I wasn't going to do any more paid posts even from Review Me... but this one fit me and this blog. I am going to do this post and YES I will get paid for it.
There is a site called Mammoth Dog Beds that has beds for all sizes of dogs. My hubby and I are always on the look out for a bed big enough for Happy dog. He weighs 150 pounds. He has arthritis. He is our family pet. And it is almost impossible to find a bed that works for him.
Something I found that I like about the mammoth bed is that is washable. Not just the cover, but
The entire bed is completely washable.
I'm not sure if I prefer a velcro closing of the cover over a zipper. Both have good and bad points. I do like the fact that you can wash just the cover. Though, I didn't see a lot on the stuffing. I have had to restuff (ok ok, my hubby did it most of the time) Happy's bed that he has right now many times. I don't see any place on the site to get more stuffing. The stuff I use now is throw away... it doesn't wash and 'bounce back'.
Since this is a paid post about the site, let me get back to the site information...
Things that I like
the 'Features at a Glance' when you look at a product
the fact that they have free shipping for orders over $75
at the bottom, they have 'about us', 'comments', 'order tracking', and more.
at the bottom of 'about us', they have 'Live Help'
I found the site easy to navigate. While I did not purchase anything, it was cool being able to look at the color chart and decide what color fit my home. It was also nice to see the following:
We are very confident in the security of Internet transactions, therefore we offer our Safe Shopping Guarantee. If unauthorized charges are made to your card as a result of shopping at Mammothoutlet.com we will cover your liabilities. (In the event of unauthorized usage, you must first contact your credit card provider in accordance with its reporting rules and procedures).
Yep, I'm bouncing around here... but another nice item was the 'enter and win' that was off to the left. I tried it. Not only did it enter me to win a prize, but gave me a discount on my next on-line purchase. Pretty cool.
If you have a large dog... they have plenty of options for you. Take a look at Mammoth and see what you think.
There is a book on my sidebar called Out of Time. I have read it 3 times now. For some one who loves boats ships. This would be even better for them. Still, very good story line and worth having... and it turns out Pat has written another story that goes along with it.
Here is what Pat has to say about it:
Patrick G. Cox Speaks About Almighty Father: I wrote Almighty Father as a part of my ongoing exercise in developing the reality of the two principle characters in my book Out of Time and it's sequel(s). As the underlying theme for the books is the fact that these boys are transported by accident into a distant future I felt it would be interesting to explore a part of Harry Heron's back story.
Seems that ReviewMe has another interesting site for me. It caught my eye when it said Free Clip Art for Kids. Yep, I’m all about stuff for my boys now a days and I like to get free stuff if I can find it.
My first thought when I went to the site was ‘Oh, it’s bright’. Very bright, lots of stuff all over. It took me a minute to look it over. I decided to go ahead and register before going too far down any one path. Registration was easy. Finishing the registration by clicking on the email link was a different story.
And I’m still waiting for my ‘email’ to complete my registration. I double checked to see if I typed a valid email address. I even tried registration again, just to be sure. And I did… and now I have been waiting… and may have to continue to wait. I have high security set up on my PC and this may be interfering with the setup. This site has an excellent write-up on their privacy policy. Which wants to use cookies. A quote from the policy is
Unfortunately, if you disable cookies on your computer, you will not be able to take advantage of many of the great features and content the Site has to offer.
On to the rest of the review. While finding the clip art was easy because it was in the center, I found the moving text to the left distracting. While doing my best to ignore the text, I clicked to check out a particularly clip art item, it popped up an ad first. Yes, you can press Skip this Ad. Just be aware of this when you come to this site. The clip art was decent. I can certainly use some of the items I found for my kids crafts. It also gave easy instructions on how to save the clip art.
Peeking around, I decided to see what the games would be like. Uh…. you have to be logged in to use it. Unless I make some changes, I will likely be unable to get to the games. The Arts and Crafts -> Kitchen Table Projects has some good ideas. The Coloring pages are acceptable. Looks like they would be easy for the kids to color. I was not that interested in the Boards, Buzz, or Idol Watch.
If you need clipart for your kids or some easy pages to print and color or ideas for projects… definitely come check this place out.
This is a paid review from Review Me for the Talking Atomic Alarm Clock. Now that is out of the way, let's talk about this talking clock...
My laptop is on most every day, all day and it sits somewhere in the kitchen area... the thought of an alarm clock that would remind me of stuff sounded good. I was a palm pilot, outlook calendar geeky woman when working outside the home. After kids, I use a calendar on the wall and the oven timer. No joke. Since I have my pc on all day, I thought I would give this a try.
I did not like the install. It was easy... but it put stuff on my pc that my virus protection decided to 'quarantine'. Even though I let the quarantined happen, the clock still works.
I like the fact that I can set it up to announce the hour with a voice. I don't stand in front of the pc all day... I am usually around and about. It is nice to hear it announce the time so that I can keep up with stuff. I have swimming, speech therapy, gymnastics and playdates to go to on a weekly basis right now. My house is also fairly quiet when the kids aren't fighting so hearing something is usually not a problem and I need to know the time.
It is very easy to set up reminders. They will pop up on the screen as well as be announced. It also allows weekly, monthly and the like. Sure I miss a few now and then because I'm in the laundry room or the kids are screaming... but for the last week, it has been useful. Besides, as soon as I look at the pc, I know if I have missed them since it pops up a reminder window as well.
