I’m sure you’ve heard how a lot of Hollywood stars appear in commercials or ads overseas because of the enormous payouts they get. Tommy Lee Jones is just one example of someone who does this (though there are many more, including big names like Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Kiefer Sutherland, etc.). Jones has been a spokesperson for BOSS coffee for as long as I can remember — definitely more than five years.

Anyway, here’s a picture my husband took of one of Jones’ ads on a vending machine near our Japan condo. Just thought you guys would like to see it!

As my husband can certainly attest, I misplace my keys at least twice a week. Usually this happens inside the house, which makes it a relatively easy matter to find them again. But I’ve also been known to leave my keys in restaurants, dressing rooms, and supermarket carts, which leads to a whole other set of problems as I’m sure you can imagine. That’s why I’m very interested in getting a fingerprint lock like the ones featured at BrickHouseSecurity.com.

These fingerprint locks use a biometric reader to scan the homeowner’s fingerprints and then grant entry. That means I would be able to get into my house without having to keep track of a key and without having to remember a PIN. Not only is that convenient (and just the thing an absent-minded person like myself needs) but it’s also very cool. None of my friends has this kind of lock, and I know they would totally be blown away if they saw one of these devices on my door!

The best part about the fingerprint locks at BrickHouseSecurity.com is the low price. I thought these products would be well out of my price range, but that’s not the case at all. Right now I can get one for less than $200, which is an excellent deal. I’d rather spend that kind of money on a fingerprint lock than on repeated calls to the locksmith.

A fingerprint lock for my home would solve half of my lost key problems. Now if they’d only develop something like this for my car, I’d be all set!!!

I’ve blogged before about how my husband and I really want to move out of the Chicagoland area to a place that has nicer weather. Of course, that’s not the only criterion we have in mind. Our destination also has to have good school systems, a low crime rate, and a booming economy. My brother made an offhand suggestion about Orlando, and that got me thinking.

Well, why not Orlando? We go there often enough for our family vacations. Why not live there? It’s a nice community with plenty of things to do on the weekends. The tourism industry pretty much ensures that we would always be able to find some kind of fun and interesting job, plus we’d get that beautiful weather we want so much!

Just out of curiosity, I ran some Internet searches about housing in that city. It turns out that the Orlando luxury real estate market is really thriving these days. I found some luxury condos that would be perfect for our small family — and they were actually well within our price range. Maybe we should work an appointment at the Buyers Broker of Florida offices into our next vacation to see what kind of properties they can show us.

I bought a PSP for myself earlier this month plus a couple of games, including Hot Shots Golf. Man, I can’t get myself to stop playing this thing! Hot Shots is a very fun game with cool graphics, non-annoying background music, and challenging (but not impossible) gameplay. I play at least four or five full rounds per day as I try to win as many accessories for my characters as I can. I love the fact that I can changed up their outfits and all that. It’d those little things that make video games more fun for me.

What’s really weird is that I don’t even like golf in real life! I haven’t played since high school and I barely ever watch it on TV anymore. But when it comes to video games, golf is one of my favorite types. Go figure! It’s probably because this kind of game is more relaxing than, say, a racing game or a shooting game.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a fun game for your PSP, I recommend Hot Shots Golf!

If you do a lot of online shopping, then you probably already know about Overstock.com as a store where you can get tremendous discounts on authentic brand-name products. But don’t forget that just by spending a few extra minutes searching for relevant coupon codes, you can save even more money on every order you place.

For example, I checked out CouponChief a couple minutes ago and saw that they have nine (count ‘em: nine) different Overstock.com coupons that can immediately be used for additional savings.

I wouldn’t dream of shopping online without browsing through CouponChief first!

My husband and I have been thinking of ways to invest our money so that it has a chance to grow into a nice nest egg for our retirement years. Right now, whatever extra money we have just sits in a savings account earining a very low interest rate that won’t add up to much 30 years from now. We’ve been tossing around a few ideas and one investment vehicle we’re both intrigued by is silver.

Precious metals are usually a pretty safe investment from what I understand. Since we simply don’t have the funds to buy platinum or gold, we figured silver would be the next best thing. It’s possible to buy silver bullion in the form of coins or ingots (bars) through intermediaries like the Monex Deposit Company. Then you can either take physical delivery of the silver or have it stored in a bank or depository for you.

Silver prices are pretty low right now, so this seems like an excellent time to buy. We’re really going to have to give this some serious thought!

I’ve become a fan of the TV show Justice, which airs on FOX. It stars Victor Garber, Kerr Smith, and two other regulars (whose names escape me right now) as a team of defense attorneys who take on high-profile cases. Although it’s certainly not the best show I’ve ever seen, it’s definitely fun and I usually end up enjoying the entire hour.

But I’ve been hearing rumors since October that the ratings aren’t where FOX execs expected them to be and that the show is in danger of getting canceled. Now, I periodically hear conflicting reports from different sources. Some people say that yes, Justice is definitely gone. Others say that FOX is going to try putting it in different time slots to see if that helps matters.

I hate not knowing whether I should bother to keep watching the show or not! If you know what’s going on with Justice, drop me a line. My email addy is in the sidebar to the right.

(Photo from Yahoo TV)