Boating is a fun summer activity, and we have plenty of lakes here in Wisconsin, so there are plenty of boats out on the water. Here in Wisconsin, there doesn't seem to be any activity that doesn't involve beer. Somehow, I don't think boating is excluded from that.
It seems pretty obvious when you stop to think about it. Boating Operating Under the Influence is just as dangerous and just as illegal as operating a motor vehicle on the road while under the influence of alcohol. Arizona Game & Fish is offering Boating Education Online in an effort to educate people and hopefully save some lives.
Watch some videos. Read some facts. Learn about boat safety, and save the beer for later.
The topic of today's list is - Give Me Five summer time TV shows you enjoy.
Let me see if I can think of some of the shows we've been watching.
The Mole - I never do figure out who the mole is, but it's fun watching all the different tasks these people have to do. Also, this year there's a teacher from Mukwonago on the show. Mukwonago is just down the road, so even though we don't know the man, it's still like having a neighbor on the show. Some of Cory's friends go to the high school where he teaches, so they do know him.
I Survived a Japanese Game Show - Americans on a Japanese game show, what's not to like? The weird costumes and the games they have to play, and the enthusiasm of the Japanese audience. Yeah, it's fun.
Wipe Out - I can't decide if I actually like this show or if I just can't turn away. I just know someone is going to get hurt playing this game. If they don't get killed, they will definitely have bruises for a long time.
The Outsiders - a series of ABC Primetime shows profiling people who are, shall we say, a little unusual.
Quantum Leap - Yes, I know it's not a new show, but I always enjoyed this one, and I've been watching it every once in a while this summer when nothing else is on.
The good thing about summer television is that you can watch it or not, and it doesn't really matter. If you miss an episode or two, that's OK - unless you're trying to figure out who The Mole is.
I could have said she's in the cathouse, but that has a whole 'nother connotation, doesn't it?
However we say it, Tillie's in trouble. Cory got a new Zune for his birthday, which isn't until Tuesday, but he got it early. So he's had it for about a month now. Last night, while he was sleeping, Tillie jumped up on his desk and chewed the wire to his earphones up, in several places, so now they don't work. These are were some nice earphones, now they're toast. Replacing them? Not cheap.
Even though, officially, Tillie is Beth's cat, I'm pretty sure she thinks she's Cory's. She spends as much time in his room as possible, either in his window or on his bed - or under his bed. Now, she's not entirely welcome in there.
Of course, she's soft, sweet and adorable, so I'm sure he'll forgive her soon. Brat cat.
I just signed up for a new site for pet lovers and all about pets. It's called ZooToo, and it looks like a very helpful site. You can post pictures and information about your pet(s), connect with other pet lovers, find and review pet services, and even get free samples of pet supplies to try and review. If you have a pet question, you can ask the rest of the community at ZooToo to find an answer. I'm particularly interested in finding some opinions on what cat food we should be feeding Tillie. The vet said we should be feeding her a better food than we bought at first, but buying the food from the vet is way too expensive.
I haven't figured it all out yet because I was spending more time uploading pictures of Tillie than anything else, but you earn points through your activity on ZooToo. Inviting friends, writing in your pet journal, uploading pictures, all contribute to your point total. As you accumulate points, your status in the community grows, and you can use your points to help various causes, such as animal shelters and rescues.
If you love pets and want to know more about what real people think of the pet products and services on the market and in your area, then you'll enjoy ZooToo.
We had a couple weeks without Tillie in my Camera Critter posts, so I figured it was time for another Tillie pic or two.
Since the weather has gotten warmer, she has decided the dining room chairs are a nice place to sit or sleep. They must be cooler than her usual padded rocker. Also, if the chair is pushed in, which this one is not, she's mostly hidden under the edge of the tablecloth, and we don't see her unless we're actually looking. I'm pretty sure she plans it that way.
Besides sleeping, Tillie's other favorite activity is going outside. She will sit at the front door and meow until someone takes pity on her and takes her outside. Once outside, she likes to chase bugs and leaves, and stalk through the grass.
Visit the Camera Critters headquarters and find out how you can join in. All the post headers, badges and rules are there, as well as Mr. Linky so you can sign in.
It's been a more than a month since I mentioned anything about our newMP3 players but we got one of the rebates yesterday and it reminded me.
I was having trouble using my Sansa c250 player with our library's Overdrive service. I thought it was working, except that I couldn't rewind or fast forward through the tracks. That I could have lived with, but about 3 tracks into my first book, when I started playing what should have been about 40 minutes into the track, it started from the beginning. No matter what the counter said, I could only start from the beginning of the track. That meant that I listened to the first 40 or so minutes while I was walking one day, then the next day I either had to listen to the same 40 or so minutes, or just forget the whole thing. It was rather frustrating, especially considering I don't have as much time to listen to books since Jeffrey has started walking with me in the mornings. I guess we could both listen to our MP3 players while we walk, but it's nice to be able to talk to each other. But I had a couple days to walk by myself because he was in Baraboo for work, and one of those days was a complete waste.
