Online Casino Reviews

Last month, my husband was in Las Vegas and had stayed at the Monte Carlo Hotel on business. As his plane was circling Las Vegas to fly home, he looked out his window and saw that his hotel was in flames. Thankfully, no one was injured. The Monte Carlo, the class act that it is, responded by sending out free 2 night room vouchers to all of their hotel guests. So now we are planning a trip to Vegas in May. I am very excited. It should be fun and although I am not a big time gambler, I will probably put in some time at the slots.

For those that can't make it to Vegas, there are plenty of online gambling casinos to wet your appetite. Around 3000 to be exact. Pro360.com makes choosing the right one a little easier. They give online casino reviews. Game experience, bonuses and trust scores are some of the criteria they look at when judging sites. They review video poker, slots, blackjack and etc. up to 12 different games within 65 casinos. Each is given an overall score by the site and by player opinion. They list the top twenty Best Online Casinos too and that includes US approved ones.

As I said before, I am not a big time gambler but for those that are, this is one alternative that they can check out to satisfy their gambling bug.

Extraordinary Moments in Life

Recently, for my birthday, a friend gave me the book, Firstlight by Sue Monk Kidd. The book is a compilation of essays that were written by her for Guideposts and other publications. What I liked about the book was that it was about everyday life that the author had experienced but she had the insight to see something more than just that.

When my son was born, I had thought, in 18 years he will be going off to school. At that time, 18 years was an eternity. Little did I know how quickly that time would vanish. My son, left for college last September. Every single emotion I had felt about sadness, loss, excitement for him and flashbacks to his childhood, Sue was able to express so eloquently in her book. It is extraordinary to me to see how something so personal that I was feeling could be shared by so many going through the same experience.



I think life is a series of these plain and simple just downright ordinary happenings. The big and grandiose events in life do not occur that often for most of us.

Many of us are so caught up in what we are going to do next that we are living in a daze and in essence not really "living".

As I grow older, I am taking more time to reflect and really observe what is going on around me. If I pay attention more closely, I will find there really are extraordinary moments happening every day.


$52.00 earned- Cashcrate

Stay in Europe on a Budget

One of these days my family and I would love to plan a trip to Europe. It would be great to see the sites of Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona and Madrid. I would love to be able to visit the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe up close and personal. I have seen these places in movies and magazines but never in reality. It would be awesome!

Arc de Triomphe

Budget is a big area of concern. A trip like this would only be feasible if it were well planned out. For finding cheap Paris hotels, using a site like cheaperthanhotels.co.uk would be an asset to finding a great hotel to fit that budget. They have the accommodations rated from 1 to 5 stars and the discounted prices in euros. It is such a convenience to have the hotels listed on one site.

My friend's daughter went to the United Kingdom with her fiance' and stayed at his folks house. They didn't have to check out the cheap London hotels there but they were able to visit a lot of places like the Tower of London, Kensington Palace and the Eye of London.

Kensington Palace

One of my good friend's and her boyfriend took a trip to Spain's beautiful cities of Madrid and Barcelona. I am not sure what hotels they used but they should have checked into the cheap Madrid hotels and the cheap Barcelona hotels there. They had a wonderful time. They raved about the Museo del Prado, which has one of the finest collections of European art dating back to the 12th century.

Museo del Prado

My husband took a trip to Italy a few years ago. It was mostly business and his office took care of the accommodations so he did not check out the cheap Rome hotels. When he had time off, he went to Tuscany and toured the area and vineyards. Being a wine connoisseur, he was in 7th heaven.

Hopefully, in the not too distant future, instead of vicariously living through my friends, I will be able to take off with my family and visit some of these fantastic sites, museums and experience the culture of Europe.

Review of the Ashop Commerce Shopping Cart

I have been thinking of revamping my store website and came across the Ashop Commerce shopping cart. I had designed the store front on my own, had it hosted on another site and was using an add-on shopping cart integrated with Paypal. It was OK but the shopping cart was seriously lacking in several features. I couldn't do discounts, I couldn't combine shipping the way that I wanted. Granted, it was all very inexpensive but I guess you get what you pay for.

What I liked about the Ashop shopping cart is that it is like one stop shopping. All your needs are met through this ecommerce software site. You can build your storefront through them, either your own custom pages or use their theme editor. They also offer search engine optimization, domain registration, and also support merchant and gateway accounts as well as third party payment processors like Paypal.

They have affordable price packages starting at $49.95 a month for 50 products and you do get a lot of bang for your buck. Benefits include SEO, discount coupons, visitor stats, sales reporting, free upgrades, 24 hour support and the list goes on.

User friendliness is another important feature as I don't have much HTML knowledge and according to Ashop, you don't need to know any. I liked the video that you can click on and have a cute Aussie guy answer questions on the shopping cart software features. Also you can sign up for a free 10 day trial just to see how it all works!

