Check your Voter Reg

Check to see if you're registered to vote:
http://www.sos.state.co.us/Voter/voterHome.do

And moving along to the REAL issues...

I love NYT graphics. That's just the kind of gal I am. This (oh, you have to go to the Series Index and scroll over to the American Way of Debt graphic) looked a lot better and was more fun to explore in the actual paper, but did you know:

The average American household has $8,565 in credit card debt?
We've reached 1930s savings levels, at $392--that's ANNUAL--per household.

Aren't we swell?!

And I doubted the need for an organization like Colorado Saves.

YUMMM!

I am in love with this product, and I will feel a lot better if you waste some of your time browsing around here, too.

What did we do before Caller ID (and the Internets)?

A 901# has appeared on my missed call list multiple times in the last week but they never leave a message. I googled the full # to make sure it wasn't someone I wanted to talk to and/or a regional office of my organization. (It is a vendor.) I did find this website in my google results which is an interesting concept. http://800notes.com/

Helpful Email Reminder Tools

It is April and that means the return of Street Sweeping. A juggling challenge for JB with his multiple vehicles. Denver has a new email reminder service but I would only give it a "C" because it is not linked to your address. To schedule your e-reminders you must either be skilled at obtuse web map reading or just walk outside your house and read the signs. (I opt'd for the walk outside method.)
Denver Streetsweeping Email Reminder

There is a better tool for Recycle Day reminders where you only have to enter your street address instead of knowing your schedule. However, I only give this tool a "B" because it limits you to a single email address per street address. Since we do not subscribe to the shared/family email address in our household, this requires someone to be the designated responsible adult.
Denver Recycles Email Reminder

Sidebar: IC will appreciate the irony that I lifted the city logo to
include in this blog post since I just told her how unprofessional I found it
that the Women Who Tech esummit panel presenters used organization's logos
clearly without the branding approval from those organizations.

Santa Tracker

In case you are waiting for your gifts to arrive,
Norad can help pass the time with games until Santa takes off.

Shameless self-promotion

I warned you. So, my brother created a website that compiles all of your “wish lists” for gift-receiving/giving. Kazowie.com. It is really fun and you should sign-up. Mainly because I want to buy you gifts and I have no idea what to get you. Also because it’s fun. If you sign up and add me as a friend I can win a $1000 gift certificate from Amazon.com that I will use to buy you stuff. Really, this is a win-win situation.

Since I'm shamelessly self-promoting, here is my wish-list.

Entertaining Tips

Epicurious Christmas section includes advice on throwing a successful party from Ted Allen, Nigella Lawson, Amy Sedaris, and others.

Are you a 'Rotten Neighbor'?

Find out here. Not a shock that there are many in DHP's neighborhood, and one lives dangerously close to cd2e. The rotten neighbor in IC's hood has the best write-up though. Have fun!

Middle Eastern Travel Recommendations?

I’m headed to UAE next month….a belated, yet-unplanned vacation with My Very Own Martha. We’re off to visit a friend serving as a year-long mentor to an elementary school principal.

She lives in Sharjah, and we’ll be close to Dubai. We’ll drive to Oman one weekend.

My other goals are to do a European plane change layover and visit another Middle Eastern country.
Any suggestions?

You can follow our trip planning at TripIt
a cool new tool I’ve found that keeps all your bookings and where you can enter notes, photos and links as well as store your confirmations and maps.

My new favorite thing

A few weeks ago I saw this on MSNBC and signed up. GreenDimes. It is a service that rids you of your junk mail. Everyday, when my mailbox is filled with unwanted catalogs, coupons, etc. I log in, add them to the list, and they remove me. All for a one-time $15 fee. I love it!

And another thing...

So I just returned from getting an emissions test. This is the first time I have taken Penny. All of my previous trips with Iris involved finger crossing. If you remember she had a bit of a muffler issue.

I was looking forward to smooth sailing and I pull up and there are 7 lanes open. 6 really short lines and 1 really long line filled with mostly with Subaru varieties. Do Subaru drivers just like to flock together? DUH! 4-Wheel/AWD line. Penny & I got in the back of it.

