What I don't miss the most

Sometimes when I have free time I just sit and think. Since we don't have television, I don't have the option of just "vegging" out on the couch watching TV. And I definitely think this is a good thing.

Of all the television shows I remember watching, the ones I miss the least are talk shows. Some of them were reasonable in their content, like Oprah or Montel Williams. But the Jerry Springer show in particular was a total circus. It was purely for entertainment, not informational at all. I mean, requiring a DNA test to confirm your baby's father is bad enough, but some of these women came back on the show over and over to get more men tested. Do we really need to see this??

Worse still, is that these shows are on in the daytime, when small children are home with their mothers. I certainly don't want my children to think this is normal behavior. Anyway, I'm still content without TV. This month marks one continuous year and we are still going strong!

Oh no! Please no!

I found out today that our coveted $5 per month trolley passes for residents will be no more as of August 1st. This is all due to a complaint from a resident who lives in our county, but outside city limits. Residents living within city limits paid $5 per month, while county residents outside city limits paid $15 - which is still a great deal. Someone complained to the Federal Transit Administration because she had to pay the higher price. They decided that indeed it was unfair to charge a lower price for residents, and now the price will be $30 per month per person. What??!!??

And if that wasn't bad enough, they will also make us pay for our kids, who were free before, to the tune of $20 each - yes, this includes my two year old. So what used to cost us $10 a month for the whole family, will now cost us $100 a month. Well, it looks like we will be walking more because there is no way we will pay that amount.

In a last-ditch effort, I will try to buy six months worth of passes in July (at the $5 price) and see if they let me. It will be like getting six months for the price of one at the new price! Crazy. I am so upset about this. I really feel sorry for the disabled people I know that rely on the trolley as their daily driver. I hope at least they will get some kind of discount.

Skateboarding is not a crime

I saw this very disturbing video of a group of young skateboarders in Little Rock who got mistreated by police and arrested and by now it has made national news.



This all goes back to the jocks in high school beating up the skaters and all the cliques that torment kids during the teen years. This police officer obviously has some repressed anger towards skaters to treat these kids the way he did. His behavior was totally inappropriate and over-the-top.

At least skaters are getting together with friends to skate, instead of hanging out and doing drugs or drinking alcohol. So many teenagers end up in drug rehabs nowadays, we should promote skating as a viable past time for kids. I think more skate parks should be built to keep kids from skating on the sidewalks instead of arresting them.

Furniture updates and changes

Along with our wish list of improvements to our house, we also have a list of home furniture we would like to update. On the top of the list is a dining room table. The one we have now has been with us for seven years and it is very small. It was fine when it was just my husband and I, but now we are a family of four with two children who like to kick while they eat at the table. Several bruised shins later, let's just say we have definitely outgrown the table.

Our plan is to move the current table into a corner of the basement, where I would like to create a "homework station" for my daughter. She will be in first grade next year and she really needs a place of her own to create artwork and to complete school assignments. Plus, I would like to hang shelves down there so she can keep all her art supplies together, instead of tucked in different cabinets in the kitchen like they are now.

Something missing?

My daughter was very fidgety last night at bedtime, which is unusual for her. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "I don't know, Mom. I just feel like something is missing." These sounded like very mature words coming from a six year old's mouth. I asked her to tell me more about how she felt and she said she couldn't explain it. I know she absolutely loves living here, loves our house and loves life in general. So it puzzled me greatly to hear her say that she feels like something is missing.

I am probably over thinking the situation and she just misses school, her friends, and the lack of activities during summer break. I try to do as much as I can with my children, but I can't possibly fill a child's day like being in school. Finding activities for both children is difficult because my son can't do all the things my daughter wants to do.

On a more positive note, we have started doing chores together, which she loves and helps me out a great deal. Even my toddler enjoys helping me put the clothes in the dryer and matching socks when I fold laundry. Kids are usually happy with simple things, so I am trying my best to be creative in finding things for us to do around the house that don't cost any money. Any ideas would be very much appreciated. Share them here!

