Doing DC in the Chevy Tahoe !

October 1, 2014 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Around DC, Economics, General Motors 
Georgetown Waterfront

Georgetown Waterfront

What could be better on a gorgeous Fall day than having brunch on the Georgetown Waterfront ??!!
Nothing.
Sequoia, at the bottom of Georgetown and
atop of Washington Harbor,
is THE place to enjoy the water in Washington.
And their brunch is something special.
We had a perfect day,
and the PERFECT SUV to get us around Washington, DC.
The Chevy Tahoe was fantastic at maneuvering around Washington,
even little streets in Georgetown,
despite it size.
The Tahoe took us all around DC and gave us a wonderful family trip!

deck1

umbrellas runners crew

How To Get Exactly What You Want

May 19, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: dc metro moms, Economics 

Ahhh, a question for the ages…

How do you get what you want?

Well I’m here to tell you!  But, first of all-

this does not apply to ‘world peace’… ‘a cure for cancer’… ‘to end homelessness’… ‘I want a pony’… well, maybe the last one.

All those ‘wants’ are great.  I want world peace too.  I want a cancer-free world too.  I want everyone to have a home too…

But we all gotta start somewhere… ‘Start Small- End Big’, I always say.  So let’s master how to get exactly what we want in terms of the ‘small stuff’, then we can go from there.  After all, if you have little things… and little ones, around you that make you happy- you’re going to be a better mom and person and you’ll be happier…

Happier?  A Better Person, you may say?  Yes.  And here’s how to do it-

I am revealing an age-old philosophy… a formula… a system of beliefs, if you will.

Have you read The Secret?  Yes, so have I…

Click Here to Continue Reading This At DC Metro Moms…


No Pennies After 2011… Really?

May 12, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Economics, Kindergartners 

It went over the blogosphere over the last month that the US Mint would be stopping production of pennies altogether in April 2011…

My son’s Kindergarten teacher even told their class that pennies were no longer going to be minted after next year.

The argument is that it is more expensive to make pennies than pennies are worth.

I completely believed this.  My son did too.  My husband did too.

And then we were all informed by my son’s Kindergarten teacher that it had been an April Fool’s Joke… (and she had believed it too).

I felt really dumb, I must say.

Getting rid of the penny?  How can we get rid of the penny?  But then I looked into it… and it makes some sense.

According to Wikipedia–  “As of March 2008, it costs about 1.7 cents to mint a penny. Now that the price of the raw materials exceeds the face value, there is a risk that coins will be illegally melted down for raw materials.”

AND- “With the average wage in the U.S. being about $17 per hour in 2006, it takes about two seconds to earn one cent. Thus, it is not worthwhile for most people to deal with a penny. If it takes only two seconds extra for each transaction that uses a penny, the cost of time wasted in the U.S. is about $3.65 per person annually, about $1 billion for all America. Using a different calculation economist Robert Whaples estimates a $300 million annual loss.”

PLUS- “Pennies are not accepted by all vending machines or toll booths, and pennies are generally not accepted in bulk. In addition, people often do not use cents to pay at all; they may simply use larger denominations and get pennies in return.  Pennies end up sitting in jars and are not in circulation. Economist Greg Mankiw says that ‘The purpose of the monetary system is to facilitate exchange, but… the penny no longer serves that purpose’.”

AND- Prices would not be higher — “Research by Robert Whaples, an economics professor at Wake Forest University, using data on nearly 200,000 transactions from a multi-state convenience store chain shows that rounding would have virtually no effect. Consumers would gain a tiny amount – about 1/40th of a cent per transaction.”

PLUS, and us moms know this- “The reduced-cost clad zinc penny, which has been produced since mid-1982, holds additional dangers when swallowed by children and others, unlike all previous U.S. coins. If the copper plating is breached, the penny quickly corrodes into a sharp-edged object, which is more likely to lodge in the digestive tract. Injury is more likely and furthermore, zinc and copper digested from the lodged pennies may be toxic. A five kilogram dog was fatally poisoned by swallowing two pennies.”

And One More thing- Did you know that in 2002 bills went through Congress to try to eliminate the PENNY?

A Penny For Your Thoughts?

