Product Love: Dentemp OS

I had no idea that there even was such a thing as over the counter temporary dental repair. It's too bad we didn't have this (or know about it) back several years ago when my sister lost one of her fillings. I remember she was in major pain and tears as she waited until the dentist could fit her in to repair the problem. I've never lost a filling myself, but I can imagine that it sucks.

If it ever does happen to me (and the chances are about to increase -- my last visit to the dentist revealed no fewer than six (!) cavities that need filled; that's what I get for not going to a dentist during my entire twenties), at least I'll know about Dentemp OS, first aid dental repair goo that can both temporarily replace lost fillings and cement loose caps. It's mess-free, FDA-tested and approved, and fast--you can safely eat in as little as thirty minutes after applying it. With my dentist being an hour away from my home, closed on Fridays and hard to get into the rest of the week, I'm glad to know that there's an easy drug store solution that can buy me time if I ever need to have my fillings repaired.

Saying goodbye to Summer--I'm SO OVER IT

*Sponsored Post*

With summer winding down (what? Labor Day? You mean it's September already? When did that happen?!), now is a good time to take advantage of summer clearance sales and stockpile goodies for next year. I pray to God that Husband and I will have moved into our own place by next summer, so it really is tempting to stock up on stuff like Wind Chimes with which to christen the big back porch that our new home is sure to have. Man, I can see it now. Lazy summer nights on the porch, watching the fireflies and sipping a cold one while Husband stokes the grill, the tinkling chimes lulling me into peaceful relaxation... that's the life, folks.

Of course, by now I've about had my fill of summer and am SO VERY READY for the most wonderful time of the year: October! Yay! 'Tis the season for Halloween Decorations! Man, I love fall. It really can't get here soon enough for me.

Alzheimer's Association's Memory Walk

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Several years ago, at a family gathering, one of my favorite aunts, after her sister had basically dismissed me as a spinster with no hope of ever getting married, clasped my hand and told me that she believed that God had someone extraordinary that he was saving for me. After I became engaged to my husband, I couldn't wait for him to meet this aunt so I could remind her of what she told me and tell her that she was right. The chance finally came at a family reunion a couple of years ago. I led my fiancé over to my aunt and asked her if she remembered what she said to me.

She didn't. I'm not sure she even remembered me.

It was the beginning of her battle with Alzheimer's. Since then she's had to be put in a special home, and most days she hardly knows her own children.

Apparently, Memory Walk is an annual awareness- and fund-raising event that's been put on annually by the Alzheimer's Association since 1989, but this is the first year that I've heard of it. Now that I have, I want to spread the word. I'm not able to walk, but I'd love to sponsor a participant. Unfortunately, there's not a local event in my state, but if you're walking, leave a comment to let me know, and I'll sign up to sponsor you. I can only afford to sponsor one walker, so this is offer is first-come, first-serve.

If you'd like to walk in the event, just follow any of the links in this post to the web site to find a local event and sign up. It's also simple to sign up to be a Team Captain--all you need is at least nine people to be on your team. You can form family teams, community teams, or even corporate teams with your co-workers. Team Captains need to sign up early so that they'll have plenty of time to build their teams and prepare them for the event, so if that's something that's on your heart, don't waste any time getting started.

UPDATE: My Little Tribe is hosting a contest to help raise money for her Memory Walk team. The rules:

1 entry for every 5.00 you donate to sponsor Team Martin. (Use this page to directly sponsor Team Martin. OR paypal carla AT mylittletribe DOT com, if you prefer not to use a credit card, and I will add it to the sponsor totals and send the check.)

Additional entries can be earned by:

1 entry for linking to My Little Tribe and blogging about this contest.

1 entry for signing up to walk in your local Memory Walk.

If I don't get any takers for sponsorship by September 6th (my next payday), I'll be signing up to sponsor that team.

Review of White Night (about time, right?!)

*Sponsored via PayPerPost Direct*

With all of the attention on Harry Potter, I keep neglecting my other favorite wizard named Harry and forgetting to review his latest attempts to keep Chicago safe from the creatures of the night in White Night. As it's spoilery, I'll put my detailed comments in the comment thread, as usual. It's been long enough since I read it that I'm a little fuzzy on the details, anyway; but I do remember that it wasn't my favorite book in the series. It's a good story and has plenty to love--it just didn't wow me on the same level as Blood Rites or Dead Beat. Even so, it has some great character development and manages to water seeds planted in previous books for an über-arch involving an über big bad, the identity (or identities) of which have yet to be revealed. It also has great continuity, as usual, an some excellent character moments. Butcher doesn't disappoint. Neither does Harry Dresden, for that matter, who can give that other Harry kid lessons on how to be a total woobie.

