Torture.

So I’ve exercised my brain a lot thinking about it. (that counts as exercise, right?) Sure, I could walk. But that’s really boring to do alone, and right now Ken’s not able to walk with me. Or sure, I could join a gym, but right now we really can’t afford it. Besides, we were members at the YMCA before and hardly ever went.

I’ve been thinking about maybe drawing the curtains closed and exercising at home, maybe with a video. Frances did Pilates that way, with great results. I might try the Pilates, but I also need to do something energetic (so sayeth the doctor). “You need to get the heart pumping”, she says. I made strangled noises about how my heart IS pumping, but she just glared at me. I suppose she’s right.

I looked around online and found XFLOWSION with something called “Triple Training” – three workouts in one. It has moves from martial arts, yoga, and dance. I’d skip the yoga, of course. It stars Eric Paskel, who is the personal trainer to a lot of Hollywood folks. I don’t give a flip about celebrities – but have to admit, if he inspires lazy actors to work out, maybe he can inspire me to do the same.

One thing I like about XFLOWSION is that it’s geared toward breaking past plateaus in weight loss – you know how you’ll drop 10 pounds and then just stay at that weight? Since XFLOWSION’s program has so many different moves, it apparently helps you to continuously burn fat and tone muscle.  Plus with all those moves, you never get bored.

The package offers 4 videos, some audio CD’s, and guidebooks. Seems pretty thorough. I might have to try it!

E-books have taken on a new respectability, with the advent of Kindle from Amazon and eReader.com. You can read anything from romance novels to sci-fi to business books like Dennis C. Carey’s “How to Run a Company”. eReader even offers reviews – see Dennis C Carey reviews at eReader.

Here’s an example from the “How to Run a Company” review:

How to Run a Company is not just for CEOs, but anyone interested in the critical make-or-break factors in today’s ever-challenging business environment.

I’m assuming that if you were so inclined, you could not only download these books to your computer, but to your <s>cr</s>blackberry or other smartphone.

Prices vary, but e-books generally cost a bit less than print books. I think the price will continue to come down as they gain in popularity, too.

There were many times in the course of ministry that we desired a book we could put in the hands of Christians that would give them a primer on what Wicca is and what they should do about it. (In fact I set out to write such a book half a dozen times – I still have the drafts!) Well, it’s finally been written!

If there was one book I could put in the hands of every pastor and parent in America, it would be Generation Hex by Dillon Burroughs and Marla Alupoaicei.

Generation Hex covers a lot of ground in a small, easy-to read book. While it’s written for laymen, it possesses the depth that pastors will appreciate. The authors elaborate greatly on one central point: Witchcraft is no longer taboo.¹

In fact, the occult pervades our culture – you can’t turn on the television or send the kids to school without encountering it. Generation Hex covers the many places it can be seen and elaborates on the basics of Wiccan belief without going overboard on details. The authors seem to have gone to lengths to seek out Wiccans and record their beliefs in their own words.

They definitely did their research – here’s what they said about researching, in their own words:

Dillon: Marla and I stopped by Barnes and Noble one day and took notes from every Wicca book on the shelf. We got a lot of weird looks! We read hundreds of pages of online content and magazines. We interviewed over 20 people involved or formerly involved in Wicca. I read every conceivable publication on Wicca, both by Christians and Wiccans. It has been my toughest book to write so far because I became part-researcher and part-journalist in seeking out personal stories from people on the inside.

Marla: We did quite a bit of research at libraries, on the Internet, at bookstores, and personally. We interviewed many Wiccans personally and read at least 20-30 books on the subject.

This book covers one bit of ground that surprised and delighted me – Harry Potter. Of course, the authors present concerns over the spiritual content, but they don’t belabor the point. Nor do they blame HP for ALL teenage conversions to paganism. In addition to raising the spiritual concerns, they also point out that the language and violence make these books highly inappropriate for children.

One thing I greatly appreciated about Generation Hex is that the authors are very gentle. Throughout the book, Wiccan beliefs are carefully contrasted with Biblical truth. Stereotypes are challenged. There’s an entire chapter devoted to how Christians can reach out to Wiccans. Christians are admonished to remember that Wiccans are loving, caring, deeply spiritual people who should be treated with love and respect.

Fabulous! Here, read an excerpt!

You should also see what other bloggers are saying:

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¹ Generation Hex, Page 42

I came across a link to New Jersey water parks, and discovered a place called Morey’s Piers and Beachfront Waterparks.

Ken and I have been watching this program – I think on History Channel – that features roller coasters and extreme rides – including water parks. We decided that the 10,000 foot straight down slides probably weren’t for us (hmmm. weight+gravity=not so sure about that!) but some of the other rides looked like lots of fun. So now we’re keen to go to a water park for a day – maybe this fall when it’s not so hot.

And it wouldn’t be too hot as far north as New Jersey, I guess!

Moreys has Magical Mondays and other specials throughout the week – and there’s apparently two parks to choose from with awesome looking slides and rides. For families they offer kids camp and such. THEY EVEN HAVE WIRELESS INTERNET — I guess if you can’t get away from the computer for a whole day and splash and play, you need to get a life!!

Well, if we’re ever up that way we’ll definitely stop in! Anyone have experience with either of these parks??

Webhostingrating also offers a wide variety of informative articles, ranging from the basic like choosing a domain name, to the technical – explanations of things like Ruby on Rails and CPanel tutorials.

Their reviews are broken down by categories – unix or windows, reseller accounts, dedicated hosts, blog sites, CMS hosts, and so on. Basically, you start with what you need in a site, and Webhostingrating will direct you to potential web hosts.

