For the last couple of weeks, we have been trying out a projector from Projector123.  Let’s just say that it has been such a big hit in our house that Bill now wants to buy one.

Can you guess the movie on the left?  It’s Cars.  That picture is on one of my walls in the basement.  We didn’t have any white walls to use, so that picture is on a blue wall.  It made it slightly darker (we shined it on the white door to see the difference).  I’ll be honest — I was impressed.  The picture was so clear and crisp.  It also was huge!  I wouldn’t have needed my contacts to see it!

Now, I didn’t take a picture of this but we set this up with our PlayStation 2.  Madison tried both Star Wars Legos and Indiana Jones Legos on here.  It was awesome. The characters were taller than Will.  He just ran up and down the wall touching the characters.  It was quite humorous to watch (and I should have video taped it but I didn’t think of it at the time!)

After the kids were in bed, Bill and I tested it out with a non-kid friendly movie.  Madison and Will’s movie were made to be crisp and clear.  How would a real movie hold up?

You should be able to guess this movie pretty easily.  I took this picture from the side to show you how movie theater like it was.  We just hooked up two speakers, and it was like being in the theater (we were just missing the popcorn).

Even though we used this for a lot of fun movie nights at my house, there are so many more uses for it.  I have seen these used at weddings, graduation parties, and memorial services that I have been too.  Its a great way to show a montage of pictures easily.  At the rate of $99 for a weekend, you can’t go wrong.  They FedEx it to you and they even give you a return label to FedEx it back!

I recently purchased the Web2Submitter to help me submit posts to social media sites. Not only do I submit posts for my work, I do many for my own sites and posts. I was finding that I was spending hours on this tedious task and absolutely hating it. Someone recommended that I check out the Web2Submitter, so I did.

One of the things that I liked best about this was that they don’t promise the world to you (you know that they aren’t full of it then!). This isn’t black hat at all. You aren’t going to be spamming sites. For me, this kind of stuff was my main concern. I looked at a lot of submitters that were a lot more money. However, they were involved in the type of SEO I am not interested it. I personally bill my time out at a minimum of $15 an hour or more. At $47, the Web2Submitter pays for itself after a couple of uses. I seriously cut my submission time down by more than half.

Now, I personally needed something easy. I don’t want to have to read a manual to figure out how to use something. Now, Web2Submitter does all the hard work for you. Here’s what the interface looks like:

It literally requires you to fill in the blanks and that is it. It does not get any easier than this. You are able to set it up so that all of your passwords are saved. You use the software to log into each site. You also fill in the blanks for the title, URL, tags, description, etc. When you go to submit to each site, it will automatically fill those in for you. Now, my only complaint with this software is that it doesn’t submit to enough sites. There are a couple I would love to see added on like Mixx and Thoof. However, I also love that I can use the URL bar up on top and go to the additional sites that I want to submit to. Instead of searching for the URL, description, title, etc. again, it is all listed to my left.

Now, I have contacted their support for some issues I was having (it ended up being an issue on my end not theirs). I figured they wouldn’t get back to me ever, and I had a response in less than 24 hours! Also, this is software for life — there is no monthly fees that you have to worry about or anything like that. There is also a 60 day money back guarantee. If this doesn’t live up to your standards, you can get your money back!

Honestly, I have saved countless hours using this. If you do any sort of submitting to social media sites, you need to get this and save yourself time and headaches.

I just got a box of these Town House Flipsides to try tonight, and I have to admit that I really like them. I was really interested in figuring out how a cracker pretzel was going to taste. Surprisingly, these Town House Flipsides are really good! I tried the cheddar thinking I wasn’t going to like it. Usually, cheddar flavored things knock you over, because they are so cheesy. These had the perfect amount of cheese flavoring. As far as taste goes, they taste like a cracker and a pretzel (I know, you probably could have figured that out!). It is actually a really good combination. I can see us eating this plain and eating this with dip. This is also a great treat to bring to my daughters preschool. The kids really don’t sugar for their snack time. Also, one of the girls in her glass is allergic to peanuts. This makes it extremely difficult to find something to bring for a snack (I swear almost almost everything has peanuts in it or was made on something that came into contact with peanuts), and this would work perfectly the next time I need to bring a snack! To quote Madison (who is 4), these are “beautiful” and “yummy in my tummy”. Needless to say, these were a big hit in my house!

