My Opinion Counts

Check out my friend's Queen of the Night bloom. She stayed up all night to get pictures as it bloomed. It is an amazing plant. It blooms at night and by morning it is all shriveled up again. She gave me a start of the plant. I hope it survives my brown thumb with inside plants.

Queen of the Night pictures.

I love flowers and have been adding to my perennial garden each year. I wait with much anticipation, each spring to see what survived the winter. This is a picture of my flower bed this year. I finally found my list of what things are so I can know what came back and what didn't.

I feel that some kids aren't prepared to get behind the wheel of a car and drive on our busy roads. Their parents only let them because they think they have no alternative. High School drivers training is offered and kids are anxious to take it so they can be cool and drive. Parents think that if they don't pay for their child to take drivers ed in school at that time, they will have to pay out the nose for them to attend a commercial type driving academy when they think they are mature enough to do so. Most people think that to go to a commercial driving school or take a course while in high school are the only choices available.

Please, if you feel that someone you love isn't mature enough to drive, tell him or her to wait. If your loved one or friend isn't capable of quick reactions or show anxiety when they think of learning to drive, don't let them until they get the problem taken care of. Some people are not alert enough to drive. They should not be on the road in a powerful machine that can kill.

RoadTesterz Driver Training Services is an alternative that works! They saw the need for private lessons or advice on how to teach someone to drive whom for one reason or another doesn't want to attend a commercial driving school. Their local service area is in Long Island, NY and can help you with scheduling a time slot for their services. They also offer professionally instructed private coaching sessions to enable you to teach someone to drive. If you are not in their area, they offer a free advice phone line to help you.

They also offer a training manual developed solely for teaching students how to properly train for and pass their road test. That manual would be excellent for anyone, experienced driver or the novice, to brush up on their knowledge of all the rules and laws pertaining to driving.

This is such a good idea. I hope it will make our roads safer.

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My son, Greg, tagged me to tell 8 things about myself so here goes.

The Rules: “Each person links to the person who tagged them. Then each person posts the rules before their list, then they list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the post, that person tags and links to 8 other people and then visits those peoples’ sites and comments letting them know that they have been tagged, and to come read the post, so they know what they have to do.”

1. I love corn on the cob but I use a knife to cut the kernels off first because it hurts my teeth to eat it right off the cob.

2. I love peach roses.

3. I hate messing with canned dog food. eeew gross

4. I don't mind painting.

5. I have stenciled patterns on my walls.

6. I have my dogs baby teeth in a jewelry box.

7. I don't watch soap operas.

8. I have trouble hearing in rooms with lots of people in it.

Okay, now I tag...

Kate at I think therefore I blog

Loretta at Thoughts Out Of My head

Autumn at Autumn's Space

Just Not Martha

Magical Moments

Blushing Blog Gal

Brooke at Be Delighted

Steph at Home With the Kids

Don't you wish there was a directory you could go to when you want to find a type of business website but are lacking a name? Well, now you have such a directory. BizFive.com is a Business Directory that is strictly for businesses. It has many categories such as education, entertainment, and finance, to name just a few. If you are looking for a website on entertainment, you can click on that category and be taken to 5 other categories. Those categories are broken down so that you can get the specific type of entertainment you are looking for and not have to wade through hundreds of entries.

As a website owner listed in Bizfive, you will appreciate how BizFive's editors carefully organize information into relevant categories. That ensures that your business is found where users would expect it to be.

BizFive also has great news and business sections so you can keep informed of relevant topics of interest.

This site is going to be very valuable. Check it out.

Sponsored post.

Did you know that Nokia bought Twango? I didn't even know what Twango was until I kept hearing about it all over the internet. Twango is an online media sharing site. You know, when you need a site that supports all sorts of file types like photos, video files.

Sign up at Twango It's free!

Press Release:

This is an exciting moment for Twango. When we started Twango back in 2004, we set out to create a media sharing service that would embrace and build connections between people. We wanted to make it easy for people to share the media they choose (photos, videos, audio, documents, and more) in whatever way they choose. So it was thrilling to learn that a company of Nokia’s global stature and resources shared that vision. Together we will be able to deliver more quickly on our shared vision to enable people to capture and enjoy their personal media anywhere, at any time, from any connected device, in any way that you choose.

Not a sponsored post. I just wonder what the big deal is. How does Nokia plan to use Twango?

I was just talking about how big black ants keep invading our home every time it rains. I suppose I should count my blessings that they aren't fire ants. Those things are awful. I've never heard of them coming indoors. I'm glad because they cause enough trouble outside!

There is a great guide for dealing with fire ant infestations. The site gives good advice for fire ant treatments and various ways that their mounds can be eliminated.

The site is very interesting as it gives an introduction to how they live and how they go about their business of getting food and building their mounds.

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That stupid football player Vicks or whatever his name is makes me so angry. The Pit Bull breed of dogs suffers because of people like him.

For years, the Pit Bull has received a bad rap. They are loveable dogs who make wonderful pets. The people who train them to fight are the ones who should be put in the ring and made to duke it out. They make me ill just as much as the people who raise roosters for cock fighting. I see those cages all over their property in plain sight. The law must be looking the other way so they can join in with their bets.

A fellow blogger had a nightmarish experience with his hard drive that pushed him into the realm of Linux. It's been six months from the day he formatted his hard drive, and now he relies solely on Linux. He, like many, had a dual boot system, with Windows XP and the Ubuntu Dapper Drake (6.06 LTS) distro.
The majority of his hard drive was given to XP, as he’d only been using Linux for around a month and was slowly transferring things over. Then, every computer operator's worst nightmare with his or her operating system began to unfold. I'll let you read Matt's story so you get the exact progression of what took place. I just wanted to let everyone know how much he recommends Ubuntu to anyone looking to try out Linux. I think, after reading his story, you will agree!

