Mary Anne Carter » Computers and/or Internet

Learning to play a new game

Mary Anne — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:29:07 +0000

I used to enjoy playing games as a child. But when I got married (the first time) my hubby was so highly competitive that anytime we played a game, if I won the game we never played it again. There came a time when I finally just stopped playing games, it wasn’t worth living through the trauma of his poor sportsmanship, and I was tired of spending money buying games that only got played a few times! My new(er) hubby says he enjoys playing some games, but I don’t know if he’s ever tried backgammon. I don’t even know if we have a backgammon board – I know we USED to have one, but I’m not sure if we still do.

My sister wants to start a new business

Mary Anne — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:35:58 +0000

About three months ago, my sister told me that she wants to start a new business with her hubby. They have been participating in selling in flea markets for many years, and think that they have found a niche that would be successful in a retail environment.

The biggest problem in starting any business is financing. It is hard to start up a business, you need capital. The best way to have capital is to have rich relatives that are willing to “front” you money, but that is NOT the case with our family! Those that have the money are unwilling to part with it.

So, that leaves Small Business Loans. Most banks require detailed business plans, tax returns, and lots of documentation. I took a lot of business courses in college, and I have run a small business myself, and I know what a lot of difficult work that is!

Incredible rechargeable flashlight

Mary Anne — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:49:36 +0000

My brother loves to collect gadgets. He is always spending his disposable income on the latest and greatest gadget he can find. He came over today to show off his new flashlight that he just bought over the Internet. This new flashlight that he bought is a LED flashlight that is rechargeable, requires no batteries, and runs for an hour on just one charge.
What a showoff he is!

Cool conversion software

Mary Anne — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:17:46 +0000

My kids have been telling me that they found a website that converts audio and video files from one format to another. They said it is a new program that is quick and easy to use, and that the company is offering a free trial download of the program. They lost me when they started talking about video encoding. I’m embarrassed to say I don’t even know what video encoding is! I feel so old!

Modern bedroom furniture

Mary Anne — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:03:51 +0000

Modern Bedroom Furniture is what my niece says she wants for her new apartment. She is moving out of her parents’ house for the first time in a few months, and she is looking for modern furniture for her new place. She came over yesterday to rummage around my basement and see if I had any “hand me down” furniture items she could have. She says her biggest hope for her Modern Bedroom Furniture is to have a really great Modern Platform Bed.

She says she has been looking at furniture from the eroomservice.com website and has found several different platform beds that she likes a lot. She hasn’t yet made up her mind which one she wants, but has narrowed it down to four favorites. She said that the website sells some really nice bedroom sets and that she is trying to decide whether to buy the complete set, or just the bed and then try to do some mix and match with the rest of the bedroom furniture.

She found a couple of modern lamps in my basement that she liked that I wasn’t using – my house isn’t decorated in the modern style, and these lamps were given to me by a friend. I told her she was welcome to take them, and she was thrilled.

Outlet store vs discount store

Mary Anne — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:40:14 +0000

I was reading an article on Businessweek’s website that was talking about how a lot of the big “snob” companies like Sak’s Fifth avenue is opening more outlet stores, in the hopes that they will attract more customers to the outlet store’s lower prices. The article confused me a little bit because I had read many years ago that “outlet stores” were not necessarily a “discount store” and that when people shop at outlet stores looking for a “bargain” they usually are not really getting a “bargain.” What they are often getting are closeouts, over-runs, or factory seconds.

After I had learned that “outlet stores” were really not “discount” stores I pretty much avoided them. So now I’m wondering if “outlet” stores are changing their strategy and really ARE offering bargains now!

Sun shield for my car

Mary Anne — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:25:28 +0000

When we bought my Lumina I told my hubby that one of the first things I wanted to buy for it was a quality sun shield for the windshield. I bought a “universal” sun shield at my local big box discount department store but it does not fit well and keeps falling down. But this week I finally smartened up and realized that I can not just put my visors down to help keep it in place, but I can take them out of their little holder brackets and put them down at an angle, and that works perfectly!

Maple syrup shortage?

Mary Anne — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:44:08 +0000

I remember reading last year that there is a maple syrup shortage from Canada that is effecting the price of food. I did not realize that Canada makes 80% of the world’s maple syrup! Many consumers have been switching to maple syrup as a sweetener in their baking products so the demand for maple syrup has been increasing. Canada had a mild spring this year, which lowered their maple syrup production. New England, however, had a banner year and had lots of maple syrup.

