Hulu - TV and movies on your PC

You're watching your favorite TV show and the commercial comes on. Its Alec Baldwin and he's mocking the audience's addiction to the very shows he creates as a fictional network executive...ie. he's an alien and will soon be slurping up your brain like jello since you've turned it into goop by constant TV watching. ( "an evil plot to destroy the world."

I admit, I couldn't figure out what was going on....call me slow. Now I know...its Hulu...!!!!!

Hulu is an online video site. The Web site allows viewers to watch thousands of episodes of TV shows for free, from current hits such as "Family Guy" and "The Office" to old favorites such as "WKRP in Cincinnati" and "I Dream of Jeannie."

Hulu's simple design, expansive catalog and no cover charge has elevated it to one of the most popular Web sites for watching video.

Late last month, Walt Disney Co. signed on as an equity owner of Hulu, which has nearly 150 content partners. That gives the video site even more star power with the addition of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," and cable hits such as ABC Family's "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and Disney Channel's "Wizards of Waverly Place."

So, if you're bored with the current crop of TV shows and long for the days of "Outer Limits", "Saturday Night Live", "Simpsons", new and old movie trailers, plus feature films and more, visit Hulu ....its well worth the price (since it's F-R-E-E)

I'm not Imelda Marcos!! I don't like shoe shopping!

One of the things that I find to be a necessary evil are SHOES....shoes have never been my vice, I've left that honor to Imelda Marcos. What I have is a closet full of tennis shoes, golf shoes, hiking boots, knee high boots (yep they are OLD) and an assortment of plain ole shoes....loafers, sneakers, flip flops, sandals, and ugly things that were at one time "in".

They huddle in piles, depending on their importance in my closet, and how often they're needed. I have 7 pairs of tennis shoes...some look good but the soles are too worn, some were cheapies and are totally worn out (those are considered 'yard shoes')...they look awful but I might need them "someday". I mark them so that, in a hurry, I grab a left and a right and the same brand. I have one good pair of tennis shoes that I use when I play "competitive" tennis.

My hiking boots will never hit the trail again....when they did, I got blisters. The knee highs have such high heels that I get a nosebleed just thinking about wearing them. I do have several pair of dress shoes, wedding type and a flashy gold pair that I wore on a cruise. And, one lonely pair of rain boots....heaven only knows why I bought those in the first place. All in all, I've decided that my life revolves around black and white...thats mainly what most of my shoes tend to be.

I do need shoes....and, I'm cheap, I want the best price I can get and sometimes that means online purchases. I found an online site that guides you in buying shoes on line (clue: find a shoe style you like and look for it here) It lists names of stores that carry just what you've been looking for. Example...look for running shoes...sports shoes, dress shoes.....they are all there.

The Craftsman pliers walleye!

Our son-in-law, John Paul is a semi-professional walleye fisherman, is on the TRACKER fishing team, past President of the Nebraska Walleye Association and a really good fisherman. He frequently appears at sports, boats and vacation shows in the midwest giving demonstrations, showing off the TRACKER boats, etc.

ESPN had already taken shots of John fishing and catching walleyes, but after viewing the tapes, the producers of the show wanted more footage of John casting and "setting the hook" etc. So, he and our daughter, Lisa, went to a nearby lake to tape. John, figuring this would be a quickie, put a weight and lure on the line, cast out and promptly gave the rod a good pull - setting the hook.

Unfortunately, what he set the hook into was a sunken tree limb - snap went the line and the only "lure" that John had taken onto the boat. He hadn't planned to actually fish so didn't have his tackle box on this "trip" - result--no other lures.
But our John is a resourceful young man - he took a pair of pliers from his back pocket and attached it to the line. Ok, so far, so good. He cast the pliers out and they made a nice ker-plunk as they hit the water. Then, John had his hands full!

The pliers opened up and gave him more of a fight than most walleye's do - they dove, swerved, bent the rod, went under the boat as the opened pliers were reeled in. All this time, John is laughing like crazy, not expecting this kind of action at all. Lisa is filming this from shore and is laughing so hard she was having trouble keeping the camera level.

John managed to land his Craftsman (pliers) and they presented the tape to ESPN (but didn't tell them about the big strike...they just let ESPN assume that they released the "fish")

The end of the story is that John has some of the best fishing action he has ever had on tape. The ESPN people will cut and splice shots of him casting and "setting" the hook, "fighting" the fish (pliers), and then show him bringing in and netting a nice walleye that he had caught when the ESPN guys were with him.