Nostalgia at its finest

I have been thoroughly enjoying the Police CD I won from PayPerPost a couple of weeks ago. It is a two disc compilation of all their greatest hits and is very nostalgic for me because I remember some of their biggest hits came out when I was in my formative music listening years of five to ten years old. The track listing is as follows:

Disc one:
1. Fall Out
2. Can't Stand Losing You
3. Next To You
4. Roxanne
5. Truth Hits Everybody
6. Hole In My Life
7. So Lonely
8. Message In a Bottle
9. Reggatta De Blanc
10.Bring On The Night
11.Walking On The Moon
12.Don't Stand So Close To Me
13.Driven To Tears
14.Canary In a Coalmine

Disc two:
1. De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
2. Voices Inside My Head
3. Invisible Sun
4. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
5. Spirits In The Material World
6. Demolition Man
7. Every Breath You Take
8. Synchronicity I
9. Wrapped Around Your Finger
10.Walking In Your Footsteps
11.Synchronicity II
12.King Of Pain
13.Murder By Numbers
14.Tea In The Sahara

As you can see, whatever your favorite Police track is, you will find it on this compilation. You may even discover some songs you previously didn't know, but will surely appreciate from these wonderful musicians. Another great bonus is the vintage 1979 concert poster included in every CD.

I am honored to be able to embed the video spot currently airing in the UK to promote the Police and their new CD. Click on it to be instantly be transported back in time for thirty seconds.

Good times, new friends

Last weekend, we went to a birthday party for a friend of a friend's three-year-old boy. The mother told my friend to invite anyone she knew who had kids to come and just have fun because they were renting a "Moon Walk" (or "Bouncy Castle") and the kids would love it. Well, she was right - we all had a blast. The Moon Walk was big enough even for the adults and we all took turns jumping with the kids. They also had a small kid's pool filled with cold water, so the kids took turns jumping in the castle, then jumping into the pool to cool off.

A great time was had by all. We even made some new friends, which is always good. And for once, almost everyone there was married with kids! So now we have more friends with families. When we finally get a barbecue grill, we are planning to have a big party at our house.

Take it to the web

Many local Eureka Springs merchants also have online stores to sell their products. Our town relies on tourism and we have about four months during the winter that are very slow for tourism. Merchants usually close their local stores and rely on web sales for winter income. One important aspect of setting up an online store is making the purchasing process easy for the user. Most people shopping online are used to "shopping carts" for their items. In fact, I wouldn't buy anything from a site that didn't have a shopping cart function, because I feel like my information is not secure without one.

Luckily for merchants, it is very easy to set up shopping cart software. Ashop Commerce has video tutorials and store demos to help get you started and to answer all your questions. Their website is user friendly with navigation bars and no advertisements. You can even take a 10 day free trial to see if it works for your store. You have nothing to lose and lots of online sales to gain!

Build a sandcastle today!

For those of us who live very far away from the ocean, I found a website where you can build virtual Sandcastles and send them as e-cards, or keep them for the wallpaper on your desktop. Upon opening the site, I hear the sounds of the beach, which is instantly relaxing. The rhythmic waves, the seagulls, the warm breeze... If I close my eyes, I can picture myself on a beautiful remote beach somewhere, lounging on a hammock with my big toe drawing in the warm sand. Aahhhhh.

The genius about the virtual sandcastle building site is that it is run by Beaches Family Resorts to get you thinking about summer, beaches, and of course, a vacation. I think this is a very effective tool to get people into the mood for planning a vacation and while they are on the website, they will be most likely to book through Beaches Resorts.

OK, I built my very own virtual castle. Here it is:



That was really fun! Now my daughter wants to visit the site and build one of her own too. This free tool is easy to use and today is the perfect day to build a sandcastle, since it is the first day of summer! Happy summer everyone. Have fun and be safe if you are traveling.

