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Now that the writer’s guild strike has completely alleviated anything good to watch on network television, I find myself venturing up into the higher cable channels more often when looking for something to watch for a few minutes. I have been watching some of the real estate flippingshows on Home and Garden TV and wonder how old some of the episodes may actually be. With the real estate market in its current crisis state, less people are buying houses and condos with the simple intension of fixing them up for a quick resale profit. I see more people investing in commercial real estate, honestly. The shows are still fun to watch. The people flipping the houses go over budget more often than not and it’s cool to see how they compensate and still make the houses look great.

We were just at Busch Gardens in Tampa Monday for New Year’s Eve. Also, it was the last day to use our Fun Pass and we were trying to make the most of things. Somehow, we completely overlooked the fact that a new baby zebra was born at the park on December 27. But then, we did not take the Serengeti Express Train to see the animals this time. We try and vary our park experiences each time we go.

The baby is a male Grevy’s zebra and he lives on the park’s Serengeti Plain. The Grevy’s zebra is distinguished by its large ears and more numerous and narrower black stripes.

Busch Gardens Africa is located in Tampa. Since it’s so close, we buy the seasonal Fun Pass and use it as many times in the course of the year as possible. Florida residents can buy a full-priced one-day ticket any time throughout the year and then continue to use the same ticket for the remainder of the calendar year. It makes me miss Busch Gardens Europe in Williamsburg, VA. We went there a LOT when I was a kid.

No news yet on the new zebra’s name.

With Big Al and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change taking home the Nobel Prize this year, there is more talk than ever about green solutions, carbon footprints, and having a green IQ. So, what is your green IQ?

You can take the GreenIQ.com Quiz and see how green you are. The quiz factors in your carbon impact as well as your environmental impact and runs it through some scientifically calculated tools to give you a look at your part in the ever-churning world. You put in information about your transportation, home and general lifestyle.

After you calculate your Green IQ, you can use the free site to find tips on how to incorporate good habits into your lifestyle that will actually make a positive impact on the world around you. The tips are organized room by room. I’m looking at the bathroom Tips right now. Did you know that by making your daily shower shorter by just two minutes, you save 5 gallons of water? Think about five gallon jugs lined up side-by-side. That’s a good bit of water.

No matter what you r politics are, living your life in ways that save natural resources should be an important part of your life. We all share this earth, no matter what our creed.

I always wanted to home school. When my daughter was born, I had high hopes for the life ahead of us. I lived across the street from a pediatrician and his wife and they had five kids. The three youngest were home schooled and they all loved it. There was also a private school in Gainesville that was started by home schooling moms where the kids attend three days a week and you essentially home school the other two days. We had several friends with children in the school. It was a wonderful blend and something I was looking at quite seriously.

Then, we moved. I still thought I would home school. But then, another shift in plans occurred when my ex left us and I became a single mom. I went back to school to get certified to teach, but I knew that actually being home with my daughter permanently was a dead end dream, so to speak. I’m home with her this year, but I need to start looking for teaching positions soon.

Anyway, while Gigi is home for two weeks this holiday season, I am doing my best to help keep her mind sharp. She was with her dad last week, but this week we have made reading and math lessons a daily part of our time together. We are both having a lot of fun with the workbooks I found and one of our favorite games has been where she dictates a letter to me and I walk her through how to spell each work. It is time consuming, but it is also such amazing time with my daughter. Her teacher told me last month that Gigi needed to work on figuring out the difference between “E” and “F”. I would say that after this week, she has that mastered.

This is just a small taste of what it might be like if I could home school her for real. I LOVE sharing the little learning victories with her and mourn the fact that we cannot do this on a regular basis. But then, I will be one of those moms who honestly enjoys helping my kid with her homework.

Pay once and get web hosting and a domain name forever? 
It sounds almost too good to be true. Well, it is true, but it’s also only available for a limited number of new web hosting accounts. THC is offering their Rudolph hosting plan to the first 1000 plans sold for a one-time fee of $95. That gets you both the hosting plan and the domain for life. You don’t have to pay ever again – no hidden costs or subsequent fees.

The hosting plan is just as powerful, if not more so, as anything else you’ve probably been looking at lately. You get 250 GB disk space, 3000 GB bandwidth, unlimited MySQL databases, PHP4, web mail, professional website design tools and that free domain for life that I already mentioned. It’s ready to go out-of-the-box, so to speak.

Check it out. As I mentioned, this deal is only good for the first 1000 plans they sell. My current hosting plan is good, but I have to pay each year to renew my domain name and my hosting. I’ll spend considerably over $95 in the first two years with my current plan. If you are budget minded or have been getting cold feet about starting up your own domain, this is a great time to take a plunge, at minimal risk.

I like Netflix and the DVD direct mail service they offer. When I got a divorce, though, I saw it as a luxury expense and I cancelled my account. My daughter and I got to the local library once a week and between the two of us we check out three movies. That tides us over. I do miss seeing the more obscure titles I was able to find at Netflix though.

Netflix might get me back as a customer, though, with their next venture. Later this year, they plan on delivering movies and other programs directly to your TV, via a special set-top box that will use a high-speed internet connection. The box is the progression of their current online streaming service.

You’d have to buy the box, I assume, and then choose the movies you want to watch while logged onto the Netflix site. At that point, the service would send your choices to your television.

This new offering is a response to the competition Netflix is now seeing from other services that offer mail order rentals and streaming content. Apple and Disney are said to be developing content delivery programs.