Or should I Say,

A Nickel?


THE Tutorial On Teeth Whitening… (According to me, Obviously)

April 21, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Economics 

   Who doesn’t want really white teeth?

 What’s amazing is that a decade ago the teeth whitening industry really didn’t exist… My how things change…

Years ago, when you could only buy Go Smile whitening strips at Saks, I headed over there and went to pick myself up a package; one of my girlfriends worked there at the time and we asked her co-worker, who presided over the ‘Whitening/Moisturizing/Pamper Yourself’ Counter if they worked well,

“I think Crest Whitestrips are the same, if not better.”

And Crest Whitestrips ARE WAY less expensive.

So I put my money away, headed to my local drugstore and bought some Crest Whitestrips.

I have used these occasionally over the past few years…

The last time I was at the dentist I asked him about whitening, especially because I am constantly during the day, drinking tea…  

His response-

“Brush your teeth with a little baking soda, or just buy baking soda tooth paste.”

So I did, I bought Arm & Hammer Advanced White toothpaste, with Baking Soda and Peroxide,

and you know what?

It works!  I’m really happy with the shade of my teeth!

So the least expensive solution has turned out to be the best-

I LOVE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS !!!!! 

 

 

I love the First Lady’s gloves and shoes

January 21, 2009 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Around DC, Economics 

Yesterday History was made. And even though I could have braved the cold and ventured downtown to the Capital Buiding on Metro, I did not. I chose to have the best seat in the house: I watched the Inauguration on TV.

There is enough written and there will be plenty more written about wonderful moments and the meaning of The Inauguration, like the moment I welled up with tears when I saw 2 old African-American men in the crowd wearing Tuskegee Airmen caps.

So let’s concentrate on something important here *wink*.

I LOVED Michelle Obama’s choice of green J.Crew gloves and green Jimmy Choo shoes to wear with her outfit yesterday. It was kind of a bold choice… and it worked! And not only do I love that it worked, I love that she went with J. Crew- fashionable, yet practical, and Jimmy Choo- designer… and that they were not a set.

She’s workin’ it, but not ‘above-it-all’.

And J. Crew is loving life right now: not only did they design the girls’ jackets and outfits, I just went to their site and I could not click through to their gloves section… I got an apology that you can’t access it right now; I’m guessing their gloves, which on all on sale right now too, section has temporarily crashed due to gazillions of hits to buy leather gloves… preferably green :)

When Wigs Went Out of Fashion, Was Everyone Like, ‘What Were We Thinking?’

January 6, 2009 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Economics 

When did wigs go out of fashion? And I’m talking about the white powdered wigs, not current wigs or hair–extentions… And more importantly, when they did go out of fashion and people were onto the next ‘fad’ or fashion trend –
Did people say to each other, ‘Oh my God, can you believe we wore WIGS ?!!’

Last night my husband had on the History Channel, as he always does, and he said to me,

“I wonder if people looked back at the generation before them that wore wigs and were aghast at the fashion.”

First of all, I felt like saying, “Who are you? Bring back my husband who doesn’t care about fashion… Is this Invasion of the Body Snatchers?”

Then I thought about it and Googled it… and here you go:

In ancient times Egyptians wore wigs to shield their bald heads from the sun- that makes sense.

Then, wigs were revived in the 16th century as a means of compensating for hair loss or improving one’s personal appearance. And that makes sense. There was also a lot of hair lice in those days so people would shave their heads to get rid of it- then wear a wig… DISGUSTING, but practical.

So, back to the question:

It’s funny to think about how people must have reflected on wig wearing…

I mean, I cringe when I think of the 80’s and what I wore: stirrup-pants anyone?

But wigs are crazy-worse that stirrup-pants.

But wigs were somewhat of a necessity of the time; so maybe people didn’t make fun of people before them.

Actually, I don’t think people started making fun of previous fashion trends until recently, as in the last 30 years, because PEOPLE DIDN’T HAVE TIME to make fun of fashion. People were growing their own food and working long hours and life was harder than now-a-days.

Just a thought.

It’s still funny to think about some young people a couple of hundred years ago sitting around saying, ‘Can you believe your mom wore a wig? How lame!’

