Not even a year ago, I was writing about how Mary Delgado punched her fiancé, Byron Velvick, in Pinellas County, busted open his lip, and made her infamous trip to the local jail. Now, she has been arrested once again, although this time it happened in Texas.
In case you need a pop-culture refresher, Delgado was the winner of the sixth season of The Bachelor and Velvick was said Bachelor.
Delgado was arrested Saturday night for public intoxication, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct at Lorina’s Cantina in Del Rio, Texas. Velvick is apparently still in her life. He is the one who bailed her out of the Val Verde County Correctional Facility.
How is your budget this year? I know mine is stretched a little thin. I want to be able to give meaningful gifts to all of the same people I have given to in the past. I do not want to have to cut my gift list down. So, I am simply seeking more frugal alternatives.
One of Kmart’s big draws this shopping season is the fact that they have over 25,000 gift ideas all for under $25. And, I’m not talking about cheap-o gadgets that break as soon as you remove them from the box or oddball tokens that nobody with half a brain would really want to receive. I’m talking about quality stuff from brands like Craftsman®, Celebrations by Radko™, Martha Stewart Everyday, Disney and many others
I found these adorable Disney character snow globes for $19.99 each. They have Mickey and Minnie; Cinderella, Aurora and Belle; Tinkerbelle; and Pooh with Piglet. My daughter was looking over my shoulder as I was looking at the magnified image of the globes and she promptly walked over and added the princess one to her Christmas list.
My daughter also asked for a Water Baby this year. That is the doll you fill with warm water so that it has the heft and feel of a real baby. Kmart has those for under $25, too. That is great news to my wallet. It took me months to catch up on finances after last Christmas, but I can already see where I can cover my entire list for less this year.
Last summer there was a scramble as teachers who were displaced after school closings in the district looked for new jobs. Many were accommodated by neighboring districts. Many went into lower-paying positions. It was hard times for all.
And now Pinellas County, in the Tampa Bay Area, has announced they are considering more school closing for next school year.
Gulf Beaches Elementary in St. Pete Beach
Kings Highway Elementary in Clearwater
North Ward Elementary in Clearwater
Palm Harbor Elementary in Palm Harbor
Rio Vista Elementary in St. Petersburg
They cite declining enrollment and an even tighter budget as the cause.
Last year, the district considered 10 schools closure, but only three got the axe: Riviera Middle School, South Ward Elementary in Clearwater and Largo Elementary.
Don’t get me wrong. Florida is amazing, and at this time of year it is pretty close to paradise. However, I was born and raised up north and Christmas to me is snow and seeing your breath in the air and bundling up in mittens, hats, and warm coats.
My mom and my sister and I have been talking about getting the families together and leaving Florida for the holidays. A lot of destinations have been bandied about, but one of the most interesting thus far has been Branson, Missouri. My mom and my sister love Branson, but I have never been. I am just about dying to see the new Roy Rogers museum. I have not been to it since they moved it out of its original location in Victorville, California. Plus, Christmas under the watchful eye of the Missouri Ozarks sounds so cozy!
The Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel are both offering holiday themed packages to complement the old-timey feel of Branson during the holiday season – the Thanksgiving Package, It’s a Wonderful Life Package, Santa’s Coming to Town Package and the New Years’ Eve Package. How cool is that? The joy of the season is built right into your stay.
One of the other big attractions for us is the play “The Promise”. Not only is it a theme we all care deeply about, it is also an ideal show for us to see at Christmastime.
Ok, so I just wrote that article about using layaway and how people are using credit cards less than usual this Christmas shopping season. No sooner had I published the article than I found some cool, related stats on a study released today by the National Retail Federation.
They surveyed 8,758 consumers on their proposed holiday shopping habits and among other findings, they found that shoppers who will use credit cards as their primary method of paying for holiday gifts will fall when compared to a similar survey taken in 2007.
Yay for the American consumer public for finally getting it through their collective heads that credit is not the way to go. This has been a long time coming, although most people only finally saw the light this year before the presidential election and during the bank bailouts.
It was not so long ago that most major retailers did away with their Layaway programs. In general, people had stopped using the programs in favor of making their purchases with credit cards.
You don’t have to be a news hound to know that the news on credit cards is that they are harder to get approved for than ever and many people are seeing their spending limits lowered. And, that’s why Layaway is hot once more.
