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I’ve been enjoying my Peanuts Boxed Set
Keep an eye on Christine’s site. Everyone had so much fun with her One For Me, One For You contest that she says she is going to do it again. Who knows what wonderful goodies may be up as prizes, but it sure is worth keeping tabs on her so you can find out.
There are several times throughout the year that American Flags are flown by more people than usual. Two of those holidays are fast approaching: Memorial Day and the 4th of July. Certainly, ours is an extremely patriotic country and you are going to see US Flags being proudly displayed all year round on nearly every street in any given town. It’s just that the visual presence of the Flag increases during particularly patriotic holidays. Our neighborhood has a number of well-lit outdoor flagpoles. It’s an absolutely beautiful sight.
United-states-flag.com provides a massive variety of flags, flagpoles, and other patriotic items. They have a huge inventory. They also take the extra step to make sure you are getting the products that are best for your situation. I particular like their chart explaining the differences in different flag materials in regard to durability, flyabilty and appearance. They also features a wonderful section on US flag history and flag etiquette.
Of course, you don’t have to be just looking for US flags to find what you need here. They have world flags, US city flags, state flags, sports flags, religious flags, and even decorative flags (which are very popular in my neighborhood). They have a small selection of non-flag patriotic decorative items. I’d love to see a bigger selection, since I tend to like to decorate beyond just my flagpole on Independence Day. My house has a verandah and I think pleated fans would look great, but they only have a couple of choices in that area. Nonetheless, if you are looking for a flag, any flag, United-states-flag.com should be your first stop.
As my readers may already know, I Do Follow. Your comments count. I don’t filter, but I do manually approve, so only valid comments will show. I want to reward my regular readers with a special link back to their blogs, so I have added a Plugin that shows the top 10 5 Commentators per month. It’s at the bottom of my sidebar.
Enjoy!
To all of you who voted for me in Christine’s contest: Thank You! I know many of my friends also implored upon their friends to vote, so many people who do not even know me pitched in and that makes me feel wonderful. I have a full set of Charlie Brown books coming my way and I’m excited. Plus, I can see from my stats that I have a number of new readers. I hope Christine is seeing the same thing.
I actually came in a tight second, to Drew, but Christine decided to reward both of us. It’s a generous world out there when you surround yourself with good people.
It is time to shop for the perfect Mother’s Day gift. Is the mother in your life also a Grandma? Check out this t-shirt. Priceless.
EDIT: Wow. Mother’s Day passed without much fanfare in this house, to the extent that I actually forgot it is FATHER’S day coming up, not Mother’s Day. Ah well. I’ll post the Grandpa’s List shirt this week.
You all may remember the little contest over at Over on The Passionate Ailurophile. I’m in it for a boxed set of Peanuts books and I really do want to win. 
It’s just such a cool prize.
You can vote once a day and I’d love it if you’d saunter on over and cast a vote in my favor.
I suppose being tagged by Xilly for this little Technorati experiment came at a good time. I haven’t been using my Favorites List at Technorati and this is a great opportunity to get going on that. Plus, it helps out a whole lot of people. Please forgive me that I have not followed the rules 100%. you are supposed to add five people, but I have not been using my Faves list and swear to reform! This will jumpstart me.
***START COPYING HERE***
Here are the Rules:
1) Write an introductory paragraph about how you came to find this list and include a link to the blog that referred you to the list.
2) COPY the Rules and the ENTIRE list below and post it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords , go ahead and change the title of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blog.
3) Take “My New Faves” and move them into the “The Original Faves” list.
4) Add 5 Blogs that you’ve just added to your Technorati Favorites to the “My New Faves” section. Remember to also add the “Fave Me” link next to your new blogs (i.e. http://technorati.com/faves?sub=addfavbtn&add=http://www.yourfavesdomain.com
5) Add Everyone on this list to your Technorati Favorites List by clicking on “Fave the Site.” Those who want good karma will fave you back. If not, you will for sure get the benefits of faves from the bloggers who continue this list after you.