If you haven’t had a chance to go yet, head over there now! Today is the last day here, but it will be traveling around Chicagoland over the next month or so. If it has to do with your home, there will be people there doing it! We met up with several different contractors that now will be coming to the house to give us estimates on the attic remodel and basement remodel. They also had security people, fence people, sheet people, window people, and siding people just to name a few. Basically, they had somebody there for every facet of your home. I highly recommend attending these home shows. It is the quickest way to get contacts for your home repair/remodel needs!

Have you seen the commercial for Lifelock yet? If not, this is a service you need to look into. I am not sure how many of you know that I was almost a victim of identity theft. When we lived in Aurora, they was a person with the same name as me giving out my phone number and address to creditors. I had to fight for 2 years with American Express’s lawyers that I was not the Lisa they were looking for. Heck, I never ever even owned an American Express. I had to put a freeze on my own credit reports (which means no more instant credit when you want to get $15 off your purchase if you sign up now at certain stores like Kohls). I also know people who have had their identity stolen. Unfortunately, it happens more often than you think.

I ask if you have seen the commercial, because in the commercial, the president of the Lifelock actually puts his social security number on the side of a tractor trailer truck. I know, it is quite a bold move. He also has his social security number right on the top of the Lifelock website in a huge font and bolded. That is how sure he is of his company. If his identity is not being stolen and he is putting his information out there for the world to see, just think what Lifelock can do you. Normally, people try to hide their information as best as possible. Lifelock will ensure that your identity will never to stolen. Let’s say if something would slip through and it did happen, Lifelock has a million dollar guarantee. Yes, I said a million dollar guarantee: They “will pay up to $1,000,000 to cure the failure or defect in our service, per member, per lifetime for all incidents in the aggregate regardless of circumstance”. How many companies do you know are that confident in their service?

How does Lifelock work? First, they set fraud alerts on your behalf with the credit bureaus. This is done, so you are notified anytime anyone tries to use your credit (including yourself). However, these fraud alerts are only good for 90 days. They go back every 30 days and reset the fraud alert for you. You don’t have to worry about forgetting to do this. They also request that your name be removed from all those annoying preapproved and junk mail lists. They keep making these requests for you as they expire also. This is another way that identity can be stolen, so why not stop it at its source? Plus, junk mail is just annoying anyway. Look at it this way, you are probably saving a few trees by getting your name off those lists. They also order credit reports on your behalf from all the major credit bureaus once a year and have them sent directly to you. Lastly, they have an awesome program called WalletLock. If you lose your wallet or if it gets stolen, a specialist will help you contact each credit card, bank, or document issuing company to cancel your accounts. They will also help you complete the paperwork to replace your lost documents. This includes your credit/debit cards, driver’s license, social security card, insurance cards, checkbook, and travelers checks.

I know you are probably saying that you could do most of this yourself and save yourself the money. Honestly though, do you do it? I am on top of things I forget to do a lot of these steps. With Lifelock, you are buying peace of mind. In a world where identity theft can take away everything you own, you definitely need that peace of mind.

I am happy to report that from my last post about them, I had not only one but two people contact me to help me. We were gone to Green Bay over the last few days, so I was just finally able to get back to the people who contacted me. I have to admit that I am impressed. I honestly did not expect anybody to contact me at all. Now, if they can only get it to work, I’ll be in seventh heaven. Windows Live Writer is like a billet grille; it is not something you need, it is just something you’d really like to have.  I am hoping to have a third installment about my experience shortly.

I actually first saw this at BlogWorld. I stopped and talked to a couple of guys at their booth. I was impressed with the software that would allow you to blog offline. They also had a ton of features that I really liked. Unfortunately, I did not get any of their advertising pens or even their business cards. I know several people who use this software to blog who talk highly about it. However, my experience has been not very good.

I can download the software. However, when I try to run it, I get an “Out of Memory” error message when it tries to access my blog. I contacted their support in November about this error. They had me run quite a few things to see if they could fix it. They had me send the log to them at (I think) the end of November, and I have not heard anything since. Now, I understand if they can’t figure out why I am having this problem. I just wish they would get back to me. At this point, I cannot recommend that you use this product. I have no real happy with their customer support. However, it is only in beta and it is free, so I can’t expect too much.