Walt Disney World 2012

I finally got it figured out on how to upload pictures the easy way that it used to be. I searched for any assistance from their technician, and found out that all I need to do is to switch to its "old interface". Sounds like Facebook with its new timeline, huh?

I will add more description and a little story-telling later, after dinner. :-)

(August 8, 2012)

Ok, I am back. Whew! It took me almost three weeks to come back. Pardon my negligence, I am extremely busy these days... (and it feels like forever, trust me). I can't recall anymore when did I start being extremely busy that updating on my blog seemed impossible, but somehow, my husband and I were managed to had a couple of days break on that last weekend of the month of June. We decided to spend them at the Walt Disney World. (Thank God that it was possible.

There are four theme park in Walt Disney World (Orlando, Florida). We agreed to pick the Disney's Hollywood Studio. Although I haven't been in any other park than this one, but in my opinion, it was great for grown ups like myself and my husband.

Among all the "booths" or "rides" (whatever you call it), my favorite was the "Hollywood Tower Hotel". It was our first one, and was a great way to start our day. Plunging in the pitch darkness while the elevator shaft either drops you that will literally takes you off from your seat or take you up and up that leaves you clueless on where it will take you. That was fun though.

My husband's favorite was "The Great Movie Ride" where it took us to the shooting location where the action took places and the characters (wax) were there, too. It was cool when we were in the middle of John Wayne shooting action with his enemies.

The whole theme was fantastic. It surely beat the stress out from us. Once again, I would like to thank God for that wonderful opportunity that he gave us.

You can enlarge any picture by clicking on the image. :-)

A Pool Without Breaking Your Ground

One of the things that Ciara and Corbin (our grandkids) wanted to do when they were here with us was to swim on the pool. They loved to swim, but sad to say that we didn’t allow them because it was too cold. We promised to allow them to swim on summer time when they come back. We are glad that they liked it here with us. They said that they want to come back. I believe that one of the reasons was that they got to play with their cousins that live here in the complex. It was a wonderful time having them with us to bond together.
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Their interest in swimming made my husband think that he should tell their Dad to put up a pool in their backyard, too. PcPools.com is the website to go to check for the varieties of styles of above ground pools, in-ground pools, installation and supplies. The image that I enclose is one of their latest styles. I think it is pretty. This is what they call above ground pool, which I believe, a good idea, because in this way they don’t have to break the ground, and I believe that this cost less than the in-ground pool that we have. Just like with the in-ground pools, this pool is built to last, too. I’m sure that our grandkids will be happier to have their own pool at their backyard someday.

Biking Moment

One of the gifts that my husband gave me last Christmas day was a bicycle. Actually, it was my request because I felt like I need to build up my confidence on the road before I will try to learn to drive a car. I am very happy with my new bicycle. It has been 15 years since I was active in bicycling. I tried doing it again a couple of years ago, and I was so frustrated that I can't do it anymore.

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The day after Christmas was a chilly day, but it doesn't stop me and my husband from spending time out for biking moment. I feel like we had just had another things in common which I believe is healthy. I am so happy that it didn't take long for me to regain my confidence on a bicycle; although I am not as good as I used to be. Well, maybe it will take time...
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Truth to tell, it was only that time that I tried my bicycle on. I got very busy these past few days, that I don't have time to check on my bicycle at the back of our house. I am looking forward for a sunny day where my husband and I will go out biking again.

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Thank you very much for the bicycle, honey. I love you.

Spring Is Coming, Plan Your Gardening.

I can't wait for the spring to come, and then I can resume with my small garden spot. I bought three pots last summer, and I bought a set of garden fence, too. I was not able to work on it because I became too busy with my job, and then before I knew it, it was autumn, and then winter.
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I am collecting pretty and unusual pots for my indoor little garden, too. I was browsing on the internet and found the website of the ePlanters.com where they have wide selections of all kinds of planters in different sizes, shapes, colors and materials. I got attracted with their Yorkshire Sub-Irrigated 60 inch customizable window box planter. I can almost imagine how it would look like in our window. It will surely be an "eye-catcher".
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It is not too early to plan your garden, either indoor or outdoor. Start your shopping for planters. Visit ePlanters.com to check their indoor planters, outdoor planters, garden planters and more window box planters.
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Next to these planters, my assignment would be looking for rare and unusual flower seeds to add to my collection. Flowers always makes me smile.

