Gimme A Break

We’re staying home with no place to go (by choice) so the kids and I decided to have a simple meal of lamb chops with lots of healthy side dishes instead.

We’ve been working out really hard at the gym and didn’t want to pile everything back on in one sitting. Yep, we’re such boring folks .

Here’s wishing everyone a safe and blessed Thanksgiving! And a fantastic Black Friday if you’re making a dash for the stores in the wee hours .

• Happy Thanksgiving
• that elusive turkey
• Happy New Year 2010!
• sauna au naturale
• ten hours sleep

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We have two weddings coming up. The first one is my cousin’s to which we’ve been invited, sort of. We’ve been given invitations to the lunch reception at my uncle’s house but we’ve been told specifically our teens are not invited to the banquet at an upscale hotel.

Of course I think it’s a case of really bad manners on their part, and am considering giving the whole thing a miss. But to avoid a backlash, DH and I have decided we will just attend the buffet lunch but not the dinner.

The second wedding is that of another cousin on my in-law side which also happens to be held at the same upscale hotel but to which we’ve all been invited. Strange, isn’t it, given that the in-laws always get the bad rep for being mean ?!

• yummiest coffee
• fullmoon party
• car battery goes flat on me
• fish week
• breaking the busy record

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This is a sponsored guest post written by Carl Schwartz on behalf of hotelicopter. Post powered by Sponzai.

Site publishers and bloggers now have a new content tool at their disposal. If you have travel content on your site, you now can embed detailed hotel information by location or specific hotel. This makes it much more contextual for your readers.

hotelicopter.com launched its latest innovation this week.  Going beyond what is currently available, hotelicopter now gives any web site owner the ability to publish detailed, interactive hotel content on their site for free.

hotelicopter, recently named the emerging hotel meta-search site by Piper Jaffray & Co., helps travelers find amazing hotel deals worldwide, including for Las Vegas hotels, Orlando hotels, Chicago hotels, Los Angeles hotels, and New York hotels.

In three easy steps, site publishers can quickly enhance any travel- or event-related content they offer by adding hotel photos, star and user ratings, addresses, and average rates per night.

Here is an example of a specific hotel:

Create a hotel list of your own!

Powered by hotelicopter

In a recent report, Phocuswright discovered that simple booking engine widgets do not add much value on content sites such as destination marketing organizations (DMOs). The report goes on to state that booking engine widgets are not used very much on DMO sites (Phocuswright Destination Marketing: Understanding the Role and Impact of Destination Marketers; June 2009).

This hotel content is perfect for:

- Web sites that publish articles about specific destinations

- Bloggers focused on specific cities and travel topics

- Event organizers who want to offer local hotel choices to attendees

- Sports organizations

- Family sites (weddings, reunions, parties, funerals, etc)

- School web sites

Pretty cool content to offer your readers. To start building your own hotel card widget, visit h2go.hotelicopter.com and follow the very simple instructions.

• when the travel bug bites
• the tale of three Aussie cities
• so who wants to go where again?
• one lucky girl
• oops, the cat is out of the bag!

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I went out in the freakin’ storm to buy butter. Well, actually it hadn’t started raining when I left but it was pouring by the time I got to the baking supply store where I usually buy my butter. It costs less than the one at the grocery store for the same brand, so why not? It’s not that I drive there just to buy my supply. I only stop by if I happen to be at the vicinity.

And it’s not like I like buying from this store either. All the staff there have long, sour faces. They only talk and laugh amongst themselves and if you ask them a question, they ignore you and give you curt answers.

If you need them to get you something, they’ll make you wait and wait knowing full well that your car is probably double-parked outside. The place is a parking nightmare! Glad I got my butter today, a lot of it, so I won’t have to go back too often   !

• the middle finger
• gotta have that cake
• grrr..oogle
• endless errands
• logistics brainwave

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Last weekend was relaxing at best. This is my favorite time of year to shop. The Christmas decor is already out, would you believe it? and it’s all starting to look magical.

