The Pact: A Love Story

This book has been very difficult for me to put down. I got it for Christmas and have been reading like crazy.
The basic story is like a lot of Jodi Picoult’s others.. where there’s someone charged of a crime and you’re not sure whether or not they did it and it goes back & forth between past & present. You get a look into the lives of both of these teenagers and their parents. The one girl dies on the first page of the book. She kills herself… or does she? It’s all a big mystery b/c the cops point the finger at her boyfriend who was there and tells everyone they had a suicide pact and he passed out before he got a chance to kill himself.
They accuse him of killing her and you see his time in jail awaiting trial as well as how it affects his family, her family, and then there’s the past that Picoult covers so that you’ll get all caught up by the end of the book! I have a few pages left unfortunately!! It’s killing me. I’ll finish it tonight, but it’s a great read and you should try it out! It really makes you think a lot about love, life, and death and the lengths you’ll go to make yourself or someone else happy.

Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor

For those of you who are interested in having children and would like a way to help the process along, I’ve highly recommended the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor. We did pay a good amount for it, although definitely check out amazon instead of buyign it in the store.. you’ll save a lot! The monitor has been worth every penny though. I am the kind of person who obsessively wants to know about my … well, my fertility! And this monitor will show you where you are in your cycle at any given time. You get the test sticks that are sold separately (also get those on amazon.. they come in a 30 pack which lasts 3 months) and you have to use those for somewhere around 10 days depending on your cycle length. Then the monitor will not only tell you when you’re ovulating, but when your fertility is “high”, also. And when you’re obsessive like I am about my fertility and babies, etc., this is helpful because the best time to conceive a GIRL, is when your fertility is simply HIGH and not when you’re ovulating, so this monitor is going to tell me what I need to know to get a girl. It helped us get Noah when we wanted a boy (you need to know exactly when you’re ovulating and the 24 hour period leading up to that in order to get a boy).. so it’s already been worth it and we’re hoping it’ll work out for baby #2.

Cucina Maria Review

This is a small, and based on surveying the people I know not very famous restaurant as of this post. Driving by the building on 9th Street in Terre Haute you most likely would not expect such an excellent restaurant from the outside appearance. The only indication of food is the smallish sign and an OPEN fluorescent light. On first glance I probably would not have ventured in without it being highly recommended by a relative, and also being provided with a gift certificate for the restaurant.
The menu is not overwhelming and is filled with the right amount of items and sauces to choose from. My wife and I prefer the Mostacioli with the sweet Maria Sauce. I am generally not a bread fan but the slices they serve with their pasta meals are outstanding.The other items I have had form the menu have all been excellent also.
Pricing is very good especially for real italian, my wife and I can eat for around $25 usually and sometimes that includes leftovers. If you get a chance please try out Cucina Maria.

Cucina Maria’s is located at
810 South 9th Street
Terre Haute, IN 47807

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Possibly a new Best Buy in Terre Haute?

There are rumors flying around, and after reading up on it I am pretty sure that a Best Buy is coming to Terre Haute. I see this as quite possibly one of the worst things that could happen for the people I know that like to buy electronics and whatnot. They will go into this store and get ripped off either by pricing or by misinformed teens trying to push the items at best buy. On the flip side I may see much more business fixing things that the Geek Squad messes up. See some links below for compelling reasons to not purchase major electronics or appliances from the Best Buy.

Best Buy at the Consumerist.com
Best Buy at ripoffreport.com
Best Buy at resellerratings.com lifetime rating under 2.0

My new Lumix digital camera

This year for Christmas my big present was my new small Lumix Digital camera. It has 5X optical zoom and a 2.7in. screen in the back. It’s a very pretty blue and I love it. It’s very tiny & compact but not too small that I can’t work the buttons properly! It’s tough to get used to compared to my big Canon Rebel SLR but I’m getting used to it. I desperately needed one to take around with me in my purse. I am always finding things or people or places that I want to take photos of and I don’t lug around my big camera everywhere I go. So this was a fantastic solution! I took it around to all the Christmas gatherings (Steve gave it to me early) and used it for those.
Right now I’m only having trouble with the red eye reduction option. That works ok but I would rather have the camera on plain ole automatic b/c that takes the picture a little faster.. and with Noah, faster is better! He does not sit still for long. So I’ve now got a lot of photos with the red eyes.. but that’s easy to take out in photoshop so it’s no big deal.
For a small digital camera, it takes good pictures, printable pictures… which is important, and it’s easy & convenient to use. I’d highly recommend it!

Wii Fit Plus

I just got the Wii Fit Plus for Christmas from Steve! I am super excited about it. I’ve only been able to spend much time on it on three or four separate occassions so far. It’s tough when I’m here by myself because Noah constantly wants to stand on the balance board and won’t let me play properly!
But so far I’ve done a little bit of everything. I tried the Yoga for the first time the other night and it actually wasn’t too awful. I’m not into Yoga but some of the moves were easier than I thought. I kinda felt like “why am I even doing this..? I can’t be getting anything out of it”, but then after holding the positions for a good 30 seconds it does get more challenging.
I really like the “Plus” games that are apparently not on the normal Wii Fit. There is an obstacle course that I’ve tried three times now and still haven’t completed. There are lots of balance games I enjoy and a snowball fight that I’m pretty good at.
It’s a pretty fun game to play and helps me relieve a little stress and burn a few calories in the process. I’d really recommend it for anyone who isn’t so into working out and breaking a huge sweat. I can do the game for 30-40 minutes and depending on which things I do, I can burn a lot of calories and not work up an actual hard sweat to where I’m drenched and smelly. It’s just enough! I’m likin’ it!

More Running

I ran another 1.5 miles tonight

Total miles in 2010: 5 miles down, 255 to go

Winsome Wood 30-Inch Black PVC Seat Walnut Bar Stools Review

I purchased a total of 4 stools for my in home bar and I really like these. I have had several compliments on the appearance. For bar stools they are fairly comfortable, and they have swivel tops. Besides that they do what they were designed for. If I get some time I will add a picture of them.

A small note on the construction, it appears they were slightly overtightened on the legs around the bottom support ring, it created some minor cracking but structurally the stools are fine. This may be limited to the 4 I received.

260 Miles of Running

progress so far:
1/9/2010 : 1.5 miles

Total miles in 2010: 3.5 miles down, 256.5 to go.

Wii Charge Station Quad by NYKO Review

I purchased this quad charger after my previous dual remote from another manufacturer died. So far this charger has been excellent, it holds 4 wii-motes as you probably guessed from the title and there are color LEDs to indicate the charge status. The charge the battery packs hold seems to last a decent amount of time, none of my gaming sessions have completely consumed the charge in the packs. This is a much better alternative to constantly swapping out rechargeable batteries. The battery packs that come with the NYKO charger are 4 different colors. Link below if you are interested.