YESTERDAY, I ‘WORKED’…

November 20, 2008 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Economics 

YESTERDAY, I got up at 5:45am. I did not shower, is as my routine, primped and headed downtown to help out with a wonderful student conference for Young American Broadcasters- a foundation set up to mentor young people interested in broadcasting. In my ‘former life’ I was Director of this organization.

The conference went on without a hitch. I got home at 5:45pm.

It felt good to put on heels and be in the work-force… for a day

I had laid out clothes for my son, packed his lunch and wrote a reminder to pick out something for Show-and-Tell. ‘My guys’ got out the door and got to school on time. I called ‘Little Guy’s’ preschool during the morning to confirm that my dad would pick him up. My dad watched my son til my husband got home and pizza delivery was on its way by the time I got home; it didn’t even occur to me to ask my husband to prepare dinner- that would be too much. And frankly, it would be too much on me to come home after a long day and fix dinner myself.

I know you see where I’m going-

‘Working Mom’ is redundant, we all know that. But I just want to do a ‘shout-out’ to moms who work outside the home because they work inside the home too.

Plus, I missed my Little Guy. I missed the conversation, “Mommy, guess what we had for snack?”, etc. Life is great, but it’s just a-little-bit-better-sometimes seeing it through a 4-year-old’s eyes.

CELL PHONE HELP FOR MOMS

October 21, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Economics 

I actually have GOOD news for moms with cell phones.

If your daughter or son likes to play with your cell phone- LISTEN UP!

My son loves to ‘pretend’ to call people on my cell phone. He has his own play cell phone(S), yes, that’s plural. But I still occasionally let him ‘pretend’ with mine. He sometimes calls his grandparents for real, but they think it’s cute and fun and sometimes gives me 5 minutes of him being occupied while we are reeling around the grocery store.

BUT, I just got our Verizon Wireless bill and there was an additional charge for over $10… FOR DOWNLOADS. Then I looked closer at the bill:

my son had downloaded 3 games on my cell phone. He doesn’t have any video games, so I think he was just pressing buttons, plus he’s 4, but I didn’t want to pay for these games and I DON’T WANT THESE GAMES ON MY PHONE.

So, I called Verizon Wireless yesterday, told them what happened and they credited my account.

They then took me through the steps to close/delete these games from my phone, so I won’t be charged any more for them.

THE BEST PART:
the helpful customer service rep on the line THEN suggested to me that she block certain applications from being downloaded, since my son does sometimes play with my phone.

I blocked all applications- games, etc. on my phone, so it can just be used for texting and calls- since those are the only things I have ever done on my phone.

I DIDN’T KNOW YOU COULD DO THIS! YEY! MAKING MY LIFE A LITTLE EASIER!

You can call Verizon Wireless and they can do this for you in literally -30 seconds. Then, if you ever want to ‘open’ applications up- just call them back.

Everyone reading this may be thinking, ‘Yeah, I knew that back in the 90’s, don’t you read your 200 page manual that comes with your phone from cover to cover??!!’

but this mom didn’t know, so I’m passing on the info!

Thank you Verizon Wireless!

CHECK ME OUT OVER HERE-

September 20, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Economics 

Check me out at DC Metro Moms, talking about consignment shopping in the DC area!

MY SON IS GOING ‘GREEN’…

June 4, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Economics 


His lunch was packed, school bag in hand, buckled in his carseat… I drove down the street toward my son’s preschool.  We stopped at the first light.  There was a Ford Expedition in front of us.

“That’s a Ford, Mommy!”  My son gets excited about EVERY make and model of car, van, SUV and truck.

“Ex…pe…di…tion”

“That’s right, sweetpea!  That’s a Ford Expedition.”  I attribute my son’s reading abilities to sounding out brands of cars.  Yes, he’s basically learned to read from traffic.  It’s not traditional… but whatever works.

“I don’t see too many of those, Mommy…  I don’t think they make those anymore.”

I thought about it.  I don’t see too many of those on the street anymore.

I looked at my son in the back seat and said, “They still make them, but you are right, we haven’t seen a lot of those big SUVs on the road.  I don’t know how much longer they will be making them.”

Out of the mouths of babes.

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