In My Bag

My 24th birthday was on June 13th. I still can’t believe I’m 24. It’s weird to say. Oh well. I go through this every year. I think the hardest jump was from 19 to 20. Suddenly I was two decades old, and let me tell you, that was depressing.

But hey, I lived. Here I am, one year closer to thirty. Dan is ahead of me with only four years to go, bwahahaha, sucks to be him!

I got a lot of nice things for my birthday, though three of them are on order/IOUs. Dan got me a gift bag full of relaxing items (perfume, bath salts, a book, and a few other odds and ends), my brothers gave me a book (everyone knows I love to read!), my brothers-in-law gave me a 320GB laptop hard drive (ordered — it should be here any day now! *crosses fingers*), and Dan is getting me a new car stereo for my car. When we get our stimulus payment (it’s scheduled to be mailed out on June 27th!!!), he also wants to get me a mother’s ring. ♥ So I didn’t get any titanium rings for my birthday, but that’s okay. Titanium is on the expensive side, anyway. Just stick to my wishlistr, and you’re good!

But that doesn’t mean I can’t have a good time with it!

I never thought I’d be one to really like mini-golf. As a kid, I played it once or twice and then quickly got bored of it. But I guess you see things differently as an adult. Last week I went mini-golfing with my husband, his two brothers and two sisters. Since there were six of us, it definitely took a while to get around the eighteen hole course. We had a lot of fun though, even if we weren’t that good. We all gave it our best shot, and amazingly all of us each scored a hole in one. Dan was funny: he was all about form, technique, knowing the right golf equipment to use, etc., etc. The rest of us just gave the ball a good whack! I suppose our scores reflected that, since Dan beat all of us.

Oh well. The point is to have fun! And I am improving. I think my score was 63 that day. Dan and I went mini-golfing with Jason on Wednesday night, and my score was 61. Last night I went with my mom and brothers, and my score was 58! It just goes to show you, you DO get better with practice.

I was really excited when I finally saw CoverGirl’s LashBlast volume blasting mascara in the cosmetics section. So, $7 price tag or not, I decided to buy it! I came home, got busy with other things, but made sure to wash my face really well that night, and again the next morning, so that I would have a clean slate to apply the mascara to.

The mascara is… nice. It doesn’t disappoint in terms of thickness. But it doesn’t seem to do as well as CoverGirl claims. I get a little more volume, but not nearly as much as I thought I would. And it doesn’t do anything for length, so I’m left with lashes that look a bit stubby because of the increased volume.

Worst of all, this stuff is waterproof, but is more like removal proof. Even with washing my face with warm water and soap and THEN using makeup remover, it takes a lot of effort to get this mascara off!

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People often get in touch with me and ask my opinion on the best domain registrar (GoDaddy) and hosting provider (E-Starr & VoNetwork). I don’t mind telling them my opinions and how I’ve formed them. But when they ask for advice and help on getting started with domains, web hosting and setting things up, I kind of cringe. This isn’t because I don’t want to help people. It’s because I don’t have the time to. So I’ll often try and dig up good articles and websites and point them to them.

I came across webhostingrating.com today. They have a large selection of web hosting tutorials and other articles related to the world of hosting and domains. I’ve been reading over a few of them, and one good article that stuck out was multiple domain hosting. I know a lot about multiple domain hosting, since I have helped out a few different hosting companies with technical support, had a server of my own for a while, and now have two reseller accounts that multiple domains (mine and those of a few friends) are hosted on. How to host multiple domains is a commonly asked question, so I think I’ll start pointing people to that particular article.

Overall, webhostingrating.com is a great resource site!

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Back in March I wrote about a Rival Griddle. I’ve used the Rival Griddle a few more times since then, and I have noticed one big thing going on with it: pancakes are taking 7-8 minutes to brown on each side. I am using the exact same recipe as before, and setting the griddle to the same temperature (400 degrees), and giving the griddle ample time to heat up before going to use it.

So what’s going on? I don’t know, but I’m going to contact Rival in the hopes that they’ll honor their manufacturers warranty and repair or replace the griddle. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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I have always heard nothing but good things about Dirt Devil . For the longest time my mom had a Dirt Devil (before the switched to another brand of vacuum cleaner that has a sealed engine, so it’s able to suck up anything from crayons to dried bits of Play-Doh and even coins, and keep on going), and my grandmother always swore by Dirt Devil.

I love the vacuum cleaner I have, but I must admit that it’s a pain to drag outside and hook up via extension cord in order to be able to clean out my car. I’m so lazy with cleaning out my car, so I’ll often put it off until there’s so much crap on the floor I have trouble finding the pedals. Okay, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea! I usually bribe my husband with money, a new electronic toy or sexual favors in exchange for him having the fun task of standing on his head and contorting his body in all sorts of positions in order to vacuum out french fries and M&M’s from between and beneath our kids’ car seats.

I think I should get one of those handheld vacuum cleaners. My mom had one when I was a kid, and it seemed so neat and fun to use! Plus it would be a lot easier to wrangle under furniture in the house, instead of having to lay down on the floor and stretch the regular vacuum cleaner’s hose out.

The Dirt Devil AccuCharge looks pretty promising. It comes in “stick vac” (upright vacuum cleaner style) and handheld. Obviously, I’m checking out the handheld! It looks nice, has a good price, and has a great Energy Star rating.

To celebrate its public debut, Blogging Girl is holding a contest where one person will be randomly selected to win a $25 Circuit City gift card!

You have until June 19th to enter the contest! To learn more about how to enter the contest, click the photo:

I love contests like these. I have entered several and won once or twice, and I also have held many of these contests (Blogging Girl’s will be the fourth!), and the turn out and promotion is excellent.

Good luck to anyone who chooses to enter!