By the way, Buzzy Multimedia has an interview clip with Jim Butcher on their main page. Quote: "At my age I learned you really should stretch out before you do the Snoopy Dance." Hee!

But seriously, he offers some fantastic insights into his writing process, and that alone makes it worth checking out. (And he's funny, too!)

***

While we're on the subject, I think the majority of my regular readers already know about James Marsters narrating the Dresden Files audio books (Yay James!), and that preview chapters are available online for free. But you may not have known--at least, I didn't--that my beloved Ben "Crazy Crichton" Browder is the narrator for Alan Dean Foster's Interloper? Free preview downloads are available for that, too, and he's doing a fantastic job. Man, I loves me some Browder. I really hope he and Claudia will be in the Farscape webisodes that SciFi is planning to do, otherwise, what's the point?

Build A Sign!

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Hey, awesome! When Husband opens his restaurant we can advertise it with custom Car Magnets! But really, these magnetic signs are a lot less expensive than I expected when I first clicked over. This would be an ideal way to spread the word if I ever get one of my wannabe entrepreneurial ideas out of the infancy stage and off the ground. Heck, for that price it might be worth it just to have one printed up with my URL. I wonder what kind of studies have been done about offline web site advertising? That might be something I should check into...

Restaurant dreams

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My foodie husband has a dream of someday opening up a restaurant. Yesterday he even went so far as to research suppliers and wholesale food costs. I'd just be thrilled if we had a kitchen where he could put his would-be gourmet tendencies to use feeding me, but he's convinced that he'd like to get into the business side of it, eventually. He's got some pretty good ideas, and I do believe he could pull it off as long as he fully understands what he's getting into and has his financing in place. I just bookmarked a site that can help with that last part, at least: Advanced Restaurant Finance looks like a pretty good bet, providing supplemental restaurant financing without requiring need of a business partner and allowing would-be restaurateurs to retain full control of their business decisions. That sounds like Husband's cup o' tea. I'm filing this link away in the "Big Dreams" file for future reference.

Rate your day!

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One feature I enjoyed about my old LiveJournal account was the mood icons, and I kind of miss having them here. Now you can get a blog widget that comes close--I Rate My Day is sort of a cross between LJ mood icons and Twitter, where you can tell the world what kind of day you're having and why. People can comment on your day, too. Social mood icons. What will they think of next?

While you're there, be sure to check out the contest for a free Microsoft Zune!

Crocs are... cute? Really?

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I've always turned my nose up at Crocs because, well, they're ugly. I don't care how comfortable they are, I just can't handle that much pure fug on my feet, and besides, they're not allowed at my office, anyway. Except, I just checked out some of their new styles, and, well, these are pretty cute. Cute enough to be tempting. I'm pretty sure they'd pass muster with the dress code, and as much running around as I tend to do on a daily basis, cute, comfortable, affordable shoes are pretty much my new Holy Grail. These are a decent price to begin with, and with these ShoeBuy coupon codes, it looks like I can get them for a steal (aren't online coupon sites the best thing ever?).

I already blew my fun money budget for this week helping to line J.K. Rowling's heavy pockets, but just you wait, Crocs Sassari - Chocolate/Gold. Next payday, you will be mine.

Download IDrive for IBackup

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If you use IBackup for extra storage, then you'll probably be interested in IDrive, a free (for members) download that effectively turns your web storage into a network drive on your computer, giving you drag and drop capability right on your desktop. Increased productivity yay!

If you don't even know what IBackup is, it's an Online Storage site that can be used to back up your hard drive, provide extra storage to free up some space on your computer (providing a nice, safe place for all those digital photos of your cat you still need to write captions for), and even provides file sharing and collaboration capabilities, with plans starting at $9.95 a month.

I wish I'd known I could take advantage of this a year ago before my computer died. Then I'd still have access to all of the unfinished Buffy fic, LiveJournal icons, MP3s, and the TOTALLY NOT PIRATED copy of Photoshop that are lost in limbo on my dead hard drive. I thought I was safe backing up to CDs, but I had to learn the hard way that CDs have a tendency to get scratched and become corrupted. That's not something I'd ever have to worry about here. At least I'll know for my next computer, right?