The service even breaks needs down to what sort of CMS you use: WordPress, Joomla, MODx, phpBB, Typo3, etc.

If you (hint – Scott at HostingTruth) want to set up an account on Webhostingrating, use this page. Resellers and affiliates are not eligible. They’re looking for independent companies.

I won’t be switching web hosts – but I do plan on making use of their articles!!

Anyways, we’re hoping the insurance will take care of it quickly. She’s going to have to fly to Florida on Saturday to go to school because it’s entirely likely that they’ll not have the mess completely untied by then. But we’ve started scouting for a vehicle for her. Found a NICE one at a used car lot up the road, but I think they want too much moolah for it. (I wouldn’t mind having it myself, actually. But $$$$$$$!!)

We’re also looking around online. I just found Auto123, an online portal where you canbuy used car, read the latest car news and car reviews, and find used cars and car dealerships.

Check out the Drive, Rate and Fly contest to win a free vacation! They want you to pick a vehicle you own (or have owned) and rate it to win prizes.

I *REALLY* like their used car search… you can filter results by make, model, year range, budget range, mileage range, certification, cars with photos – however you like. Very snazzy. Except that you’ve apparently got to be in Canada for it to work! Well – there’s lots of Canadian readers on this blog – maybe you can find a car through them!!

I’m always looking for ways to get better organized, and I try to intersperse my sometimes-heavy posts here

with tips and tricks for home and office management. Today I want to talk about the Dymo labeler. I’ve owned one for a couple of years and use it for just about everything. Today I found a website that talks about using the Dymo for back to school.

The site lists some obvious and not-so obvious uses for the labels. Some of the ideas are adaptable to home or work, and even Scripture memorization (how about that??!!)

Check this out – use your Dymo (and appropriate label tape) to:

• Label<a href=”http://global.dymo.com/enUS/TipsAndAdviceCategory/Back_to_School_Time.html”>File folders</a> and kids’ school folders
• Put name tags in gym, daycare, or camp clothes
• label and customize lunch boxes
• use magnet tape to create words or numbers that can be manipulated – great for vocabulary, math, Scripture memory – and even games!
• Ensure the return of books, toys, games, sports equipment, gym bags, cell phones, and tennis shoes

Around the house, I use labels on everything from freezer items to videos and DVD’s. I’m about to create names for all of my spice jars in the kitchen. When I organized the office, all of my file folders got labels from the Dymo too – much easier to read than my handwriting!! (I write worse than most doctors). I’m also fixing to organize all of my craft stuff (I have an entire floor-to-ceiling bookshelf filled with boxes of stuff for mixed-media art) – I’ll be labeling the outside of the boxes, and then using smaller containers inside to corral the thousands of tiny items I have like beads, sequins, pieces of eggshell, and a huge assortment of fibers.

I like the fact that the labels give a very consistent look to any project!

Kayti’s also ready to go back to college in a few days, and she’ll be using labels to identify her belongings, label folders, and keep herself organized. She and her roommates tend to share stuff, and she ended up coming home with a few things that aren’t hers. If they’d been labeled with the Dymo labeler, they’d have gone home with the right roomie!

The Bedroom Space site has all sorts of beds – wood, LEATHER (hello?), metal, four-poster… all sorts of beds. They even carry futons, which I’d consider as a replacement bed for Kayti’s room/guest room.

It’s called The Bedroom Space, but this site also has a good array of dining room furniture – tables, chairs, and sets, too!

It was kind of neat to see that they carry Klaussner brand furniture. Klaussner is a plant (well, a series of them) down the road in Asheboro. We’ve got friends who proudly make that furniture! The Bedroom Space also carries Brownstone Furniture, Lifestyle Solutions, and American Drew, as well as others.

I found a bed frame I like - a canopy bed – but my goodness! What if one of the cats got stuck up there!!!??? We might have to wait until we’re catless to buy it.

As for the memory foam mattress – like I said, we’ve got a Tempurpedic, but within reason they’re all pretty good. Buy one. What more can i say?

Right now, they’re offering free shipping, no sales tax outside of Florida, and – get this – 0% financing. They even offer a neat insurance plan called Guardsman, so you can “rest” assured (pun intended!) that if anything happens to damage your furniture – even cat claws, I assume! – you can get it repaired.

Sounds good to me!

I’ve been researching car rental companies because the last one we used really let me down. Ran across this one – has anyone ever used them?

A company called Advantage has car rental services. Their prices seem competitive – one nice-looking car was going for $20.99/day, which is a little less than we paid last time we rented a car. Plus they’ve got some GREAT discounts and specials – You can get up to a 50% discount on Luxury and Convertible car rentals, and even rent a car for $1 a day (it’s location and destination dependent, but if you’re going that way, hey…)

Unfortunately, they don’t have a NC location yet – but we’re planning another trip to Florida and they’ve got convenient locations there. We want to fly down and rent a car, so that would work out well.

And get this (now I’m getting excited!) they’ve got locations at both Montego Bay and Kingston airports (Jamaica).. if we get to where we’re comfortable driving on the left, we’ll DEFINITELY rent from these folks!

One of her stories is less “fiction” and more a word from the Lord to this generation. It’s called, “Come Back“. Excellent work – share it with friends and family who are lost or struggling.

While I’m at it, AC is a great way to make a few extra bucks. You aren’t likely to get rich off it (unless you make that your full-time job), BUT, it’s kept me in itunes and Starbucks for the past year – I can’t complain! Just click the button to get started!

You can also check out my articles on AC, if you want to!