The program seems to be very flexible and easy to use. It has a stopwatch, notes and more. I haven't used it enough to try those options out and I'm not sure I would really use them. The reminders and verbal time is what I need and like... much better than what comes with winxp.
The alarm clock download is available for a free trial. Give it a try if you can handle machines talking to you... ;-)
technorati: say the time : alarm clock : review me
I just seem to be hitting the jackpot each week... this time, I was asked to take a look at a site that sells wine racks. Considering I'm trying to figure out what to do with the 3 boxes of wine I have sitting in three different closets, this is not a bad choice for me to review.
The site is called "the Vine Store".A couple of things caught my eye... The BBBOnlineReliability logo, the 800 number in the upper right, the contact us tab. When I'm going to buy something, I like to do a little research about the company before I press the pay button. Though they have let their BBBonline status lapse, the BBBonline still had an overall good review of the Vine Store. It also let me know the company has been in business since 2002. Which is something I prefer... a business that has been running over 3 years.
Now here is a picture of the room I want to put a wine rack:
If you click to enlarge the picture you will see the word "HERE" on the wall. With that in mind, I went to "the Vine Store" and started shopping.
The main page shows the best sellers. Interesting, but not what I wanted. Off to the left, I saw a link for Wall Mounted Wine Racks. After glancing at that page, I decided maybe I would prefer not to display all our wine, but a couple that we might have with dinner on occasion. A couple of reds and a white?
I decided I wanted a closer look at the "3 Bottle Wall Mounted Wine Rack" and clicked on the link. The picture was still small, so I clicked to enlarge it. It did not work. Hmmm. Switched over to Internet Explorer from Firefox. It still did not work. Ok... not happy with that, but was glad to see they had a nice description of the rack and the warranty that comes with it. Some of the other racks had better descriptions including the measurements necessary.
Being curious, I went to a bunch of the pictures and clicked to enlarge them. None of them worked for me. Might be a 'setting' I have that prevents it but very annoying. I have sent them an email. When they respond, I will update this post.
I decided to act like I was going to buy it. I also decided I wanted a black finish versus pewter. Nice to have options. Wish I could have seen the black wine rack versus the pewter, but could not find it.
Ta da. Nice easy shopping cart. Has the ability to continue shopping. Has the lock at the bottom once you start to fill in any information for the order. Since I am not really ready to buy yet, I stopped the order.
Overall review. Nice site. Many options for those who want to shop different ways... by wine rack type, by price, and even some accessories. It has a few things I would like changed that I stated above... the enlarged pictures and black versus pewter pictures. As well as the the "Kitchen and Accessories" and the "Links" links at the bottom don't work. This won't stop me... I'm definitely going to keep this site in mind when I'm ready to buy a wine rack.
technorati: the vine store
Many moons ago, I signed up to ReviewMe.com to get a little extra money. Now I have a chance to do a review on something that truly interest me. It's called Eurobookings.
Why would this interest me? I have some good friends in Germany that I would love to visit. If you remember, about a year ago their daughter came and stayed with us for 4 weeks. And they have offered for us to stay with them. Nope, not going to happen. They have a little tiny flat and I have 2 children and a husband to haul along with me. I want a hotel.
Being someone always looking for a good deal to get me to Germany and a place to stay while there... I wanted to check out this European Hotel booking site because of what they wrote:
provides users with easy-to-book European hotel reservations. Visitors can sort by hotels near landmarks, hotel popularity, proximity to airports, and hotel reviews.People do not pay a reservation fee or pay for the hotel in advance but rather pay when they check out of the hotel - a concept that puts more travelers at ease when they book a hotel because they can always negotiate their rate if their stay isn't satisfactory.
Something that caught my eye was the part about not paying a reservation fee or for the hotel in advance. I lived in Germany and traveled a lot. Trust me, you want to be able to negotiate if there is any problem with the stay.
Hence, I went to the site and checked it out. The first thing I noticed it was easy to navigate. It also gave some options when I put in Munich, Germany. Nice! First it gave me a couple of other places: Did you mean Monnickendam, Moniga, Monnikendam. Then it broke down another way: Was the destination the country, the city, the airport or the region. At the end of each was the number of hotels available. I clicked on Munich (the city) and was pleasantly surprised I could narrow my search even more (since I forgot to at the initial page). For me, non-smoking is a necessity. Tot has asthma. That is one of those options. For the computer geeks, there is Internet Services and Wi-Fi/Wireless LAN. A whole lot more is listed but you can go see for yourself.
I liked the map option (must have spent 10 minutes just playing with that), the information on the hotels and the little pop-up window on what is included in the price. I like the fact they have been in business about 10 years, have an easy to read Terms and Conditions, an FAQ, an email address to ask questions, and that their prices are approximately the same as Expedia for 2 adults staying q week. Yep, I checked but it is a little difficult to make sure. It took some time to figure which one was picking which room and so on. If I did it right, Eurobookings was a little cheaper.
Are you ready for the part that drove me nuts? It is all in Euros. ya ya ya. I'm going to Germany, what should I expect? At the top, it gives you the option for the language of "English". Notice the flag? Yep, England and not the USA. Sigh. It would be nice to have a link to a money converter. It also did not have a good indication that 4 people were acceptable for a room. Will that stop me from using it? Nope.
I enjoyed going through the site. Found it easy to get information. When I'm ready to travel, I will certainly come back to Eurobookings and check out the prices and availability... even if I have to convert the money myself and send out a few emails to make sure there isn't a price increase for hauling to young kids with me.
Technorati: eurobookings advertisement