Freeze It!

This is a sponsored post, but that doesn't make it any less true. My love for this product is a pure love.

My mom has a fun tendency to get hung up on one product that is her magical cure-all for everything. For my entire adolescence, it was Alkaseltzer Plus, for all things reasonable and otherwise.

"Mom, I have a cold."

"Take some Alkaseltzer Plus!"

"Mom, I stubbed my toe!"

"Take some Alkaseltzer Plus!"

"Mom, my date stood me up!"

"Take some Alkaseltzer Plus!"

So after years and years of that sort of thing, you can bet I was glad when she found a new favorite cure-all, even if I'm the one who found it first, by doing something as simple as throwing my back out. After my chiropractor sent me home with a handful of Biofreeze samples, my mom tried some on one of her many aches and pains, and a new catch-phrase was born:

"Mom, I'm hungry."

"Put some Biofreeze on it!"

For once, I had to agree with her enthusiasm, if not necessarily her application. Biofreeze is good stuff. It's crack for the chronic back pain set, making you feel tingly and warm and taking the pain away. Trouble is, it's about as convenient to get a hold of as crack, too, and also about as expensive.

This explains why I'm actually glad, in retrospect, that I woke up one morning last month with the mother of all neck cricks. I was all out of Biofreeze, and in a panic, I called my mom. "Mom! I have the mother of all neck cricks!"

"Put Biofreeze on it!"

"I can't! I'm out!"

"Well then, I don't know what to tell ya."



*whimper*

I popped some painkillers, trudged to work and suffered through the morning, unable to turn my head. By lunchtime, I'd had enough, so I packed my stiff, sorry self into the car and headed to Wal-Mart to find something that could possibly fill the void left by my beloved Biofreeze.

I scanned the shelves. I started to lose hope. And then, there it was.

Freeze It.

What's that? I asked myself. The packaging sure looked a lot like my favorite brand of crack. I picked it up and examined it more closely:

"Compare to the active ingredients in Biofreeze(r)!"

Could it honestly be? An affordable equivalent right there in the Wal-Mart pharmacy? One that I didn't have to make a special trip to the chiropractor's office or take out a small loan to purchase? This was simply too good to be true.

And then I tried the stuff.



Did it work as well as its snooty, high-maintenance twin?



Yes. Yes it did. And it stole my heart. I was so overcome with gratitude and adoration that I even caught myself making out with it.


Because that's the stuff, baby.

Of course, I had to tell my mom about this stuff; and now we have a new catch phrase:

"Mom, my toast is burnt!"

"Freeze It!"

Freeze It, indeed.

Jim who now?

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I think I'm about the only person left in Western civilization who has never seen an (American) episode of The Office. There are good reasons for this, primary of which is that several years ago, I came to the conclusion that I was watching far too much television (yes, believe it or not, I used to watch way, way more than I do now. Hush.), and that I could probably live without any more sitcoms in my life. So I gave up half-hour comedies and never looked back. The other reason is that I had seen the BBC version and, though I didn't get hooked on it, thought it was pretty high-larious, and, well, Hollywood doesn't have a very successful record of trying to Americanize British sitcoms, so I naturally assumed that the American version would suck.

According to almost every person I know, I assumed wrong.

So now Target has The Office Season One for $19.99, and I guess that leaves me without any excuses not to start catching up to the bandwagon. While I'm at it, I might as well finally get myself a copy of Angel Season 5 for $27.99. That's not the best price I've seen it for, but with one of these Target coupons, I can get $5 off. Oh, wait--I'm a few dollars short of the $50 requirement. Oh noes! How will I ever make up the difference? You know now much I can't stand shopping at Target! [/sarcasm] But seriously, somehow I don't think that will be a problem.

And then I'll finally be able to get to the bottom of all this Jim and Pam business.

This post is sponsored by Coupon Chief, the first place I always look for coupon codes.

