Tag Archives: Christmas

Auction Loot (or “It looks like Christmas”)

So I made out like a bandit at the auction at school. I ended up with five baskets (three of them were the hugest ones there) and two gift certificates. I got good deals but I still spent some cash but I use to donate to the foundation by having it taken out of my check, which was boring, now I just go nuts at the auction and spend it there.

Results on the stuff I donated: My Costa Rican coffee basket had gotten quite a few bids but I think it still only went somewhere in the thirty-ish dollar range. My Cat in the Hat Visit basket wasn’t selling very high at all (it had a few books, an audiobook, stickers and a visit from the Cat in the Hat [that would be me] for story-time or a party) so I bought it. The few times I’ve done it before I did birthday parties and it’s hot inside the costume and the parties are usually outside and if someone isn’t interested in donating enough money I’ll donate it myself (and keep one of my Saturday afternoons free). Plus this means I’ve already got my basket made up for next year!

Auction 2007 BasketsSo here’s the loot I got (click the image for a larger photo):

  • Margarita Basket – Glasses, mix tequila, chips, dip, etc.
  • Another Margarita Basket – Glasses, mix tequila, gift certificate for a mexican restaurant (no address or phone, just a name) and some kinda frozen popsicle molds. The basket was a serving tray.
  • Christmas Basket – This had some beautiful things in it: a cool serving bowl that the spreaders look like light up bulbs (but they don’t light), paper, ribbon, candles, beautiful ornaments, and lots of other stuff. This was the best deal and I got it for a steal. I don’t know where I’m putting this stuff since all the Christmas stuff is in storage.
  • Family Basket – Four board games, Uno, some books a puzzle, a movie, popcorn and movie candies (and the basket was a laundry basket).
  • My Cat in the Hat basket – Ready for donating next year!
  • A gift certificate for a hair cut – at the Fantastic Sams by work (where I go anyways).
  • Another gift certificate for a hair cut (but not really) – when I opened the envelope I saw it was for something else, I’m assuming someone else complained and I’ll switch with them, otherwise I have month of free karate lessons. Continue reading
  • iLike Music (especially FREE music)

    So I keep forgetting to mentioned that I found iLike, it’s kind of a music social networking site.


    The big difference is it recommends music to you and allows you to download it for free. It appears to work best with iTunes, if you download the iLike sidebar it’ll upload lists of what you listen to most and make recommendations in the sidebar where it’ll let you preview music and download it directly to iTunes. Now the free songs are mostly artists that you haven’t heard of, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t any good, I’m really enjoying some of my new found music. It seems like most (all?) of the new music comes from GarageBand.com

    My iLike page is at http://ilike.com/user/garylapointe

    They just keep adding new features that they’re pretty god a keeping you up-to-date on the iLike Blog. And they’ve got a widget for your web page (which I’m hoping is showing up on your screen as you read this) and it’ll even let you play my recently played songs as you read this post! Continue reading

    Understanding ROBOTS.TXT (which will help search engines understand you)

    So search engines are tricky to understand, especially if you want the search engines to find your site and people to find your site via the search engines. One of the things you may want to do is restrict pages that the search engines find, that might seem silly to exclude yourself but I don’t want people inadvertently finding my site.

    Here’s an example, I don’t let* the search engines search my monthly archives. Because on the page of 20-50 unrelated posts the information on that page is pretty much unrelated by the end of the month. In December 2006 the mention of “iPods” on the 3rd, has nothing to do with any of the mentions of “family” or “Christmas” but if some searched for “iPods” & “family” or “iPods” & “Christmas” they may come upon that page and while I want traffic I’m not trying to lure people here under false pretenses. This is why I have categories like “Apple” and “Friends + Family” that will have related posts in one location (and even then it’s still kinda a wide range of articles).