Sears in one national retailer that has brought Layaway back for their customers. What that means for you is that if you see something on sale that you want to buy now, but you cannot afford it and do not want to use a credit cards, you can put the item on Layaway, lock in the price with a down payment and then just make payments each week. You’ll have your items in your hot little hands in time for Christmas.
I rarely, if ever, use my credit card. I prefer to pay in full when I have the money. However, Layaway is a payment method I see as both responsible and advantageous. It meets a need in my life right now, especially with Christmas right around the corner. I have in mind buying one of those coffee makers for my mom that has a timer so she can set it up at night and have a hot cup of coffee waiting for her when she wakes up in the morning. However, I also want to get my sister one of those massive George Forman grills. And, I want to get myself a little something – a KitchenAid mixer (not a token purchase, by the way). The good sales seem to be happening now, but my wallet isn’t ready yet for the purchase. Sears Layaway to the rescue. You cannot go wrong with kitchen applicance in my family!
Did you know that you can already get a 2009 Fun Card for Busch Gardens in Tampa? My daughter and I used to get our sometime at the beginning of any given year and then we would be able to get in to the park for the rest of the year on the same full-priced, one-day admission ticket.
The price for an adult Fun Card is going up 8 percent, to $69.95. The price for children ages 3 to 9 is going up 9 percent, to $59.95. However, you can start using these cards now and keep using them through the last day of 2009.
In January, Busch Gardens will replace the Fun Card with a “Pay for a Day” deal where you can get unlimited park visits without blackout dates for the price of a 2009 single-day admission. No news yet on those prices.
Despite what sounds like it might be a money losing venture for the park, their revenue is actually still very strong. They make their money off of parking, food, and other concessions from your repeat visits.
Now that I am at the high school every day, I am closer to the reality of how thin some of the girls feel they need to be in order to look pretty. Painfully thin, in some cases. I overhear conversations all the time about diet pills, safe foods, starving bouts, and more severe means of weight loss. Generally, the girls talking about those topics are already thin enough, usually very pretty, and it is hard to accept that they cannot look in the mirror and see the same thing.
Of course, body image has been an issue for generation and generations. Perhaps back when I was in high school myself it was just as dire an issue, but I was basically ignorant of just how widespread it was. My immediate friends did not have issues. And, people were not as open about eating disorders then as they are now. As an adult on campus, I overhear more and am, in fact, made privy to many of the discussions. I incite trust in the students, it seems.
I can answer the above question right up front. There is no need to leave Florida in November. In fact, just this evening as I was driving home from dinner out, I thought to myself that I wish it could be November and December in Florifa all year around. It’s positively blissful here.
I admit the water is not always warm enough to swim this time of year, but the air is cool and breezy, without humidity, and always blowing under a bright blue sky. Flowers bloom. The citrus ripens. Birds visit us from up north, as do our Snowbird friends.
Fall and winter are why most of us endure the summer down here. I’ve got my window open right now and a crisp breeze is wafting in smelling of oranges. It’s not so cool that I need a sweater, but I do feel invigorated by the temperature change.
I’ve got plenty of time to get out of Florida during the summer. That is when I will plan trip to las vegas (where I know it will be hot, but I will remain indoors), to Washington DC to see family, and eventually to Europe with my daughter to poke around in some of our ancestral towns. Those places can wait, though, because Florida is Heaven on earth right now.
You love to shop. You know you do! Now you can win up to $15,000 for confessing your shopping story to the masses. Sounds pretty easy, huh?
So, while you’re out there doing all of your holiday shopping, be thinking about how you can make a video featuring your best shopping confession and upload it to YouTube under the special shopping confession group. Is your confession hilarious? Shocking? Embarrassing? Bring them all.
You just have to create a 30 to 600 second video of your shopping confession and upload it to a special YouTube group. Your video will begin with the eBillme logo and start with you saying “eBillme, I have a shopping confession”. From there, it’s all about you and your confession. Go wild. Well, within reason and legal limitations
There’s also an option of submitting a text version of your shopping confession for the contest. Just read the official rules over at shopandconfess.com.
Do me one favor, though. Refer my blog when you enter. I want to know when you win!
Pinching pennies did not used to be cool. Of course, I pinched pennies for the sheer pleasure of doing so. Even when I was in a position to have to worry about anything financially, I was frugal on a daily basis.
Now, though, pretty much everyone is pinching pennies. Frugality is the new frivolity. Even with gas prices coming down at the pump, there is a collective expectation hat things are only going to get worse. I’m not the only one with a renewed love for coupons, sales, promotional pens and free trials. I’ve been brushing my teeth on the sample tubes we had saved up from dentist visits for over 6 months now. Not buying toothpaste is a small savings, but it feels good to know I’ve found even a small way to cut back on spending.