Toddler milestone

My son has reached a subtle milestone in toddlerhood. He is starting to grasp the concept of time. Not in the clock sense, but in the general sense. Lately he has been using words like "before, after, last night, tomorrow, yesterday", and some days of the week. I think he is a little confused about the weekdays, because he says things like, "I want to go to Wednesday."

But he is learning and I definitely consider this a milestone in my book. Bedtime is still a nightmare, but we just take it day by day knowing that everything is "just a phase" at this age. We will be out of the "terrible twos" in about three months, so hopefully things will improve in the bedtime department.

Celebrity gossip

It's amazing how differently I view celebrities and the idea of television since we got rid of ours over a year ago. A whole part of my life and brain was just clouded with nonsensical and irrelevant data. Who really cares what happened on _____ (you fill in the blank) last night? Or who dumped who after only being married two days? Is that all people can find to talk about? Well, I don't miss it one bit.

And even if I did have an insatiable urge to catch up on celebrity scandal, I can easily find it all on the internet. This way, I can see what I want on my own time rather than wasting away in front of the television set. I could even leave comments and vote on the gossip if I so choose. For now, I choose not to. In the future? Only time will tell. But I hope that as I spend more time on earth and as my children get older, we will have less time to waste, not more.

Boomerangs

What is it about Eureka Springs that keeps people coming back over and over again? I mean, I understand why tourists come back if this is their vacation spot of choice. But I have heard about several residents who used to live here, moved away for a few years, but they always move back.

I think there is a magical quality to Eureka that no one can really put into words. It's more than the quaint Victorian homes, the old limestone buildings downtown, the hilly terrain, or the climbing vines and beautiful greenery. Those are all wonderful, but can be found in other cities as well.

Since I started working at the library two months ago, I have had the opportunity to meet many more residents, and I like to think it is the people and the sense of community found here that makes people feel so welcome.

Get paid for something you already do

When my children were very small, I was content to be a stay-at-home mom. Raising children and keeping house is truly a full time job and I didn't really have time for anything else. When my daughter started school and my son started getting a bit more self-reliant, I felt like I should try to find something I could do at home to make some money.

Upon searching in the internet, I found out about blog advertising. I was just starting a blog of my own to get in the habit of journaling daily, so getting paid to write sounded like fun. Basically, companies pay to advertise on blog postings so they can get "buzz" about their business throughout social media pages on the internet. Studies show that word-of-mouth is the most effective marketing tool, and advertising on blogs fits the bill perfectly.

Now that I have really gotten into it, I can get paid for blogging every day if I want to. The pay is pretty good for something so simple. It ranges from $5 to $20 per blog post. When you consider that it only takes 15 to 30 minutes to compose one post, that's not a bad rate of pay!

So I am now a work-at-home mom and when people ask what I do, I can proudly tell them I'm a writer in addition to being home for my children. I advise all housewives to look into paid blogging as an added source of income for their families.

Could you survive?

I like to think I'm a "survivor". I can stay calm in stressful situations, can find uses for things that seem useless, and have a pretty good sense of direction. Premiering June 28th is USA Network's Burn Notice, a new series where one of the characters will have to deal with a situation like being stranded in an unknown city with no money or resources. Sometimes I play out this scenario in my head, just to prepare myself in case this ever happened to me.

If I somehow found myself in an unknown city, the first task would be to talk to people until I figured out exactly where I was and also to locate a map as soon as possible to get my bearings. If I was planning to stay in this city, I would have to think about the basic needs of food and shelter. Most cities have some form of shelter for homeless people, so I would locate a shelter before nightfall. Finding food can be tough if you have no money, but chances are you could find at least a quarter on the ground or from someone willing to give you some money. That would at least buy you a banana or an apple from a grocery store or street produce vendor.

Depending on how long I was planning on staying in this unknown place, I would have to think about getting a job to raise money for food and shelter. Even if I was planning on traveling back to my home town, I would still need money for any kind of travel besides walking. I would never consider hitch-hiking because it is too dangerous and there are a lot of weirdos out there.

