It’s getting hotter and hotter every day now, which means I need to find a place that does auto air conditioning repair. Yes, the AC in my car went out at the tail end of last summer and of course I decided to put off the repairs until this year. I know that auto air conditioning repairs can be pretty expensive, so I wanted to give myself some extra time to save.

The weather has been tolerable up til now, so I’ve been getting by with just opening the windows. But I hate driving like that for extended periods of time because I end up breathing nothing but exhaust for however long I’m driving. Nasty stuff!! I just have to bite the bullet and hope I find an auto air conditioning repair shop that is above-board and won’t try to rip me off.

Do any of you out there have personal experience with fixing the AC in your cars? Are there any national auto air conditioning repair shops that you recommend dealing with?

I’m trying to be much more diligent about keeping good records of my income and expenses to make my quarterly and year-end tax reporting a lot easier. That means I’ve been printing out receipts and my PayPal history regularly, and I’m going through a ton of printer paper, inkjet cartridges, file folders, labels, and a bunch of other supplies.

It’s not quite time to stock up yet, but when I run out of all these things, you can bet I’ll be shopping at a place that offers a huge selection of discount office supplies. Just because I can write these expenses off at the end of the year doesn’t mean I’m not interested in saving money! After all, getting a tax write-off doesn’t make the products free, and I still have to pay for them out of my own pocket, so I definitely need the lowest prices possible.

My son is now old enough to be interested in decorating his room with his favorite things. Before, he was pretty much satisfied with bright colors or whatever, but now he’s becoming pickier about the things he wants in his room. For example, he doesn’t like his plain sheets anymore, but has been asking for Scooby Doo bedding instead. Scooby Doo is one of his favorite cartoons, so that makes sense.

Anyway, I’ve been looking for Scooby Doo bedding online and have found that it’s a very popular product. Some of the Scooby Doo bedding I saw featured a single character (like Scooby, Fred, Shaggy, or Scrappy), while other sets featured the entire gang — plus the Mystery Machine van. It all looks very cool, so I’m sure my son will like it. Heck, this was my favorite cartoon when I was a kid, so I would have loved to have had some Scooby Doo bedding back then!

While I was checking around, I also saw some race car bedding that I think my son would love. After all, he’ll need more than one set of sheets, right?

I can’t wait to buy this stuff for him!

On the PayPal Money Market Fund, that is. I just checked my account this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see that the yield is back up to 5.04% per year after having dipped to 5.02% for the last month or so. Good news! I hope the upward trend continues (or I hope that the rate at least holds steady).

I was talking to a friend earlier today and she told me that she caught her teenage son downloading MP3s from one of those popular file share sites. She was pretty upset, and asked me if I knew of any way that she could block her son’s computer from accessing those places. I don’t know if that kind of thing is possible without some kind of parental control software, so I couldn’t help her. But we got to talking more about file share sites and I told her that they don’t bother me all that much — depending on what’s being shared.

I know a lot of people are up in arms about file share sites such as MiniNova, FileSoup, and various Usenet groups, and want those places taken offline as soon as possible. But I think that those sites are actually okay — so long as people aren’t downloading movies. Here’s why.

Some of the most popular downloads on file share sites are TV shows, ebooks, and MP3s. All of those products are available free to the consumer in one form or another. Do you want to hear the latest Linkin Park song? Just turn on the radio and it’ll get played soon enough. Want to read the latest Stephen King novel? Go to your local library and check it out. Want to catch the latest episode of CSI? Turn on your television at 8pm on Thursday. Get what I’m saying? These things are available for free, so I don’t necessarily think it’s wrong for people to download them on file share sites.

Now movies are a bit different. While they do eventually make it to cable and free television, they take much longer to do it than TV shows, music, and books. So in this way, I can see how file share sites might take a bite out of a studio’s profits.

A lot of folks out there think that file share sites are just plain wrong because even TV shows, books, and music are subject to copyright laws, but I don’t buy into that point of view. I don’t think it’s stealing when people watch downloaded TV shows, read downloaded ebooks, or listen to downloaded music. As long as they’re not reselling the files for a profit, what’s the big deal? They’re just “timeshifting” their viewing, listening , or reading — just as they would with TiVo or whatever.

Any additional thoughts on this? I’d love to hear your opinion of file share sites!

One thing my husband and I have been working on this year is sprucing up our home, both inside and out. So we’ve committed ourselves to projects such as painting the exterior, installing blinds, redoing the floors, buying new furniture, and just generally redecorating. We haven’t completed all of these projects yet, but they’re definitely in the works. I can’t wait for us to get moving on these upgrades because our house is beginning to look run-down and feel a bit drab.

I have to say that I’m most excited about redecorating the interior, especially the walls. Right now our walls are either bare or they’ve got posters on them. The posters aren’t even framed, either — they’re just tacked on. Yes, our home is decorated like a college dorm room!

I would love to start purchasing fine art to hang on the walls. I’ve been checking around online for some nice galleries to buy from and came across one called the Park West Gallery. I really liked some of the works featured on the Park West Gallery website, and can definitely envision placing some of those paintings around my home. I haven’t inquired about pricing yet, but if I can afford this artwork, I’ll go ahead and buy some.

Even though the Park West Gallery is located in Michigan, they conduct art auctions all over the United States and Canada, so I’m sure I’ll be able to get my hands on one of their paintings either through the website or through an auction.

It will be so nice to have beautiful art on the walls for a change! I plan on checking into a couple of specific paintings at Park West Gallery sometime soon, so hopefully I’ll have real art in my home in the near future!

I haven’t been following the NHL playoffs very much this year, so I just found out today that the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators will be facing off in the Stanley Cup Finals, beginning tonight. I’m not a fan of either of these franchises, but I do have to say that it’ll be nice to see a new team win the Cup for a change.

I don’t really care who wins, so I’ll just be watching for the highlights.

Oh, and how out of touch with the hockey scene am I? I saw a picture of Teemu Selanne in uniform — and didn’t recognize the new Ducks logo! When did they change that thing? And what is it supposed to be???

Edit: Oh, nevermind — it’s the “D” from the word Ducks. It looked weird all by itself, and I’d never seen the full logo before, so I didn’t realize what it was.