Chatbug Karen

I nearly had a mishap this morning. I save our business work on a jump drive. It has a template of our stationery and price lists of all our products. If anything happens to that jump drive, I will cry. To try and recreate all the information on that little piece of plastic would take hours. This morning I nearly had a heart attack when while crossing my legs; I kicked that little piece of information sticking out from my computer tower. It was in the shape of an L. I very carefully bent it back into place and checked that all my information was still there and it was.

I think it is time to get an external hard drive. I am checking out my most favorite shopping site, Buy.com. They have an entire section devoted to computers and technology. They give great descriptions to help me decide which item fits my needs. The best thing is that Buy.com has their price match guarantee. That means I will not find my item on sale for less at any of the other big name computer stores. I don’t have to spend hours searching for the best deal when I know Buy.com has what I need for the best price.

I have settled on the My Book external hard drive from Western Digital. It takes no more space than a paperback book and I can just plug it in and it’s ready to use. I can buy it at Buy.com for an amazing price and the shipping is free! It is time to make our business information safe with an external hard drive and I am so glad that Buy.com makes it affordable to do so.

Today has been a miserable day. This is a downer of a post! I have a headache and cannot seem to get rid of it. It could be all the auto insurance bills I had to pay and get into the mail this morning. It might be that I needed more coffee this morning. Who knows? I am tired of trying to figure out why I get headaches. I am just thankful that it is not an everyday occurrence like it used to be before I began taking allergy shots.

I watched Oprah yesterday and after seeing what I saw, I am sucking it up and being thankful for what I have. A woman had a flesh eating disease that caused havoc on her body. She had to have both arms and legs amputated. She greets everyday with a smile on her face and is thankful to be alive. I keep her in the back of my thoughts when my head is pounding and I want to be grouchy.

Call me old. I do not care. The Jonas Brothers sang on Dancing with the Stars last night so I was introduced to them. They sang out of tune. The hair raises up on my neck when I hear pitchy notes. It is like breathing to me. I have an ear for pitch and those Jonas Brothers were not hitting the notes. Do you ever feel your elbows tingle when something screeches or feels out of balance? My elbows were tingling. Maybe it was the acoustics. Maybe they were having an off night.

Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Nick Jonas are brothers and they have released three albums: It’s About Time (2006), Jonas Brothers (2007), and A Little Bit Longer (2008). When Nick was six years old, he was discovered while singing at a barber shop and was referred to a professional show business manager. He went on to perform on Broadway in 2002. Nick corroborated with his father to write a song that his father called, “Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer)”. By that time, Joe began appearing on Broadway. In the meantime, it was discovered that Nick, Kevin and Joe had written several songs and were picked up by Columbia Records. I am assuming that they could hit the notes.

I cannot blame old age. I have always been forgetful. I blame it on having so many irons in the fire. I am so thankful for PhoneInfoTracer.com. After waiting on a customer yesterday, I realized I forgot to get her name. It does not make a good impression on a customer if you call them and have to ask their name. With PhoneInfoTracer.com, I was able to use the reverse phone search featured by their service and get her name and address. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get her info with her cell phone number! I am now able to work with this customer in a more professional manner. All lookups are 100% confidential so she will never know what a doofus I am and she might even think I am very efficient. Life is good.

There has been a lot in the news about Yankee Stadium and how it is closing. There is another great stadium that has closed and that is the RCA Dome, (formerly known as the Hoosier Dome), in Indianapolis. The RCA Dome was a domed stadium located in Indianapolis, Indiana, which was the home of the Indianapolis Colts NFL franchise for 24 seasons (1984-2007). It was completed in 1984 at a cost of $82 million as part of the Indiana Convention Center, with the costs split evenly between private and public money. It was finished nearly a year before the Colts actually moved to the city. In 1984, the Colts relocated to Indianapolis from Baltimore.

Today, September 24, 2008 marked the day the air was let out of the dome. Lucas Oil Stadium is the new arena for the Colts and so the dome was left to die. Many memories were made in the Dome. The party given for the Colts when they won the Super Bowl was held in the Dome. My kids marched in several State Marching Band Competitions in that huge arena. The Bands of America Grand Nationals, and the Drum Corps International Midwestern Regional was held each year in the Dome. A lot of great memories were made in the first of its kind building. The Indianapolis skyline will seem like it is missing something.