Guppy babies

My daughter's fish tank became a whole lot more interesting last Thursday night, when she discovered some guppy babies swimming around. She went running all over the house yelling, "I see baby fishies! I see baby fishies! My fish had babies!" So we scooped the little ones into a cup, to separate them from the larger fish in the tank that were hunting them down.

They are doing quite well, much to my surprise. We researched online and read that they like to eat hard boiled egg yolks mashed up. It's true. We put some in their cup and they went nuts devouring the stuff. We only managed to save two little babies, found another one that was sucked into the water filter and unfortunately died. There could be more hiding down in the rocks in the big tank, so we have been watching the tank just in case we find any more.

So much excitement over something so small, it's amazing. Who says kids need fancy toys and gadgets to keep them happy? Not me! Give mine some bugs, worms, or baby fish to watch and they are giddy for hours.

Extra help necessary?

I read in a Child magazine article last year that students get ahead in school only if they have additional outside tutoring. As a parent, I find it somewhat disturbing that public schools aren't cutting it and that I would have to pay money in order for my child to excel in school. I am lucky to have a very smart girl who has taken very well to her first years in school, but I know many children who have trouble acclimating to school and since they learn so much even before kindergarten (we had daily homework assignments in pre-school!), if the child doesn't figure it out then, he is held back for another year.

There are programs available like the Innovative Tutor at Score that works with children as young as four, all the way through the beginning high school years to make significant academic progress. Many children benefit from the more personalized attention that tutoring gives, but I still believe the schools should have small enough classes to be able give the children all the one-on-one teaching they need.

Also, children are expected to complete two years of pre-school before entering kindergarten, which is a big change from when I was a child. The standardized testing also starts in kindergarten now. Remember the ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills)? I do, but only starting around third or fourth grade. It just seems like children are forced to grow up so fast today. And then we wonder why they have so many psychological problems and are so stressed - we are putting the pressures of the world on them too young! I say, let kids play while they are young and just enjoy the everyday pleasures of being a kid.

The Smashing Pumpkins return!

I know I'm behind on this information, but I just found out that one of my favorite bands, The Smashing Pumpkins, have gotten back together since their split-up in 2000. Their new album is coming out July 10th, and they are currently on a worldwide tour, most of which is already sold out.

There are some videos of their most recent live show in Paris posted on the official band website. I think I will definitely have to pick up the new album. The only original members are the singer (Billy Corgan) and drummer (Jimmy Chamberlin). They have a new female bass player, a new guitarist, and the addition of a keyboardist as well.

So far, I like what I'm hearing and want to hear more! Unfortunately, Billy's solo stuff was disappointing to me, so I'm very happy to see the Pumpkins back together. Billy has also written several poetry books, which I've been meaning to read since I love his lyrics so much. They are so deep, troubled, and heartfelt, I'm sure the poems are more of the same.

Necessary insurance

Even when trying to save money and keep expenses down, life insurance is something I consider a must-have for my family. We want to make sure our family will be taken care of in the event something tragic happens. Many people avoid life insurance because they just don't want to think about death, but accidents happen all the time and it is better to be safe than sorry (as they say).

When my husband's company provided life insurance, we always had additional insurance on our own. Now that he doesn't have that job, we purchased a higher amount to compensate. When you start young, the insurance is very inexpensive and continues at the low rate. There are some great deals on insurance online, such as globe life insurance. It is important to compare rates and coverage and don't be scared to ask questions if you are confused about anything.

In the planning phase

As I mentioned before, we are planning a trip to Disney World sometime early next year. The reason we don't know the exact date is because the trip is being arranged by my in-laws, since they own the time-share. The one they purchased is actually in Las Vegas, but they can trade their week for a Disney vacation home so our lodging will be taken care of on our trip.

They have submitted the trade request and now we just have to be patient and wait for someone to give up their week in Disney World. At that time, we will know our exact vacation dates. Luckily, I found out that the principal at my daughter's school is very supportive of family vacations and taking her out of school for a few days will be no problem at all.

