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I feel like I know my family very well, but sometimes I am surprised, shocked even. Reading a personal blogs and/or website really adds a whole new dimension to knowing someone.  Aubrie threw a shocker out there today on her wishlist.  Check out her blog link under Aubrie is Shabastic on my blogroll.

Now, on to the questions:

What are your favorite meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert)?

My favorite breakfast foods are pretty traditional. I love how my Dad makes German pancakes, tasty, fluffy, and usually nice and airy. Only requirement is real butter, not margarine. It just tastes better. Mine seem to always fall flat no matter how little or how much I beat it. No matter what pan I cook it in. No matter the care I take to NOT open the oven while it is cooking. Mine are still good, but not the same. With this I would have the delicious eggs that Ryan makes. Over medium well, 1 packet del taco hot sauce cooked in the egg and light cheese on top. No we don’t live in a trailer park. It really is tasty. Ryan finally told me his “secret ingredient”. With that some hot sausage patties and fresh sqeezed orange juice to drink. I never said it was healthy!

My favorite lunch would probably be the Chicken Green Chile Salad at Bajio. I love the sweetness of the green chile sauce and the hot tortilla on the side. Plus the mango salsa is to die for.

I never really had a favorite dinner where I have the same thing every year for my birthday. It is always evolving depending on my mood. I would probably have to say that at the moment it is a big bowl of fresh chunky guacamole, fresh mild/medium salsa, and some good salty chips. Yum!

Finally, my favorite dessert. I love a good piece of cheesecake. It can’t be the no bake kind. It has to have a nice thick graham cracker crust on the bottom and all the way up the side. Not fussy, maybe vanilla bean cheesecake, very creamy. Sometimes with berries, sometimes without. I am picky on my cheescake.

If you could only choose one book, one movie, and one cd for the rest of your life what would they be? And why? What do they mean to you?

I’ve been thinking about this question all day. I think the book I would have to choose is the unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I know, a weird choice. It is really long and if I could only have one book for the rest of forever I would want to be able to spread it out and also just read parts I love many times, but have the option of reading the whole book again. I actually did read this book once. I haven’t read it since but toy with the idea of reading it again often. It has historical significance, romanticism, despair, love, mercy, forgiveness, heartbreak, justice, fear, bravery, disgrace, sadness, revenge, and every else you can imagine. It is also paced so that you really feel all of the emotions fully with Monte Cristo . It’s an intricate story that will keep you reading, wondering and revisiting small details overlooked the first time through. If you have a month (or the rest of your life) to get through the 1488 pages I highly recommend it.

I would have to pick About a Boy for the movie. I love this movie. It would balance the book nicely for a little pick me up. Hilarious and just entertaining. Funny, I didn’t realize until just now looking it up on Amazon that it is based on Nick Hornby’s best-selling novel. One of Matt’s favorites. Anyway, must watch movie.

The cd was an easy one. I never tire of U2’s Joshua Tree. Great music. Great lyrics. I’ve loved this since I was 15. Not much more to say about that.

If you could do anything for a living without concern for how much it paid or current talent level, what would you do?

I would be a buyer for Nordstrom. I would love to travel and find the next great thing.

What is the next item you plan to purchase?

I just purchased Annie’s Homegrown family size shells & white cheddar Mac & Cheese pack of 6 boxes from Amazon.  It looks good.

What is on your wishlist right now?

I would love to get Lush Dream Cream (body moisturizer), and Lancome’s Mille et Une Roses perfume.

Feel free to answer any of these questions on your blog or website and drop me I line so I can check out your answers!

Thank you UPS and FREE Amazon super saver shipping! So this season has been all about Amazon for me (and much of my family I hear). I decided to compile some of my tips and others tips for getting the best deals possible from Amazon.com.

Filler Items:

Here is a cool website called www.filleritem.com where you can type in the amount you need to get free shipping and it will bring up a list of links to everything with that price or a very close price. Personally I usually just leave it at the default to bring up everything under a $1 to $2.50. As a side note, this website could get some serious traffic if it had a search feature where you could enter any website to scan for fillers…..who knows how many countless hours I’ve spent on beauty sites that don’t allow you to search by price for the cheapest pencil sharpener to get free shipping. Also would be awesome if you could search within a website for a specific brand name lowest to highest…..anyway enough of my rambling….back to Amazon. If the info in this paragraph doesn’t stay up long I am starting on a new business venture

Price Guarantee

Amazon’s pricing is crazy. Something that seems like it may be the deal of a lifetime could still go down a couple of dollars, as well as double in price by the next day. They must have some crazy software that tracks sales and increases/decreases prices with real-time inventory. Case in point, I was looking to possibly pick up this Wild Planet Hyper Dash game for Christmas. It was in the $20.xx range when I first saw it. Apparently it was getting really popular and was $99.99 yesterday! Now it’s back down to $14.99 (but offered from target.com not Amazon). Both other times this was offered by Amazon, not a third party seller. This has happened with so many things I can’t even list them all. Most things I ordered for Christmas have at least doubled in price. Crazy I tell ya! So here is what to do.

1-Go to Your Account (top right link right by help).

2-Click on items you ordered and it will pull up the current price of the item. If it is less than you paid write down the item and order number.

3-Go to this link to request a price guarantee (up to 30 days from purchase date).

find the items that you previously looked up that have dropped in price. Check the box next to the first item and then press the email button on the right side. Next you will be able to add all of the additional items that you are contacting Amazon about. Make sure to write the item’s new lower price in the email and send your email.

Lightning Deals Preview

Get a heads up on the Amazon lightning deals at this website, updated daily. If you have never taken part in the Amazon lightning deals check it out. The good stuff gets snapped up in minutes for unheard of prices.

Subscribe & Save Promo

Amazon is running a promo where if you subscribe to have 3 different eligible grocery items delivered you will get a $30 Amazon gift certificate for a future Amazon purchase. They have some great prices on grocery items that can be delivered straight to your home. If you aren’t all that interested in that (even with free shipping on any and 15% off) then just make the delivery for 6 months out, there are no restrictions on this promo as far as I know and you can cancel after getting your gift certificate. Click here for eligible items and you can browse by category or price (change in drop down box at right to sort by price). Here is a deal picked out especially for mom & dad. 4-8oz. pkgs Brown Sugar Splenda, 6-5.35 oz. jars Coleman’s Original English Prepared Mustard, & 2-9.7 oz. pkgs Splenda. After Amazon rebate & 15% off subscibe & save better than free shipped to your door!

Make sure when you add the item you want to not click “add to cart”, but look lower change button to deliver every six months (or however often you want it) and push subscribe now.

To cancel is easy, go to my account, scroll down and click manage my subsribe & save to skip a shipment, send next shipment now, or cancel. But make sure you at least wait for your $30 first!

My personal favorite is this delicious McCann’s Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal, a steal at this price. Takes a little effort to prepare, but so worth it!

Making it Fool Proof

www.amzon.com redirects you to www.amazon.com, smart, think how much money they will lose with you taking that 5 seconds to figure it out yourself….wait I guess it could be a lot…..when you consider the speed of my parents’ connection.