A testimonial was given on a business that was extremely happy with the service after only 7 weeks. They commented on how they had spent thousands on other shopping cart software programs and have not received the results that they have gotten with Ashop.
This is just another example in a long list of good reasons to give this shopping cart a try.

I Love Costco!

I was in Costco the other day, when I passed by a food demonstrator that was saying her product was gluten and dairy free. I stopped dead in my tracks and immediately honed in on what she was saying. The product was Larabar and it was a fruit and nut bar with no
sugar, gluten, dairy or soy in it. I tasted the sample and had my son try it too, then I immediately grabbed one of the boxes with 18 bars in it. I am always elated when I can find a new product that is gluten and dairy free. Since my son has been on this elimination diet, he has been doing so well. The diet has been working and we are now about 5 weeks into it.



Costco seems to be carrying more and more products that people with diet restrictions can have. They sell cases of Rice Dreams Rice Milk as well as gluten free Pacific Natural Foods chicken broth. They also sell rice chips, Mission corn chips and some other gluten free products. I see they are carrying more and more organic products too which is fabulous. I hope they keep it up.

$46.00 earned- Cashcrate
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Smorty Paid to Blog

I just signed up with Smorty and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I have been approved. Took about 24 hours to get the news. I am so excited! Smorty brings together the advertiser and the blogger in a mutually beneficial relationship. Advertisers get their products and services out there in the blogosphere and bloggers get paid to write the content.

To get approved as a publisher you need a blog that has been indexed by Google and Yahoo and is more than 3 months old. You absolutely can get paid to blog. The minimum payout on Smorty is $6.00 and already I have 3 ad campaigns that I qualified from the get go.

My earnings will be directly related to my page ranking and my Smorty smart score which is calculated from several factors including search engine ranking, ratio of accepted to non accepted tasks , ratings per post by the advertisers and etc. A higher Smorty score translates into higher paying ad campaigns.

I have 24 hours from the time I accept the ad campaign to submit my post and then I have to wait until the advertisers approve it, which can take up to 5 days. Also payment occurs weekly and through a paypal account.

For the advertisers, this is great way to get your product or service out there by advertising on blogs. Smorty will review your campaign and then match you to the most relevant bloggers. They use 20 factors as criteria in accepting blogs so that only high quality blogs are being used.

Who knew that one could blog for money and it would be fun in the process. Check out Smorty and see for yourself!

The Woes of Perimenopause

I am at the ripe old age of 50, where I can look back and see that the number of years behind me is now greater than the number of years ahead of me. My children think that 50 is very very old. I thought that way too when I was their age. Now that I am on the precipice of 51, heck that age is so young! 80 is the age where you are really getting up there! It's a little depressing, I have to admit, but sooner or later we will all have to face our own mortality.





It doesn't help when I am facing another milestone, the dreaded "change of life" issues too. I had talked about this with my mom and she assured me that she didn't even know that it was happening to her because it all went so smoothly. She didn't have the hot flashes, the night sweats and other symptoms that plague so many of us. She must not have been telling me the truth. Every woman that I have talked to so far has definitely known they were going through the change. I have been having dizziness, chilled to the bone feelings, severe headaches, mood swings and now lately, I feel like I am having adrenaline rushes that get stuck in overdrive and never let up. It is a very disconcerting feeling, one which makes me feel like I have totally lost control mixed with feelings of fatigue, malaise and just general crappiness all around. It has been no picnic.

It doesn't help that there has been so much controversy over HRT, Hormone Replacement Therapy. I am afraid to go on anything but I don't feel I should just grin and bear it too. I found a great site called Power-Surge.com which has information for women in menopause. The message boards have been great as I have found other women that have been experiencing the exact same symptoms as me. It is comforting to know that I am not the only one dealing with this.

I am looking into L-theanine which is found in green tea and is a mood relaxer as well as black cohosh and st. john's wort. Some of these cannot be mixed with other drugs so one has to be careful when taking the supplements. I will let you know what happens.

Yuwie, A Different Social Networking Site

I had signed up with Yuwie last Fall and then I pretty much left it alone. It is very similar to My Space but you actually can get paid doing it. I decided to visit Yuwie this month and update my profile, find out exactly what I had to do to make money. I quickly did the math and thought what would happen if I started actually posting to my blog daily and visiting other peoples profiles. From what I was reading, if you gain 1000 page views a month and have your referrals do it too, you can earn some serious money. I saw one person's checks and every month, his income from yuwie was going up. It's a no- brainer and it is kind of fun to see what people have written about themselves too. I highly suggest it for everyone and it's totally free.