Me and my teens trawled the mall looking for holiday gifts. My only complaint is that gifts get harder to buy each year because just as I don’t like giving the same gift every year, I’m sure people don’t like receiving the same old either.

I’m starting to see the value in gift card. I don’t know why I never thought of this before but giving gift cards can really save me the big headache of cracking my head over what to buy for each person.

And me being someone who likes to give practical gifts, I just take so much pain trying to think of nice gift ideas that are both practical and within my budget.

But hey, if I give someone a gift card, they probably appreciate it more since they can pick out something they like or need. So yep, great idea, that’s what I’ll be doing this year. Problem solved! Now on with my own shopping!

• what do gym freaks want?
• empty-handed
• now Mom wants to be Dad
• frenzy weekend ahead
• caffeine withdrawal

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Looks like my car needs another trip to the mechanics, grr! Quite honestly, I hate going there because I just never know how long they’re going to take to fix whatever the problem is.

If it’s just a couple of hours, it’s pointless for me to catch a cab home, so I have to hang out in that crummy, stuffy room and try to read a book. Key word, try!! So let’s see how it goes today .

• finishing up my novel
• snatch reading
• don’t read, listen to these books
• no books for us
• driving us nuts

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How would you like to win a $5000 grand prize to ring in the new year? I say, let’s go for it. Abbott Medical Optics Inc. is running the “You Gotta See This” Video Contest where you can do exactly that.

Okay, on with the details which are so simple even your kids can help you with it. All you have to do is make and submit a video in one of the following categories:
• “My contacts are getting in the way of my good time”
• “My favorite sport or activity would be so much cooler with better vision”
• “You should see life after the iLASIK® Procedure”.

Then just call up your friends and pester ask them to vote for you because votes are one of the deciding factors to help you win any of those amazing prizes. So yeah, go ahead and bribe your friends if you have to to increase your chances of winning the Grand Prize of $5,000 (selected from all submitted videos).

Even if you don’t win that, you could qualify for any of category prizes, i.e. 3 First Prizes of a HDTV package valued at $2,500 value, and 3 Second Prizes of the Flip UltraHD camcorder valued at $199.99.

So don’t miss out on your chance. Go check out the iLASIK Video Contest details here. Folks have already started submitting their entries so you’d best get started quick.

• you can bid 4 prizes
• bid for cool prizes
• who knows?
• we won!
• school or beauty contest?

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The digger came and there was more digging on the main street outside our house. You wouldn’t believe the noise. I couldn’t hear myself speak. I wouldn’t have minded so much if they hadn’t been digging barely 48 hours ago but now they’re back! Again?

So yeah, after one group digs and patches up the road, another group comes in, digs up the same patch and then patches it up again. Ridiculous. Definitely no planning and coordination!

• happy new year
• sheer stupidity, bad attitude
• the stress of driving
• drumming up ideas for a good cause
• square steering wheel

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With the holiday season just around the corner, pretty soon the kids will be out of school and complaining about being bored at home. Luckily they’re pretty good about entertaining themselves by watching TV.

That’s what keeps them occupied when I’m out shopping or when they get bored talking on the phone or listening to their MPs. My girl friend has signed up for Direct TV and I’m thinking of doing the same. I’m going to pop over to her place to check out the Direct TV packages she’s subscribed for before I decide which ones I want.

But yes, my kids are doing pretty good in school and I think they deserve to enjoy some great Directtv. Can’t believe I just said that . It’s also a great way to keep them out of my hair while I’m busy with holiday preparations.

• talking plans for the school break
• chief executive hairdresser
• travel at leisure
• fashion on the run
• Wicked joke?

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OMG, I’ve been so busy I didn’t even realize we ran out of hair shampoo. I used to be the chronic bulk purchase freak but my kids have been complaining about how certain brands of shampoo have been making their head itch. OMG!

So I’ve buying one bottle at a time of different brands to try out. Hence the problem of not stocking up. We’ve never run out of shampoo before . Better put it on my grocery list right now before I forget.

• grocery shopping just got harder
• out of battery
• what’s up on The Tennis Channel?
• you can bid 4 prizes
• self-confessed shopaholic

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