Skating In Bryant Park

Guest post written by Nancy Grady

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My husband Steve and I went to midtown to purchase a new pair of Miracle Ear hearing aids. I have always lived a very healthy and active life, and the way I see it-there's no reason to ever stop that. I decided I wanted to get out and does something fun so I convinced Steve to take me ice skating several times over the weekend. We first went to Rockefeller center to get the unique opportunity of ice skating under the big Christmas tree. It was incredibly memorable, but a little cramped for space. There were many times that we had to come to a complete stop because there were so many people packed in front of us.

The next day, Steve and I still had quite a lot of energy so we went to the ice rink in Bryant Park. There was a lot more space and Steve and I really got to enjoy ourselves without feeling too congested. We took it slow and really got to relish in the experience. After all these years, the city can still feel magical at times. Skating made me feel great. I'm so glad we went.

Being a First-Time Home Owner

Guest post written by Pete Schnieder

My wife has been on me lately to take a more vested interested in homeproimprovement, especially now that weÕre officially home-owners. YepÑfor the first time together, weÕre no longer renting a propertyÑwe own it! ItÕs an amazing difference, I can already tellÉthe space just feels like itÕs more ours. I think one of our first projects is going to be to add a nice sunroom adjacent to our back portch/living room area. ItÕll be nice especially in the spring and summer months since weÕll be able to actually utilize our beautiful back yardÑsoaking up a few rays and kicking back to enjoy life.

I think weÕre also going to build a fire pit area near the projected space for our sunroom so we can have cookouts. ThatÕs one thing we never did enough of at our old house, and weÕre thinking that could be a good way to get to know the neighbors, too. WeÕre really going to take pride in fixing this place up so that itÕs more us. CanÕt wait to get started!

Family reunion activities

Guest post written by Clint Brown
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As much as we love getting together and eating a ton of really great food, you can't just do that for hours and hours at a family reunion. You do have to do some other things eventually. So this year I took it upon myself to plan something for all the kids to do so that they could use up some of that energy and let the adults catch up and chat some more without being bothered.
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I got the idea to hold a kickball game or two after everyone's lunch had settled and I convinced my two sisters to help me, which I think they also appreciated so our great aunts wouldn't corner them about being in their 20s and not being married. I downloaded some kickball rules with my clear internet and printed them out for us to take to the reunion.
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Well, it ends up that the family kickball game was a really big hit and I've already got requests to organize another one for next year. I think a lot of the adults are even interested in participating in it.

Cocoa Beach (Florida) Air Show - October 31, 2010

Some of those that were in the costume party last night agreed that we met up at Cocoa Beach this afternoon for the Air Show. We arrived at the location at 1 o'clock, but looking for a spot to park was terrible. Special thanks to my employer for allowing us to park at their parking spot because they lived around that area. The rest of the party where there at the spot already.
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It was a hot afternoon, enough to put some tan on our skin. Americans like it, but not us, Filipino ladies. Thanks to the sunblock lotion, it did not burn my face. We got a nice spot. Faye brought a gazebo which was very helpful to keep us shaded, but was removed later because of the strong wind. There were a lot of foods that were left over from last night's party. Before the most exciting part of the show came, we were just relaxing, eating, drinking and chatting. It was some kind of a continuation for the bonding we had last night. This is some kind of a healthy couple's activities that I believe we should do regularly, as our availability permits.
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Then the best part of the show began. It was awesome! It reminded me of a book I loved when I was a little girl. It described the power of the plane where it can "make loops, zoom and dash... and come to land without a crash". One surprise very loud zoom from our back really made us scream. It was flying so low that we really had to duck down. There were a lot more that they did that I can't explain. I can't find the perfect word to describe them. But for over-all rating, it was excellent. We really had a blast. It was worth the time and effort we spent.
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And look at these birds (the last picture), they were doing their own air show, too. How cute! Well, I believe that if I can hear them talking, they would have said, "Hey, these planes are imitating us!" How true! Because after all, they are the original "air show performers".
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Click on each picture for better view. Thanks.