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My sister loves coffee. In fact, her blog is called The Coffee House. She swears by Green Mountain coffee and likes several different specialty flavors.

After a hundred years of making coffee, my hubby tells me that my coffee is too strong. It only took him 10 years to tell me he didn't really like my tuna casserole. I wonder if we need counseling?

I have reduced the amount of grounds I put in the coffee maker. We shall see.

I happened upon a link to The Coffee Fool. They have some interesting things to say about what makes a good cup of coffee. Here is a synopsis:

Nearly all of the coffee out there is stale. The good news is that stale coffee is drinkable if you've never had truly fresh coffee. The bad news is that once you've tasted truly fresh coffee, you'll be forever hooked. It will make you giddy every time you go to make a pot. Tingle right down to your toes. Reverberate around your head like a funky aura. That's because coffee, just a few days out of the roaster, is nature's most flavorful drink - more complex than even wine - containing well over 900 flavor compounds to dance on your taste buds. But after a few weeks, you'd be lucky to see half that number.

How do you know if coffee is stale? Simple test: If it's bitter or flat, it's too late. Coffee is actually known by connoisseurs as a 'sweet' beverage. But shush... you're not supposed to know that. And who doesn't want you to know? Coffee companies who make their living on convenience. And yes, believing that freshness is as simple as 'burping' air out of a coffee container, is convenient. Truly fresh coffee is a pain because you have to order it frequently.

This is not a paid post.

If you are a hockey fan, you need to know about a great website. Hockeysfuture.com has the results listed for the 2007 nhl draft. So, if you're interested in what the future holds for hockey, you might want to check it out. The site gives reviews on the teams and what they think the prospects are as far as what the teams will do performance wise.


I was reading the article on the Flyers hockey team and it sounds like they were pretty lucky to get at the top of the pecking order! Maybe they'll have a better chance of winning this year. Don't let the Avalanche hear me say that! LOL It looks like a great site to find out what is going on in the world of hockey.

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I was reading some of Heloise's Hints and found some that I want to remember. You never know when you might need some of these so I thought that if I put them here, I'd be able to check back to find them.

1.Use salt to clean cutting boards.

I think that would be a great idea. It would act like sand paper and the grit would get the caked on stuff off.

2. Use baking soda in the bottom of a gym bag.
I have used it in my refrigerator buy I think I'll sprinkle some in the hamper.

3. Use lemon juice to remove stains from butcher blocks

4. Use cream of tarter to remove rust from porcelain fixtures. I didn't know that would work!

When I attended an auction a few weeks ago, I lucked into some old furniture for our lodge room that we had built. I noticed that there was an old grandfather clock listed on the sale bill. I was able to look at it and wasn't very impressed with the construction of the cabinet. The clock sold for an outrageous price. For that price, I know I can buy a beautiful new grandfather clock. I can choose the face and get the style of numbers that suits my tastes. Grandfather Clocks are a beautiful piece of furniture and really make a house feel like a home. At 1-800-4clocks.com, I found a beautiful grandfather clock. I would really like to have a mantel clock, which they also sell in their store or online, but I don't have a place for one. I do have the perfect spot for a grandfather clock. I've always been a fan of Howard Miller clocks. I remember seeing that name in school on those wall clocks where we watched the minutes slowly click by. I'm sure that if those clocks lasted all those years in the schools, that means that the workings are of excellent quality and will last for years and years. I know that Seth Thomas is also an excellent manufacturer of clocks and 1-800-4clocks.com has a nice selection of their clocks. Bulova is the cadillac in my opinion when it comes to clocks. Their clocks are gorgeous. What a beautiful gift this clock would be to celebrate our recent 33rd wedding anniversary!

See how the wood grain is different colors. We use all types of wood in our house so this would work well with what we have. I like the flat top rather than the decorative style shown in the picture at the beginning of my post. The wooden, reeded grills give it that Frank Lloyd Wright look that both hubby and I like. The face is not formal and would go in our new log cabin type room as well as our more traditional family room. The style doesn't lock us into only putting it into a formal setting. The price is reasonable and includes free shipping and setup. Thanks, 1-800-4clocks.com for introducing me to your wonderful site and letting me tell my friends about it.

I am so proud of two of our local citizens. The Blankenship brother's have been trying for years to make it in the film industry. They already produced a movie called, "Dead End Trail," a western and now have a suspense supernatural film that is getting noticed. It is "The Calling," and is about an urban legend that becomes a reality to a man tormented by mysterious phone calls on a stormy night.

The film was recently accepted to The Big Damn Film Festival in Minnesota. This is something they have been striving for since they were children and used their parent's video camera around the neighborhood.

Kudos to the Blankenships!

I think I shocked hubby the other day. I was tired of waiting for him to fix the bathroom drain so I did it myself. I don't profess to be up to date on the latest tools and building products but I surprised myself when I put the drain back together and it worked!

Glue Guns, building product was about all that I knew how to use because of my craft projects. This time I went to the forums at www.tool-net.co.uk and just asked how to make my drain work better. I got great advice! I pulled the drain out and cleaned out all the gross hair. Then I put it back and held my breath. It worked! The water drained out so fast! I don't know if I used the correct tools but I know that if I need something I will be going to Tool-net to buy what I need for my next project. They offer great deals on power and hand tools as well as building materials. Hmmm, I wonder if hubby would notice if I knocked out a wall.

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