Safe Boating

I live next to a large body of water (the Atlantic Ocean) and every summer, it seems, brings a story of some moron who gets into some kind of trouble by boating while intoxicated. I'm sure everyone who lives in areas where recreational water sports are popular has heard the same.

For whatever reason, some people associate boating and other water sports with drinking. Now, I like a nice glass of wine or a good, cold beer as much as the next person, but I like one, possibly two, and no more. And, I like them in situations where I will not be operating any kind of vehicle. I'm not the only one who feels that way. The state of Arizona has started a Boating Education Online campaign to alert people to the issue of alcohol-related boating deaths and accidents.



Boating Operating Under the Influence is every bit as illegal -- and dangerous -- as it is to operate a motor vehicle while under the influence. In fact, 50% of all fatal boating accidents in Arizona involved alcohol. You don't have to live in Arizona to benefit from checking out the Arizona Boating page, there's good information there for anyone who boats or operates a personal watercraft, no matter where you live.

Check out these videos for more information about safe boating in Arizona!





Elle

Mmm, shoes!

Infinity Shoes!

That is the name of what has just become my new favorite website. They have a huge selection of shoes and boots, from styles which range from casual to dressy and the prices are quite good. I've spent the better part of an hour looking through this site and I'm still not done.

As I mentioned, they have a huge range of styles. I really like the seychelles shoes, particularly the "Drive a Hybrid" boots. I love the pattern on those! The minnetonka boots are very cool as well, especially "Sail Fish." But, my favorite style may well be the tsubo shoes. These are just gorgeous, especially "Celini" and "Kiva."

Shoes, believe it or not, make a great gift for someone, though it's not always the first thing that comes to mind. However, I had a birthday recently and got a great pair of boots from a friend, so trust me -- if you know the recipient' shoe size, shoes may very well be the way to go in terms of a gift.

Infinity Shoes offers free shipping on all orders over $59.98 (at least they do right now, it's a limited offer) which is very nice, as shipping charges add up. Quickly. I'd like to mention, too, that Infinity Shoes also has physical store locations, so if you happen to be in New York City, you might want to drop by. The rest of us will have to make do with the website. Give them a look, you won't be sorry you did!

Elle

Ecco Bella -- Here is Beauty!

There's a trend towards organic everything nowadays. Ecco Bella (which means "here is beauty" in Italian) is a line of cosmetics that offers Mineral Makeup and other organic beauty products, such as shampoos, body lotions and skin care.

Not only are these products formulated from organic ingredients, they are cruelty-free, never tested on animals. Whether or not you care if your beauty products are organic, I think most people would agree that cruelty-free is always the way to go when it comes to personal care products.

Ecco Bella has a very wide range of products, something for everyone, and I use some of them myself and I love them. Give them a try, or give them to someone else -- Mother's Day is coming up!

Elle

Mother's Day Gifts

What are you doing for Mother's Day?

Many people decry Mother's Day as a holiday created by commercial interests. However, while its status as an organized holiday in the United States is relatively recent (1908 or so) the concept of a special day to honor mothers is actually quite a bit older than that. The US holiday has its genesis in "Mothering Sunday," a UK tradition that dates back to the 16th century. On Mothering Sunday, individuals would visit their "home church" (aka their "mother church"), meaning the church they attended as children and would presumably be reunited on that day with their parents, assuming they were still alive and belonging to the same parish.

Even if I felt Mother's Day was a cheap commercial holiday, there is no way I could skip it because it would break my own mother's heart. Mom lives for this kind of thing, and who am I to disappoint her? So, I capitulate. My own taste in cards, for example, runs to the quirky and funny but on Mother's Day I pick out the biggest, rose-covered card I can find, one which preferable has something like "What is a Mother?" on the front because I know that's what Mom likes.

She also adores flowers, so thank goodness for 1800Flowers and their wide selection of mothers day flowers and gift ideas. There's something there for all tastes and they have a handy Mother's Day Gift Guide for those of you not lucky enough to have a mother who is very specific about what she does and does not like by way of a Mother's Day gift. Like mine.

