cute and sexy as they do in this photo to the left… And they’re sooo comfortable!  I’m not normally they type of person who can walk around all day in heels, but these do not bother my feet at all!  I honestly thought they might give me a blister or two, but my feet are sore-free after two days of wearing them for 8 hours at a time.

I didn’t even know Target carried such a … fashion-forward selection of footwear… I also didn’t know, until the other day that is, that Hollywould started designing a line of accessories and footwear for Target.  Isaac Mizrahi, Liz Lange, Hollywould… who’s next??

I’m so glad I happened to stumble through that section in a searching for a pair of $3 clearance ballet flats in my size.  Right now they’re listed for $14.99 on the site, but I’m telling you, I got them for $3.24 at the store.

Target so rocks my socks.

Technorati Tags: fashion, deals, sales, clearance, Hollywould, Hollywould for Target, Target, cheap couture

Enter my fitness DVD giveaway at MamaDivas.com!!

Don’t forget to check out my review of danceX at http://www.mamadivas.com/…ys-workout

Enter my giveaway to win my review copy ($24.99 value!) of the danceX: Everybody’s Workout by Kenn Kihiu DVD

http://www.dancexfitness.com/

Mobile post sent by kristina using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Weirdos at the gym

Yesterday when I was at the gym with my cousin (because I’m sticking to my New Year’s resolution of getting healthier and into better shape, DUH), we were having a little bit of trouble (being the non-gym-goers that we are) figuring out some of those circuit exercise machines.  Here’s the thing… the last time I actually worked out in the gym before 3 days ago was about 7 years ago when I was still in middle school.  I used to go  with my parents every once in a while, and one of them was usually on hand to tell me how to use a machine.  Oh, and 7 years ago, that particular gym we used to go to didn’t have the fancy circuit machines… it was more of a treadmills, free weights and mats-for-crunches type of place.  (read: not so much “Health Club” but a barebones “gym”)

Anywho, for some reason we were going about it as if we had our thumbs up our butts… but honestly I attribute that more towards our being slightly discomfited… a normal reaction in any situation where you’re unsure of what you’re doing.  Having witnessed our giggly, and obviously pained attempts at not looking like complete morons, this somewhat disheveled looking slightly-older-than-middle-aged man with a mullet haircut and a furry mustachioed face cut into our conversation to explain the machines to us and gripe that most of the personal trainers “don’t know their shit.”  He was obviously attempting to be friendly, and it was  nice of him to give us some pointers.  We thanked him and went about toning our muscles.  But he started talking, and when he finished, we thanked him again for his help.  Then he started talking again, and we thanked him again.  Then, while I was on some machine that works out your back muscles, he came over and started talking about the machine, and he then he touched  and rubbed a spot right in the middle of my back while explaining that if you squeeze right there when you’re bringing your arms back that you’ll really feel it.

Now, I could really care less about this guy being a chatterbox despite how many times the conversation sooo obviously was at an end… but… isn’t there some sort of gym etiquette against touching a stranger who’s not in any sort of danger of getting hurt if you’re not that person’s personal trainer and by whom you’ve so obviously already been dismissed?  Did that make sense at all?  I don’t know, it was just weird to me.  It’s not like I reacted like “WTF yO why are you touching me?!?” (No, I was gracious, made sure my discomfort at his level of comfort with me didn’t register on my face and then I thanked him for his help, because well,  he had seemed genuinely friendly and eager to help us out) but the question did cross my mind: How would other people react to being touched and slightly rubbed, even slightly, but on purpose (obviously) by a total and complete stranger?  Anyway, he started talking again about something or other, and we thanked him again and he went on his way…. finally.

Uhh, and then let’s see… tonight at the gym there was a very loud and belligerent man who was on his cell phone from the time I got there to when I left an hour and 15 minutes later… trust me– I didn’t have my iPod with me so I was forced, along with all the others who didn’t have their mp3 players or headphones for their DS’s, to listen to his angry ramblings to the poor sop on the other end of the line unless I started to daydream or managed to tune him out.  From what I understand, this man had been in a fight with someone at that very gym either earlier today or the day prior, and there’s some woman he pities but at the same time hates, and that he’s having problems with someone who works with him… and I’m pretty sure that’s the same person he had the fight with at the gym. 