Getting Ready For The Big Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Day is fast approaching. It will be a little over a month to go. Wow! How did time fly so fast? Where did it go? Thanksgiving Day is one of my favorite holidays here in USA, because most of my husband’s family from north will go down here to spend that special dinner with us. Just like last year. It is always fun having a large crowd in the house for that very special day. My husband calls it “The 3 F’s Day” Why? Because that day is about Family, Food and Football.
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There will be a big preparation for that dinner. There will be wide variety of foods. Everybody will be preparing their own specialty menu. Turkeys, of course, is always part of that special event. And there will be variety of ways to prepare them. I wonder if we can do all the preparation here in our house. We may need a butcher block to prepare the Turkey. Using a butcher block for chopping meat is safer and less messy than doing it on the counter.
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Putting up Adirondack chairs will be ideal for outdoor gathering, too. I just love its southern beauty; sturdy and yet elegant. The oldies will be on them while they are watching the kids playing on the playground.
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Another important thing to consider is our utility sinks , too. I had to have my husband check on it. We had the problem with our sinks two weeks ago. It was from the grease that was stuck in the pipeline. We better make sure that it will not happened again. Not on that time.
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Sometimes, preparation for family gathering is stressful, but all the stress will be worth it, because there is nothing more fun than having your family around for a special day of the year.

Spending Fall At Branson

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Geile Leon. All opinions are 100% mine.

Fall is here. Those who have business that only operates on late spring and the entire season of summer, they always do their vacation on late fall. I know some. My Filipino friend in Michigan, for instance, their business is bicycle and bicycle parts. It is always busy on late spring through early fall, because it is the time of the year that people uses their bicycles. That is why during late fall, they always travel around America for a long-week break. They take it as a chance to have a vacation and just enjoy their time together.

I know that last year they were in the west part of the country. That was what she told me, and they had a great time. This year, their target will be on the Midwest part of America. She mentioned to me that Missouri would be one of them. I love Missouri. I heard a lot of good things about them. We made plans, but it was always canceled and ends up somewhere else because of some circumstances that can’t be avoided. My husband told me about how awesome this state is with all the popular attractions that he believes I would like to see, specifically around Branson. It is known as the entertainment capital of the Midwest. I heard about their famous Hollywood Wax Museum. He wants to take me to ’57 Heaven Car Museum, too, as cars are his passion ever since he was a kid.

Talking about Branson, Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel offers exclusive Fall in The City Package with the rate starting at $309.50 per night. This offer will not only avail you to two-night accommodations, but you’ll also receive two tickets on the Showboat Branson Belle for dinner with the show, two adult tickets to Silver Dollar City with a 50^th Anniversary Silver Dollar City Souvenir Book and a $25 hotel food and beverage credit.

Another offer is the Shopping Package, starting with just $164 per night. It includes deluxe accommodations, a breakfast buffet for two and a $25 gift card which may be used at any store in the Tanger Outlet Mall which is just close by. This is really an awesome offer. Plus, their location is within the area where almost everything are accessible such as to shops, boutiques, restaurants, a river walk, golf courses, museums, theaters, theme parks and other attractions. Thinking about it, I figure that driving to Branson, Missouri from Merritt Island, Florida would take 18-20 hours. It is 1172 miles all the way. Hmm, I love traveling on road. For me, this is what makes the vacation more exciting.

Making Money Doing Make-Up

I am still unemployed to this day. It has been two weeks since the day that I called it “official”. Although I want to say that I am happy being at home, but I need the job to be able to send to my mama the money that she need for her medication. I am enjoying my life now where I can do a lot of things that I was not able to do when I was working. The fact is, I am still making money even though I just stayed home. Well, not as much as I can when I work 8 hours a day, but enough to be able to go around. I am doing some kind of a handmade stuff where I can sell them online. I love doing them and that has been my life since I was in my teens.

