My son's friend is an amazing musician. I don't know how many instruments he plays, but it's a lot. I have a piano sitting in my front room and when he comes over it's like a concert in here. He is so good that I am forever trying to come up with reasons to have him over. How nice an evening is with dinner wine and piano! Christmas he came with ibanez guitars He played guitar as beautifully as he does the piano

Before Christmas I went to visit a friend of mine in California. It was a short jaunt connected with business, but nice nonetheless. At any rate, my friend took me to some a furniture stores los angeles and I was quite surprised to such a variety of designs. I never thought it would be different than where I live, but it sure was! We had fun picking out her new stuff.

Yep and guess what?  I'm back to looking for a way to get into shape! I have made a new plan for this year. And to be honest, I actually started my plan already and have lost ten pounds. This year instead of looking for the one solution, I am going to change what I am doing every four weeks. I started with a soup diet. Next will be HCG diet Austin

I appreciate the guest post, Marian Combs

Last year, I found a show on direct tv colorado that really changed my perspective on how we are feeding our kids in this day and age. The show, “Food Revolution” with Jamie Oliver featured different areas of the United States with alarming rates of childhood disease and obesity. As Jamie dug into the lunchrooms around America, it was shocking to see the poor quality of food that our children are being served each day in public schools. What was also more startling was to see the lack of education being offered both at school and at home in terms of food choices, nutrition, and exercise. Most kids spend a minimum of two hours each parked in front of a television or computer. Very little time is spent exercising or even in play or physical activity of any sort. Kids have very little knowledge of portion sizes or even the names of common fruits and vegetables. It is time we create our own revolutions staring at home. It is vital for the sake of our own health and that of our kids to empower children with the tools they need to live a healthy and long life.

I really like things that are personalized and I don't just mean like picked for me personally. I mean things that have my name on them. Especially things that I might use at work or at gatherings with lots people. So, I figure most people would also like these kind of things too. So, I bought my drinking buddies personalized bar glasses . I thnk they will really like them, anyway, I hope so.

When I asked my sister what my nephew might like for Christmas, she told me he was in a school program learning welding. That's cool. I think welders can make a decent living for themselves. Anyway she said he needed welding jackets well, one jacket. I hate buying things that people need...I'd rather buy something they want, but I know their budget is pretty tight so I'm going to see what I can do.

It’s been a long time coming but we finally committed to getting a sunroom built.  I’ve wanted it forever, but on the few times we got estimates it was way out of our price range.

Well we also wanted to get our windows replaced with hurricane windows.  After many estimates and annoying salespeople, we hired a company called Window King.  The price seemed reasonable for their strongest windows and when they came and installed them, they did a great job. They were neat, fast and we were really impressed.

So, we asked about a sunroom.  We ended up contracting them to do it, albeit after a little haggling over the price, we are so happy that we did.  Their product is simply great!  We now have a beautiful 14 x 18 room that I love!  We thought the  price was good compared to all the other estimates.  For under $18k we now have a bright, all weather room where we can hang out during the winter or summer and be comfortable.  We should have done this long ago, especially since we are smokers and do not smoke in our house.  Check out the video of our project:

Window King uses Gorrell windows that are awesome.  They come in a variety of designs and strengths and the best part is that they have a “no questions” lifetime (or well at a 50 year) transferable warranty.  This was especially significant regarding the hurricane windows. 

After checking out the video of our project, if you need windows or a room like ours, be sure to call Window King to at least get an estimate.  I feel pretty sure they will meet or beat any of their competitors and their product is awesome.    You can email Todd at todd@windowkingusa.com or call him at (228) 596-7032..   He’s a real nice guy who will work with you to get you what you want for a price you can afford.

Usually at this time of year, I am exhausted because of all the hours I spent going to check out christmas sales . But not this year! This year I have done every single bit of my shopping online. I even passed on Black Friday and I think I ended up getting as many good bargains as I usually do.   I'm not sure, but I think the online sales were as good as in the stores, but I guess that just depended on what you were looking for.  Anyway, I'm proud of shopping behavior this year and it is nice not to be worn out!

Well I'm just about done with all my Christmas shopping. This year is going to be fun. My brother has a girlfriend who has three kids so for the first time in years my parents can actually buy some toys. I volunteered to fill the stockings so that's all I have left to buy except for something for my mom. She does lots of art shows and I was thinking that maybe a cash drawer might be a useful item for her. I'm just not sure yet but it might work.

Well the art show season is about over which means I need to go over and help my mom store all her supplies. She loves displaying her stuff at these shows but it really does take a lot to make it look professional. I think that I have bought her most of her display stuff because when she needs something she asks for it on her birthday. The last think I got was retractable banner stands. They are cool though because they are easy to store.