What bordered on hilarious to me was that this guy didn’t seem to realize just how loud he was being.  The floor is, of course, open, and instead of maybe stepping outside of the gym to carry on his phone conversation, he moved to a corner of the floor.  That obviously doesn’t do anything to lower the actual decibel level of one’s voice unless he/she purposely does so, and if anything, it almost seemed to make his voice reverberate throughout the room.  It’s amazing really, because considering the large size of the room, with the background music playing, weights clanking together and the whirring all the machines make, along with all laughter, conversations, and the, uh, human noises, his voice was still loud, clear and dominated over all other sounds.  Some people…. 

In other news, I’m happy to say that working out is already doing wonders for me.  I’m not as much of a B-word, I’ve had more energy, and my mood has generally gone from “Bleh I think I’ll stay in the house.” to “Yay! Let’s go for a walk and then let’s sing songs about rainbows and kitties and sunshine!”  Okay, so maybe not soooo chipper, but there’s definitely a decrease in moodiness.  And to think, it only took the National Body Challenge to make me finally get off my butt, stop just talking about working out, and actually get into the gym!  I’ve also started limiting my intake of caca junk foods and sugary drinks and increasing my intake of healthy foods and water.  Yes, my friends, I’m definitely on my way to living a healthier, happier life!  And of course, a healthier, happier, more active me will allow me to set a good example for littleQ to live a healthy, happy, active life 

Oh, you might want to check out the fitness DVD giveaway I’m hosting at MamaDivas.com.  Check it out.. you can enter until midnight EST on January 15, 2008

Technorati Tags: weird people, annoying people, gym etiquette, workout, gym, health club, etiquette, exercise, cell phone etiquette

It’s time for me to really get in shape! (I joined the National Body Challenge)

Being the couch potato that I am, I was recently made aware of the National Body Challenge, a national get-healthy/get-fit program being held by the Discovery Health network, via television commercial.  Wooo!  After signing up, participants are given a whole bunch of shiznit that you wouldn’t think would be handed out for free, but is. 

The main reason I joined is because participants are each given a trial membership to Bally Total Fitness for up to 8 weeks (woo that’s a whole lot of saving right there, and much better than the usual 1 or 2 week gym trials), assuming you activate said membership by Jan. 5, 2008 (tomorrow)  January 15, 2007 (I was just informed of this date extension by a PR rep…. so double check that when you actually sign up at your local Bally’s).  You also get free exercise tips, diet/health-conscious recipes and meal plans, and access to a plethora of health-centric articles, tools, videos, etc. designed to teach you a thing or two as well as  to boost participant morale.  Hell, you can even join in on their “kick off” days being held tomorrow and the day after at malls from coast to coast.

I hate to admit it, but I have been so unmotivated to get into shape and lose all this weight that I put on.  When I gave birth almost two years ago, it didn’t take long for me to lose a lot of the weight I had gained from the pregnancy.  Then when I stopped breastfeeding about a year ago (Hello, retained calories!), I went from about 10 lbs up from my pre-preggers weight (a weight I was not happy with, but could deal with) to about 25 lbs up from my pre-pregnancy weight (a weight I absolutely detest).  Standing at a towering 5 foot 2 inches, an extra 5 pounds (or the loss of such) is easily recognizable, and coming from an outspoken (cough cough) family, it’s been fairly easy to develop a tough skin, what with all the weight I’ve put on and the comments, jibes and jokes I’ve had to put up with. (Ugh)

However… it is not (wholly) vanity that is fueling my desire to get shape, get fit, be able to fit into my favorite jeans and dresses again.  There is a history of diabetes in both my mother’s and biological father’s families, with an extra punch of the risk of heart disease on my mom’s side…. definitely scary.

I’ve always meant to start dieting.  I’ve always meant to eat healthier… Well, it’s a new year… it’s a new beginning (hmm.. in more ways than one).  I’ll probably be heading over to Bally sometime today or tomorrow to activate my membership. 

Technorati Tags: dieting, exercise, national body challenge, discovery health, bally total fitness

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Got any resolutions this time around?

(P.S. - I was not able to log on to my websites, OR my email accounts until today… just fyi… things happen =\ )

Technorati Tags: happy new year, new year’s resolution

Giveaway at MamaDivas.com

If you have a baby or a toddler, make sure to visit my website MamaDivas.com and enter the contest

Book Review & Giveaway - For Babies & Toddlers: The Cleo Series by Caroline Mockford

Technorati Tags: giveaway, contest, baby books, toddler books, free stuff, mommy, blog giveaway, motherhood, baby, toddler

To fry or not to fry (the turkey, that is) –THAT is the question.

