Love the web

Over the years, I've become an internet junkie. Whether it's current events and news, shopping, jokes, or whatever, I think I could surf the web for twelve hours a day and not get bored. In response to my husband and kids teasing me about that, I thought I'd share some of my favorite sites.

1. http://www.amazon.com/ - The gold standard of online book shopping, Amazon has evolved into a site on which you can buy everything, not just books. Their prices are great, and I use the site a lot just to look up info.

2. http://www.cnn.com/ - Whether you love the news or hate it, or find biases in every bit of media, you have to love CNN just for its home page alone. You can get a pulse on what's going on the world in about three seconds, just by glancing at the main page. In Busy Mom World, anything that keeps you up to date in three seconds is good.

3. http://www.orientaltrading.com/ - This is the best place to find party stuff, school stuff, prizes, craft stuff in bulk, and so forth. For every mom who has put together a theme birthday party or goody bags, this site is the cheapest, and the minimun quantities are not a big deal. If you sign up for their e-mailings, you often get deals such as free shipping, discounts, etc.

4. http://www.vistaprint.com/ - I've been ordering business cards from them for many years. Their cards are printed on quality stock and always look very professional. I get them for myself so that when I drop my kids off somewhere, I can give the other mom my info. (cell phone number, dad's work number, etc.) in an efficient way. The cards look so good, actually, that my boss starting getting her business cards from them. Same story about signing up for e-mailings and getting great offers.

5. http://www.petfinder.com/ - If you have ever considered adopting a pet who needs a home, please check out this site. They are terrific.

6. http://www.speedypettags.com/ - We hate the jingling of tags, so we get collars with the dogs' name and phone number printed on the collar. These folks are very nice to deal with.

7. http://www.momnos.blogspot.com/ - This blog is written by one of my closest friends, an amazing, amazing writer. It's worth checking for new posts every week. While the majority of posts are about Bud, my friend's autistic son and her incredibly insightful thoughts about her experience of raising him, she tackles many topics. My favorite post ever was a recent one about hairdressers.

8. http://www.scrabulous.com/ - I am so hooked on this, it's obscene. If you love Scrabble, check this out.

9. http://www.airset.com/ - For those of us who don't own PDA toys, this online calendar is great. Not only can I manage my own life on it, but also the lives of all of my family members. Also, I can access it from any computer, and so can my husband. Airset sends you reminders about appointments and stuff, too.

10. http://www.chinaberry.com/ - This company started as simply mail order, and of course, evolved into internet shopping, as well. The beauty of this company, however, is that the reviews of each book or item are done by real people, real moms who can comment on why the item is a great choice or whom the item would best target. They only carry awesome things, picking and choosing their offerings very carefully. Love that.

11. http://www.skincheck.org/ - It's all about skin cancer. This non-profit group's website and work is all dedicated to the organizer's son who passed away from melanoma, a PREVENTABLE disease. I know the people personally, and their educational mission is to make sure that no young people ever lose their lives to skin cancer. I adore them personally and professionally. Check out the site, then check your skin.

Hope you like my list and my taste. I'll add more another time.

A dog's life

It's been a long time since the last post. Hey, we've been busy. The lab news, though, is all good. Well, mostly good.

April has settled in to our family and our routines. She is clearly the Alpha dog, whopping the stuffing out of Pepper every single day, but Pepper doesn't mind too much. He loves playing with April, and April certainly has boundless energy. The two chase each other all around the kitchen and family room, zooming at what seems to be a hundred miles an hour.

Now, anyone who knows labs knows that they have an innate need to run each and every day. Unfortunately, the weather doesn't always cooperate, and two labs running around a yard make a whole lot of muddy footprints, I'll tell you. But what happens when labs don't get to run off their steam every day? Let's see... Recently, we came home to black blobs all over the family room. It seems that ink cartridges (stolen from my desk) must be nice and crunchy because they were crunched up on the floor, there were black stains all over (and they don't come out!), and there was one very guilty-looking girl leaving black footprints all over the place. About a week later, we thought we'd come home to the same thing again, but this time it wasn't ink; it was a pound of coffee, the bag ripped open and the grounds all over. Hey, at least that mess vacuumed up!

So what is a lab owner to do to let the beasts run off energy when the weather or circumstances don't cooperate? Doggy daycare! I can't believe I didn't know about this before. A new business opened up right near our house, and it's a great place. They do dog daycare, boarding, grooming, and classes, but the best part is that for $15, I can leave a dog there to play for five hours - plenty long enough to exhaust the pooch, thereby leaving us with a perfectly behaved dog who has no desire to chew up my house or get into mischief.

The picture above (Pepper on the left, April on the right) is typical for the "after daycare buzz." It's good to be a dog in our house.