Hey, there is another thing of making good money. Why don’t we take advantage of the upcoming Halloween where most people go to costume parties and most of them would need somebody to do the make up that would make them look scary or fantastic? It is fun. Haven’t I told you that I am good in that, too? Oh yes. I still have two weeks to prepare for it. I will get my makeup artist business cards and start to hand them out to my friends and their friends for probable clients. I believe that it would make good money then. Now, I am getting excited about this.

A Visit To Michelle's House

Yesterday, the Filipina Mafia (This is what we called to ourselves, groupies of Filipinos around Merritt Island. This term was originally from my husband’s cousin’s comments about us, every time he saw us gathering either in pool or in our house.) has decided to go visit Michelle’s house. I am unemployed right now, so I was free. Jane had off from work yesterday, so she was free. Dolly don’t have job yet, so she was free, too. Off we go then.
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We left around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Jane picked me up from our house, while Dolly was already in the car then. Jane was the one driving. I was amazed and worried at the same time. It was the first time I was on their car with her driving. She have her learner’s permit already though; and beside that, her husband was with us, sat down next to her so it should make me feel less worried. I was wondering why we were taking the road A1A. Michelle’s house is in Rockledge. We were supposed to take 520. What I didn’t know was that Michelle just moved down to Melbourne a couple of days ago, and that was why they have decided to visit her.
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This picture was taken outside Michelle’s house. We are a group who just love taking pictures and post them in Facebook. We all love their new place. Michelle told me to start learning to drive so that I can just drive the car all by myself to visit her. I am looking forward to that though. I promised myself that after I visit Philippines, it will be the next thing that I will take care of. In line with that plan, getting insurance is one important thing that we need to do, too. I’ll probably just settle with short term insurance until I can purchase my own new car.

NFL Tailgating Is The Best

Guest post written by my buddy Aldo Mays

Tailgating is a custom and tradition that has taken place at football games for ages. I went to college at a small school in North Carolina. While we did have fun before football games and some big basketball games and other sports, I never really expierienced tailgating until I went to an NFL game.

The first one that I went to was back in the early winter of 2008. I was ate up with anticipation. I walked out of the house, made sure to set the adt home security, then headed to M & T Bank Stadium in Downtown Baltimore to watch the Ravens play my beloved Washington Redskins in a Sunday night game on NBC.

I took the Greyhound bus as it was only a 3 hour ride from my house. The station was only blocks from the stadium. I ended up tailgating with the folks from ExtremeSkins.com, the official message board of the Skins. They had everything that you wanted there. Pulled pork with two pigs, hamburgers, hot dogs, all the adult beverages that you wanted. We ate and chatted it up before we all got together and marched to the stadium. It was fun because I got to meet all the people that I had gotten to know though the message board.

It was very cold that night and unfortunately we lost the game. It was that tailgating expierience though that I will definitely not forget.

4 Generations

During our small family reunion which was in this small resort in Surigao City, I noticed something interesting that I just can't get to pass. My mother, her daughter Melinda (my sister), her grand daughter Ramelyn (which is Melinda's daughter and my niece) and her great-grand daughter Baby Gab (which is Ramelyn's daughter and my great niece) were both there in one place and at one time. I was looking at them and the word "Four Generations" formed on my mind. So I thought it was a very rare chance and I called them all in to take them this picture. It wasn't that great, I know. I am not good in choreography, but I guess my family would agree that this picture is better than nothing at all.
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I don't have any children yet, so, I don't know how it feels to see your children having their own family and to see your children's family's family, too. But I am sure that my mama was happy to see her offspring gather together in one place to just being with each other. Although it was what we called an official reunion, but sad to say that half of the big family member were not there for various reasons. We are hoping that on the next time, everybody can be ready and can join on this big family event. Let us keep doing this to strengthen the bonds of the young generations.
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Once again, I would like to thank to those who made extra effort to have this family reunion realized. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.