    So far I’ve just told you why you want a ROBOTS.TXT file but I haven’t told you how and I’m not planning on it, because Google just put together on “Controlling how search engines access and index your website with ROBOTS.TXT”. It’s got a lot of links that take you all over the place but there’s lots of good info there. Continue reading

    Random Thoughts…

    So I’ve just been behind with blogging and posting info from the trip to Costa Rica. Partially since I’ve been so busy and sick in the parts in between. So, some little tidbits:

  • $1.79!!!! – Okay so I’ve mentioned gas prices occasionally and that I get excited with great prices, but today I got it for $1.79, I think that’s my record since I started blogging…
  • Wine bags – So I was cleaning up today and put away bottle of wine that I received for the holidays. It came in a wine bag (which was really cool) but what do you do with the wine bags after you take the wine out? Do you re-gift the bag the next time you take a bottle of wine somewhere? I have more than a few wine bags and I just don’t know what to do with them (I’d probably reuse them but I never think of it when I’m taking wine somewhere).
  • Christmas cleaning – I hate putting away the Christmas stuff when the holidays are over. It’s a pain in the ass for one thing, but I miss the holiday atmosphere and the lights. Actually, it’s mostly the lights that I miss. Continue reading
  • Gifts for Mom

    So Mom seems pretty happy with the gifts that I got her for Christmas. In particular she likes the book Before You Leap: A Frog’s Eye View of Life’s Greatest Lessons by Kermit T. Frog. It’s very cute but seems like it really might have some interesting thoughts on it. I just spotted it at Borders, I hadn’t heard anything about it but it looked like something Mom might like.

    The other item was one she specifically asked for: a new vacuum. Her last vacuum was 34 years old, so it was about time. I settled on the Eureka Altima Bagless Vacuum and it was a good choice, she’s been playing around with it today. It’s got a great extendable duster thing that is self cleaning (I don’t even know how to describe it). It was a breeze to put together, three (3) screws and we were done (they could print the manual a little larger though!). It’s nice and light too. I had spotted it at Target and the line was horribly long so I figured I’d check out some other models and maybe come back. Later, Kelly mentioned it was the same one she just bought to replace hers and then it was on sale the next day so I took those two things as a sign and picked it up.

    She seems very happy with that and all the other items that Santa and I brought her!!!

    Happy Holidays Everyone!

    Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope everyone everywhere has a wonderful day!!!

    I’ve got a few updates and a few things to cross off my list that I’ll be updating y’all the next few days…

    Very Excited for the Holidays!!!

    So I’m very excited about the holidays!!! Tomorrow my house will be packed with people. I’ve never had this many people in my condo so it’s going to be a tight fit. Twenty-eight people, I think about 10 will be kids and while I’ve generally got stuff for kids to do things, I don’t have much space for them to do it in, that’ll be the trick!

    Saturday (the 23rd) will also be the closest to Christmas that my extended family (on my Mom’s side) has celebrated Christmas since 1997, I think every year before that we got that group together on Christmas Eve. That’s why I’m having it this year, I wanted it closer to Christmas and this way, I get my way :)

    Well, I’m off. I’ve got a bunch of little things that need to be done, but enough of everything is done so I don’t have to worry about it. I think I’m done with all the kids except one (and I think that will require a call to his parents since I’m clueless).

    Jonesing for a Coke

    So I gave up Coca-Cola for a few weeks for several reasons. It’s on my list of 101 in 1001 to try and see how if it makes me feel any better or sleep any better, etc. I chose this time just to hopefully have less sugar/caffine in my body to maybe stay healthier for the holidays (especially since I’m hosting Christmas for 25-ish people on Saturday). I’m not allowed to substitute other (inferior) caffeinated drinks or extra amounts of chocolate, etc.

    Well, the health thing didn’t work out since I got sick a few days later (last week) and don’t know if I slept better due to the illness or the decrease of sugar/caffine. No friends or coworkers have noticed I seemed to be less hyper :)

    But I do get cravings for Coke, even when I haven’t removed it from my intake. But the other day at McDonald’s I got my number three which includes a drink, fries a Quarter Pounder with cheese, no pickles or mustard for those of you who may not know what a McDonald’s is, let alone what a #3 is. And as I took a drink of my soda I realized I was taking a really really long drink through the straw and it was tasting really really good. And then I realized why, I accidentally got a Coke. So while I hate to be wasteful, I went and dumped it out and got a Sprite instead. The Sprite just wasn’t the same…

    So I’ve got two more days to go. Actually, about two days and five hours. And I’m really ready for it. And I know I need to try this experiment again sometime, the getting sick really through off the results the “experiment”. But I think I’m gonna stick it out for a few more days just because I can. Maybe…