There aren’t many things that I can honestly say that I hate. That being said, I absolutely hate running out of everything at one time. I’ve just run out of my beloved sweet pea body wash, conditioner (strange that I run out of conditioner faster than shampoo) and mousse. Yesterday, after baking cookies, I realized that I am now out of shortening and chocolate chip morsels. I wonder what’s next? Am I going to run out of computer memory while I’m typing this out? Ha, ha!

How annoying! Well, actually the most annoying part of that is that a) there are no Bath and Body Works here, b) I can only get the conditioner at Wal-mart and the closest one is 30+ miles away.

Anywho.

Speaking of chocolate chip morsels; when I realized I was out, I remembered that we’d purchased some Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough a couple of days ago. Since the cupcakes lasted no time and I had a sweet tooth, I decided I’d make bake some cookies.

Well, my in laws’ computer is at it again. It seems like every time you turn around it’s starting to lag, crashing or just not loading things properly. Today is no different than any other day I suppose. They’re in their computer area talking about all the troubles they’re having again. It really is becoming “usual” and honestly, I would be drove up a wall if I had to deal with the issues they deal with. Jo and I keep telling them to install a good popup blocker, stop using certain programs that are known for viruses / trojans and stop opening attachments on emails. Of course it seems to be falling on deaf ears every time because the next time you turn around, they’re having the same issues. It’s really sad though because if something happens to it to the point where it can’t be fixed, they’ll be without a computer. I’m certainly not loaning them mine to use and I surely can’t see Jo letting them use his (his cost way more than mine). I’m not going to risk having the same thing happen to my computer or Jo’s, so they’d just be out of luck.

They’ll listen someday.. hopefully it won’t be too late.

The last few days have been so frustrating. Jo had given me several ideas about Christmas gifts that he wanted. Well I’ll be gosh darn if those weren’t the hardest things to find in Newfoundland. I know a lot of it has to do with it being so close to Christmas but I’ve also heard that those things are hard to find regardless but I figured we’d surely find it in the larger cities. Boy was I wrong!

The first thing he wanted was Call of Duty 4. Even EB Games didn’t have it. The second thing was the iPod Nano. We still haven’t been able to find it anywhere around here. So, while we did our last minute Christmas shopping yesterday, we figured we’d try a few more places for those two things and the cell phone he wanted. Guess what? No luck with ANY of them. Jo had such a sad look of depression on his face on our way home and it made me sad. I wanted to do something extra special for him this year since we were in the position to spend a bit more this year. I’d just about lost all hope but then remember “The Source” and stopped in today. Of course they didn’t have the iPod Nano but they did have the LG Chocolate phone he wanted - SCORE!!!!! Talk about relief! I also darted over to this place called Jeans Expert (I think) and picked up a pair of jeans and two long sleeved shirts for him.

I only have one gift left to get and that’s for Jo’s dad. We know what we’re getting him though and thankfully know it’s in stock around here.

I really hope that Jo’s mom likes what I got her. I wanted to get her a little something that not only represented how we feel about her but also how she felt about Nan, her mother. You may recall that Nan passed away shortly after we got here and Christmas is going to be so rough without her. I think she’ll like it.. at least I hope she will!

I am so pooped though. I haven’t been sleeping well the last couple of nights, plus we’ve been on the go for the last couple of days doing tons of shopping. Shooooweee! I’m ready for a nap!

My sister in law can be pretty rough with things and at times, even acts a bit careless no matter how much something costs her or someone else (which is usually the case). Last year my mother in law bought her an iPod for Christmas, though she was a bit weary about spending much on it because she was worried that Colleen would wind up scratching it. Well, of course that happened but not as bad as any of us expected. Well, my mother in law has been thinking about upgrading Colleen’s iPod this Christmas and I’ll tell you, she’s going to be happy to learn about the invisibleSHIELD ipod case. It helps to protect iPods and iPhones from scratches and because the nearly invisible film is super thin, it isn’t going to make your iPod or iPhone bigger or bulkier.

If she doesn’t buy this for Colleen, I think Jo and I will. Like I said, Colleen is a little rough with things and as much money as my mother in law spends on things, Colleen could use this kind of protection on her gadget! I think Colleen will like it too because it isn’t like she intentionally tries to scratch or damage her things, she just isn’t careful when handling them all the time.

As much as I love buying big gifts for my loved ones, I actually enjoy buying stocking stuffers way more. I think it’s because I’m able to buy a lot of smaller gifts, so it feels like I’m giving them more - which I guess is the case. I’ve already bought a few stocking stuffers for a certain someone who’s sitting behind me, so I can’t really go into detail about them right now (haha). One thing she does need, that I don’t care if she sees is an ipod battery.