My New Faves
Skeet’s Stuff ::: Fave the site
Key West of Bust ::: Fave the site
The Secret Life of Shoes ::: Fave the site
The Raw Review ::: Fave the site
The Original Faves
Mummy in Vain ::: Fave the site
Suncoast Scribe ::: Fave the site
Health and Wealth Topic ::: Fave the site
Julian ::: Fave the site
Msau ::: Fave the site
Xilly Blog ::: Fave the site
LovelyMummy ::: Fave the site
Vivivava ::: Fave the site
Snoopy ::: Fave the site
Montessorimum ::: Fave the site
Scribblesformyangels ::: Fave the site
Justmytots ::: Fave the site
demoments ::: Fave the site
beckysmum ::: Fave the site
Joy Montessori ::: Fave the site
Hochiak! ::: Fave the site
Giddy Tigers ::: Fave the site
Oh! For the love of me ::: Fave the site
Pink Elle ::: Fave the site
Paris Beaverbanks ::: Fave the Site
Tigerfish ::: Fave the Site
Wennnn ::: Fave the Site
SiwwyPig ::: Fave the Site
angel ::: Fave the Site
LB ::: Fave the Site
Cool Insider ::: Fave the Site
Simple America ::: Fave the Site
Chen ::: Fave the Site
Captain Picard ::: Fave the Site
East Coast Life ::: Fave the Site
Culture Shiok! ::: Fave the Site
Pond Perspective ::: Fave the Site
Carlo Ocab ::: Fave the Site
Fruity Oaty ::: Fave the Site
Michael McKinlay ::: Fave the Site
Nice4Rice Free Backlinks ::: Fave the Site
Work at Home, Make Money Online ::: Fave the Site
Web 2.0, Tech Reviews ::: Fave the Site
Wireless LAN Security ::: Fave the Site
Bobs [ReformatThis] ::: Fave the Site
Everyday Weekender ::: Fave the Site
Armen’s Blog ::: Fave the Site
Gary Lee ::: Fave the Site
Dosh Dosh ::: Fave the Site
Nate Whitehill ::: Fave the Site
Ms. Danielle ::: Fave the Site
Jeff Kee ::: Fave the Site
Scribble on the Wall ::: Fave the Site
Jimi Morrisons Head ::: Fave the Site
Jon Lee ::: Fave the Site
Samanathon ::: Fave the Site
Eat Drink & Be Merry ::: Fave the Site
The Man of Silver ::: Fave the Site
Hannes Johnson ::: Fave the Site
My Dandelion Patch ::: Fave the Site
Nathan Drach ::: Fave the Site
SiteLogic ::: Fave the Site
Julies Journal ::: Fave the Site
Stephen Fung ::: Fave the Site
Ed Lau ::: Fave the SiteQ
Musings ::: Fave the Site
I have a solid career in publishing and design behind me. When I say behind me, I mean way behind me. I got married and shortly thereafter I had my daughter. From that point forward, I was out of the workforce, save for the cherry freelance jobs I chose to take from time to time. Now I’m divorced and preparing to re-enter the workforce. I’d be a fool to assume that I can breeze right back in with no preparation. Times have changed, baby.
I have found the Career Ramblings blog absolutely priceless in my quest to sharpen my sills and polish my professional persona. In Career Ramblings, John Anthony and Jane May focus on Career Development. Believe me when I say there are a whole lot of gems on this blog.
I have not been to a job interview in about 10 years. Their post on interview questions really made me stop and think about what kind of unique personal information I can offer for the most simple of interview questions. How can I mentally prepare so I don’t get tripped up in front of a prospective employer?
And how about my resume? That little stunner hasn’t been updated in years either. The article on 6 Resume Tips is the best refresher I’e seen in a long time when it comes to resume development. There aren’t massive, bloated paragraphs brimming with useless details. Instead, the tips are concise and easy to apply.
One more comment. Their focus is so tight. I love that in a blog. It’s actually giving me cause to think a little more about the focus here on Suncoast Scribe.
I have a four-year-old, as many of my blog readers may know. It is such a struggle to find appropriate things for her to watch on TV. I’ve had to rule out all channels that show commercials, because they are bombarding my poor kid with all thes things she now thinks she desperately needs to own. Other shows supposedly suited for children in her age group are often too violent or show children who are defiant.
Thank goodness that last Halloween I DVR’d the Peanuts Great Pumpkin special and found out that Gigi loves the Peanuts. I subsequently recorded all the Christmas specials, the Valentines Days one and the Easter one. I have them set so they won’t erase and she watches them over and over.
Not only do we both love to watch the shows together, I can trust the content. That’s a huge plus. Over on The Passionate Ailurophile, Christine is running a nifty little contest. She has picked out three things she wants to buy for herself and is inviting other bloggers to talk about one of the items. There will eventually be voting for the best entry and once a winner is chosen, Christine will buy two copies of the winning item — one for her and one for the winning blogger.
Of course, I chose the The Complete Peanuts 1950-1954 Boxed Set. As my daughter learns how to read I can think of no better words for us to share than those of Charles M. Schulz.