As an update to my post from yesterday, I was able to cancel my Netfirms account—- quickly and painlessly — but only after moving my remaining site from their servers, of course. I had already paid for my next billing cycle which was supposed to start on the 17th, so the rep issued me a credit. True to her word, it was right there when I checked my credit card account activity.

I’m grateful for that, at least. Too bad their sales/tech support/customer service reps aren’t nearly as accessible or helpful as their billing reps.

In other news, I’m still sick. I don’t have a fever or anything, but I can hardly talk. My throat is all sore from coughing, and my voice is pretty much gone, and if I’m not whispering, it’s difficult to understand anything I’m saying. Hopefully this clears up by later this week

Oh, I was watching Paula Deen’s Paula’s Home Cooking yesterday evening while littleQ lay curled up next to me on the couch, napping. Everything Paula cooks looks like it tastes like pure, unadulterated comestible heaven. Heaven’s where you’ll end up though if you recreate and eat too many of her recipes because Ms. Deen sure as hell doesn’t create her artery-clogging flavor sensations with Weight Watchers, South Beach or Atkins in mind. Anyway, the episode I watched was a Thanksgiving episode from a few years ago, and she went through how to fry a turkey. I feel fatter (and oily) just thinking about it, but oh my freaking gosh what I would do to eat some fried turkey after watching that episode. My mouth has literally begun to water at the thought of it. I would so cook that this Thanksgiving, but then I’d have to buy one of those big ol’ turkey fryers that must be set up in the backyard. Do I really need a turkey fryer? This is a pretty difficult decision, let me tell you.

Technorati Tags: netfirms, netfirms customer service, still sick, paula deen, food, thanksgiving, turkey

Switched hosts today - because the one I switched FROM is CRAPTASTIC

I forgot to mention that I switched green tea ROCKS over to a different host… because the host it was on (netfirms, cough) totally sucks butt.  At Netfirms, customer service is pretty much NON-EXISTENT, but you’re in luck as long as you’re looking for a SALESPERSON (so you can buy hosting services and not get the advertised 24/7 support when you need it!) and you’re definitely in luck if you’re NOT looking for help from tech support, or any sort of support for that matter!

.. Maybe you’ll be luckier than I was today, but don’t expect even the sales rep to be nice to you.. I mean, I hope the sales rep you get is friendly, but I’m just saying, don’t count on it- the one salesperson I finally got through to via live-chat was super-not-nice-or-helpful, and apparently it’s his job to TYPE LIKE THIS TO CUSTOMERS WHO ARE SIMPLY ASKING WHEN THE DATABASES WILL BE FUNCTIONING NORMALLY AGAIN AND IF HE COULD POSSIBLY LET YOU KNOW BECAUSE NOBODY IS PICKING UP THE PHONES, AND THERE’S NO NOTICE OF SUCH AN OUTAGE ON THE SITE, NOR WAS AN EMAIL SENT OUT REGARDING IT!  Well excuse the shit out of me if I’m just trying to get an answer out of SOMEONE from the company about the issue.  Yes, Yonathon (if that is your real name, seriously), I’m talking to you. 

Jeez I wasn’t even mad, or rude, for that matter, at least not until he yelled at me in the TEXT chat.  I just wanted an answer as to when the database issues would be fixed.  A simple, “I’m sorry, but we really don’t know” would have been better than simply ignoring my question and then proceeding to USE CAPS TO YELL AT ME VIA LIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE CHAT THAT THIS WAS SALES .  Yelling at current customer in the sales chat?  Not the best thing for you to do.  Paying customers like me don’t like to be treated like boils on your bottom, especially because I didn’t start the chat with some rude smart-alecky remark about how much you must hate your life because your company sucks.  Besides, I think I have a right to get a straight and honest reason for WHY the damn databases aren’t working.

I still have one site hosted with this craptastically crappy host Netfirms, but I’ll be moving that one very, very soon.  It experienced the same problems that green tea ROCKS did, but I didn’t move it yet.  It’s fine right now, but this isn’t an issue of just uptime or just databases or just whatever.  This is about the whole package-> and halfway decent customer service is part of that package.  I know I’m just one single blogger in the humongous world wide web, and I’m not asking you to kiss my ass, but you could at least instruct your amazingly rude salespeople to be nice to customers.  Oh, and answer the damn customer service phone lines once in a while.  With all the money you make ripping customers off, Netfirms, you’d think you’d at least be able to keep the customer service lines manned, 24/7, as is stated on your website.  Why is it that the few times I have tried to call, I ended up waiting forever and not talking to anyone at all?