If you ever see John Paul from Nebraska on the sports network (ESPN) and he is casting out and battling the best fighting fish you ever saw, you'll know "the rest of the story".

John made me promise not to tell this story - but you guys won't say a word will you!!!!!

Dogs I have owned and loved

The first dog that lived in our home when I was a kid was Rex, a Heinz 57 variety of cocker spaniel and traveling man. Rexie was mostly black and brown with tan eyebrows and muzzle...I see a lot of dogs with that combination so the traveling man was very popular with the ladies.

My own first dog was a collie given to me by a boyfriend who eventually came to be my husband. Danni was a purebred, an offspring of two showdogs. Danni didn't have the large white ruff around his neck so was not considered show quality and his price was affordable. He was a sweet, good natured dog but had wanderlust....when we moved to a new house in the suburbs without a fenced in yard, Danni wandered off.....we always hoped that he found a good home.

When our first daughter was about 3 years old, we decided to get another dog....prior to this, a friend had given us a pony...a little white spotted mare. Since our suburban neighborhood was rapidly filling with new homes, we no longer had space for a pony so traded her to a farmer friend for a bassett puppy. Lazee Dazee was the family playmate and followed our girls whereever they went. Dazee died when she was 8 years old.....the vet said it was cancer.

Our family was growing so we bought a larger house and moved again...by this time we had 3 children, 2 girls and a boy. And wanted another dog. Freckles was found at our local animal shelter...a combination of cocker spaniel and we think terrier. She was also a very prolific little dog....she had evidentally had some dealings with another traveling man because several months later she had a litter of 6 darling little black and white puppies. About this time we decided that 3 young children, a dog and 6 puppies was too much for me to care for, so my mom graciously volunteered to take Freckles and her brood. Freckles lived out her life in luxury .... spoiled to the max.

When our last child, Nancy, was 3, we were given a German Shorthair Pointer....a beautiful dog. His name was Argang's Dark Shadow and he lived with us until his death at age 13. Shadow was of the "traveling man" variety...if he could climb the fence, slip out the gate or get out of the door, he was GONE!. The kids would run after him yelling "Shadow, Shadow" and he'd tuck his tail between his legs and run....but he always came home. Shadow passed away in his sleep at age 13.

After Shadow passed away, I said "NO MORE DOGS" but of course no one listened. Our son was 16 and had just passed his driving test...he had a license!!.. so the first place he went was the animal shelter. I was happily cleaning up in the kitchen when the phone rang....a lady from the shelter. She said that Jeff was there wanting to adopt a dog...since he was still under our roof, she said she couldn't let him have one without our permission. I asked what does the dog look like, what kind is it? She must have been very anxious for Jeff to have the dog because her description was a little vague...."well, its white with black spots and we think it is a terrier.." Yep, it was white and black alright, but about 8" taller than any terrier. We had Duke for nearly 10 years.

Finally our children married and moved into homes of their own. And, we were dogless. But not for long. Our youngest, Nancy decided that we needed a pet, so brought over a darling little cocker spaniel puppy....golden brown with a WHITE topnotch....his name was Copper Valley Flintstone. One look at those liquid brown eyes and we were hooked. Fred is 12 years old and is my husband's constant companion.

The last member of our doggy family was a Keeshound named D. B. Kuper....Kuper was one of our son's four dogs. When Jeff moved from the country to the city, he could only take three of the dogs with him. Kuper needed a home...ours. Luckily Fred and Kuper knew each other and Fred was willing to share his home and yard....not his doghouse however. Kuper knew that the doghouse was forbidden territory and never went in. They were good buddies until October of last year when Kuper died of cancer.

Ole Fred is not in the best of health, he doesn't see well and is hard of hearing....or has selective hearing....hears when he wants to. He has a small tumor which is being watched. We dread the day that Fred passes away, but realize that it will not be far off.

Fred will be our last dog....I cannot handle my heart being torn apart piece by piece when our sweet, beloved dogs die. Each of them lives in my heart and memories of them will be with me always.

3 Ways to Make Money at Home

Making money at home....Nope, I’m not talking about a “get rich quick” scheme….you do have to work a little. These are three of my proven favorites.

1. Big Crumbs …BigCrumbs is free to join, and to start using it you simply need to login to the BigCrumbs site through JeansJeans and use their links to retailers to shop, rather than going directly to EBay or the retailers' page.