Boutique Clothes are Going Fast

I have put all my girls boutique clothes on clearance as well as the educational toys and they are starting to go fast. I sold about 14 items in the past week. Many Gymboree
items are under $4.00. All clothing and toys are new and have never been used. Please check out the sale at Sweet Outfits Boutique. I will give you a good deal on shipping and will have to send a revised paypal invoice reflecting that. Thanks!

The Healing Powers of Emu Oil

I had been suffering from a rash for about 4 months. It began when I wore a new sweater that I had bought. Within a couple of days, I had a rash around my elbow area. It definitely was some chemical in the sweater that I was reacting to. Over a period of several weeks, I continue to ignore the problem. Finally, I had to go to the doctor for another problem and told her about my rash. She said it looked like contact dermatitis and she prescribed Triamcinolone acetonide cream ( it 8x more powerful than prednisone). Within days, my rash was gone from the elbow area but had traveled down my arm. The area affected was now a lot longer and wider.

Since my son had been sick with severe gastro-intestinal problems, I have been using different natural supplements on him with great success. I decided that I needed to try something along those lines for my skin rash. When I went to the local health food store to buy supplies for my son, I asked the owner what they would recommend for the rash. They told me to try emu oil. It was in a small bottle for about $11.00. I took it home and started applying a few drops on my rash every day. At first my rash looked uglier and redder and I wasn't sure the oil was helping at all. Eventually, 7 days later, the rash was completely gone. The oil acts as an anti-inflammatory as well as a deep moisturizer. I was amazed. Now I am using it on my cracked heels and it is working on them too. I am wondering how many other natural products are out there that give this kind of result. I am a believer!

An Honest View of Survey Taking and Whether or Not it Pays to do Them

I have been doing a lot of research on survey taking and it has been hard to weed my way through countless number of sites promoting this survey site or the other. There are a bazillion blogs hyping this or that paid survey site. I have been at it for about 3 months now. Definitely still a novice and no expert. But honestly, I can tell you that the paid survey sites where they give you lists of survey company URLs for a price are definitely not worth it. I have bought into a couple of them and found that eventually I would have discovered most of those sites on my own. It would have taken awhile longer but it would have saved me some cash to be sure.

So far in my quest to make a little extra money, I have made and been paid twice thru Cashcrate. I am expecting another check next month. Total made so far is $46.00. I do like them in that they have a $10.00 minimum so you can be paid more frequently then some other sites. I have only been doing the daily surveys at .80 per survey and not doing offers. I have some referrals and I get a percentage of their earnings so that helps some too. For awhile, I was qualifying for a survey every other day. That has slowed considerably and I am only qualifying for a survey maybe once per week. The same can be said for inboxdollars.com and sendearnings.com. I have $21.00 and $18.00 respectively sitting in my accounts there but the payout won't occur until I reach $30.00. I haven't qualified for a survey in quite a while with them. Demographics are really key and I guess if you live in a big city, your chances of qualifying may be greater. Unfortunately, I live in rural America.

I have signed up for well over a hundred survey sites. Most I have not received anything back from. Your2cents.com, I have had a few thru them and am expecting an $8.00 check sometime. Also Surveysavvy.com, I have taken some surveys through them up to $5.00/survey. The only thing I noticed is that they are slow to post the amounts to your account so right now I only have one completed survey listed even though I have done about 4 with them over the past 6 weeks. Surveyspot.com is another one that will pay $1-$3.00 for some of their surveys, most they will not but will enter you into a drawing for some fabulous prize. I still have not been credited for the surveys that I did take, it takes up to 6 weeks or more to show in your account.

Pineconeresearch.com is the one that everyone says is the best. Hard to sign up with them and I can't remember how I was able to but I have received a few surveys from them but did not qualify. The latest one I have so we will see how that goes.

In the end, I have to say that even though it has been a tougher go than I had anticipated, it still has been worth doing the surveys. There is definitely some work to it. Don't believe all these blogs that tell you that you can earn all this money instantly. I think it is possible to earn money but it will take a lot of perseverance and time. I can see where the referral system does help a lot and will probably make a positive difference in your monthly income.

Ebay Does It Again

I was excited to learn that Ebay was reducing their listing prices by $.05, only to discover that that they would be raising the final value fees by quite a bit. I had left ebay last year, vowing to never sell on their site again. Although, I didn't quite keep that promise (I did sell a couple of items on there in the past year), the majority of my products are now being sold on ecrater.com, ioffer.com, and etsy.com. The fees are a lot less and although I don't sell as many things, I have made more money just because I am not being price gouged at every turn! It is too bad that ebay won't do away with the upfront fees. I have no problem paying more at the end if my items sell. What kills me is the listing and relisting of items that don't sell. That really starts to add up when you mulitply that by several items.

We just sold off our ebay stock too at a huge loss! I was hoping the stock would recover but after seeing this latest ebay change, it's a lost cause.

I would love to come back to ebay someday. Until things change for the better, it won't be happening for a very very long time.