Mother's Day is coming up soon, guys, a week from this Sunday. If you're still trying to think of a nice gift for mom, visit 1800Flowers and see what they have for mothers day flowers and gifts!

Elle

Use Vista Print for All Your Printing Needs!

I've mentioned Vista Print before -- it's a really cool website where you can take care of all of your printing needs. They offer services such as rubber stamps, marketing materials, car magnets, business cards, checks, and window signs. The window signs are a really nice product, and great for small businesses. They are very reasonably priced, and you can tailor them to your specifications, just as with all the other Vista Print products. Even if you're not a small business they could come in handy -- schools, for instance, could use them for educational materials.

As I mentioned, you can customize these products to meet your specific needs, which is always a very useful thing, and what's more, their prices are very reasonable and they offer -- wait for it! --- FREE STUFF! You can get free business cards, stamps, checks, and a bunch of other things. Come to think of it, I actually need new checks. I'm just about done with the ones I ordered oh, two bank mergers or so ago, and it might be nice to have the actual bank name on my checks even though it doesn't matter, they can still be used. I may have to spend a little more time on Vista Print and see what I want. I'd suggest you all do the same. Just check out their website and see what they have to offer -- you won't be sorry you did!

Elle

Have you looked into Lifelock?

If not, you should.

Seriously now. Everyone knows it's a good idea to protect your personal information. Yet how many of us actually do anything about it? How many people, for example, make sure their mail is shredded before it goes into the trash? Carefully check bank and credit card statements? Know where their ID is at all time?

The sad thing is, you can do all that and STILL get your identity stolen. Identity thieves are pretty smart, and if someone really wants to, they can get hold of your personal information, such as a social security number, and make your life really, really difficult. That's why a service like lifelock is so useful. Lifelock guarantees your good name by protecting your identity. They contact credit bureaus for you, and ensure that fraud alerts are set up. They make sure those fraud alerts are renewed every ninety days or so (if you request), and also get you off all those "pre-approved" credit offer lists. Those, by the way, are an excellent way to get your identity stolen. Most people just throw them out, and they often contain enough information about you for a clever thief to take advantage of the situation. Lifelock does a bunch of other things as well to protect your identity and keep you from being the victim of fraud. And they back it up with with a $1,000,000 guarantee! It's definitely worth checking out!

Elle

Need a holster?

A while back, I mentioned that two of my cousins, E and A are both involved in law enforcement, and both occasionally read this blog. They don't read it for law enforcement purposes, mind you. Anyway, in that post I mentioned LA Police Tactical Gear, a site which provides police and military gear.

Well, guys, they are running a new special, this time on Galco holsters. You, and anyone else who may have need of such things, may want to check them out. It's a cool site, even for us civilians!

Elle

Planet Fat Loss!

As you know, many of my blog posts deal with diet issues, specifically low-carb diets. I've followed a low-carb lifestyle for nearly five years now, and it works for me.

There's a pretty cool website out there that deals with Fat Loss. It's called Planet Fat Loss, and they have some pretty interesting and informative articles on their site. One of the better ones, which specifically mentions a few low-carb plans, is Diets That Work. I also like Weight Training Strategies, since I'm thinking about starting to do a more formal weight-training and exercise routine. In the land where "formal" means "at all," mind you!

Anyway, it's a good site, very easy to navigate, and has lots of useful information. Definitely give it a look!

Elle

Free time and expense software!

Attention, small business owners! I have a really great find for you! It's free time and expense software. Really free! It's Journeyx Timesheet and from what I'm seeing, it looks like a perfect solution for those of you who run your own business.

If your business bills for expenses, tracks employee efforts, or does any kind of project-oriented work, this could be a huge help to you. It can help you manage timesheets, invoicing, project control expenses and payroll. Click on the link to read some Timesheet success stories and see if Journeyx Timesheet is for you!

