Tony Brewer View

Thanks for the guest post from my Aunt Diane!

One of my memories from when I was a young parent was when I took our son Dean to DisneyWorld.  We stayed at one of the nicer villas in Orlando on that vacation, thanks to the generosity of my parents, and we had a great time!He was only four years old at the time, and he was thrilled and fascinated with DisneyWorld!  That was back in the day when video cameras were really large and heavy, and we ended up renting a stroller just to carry the video camera that we brought with us!  Sadly, my hubby wanted the very first attraction to be the Pirates of the Caribbean, which scared little Dean to no end, and he screamed and cried almost the whole time we were on that ride.  That almost soured the entire trip because whenever we entered a dark room he started to scream.  It got to the point that whenever we went into a building I’d have to put my hand over his mouth to keep him from screaming.  Eventually he would grab my hand and put it over his mouth by himself!  (What must have the other parents thought of us?)

Anyway, he LOVED Cinderella’s Carousel ride, and Dumbo’s flight, and the spinning tea cups.  He loved the Dumbo movie and wanted to ride Dumbo over and over and over again!

We went to a character breakfast that was held on a big steamboat in the Disney Village, and that was one of the greatest highlights.  Different characters came to our table to visit with us, and Dean enjoyed himself thoroughly getting their autographs in our autograph souvenir book that we bought.  We sat next to a middle aged couple from Spain that were enjoying themselves immensely watching us.  Before the breakfast was over they tried to start up a conversation with us (which was difficult because they only spoke Spanish and my high school Spanish was very limited and rusty!)

But we came to understand that they were in Florida staying in the same villas in Florida that we were! They were on a convention business trip and had to leave their children behind in Spain.  They asked if we would allow their photograph to be taken with Dean for them to take as a souvenier.  We exchanged addresses and became pen pals for a short while – they wrote in Spanish, which I translated using my Spanish-English dictionary (this was before the Internet was invented!) and I wrote back in English, which their son translated for them.  We came to understand that the husband was diagnosed with cancer and he invited us to come and spend a month with them in one of their villas in Spain.  He said that they spent two months every summer taking holidays and would love for us to come join them.  That would be a dream trip for us!  Sadly our budget would not allow for that, but we kept writing for a couple of years.  The last letter that I got from him informed us that his health was faltering and although I replied I never heard from them again.  That, my dear, is a bittersweet memory.

I think that sometimes Jack Vale is a little bit too off the wall, but I have to admit that most of his videos leave me laughing out loud. And sometimes that is just what the doctor ordered – a good dose of laughter.

This video of a prank being played on people pumping their own gas is one of those videos that made me laugh out loud. I thought it was worth sharing. I hope you enjoy it too.

My email spam filter is pretty good – I don’t see a lot of the garbage that comes to my email inbox unless I choose to view the contents of the spam folder before emptying it. Most of the time I peek in case something from a friend or relative actually gets sent to the spam folder. Most most of the time the spam folder is just stupid emails about size matters, chat rooms and “please cash my check and keep a huge fee for helping me out” hoaxes.

Today I got an email from a web site that helps people find a franchise opportunity if they are planning to start a new business. I wonder how that got through the spam filter? The web site looks authentic and the brands that they are promoting are all recognizable brands in the U.S. It might be worth checking it out and learning what is involved.

Thanks for the guest post by Jennifer Shuman

Tonight I wanted to pass along the link for http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/which is the website for FAFSA; an important place to go to look for financial assistance for college. The Internet is the best tool available, hands down, to find everything you need to know about today’s educational opportunities, as well as numerous educational issues. As we all know it takes money to make money and money is what makes the world go around, so anything that you can grab for free along the way is a good thing. So grab the free application and see what they have to say about your financal needs and wants if you are considering going back to school.

At some point I would love to be able to take advantage of one of the Online Schools that could possibly assist me with one of their online degree programs in graphic design. I don’t think that going back to the Standard  Classroom, from “years gone by” would be a good choice for me, but with a little bit of effort I believe that I would be able to handle an Online College program. But if I just blow it off, which I have a tendency to do with certain things, I will really be upset with myself for the waste of time and effort, not to mention the money involved for goodness sake.

VH1 has come out with an interesting show “Mob Wives” that I’ve been watching when I have the time. It is only up to Episode 4 right now, so it is just now really catching my full attention. This four woman that they are following around and filming are quite an entertaining group of some of the hard core mob members in the Stanton Island area in the beautiful state of N.Y. I love the accents and the phrases that come out of these women’s mouths, and the one they call Drita is one nice looking broad and she definitely rules the roost.

So there is something about this Reality Show that has drawn me into watching it and actually paying attention to it, which is always the case with many shows that end up on my nice 42″ Flat Screen TV. I wish that I had bought this particular TV years ago. What a difference!