Hire yourself out with PayPerPost Direct

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PayPerPost is at it again, rolling out yet more upgrades and somehow becoming even more awesome. Their latest feature is PayPerPost Direct, a new program that cuts out the middleman by letting advertisers hire bloggers directly to write blog ads. So if they're hiring you directly, do you really need to go through PayPerPost for that? Of course you don't need to in the strictest sense, but when you consider ease-of-use, the security of having an arbitrator to ensure that you get paid (or, if you're an advertiser, to ensure that you get what you pay for) and the fact that PayPerPost only charges a 10% fee (unbelievably low compared to the 50% and up charged by competitors such as ReviewMe), it begins to look like a pretty sweet deal.

So how does it work? Bloggers in the network simply place a badge on their blog advertising their availability. If an advertiser surfs across such a blog and sees what they like, they can just click on the badge to sign up and hire that blogger to advertise their site. It doesn't get much easier.

The other improvement this rollout brings that's got me all excited is the ability to reserve an opportunity for six hours. Six hours!!! This should make it much easier to nab quality opportunities that have actual relevance to this blog and to you, dear readers.

PayPerPost just keeps making it easier to make a good bit of extra income for just a little bit of extra work. Have you signed up yet? Why not? You can use any of the links in this post to head over there and sign up today, or if you feel like helping a girl out, you can also click the affiliate badge over on the side bar to send a little kickback my way.

Looking for higher yields?

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It's not quite been three months since I opened what might very well be the first of multiple high yield savings accounts. Since starting mine with a mere $25, I've been amazed at how much it's grown in such a short amount of time. Just getting past that first obstacle of starting a savings account seemed to make it a lot easier to find money to put in it. Now I'm considering switching to an account with an even higher yield, or possibly opening a second account and using separate accounts for separate funds. eMoneyCentral is making it a little easier to decide by allowing me to compare my current bank side by side with pretty much every other high-yield e-savings bank out there. What I really like about this site is that in addition to simply providing facts about each bank, they also allow users to comment and discuss their personal experience. This kind of commentary can be much more informative than bank-provided stats, and goes a long way to clue potential customers into exactly what kind of service they can expect. It's already gotten me to think twice about a certain bank I was considering switching to. That's a pretty handy tool right there.

What price pet health?

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I've been considering buying pet insurance for a while now, especially for Fizzgigg. As he gets older there are more and more occasions when I have to decide whether something is serious enough to warrant taking him to the vet, because we can't really afford it. I just received a free online quote, and the senior care coverage is a little high, but it would cover the tummy problems he's prone to having if they come up again (for the moment we appear to have them licked). Regular coverage is more affordable, and just having that would have saved me over fifty bucks when the cat accidentally clawed his eye last year.

I also see that they offer a ten percent discount for three or more pets, so we could get regular coverage for the cats and end up saving money for all three. Knowing our cats, having accident coverage on them wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.

This is something I'll have to mull over and see whether we can really work it into the budget. But it's definitely something I would like to be able to do. I mean, just look at the little guy. Of course I want to do everything I can to ensure he lasts as long as possible.

Win a Date With Tad Hamilton....'s One-time Co-star!

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All right, boys: fire up those video cameras, polish off your best pick-up lines, and get ready to Seduce a Celebrity. If the audience likes your video the best, you could win a date with one Mirelly Taylor, an up-and-coming actress who's recently been featured on the likes of Las Vegas, Numb3rs, and the Matthew Perry vehicle, Serving Sara. So what's the catch? It's all for a new online reality show on GoFish that will feature a different celebrity each round putting in a plea for what they're looking for in a date. Then it's up to willing lotharios and lothariettes to upload their video responses, with the winners to be selected by audience vote.

If you think that's intimidating, just check out some of the competition:



Hee. Be sure to check out the other video entries. It just gets more embarrassing (and hilarious) from there.

And don't worry. If Mirelly's not your thing, upcoming "prizes" include Emmy Award Winning Producer Scott Sternberg, and The Bachelor's Andrew Firestone. This is, of course, a chance for much hilarity to ensue, and ensue it does. Check out the rest of the competition as well as other free videos at GoFish.com

Do uTango?

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From the "Looks Too Good to Be True" Files: you can earn cash rewards and even eventually fund your retirement simply by doing all of your regular online shopping. Yeahbuhwhat?! It seems the utango rewards program gives online shoppers the opportunity to sign up for free and earn rewards for logging into uTango and shopping their affiliate merchants, which include the likes of Target, Starbucks, and Barnes & Noble, places I shop all the time. Apparently, if I start shopping at them via uTango, I can start earning $200 per year, and if I stick with it over a lifetime, my loyalty could earn me up to a cool million in retirement funds!

