Today I decided to try my hand at baking some banana bread. We had three over-ripe bananas that no one wanted to eat. They were pretty black! Well, I hate to throw away food, so I looked up a banana bread recipe and decided to give it a try. Most of the recipes I found only called for two bananas, but after some digging I found one that called for three. It was a lot easier to make than I thought it would be! It sure smelled heavenly baking in the oven! It was hard to believe I had to let it bake for a whole hour!
Well, it was worth the wait – it came out perfect. I let it cool for a few minutes and then sliced off a hunk, slathered on some butter (yes, real butter) and gave it a try! A big thumbs up, but I think I would have enjoyed it better if I had thrown in some nuts!
Now I’ve heard that there are some new chat line services that are set up so that people can call in and talk for free with other people. From what I understand the service is going to be a local one down the road, so people will be able to call the Dallas chat line or the Houston chat, or even the New York chat line and be able to make new friends in different areas of the country. I think that would be rather fun to do, don’t you?
My aunt Jillie likes to talk about how different things were when she was younger. She talks about how she used to have to walk to school 1 1/2 miles (one way) every day. Nowadays even the kids that live two blocks away ride the bus! The school systems think that the children are safer if they don’t walk. What a sad commentary that children aren’t safe even walking a couple of blocks to school anymore!
Jillie was telling me about how one day she and her sister found out about a phone chat line where people could call in anonymously and chat with other people. She said that they actually met up with a few people a couple of times, but that most of the times that they arranged a meeting place no one else showed up. That must have been disheartening!
My brother wants to buy some Tickets to the 2010 NFR Rodeo and take the whole family to the Rodeo. I can remember going to some local rodeos in our youth, but I haven’t been to one in many years. My brother, on the other hand, enjoys going to as many rodeos as he can. I think that if he had been able to learn to ride and rope he would have been a cowboy too!
I never really even realized that there were National Rodeo competitions! I don’t know why, I just never really thought about it very much I guess! I told my brother that if he was willing to pay for the tickets, the travel, and the hotel room then I’d be glad to go! But I did offer to split the cost of my parents tickets with him. I think that would be a pretty good present for the two of them.
In the meantime, I guess I’ll try to find some sports channels on television that have rodeos to watch. Before we go that far to something that big I’d like to learn a little bit more about the sport. I don’t think I’d enjoy watching the bull riding; watching someone get gored would really scare me to pieces!
I was at work the other day when a man came in and said that there had been a terrorist attack in Texas. An small plane had crashed into an IRS building somewhere in Texas! My immediate thought was that was no terrorist attack; it was a disgruntled taxpayer! Later on I heard on the news that it was, in fact, a disgruntled man who had been at war with the IRS for thirty years! The man had set his house on fire first! I heard that his wife & son escaped (good grief, he wanted to kill his own family?) before setting off to crash his plane. I have to say that I’m glad it wasn’t a terrorist attack, but I’m sorry that the guy went so crazy that he went to such drastic actions of violence!
There are so many new challenges about life in this new age of the information super-highway. Anyone who is thinking about how they are going to make a living is going to have to consider whether they are better off working for themselves, or for someone else. There are pros and cons to each. Running your own business did not used to be as complicated as it is now. You would buy some equipment, hire some guys, put an ad in a trade magazine or local newspaper and hang up your shingle.
Now in addition to that you have to consider whether to, or how to, use the Internet for its best advantage. Are you better off just using it for simple things like banking and emails, or are you better off buying a domain, buying business hosting, and putting up a big interactive website? And if you DO decide to put up your own website, how much marketing do you want to put into it so that people can find your site? Do you simply want to add to your printed media that you have a website, or do you want to pay some SEO companies to help you to be easily found through the major search engines? There are a lot more decisions to be made out there in this information era!
I really like Ellen’s show. I really laughed when I found this clip on her website. It purportedly shows sexual tension between Simon and Ellen. I think this was a clever editing job using two other people as stand-ins, don’t you? Regardless, it’s good for a laugh!
My cousin has recently moved to Somers CT and is looking for ways to lower his living expenses there. I’ve always been under the impression that Connecticut is not a cheap place to live! I think that they have a fairly high tax ratio, and if I recall correctly I’ve heard that they have the highest sales tax in the country! So I can understand his concern for lowering his expenses in other areas!
So I’ve been going through various search engines, using search keywords like Homeowners Insurance Somers, CT, or Life Insurance Somers, CT and Life Insurance Tolland, CT to see who the insurance agents are in the area he has moved into. I think with a little bit of research he should be able to find a good agent to help him get the insurance he needs without breaking his budget!
I have been a fan of the rock group The Who for a very long time. So I was excited to hear that they were going to be the half-time show for the Super Bowl. I have to say, though, that I was very disappointed with their performance. Their voices just weren’t as good as they used to be. The music was still great, but it was very sad to be listening to the vocals. I don’t know if they’ve just “lost it” permanently or if they were just having an “off” day. Regardless, I was disappointed, and everyone I’ve spoken to about it agrees that their performance wasn’t very good.
I think that the new Real Estate Tax Benefit should certainly light a fire underneath my friend Todd. Todd has been putting off buying a new house for the past several years; he has been thinking that the values of real estate are still going to fall for a while now. I can understand his concern; the real estate market has become a pretty scary place lately! But I think that if someone is absolutely certain that they are going to stay put in one location for several years, then buying a house is a good idea. Especially with the tax benefits involved! Many people need the tax benefit of owning a home; the interest on the mortgage payments is tax deductible. (As far as I’m concerned ALL interest should be tax deductible, even credit card interest, but that is not the case.)
Because this new tax credit has been extended, more people can take advantage of it and buy a new house this spring and still get the tax credit. From what I understand the income limits have been increased as well, so more home buyers can take advantage of it. And this tax credit is not only for first-time home buyers! It can benefit other home buyers who are moving up from homes that they’ve lived in for at least the last five years. This benefit can truly help a lot of people, and not just a select few.
My mother and I decided to go to the newest local women’s consignment shop in town yesterday. What a great time we had! We bought several nice dresses that still had the original tags on them for less than 1/2 the original price! And my mother was thrilled because she also bought a couple of nice suits for my father. After our shopping spree (which was really a cheap shopping spree) we went to lunch at a nice little tea house that is decorated with lots of lacy and flowers – a very girly girl restaurant. We had a great time, and I hope we do it again soon! Consignment stores are great!
Did you know that you can go to blogtelevision.net and find all the DIRECT TV Offers and DIRECT TV Specials that are available in your city and state. I have been tossing around the idea of switching to Direct TV, I have a few friends that have Direct TV and have good things to say about them, their programming packages and their customer service. Word of mouth is still the best advertising as far as I’m concerned, so I decided to do some checking online when I stumbled onto blogtelevision.net.
Right now one of the DIRECTV Specials is getting $100 cash back, now that is a nice chunk of change! And you can get over 150 all digital channels for about $1 a day. Direct TV has over 130 of the best HD Channels, HD is the way to go these days. So if you are interested in any of the DIRECTTV Specials you can go to blogtelevision.net or call 888-409-4351 and see what Direct TV can offer you in your home town. Now is a good time to start checking your options with the different cable and satellite providers, there are deals to be found and going online makes the task of researching things like this so much easier, it’s all good!
This last snow storm was nothing compared to the one that is on it’s way. And to top it all off with, they are talking about another storm on the horizon for the up and coming week end. This has been one heck of a winter. We haven’t had a decent weather weekend since before Thanksgiving. I can’t wait for Spring……..