I bought a laptop last year thinking that I’d only use it while traveling. I therefore went with a cheaper model because I figured I wouldn’t use it enough to justify spending a lot of money on it. But then I went and got a wireless LAN card and love the convenience so much that I’m on my laptop more often than my desktop. I like being able to take the computer out on the porch when the weather’s nice and being able to work in bed when I want to.

Now, however, I’m faced with a different problem: lagging performance due to a serious lack of RAM. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy (and affordable) to expand computer memory these days. I’m already looking at a few different options, and hope to be able to buy something after my tax refund comes in. After that, I’ll probably start doing all my work on the laptop and might even get rid of my desktop altogether so I can have more room in my office.

My husband and I love to travel, so we’ve got a pretty good list of both domestic and international destinations that we’d like to visit at some point in the future. One of the places that we should be able to get to in the next year or so is Lake Powell, which is supposed to be a premier spot for boating and jet skiing. These are activities that we don’t get to do nearly as often as we’d like, so it’ll be great if we can actually make this vacation happen soon.

We’ve been wanting to go to Lake Powell for quite some time, so we periodically check out various travel packages to see what kinds of deals are available. One thing I’ve noticed is that lodging near Lake Powell is extremely expensive and would definitely cut deeply into our budget. So I started looking around for deals on Arizona hotels, and found a website that I think will be very useful. It’s the Travel section of the Azcentral.com site and it features a comprehensive listing of hotels within the state. I was able to sort by price and location, which are the two most important criteria for me, and left the site with a much better feeling about our chances of finding affordable lodging in Arizona.

I’m not sure when we’ll actually be able to make it to Lake Powell, but at least now I know of a fast and easy way to book a hotel!

Did you see that LiveScience.com article about the work habits of smokers vs. non-smokers? It essentially says that non-smokers are better workers because smokers have a tendency to quit before serving their full term, take more sick days, and receive more disciplinary measures.

I don’t know about all that, but I do know that personally speaking, I am definitely a much better worker now that I don’t smoke. I used to be a pack-a-day smoker and when I worked at an office job that meant stepping outside at least once an hour for a quick smoke. That impromptu smoke break often lasted 5 minutes or more if a friend was out there smoking too because obviously we’d spend some time chatting.

I was far less productive than co-workers who didn’t smoke, and many of them (rightly) complained that it wasn’t fair how smokers were able to take all these extra breaks during the day.

Oh, well — not like it matters now. I quit smoking and I work from home, so whatever!

So I finally heard back from Rivals.com about my disputed charges. I posted about a week ago that they automatically renewed my membership and charged $99.95 to my credit card without notifying me of anything.

I just found out that the billing department denied my request for a refund. Yeah, big fuckin’ surprise there. Bastards. I will NEVER do business with them again, and I will tell everyone I know about how bad they suck. And yeah, I guess I’ll post this on my blogs too.

Now I have to go through my cc company to get a refund. Let’s see if they’re any better.

Back when I was in high school, I used to golf quite a bit. Several of my friends were members at exclusive country clubs in the Chicago area, and I was able to get into those places on guest passes from time to time. There’s no way my family could have afforded our own membership, so this was a much appreciated gesture by my friends.

Even as an adult, I am very budget-conscious when it comes to golf. I still hit the links, but only a couple times per year so I simply can’t justify spending a lot of money on equipment. That’s why I play with used clubs and buy discount golf balls whenever possible.

In fact, I was just browsing on the Internet for a couple of new golf supply stores and I came across a very promising site. It’s called GolfBallsAndAccessories.com, and the site specializes in offering used name-brand golf balls for a fraction of the cost of new ones. I don’t mind playing with used golf balls, so this site is perfect for me. Can’t wait to place my first order!

Usually I can sleep very well, but for the last week or so, I’ve been having a rough go of it. I’ve had a very hectic schedule, for one thing, that necessitates my waking up at 4:30am and not getting to bed again until 11:30PM or midnight. My days have been full of chores, assignments, and tasks that I can barely motivate myself to do, so these things hang over my head forever.

Anyway, it’s starting to affect my sleep and I don’t know what I can do about it. I am not getting restful sleep, am having nightmares when I do sleep, and wake up each morning with a vague sense of dread, as though I’ve forgotten to do something important or like something bad’s going to happen soon.

It’s stressful. And exhausting.

I’ve never really participated in “social networking” sites. I tried Friendster back in the day, and even had a MySpace page once upon a time, but I never really got into those things to the point where I would check my account several times a day or whatever.

Now someone I barely know invited me to join Facebook. I know what that site is, but I don’t think I have an account there (I might have signed up at some point, but I really don’t remember).

Anyway, do you use Facebook? Is it worthwhile as an actual networking tool rather than just a social site? I’d be interested in professional networking rather than social stuff. Since that’s the case would LinkedIn be a better bet for me?

A couple of my girlfriends and I like to leave our husbands and kids behind and go away for a weekend at least twice a year. We always try to do fun things that we wouldn’t ordinarily do with our families in tow. For example, the last time we went away to a casino (not Vegas, mind you, but good enough for our purposes) for two days of drinks and slot machines. Prior to that, we hit some great outlet malls for a weekend of bargain hunting.