Shuffleboard

During the entire spring, my husband and his friends were all meeting up every friday afternoon to play Shuffleboard at one spot in the complex where we live. It was Brian, who was in charge of this game. He once has convinced me to play with them. I did, and I had fun. Everybody told me that my husband was the best in the game. Hmm, that made me even prouder of him.
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Shuffleboard, more precisely deck shuffleboard, and also known as shuffle-board, shovelboard, shovel-board and shove-board is a sport in which players use broom-shaped paddles to push weighted pucks, sending them gliding down a narrow and elongated court, with the purpose of having them come to rest within a marked scoring area. As a more generic term, it refers to the family of shuffleboard-variant games as a whole.
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As it annualy happened, by the start of the summer season, the "snowbirds" went up north, and one of them was Brian and his lovely wife. He left the charge of the game to my husband, but very shortly after that, players became fewer and fewer until my husband announced to cancel it until further notice. It is just unbearably too hot to play.

Florida's Playalinda Clothing Optional Beach

For months, my husband was trying to persuade me to go with him to Playalinda (Nude) Beach. "I don't want to go to a nude beach, honey. I don't want to see nude people," I told him. "It's not that bad, honey, and we are just gonna see what is in that place," was his reply. I was off from work on previous Saturday and Sunday. I wanted to go to the National Wildlife Refuge to buy a Solar-Shirt from their gift shop. I never realized that it was on the way going on that nude beach, so after we bought my solar-shirt, we proceed to the nude beach which was another 5 miles away.
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The parking lot only holds about 30 cars and there are no accommodations for parking on the shoulder or elsewhere. We arrive past noon with no plans to swim, and the parking lot was full, we have to turn around and drive back to the one of the other further South parking lots. We realized that the later you get there the harder it will be to get a spot and the further you will have to park away. Each parking lot is another 1/2 to 1 mile away from the clothing optional sunbathing area. We end up walking in and out for a mile just to be on that spot where naked people are flocking around.
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Again, with no plans to swim or anything, we were just sitting on the sand after a mile walk, relaxing and just absorbing the shock we experienced. Of course, we act as if pretending that everything that we saw was normal, but I whispered to my husband, "Honey, we are in a whole different world." There were 20-200 exposed sunbathers. Some of them are just walking past us back and forth, as if talking a brisk walk. A couple of minute later, a naked man came standing in front of us, asking why we were not taking our clothes off yet. Imagine that, we were sitting on the sand, and there was the naked man in front of us. Again, we were pretending that everything around was normal. My husband then politely answered him that it was our first time, and that we were absorbing everything yet. "Smart answer, honey."
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Florida clothing optional beach is in Canaveral National Seashore Playalinda Beach, Florida. It is part of the National Wildlife Refuge and is managed by the federal government, so it is not advertised as a clothing optional beach, though it is used that way. The reason for this is that there are no federal laws prohibiting this. The local governments that have limited jurisdiction over this geographic area, are not staffed for, nor are they interested in, spending a great bit of time and resources to enforce and prosecute under "their" public decency laws on federal property. So as long as people don't abuse the privilege and follow basic guidelines for non-offensive conduct, the right and accepted use of Playalinda as an awesome beach can continue.

Spend Your Summer With Tee Time

I am glad that the issues about Tiger Woods died down… or may I say, at least it slowed down. I am a big fan of him since the beginning of his golf career, and I am happy that he is back to golfing again. I started to become interested with the sports golf during the peak of Tiger Woods’ success. Golf, according to others, is considered the most expensive sports because of all the expense that goes with it; one example is the golf shoes which were reported to be very expensive. The golf's increased popularity was attributed to Woods' presence. He was credited for dramatically increasing prize money in golf, generating interest in new audiences as the first person of African American descent to win the Masters, and for drawing the largest TV audiences in golf history.

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Golf is one of my husband’s favorite sports. I believe that it is a good way of family bonding together, and at the same time, introducing this sport to the new generation in our family. He was looking online for an ideal place for tee times , he found this one, www.48hourteetimes.com, and they offer great service with great savings for unpremeditated golf. It is the fastest surest way to book tee times on fabulous courses. 48 hour tee times has wide selection with flexible time for your last minute outing. Plus, they don’t have membership fee at all, and you don’t need accommodation to be able to play in their field.
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Gather your friends and talk about having fun together. Their trained golf professionals guarantee their high quality service and are determine to make your golf vacation memorable. View their extensive list of golf course and pick your choice. Book your tee time online reservation now.