This is awesome. Not only can I make free money just by buying books, CDs, ground coffee, clothes, jewelry, adorable inexpesive pre-fab furniture, housewares, home decor, and about anything else I normally shop for online, but I can also research and book my travel through the utango rewards program and earn even more. Pretty much everything I ever do online, commerce-wise, is included in this program, so there's not a single reason I can think of not to sign up. And did I mention the part where it's free? Wow. Double this with your credit card's rewards incentive program and you could really rack up the extra cash. Now that's what I'm talkin' about.

More Than Hotel Reservations

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In my vacation desperation, I'm wistfully making the rounds of the online booking sites and checking out the various hotel discounts. Hotel Reservations is a fairly new kid on the block that tends to get overshadowed by the creepy garden gnomes and creepier William Shatners in the neighborhood. Don't let the name fool you -- they're not just about hotels. You can also research and book flight packages, cruise getaways, and everything else you'd expect from a DIY travel web site. I'm searching hotels in and around Chicago, and I found some great deals for three-star hotels that fit nicely into our budget... assuming we can work the getting there part into our budget, as well.

Free Postage Offer from Stamps.com and Coupon Chief

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Postage rates are going up again on Monday. Postage increases are always a pain in the hinder; I'm rushing to mail everything I can this weekend and use up the stamps I've got, so that I won't have to mess around with buying any three-cent stamps. Snail mail is getting expensive, too, and with the USPS's customer non-service and track rate at losing packages, pretty soon we're going to run out of reasons to send things via regular mail instead of something more reliable like FedEx or UPS. In the mean time, though, here at least is a chance to catch a break on postage: My favorite coupon site is listing a Stamps.com coupon for $25 in free postage when you sign up for their 4-week free trial. As if that's not a cool enough freebie, you also get a free digital scale. You know how much I love bargains, especially when they involve freebies. I'm all over this offer.

Still :heart: PayPerPost

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You might have noticed that I'm back at trying to make money blogging. I got a little burned out for a while there, and I had a heart to heart with myself to determine whether I would rather be a "pro blogger" or a writer with a blog. I'd rather be the latter. However, a couple of discouraging pay periods have convinced me that pro-blogging in moderation is better than no pro-blogging at all.

I've signed up with a few of PayPerPost's competitors to help ameliorate the dry spells when it's difficult to beat the competition to decent opportunities, which has given me an opportunity to compare and contrast (I'm even working on a comparison article for Associated Content as I type this; well, not RIGHT as I type this, because I only have the ten fingers. But you know what I mean). It's given me new appreciation for PayPerPost. Although their success can mean more competition which makes it more difficult to grab great opportunities, their lower-end opps still pay better than most of their competition. They've also built a thriving community of "Posties" who love to help each other in advancing their blogs and improving their blogging skills. And having been at this for almost a year now, they've got most of the bugs worked out and have streamlined the entire system. Best yet, they've proven that they care about the Posties as much as they care about advertisers. As much as I have to admit being frustrated by some of the changes they've made since I first signed up, I still think they're the best in the biz, and I'm still pretty impressed by them as a company.

So you should still expect to see the occasional sponsored post here on this ol' blog o' mine, although I promise only to accept opportunities that I can write honestly about, and that I think are either useful or of interest to at least some of you out there. It's not about to become all ad-blogging all the time, so no worries on that front. Because I still would rather be, simply, a writer with a blog.

Take an Art Break

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Russian Artist Victor Lysakov is a former Soviet engineer turned full-time painter. He's a celebrated artist in his own country, and I expect he soon will be pretty renowned in this country as well. For the first time he's making his work available to the American public. I've been perusing his web site, and I gotta say, I like his work. Some of his more traditional motifs remind me of Van Gogh, and his more modern expressionistic work has a vaguely creepy, ethereal quality that appeals to me. He uses a palette of rich, calming colors that increase the dream-like quality of his paintings, except for when he trades calming for disturbing reds and dream-like for nightmarish, as in The Abyss, which just might be my favorite. I especially like the way there seems to be a story accompanying each painting, as though he's captured a brief scene of something larger. If you're interested, quality prints, digitally replicated on museum-quality canvas, are available for purchase from the Lysakov Art Company.

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