Wendy Carlyle

One of the non profit organizations that I work with has started an email marketing program for some of their fund raising activities. I think that is a great idea, as most people now have an email address and access to the internet. So sending out emails is a quick way to get a message out to hundreds of people and it is less expensive than having materials printed or photocopied and then sent out by mail.

The only problem with sending out all these emails is that you need good email marketing software to handle the large lists and to provide templates for quick composition.

The last time I sent out emails to a long list of recipients, I had problems with my server flagging the emails as spam and limiting the number of emails that I could send at one time to less than 20. So to send out 2,000 emails, I would have to send the same template out to a list of 20 people 200 times. Let me tell you, that is very repetitive and tiring. Especially when there are email marketing solutions to handle those types of issues for you, faster and easier.

At Kroger I noticed that they are having a sale on Blue Bell ice cream. You can buy three gallons for just $10, for this week only.

This is a huge savings on the very best ice cream in the store. Normally they sell one gallon for $6- $7 per gallon. So to buy 3 gallons for $10 is a savings of about $11.

I barely have room in the freezer for 3 gallon containers, but I plan on making room somehow. This is too good a deal to not take advantage of it!

Just about every small business has realized by now that they need to be online and that they need at least a basic web site. Some businesses are still having a hard time figuring out how to make that happen. They have to learn about web hosting, web design, SEO and all the fun things that the professionals do to make a functional, revenue generating, internet presence.

Once they master the basics, then the more advanced options have to be considered. For some businesses, a managed hosting arrangement is an affordable option to hiring engineering staff and housing a full IT department.

If storing a lot of computer equipment on site becomes a problem, a very practical way to free up space and increase security is colocation. By sending your servers to an off-site facility, you no longer have to worry about fire, vandalism, theft, or natural disasters that may affect your primary place of business. The servers and all your data will still be safe and available for use because they are somewhere else.

Most of the time I use the remote control that came with the cable box and watch the little bit of TV in the living room, either with the kids or sitting on the couch with my laptop after they go to bed.

The living room TV is hooked up to the cable box and so is the DVD/VHS player. So the one remote control works to watch cable or a movie. When i bought a Playstation 3, I hooked it up to the living room TV, too. That is our main entertainment system.

But I do have a smaller TV in the bedroom and it is hooked up to the cable through the DVD player. This is a different hookup and I have to use different remotes. There is one for the TV and a separate one for the DVD player. It gets to be too much to keep up with and I rarely even bother with turning on the TV in my room.

But last night I wanted to lie down and watch a movie with a good chance of falling asleep before it was over. So I decided to watch it in my room. I found the two remotes and got it to play just fine, but in the process of starting the movie, I discovered that you can use the remote to select extra features on the DVDs. It probably sounds totally dumb on my part, but I never knew how to access these bonus features until just now!

Got a great idea from my little sister. Scrubs for casual wear. Medical scrubs are so much cooler than sweat pants and they are such easy care. They are practically indestructible and most types of common stains wash right out. They wash in cold water and if you take them right out of the dryer then there are no wrinkles.

My sister bought a couple of sets of nursing scrubs. She likes the bright colors and bold patterns of the tops and the way the white pants fit with a drawstring waist. The tops can be seasonal and also reflect major holidays. She loves wearing the Halloween tops on weekends throughout October while she runs errands.

I might just order a scrub set for myself and give it a try. I feel like a slob if I wear sweat pants out of the house. I think I could wear the scrubs and not feel so conspicuous at the gas station and the grocery store.

Rented the movie, Cop Out and didn’t have high expectations for this movie. But I like Bruce Willis, so I though I would give it a look.

Well, this movie is hilarious. The dialogue is fantastic, with a lot of references to famous lines from a huge number of popular movies and TVs. The comedy is well delivered and the acting from an assortment of “B” List actors and unknowns is really good.

My only criticism is that the movie is supposedly set in New York City. Well, there is very very very little about this movie that looks, sounds or feels like New York City. They should have just changed the handful of references in the script to NYC and made it L. A. It would have made no difference to the story line and it would have been a lot more authentic.  I bet they spent maybe 2-3 weeks in NYC doing a handful of location shots to get the skyline in the background and the subway, then the rest of the movie was obviously shot in an L. A. sound stage.

There are some really funny scenes in this movie. I think I will buy it and add it to my DVD library next time I go to WalMart or Target.

I read online that Google is not letting users make free telephone calls anywhere in the U. S. and for a very low cost if you need to make an international call.

I haven’t tried it yet – have you called anyone using Google yet? Does it work for home phones and business phones? Does it work for cell phones? I’m not sure how it works but I’m willing to learn!

As much as I love to travel, I am always looking for new things to do in the major cities and I love reading web sites about travel. This morning I found a site that has information on the top attractions of each city, discount rates on good hotels in each city, and package deals, too.

For example, I go to Boston quite a bit but when I thought about it, I only seem to go to Boston as a pit stop on my way to someplace else. Almost all the flights to New England ski resorts have to stop in Boston so you can change planes. Next time, I should plan to spend a day and night in Boston and see the sights and the top hot spots before going on to the ski resort in Maine or Vermont.

If I want to go to Florida and spend time at Disney or other Orlando area attractions, there is a great deal at a 4 star Orlando hotel for rooms starting at $109. What I like about the Caribe Royale is that they have three towers, with two for anyone, including families, and one tower exclusively for adults. So if you want to go someplace to get away from the kiddos, with all their noise and running around, then you can get a room in the adult tower.

If you have ever been to Orlando, then you know how hard it is to get away from families and children. But there are plenty of adult activities – Orlando is not just for kids.

Read a joke on Facebook that was really funny. It was not from one of my friends. He had posted it on another friend’s wall as a comment to a thread I was sharing with her.

Anyways, the joke was about a fisherman’s encounter with God and being tested by God. The story is really long, but the point of the story is that if a man lies, it is because he has good reason.

The story was funny. But the point of the story is not funny to me. I don’t thin there are very many good reasons to lie. I am trying really hard to teach my children to be honest and truthful. This is very hard in today’s world when everyone around you seems to think lying is OK. If you listen critically to most of the sitcoms on TV, the entire episodes are based on lies and liars and we are expected to accept that as entertainment.

We’ve had such a busy summer that for some reason we never got around to seeing many movies. This summer had a lot of kid-friendly and family-oriented movies. But we never got around to going to the theater. I guess we will start going again when the weather gets colder and there is not so much to do outside.

The top box office hit this summer was Toy Story 3. We enjoyed the first two Toy Story movies, so I really do want to see the 3rd one. If we get a rainy weekend with nothing else to to do, I guess I will try to find the Toy Story 3 at a local theater, if it is still playing anywhere.

After a while, just finding anything but the current top 5-6 releases playing anywhere is hard to do. If I can’t find it on the big screen, I’m sure it will be relased soon on DVD. Probably in time for Christmas.