I know you’re not so expensive, and that’s mo-fo-ing great, but you know what?  The other host I use offers cheap plans too, and sometimes I get irritated with disruptions in service, but at least every time I have a problem the customer service reps are NICE to me.  They don’t type in ALL CAPS TO SHOW ME WHAT BIG STRONG MORE-IMPORTANT-THAN-YOU MEN THEY ARE.  Niceness goes a long way.  It really does.  I bet you never heard the saying, “You’ll catch more bees with honey than vinegar.”  Well, either you never heard it, or you must think it doesn’t apply here.

..Well, it serves me right for succumbing to their lure without doing a little bit of research first.  You’d think they’d work hard show you how GREAT it would be to stay with them and pay the regular prices after that deal expires.  The deal actually ended for me months ago, and in retrospect, I guess that’s why I never really  let the little issues bother me before: because it was practically free.  It’s a whole different ball game once you’re paying monthly, and when it’s free or close to it you tend to ignore the fact that you can never get straight answers from anyone in the company, or the fact that the databases will randomly go down, or that your sites will randomly go offline, and then magically reappear.  If they were nice and apologetic about it, and maybe acted like I was at least somewhat valuable as a customer, I would have overlooked those, and well, I wouldn’t be writing this entry.  So if you caught a deal and you were using them practically free, Netfirms is fine, but if you have to pay their regular rates, they’re NOT a good company to work with.

I didn’t check around for feedback before I was pulled in by the $10 for a year sale, and when I did go looking for other customers’ experiences, I felt so stupid for not doing so beforehand; but I didn’t cancel my account, because I decided to simply make the best of the situation.

I’ve had itty bitty problems before, but I did not throw myself a pity party over them.  Do you want to know why?  In addition to the fact that for the first year it was only $10, I also didn’t bother calling in, ever, figuring that these issues (random downtime, databases not connecting, pockets of ultra-slow connection speeds, mod-rewrite in Wordpress NON-existent) would work themselves out.  And whatever, because, it was practically free.  Not calling in is probably part of the reason why I stayed with this host that I do not recommend (cough netfirms) for so long, because if I had actually gotten through to a customer service rep every time I tried to call, I probably would have been treated incredibly shabbily at least 50% of the time, and I probably would have canceled my practically gratis account anyway.

Netfirms is not the biggest hellhole of a company that you can deal with, but they definitely need to improve their customer service, and pronto, or else it won’t just be my piddly little account they’ll be losing.  I’m not saying that the customer always has to be right, but you should at least treat them with a little bit of respect when they call in regarding the quality of the product they are currently paying for… all those horrible testimonials aren’t exactly helping to increase my confidence in this company, either.

Moral of the story?  Do your homework before buying hosting.  Oh, and if you plan on using Wordpress on your host, make sure you can use clean urls on that host (if you want those, and who doesn’t!  They’re search engine friendly!), because you sure as hell can’t do that on Netfirms unless you mess with the .htaccess file and you add /index.php/ into the permalink structure, which really is not a big deal, but I know that many bloggers out there don’t even know what an .htaccess file is, let alone what would go in it. 

Netfirms gets a big thumbs down from me and, apparently, a lot of other people (check out the links I added above to read everything from tiny complaints to complete HORROR stories about them.. and it’s all pretty much related to horrible customer service). 

If not for their inability to provide even a semblance of quality customer service, then I wouldn’t have switched.  Seriously, sometimes it’s as simple as being nice and at least pretending like you want to help a (paying) customer who wasn’t being rude or argumentative in the first place.

Maybe Yonathon the rude sales rep was on the rag, or maybe he got kicked in the balls earlier in the day, I don’t know, but as I told him/her at the end of the conversation when he/she got rude, right before I Xed out the window: “You shouldn’t get a blogger angry,”   (yeah, I know, SUPER FREAKING corny) because what happens is, that blogger will post all about how much Netfirms sucks, using such keywords as SUCKS and BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE and CRAPTASTIC, and that post is just bound to show up in someone’s search for feedback about Netfirms, and you know what?  This post just may make that person think twice before buying anything from your company, just to save himself from the potential aggravation of dealing with you and the headaches that go with it.