With pirates being all the rage in pop culture right now, paired with the fact that my daughter is still star struck from meeting Captain Jack Sparrow at the Pirates & Princesses party in February, we have quite a pirate obsession around this house. So, I’ve promised my little princess that our next special outing will be to the Pirates Dinner Show in Orlando. They’re located right in the International Drive section of town, so we can go to Orlando early and just enjoy some of the amazing sites and shops there first.
A 46-foot galleon is anchored right in the middle of the theater. Kids are allowed to be an actual part of the show by putting on costumes to row dinghies in a pirate race around the lagoon or by boarding the galleon to rescue a princess. I’m pretty sure this is the part my daughter is most excited about. I tend to not take her to big shows unless she can get up close and touch things. It’s just no fun to have to stay in the audience and passively watch something when you are 4-years-old.
But again I have to stress that it’s never good enough to just buy your tickets at the door. There are too many fantastic deals to be found on Orlando attractions. MapleLeafTickets.com had tickets to the Pirates Dinner Adventure at a discount of more than 35% off, plus they cover all the taxes. Not every ticket seller in the area does that. You’ll often find yourself hit up at the last minute with additional taxes and fees and other discount ticket agents.
Disney’s Magic Kingdom is going to reprise their very amazing Disney’s Pirate & Princess Party. I took my daughter for her 4th birthday back in February and it was a complete blast. Not only did we have access to the park when it was much less crowded than usual, the tickets to the party are about half the price of a regular one-day pass and you can be inside the park for about 8 hours or so. It’s a fantastic deal.
Tickets are now on sale They were originally supposed to go on sale in June, but I’ve heard people are already able to book dates. The dates for the Party are: August 11, 15, 18, 21, 24, 28, 31 & September 3.
Back in 2000, Walt Disney World theme and water parks made changes that allowed smoking only in designated areas. It makes our visits to the parks pretty pleasant, though you still have the oddball few who refuse to comply. Let me just dangle this little tidbit. If smoking bothers you a lot, do not visit the Disney parks the fist Saturday in May. We made that mistake about two years ago. A certain group visits the parks en mass that particular weekend every year and they tend to be particularly snarky about flaunting their non-compliance.
Other than that, it’s a non-smoker’s paradise. Today, Disney announced they are enacting a smoking ban at more than 20 of its hotels and time share resorts beginning June 1. Of course, it is a financially driven decision, since the requests for smoking rooms has dropped dramatically in the past few years while the demand for non-smoking rooms has risen. Either way, it’s great to know that the next time we check into our favorite Disney hotel, a non-smoking room will more than likely actually be available and we won’t have to encounter smoke wafting from the patios and balconies either.
Of course, Florida already has a state-wide ban on smoking in restaurants and most work places. As time moves on, this is becoming more of a general non-smoking state.
Even though we live only about an hour away from Orlando and Kissimmee, we still love to hop on over there and enjoy a lot of the fun, touristy, family-themed attractions in the area. Recently, we took an evening and went to the Medieval Times Dinner Show in Kissimmee. It’s fantastic. And, it’s not just about the dinner show. When you go, make sure you allow yourself a lot of time beforehand to enjoy the museum, village and gardens outside the castle. They even had a guy working chain mail while we were there. Oh, and pretty little geese were roaming the grounds.
Yep, I took this picture when I was there.
Of course, the show itself is a blast. The arena is massive and the action is non-stop. There are jousting contests and knights throwing roses to the ladies in the spectator seats. I even got one 
Beautiful horses, lively games and the food is pretty good too! When you’re in the area, you absolutely have to make time to go to Medieval Times. But plan ahead and don’t just buy your tickets at the gate. There are massive discounts available. Mapleleaftickets.com has discount tickets for Medieval Times, as well as almost every other attraction in the area.
On top of waking up with a cold yesterday, I woke up with a lot of wheezing today. And it’s no wonder. The Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County issued an advisory health statement, saying elevated levels of the pollutant Ozone has caused the air quality index to elevate to a value of 90.
Active children and adults and people with respiratory disease such as asthma should limit prolonged outdoor exertion for the next 24 to 48 hours. That would be me, on both counts. And Gigi.
Air quality index values from 51 to 100 are thought to be “moderate” on a 0-500 point scale. Ozone forms when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants and other sources react chemically in the presence of sunlight. And in the Tampa area, we have no shortage of sunlight! People with respiratory problems are most vulnerable, but even healthy people who are active outdoors can be affected when ozone levels are high.