Lion Country Safari

Last Wednesday was my day off from work. Dad and Mom took advantage of it by taking me to Lion Country Safari. They have been there long time ago, and they want to go there again, with me and my husband this time. We left very early, and I was sleeping on our way going to West Palm Beach where the Lion Country Safari is located.

These are few of the pictures we took in there. It took us two hours to get there, and once we entered the gate, everybody was getting excited. It was really a very thrilling experience, entering the habitat of these wild animals. As what I have observed, I believed that everybody can be safe as long as you drive slowly and you don't provoked them. The experience was like in the movie "Jurassic Park" where you drive in the world of the dinosaurs. I was so happy and was very thankful to both Dad and Mom for taking me there. They really treat me like their baby daughter. I am so blessed to have them as my parents-in-law.

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Aside from these animals (and more), they also have rides, water parks, spot where you get to feed the giraffes, animals exhibitions and many more. It was a nice day in the Lion Country Safari with 80 degrees temperature. I wanted to walk on barefoot to feel the warmth of the sun. By the end of the day, I noticed that my shoulders were itchy and then I found out that I had sunburn on my shoulders. It was not that bad though, because after I put cold lotion on it, the itchiness and redness subsides.

"Date Night" For Our Date Night

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of 20th Century Fox. All opinions are 100% mine.

I treated Dad and Mom to a dinner yesterday in Sonny’s Pit Barbecue. They don’t want me to spend my money for dinner, but I insisted and pleaded. I wanted to please them through this opportunity to be able to treat them to a special dinner. To make the story short, I had finally convinced them and four of us ate happily.

On this weekend, I have another plan, and this one is exclusively between me and my husband. Yes, it will be a couple’s date. Of course, we have been dating a lot, but this time will be different because this will be my treat. We always wanted to eat in a Greek Restaurant. We might try that this weekend. After dinner, we might be going to the mall to see a movie, Date Night.

Date Night, it is starred by Steve Carell and Tina Fey. They are a couple of funny actor and actress. I love them both. The story is about a bored suburban couple go on their weekly dinner date and find themselves thrown into a night of intrigue: there’s breaking and entering, a car chase, a shootout and a showdown with an underworld boss at a strip club. This movie will be released on this weekend; April 9th, 2010. I included a video trailer here in my post, for you to have an idea about the story. Click to start.

Have you any plans for the weekend? A Date Night Movie is a good idea. :)

Weather And Your Lifestyle

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of AccuWeather. All opinions are 100% mine.

In the past few weeks, the weather had been shifting a lot here in Florida, three to four days cold followed by one to two days warm. A lot of people here said that so far, this has been the longest winter in Florida. The government worries about the orange orchard, because the excessive cold weather brought serious negative effect on their business. It might be possible that this year they will be producing poor quality of oranges which would be a sad fact.

It has been a while that my husband had wanted both of us to spend a whole day in the beach. There has never been a good time for us to do it. The weather had always prevented us to do so. Plus, there has always been hurricane alert around our place lately. We were always hoping for that perfect day to come so that we can go to the beach.

My husband’s mini vegetable garden is not doing great. The tomatoes are growing slowly. The green onions seem stagnant. And the pepper looks like dying. The only one that looks healthy is the radish. We hope that it will be sunny soon, and maybe there will be chance for all of them to be revived. The cold weather did it.

All these problems are the causes of the instability of our weather here in Florida. But here is a help that people can surely take advantage with. AccuWeather has redesigned their website and made it easier than ever for users by displaying more relevant information grouped conveniently together at a higher level. It displays a variety of 5-day forecasts for key weather parameters that allow people to plan for the weekend, gardening, recreation, travel and even for pleasure. They had intentionally reduced the clutter throughout the site, placed on larger displays and a new tabbed navigation for more choices that it ever had at the audience’s fingertips.

This new site has includes lifestyle areas in four categories, and they are “Weather and Health”, “Weather and Travel”, “Weather and Home and Garden” and “Weather and Outdoor Activity”. In this way, it will be easier to follow the weather forecast in accordance to your kind of activities that you want to connect it with. Visit their website to be informed about weather in relation to your lifestyle.