Memories of the 80's

I mostly grew up in the 80's, so I feel nostalgic about movies like "The Goonies", "Pretty in Pink", and "Some Kind of Wonderful." What I missed out on were some of the 80's television shows, since my parents controlled the remote back then. One show that is a great example of 80's style and mannerisms is called "Square Pegs" and it stars Sarah Jessica Parker right before she was in "Footloose" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

The popular girl on the show, played by Tracy Nelson (sister to the Nelson twins), speaks all "valley girl" to an extreme point. "Like, gag me with a diet pill. Oh my god!!!" She is very annoying, like, for sure. Anyway, I watched some of the episodes the other night, courtesy of a friend who checked it out from the Berryville library. Even though I didn't watch the show as a kid, seeing the fashions and hairstyles definitely brought back many 80's memories. It was a totally fun time!

What's in a name

Since my major in college was Fine Arts, with an emphasis on Commercial Design, I scrutinize company logos more than the average Joe. I remember one of our projects in Design class was to take an existing logo and update it. Looking at all those logos you realize that some logos are great and work perfectly well for the company (like Mobil gasoline), while others just don't fit (like YES paste).

Then I see logos like the one for Sony Vaio and I just don't know what to think. True, it is modern, cool, and sleek - which are probably all the things an electronics company would want you to think about them. My concern is the lack of legibility. It took me a long time to even be able to read the logo, so I didn't know what the company name was at all. Now that they have been around for a few years, perhaps the logo has become recognizable enough for people, so most know it spells "vaio" by now.

Financial clean-up

Now that our taxes are done, I am going through our family's financial profile and figuring out if there are any areas we can save money on. First of all, we are planning to drop our land line soon since we also have a cell phone and it just seems silly to overlap those two payments.

I'm also planning to get some free insurance quotes to see if we can get a better deal on our auto and homeowner's insurance. It seems like insurance prices can vary quite a bit between carriers.

2009 Tourist season has begun...

...with a fury!!! Wow, I can't believe how many tourists were in town last weekend. Many people came to town just for the spring library book sale, which makes me very happy. We broke the record again for the most money made in a book sale. Many thanks to the hard work of the Friends of the Library who make our two yearly sales possible.

All the businesses are up and running for the season, from shops, to restaurants, to hotels. We even heard of a new old-fashioned soda fountain which will be opening on Main Street soon! I think that will fit in great here.

Milk required

It's kind of irritating how much milk is pushed in school, especially when your children are lactose intolerant. Of course, they have the option to drink water, if they bring a water bottle from home and fill it at the drinking fountain. This is inconvenient, at best.

Getting personalized water bottles would be the most economical and environmentally friendly for children who prefer water. I hate buying expensive bottled water to send to school, then it could get mixed up with bottles that other children bring. As long as they don't lose their bottles, they could be refilled and kept at school all week, coming home to be washed on the weekends.

4 days and counting

Tax time is always a stressful time for everyone. Even if you are expecting a refund check, there are so many hoops (in the form of paperwork!) to go through to get it. Many people wait until the last minute, ultimately filing for an extension. Some people avoid doing their taxes like junkies avoid drug rehab. But I don't like the idea of pushing something into the future to avoid it for the time being. You will still have that new date looming over your head every day until it arrives, and what good is that?

My advice: just dive in and get them done already! Then breathe a sigh of relief... until next year. The IRS website has all the forms you need, either to e-file or to print out and mail in. No more excuses, just do it.

Movie Review: Seven Pounds

I want to talk about a very interesting new movie I watched last night, but it's difficult to talk about without giving away the premise. I am so accustomed to movies that are so obvious and easy to figure out the ending that this one threw me for a loop. Basically, Will Smith plays the main character, who has it in his power to drastically alter the lives of seven people who each have a medical condition. One person is blind, one has a bad heart, one has mesothelioma, one has leukemia, one needs a liver transplant, one with kidney problems, and a woman in an abusive relationship.

He specifically seeks out genuinely good people to help in his own special way, which will blow your mind when you watch this film. Well, I don't want to give it away, but it is definitely a unique film and I recommend it. Check it out at the library!