I have to say that I absolutely love Marlee Matlin… and I am getting to not like Dionne Warwick. Some people just don’t do them selves any services by getting out of their professional comfort zone. Dionne Warwick is without a doubt a good singer (or at least was… I haven’t heard her lately). Celebrity Apprentice just does not show her singing attributes and has shown her is somewhat of a negative light when it comes to my favorite, Marlee Matlin.

A couple of things surprised me last week with Dionne… saying she would pity Marlee or a character in a book with a deaf child… and when Marlee responded, Dionne told the interpreter to “stay out of it!” when all he was doing was interpreting!

A great trait for any leader is to be a good team mate and a good follower. And just because Donne can sing, doesn’t make her a good leader. I am glad Dionne and her legendary status is off the show.

Go Marlee!

Our dog, Elvis, is a beautiful golden retriever who turns one tomorrow. Happy Birthday Elvis. Most dogs pee on a fire hydrant… Our dog wants to lick it!

I just saw this posted on a friends wall on Facebook and had to post it… This is something I am most likely to be guilty of!

“Just spent 5 min. trying to delete a comma from my FB post, than realized it was a piece of dirt on my screen~ problem solved.”

I love my father-in-law. He is kind and generous to a fault. But also has a unique perspective on things…

Talking to me one night over a cool aid…
“When we first met I didn’t think you would make a good wife and mother but I was wrong as you sure are one… No, really…”

When we visited his place with a 10 week old puppy…
“That dog will lose you some friends…be careful when you visit with friends as it is okay for him to shit on my carpet because I am family but not everyone will accept it.”

Discussing how beautiful my daughter is…
“She sure is beautiful… I don’t know where she gets her looks from. Of course Grandma sure was pretty when she was young..”
At which time I comment, “She gets her looks from her mother!”
He responds, “Nope, don’t see it. Not at all.”

Who would believe that getting new internet and phone service from Comcast would be difficult? I am trying to get new Comcast service and the stupid telephone system asks for current phone number…would that not defeat the purpose?? I am trying to get service, don’t have it? and now you want to know what number I have? So of course to play the game I enter my cell phone number which has a 719 area code…

Of course I get the Denver call center and naturally they cant help me because I am in Florida… so she transfers me to the ’system’ with advice on how to play the game with the area code of the location I WANT service…back on hold…enter any local phone number with the area code 850… of course the system cant find that number as a current customer and then it asks me if I am a current customer or new customer…at this point I DON’T WANT TO BE EITHER!!

But I persevere and continue to play the game…new customer…and receive the dreaded “all customer service representatives are busy…” that would be because they are wasting time on the phone telling people how to ‘game’ the system so they can speak to the right representative!

I have a job! I mean a real paying job! How did I get it? Well I criticized a website and made suggestions on how to improve it! When asked if I wanted the job I said no. Now I have to say that just passing on my pearls of wisdom is a habit of mine… I mean I just like to share the wealth of information I have garnered over the past 9 years working on the internet.

I started out basically selling traffic on a web portal. For our niche we had more traffic that Go2 or Overture if you can remember back that far… And we were less expensive. Those were the days. It was very easy to sell! I love those kinds of products… ones that basically sell themselves and all you have to do is put the information in front of the prospective client. I miss those days. Later I would find my self trying to sell ice to Eskimos (just an expression!) and I find that kind of selling a little sole destroying… no matter how good you are if you don’t have control over the product…

I moved on to affiliate and merchant relationships and this is the area where I spent the bulk of my online marketing…

They ended up getting me to work on the website, so if you are interested or in the market for Texas hill country land consider John Newcombe Estate & Country Club, you will be in with good company!

So it is allergy season again and they are kicking my butt something awful! I tried to push through and wait it to pass but finally gave in last week and went to the doctors for my medicines… I really benefit from the prescription eye drops. So giddy was I as I headed home, excited that I may soon have a clear head and non-itchy eyes! I had the medicine on the counter and put it away cleaning up…

Yep! If anyone manages to find my medicine I sure would appreciate it!

In years past the Niceville Chamber of Commerce has put on the annual fireworks show on 4th of July. Niceville is a small town with a small budget ($30,000 which is A LOT of money but not for fireworks I am told!) Last year the Chamber did not have the budget for the fireworks so the show didn’t go on. There was a public outcry for the lack of the show, with people unjustly upset at the City of Niceville for not puttin’ on their ’show’.

So the kind people of the City formed a partnership with Waste Management in the attempt to raise $30,000 to put on a fireworks show. And they are getting funds… They are also collecting aluminum cans for cash - that is where Waste Management come in… Letters have been included in with our water bills, bill board time displays etc to gather attention and money to this ’cause.’

So today I walk into the school and am faced with the big green trash can from Waste Management. They have sponosred can collections in the local 3 elementary schools with a ‘gift certificate’ for the school that collects the most cans. There are big green cans stategically placed around the school, other bin receptacles also across the campus. It looks good…even down to the color copy flyer that came home from school today in the kids folders.

Now again, I think that it is great for us to recycle, we have been doing it at home for years. And it is great to see someone collecting at school…but why do these companies only want to help take the money out of the school…

Where was Waste Management when we wanted to collect for the school and keep the funds in the school?? It takes money to make money and when we are so tight with a budget who wants to spend money buying trash cans for collection points for cans when the trash recepticle cost more than the cans collected? Maybe we will be lucky and Waste Management will leave us the bins for us to continue the collections for the school once the competition is over??? One can only hope!

I also emailed the City Commissioner and asked how much it cost to include a letter in with the water bills as our school is a city concern…as yet I received no response…

When is enough, enough? SO i am feeling rather confused right now… I have been actively fund raising with the PTO and others in my children’s school for some time. We try hard to cover all the little extras and some of the essentials. We do try very hard to take care of the teachers… but when is enough, enough???

Today I saw two matters that really upset me, perhaps more than they should. The first is that the staff (and a few parents) have a Relay for Life team. This year they raised $5000! That is great but where is that team when we are trying to raise money for the school. And in fact their cause is often in competition with the school efforts. Now my comments are not to take away anything from their needs to raise money nor is it a judgment on the value of their cause…and it pulls at the heartstrings of everyone as everyone knows someone affected by cancer.

However….

Today there was a request for PTO to pay for teacher incentives for their ‘Fitness Club!’ i cant believe this is a real request!!! I for one an mot spending my time so that my efforts go to helping the teacher be motivated to keep herself fit! Do I think she should - absolutely. Should I pay for it - absolutely not! And there are a few teachers that would be better off spending their extra time focusing on their students than complaining how busy she is with all her additional ‘extra curricula’ activities!

The school has always been a great place for ‘Pennies for Patients’, Canned Food Drives, coin collections etc. The students learn a lot about the community and thinking of others…

I just wish the Relay for Life team showed up with as much gusto for all the other causes that the school actually list as priorities.

So with the property management company I would like to go for business cards. Of course there is so much buzz about Vistaprint. It has been around for a while and they have an agressive marketing strategy including free business cards for the cost of shipping, currently $7.50. I applied for the affiliate program so I could try it, test their system and make recommendations… Now it is wait and see how long it will take them to respond my application…