Mariannes Motifs

Handmade Nostepinne

My brother, who is a fantastic woodworker, made me this handmade nostepinne for me for Chanukah. A nostepinne is a tool used to wind yarn into a center-pull ball.
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Road Trip!

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DSi Games 5 and 7 year old Boys Might Like for Hanukkah

Just in case you were wondering.  Cough Cough Stefanie Cough Cough

 

BEN

 

Pokemon Soul Silver

 

 

 

Super Scribblenauts

 

 

ADAM

 

LEGO Rock Band for DS

 

Kug Zhu Hansters - Comes out next week though...

 

Going to Bed Early

I have to take my car into the shop in the morning, and I feel moderately crummy so its going to be an early night for me. 

We are pretty much ready for our trip - just need to do some laundry and pack.  Need to dig up Adam's warm coat.  (Ben just got a new one yesterday.)

I am looking forward to seeing both sides of the family.  I hear my neice Lydia has been knitting so I am planning to take her to the local yarn store near them.  (Their local yarn store is the Village Yarn and Fiber shop that is the place that hosts the dizzysheep.com daily deal.  I order from them ALL the time so I am l0oking forward to actually stopping in.  They have a different deal on one item each day with $1 shipping.  Its a great way to try different yarns at a great price without having to make a large order to get cheap or free shipping.  Plus, they take paypal, and most of my blogging money comes in via paypal so I can buy yarn without effecting the bank account.  Seems kind of free, right?  I call that the easy come easy go phemonmenon.

So wish me a good night.  I am going to dream of la gloria cubana.  Or something at least.

National Opt-Out Day Called Against Airport Full Body Scanners

Air travelers, mark your calendar. An activist opposed to the new invasive body scanners in use at airports around the country just designated Wednesday, Nov. 24 as a National Opt-Out Day. He’s encouraging airline passengers to decline the TSA’s technological strip searches en masse on that day as a protest against the scanners, as well as the new “enhanced pat-downs” inflicted on refuseniks.

via www.wired.com

We are opting out of full body scanning by making our Thanksgiving Holiday trip by car. No joke - the hubster hates flying already and now he's even more set against it.

Personally I think I could just do it and try not to think about it.  I don't really want the airport screeners getting a good look at my chubby self and make some comments about how I need to burn belly fat fast.

Web-Deva Web Site Builder

I am checking out a new web site building company called Web Deva. Set up as a "Software as a Service" model, it looks pretty interesting.  I normally host my blogs on TypePad but awhile back I got the domain cheesyromance.com and I wanted to do something a little different with it.  I wanted to do a forum where people could save their own reviews of romance books and chat about recommendations.  I needed more power than just a blog would give me.  I tried a couple different web hosting companies but even though I am actually pretty technical, I got overwhemed setting up PHPBB and gave up.

I don't have a lot of extra time to screw around with building a web site.  I just want to create content and get it going.  I don't want to think TOO hard about my web sites.  I like the way you can create an account and set up a test site and only have to pay to turn it one once you like the way it looks.  And they even have e-commerce - wow. So if you're interested check out their demo - web page builders.

Perry the Platypus

Is getting ready for winter weather.

We went over to Wally World - WalMart that is, and bought some winter gear for the trip up North.  The dog got a sweater - check my Twitter stream for a picture of that, and Adam just had to have this Phineas and Ferb hat and gloves set.  Then he had to wear them to play outside.  The kids are playing their perpetual game of war running around theblock shooting each other with sticks shaped like guns and foam swords and stuff.  Goofy!  He  picked out the camo hoody too.  (Hoody, not hoodia...)

 

Friday Night Chit Chat

I've had yet another extremely busy week at work so YAY for Friday.  We are planning our great big Turke Day Road Trip which will entail drivign from Atlanta to Columbus, OH, and then to Rochester, NY.  With two kids and a dog.  Woo hoo!

Monday I am taking the car in for its 60,000 mile service.  We also had to buy 2 new tires for hubster's car.  Still cheaper than a car payment.  Just keep repeating that - cheaper than a car payment.

We are refinacing our mortgage and got a super rate from Bank of America - 3.5%   I am so happy!  We are getting the house paid off sooner and saving scads of money over the long term.  (Although our payment will actually go up a little bit its for a good purpose as we went from 24 years to 15 years)

Now, we don't have a lot of cash left over for Hanukkah gifts this year so I am actively searching out good deals.  May even trek out to a few stores on Black Friday if mom and dad will watch the kids.   It's good to have some barcode scanner software on your cell phone - especially if it will work with shopping software.

Try Kindle version of The New York Times - 2 Months Free

Instead of the usual 14 day free trial, Amazon is offering 2 months of The New York Times for Kindle free.  You can cancel at any time.  (And I hear they prorate the refund of the current month if you are in the middle of a month when you cancel)

This seems like a great way to try a Kindle subscription.

 

 

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The roses have been blooming all summer long and they are still going. I LOVE knockout roses!
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