Thanks to Darwin Barton

It’s nice having a home of our own, finally, after so many years of living with my parents. When we first got married we didn’t have enough money to buy our own house so we decided to live in their basement to help save up money for a while…that was the best decision we ever made. I really was thankful when we went to buy a house and we could get more for our money than I thought we would have been able to get. I’ve been working on things like Reliant Rates for the energy and getting the right paint colors for all the rooms and now that we’re expecting our first baby I’ve been thinking a lot about the nursery, too! I love that there are so many options now that we own this house and we don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to do anything to this place. I love my parents but it’s also really nice being out from underneath their roof for once!

Any of you planning for an up coming Holiday party? If so you’re behind, you better get going and get your Holiday Party Invitations out. You should already have all your invitations mailed, or ready to go. You should already have your party planned out. If not there’s still some time for that, you might even find a few good deals online. For my wife and I we had everything ordered and ready to go months before. Having done everything over time for us really reduced any problems we ran into on the way. And hiring a planning is a good idea as well, worked for us. We however didn’t have to pay for one, a friend took care of it for us. Good luck to all!

Last year I read about a woman from Minn. that she was sharing her downloaded music through a peer to peer network and got caught. Next time she should stick to YouTube, maybe get a youtube video downloader or something like it. But that’s only half the story. She decided to fight it in court, which she lost. Her fine was $222,000, based on 24 songs she violated their copyright’s. But that case was set a side because the judge worded something wrong to the jury. Or she could have appealed the case, not sure. But regardless, she got another trial, which she lost again. But this time the jury awarded the recording companies $80,000 per song, which comes out to $1.92 million. The woman said she doesn’t have that amount of money and they will never see it, and that may be so. But here’s the kicker, the recording companies where willing to close the case with a $3,000 to $5,000 fine from the start of both trials. This hard headed woman clearly broke the law, but wants to fight anyway. She needs to settle with these companies. From what I read their still willing to settle for the $3,000 to $5,000 fine, she better take it.

I came across a site today that is offering a ipod touch sale online. They also sell other related products that you just might want to take a look at. From what I’ve seen their prices seem to be fair. If you have a teenager, or maybe for yourself, you might want to check them out. With the power of the internet you can order today and have your stuff in a few days. Now I never purchased anything from them so research them before you buy from them.

Contribution by Stevie Kirby

My kids are huge into soccer and though I’m not really a fan I can appreciate their love for the sport. It’s definitely really athletic and people seem to love it a lot in other parts of the world so I guess I can see where they’re coming from. I wish I had the ability to get out there and kick the ball with them but I’m pretty uncoordinated and team sports were never really my thing, anyway. I got us a subscription to Direc.tv so we could watch some of the more obscure matchups on the soccer channels and they both seem to be really enjoying that. It’s been fun that the women’s world cup is going on now since they’re out for summer and we can watch some of the games together even when they come on during the week. I love my kids and whatever makes them happy makes me happy so that’s why I’m a big supporter of soccer at their schools and in my very own community!

The Amazing Race has been on for several years now. In TV time, they claim 17 TV seasons at this point. While it is competition show where couples face off against one another for the ultimate cash prize, the series is essentially a travel catalog of the world.

Oftentimes, the program begins in a place like Los Angeles, but over the weeks that the action plays out, the teams crosses the globe, visiting Russia, Australia, India, Vietnam, and just about anyplace you can think of.

Here’s the best part of this ‘travel’ show in my opinion. It’s not just that viewers see the big name sites, but we get exposed to the culture. The road blocks and detours the teams have to take and successfully complete before moving on are an adventurous way to examine unique parts of how the peoples of these nations live.

The downside is that the show is only an hour and squeezing in a country’s culture in sixty minutes is difficult. On occasion, the show will stay in a country for two or even three episodes, but that isn’t often the case.

The Amazing Race brings the world to our homes.

I was poking around online today and came across a pretty interesting story about William Shatner. It seems that he’s pretty upset that one of his co-stars from Star Trek, George Takei did invite him to his wedding. And I didn’t actually see a video posted on Shatner’s website, but I heard there was one, which stated that he wasn’t invited. George Takei was the helmsman Sulu on the TV series Star Trek. George Takei stated that he did invite him, he just didn’t show up. The couple, Takei and Brad Alman stated that Shatner never RSVP. Maybe Shatner thought he was a big enough star and he didn’t have to RSVP. Anyway, if anyone’s looking to get married anytime soon make sure you use your save the date cards.

It is sure to be a game that will have my boys in an uproar. We have 2 rooting for Pittsburgh, 2 rooting for Georgia, and a dad who doesn’t want to be stuck in the middle of their quarry! I’ll keep my personal opinion on this game mum, but I will say that I am excited to see Virginia Tech play. A native Virginia always stays loyal to his college, no matter where he goes in time. Virginia Tech has got one of the best teams out there this year, and it will be a pleasure to see them hold the glory after they win!

I came across a site today that most of you guys would want to consider checking out. On this site they offer some of the best-personalized gifts, like personalized note cards for everyone. And the prices seem to be pretty affordable as well. You may already know this, but if not, kids read much better when things are personalized for them. They just love seeing their name on things and in things. It makes them want to pick it up and read it, like books. Anyway, check the site out, you won’t regret it.

Our company does this every year and it is fun to see what everyone is wearing. We vote for best costume and have a fun time getting together in a relaxed setting.

We usually have a potluck dinner and each of us brings a bag of candy, after our social time we take our candy and go ‘trick or treating’ to the nursing home. The elderly like to see our costumes and they like to get the candy. By the time I get home, I am tired and all I want to do is sit in my comfortable chair and watch my favorite ExpertSatellite TV program. Then it is lights out and to bed for me.