AZDana

Archive for April 12th, 2007

Have you ever had a good idea that you can’t finish? I heard of a couple that is moving from New York to Sedona, AZ and they’ve hired a cabbie to drive them all the way. I was going to write a little ditty to commemorate their trip, but got stuck after the first stanza. If anyone else wants to add to this, I would really appreciate the help:

Sit right back and you’ll read a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip,
A cab ride to Sedona?
That means a real big tip.
The couple lived in NYC
Their kitties couldn’t fly
A cabbie said he’d drive them all
If they’d give it a try.

I don’t know if she’ll go for this idea, but I think she needs to take a break and get away from everything. I’m not talking about a quick trip to the local coffee shop, I’m talking about getting out of town for a week or more for a vacation. I wonder if she has ever looked at Orlando vacation rentals? She probably hasn’t given it much thought because she’s so stressed out about the condition of her floor. But I think she and her family need to look into going to Florida for a vacation. She probably doesn’t know that there are 52 theme parks in the Orlando area. Gosh, I don’t even remember the last time she was on a Ferris Wheel or a roller coaster, and she used to love those kinds of rides when we were growing up.

If she just wants to spend a day relaxing, there are beaches within a short 40 minute drive of Orlando. So she can just sit on the shore and not think of anything other than watching the waves roll in. If she goes to Florida for vacation, she could unwind, release a lot of stress, and come home totally invigorated. She won’t have to worry about a thing while she’s there, because she’ll be so busy having fun that she won’t think of anything else but the excitement of being in Orlando.

Have you ever tried searching for pictures on Flickr? To me, it’s like trying to sort through a warehouse filled with unlabeled and unsorted boxes of photographs. Thankfully, FlickrCash can help you avoid all the headaches of selecting pictures. It’s an innovative site that’s designed to allow users the ability to efficiently find images and sellers to sell their pictures by accepting payments for them and archiving licenses for public inspection.
FlickrCash is very easy to use. When you see an image you like, click on the client view of lightbox to provide feedback on image selection. The search returns as many thumbnails as your screen can display and saved searches allow you to get back to where you left off during image research.Personally, I can envision many uses that my friends and family could have for FlickrCash. For example, my sister always needs images in some form for her business. I try to help her out, but it is such a chore to find something online, then email her the info, then wait to find out whether or not she thinks the image is suitable. With FlickrCash, she and I can share the lightbox so I can know whether or not she “hearts” or “hates” what I have chosen. She is frequently pressed for time, so she can now go to FlickrCash, view my results, and make a quick decision as to whether or not to purchase what she needs.

From now on, no one has to spend hours of their day searching for the right picture. No more wasting time, sorting out what you don’t want. Now you can quickly find what you need, thanks to FlickrCash.

I just talked to her on the phone. She is now sitting out in her garage with her little dogs while the construction workers try to grind down her floor to the proper level. I can’t believe that it’s gotten that bad. At first, the construction company tried to tell her that the unevenness was due to the fact her house had settled. She quickly pointed out that they knew the state of her house before they started construction and they didn’t mention the settling then. Also, her home is fairly new, in an upscale area, so it’s not like they’re remodeling a decrepit rundown hovel.

Poor thing, she’s probably going to have to spend the rest of the day documenting the problems with her digital camera. Either that, or she’ll quickly eliminate the construction mistakes with her handy hatchet.

Last night, I wrote about the dating scene and thought about what it would be like to have a companion. Now that I think about it, I realize just how difficult it is to meet someone that shares my interests and opinions. In the past, I kissed a lot of frogs and never quite found a prince. Back then, there was no internet to meet people, there wasn’t an online dating site that I could use to screen out according to personality. Basically, you just met someone and took their chances.

Like the guy that wanted to marry me on the first date so we could go on “The Newlywed Game” tv show together. Actually, there were a couple guys that wanted to marry me before they even knew me very well, or even knew my middle name. I don’t think that I’m irresistible with blinding charm, I just thought these guys were desperate because they thought they wanted a wife to cook and wash their socks for them.

There was this one guy though, I’ll call him “Chad” but that’s not his real name. I noticed him right off the bat because he wore a Bullwinkle t-shirt under his white dress shirt. To Bible study at church. I mean, there everyone is, discussing deep theological concepts, and a cartoon moose is staring back at you from underneath this guy’s shirt.

He asked me out, but his idea of dates were rather unconventional and he was always rather frugal. For example, we spent several dates building a ship out of toothpicks. When it was done, we took it to the local park and set it adrift in the water while it burned. (I wouldn’t do that now, but I was young then.) We always had a great time, but we fizzled out because we didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of important things. He was very liberal, and I am a conservative. We never argued, but we both knew that we could never have a serious relationship. Too bad, because we always had a lot of fun together. I don’t know where he ended up, but I have a lot of nice memories about “Chad” and I hope he’s having a nice life.

I tried calling her this morning to leave some unimportant message. (Jeepers, I can’t even remember what it was I wanted to tell her, how bad is that, lol.) Anyway, I got her answering machine, but that’s no big deal. I usually get one of her machines on one of her lines. No, she doesn’t screen my calls, at least I hope not. It’s just that she has two separate phones and two separate lines coming in and if she’s talking on one line, she usually can’t pick up when I call.

So, anyway, I’m about to leave a message, but then it says her machine is full! I was surprised because that’s never happened before. So, I sent her an email and I knew we’d connect later in the day.

She sent me an email back, saying that her machine is full because she had a lengthy conversation last night with her contractor over the things they’ve messed up, like the floor, and tons of other things. She’s saving the information on the machine in case they have to go to court.

That is so sad to me. She did everything right, used an architect to plan the remodeling, hired a company with a good track record, checked out their previous work, etc.  She knew it would probably cost more to hire this company, but she figured that when it came to her home, she would get what she paid for. Sadly, it looks like she was wrong and she may be in for a legal battle over their shoddy work.

I don’t know about other states, but I heard that in Arizona that the police will tow a car, if the driver doesn’t have car insurance. Kind of a sobering thought to think that your main means of transportation could be taken away if you’re not responsible enough to pay for insurance. But I feel that if you can’t afford to pay for the minimum coverage, then you shouldn’t be on the road. I’ve known far too many people whose lives were seriously changed because their car was hit by an uninsured motorist.

Of course, some people would say that insurance is too high, but I bet they don’t do any comparison shopping. For example, I’ve known friends that took the time to Compare Home Insurance and they found a great difference in price between various companies, even though they all offered pretty much the same policy.

I imagine the same principle applies to other areas, like travel insurance. Come to think of it, I wish I would’ve taken the time to research pet insurance before the BBD got sick recently. If I had, maybe I wouldn’t have had to pay so much out of pocket to the veternarian.

I’m going to set aside some time and find out more about pet insurance. But at least I don’t have to worry about law enforcement trying to repossess my dog until she’s fully insured.