I have since deleted all those nice books I downloaded from Overdrive and added some from MP3 CDs I checked out of the library. I put them all on Jeffrey's player, too so he can listen to them in the car with his FM transmitter. The MP3 books work just fine.
I also downloaded a converter from Giveaway of the Day that removes the licensing from the Overdrive books and converts them from WMA to MP3, and I used that to convert a new book I downloaded from Overdrive. That works perfectly - I can fast forward and rewind if I need to, and it starts where it is supposed to. My conclusion is that, yes, the Sansa c250 player can work with Overdrive, but you will have to find a program to convert the files to MP3 first so that they will work properly. It's probably easier just to check MP3 or audio CDs out of the library and use those, but sometimes it's nice to be able to just download a book and not have to actually go to the library. Also, I have had the best luck setting the player's mode so that I can just drag and drop the files onto the player instead of syncing with RealPlayer or Windows Media Player.
Last night at dinner, I told Cory he needed to put the dishes away so I could wash the dirty ones. There was a whole pile of dirty ones because I didn't wash them Wednesday night either *gasp* - so they really needed done. Then dinner was over, and the next thing I knew Cory got a phone call. He had a Teen Library Council meeting that he had forgotten about, so he was off to the library, and my drainer was still full. I figured the dishes still needed done, so I put them away so Cory could wash the dirty ones. Except that didn't happen, because by the time he got home from the library he had other things he wanted to do, and it got late. I figured it would be OK if he washed them this morning.
Except, I forgot that he was volunteering at the library this morning so he got up early, but then he left. Now it's almost 2:30, and he's still not home. He hasn't been volunteering all this time. He went over to his friend's house (the one who gave him the video game from the video) and he won't be back for a while. That means my dishes still aren't done, and there are even more because we had breakfast, I had lunch, and I turned 4 bananas into muffins.
I'll be washing dishes now - so the drainer will be full again. Maybe this time Cory will stay home long enough to put them away.
I always put off getting new glasses because I know they are going to cost so much - and our insurance doesn't pay for eye exams or glasses. That's why I'm very interested in ZenniOptical.com. They offer all kinds of great styles at incredible prices. Imagine, a complete pair of glasses, starting at $8! Depending on the frames, they can cost more, but still a better deal than buying them at the eye doctor's or store.
Zenni can offer such great prices because they sell only their own frames, direct to the consumer, and there's no middleman. It really makes you wonder what kind of markup they add in the stores. At the Zenni Optical prices, we can afford to order several pair for less than the usual cost of one. Also, no matter how many pair you order, shipping is just $4.95.
Update: We have ordered glasses from Zenni Optical several times now. We have always been very pleased with them. They are truly a great value, and there is no reason to pay over inflated prices for eyeglasses ever again!
We did it - we got the calendar to the printer yesterday. Of course there is always last minute stuff - inserting ads, correcting images, changing wording here and there - so we never get things finished as soon as we want to. Mary was running the CD and print-out to the printer, rushing to get there before they closed at 5pm.
We wouldn't have been quite so rushed, but for some reason my computer doesn't copy all the fonts into the folder properly, so I dragged them in manually. Then, the fonts wouldn't work on my computer. I finally figured out that, instead of copying the fonts into the folder, my computer had moved them, so they weren't installed on my computer any more. Once I figured that out and got them re-installed, things looked better, but I had to check every page and correct some formatting that got messed up. Why does packaging the file into its own folder mess up the formatting? It shouldn't do that, but I hope I fixed it all. I hate when I work so hard on getting everything just so, and then it comes out wrong.
When Beth started driving, we saw on the news that some insurance companies offered special devices to install in teens' cars to monitor their driving. Our insurance company wasn't one of those, but we thought something like that would be really helpful. Beth, of course, thought it was more like spying.
The more I read about GPS tracking, the more I think it's a good idea. If just knowing that her driving is being monitored means a teen will drive more carefully, then that's a good thing. These can be set up to send emails or text messages whenever certain speeds are exceeded, when the vehicle leaves or exits certain locations, and other options that can be easily configured through the secure web portal. With the GPS installed, you can always locate the vehicle if you need to.
Live View GPS offers many GPS products for both personal and business use. There's no software to install, and it works from any computer with an internet connection. They offer guaranteed low prices and no long-term contracts. We may not have installed and used something like this with our first teen driver, but we're about to have another one, so it certainly can't hurt to look into how this can work for us.