Elle

Izea Ranks: Real Ranks for Real Bloggers

There are many blogs out there nowadays, on every topic under the sun. Some blogs are personal, maintained as a way for family and friends to stay in touch. Others are "niche" blogs, which provide a forum for discussion on specific topics -- which can range from daily discussions on comic strips to the latest tech gizmo.

You might not think that the owner of a "mommy blog" detailing the day's happenings in the life of a family would care so much about how many people visit and link to that blog as would a professional tech blogger, but they do. It's a given that the professional blogger has a lot more invested in traffic than does the personal blogger, but we all like to know how popular our blogs are.

There are several ways to gauge how popular a blog is, and how much impact a blog has. There's counters, which record how many people visit the blog in a given day. Another measure of a blog's importance is how many other sites link to it. The latter is most often used by various search engines to assign a "rank" to a blog or website.

But neither counters nor the number of links can really give a full picture of how much impact a blog has. Luckily for bloggers, there's a new ranking system out there which takes both visitors and links into account -- Izea Ranks. Izea Ranks is a system in which bloggers register their sites, and it ranks you against other blogs, as opposed to every kind of website out there. This ensures that your blog's popularity is matched against other blogs, not every last website out there, and it gives you an accurate and true measure of how you stack up against your fellow bloggers.

Izea Ranks is simple to use -- just click on the link, follow the process to register your blog, and start seeing your stats! (Hint: The lower your ranking, the better your blog!) I've been registered with them for several months now, and I find it's a very good measure of how well I'm performing as a blogger. I'd encourage everyone who maintains a blog on a regular basis to sign up for it -- it's a great tool, and it's sure to become the way to rank blogs in the future.

Elle

It's Seiko Time!

Bluedial.com has great deals on a variety of watches, including my personal favorite, Seiko. Of all of the Seiko watches available, if I had to pick my favorite Seiko Watch, I'd pick the Seiko SXGN26 Ladies Two Tone Coutura with Diamonds -- I love the two-tone metal look anyway, and hello -- diamonds? Of course I like diamonds! They also happen to be my birthstone. The Coutura has a sleek, understated elegance to it, which I like as well. To me, this watch doesn't scream HEY! LOOK AT MY BLING! That's the look I go for in jewelry, and truly, this watch is a fine piece of jewelry.

Bluedial.com has over 20,000 watches in stock, making them a leading internet watch distributor. They have great deals, and are definitely worth checking out if you're in the market for a new watch. You can buy from them with confidence, as they are BizRate.com customer certified. H

Elle

The Raging Tech

Tonight is apparently Blog Review Night. Here's another fun blog, The Raging Tech. First of all, I love and want to steal his header graphic. I also like his posts on useful things such as how to download high quality Youtube videos. Where was this blog when I needed it a year ago -- Dancing in Socks Guy was home for the summer, "home" being northern New Mexico and a dialup connection. We share a love of old cartoons, and to surprise him, I downloaded a bunch of stuff from Youtube and sent it to him, but the quality was crap. He's back to his own place with a high(er) speed connection, but I think I may need to use The Raging Tech's useful link to get myself some better quality video. Check his site out, I think you'll like it.

Elle

Shop Local!

I live in what my fiance calls an "unbelievably quaint little village." In terms of population, we're actually a town, but in atmosphere we really are a village.

I moved here because I liked the 'village' atmosphere. My town is unusual in that it's got a very diverse population in terms of economics -- we're not one of those towns which have driven out blue collar inhabitants by virtue of rising property costs. Here, doctors live side by side with fishermen. And, we like it that way!

Another thing we like is the many small businesses we have here. Our small business community, unlike so many others throughout the country, is thriving. One big reason for that is that many of us who live here make a point of shopping locally whenever we can.

If you live in Southern California, I'd like to encourage you to do the same. Spears Appliance - Family Owned & Operated Since 1929, is a mom-and-pop store that's giving those big-box companies a run for their money. Not only do you get the kind of customer service from Spears Appliance that you just can't get in a mega-warehouse store, you can get comparable prices! Why? Because mom-and-pop stores like Spears Appliance are starting to form co-ops and joint warehouses with other small businesses, which enables them to pass the savings on to you -- just like the big-box stores do. Beyond prices, you'll find that Spears Appliance offers great service, both on items covered under warranty and those which are not. Try getting the latter with one of those big chains!

