Australian Open Final

Congratulations to Roger on his fantastic Australian Open win and his 16th Major. I awoke this morning in time to see the trophy presentation, but I plan to watch the match this afternoon on replay from espn360.

Now we have to wait until May for the next Major, the French Open.

Photo courtesy of Tennis.com

Steps and Calorie Challenge

I'm inspired now to lose these holiday pounds and get back into a little better shape. I need motivations and rewards, so I decided to create a spreadsheet so I could track my calories and steps vs. weight loss. If I get to my goal, I'm going to reward myself (I still have to decide what that will be, but I'll let you know).

I used to be part of an online walk club and we'd have wonderful challenges that would inspire me to walk, so now I'll create my own. I still use SparkPeople multiple times per day to track my foods, and I'm using an Omron pedometer to track my steps.

Creative Home Arts Club

So far I'm really pleased with the benefits of joining the Creative Home Arts Club. I really enjoy the projects in the magazine itself.

Plus, I just got my 2nd $10 members rebate. In every issue (published every 2 months), there's an offer for a rebate on specific crafting supplies. The last time, it was beading supplies. This time, it was paper crafting supplies.

Also, a VIP discount to JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts is available for members. This has pretty much saved me my annual subscription alone.

I'm not in any way affiliated with CHAC or JoAnn's. I just like shopping there.

Farmville (Part 2)

I think it would be incredibly fun to work for a company like Zynga who gets to make Farmville and dream up all the new features.

I got the biggest kick out of opening all my "presents" on Christmas Eve (especially being a grown up, we don't get that many real presents, so the virtual ones were fun). Now you can send mystery gifts to your friends which is exciting, too.

And I know it's goofy, but I really enjoy harvesting the trees. In real life, I did join the Arbor Day Foundation, so we'll be getting real trees to plant in the springtime.

I'm not in any way affiliated with Zynga, Facebook, or the Arbor Day Foundation

Australian Open 2010

YAY - the Australian Open has started.  As you probably remember, tennis is one of my favorite sports.  So during a major, we get to see tennis everyday. (I keep asking my cable provide to get the Tennis Channel, so I have to keep visualizing that it will happen !!)

As you also probably remember, I'm a very big Roger Federer fan.  I hope he continues to excel this year and to prove why he's the greatest tennis player ever.

Blog Birthday

I just realized that this blog's 1 year birthday was a few days ago  This has been such fun for me - getting to share some of my personal interests and hobbies,  likes and dislikes.

 I know that after a year, I might start to repeat myself a little, but I'll try hard to make sure I don't.

And thanks so much for stopping by and (as always) for sharing comments.

Hardwood Floor Cleaners

In case you haven't been able to tell, we have hardwood floors on most of our first floor. I've really struggled with the best way to clean them, since most of the products I've tried leave streaks.

So far, the best I've found is the Orange Glo floor cleaner (that says Bona Kemi on it, so I'm assuming it's the same as Bona Kemi) with the microfiber cloths which are supposed to be best for hardwood floors.

I've also used the steam mop. This seems to work about the same as the Orange Glo/Bona Kemi.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate them.

I'm not in any way affiliated with Orange Glo or Bona Kemi

Customer Service

I've had 2 recent customer service returns experiences that were very different and wanted to share.

I'd bought some scented oil and an oil warmer from Yankee Candle during their recent sale. I tried it, and decided I'd take back the unopened oil since I much prefer the candles. The cashiers were so warm and wonderful and made me feel like an extremely valued customer. They told me to even bring back the opened oil and they would exchange it as well. I walked out of the store feeling super special.

Then I tried my Oreck steam mop that I'd bought and wanted to return it. However I'd passed my 30 day trial period due to holiday travel and bad weather. They told me that there was no way I could get a refund. I called the Oreck company and they said they could take it back with a 20% restocking fee and I'd pay shipping, so it would cost me $50 to return it, and I decided to keep it.

It was just interesting to see the differences in customer service and generating customer loyalty and satisfaction. Any one else have any experiences to share?

I'm not in any way affiliated with Yankee Candle or Oreck

Edward Sklepowich

I just finished the first book in the series "Death in a Serene City" featuring Urbino Macintyre. The books are set in Venice and Urbino is an American who has chosen to live there.

So far, I think there are 9 books in the series, and I enjoyed the first one. It was weird, though, 'cos I kept expecting Urbino to run into Guido Brunetti (of the Donna Leon series).

I'm not sure if our libraries have all 9 books, so it may take me awhile to find them all. I had to order the 1st and 3rd through Paperback Swap. (Yes, this is my referral link).

Tracfone

I just renewed my Tracfone for another year and added 2000 minutes to my daughter's phone. I'm a really happy Tracfone user for about 7 or 8 years, and I think their service just keeps getting better.

The Tracfone people keep lowering the cost of minutes which make it so economical to use. My daughter is a text-oholic, but it's still much less expensive than the unlimited text messaging plans from other wireless services (we did all the comparisons to check).

I'm not in any way affiliated with Tracfone, just a happy, satisfied customer

Rug Frame

After being inspired by a lap quilting frame that I saw at JoAnn Fabrics, my husband made a small rug frame from PVC pipe. This would be used for my 36" x 60" rug that I'm "clipping" using fabric strips.

This is a great size that fits over my lap and lifts the rug so I can get my hand underneath it to pull the fabric strips through. The total cost was $3.00 for the pipe and fittings (not counting the pipe cutters which were less than $10).

First Snow Day

First of all, Happy New Year 2010 to everyone !! We have our first snow day of the year so my kids are home from school today. We're supposed to have snow showers for the next few days, so we'll see how much accumulation we get.

I have so much "work" to do after the holiday travels are over:
- start dis-assembling my holiday decorations (mainly the outside lights since I leave my inside decorations up for a few more weeks).
- get my poor blogs updated since I've neglected them over the holidays (sorry)
- upload all my holiday pictures to Facebook so I can share them with my family
- lose the pounds from the holiday goodies (mainly that scrumptious chocolate fondue on New Year's Eve)
- and more as I think of them !!