AA Blog

Its time to buy my mom a new car.  She has been driving her current car for almost 20 years now, and it is really starting to fall apart on her.  The monthly bills from the mechanic is almost as much as a payments for a new car would be.  So, next week I will take her to shop for cars and buy her a new one.

Thus far I plan to test drive the volkswagen routan, suzuki xl7 and dodge caliber.  All of these cars are pretty much in the same price range and reliable.  My mom does a lot of city driving in stop and go traffic.  She does the food shopping and drives my kids around in the summertime.  So, the SUV / station wagon  type vehicles are very convenient and as an added bonus offer better safety and are much roomier.

I will be taking the kids with us when we go car shopping because they love getting in and out of the cars.  They have fun jumping around on the seats and testing out where they will be sitting.  Things like getting in and out of the car, putting on the seat belt, rolling down the window, child safety features, the view of the road from their seat and their comfort in the chairs are usually strong indicators in my ultimate purchasing decision.  They end up weighing heavily on my decision.   The only drawback in taking the kids is that they are now getting to an age where they are starting to like the sports cars more than the “family” type cars.  My youngest though has a thing for convertibles, and I know when we go into the VW dealer, the VW new beetle convertible will be the car he suggests we buy.

Construction on the house has completed.  Everything is done with the exception of, get this, the mailbox.  The owners of the house are asking for unique mailboxes and have suggested we look at victorian mailboxes to see if we can find them anything they like.  I have never had a project where mailboxes etc were such an important issue.  But, I suppose, after spending so much money on building a house the details become very important in turning that house into a home.  From what the owner told me, the mailbox is the first thing that is in view of any house as you drive up to it.  As such the mailbox IS what will give the first impression to someone.  This is why it is so important to him.

In any case, we looked around for a mailbox that he would like but were hard pressed to find anything that was to his liking.  This is when we decided to custom build a mailbox.  We looked around everywhere for mailbox parts and found alot to work with.  We disregarded no detail, and we were able to build a mailbox that was really something that made a statement.   Attention was given to every bit of detail, right down to the flags for mailboxes.  I guess in the end, details do really make the difference.

Now that the kids are no longer babies, we need to get them new bedroom furniture that will hopefully last them for the next ten to fifteen years.  We need beds, dressers and desks.  This furniture will need to last them thru thier grade school years all the way till they finish high school so they need to be sturdy and, in a sense, ageless so that both a 5th grader and a high school senior can both use it.  And we would like to have them as contemporary bedrooms.

I think the best bet is to purchase bedroom furniture that is made of real wood as opposed to the compressed wood.  I believe this is the case for all furniture and even though the latter may be less expensive, I feel the extra money paid for the higher quality furniture will be well worth it in the long run.

My best friend from college moved to Australia after graduation and went to work for an insurance company out there.  From what he has been telling me, it seems that insurance is the same the world over.  The concepts are identical and the coverages are too.  The only difference seems to be the names.

In Australia, life insurance is referred to as aussie life plan and accident insurance is referred to as accident cover.  Just like in the States, premiums are paid, coverages are pre-defined and all types of insurance coverage plans are made available, even funeral cover.

Insurance has become part of everyday life in all corners of the civilized world.  Although insurance premiums are something that most people don’t like paying, the comfort of knowing that you are “covered” often makes it worth every penny.

This summer, we will be visiting my brother again on the east coast.  He has taken some time off as well and we were thinking about where to go with our families. One of his co workers had suggested Boothbay Harbor, and after doing some research, we will probabbly head there after July.

The destination seems like it will be the ideal place for us and our families to have some great rest and relaxation. Boothbay Harbor Maine has great amenities and activities that will keep us rested and our kids entertained.  Just the fact that we will be on the ocean front means that we can do all kinds of fun things like fishing, jet skiing, swimming and boating.  Or, just simply relax and enjoy the ocean views.  From what I was told, Boothbay Harbor Dining is a hidden secret.  The lobster is supposed to be amazing and the talk of the town.

I can’t wait to get there are take it all in.  Please be sure to check back so I can tell you how it went.

I have gone to a lot of shows, sporting events, concerts in my life.  And without fail, the most organized and safest ones have always been the ones with the best crowd control methods.  The crowd control methods do not have to be abrasive, and I am not talking about the big bouncers or security guards that always seem to have a chip on their shoulders.  Simple things like stanchions (better known as velvet rope) is often good enough and effective enough for most people and crowds.

Crowd control is absolutely necessary for any gathering, not so much to intimidate, but more to guide the attendees in a civilized manner to enjoy the event they are attending.  Now a days, the barricades for crowd control are effective and more importantly, non-intrusive.  They often blend in well with the decor of the event and more importantly provide a semblance of order where there may be crowds.

I prefer referring to crowd control as crowd guidance, because the most effective way to control a crowd is to really guide them to where they need to be while making sure they are not being made to feel like cattle.  These simple but extremly effective crowd guidance products will help in doing just that.

Ever since I started playing the piano, I have spent god knows how much money buying sheet music…..but now, I am here to tell you that I will no longer be paying for this!!!!  I have found a place where I can get Free Sheet Music.  Thats right, I said Free Sheet Music.

All I do is look for the music I want and simply download the free sheet music file and thats it.  The best part of this however, is the fact that along with the sheet music, I can download the actual audio file of the same music.  Not only, do I get the sheet music, but also the music file.  So, I can listen to the music as well as follow along by reading it to.

There are so many genres to chose from and so much variety, that any type of music you can think of, you can probably download its sheet music.  No more going to the music store and being forced to talk to some kid and having to explain things he just doesnt understand.

I have bookmarked the site and have (and will) visit it often. As often as I need to get the sheet music that I want. ANd, by the way, the site is updated often so new material is always added!!!

Now that we have remodeled some of our rooms, we needed to upgrade the electronics. The first thing was a new TV. I found an online retailer of HDTVs and related products.

They offered a great selection of brand names like Sharp, Samsung, Toshiba, Denon, Marantz, JVC and Hitachi and they are also authorized dealers of these same brands. The products they offer are factory refurbished, factory closeouts and overstocks, end-of-life, open box and lots more. The savings I was able to get was substantial. With the price of electronics going down every year this was definitely the smart move. They are most likely the lowest cost provider of it on the Internet.

And if that wasn’t enough, they run a daily promotion they refer to as “Great Deal of the Day“.  Every day at 7:00 am CST, a new item is put on special for even greater savings.  As a user, you can sign up for this feature and be reminded via email or RSS .

I got a GREAT HDTV for a GREAT PRICE!!!

The other day, I had a client who wanted to add Online Surveys to his website. This had to be quick as he needed this to be up and running that night. After looking for some quick solutions, I came across Easy-poll.com!!!

This had to be the easiest thing I have ever done!!! Once I set up the poll on their site, I simply copied and pasted the code into the html of the page I wanted it to appear on and BAM!!! there it was…really that fast and easy. I was a bit skeptical at first, but the features provided and the ease of use to add a poll to the site was really amazing.

I was able to get this Poll feature up and running within literally a few minutes. All of the components are hosted on easy-poll.com’s website, so I didn’t even need to set up a DB. The poll results were accurate and more importantly the poll was (and still is) stable!!! I had control of everything I wanted the poll to be. Adding online surveys has now become a service that I will offer when developing sites for other clients.