Spears Appliance is now online as well, I'd encourage you to click on the link above and check them out. Tee site is great, very professionally done and informative. Keep in mind, you don't need to go big to get a bargain!

Remember, shop local!

Elle

Attention, Mommy Bloggers!

As many of you know, I've been doing sponsored blog posts for some time now, as part of my ongoing campaign to pay off all those student loans, and it's going very well. It's a great way to sharpen my writing skills, and earn a little extra money in the process.

I've been working for a wonderful company called Izea, and I really can't say enough good things about them. They've got a great base of advertisers, which means that there's all kind of opportunities available, which in turn makes it easy to select sponsored blog posts that fit in well with the general theme of your blog and are of interest to your readers. Their "Customer Love" team really lives up to their name -- I've peppered these poor people with questions many a time, and they've always been friendly, courteous, and quick to respond.

Izea is launching an incredible new service called SocialSpark. I was fortunate enough to be chosen to be one of the alpha-testers for SocialSpark, and I'm loving it. SocialSpark is a new concept in sponsored blogging -- it's a social networking site (think Facebook) where bloggers and advertisers can interact with each other. I think it's going to be really big, and I'm very excited about it, and quite proud that I was asked to help test it, along with many other bloggers.

A lot of my fellow bloggers are "mommy bloggers." These stay-at-home moms do sponsored blogging as a way to help supplement their family income, and SocialSpark promises to be another great Izea resource for such bloggers. I've seen lots of opportunities directly related to topics targeted towards families -- educational software, children's clothing, vacation destinations and things like that. While it's still in alpha-testing at the moment, SocialSpark will be available to the general public soon. If you're a mommy blogger -- or any kind of blogger, for that matter -- who'd like to be paid for writing on topics that you write about anyway, visit the SocialSpark website, and sign up to learn more.

Happy blogging!

Elle

Jung SuWon Martial Art Academy

Do you live in the Silicon Valley area? Are you looking for a Martial Arts Academy, either for defense or as a way to get some exercise and de-stress? If so, then you might want to give the Jung Su Won Martial Art Academy a look. According to their website (which is very nicely done), "Jung SuWon is the way to unite your Body, Mind and Spirit as one." It's for both adults and children, so if you're interested, check them out and see what they're all about!

Elle

Coming out of my shell ...

More Adventures in Movie Making! I am having way too much fun with this! Below is my latest attempt at movie making:

It's funny, now. At the time I wanted to just curl up under a rock and vanish. But that was many years and many levels of confidence ago. Now I think nothing of announcing, "I need to use the bathroom!" regardless of who might be around. I've really come out of my shell since then.

Speaking of shells, you can learn all about Gulf oysters by going to the Be Oyster Aware site! You can learn all about Vibrio vulnificus and who should be aware of it. Read about post-harvest processes and how they help keep you safe. Don't forget to check out their recipe section while you're there!

Elle

Lake Buena Vista Hotels -- a Great Place to Stay!

One of the benefits of being in science is all those lovely conventions we hold. I belong to two scientific societies, and between them, there's always something going on. Even now, when information is so freely and easily transmitted over the internet, these conventions are a great way to hear about the latest developments (since many people hold back their biggest news to present at these things), meet colleagues, and -- my favorite -- collect conference swag!

The conventions are usually well-planned, but one thing that makes a big difference in how enjoyable these things are is where you stay. The choice of hotel can really affect the entire experience. It's more than just a clean room, you know. While a big chunk of time is spent at the conference proper, you do have some free time, and it's important to select a hotel that will offer a lot by way of non-conference attractions and events, as well as a hotel that really knows how to handle a bunch of convention attendees.

