We live in the Midwest and snow is a fact of life.  Our house is on a corner, actually part of three different streets, so we have more sidewalk to cover than anyone else in the neighborhood.  In addition, we have a fairly wide driveway and three access points from the sidewalk to the road that we are responsible for.  The street plows also don’t do us any favors as they ...

Weider Dumbbells are nice for any type of workout use.  They come in various weights and we have both the three and five pound weights though you can get them in larger amounts as well.  These dumbbells are made of cast iron and are coated in neoprene.  This makes the outside a little softer plus adds additional grip to the thin handles.  They come in many different colors...

My parents now live in a condo and snow removal for them has become greatly reduced.  However, due to age and ailments shoveling isn’t something they can do so this past year they purchased the Murray Electric Start snow blower. This is a great little snow blower that is perfect for their small driveway and one little sidewalk.          ...

I saw these grabbers advertised on television and thought they might be useful.  My dad also has a more expensive grabber as he is in a wheelchair and uses his quite often.  I wanted something a little less expensive and decided to pick up a couple of these grabbers.  The first Gopher Grabber I purchased off ebay for $6.99 including the shipping.  The second, the red one, ...

I really enjoy playing tennis but I no longer play for a team like I once did in high school and college. I still play for fun whenever I get a chance though and this year I decided to pick up a new racquet.  I could have had an old one regripped and restrung but that can cost 50-100 dollars or more.  I decided to try a cheaper racquet and went with the Wilson Impact.I chose this racq...

My son recently decided he needed a new pet and it just so happened that we were down by the lake looking at frogs.  being the good parent I helped him catch a few but then realized we really had no where to keep them.  We stopped at Petco and decided to buy the Lee's Firebelly Landing aquarium.  We didn't want something too big nor too expensive so this seemed to be the ...

Somewhere along the genetic highway my grandparent’s genes took a detour.  My uncle is a commercial artist and my aunt taught art classes, however, my dad can’t draw a lick.  Unfortunately he passed that lack of skill on to me.  That being said, as a kid I loved to color. Coloring books, walls, my dad’s car (maybe that was out of no talent getting spite), ...

Recently a Steve and Barry’s store opened in our town and one of the products they carry is tennis shoes.  Like many of their clothing items they carry only one specific brand of shoes, this being the Starbury.  The Starbury is named for NBA basketball player Stephon Marbury, but the big difference between Starbury shoes and say Air Jordan’s is the Price.  The tenni...

I have been collecting trading cards for well over 20 years and since I can remember Beckett has been the price guide the majority of the hobby uses to find values for the cards.  Recently Beckett has gone to a monthly all in one price guide.  This means they no longer produce a separate price guide each month for every sport; rather they combined them into one.  This has been ...

Sometimes people give the worst gifts with the best intentions.  I collect trading cards and have been looking for a label maker for marking various sets and holders.  My mother decided that she was going to give me one for my birthday and the one she selected was the Dymo Organizer XPress.  It was a wonderful gesture, but a horrible gift. Perhaps the one and only really g...

I remember getting the Cootie game when I was a little kid.  I don’t remember particularly liking it.  Now that I am a parent and my son has just gotten the Cootie game I can say with all certainty that I really dislike it.  It was a gift and so we were obligated to try it out, however as soon as my son lost interest it went away. Cootie is a game where players roll di...

            We like shopping at Old Navy for our kids, especially at clearance time.  During this last round of clearance we were able to pick up numerous items including some boy's logo socks.  Originally priced at two packs for $10.00, we got them for only $1.50 a pack.         &nbs...

The Quick Clean Micro Steam Bag is something that you can use in your microwave to thoroughly clean bottles, caps, pumps, and even pacifiers.  It is much faster than boiling the water as you simply add a couple of ounces to the bag along with the parts and microwave it for 3 minutes.  The bag steam cleans your parts and heats them well enough to kill almost any germs. The bag states...

We needed something small to protect some of our important documents and we decided upon the Sentry 1100 safe.  Sentry is a well known and respected brand so this seemed like a good choice.  Safes are not necessarily cheap, but we picked this particular one up at Walmart for $19.99.  It is not particularly deep, but the size is more than adequate for fitting all of our paper do...

This year the Donruss Trading Card Company came out with a new line of cards called Americana. These are just like baseball cards except they are cards of famous people and celebrities from American history.  These can be found wherever trading cards are sold and the retail boxes have 24 packs at $2.99 a pack.  Each pack contains five cards. Also nice is that each box contains at leas...

Baby Bear’s Big Dreams, written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Melissa Sweet, is a wonderful book to share with your child.  The patterned rhyme scheme makes it very easy to read and kept my young son’s attention beginning to end.  The book is oversized and the large colorful illustrations are so well done that even after reading my son goes back and enjoys just lookin...

For Christmas this past year I received a HP Photosmart R507 digital camera.  I have used digital cameras before but this is the first one that I have owned.   This is not a top of the line digital camera, but for my first digital camera, ease of use, and considering it was a gift, it does a fair job.  One of the things I like best about the camera is the size.  I...

Nick Jr.’s Peekaboo, Blue! Is a fun book to share with your child.  It is a ten page, hardcover book featuring the well known character Blue and many of his friends.  It also includes five lift up flaps where your child will discover one or more of the characters hiding and playing peek-a-boo. Blue is a familiar character to most children, and even if he is not to yours, ki...

Summer just began and already retail stores all over town are putting the seasonal merchandise on clearance.  Target already has theirs at 75% off.  We bought a few items, mostly toys for the kids, but one of the others was the Whim, a mini light up fan. The little fan was probably designed for kids but I will admit it does offer a pretty good breeze.  Granted you have to ho...

Brushing my teeth isn’t something I like or dislike, it is something I do.  I get in, do it, and get out.  It is one of those things that I do without even really thinking about it, until something disrupts the routine that is.  This happened when my brought home some new Crest Pro Health toothpaste, the Clean Cinnamon flavor, and replaced my regular toothpaste with it. ...