We haven’t yet decided what we will do for our next girls’ weekend, but I’m thinking of proposing a luxury spa vacation where we can get massages, facials, and just pamper ourselves the entire time. That would definitely be a great way to completely unwind and forget about all the stresses of managing a household, and I’m sure my friends will agree. I can’t wait to make this happen!

I just got done reading an article about the rise of so-called “evil twin” hotspot sites that are run by hackers and scammers in an attempt to get sensitive information out of unsuspecting users.

I’ve used public Wi-Fi spots a couple of times (while on vacation) and I have to admit that this sort of scam never occurred to me. I usually try to stick to public libraries and other places that have free access so I never give out my cc number anyway, but there’s still a risk as far as passwords go. I’m going to have to be even more careful in the future (or just wait until I get back home to check the important stuff).

I’ve been with my husband for more than 10 years, so I never really got to experience dating in the Internet age. That is to say, online dating sites weren’t very popular back then, which meant I had to rely on old-fashioned techniques such as frequenting singles bars or meeting eligible men through mutual friends.

But these days meeting prospective dates online is pretty common. I personally think that makes the whole dating scene a lot easier for several reasons. First of all, it’s easier to pre-screen potential partners based on the answers they give in their profiles. Second, it’s easier to develop a basic friendship via email and instant messages before meeting face-to-face. This obviously gives you a chance to get to know the person a bit better before you actually start dating. And third, you have access to a much larger dating pool — especially if you join a popular website like JustSayHi.com.

JustSayHi.com is a completely FREE dating site that allows you to enjoy all the privileges that you’d expect of a paid site. You can create a profile, upload photos, browse other member profiles, and contact other members without ever having to pay a cent. In fact, JustSayHi will never even ask for your credit card number at any point during your membership. Try getting these kinds of benefits from a site like eHarmony and see how much they charge you for it!

If I were part of today’s dating scene, I’d definitely go with JustSayHi.com over other online personals sites. You just can’t beat “free”!!

Steve Kerr of Yahoo! Sports just posted a little article saying that Kobe Bryant could be the most complete offensive player in the history of the NBA. This was actually the headline on the Yahoo! homepage, so I thought the article would be an in-depth analysis of what Bryant brings to the game. But no — all we get is a little paragraph saying that Kerr thinks Kobe is the best offensive (not all-around) player ever. No supporting argument or anything.

Anyway, I think this is still a pretty huge statement when you consider that Kerr used to play alongside someone named… Michael Jordan!

Look, I don’t know much about basketball, but I do know that Jordan was one of those rare leaders who was able to elevate the play of his teammates on any given night. Players of average skill became better just by playing with MJ all the time. Has Kobe shown that he can do that? The only time he won championships was when he had Shaq in L.A. The fact that Shaq was able to win again after moving on to Miami is an indication that Kobe wasn’t the key to those c’ships in L.A.

As for the Bulls, look what happened to them when MJ left. They’ve been an embarrassment for several years, and though they have made a bit of forward progress, they’re nowhere near the kind of team they were in the 1990’s.

So although I think Kobe is a GREAT player, I don’t think he’s the best offensive player ever.

My husband and I got a new LCD flat-panel television for Christmas and we’ve really been enjoying it so far. I love watching movies and sports in HDTV and can’t believe I waited so long to make the switch.

Even though our picture is now much better than it was before with our old CRT television, I’ve heard that we can get even greater performance out of our new set by making sure that we’re using an HDMI cable instead of analog. I know we didn’t switch out any cables when we got our new TV, so this is defintiely an improvement we can make. I can’t even begin to imagine how good the picture will be once we get the right cables in place!!

So the autopsy results are out and the verdict is that Anna Nicole Smith died of a drug overdose. Not very surprising, is it? I read that she was on nine different prescription meds for various ailments and refused to go to a hospital despite battling a high fever and stomach flu.

Although the news report said that this wasn’t a suicide, I view it in almost the same light. I mean, clearly this woman didn’t care one way or the other if she lived or not. Who in their right mind would mix NINE prescription meds and think they would be ok?

My gut feeling is that she was so distraught over her son’s death that she simply didn’t care about her own life anymore. Too bad — for her daughter’s sake — she couldn’t find a way to make it through.

We already took a week-long vacation this month, so I thought we were pretty much set on that front until September or October at the earliest. But my husband just told me that he might be getting some time off in June, which means that we’ll have to look into more travel options sometime soon.

Our last vacation, which took us to St. Louis and Washington, D.C., was pretty boring, so we definitely want to get back to the fun stuff the next time around. That’s why we’re thinking a trip to Disney World might be in order (my son’s been clamoring for Mickey anyway). How nice would it be to rent an Orlando pool home just minutes away from the Magic Kingdom: we could spend all day at the park, then come back home for an outdoor barbecue and some swimming before turning in and doing it again the next day.

I could get used to this kind of lifestyle for sure!

Anyone who has ever spent time living or traveling in Japan knows that they’ll eventually come across a business with a pretty crazy name. For instance, take this karaoke bar (or “box”, as they say over there) that I saw just outside of Nagoya, Japan.

It looks like any of the thousands of other karaoke boxes that you’d see in the country, except for the name. It’s “Ass.” Yeah, I have no idea what the owners were going for with that name, but there you have it!