Here’s a list of the sites I linked to from this post that show feedback regarding Netfirms:

• http://www.flashdev.ca/article/netfirms-sucks/
• http://www.sandyofftopic.com/category/netfirms/
• http://www.vistainter.com/reviews/N/netfirms.com/
• http://www.oshawapilot.ca/?s=netfirms
• http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/270/RipOff0270323.htm
• http://drupal.org/node/131507
• http://www.free-webhosts.com/reviews/NetFirms.php

Technorati Tags: hosting, webhost, web host, netfirms, sucks, netfirms sucks, crappy customer service, CRAPTASTIC, worst customer service, bad web hosting, horrible

OMFG lost NaBloPoMo.. ALREADY!

I’m actually quite upset about this, because I’m still feeling crappy, congested and sick. (But littleQ isn’t sick, so that’s good!) But that’s no excuse! I’ve failed NaBloPoMo! … and only by like half an hour!

Woe is me…..

Now I’ve just got to make sure I get my novel to 50,000 words by the 30th, or else I’ll really feel like a failure

Technorati Tags: nanowrimo, nablopomo, feeling sick

Cleaning is fun! Well, sometimes. And only with nifty super cool products.

Three years ago, I still lived in my parents’ home.  I wasn’t the sloppiest teenager around, but I sure wouldn’t have won the award for having the neatest, cleanest room, either.  It wasn’t until I had moved out and was forced to clean my own space, without my mother trailing behind me every day to pick up the slack every time I didn’t clean  my room, wash my own clothes, wash the dishes, etc., that I learned to appreciate the fine art of cleaning one’s home and the satisfaction that doing so brings.

Now, I can’t possibly live without my Swiffer mop and that toilet wand thing from Clorox, because I sure do hate a dirty toilet.  Seriously, who likes looking at gunky buildup and various stains?  Ewww… and don’t try to tell me that your toilet, if left unchecked, won’t get like that. 

Okay, okay, well my point is, I absolutely hated to clean before I became all domesticated by all these wifely and motherly duties.  It still isn’t my most favorite thing to do, but in our world today, there are so many innovative products that help people streamline and expedite their housekeeping duties, that it just borders on silly to not get in the cleaning mood once in a while.  Not only that, but products like the Swiffer mop I love so much and the toilet wand thingey also help to keep a home more sanitary and germ free.  I’m far from a germaphobe, but I definitely appreciate Purell in all it’s waterless sanitizing goodness and glory.

Sometimes to get the job done right, we do just have to get down on our hands and knees and scrub with a little bit of elbow grease added in for good measure, but for everyday home-upkeep related tasks like mopping, dusting and cleaning the bathroom, I think it’s so worth it to use the new products that are designed to just make tasks easier.  Oh man, and if got a Roomba for Christmas, that would just make me soooooo super happy. [ Gasp ]  Did I really just say that I want a VACUUM for Christmas!?!??!

(P.S. - I’ve witnessed the Mr. Clean magic eraser just do WONDERS on EVERYTHING, so if you haven’t tried it, let me tell you, the commercials do not lie!)

What cleaning products are you just lost without?  …Well, that question’s obviously assuming you do clean that is

[This post is part of this week's Carnival of Red Hot Bloggers, hosted by Kristi]

Technorati Tags: cleaning, housecleaning, housekeeping, Red Hot Bloggers, blog carnival

Woohoo for (almost) FREE books!

::: Update: I’d like to give a special shoutout to Stephanie!  PaperBackSwap really kicks butt, and I want to thank you for joining  under me :::

I actually blogged about PaperBackSwap.com on Tips from the Money Goddess, but I just wanted to share with everyone that I am so happy to have joined! Today in the mail, the first two books I ordered from another member arrived, and though they’re used, they were still pretty much in crispy, fresh condition. I’m ecstatic!

If I had bought these books (The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult & Summer Lovin’ by Carly Phillips) at Borders or B&N, it would have cost me like $30, maybe a little bit less, but it only cost me the shipping cost of sending two books of my own (about $4).. and actually, since you get 2 credits right off the bat for listing 10 books that you are willing to swap, these 2 books technically cost me nothing at all. Woohoo! Wait, let me back up a bit and clarify…. You need 1 credit for every 1 book that you want to order. You also get 1 credit for every 1 book that you swap successfully.

They also have a referral program that gives you CREDITS and PBS Money <– (”This money is used to pay for the optional Delivery Confirmation and Custom DC features. PBS money can also be used for preprinted postage.”) KICK BUTT!

If you don’t know what PaperBackSwap is, or if you didn’t really follow what I wrote up there, just read the post I wrote about them… then it’ll all be clear, lol.

If you sign up under me, leave me a comment on this post, or contact me to let me know so I can give you and your blog a big ol’ shout out

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