Lake Buena Vista Hotels is a perfect example. They're perfectly situated so their guests can joy the many nearby Orlando attractions, such as Downtown Disney Resort Area®, Pleasure Island, House of Blues and City Walk, among other great Orlando attractions. They are also just minutes from the Orlando Convention Center, SeaWorld®, Universal Studios®, and the Florida Mall. They are also very familiar with the specific needs of convention attendees -- in fact, the 2008 American Urological Association Annual Meeting (also referred to as the AUA) is going to be held at the Orlando Convention Center, and Lake Buena Vista Hotels would be a perfect place to stay if you're attending that event. Lake Buena Vista Hotels is geared towards convention attendees, and will make your experience that much better. So, if you're attending the 2008 American Urological Association Annual Meeting -- or planning a vacation to Orlando -- consider staying at the Lake Buena Vista Hotels !

Elle

What would you do with a $20,000 home makeover?

Dancing in Socks Guy and I are planning our first home together (depending on a few things, more on that later) and we're debating the relative merits of a house vs. a condo or a loft or whatever. I'm leaning towards 'house' as this shared space will happen in the Southwest in an area where xeric gardening is the norm, meaning I won't have to mow anything (I'm lazy like that), just rake some rock chips and plant a few cacti. Dancing in Socks Guy is leaning heavily towards some kind of loft space. I don't mind that either, but I did point out to him that a loft probably means he won't be able to have that tricked-out propane grill he's got his heart set on, since many condos prohibit them. His response to that was that we could keep the grill in the bed of his truck and grill there.

Sure we can, honey.

We may not agree on that, but our taste in home design is more or less the same -- clean lines, splashes of color. We know what we'd like, but there's a little problem of how to pay for that. That's where promotions such as Triscent's Transform Your Home could be quite helpful.


I would totally remake our living room. We actually have a great bedroom set we bought together (that I only get to use every six weeks at the moment) but the rest of our collective furniture screams "big garbage day." Particularly our living room furniture, which consists of two futons, one of which is extraordinarily uncomfortable. I'd get a great living room suite, preferably something that was amenable to slipcovers, what with all these cats and planned kids. I'd also like to invest in some great artwork for the walls, and of course, bookcases to house my eight hundred books.

I'd also plan a specific scent for the room. I love a well-scented room, I can spend hours choosing the right scent palette for a room! Something like Seaside Breezes would be perfect for the space I'm envisioning -- light, airy, but warm and comfortable at the same time. Scent is an incredibly easy way to transform your home -- think about how we all associate certain scents with certain emotions or events. Bayberry always makes me think of Christmas, for example, while lavender calms me, and the scent of the ocean makes me feel energetic.

As I mentioned above, TriScents, by Renuzit, is running a content were you can enter to win a $20,000 home makeover. Be sure to follow the official rules, but here's the basics: Just register on the site. Then, you'll need to upload video or photo of your home, and write an essay showing TriScents your home. You'll describe why you need a home makeover and how Renuzit® TriScents™ can help you remake your home.

Pretty simple! Remember, though, that the maximum length for the video is two minutes and the limit for the essay is 250 words. I'd encourage you to try TriScents and see how great this product is. There's a printable coupon on the TriScents page for you to use -- it's simple to download, and it's a great way to try a wonderful product and save some money in the process. Give it a try, I bet it will give you some ideas if you decide to enter the contest!

Elle

LA Tactical Gear!

E. and A. are my cousins, who are both in law enforcement and sporadically read this blog. On the off chance that they drop by here, oh, sometime this decade, I have a link for them. It's LA Police Tactical Gear, and they are featuring tactical boots.

I love websites like this, I've always been fascinated by how there are all these things that surround different types of work that those of us who are not directly involved in such work know nothing about. I know what a holster is, for instance, but not what kinds are used for what situation.

Anyway, guys, there's the link for you. I hope I see you before the next funeral!

Elle

American River Capital, Inc.

I came across the website for American River Capital, Inc., a company which bills itself as An Investment Company that you can Trust. If their website design is any indicator of their professionalism in other areas, this may be worth checking out. It's a very clean, slick design. They offer investment services for e-gold and e-Bullion account holders to grow their funds through an offshore finance partner.

Elle