I need to come up with some ideas for stocking stuffers for Jo and his mom too though. I’ve been trying to figure out what I can get other than bath and body type stuff. The only thing I can think of for Jo is socks and I have no idea what kind of stuffers I should get for his mom (other than her beloved candies!).

What do you put into stockings for your loved ones? Besides the usual candies and personal items?

Jo suggested that I should consider buying my laptop sometime around Christmas. He has a feeling I may be able to get one for around $700. We’ve been looking at a few of them online, trying to narrow it down to “possibles” and making a list so that we can keep a check on the prices week to week. One of the things we hadn’t realized when we first started talking about this was that we’re also going to need to upgrade our router because I plan to take advantage of the whole wireless thing. I want to be able to use it in any room of the house and not just be limited to a general area. When I do get the new laptop, I’m going to have to upgrade us to a wireless router. Fine with me!

I wish I could order it today but honestly, I really want to hold off until I buy my new camera. It’s definitely the most important “buy” thing right now.

It isn’t surprising in the least that many small businesses are making the leap from regular phone service systems to VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phone systems, like Talkswitch which is offered by NeoBits. When my husband and I moved to Calgary, we decided to go with a VoIP service over a regular phone service ourselves and were quite pleased. I can certainly understand why small businesses want to do the same, I’ve had first hand experience with VoIP services for the last few years and not just on a personal level. A financial company I once worked for made the move to VoIP a few months before I parted with them and just like with my experience with my home VoIP service. The service was exceptional, with probably the clearest reception I’ve ever had and it was wonderful to my bank account - so much more affordable than it would have been if we had just gone with a regular phone service.

Even though the company I previously worked for employed just over four thousand people, Talkswitch is such a great solution for smaller businesses and features the latest in VoIP technology. In fact, Talkswitch is designed with small businesses in mind. Though these systems are easy to use, NeoBits actually has the ability to actually come out on site and perform installation services, verses leaving you to figure it all out. And that’s in all states, in any zip code that offers dial tone and broadband internet. This is great news because broadband services are on the move. In fact, I know of several people living in extremely rural areas that are now using broadband internet. Businesses can choose from fifteen different phone brands, which include names like Panasonic, Talkswitch, Allworx and NEC, to name a few.

Though the prices might perk a brow, keep in mind how your business will benefit from switching to a VoIP system and how you may possibly save your company money in the long run. Those prices shouldn’t be so scary now!

Speaking from experience both on a personal and business level, I highly recommend VoIP service systems.

Jo’s uncle has a 19 inch flat screen monitor (Dell) that he’s trying to get rid of. It’s only two months old. They recently upgraded their entire computer system, which included a new monitor. Now they have no use for the other. I’ve asked him to hold onto it for a couple of days because I want it. It’ll work with my Dell computer and that’s the only thing I’m lacking right now. Hopefully I can get my computer all set up and won’t have to hog Jo’s so much. I was actually planning on buying a new monitor in the next week or so just so I could get my computer up and running. This will save me a nice chunk of change because he’s not going to charge us what he’d charge anyone else, we’ll be getting a decent discount. Discounts make me happy. I told him I’d make him a yummy caramel cake to make up the difference. He seemed more excited about the cake than the money he’ll be getting. I wonder if I could just make him several and we could just call it even.. lol.

I really need to get more memory for my Dell computer. It seems like I can never run more than a couple of programs at the time, before I get the little note saying I’m using up all of my memory and need to shut down some of my programs. That’s really frustrating when I’m working on my photography or designs because I usually need several things running at once. Dell Memory is definitely affordable right now, so I think I’ll go ahead and snag myself a GB of it and see if that doesn’t do the trick.

We’re probably going to give Jo’s sister Jo’s older Dell computer, so we’ll probably have to invest in some memory for it too!

Jo and I have 2 Dell desktop PCs between us. Over the last couple of months we have started to realize that we really need a laptop. This would come in handy when we are traveling, especially when we travel back to Georgia for “vacations”. Plus, it would give me something to do on that long ferry ride (about 7-8 hours long, depending on how rough the seas are). I was browsing through a Dell Notebook Shop (it is in German). I really love the Dell Inspiron™ 1501. It is exactly what I want, for an affordable price.

Jo and I love both of our Dell’s, one that we have had since 2001. I have no doubts about loving a Dell Notebook Computer. People have tried convincing me to buy other brand names, however, I will not budge. I know what I like and I like my Dell’s!