And so, as we approach Christmas and that time of year where we all seem to spend more when it comes to gift giving, meals, vacations, and winter bills, I know we are all going to be on the lookout for all things free. I know I will.
I just got back from dinner with my former mother-in-law. Our relationship is a giant example of why you cannot burn bridges in your life.
Although I went though a lot of shock when I was essentially ripped away from my ex-husband’s family, eventually my mother-in-law and I found the right to me to reconnect and re-establish a friendship based on our own terms. We had always known that we were a lot alike, but my ex had put a lot of strain on the relationship I had with his mother during the marriage. Somehow, with him out of the picture, we were able to sit down with the stressor out of the picture and get to know one another in a whole new way. And, it was great. We get together often now, usually with my daughter also involved.
I do not think I have been able to successfully keep healthy bridges with any of my ex’s, though there is at least one that if we were to see one another again, I am sure it would be perfectly pleasant. I have a friend, though, who dated a well-known rock star and is still able to work with him professionally even though their relationship is over. That is the way we should all be able to break up, really.
I used to have a very trustworthy car mechanic. He’s still trustworthy, actually. And, he is very good. So good, in fact, that he is often booked up solid.
However, I lost my mechanic in my divorce. ? Well, not really, but he is my ex’s cousin and although I can use him without a hitch, I feel a little uncomfortable doing so. After all of that, I tried my dealer and then a good little garage near my daughter’s school. I like the world they have done, but they have failed to fully fix one of the problems my van is having and I wonder if I need to just look around for someone else.
Since nobody I know has a mechanic they feel they can recommend highly, I am considering using a referral service of sorts. MechanixLoop.com is a Beta service online where you can search any location in the United States and find reviews on local auto repair places. It’s free and it has reviews on over 115,000 repair centers, so it seems like a logical place for me to begin looking. All you have to do is input your city of zip and you’ll find specific Auto Repair Atlanta results – or wherever you happen to live.
I’ve seen both good and bad reviews on MechanixLoop.com, so I assume they invite honesty and don’t filter out anything that is not glowing. Many of the reviews are gathered from across the internet, so there is a huge database available. I found my current and past mechanics and agree with much of what the reviewers have to say.
The seniors are doing their research papers right now. They have to research a career that interests them. I’ve had a good time helping them with the research, the outlines, the thesis statements, etc. I look forward to seeing rough drafts on Monday and delving into the editing portion.
Anyway, one of the boys came up to me early this week and said, “If I become a firefighter, will I have to pay taxes?”
I told him, “Of course you will.”
He looked at me with a blank face for a moment and then he finally said, “But Obama won the election and firefighters make less than $250k a year.”
“You will STILL have to pay income taxes,” I reiterated.
I went on to explain that Obama has promised to add an additional tax deduction for working people. He has said that the tax rate for middle income families will be less than it was during the Reagan years (not difficult to do, by the way), that families making less that $250k a year will not see a tax increase, and that middle income families will receive tax relief. The key word is relief, which in and of itself is a rather ambiguous word.
Nowhere does Obama say that middle income families will no longer have to pay taxes at all. However, SO many people came out of election season believing that. MANY voters think that their boat just bought the gravy train. As sorry as I feel for those who are uninformed, I also have to say that they could have avoided ignorance by doing a little light reading on Obama’s own website.
Years ago, the concept of getting a free domain name with your web hosting was like a shot in the dark. The deals were out there, but they were few and far between. Now, though, it almost seems like a foolish move to buy web hosting that does not include a free domain name for the life of the account, because so many reputable companies are offering them along with their web hosting plans.
I’ve helped hundreds of women put their home crafting businesses online and the first step is always walking them through choosing just the right host for their individual needs. However, one thing I generally recommend for all of them is to look for a deal where their main domain name will be free with the life of their account. Web Hosting Geeks has a website that reviews and rates nearly every web hosting company you can imagine and they have an entire page devoted to those that offer free domain names. The Web Hosting Geeks site is a great first stop if you are shopping around for a host, by the way.
Of course, you need to look at a lot of different parameters when choosing the right host. You want to look at price, reputation, genuine customer reviews, how long they have been in business, and if they offer the features you need for your website or network of websites. It’s a process that I suggest you take a solid month to research. And of course, you can always shoot me an e-mail if you want my opinion on what will work for you.