The notable feature of the Dome was it’s inflatable roof. The roof was made up of teflon-coated fiberglass and weighed 257 tons. It was held up by the air pressure inside the building. The ceiling was 193 feet high, though the height varied up to five feet as the materials expanded and contracted with the weather.

The closer we get to February, the more people are becoming concerned. What will happen in February? Our tv’s will no longer be able to receive a signal from our normal digital sources. To continue receiving free TV reception, everyone must either purchase new television sets with integrated digital tuners. Oh boy! What an excuse to purchase that new plasma television you have been drooling over. Or you can purchase converter boxes that translate the digital signal into the analog format for older television sets, or subscribe to a pay TV service like cable or satellite. Don’t miss your television shows by procrastinating. Take care to get updated now. There are coupons available to reduce the cost of the converter box.

One of the most beautiful things about fall is the color. Everything is so colorful. Our trees have begun to turn from green to different shades of reds and oranges. We have a tree that turns yellow each year. It is a huge oak tree that stands above the rest of the trees. It must be so proud to have such a beautiful color.

My mums are persnickety. It seems that they will be beautiful for a few years and then all of a sudden they don’t bloom. I don’t know what happens to them. I don’t change the way I cut them or fertilize them so I don’t know why, all of a sudden, they decide to die. This year they are beautiful. I think they are the biggest they have ever been. This picture is definitely going into my collection for my digital frame.

I wanted to show you the light fixture hanging in the main lobby of the casino we visited yesterday. The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians opened the Four Winds Casino Resort on August 2, 2007. The entire casino is designed with stained glass, birch trees and copper accents.

On the Four Winds website, is the description of the beautiful casino as one situated on a beautiful landscape. This is certainly true. We drove a winding road to get to the casino. The road reminded me of when we drove to the Biltmore Mansion in North Carolina. I venture to guess that deer can be observed in the twilight hours in the wooded areas we passed on the winding road. The Four Winds Casino Resort is off of I-94 at Michigan Exit 1 in New Buffalo, Michigan and offers 130,000 square feet of gaming space. It also features a 165-room suite-hotel, six restaurants, entertainment bars and retail shops.

We enjoyed the entire day of food and fun. Lady Luck kept us from having to make any balance transfers to our bank account in order to stay solvent. You just never know if you will win or not. I guess that is why it is called gambling.

Today was hubby’s 54th birthday. He said he wanted to celebrate with a nice quiet day and I took him at his word. That was until some friends of ours called and wanted to surprise him with a fun filled day. I agreed to their plan and hubby was surprised to find himself at the casino this afternoon.

I could have fooled him with a gag gift like some diet pills or a old fart t-shirt but I hated to spend the money on something like that. Our friends wanted to drive him to the casino and buy his dinner! I had to keep the trip a secret and so I had to think up a few things I simply had to have done before we we could leave the house this morning. They were coming at 9 am and I had to drag out some time while taking my shower. Poor hubby waited in the car for me for 10 minutes because I said I forgot my purse. Then, I called him on his cell phone and said to come upstairs because the dog had puked. He came upstairs to find our friends waiting with gifts. LOL

He had a great day at the casino. Lady Luck treated him very well. The weather was beautiful and thanks to a wonderful mother in-law, our dogs behaved themselves until she came to let them out a few times during the day.

Tomorrow is the official first day of fall. I miss the hustle and bustle of picking out Halloween costumes. My kids were always so clever in thinking up ideas for their costumes. I was looking at my favorite online site, Buy.com and I see that they have a sale on beautiful and fun Halloween costumes. I enjoyed sewing costumes for my kids but if you are not into that sort of thing or don’t have the time, you should check out their selection of costumes. The prices make it seem silly to spend the time and money sewing a costume.

I am shocked to find the little bumblebee costume that took hours of painstaking stitches and time to make, is only $19.99 at Buy.com! I cannot buy the fabric and notions for less than that! Buy.com has all the standard costumes. You will find Disney characters like Minnie Mouse, Snow White and Alice in Wonderland. They also have the newer sensations like Rubies, The Dark Knight Batman. I saw the cutest Raggedy Ann costume for babies.

Buy.com is the best place to buy just about anything! From sewing machines to electronic equipment, they have it all. They have it all at the best possible price. In fact, they have a low price guarantee. This low price guarantee includes prices compared with the major electronic companies so be sure to check out Buy.com before you buy your next computer or stereo equipment.

Money is tight these days and we need to save every way possible. Why pay more when you can pay less? They are constantly checking with their suppliers for new products. Check out Buy.com before you purchase anything!