If you or anyone you know has ever used any of these items or is interested in using these items or has reason to not like these items, please spill! Comment away (or have your friends comment here if you'd like). I'd love to know! Some of the links below will lead to samples and/or coupons, so click!

• Glade® Wisp® Flameless Candle


• AVEENO® POSITIVELY AGELESS™ Lifting & Firming Products


• Claritin® RediTabs®


• Ziploc® Twist 'N Loc® Containers


• Ziploc® Big Bags

Now, for you link lovers out there.... have fun!

• 72 Hours - Ever wondered what to pack in an emergency kit? 72 Hours has the answers for you!


• Food411.com - This is an excellent resource for foodies and food novices. Looking for lemon curd or turducken? Looking for recipes or kitchen hardware? Stop by Food411 for advice and links!


• Gamesville - For all those who love playing games!


• Giveaway of the Day - Some of the giveaways here are pretty interesting and some can be rather lame. Today's is weak, but other bits of software offered there have been worth it. There's also a gaming giveaway of the day. I created a feed for this one: giveaway_ot_day


• Recipe Matcher - Have ingredients in your pantry or refrigerator and don't know what to make with them? Try this site! It lets you use more than five ingredients (unlike allrecipes.com) but will not let you list ingredients you don't have (like allrecipes.com will). There is even a search for cocktail recipes.


• Who is Sick? - This is so appropriate for me right now since I am sick yet again. I'm not quite sure how well it works since I wasn't able to post but that could be because I use Fx and not IE. It's certainly worth checking out.


• Ditto - For all you list lovers out there... from music to movies, see lists from other people or share your own.

I know most of you are aware I am a BzzAgent. I can't say enough good things about this program right now. I'll probably have a few posts about the current campaigns, just to get opinions of my friends.

The first one is for all of you burger lovers out there. If you eat at Chili's or are interested in voicing your opinion based on the description online for these burgers, please take the time to fill out the poll and add any comments if you'd like.

Poll #1160351
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Have you ever eaten a burger at Chili's before?

Have you eaten a burger at Chili's within the past two months?

If you have eaten a burger at Chili's recently, was it from the promotional line of Smokehouse Bacon Burgers?

Based on the names of the burgers alone, please check which burgers you might be interested in trying:

Based on the descriptions below, please check which burgers you would be interested in trying:

Please feel free to comment if you've had one of these burgers or are interested in trying one of these burgers or if you're a cow and have a few choice words for Chili's regarding their distribution of your family.

I'll give my opinion about the burger I tried later (someone might need to remind me).

Blah.

• Job hunt equals much frustration and serious self-confidence destruction and minor depression.
• Next round of the Friending Frenzy to follow shortly. If anyone else wants in on the action, let me know. I have at least two more people interested.
• .
• Thank heavens for new Signing Time videos. Sophie is being terribly cute by searching the house for Hopkins (the frog) right now. I love that kid to pieces!
• I will eventually get around to responding to the recent post/poll about the crafts. I greatly appreciate all of your responses, even if it was to just vote in the poll. That helps me tremendously.
• Someone once asked how my username came about. I believe she said something like, "What exactly is a 'sm00bs'?" Well... here's the answer, because I know you're all dying to know. Back in the day, I used to have an AOL account (I mean, really back in the day). I had fun hanging around in the chat rooms there and came up with the screen name of Sm00chies. No idea why, but that's what it was (Smoochies was already taken). In the chat room I frequented, people often called me Sm00 or Sm00byDoo. Sm00byDoo stuck when I moved over to IRC (yes, I'm that sort of geek), so that was my original nick there. Of course, one of my dear friends always called me sm00bs and eventually I caved and just changed my nick permanently. I assumed he just called me sm00bs because it was a shorter version of Sm00byDoo. Apparently, while that was part of it, it wasn't the whole reason. Yes, it had something to do with boobs, even though he'd never seen mine (still hasn't). Silly boys. It's not a very exciting story, but there it is. I kept it because it was my name for years before I started LJ. I tried using ellemenno at one point, but just couldn't get into it.
• I will hopefully be posting about some of the recent campaigns for BzzAgent. I now have two cans of Oust, a Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner, and coupons to Chili's for free burgers. I'm going to do a little poll to see what opinions other people have of these products soon.
• If any of you are looking for good music in podcast form, perfect length to burn on a CD for a car ride, check out starpush's monthly release of Soundtrack. This last Show, Class Is in Session, is excellent! I know some of you share my taste in music, and even B found this show entertaining. I highly recommend it!
• One of these days I'll get around to playing with icons. I think I need a little play time.
• It's time to get really serious about my sewing. I might even take a class or two. The more I think about it, the more I want to make the Etsy thing work.
• Eventually I'll get some pictures and videos posted of Sophie. I just have to get the videos uploaded and go through the pictures.
• Gah. Much stress weighing be down right now.