As I was reading this story I found myself wondering why it took so long for this story about Canada having a mild spring (effecting the maple syrup supply) to enter the news media – their spring was six months ago for crying out loud!

And I was surprised to learn that so much syrup came from Canada because when I buy maple syrup at the store it always says it was from a New England state!

I wonder how the supply is this year!

Penny pinching

Mary Anne — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:34:33 +0000

With the economy the way it is today, I want to make absolutely sure that I am getting the best value for my hard earned dollar when I have to spend it. This applies to every aspect of my daily life, from groceries, to clothes and shoes, laundry supplies, to home improvement, and even to work on my car. That means that I am spending the extra time to research the credentials of everyone and everything that I possibly can. Was it Ben Franklin who said “A penny saved is a penny earned”? Well, I’m not earning enough pennies, that is for sure, so I need to save all those I can get my hands on!

Wii or Playstation 3?

Mary Anne — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:11:41 +0000

My brothers and sisters want to pitch in and buy a nice gift for my parents. We are thinking that a game console would be a nice gift that the entire family could enjoy. So we are debating whether we should get a Wii or a Playstation 3? Which would be most suitable for a entire, large family with a variety of ages from 4 to 72?

Embroidery

Mary Anne — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:18:56 +0000

I really love the look of embroidered products. I love the colors, and the texture. I love to run my hands across the thread. Whenever I get the chance to buy something that has been embroidered, I try to do it. My hubby is thinking about starting his own business and has been designing a logo for the business. We’ve been talking about getting the logo embroidered on some promotional items like sweatshirts, t-shirts, hats, and tote bags.

Wonderful seafood recipes

Mary Anne — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:37:25 +0000

The word is out that there is a Great American Seafood Cook off happening in New Orleans. The cook off is supposed to be using domestic sustainable seafood recipes. This cook off is one of the most prestigious contests. The winning chef will win the title of King of American Seafood. I went onto the Internet to find out what I could about the contest.

I’m very excited about the event because it is featuring local, fresh food instead of something foreign, frozen or canned. I think that promoting local seafood is important. I’d love to be able to enter my Aunt Johnnie’s baked seafood recipe in a seafood cooking contest!

This is her recipe:

Aunt Johnnie’s baked seafood casserole

1 pound of fish (suggests scallops, shrimp, or crab)

2 T butter (or oleo)

2 T flour

1 c chicken broth

1/8 t nutmeg

salt & pepper

Parmesan cheese

Bread crumbs

To make veloute sauce: In a saucepan, melt butter, stir in flour, slowly add broth. Return to heat, stirring constantly until thick & smooth. Blend in salt & pepper & nutmeg. In a separate frying pan saute fish in butter for approximately five minutes. Combine the fish with the veloute sauce and put all in a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle top with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese and brown it quickly under the broiler.

This recipe does not specify what KIND of bread crumbs to use, whether to buy the canned seasoned bread crumbs, or crumbs made from fresh bread. So I’ve tried it both ways and I think I like the the fresh bread crumbs version the best.

If you’d like to share your favorite recipe with me, I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment with your recipe in it!

Curtains add so much to a room

Mary Anne — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:53:50 +0000

I used to work with a woman who had bare naked windows. She lived out in the woods, with no neighbors in sight, and she loved having no window coverings at all. She showed me pictures of the different rooms, she was very proud of the fact that her windows were bare. Although she DID have some hanging plants in front of the windows and some shelves with plants in front of some windows, for the most part I thought that the windows looked too sterile; I feel that curtains add a lot of personality and warmth to a room. I also feel that insulated curtains are a good idea to help save energy and reduce heating and cooling costs. I’m always all about saving energy and heating and cooling costs!

Cute shoes

Mary Anne — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:52:55 +0000

I have a hard time finding shoes that fit me. I especially have a hard time finding cute women’s shoes that fit me. Sometimes, in order to find shoes that fit me, I have to buy men’s shoes! But those are usually sneakers and it is hard to tell the difference between women’s shoes and men’s shoes when you are buying sneakers!

The economy worries me to no end

Mary Anne — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:12:06 +0000

The economy worries me more than I’d like to admit. According to the news programs that I watch and the Internet news sites that I read, the ever increasing gasoline prices, the increasing food prices, the floods in Iowa are going to result in HIGHER food prices, the price of milk will be going up to $6.00 gallon soon and the higher unemployment rates all spell bad times ahead. We’re already in bad times; I hate to think of them getting much worse. I hope that when the Presidential election is over and done with the economy will recover.