PPP Press Release

As you all know, I get paid to blog by a great company called PayPerPost. Companies pay bloggers to advertise on blogs on a pay per post basis (hence, the company's name). They just started their business in June 2006, and already it has grown by leaps and bounds. The following news was just released:

The PayPerPost Revolution Accelerates, Sponsored
Blogging Marketplace Secures $7 Million Series B

Draper Fisher Jurvetson leads round and joins Board of Directors

ORLANDO, FL – (June 12, 2007) – PayPerPost, the leading marketplace for advertisers to reach bloggers and other consumer content creators, today announced it has completed a $7 million second round investment led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, an investor in the company's Series A and one of the world’s leading high-technology venture capital firms. The financing brings the total amount of capital raised by PayPerPost to over $10 million, giving the company considerable resources for further development as the industry’s leading Consumer Generated Advertising marketplace. Additional participants in the round include existing investors Inflexion Partners and Village Ventures as well as new investor DFJ Gotham. With this investment, DFJ Managing Director Josh Stein also joins PayPerPost’s Board of Directors.

“PayPerPost created this exciting new advertising space and has established itself as the industry leader,” said Ted Murphy, chief executive officer of PayPerPost. “Although we’ve only used a portion of our first round capital, this added support from investors unlocks significant growth potential. Our content creator and advertiser ROI metrics clearly demonstrate the upside for PayPerPost’s model. We intend to use this capital to build the infrastructure, visibility and professional expertise necessary to reach and retain a greater network of advertisers and content creators than ever before.”

Since its founding in June of 2006, PayPerPost has signed more than 6,500 advertisers to its groundbreaking service, which has enabled Consumer Content Creators to be compensated for their efforts discussing specific companies, products or services via blogs, videos or other media. The content creators are required to disclose relationships with advertisers on their blog, providing transparency for the end reader. Over 125,000 Internet postings, most in the form of blogs, have already earned money for their creators through PayPerPost’s innovative marketplace. PayPerPost recently released PayPerPost Direct, a disruptive new service that allows advertisers to contract and negotiate directly with individual bloggers they identify through a safe, managed system.

“PayPerPost has laid a strong foundation for the future,” noted Tim Draper, founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. “It continues to attract a critical mass of participants from both the advertising and blogging communities. Analogous to Overture’s sponsored search model, we believe PayPerPost’s business model holds disruptive potential and will enable the company to thrive in the evolving paid-content arena.”

To mark the $7 million dollar funding, PayPerPost has launched a new website detailing the company’s service offering at http://www.payperpost.com. Bloggers and advertisers can easily sign up at the site and begin leveraging the self service marketplace.

This new 7 million dollar investment is great news for PayPerPost and will allow them to keep growing and to deal easier with quick growth. We had a few bumps in the road, which seemed to be due to quicker growth than expected. The additional operating capital would be well used on more targeting to advertisers. There is no shortage of bloggers willing to post content, but sometimes the amount of opportunities available is a bit low and I've gone a few days with nothing available to take. If more advertisers used the service, us "Posties" would have more steady blogging income.

PayPerPost is asking bloggers (aka Posties) our opinion on what they should spend the 7 million on. So far, they have decided to share a bunch of it with the Posties by offering their own advertising opportunities with big payouts of $70 and $700. Of course, I think this is great and it keeps the bloggers engaged, but it would be a good idea to keep most of the new investment money in the bank for the future of the company. Based on how much it has grown in just one year, PayPerPost shows great potential and they would be wise to be prepared for anything. Extra cash retains the stability of a company and keeps stress levels down for the board members.

Half a year already

Today marks exactly six months since I began paid blogging. I am happy to report that I am still loving it and of course, the money is very nice too. I think it has challenged me as a writer and I like to believe my writing has improved because of the amount of writing I do on a daily basis now.