Carry on.

Okay, here we go again with the poll...

First, a little explanation as to why I'm changing the options.

lindalee_ mentioned that using 00 in whatever name I select might lead to confusion, and she's very right. Ever since I've been using this name, there's always been a bit of confusion. I don't want to carry that over to a possible website or something for people to search since they might not realize they're zeros.

I believe pensivesea mentioned that Tiny Treasures is a little overused and she's very right. I was actually doing a search on it as she was typing her comment and I found a mess of sites all related to baby items or daycare and don't really want to have to compete with that (or run into legal issues with it, for that matter).

Now, that out of the way, I suppose we'll be starting over here. I'm so anxious to get these ordered! I think my biggest problem right now is coming up with a cute logo. Any artist out there care to offer up any cute and adorable designs? :)

Poll #1155642
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Which name would you suggest for tags for sewn items that might possibly be sold at some point?

If you selected Other, please list your suggestion here.

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Also, don't forget the Friending Frenzy! If your name is listed in the main entry, make sure you've added a comment about yourself. If your name is not listed in the main entry but you're interested in joining in the fun, let me know because there will be another round.

I need to do a post about a few Bzz campaigns I'm doing. I'll be giving away some coupons for free products if anyone is interested. I haven't decided if I want to do a trivia quiz or just a first comment first serve type of thing. I need to do it soon, though!

I have videos and pictures to post if I ever get around to it. We're either having issues with our router or our ISP and any pictures we host here cannot be seen by anyone else. It's becoming highly annoying.

winter_in_asia has posted an entry about no content in his journal for those of you upset by recent LJ changes. I know at least one or two people on my f-list are upset by this, so please take the time to check out his entry and join in if you wish. It might be a slow day for the Salmon....

Does anyone have ideas for other items I might be able to sew quickly and sell? Thanks to msbluerasp, I've added zippered pouches and pincushions to my list of things to try. I'm guessing I could probably do placemats and napkins as well. I've also considered making simple purses of some sort. I'm really thinking about setting up an Etsy account and selling the bibs and all the stitch markers I've made so far, and was trying to come up with anything else I might want to add to the mix there.

We'll be fish sitting this week for Thomas the Beta, our neighbor's fish. Exciting, no? I think it will be interesting for Sophie to see another fish other than the ones we have at least.

Okay, I think that's it for now.

• Two green links to share:
  
  
  • Low Impact Living
  • True Green Confessions


• I submitted an entry to the craft blog last night. I'm still waiting for it to post. It has pictures of the bibs, but I'm going to post the pictures here as well (click images for larger view).
  
  
  • 
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• .


• I'm going to invest in a few books (probably mostly used) listed in this list of top 50 children's books (thanks kingdavey).


• The Great Wolf Lodge sounds like a seriously cool place to spend a weekend. One of my friends took his family this weekend. I can't wait to hear how it went since it really seems like it would be a blast.


• A friend of a friend is trying to raise money for an emergency situation. She takes beautiful photographs. Please check them out. holding_on, would you like to share some information about pricing and how to order here? I'll edit the entry if you do.


• For those of you mystery shoppers out there, I have another legitimate mystery shopping site for you to check out.


• For those of you still blogging for money, PayU2Blog is another site that seems to be legit (I have another friend who uses it). I haven't really checked it out, but I trust her.


• For those of you interested in the whole BzzAgent thing but still not sure, I just signed up for three more campaigns. One is for the Scrubbing Bubbles shower spray, one is for some sort of Oust spray, and one is for Chili's burgers. I'll be posting separately about these later, but thought I'd share a little now.


• B is playing in a Hafla tomorrow night. I'll most likely be taking Sophie unless she's a serious turkey tomorrow and doesn't nap at all.
  
  


• TMBG is less than two weeks away!

Hmm... I've really got a lot of nothing.

• Blue's Clues is a new favorite here (well, for her... I've always loved it). Sophie goes absolutely nuts when Steve is on (she seems to like Joe as well, but doesn't get as excited).
• Speaking of Steve from Blue's Clues, the man has character. I have great respect for him.
• .
• The impetigo is clearing up. Come to find out it was staph infection but wasn't MRSA. Friday night we switched to Amox-Clav to fight the infection. She's on that until next Friday morning (1 tsp twice daily) along with the Bactroban still (three times daily applied to diaper area). I am so glad it's looking better.
• Sophie's had a bit of a fever this weekend, but nothing very high. It hasn't made a difference in her activity level at all.
• Found an excellent little site for book fans, or anyone just looking for a good book, really. Check out Goodreads for more information. If you are a member there, feel free to add me (same user name, of course).
• Rather blah today. Hopefully the sun remedies that in short order. Lots to do! Craigslist and eBay postings need to be done, bibs need to be sewn, knitting needs to happen, cleaning is a constant... It never ends.
• Please hold good thoughts and say a few prayers for me on the job hunt front. Meh. Depressing.