BigCrumbs is completely FREE! It costs you nothing to join so you can’t lose! You not only get money back on your own shopping, but you get cash back on the shopping of everyone who signs up under you. And it never costs you a dime! You just keep collecting money. It’s a win/win situation.

I use BigCrumbs every time I shop, both on Ebay and on the listed stores. It only takes a minute to sign up ...Put BigCrumbs on your desktop..as a reminder to start there. I travel a lot and it’s amazing how much money is deposited in my PayPal account every month thanks to using Ortiz or Travelocity for airfare and hotel charges. It just keeps coming and coming.

2. Ebay...the tried and true online auction house. I have recently opened a new store Finally Foundit Collectibles .

I offer New & Used items including: books, glassware, Home Decor, model trains, S&P shakersPlus clothing items : Tee shirts, jeans, toddlers and pre-teen, women, teen girls, men, teen boys,

Mark us as a favorite and come back often as we list many items each week.

SPECIAL ***Buy TWO (2) $6.99 or less Tee shirts listed in my auctions and we will ship both for $6.00*** (must buy both today)

3. Adsense….if you have a blog, Adsense is a no-brainer way to make money. Once registered, Adsense will put google ads on your blog….like the ones to the right of this page.

You can choose the size and placement. Each time a reader (you) clicks on one of the google ads, the blog owner (me), gets an amount of money deposited in their Paypal account. . If you write about pets, the ads will be for pet related items, flower articles usually have ads for gardenting sites, etc.

Each time your account reaches $100.00, you will be paid. So, the more interesting your blog, the more clicks, the more money you receive.

You can't ask people to click on the ads, you just hope that if they like your article or blog, they will click on at least one of the ads.....How simple is that!

Crawdads, Crawfish & Mudbugs - spicy snacks!

When I was growing up in 1948 Nebraska, one of my favorite things to do on a Saturday morning was to go "crawdadding" with my dad and his friends.

Hmmm, you don't know what "crawdads" are....well, lets see, in the south they are called crawfish, the eastern United States folks call them crayfish and some parts of this great nation refer to them as mudbugs or yabbies. But in the central and western areas, they are just plain ole crawdads….miniature lobsters.

I loved to go with them. We’d hop into Dad’s old Model T Ford and the guys would discuss where the best spots would be. Dad had his favorite places, depending on how much rain we’d had. Since he was the driver, we’d usually go there.

Crawdaddin’ wasn’t involved, took absolutely no talent and was a great way for us kids to get wet and muddy without being yelled at for doing it. Mom would scold Dad for letting me come home covered with mud and smelly pond water but all she’d say to me was “don’t come into the house with those muddy clothes on”.

I can still remember the feel of the squishy mud between my toes and the prickly thrill that maybe we’d get our toes pinched by a wandering crawdad or some fish would "get" us. Occasionally a small water snake would be sunning itself on the shore and would slither into the pond…..it took a whole lot of persuading to get me into the water after seeing one.

Once we arrived at the right pond, dad would hang a piece of beef liver on a string tied to a piece of wood....then he'd toss it out into a pond or slough (a muddy body of water). They'd throw out 10 or more floating tidbits and wait for a few minutes for the smell to attract the crawdads. They hung out fairly close to shore, under debris hiding from fish, raccoons and other creatures that lived in the area. They were the favorite food of whatever fish happened to live in the pond and had learned the art of self-preservation.

The crawdads would swim up and grab the liver with their big claws. We (the kids) would wade out, pick up the wood and slip a homemade net under the crawdads and occasionally would find some 5 or 6 inchers....we'd really get excited if we happened to get those big ones! Then we would come back to shore and dump the net into a gunny sack.

Once we got enough, a whole sack full, we'd head for home and empty the sack into our old claw bathtub filled with salty water. (on Saturday nights, I also was dumped into that tub…after Mom had scrubbed it out)

I was between 8-10 years old and loved to play with the crawdads before they turned into lunch! I’d look for the biggest ones and tease them to get them to open their claws. Had my fingers pinched many, many times.

Once they were cleaned by the salty water and rinsed, Mom would cook batches of them in her big soup pot….she’d add spices and whatever else was necessary to give them a spicy flavor. They turned bright red and the smell wafted through the open windows and sooner or later the whole neighborhood would smell the spicy crawdads cooking, bring their beer and we'd have a party! (the kids didn't get beer...don't remember what we had)

Thanks for letting me share my memories…..