I have made about $1,500 in the six months between the three different companies I get paid through and since my husband does it too, that's not a bad little income for something we enjoy doing anyway.

Quick money-saver

I'm a big proponent of coupon codes when shopping online. What easier way is there to save a few dollars than to type in a code when you are checking out? With Father's Day coming up, a Northern Tool coupon for free shipping on all power tools will come in very handy indeed...

Tourist season in full swing

Ever since the May Festival of the Arts, our town has been very busy with tourists downtown. It's this time of year when I am grateful that we decided to live on the outskirts of town, rather than on the historic loop. On busy weekends, we can't even tell in our neighborhood. But if we want to go downtown, we can walk or just hop on the trolley and not have to worry about parking our car downtown.

It's amusing to ride the trolley when there are lots of tourists, because they are so surprised and amazed by all the architecture and the layout of Eureka Springs. It's a nice reminder of why we decided to call this quirky, beautiful town our home.

More love to The Police

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about The Police and their new double disc and worldwide tour. PayPerPost selected me to win one of their "Postie Packs" which included the new police cd plus a bunch of cool PPP gear!! Woohoo! I never win anything! I was so excited when the mail carrier dropped off the box and I saw it was from PayPerPost.

Of course, the CD is awesome. I already had most of the songs on the discs, but it's nice to have them all one album. Plus, there is a vintage 1979 poster inside (bonus!!). The Police were so ahead of the times during the 80's. They influenced bands in so many different genres, including pop, rock, and ska. Their sound was always original and no other group sounded like The Police.

I was happy to see my favorite track, "Wrapped Around Your Finger", on the new 28-track police cd. Do you remember the video for that song? It was simple, but very effective. There were hundreds of white candles lined up closely in 6-foot tall, thin, black candlestick holders. Sting runs around and jumps, somehow managing not to disturb the candles - until the very end when he knocks them all down just like you wanted him to do the whole time. Very nice, classic video.

Win a New York fly-away to see The Police live.

Online conveniences

With the convenience of shopping on the internet, there are some things I would never buy in person or over the phone anymore. Airline tickets, car rentals, hotel room booking, and concert tickets online are no-brainers in my opinion. When you purchase these online, you are sure of the price, and you are guaranteed the reservation.

Especially in the case of concert tickets, I know I would be really upset if I went all the way to a show planning to buy tickets at the door, only to find out that the show had just sold out. This is also the case for movie tickets, which can also be purchased online. Hotels, airline tickets, and car rentals change prices so often it is a good idea to lock in your price right from the computer and pay at the same time.

Bridge the "summer gap"

Now that school is out for the summer, I have to worry about my daughter losing about one month's worth of learning over the break. This is the average, according to research. There are programs out there, like the Summer Program by Score. They've been helping children catch up, keep up, and get ahead for nearly fifteen years.

Unfortunately, the closest Score center to me is in Texas. Hopefully they will expand and open a center nearby, because the schools in Northwest Arkansas are very competitive and proud of their high test scores and education levels. If the kids had a program to bridge them through the summer break, their test scores would improve accordingly and I know many parents who would sign their children up in a heartbeat.

Goodbye, Stripey

Tonight, one of my daughter's fish died. Let's please have a moment of silence for little Stripey. We bought her six new fish to add to the established tank in her room yesterday as a gift for graduating Kindergarten. The fish that died was one of her older fish, so he must have gotten stressed from the addition of new fish. Or maybe one of them had a disease. I really hope that's not the case because she was heartbroken over just the one fish, and if any more die we will be seeing very many tears around here.

I would like to share the little prayer she said for him up in heaven:
Dear Stripey,
You were a great pet and I loved you so much.
The other fish will miss you a lot and so will I.
I love you Stripey.
This is your greatest owner speaking.
-Amen

Local wildlife

We have been seeing a family of deer in our yard regularly at dawn and at dusk. I love living in the woods and all the wildlife that surrounds us. The children get such a kick out of all the different birds, squirrels, and deer right outside our windows. Even though this is a daily occurrence, you would think it was the first time since they get so excited every time.