With that, I'm done. It's someone's nap time and she's being terribly cute about it.

I'm pretty sure I've posted about this before, but I can't find it right now. I know I found it through someone else's LJ, but don't remember which journal. If you love to challenge your vocabulary, check it out. It's all for a good cause. For just a click of the mouse, whenever you get an answer correct, you add 20 grains of rice to your bowl to be given to less fortunate people. The vocabulary words used are quite challenging, too!

Link recommendation: MyBoneYard®.com

B and I are very careful with how we dispose of our waste. Because of this, we have a pile of electronics sitting here waiting to be recycled because we know at least some of the pieces can be reused, and what can't be reused could possibly be considered toxic waste, I would imagine. This site supposedly makes it easy to recycle, and to even be rewarded for it.

There are a few drawbacks to this site. They only recycle cell phones/PDAs/handhelds and computer equipment (towers, laptops, monitors, tablets, etc.). I'm disappointed they don't take televisions (even just small TVs), DVD/VCR players, individual hard drives, mice, and various other electronics. These components are just as important to recycle as what they have here. However, this is an EXCELLENT start! The more people who know about this, the fewer of these items hopefully will wind up in a landfill. Cell phones will get to shelters and computers will get to schools without them having to waste the energy on new equipment.

It seems as though the sign-up process is fairly simple. I couldn't complete it since I need to find all the pieces I have that need to be recycled. I'm not entirely certain how the reward process works since there wasn't enough detail about that prior to actually having an item recycled (not even in the FAQ section). I do like that they have free shipping, which encourages people to recycle even more. Hopefully this site is as easy to use as it appears.

This is for US citizens only, at least for now.

I was going to wait until I had more links from the Frogpond to share them here, but I think this one is worthy of its own entry. Ripoff Report is an excellent site for reviewing bad reports on various companies.

Yes, there are probably some vindictive people writing reports so the information should be taken with a grain of salt, but it's a little easier to find the negatives this way when doing research before dropping a bundle of money.

So many times when trying to find the skinny on various services or products, I run into either advertisements or people who are selling/promoting the product or service in some way. It's not always easy to get both sides of the story. The nice thing about Ripoff Report is that people (including businesses trying to defend themselves) can submit rebuttals/updates/comments to any negative report filed. Another thing about RR is in the event there is actually a serious issue that many people have reported, it's much easier for information to be collected for use in a class action lawsuit (although I'm sure they have to filter out a lot of junk, too).

There are other tips on the site, advice on how to avoid scams and such, not just people complaining about being ripped off.

It's certainly worth looking at, and even using when doing research before spending all that money on a new car or a pool or when going to buy something "as seen on TV," etc. Just because a company has negative feedback doesn't necessarily mean we should avoid doing business with that company, though. Be sure to read all comments to the reports if you read the reports at all.

I was catching up on frogs over at the pond today and found a few I thought worth sharing.

• Jott will actually work with LiveJournal, so I figured a few people on my list will be interested. It also works with Amazon, Blogger, Google, Remember the Milk, and various other sites. Call Jott from any phone, say what needs to be said, and Jott will transcribe what you have to say into readable text. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm very interested to see how well it works.


• Pipl is almost a little creepy. Type in a name and you can find info here that Google or Yahoo might not be able to find. Granted, it only can list public information, but it makes it pretty darn easy to find that public information. I found many of my old addresses (big deal, right?) as well as information about my deed and my marriage license simply by looking up my name. I will probably use this when looking into daycare centers and such, just to be on the safe side, although I know that's a bit of a double standard.


• Lulu is like a mix between Etsy, Shutterfly, and deviantART. There's a little creativity for sale, the ability to upload images (and create calendars!), and has a community aspect. It's fairly similar to Zazzle but I'm not certain Zazzle sells books and I'm pretty certain Zazzle didn't have music or software and I know Lulu doesn't sell shirts.

Enjoy. Feel free to share opinions here if you'd like.

After my less than pleasant experience with Shutterfly (the calendar was okay, but their outsourced customer service stinks and their die-cutter for their magnet doesn't work for beans), I was pretty happy to find Zazzle. Not only can I create a calendar there, it appears as though there is much more configurability as well. I'll have to play around with it for next year's calendar, or I'll ask my sister to make one for me (the iPhoto calendar she made rocks).

What's really cool is you can create anything from shirts and bags to stickers and even postage! Their prices are a little better than stamps.com as far as smaller orders go, but if you want to order in quantity, stamps.com is still the way to go. You can either upload your own images, or purchase from items already created.