As I watched all the other cars come & go in 20 minutes I tried to remember the sight of those cars stuck in snow drifts last year during the blizzards. So an hour and a half later.... Penny passes like a rockstar. In fact 2 employees came over to admire her and tell me how much they like Volvos and a stalker gave me a business card to his volvo repair shop as I was leaving. There was a 240 Wagon (88-ish) that came & went while I was there. They also got the rockstar treatment.

It's 2007 and we are in Colorado. Don't you think at least 2 AWD lanes might be in order?

My goal for 2009 is to try and take advantage of rapid screen. I have attached a link for other crafters who might be headed to the elite AWD line:
http://www.aircarecolorado.com/rapidscreen/locations.html

Little Britain - Watch This!

View some clips and tell me this isn't funny. Or maybe that now you finally know I do have a sense of humor?! Or maybe you have to watch the series....you know where to go...

Speaking of libraries, did you know we have our own 24-hour live version of Google? It's called AskColorado and should come in handy for those burning late night questions, such as 'How do you play Hi-Lo?', what is the proper way to light a cigar, and how to cure or prevent a hangover.

Feeling poor?

Here's the global income rank calculator website

referenced by Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, earner of $1.5 million annually in the article

in this week's NYT Magazine, which has a ton of great articles on the income gap.

Happy reading, you world's wealthiest people, you!

Colorado To-Do List Motherload

DHP is officially on summer vacation. I went looking for free stuff to do in our beautiful state and found the official Colorado Events Guide. I am very sorry that I will be missing Mike's Headless Chicken Days next weekend in Fruita, but there are plenty of other bizzaro and fun events occuring throughout the summer. I mean, who knew that Lafayette has a wine festival? In any event, if you see something you want to do, let me know. I'm on the pro-leisure tour this summer.

Cooking Classes...and more

Today's surprise knowledge is that the City of Aurora offers quite a compliment of cooking classes that are easy on the wallet and inspiring to the palate.

Here's the summer sched; click on Cooking in the left menu bar.

They're also offering, in what used to be Denver Water's star presence in town but has now been relinquished to DBG's fee-for-service innovation to start charging, free xeriscape classes on a variety of subjects.

Language Lessons for your iPod

Here is a collection of websites that offer free language lesson podcast (some also have "bonus" pay features).

http://www.chinesepod.com
http://coffeebreakspanish.com
http://www.frenchpodclass.com
http://www.japanesepod101.com

Colorado Library Card

Did you know? YOU can check out materials of ALL kinds from (almost) ANY library in the state. Any public library, 99% of school libraries, and even others like prison and medical libraries.

There are two ways to access this service:

For on-site service, take your library card--and you DO have one, right?! (Infochef will shame you to within an inch of your life if you don't, so you'd better get on that. No excuses!)--to any participating library, who will then issue you a card or barcode from their system. That's it. That's all. Ta-da!

Place an interlibrary (or even inter-branch) loan. This can be via your local library's website, where you might access the card catalog 'Prospector'*--
or by searching the Colorado Virtual Library for a title. (*Prospector is not necessary if you search the library's database and find that the material you want is at another branch. In that case, you'll just place a hold and request that it be delivered to the branch of your choice.)

Loan requests will amazingly be delivered to the library of your choice. And, I'll bet you didn't know you can return books to ANY library, as long as there is sufficient time for the materials to reach your own library by the due date, and they will then be returned by a statewide daily library courier system. And, all of this is free, thanks to your tax dollars. An amazing service and value, right up there with the postage stamp.

Amazing!

TV Turnoff Week

Get ready....TV Turnoff Week is April 23-29 this year.

Take the challenge!

(The new campaign is really 'screen-free', but that could be interesting for those of use who aren't kids and actually have to work at a screen. Ah, for the days of widget-making!)

Setting your clock back

Warning: This post is boring.

For crafters with home computers (or the self-employed, IT Dept-Less), you may want to check out this link about the new Daylight Savings Time settings (coming March 11th). http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst

All of the high speed folks should be getting critical updates automatically so no action should be required but the link above will double-check.

I think this may land you in the massive MS Updates page, for what it is worth, CD2E & JB both independently do not suggest IE 7.0. (You can select to install updates with the "custom" option to avoid it.)