We never see them in the middle of the day or night, though, and I always wonder where they go. Sometimes I wish I had a pair of night vision goggles to see all the wildlife around at night. Of course, I would probably scare myself since so many animals come out at night. It would be neat though, and the kids would absolutely love it. Those would especially come in handy on camping trips to make sure the area is safe for the family.

Roaring River

Last weekend, we went to Roaring River State Park near Cassville, Missouri. It was really neat and the kids really loved the fish hatchery. There were holding tanks with so many fish you could reach in and touch one! No wonder the people fishing in the river always have good catches. When I was a kid, we would go fishing all the time and never seemed to catch anything. One time I caught a big fish and my line snapped while trying to reel it in. Other than that, we never caught anything. We tried fishing on river and lake shores, standing in the middle of the river, and even boating, but nothing seemed to work. Oh well, we always had a great time just hanging out as a family.

The start of Roaring River is a beautiful spring where the water is an unbelievable shade of blue at the mouth of a cave. You can see the huge trout swimming in the clear water and the kids were pointing out which ones were the biggest. Then we went to one of the playgrounds to let the kids get some energy out before our twenty minute drive home. Best of all, this state park is free, so we will definitely go again. Once we all get fishing poles, we can take the kids on their first fishing excursion there.

Restaurant review: Sonny's Pizza

We have known for awhile that Geraldi's pizza is fantastic, and we eat it regularly. The people are nice, the service is great, the pizza tastes awesome, and the price is very reasonable. The Geraldi's in Eureka Springs is closed on Sundays and Tuesdays, however, so if we feel like getting pizza on those days we have to go elsewhere. Usually we get Pizza Hut, but I've heard good things about Sonny's, so we gave them a try last Sunday.

My first impression was not great. I called to order a pizza for carry-out and when I asked for the total amount, the guy said, "You'll find out when you pick it up. We're really busy right now." So I said, "Well, I need to know how much because we are paying with cash and splitting the bill." After a loud exhale, he said, "Hold on, I'll get you an estimate." I waited a few minutes and he finally gave me the total, "$28.10 plus tax." That sounded a bit high for two medium pizzas with two toppings, but they are supposed to be "gourmet" pizzas, so I didn't say anything.

When I picked up the pizzas at the restaurant, one guy was very rude (same guy from the phone) and the other guy was nice. I didn't really see into the seating area of the restaurant, so I can't give my opinion on that. When we got home and opened the pizza boxes, the pizza looked impressive. The toppings were abundant and the crust looked good. The pizzas were bigger than your average "medium" size, which explains the high price. Unfortunately, the taste was just OK. There wasn't much flavor and one of the pizzas was burned on one side. For the price, we will definitely be sticking with Geraldi's from now on for pizza. One large pizza at Geraldi's is $14.00 and if we take a short 10 mile drive to Berryville, we can go to the Geraldi's there on Tuesdays, where they have medium pizzas for $6.99 each and the employees there are super and always nice.

Mickey, here we come!

We are in the process of planning a trip to Disney World (for early 2008) courtesy of my in-laws. They purchased a time-share in Las Vegas and by some wheeling and dealing, they are trying to make a trade through the time-share management company. They had to give up their week in Las Vegas and are trying to get a week in Orlando so we can take the kids to Disney World.

There are four different time-share resorts in the park that would work and now we just have to wait for someone to give up their week at one of those resorts. According to one of the customer service representatives, people usually give them up sixty to thirty days before their vacation, so we won't know until the last minute. My father-in-law says that even if no one gives up a villa in the park, we can still take our vacation because there are other time-share availabilities in nearby towns as well. We could try anywhere in Orlando, or even Edgewood or Kissimmee vacation rentals and still be near the parks and the beaches. We're still hoping to get as near the parks as possible, since we'll have two small children with us, but my in-laws will rent a car so we'll have fun either way.