I'm not sure what the quality of their products is like, though. That's my only concern. I really want to play around with the calendar and find out how nice it is before trying to make one for next year. From what I could tell from my quick run through, they don't have easy templates, but I could actually take a digiscrapped page and upload it for the image, too. I also don't think they allow configuration of the dates, but I could be wrong.

Edited to add: Apparently, one of my friends has a gallery at Zazzle. Check out pensivesea over there at ktyqueen's gallery at Zazzle. She has some seriously amazing images up there. alicat4164, she has some great cemetery photos you would probably really like.

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For those of you not in the know, I am a member at BzzAgent. This is not anything for which I get paid. However, I do get to try products (some have been very cool!) by doing this. If you're interested in joining, feel free to click the image below. I don't know if I get credit for people joining under me or not. I just grabbed an image they have for us to share.

If you didn't know already, I've received a bottle of Afrin (by which B now swears), some Crest dissolving whitening strips (ew, so glad we didn't pay for them), and a Philips Sonicare Flexcare with UV Sanitizer electric toothbrush (which we both absolutely love), all for the low, low price of... FREE! I also get to review new (and old) websites. I seriously love this site. If you're interested to see anything I've posted here from BzzAgent, click the BzzAgent tag in the post.

This isn't like the lame survey crap that will send spam and all that. I hate those things. This is an honest to goodness legitimate opinion and survey site. I found out about BzzAgent by reading a post in callita623's journal and am so thankful I did! Anyhow, if you're interested, check it out.

I just read about AllMusic. Maybe this site has been around for a while, but I've never seen it and I wanted to share it. If I've been living in the dark and this is old news (like last.fm was when I finally caught that wave), please spare me that information. Another link for those of you who love to listen to music but don't have mp3s or CDs nearby and have a high speed internet connection, check out Pandora (this one isn't new, but I don't think I've shared it before).

If there are any other worthwhile music related sites out there, please feel free to share them. Thanks!

Looking for a place for quick games (and not so quick games)? I used to play at Pogo all the time and would recommend them to anyone. I like the way they're set up better than Yahoo! or MSN.

Like I have time to be bored, though...

I'm not sure if I've ever shared just how forgetful I can be, but it's pretty rough at times. Poor B asked me to get lights while I was out shopping with my mother the other day and I completely forgot. It's quite annoying, to be honest. I found a site tonight that actually helps people like me remember even the most mundane things. Remember the Milk is perfect for people like me! I imagine I will use it heavily once I start working again. My only problem will be to remember to use it!

I have to share one of the coolest products I have received for testing. About a week ago, I received a Phillips Sonicare FlexCare toothbrush in the mail and I have been using it ever since. I have to admit, I absolutely love it. I have never enjoyed using an electric toothbrush but this one is amazing! It gets my teeth so clean! It also has a nifty UV sanitizer attached to it. If anyone you know is in the market for a good electric toothbrush, I seriously recommend the FlexCare. I will be buying replacement heads shortly so B can share the awesome "dentist-like cleaning" I have been able to enjoy over the past week. I just need to remember to head over to Amazon.com to order them (found them a little bit less expensive there than anywhere else so far).

I've caught a few issues of this magazine, but the website for Family Fun is too cool to go unmentioned. Parents, teachers, and other child-care providers can search for activities by age group. I love it! :)

Digital Photography Review is one of the most informative sites I've seen for digital photography questions. I wish the site had been around when I was searching for my camera. I bought mine because of its size, and I'm happy with the one I have now, but I really went in blind. I bought two cameras prior to the Casio Exilim I have now and returned them both. For those of you photographers (amateur or professional) out there, have you ever used this site before? What other sites do you like to use for camera information?

For those of you who have no clue when it comes to cameras (like me), how did you make the decision to purchase the camera you currently own? If you don't own a digital camera yet, are you planning to buy one? Will you be researching prior to making your purchase?

I'm full of questions today. :)

This is so cool! I think I might actually be able to find a unique gift for B that he will enjoy at Excitations. They have lists of adventures which can be sorted by region and price. I'm going to look for a driving adventure for him. Hopefully they'll have something near us that he will enjoy.

This is probably the most excited I've been about a gift idea. I haven't even picked a gift yet, but I know he would love something like that. Fingers crossed I can find something that will fit our super tight budget right now.

I don't know how many of you watch moocards, but I have to say right now I absolutely love their products! They have some of the coolest images and designs, and if you can't find something that works for what you want, you can always upload your own images.

I was fortunate enough to get some of the freebies when Moo offered 10 mini cards to LJers. I'm very happy with them, and am tempted to order more, but will wait until I land a job before doing so. I really hope they continue to add products. I seriously love the quality of the cards I've received. :)

Thanks to a post by callita623, I found out about BzzAgent. If you like to give opinions, fill out surveys, and test products, check it out. As far as I can tell you won't actually make money, but you can use your voice to spread the word about products you like or don't like.

If you sign up for it, have fun! :)