Cats And Coupons

Well, since my son was in the er last night for hives and an acute allergic reaction, and the spots are out again, I will be cleaning, and hopefully not returning to the er. My husband went to work again, and I have my older son spending a good portion of the day with my parents, where he slept last night. My son will be on the couch all day, with exclusive use of the 56″ television. I have the Noggin channel on now, but I’m sure in no time at all he’ll walk over to the stereo cabinet where we keep his dvds and ask me to get a movie for him. I’ll bet the first movie he wants is Thomas The Train.

More recalls for dangerous levels of lead in the news.
If you’ve already started shopping check any toys you bought.

Curious George plush dolls, by Marvel Toys of NY, are being recalled for excess lead in the surface paint. The toys came in five different models and sold from Dec. 2005 through August 2007.

Almost half a million toys made in China have been recalled for dangerous levels of lead. The toys include Pull Back Action Toy Cars, Dragster and Funny Car toys, Duck Family Collectable Wind Up Toy, Dizzy Ducks Music Box, “Robot 2000″ collectible tin robot, Winnie-the-Pooh Spinning Top and “Big Red” Wagons.

Toys R Us recalled Elite Operations Command Patrol Center, Elite Operations Barracuda Helicopter, Elite Operations Super Rigs set and a three-pack of 8-inch figures, all sold at Toys R Us between July and October. Return them to any Toys “R” Us store for a full refund or store credit. All were recalled for lead contamination.

Mattel recalled 38,000 orange and yellow Go Diego Go! Animal Rescue Boats for excessive lead levels.

I’m not into online gambling. I’m actually not into gambling at all. But many people are really into it. If you’re one of the people that like online poker or any type of online gambling, you should check out the Pro 360 website. Pro 360 has been reviewing online casinos since 1997. Some of the factors they consider when reviewing are game experience, bonuses and trust score. The site is attractive and easy to navigate. In a sidebar on every page you can navigate by casino ratings. At the top of every page you can navigate by type of game. Each game is represented by a small image as well as its name. Click it and you are brought to a page which tells you a little about the game and then lists a chart of review summaries. The review summary chart immediately tells the visitor the name of the casino, the casino’s rank, is US players are permitted, maximum bonus, certificates, editor ratings, player ratings, and a link to the full review. The full reviews describe the casino, list the review scores, give contact details and show available bonuses. The site also offers a Tips section as well as a guide to online gambling designed for beginners. When you visit the site, if you decide to gamble at any of the casinos, good luck!

Two Christmases ago my dear friend gave me an ipod mini. I didn’t use it much right off, because I couldn’t use it where I worked. But when I started at my current job one year ago I found myself in a position to be able to use my ipod daily. A while back the battery started not holding a charge. It wouldn’t make it through an eight hour day. My solution was to get a clock radio with built in ipod charger. My logic was that I could charge the ipod when it needed it and I’d have a way to listen to local news and weather if I needed it. Well now even charging it doesn’t seem to help. Sometimes it won’t stay on an hour. I bought another battery for it on ebay, and am debating asking my father to try and replace the battery. It’ll be great if it works, but if it breaks during the switch I’ll be out an ipod. Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do about it?

Here’s a bunch of magazines that offer free subscriptions.

Kraft Food & Family
Nestle Everyday Eating
American Baby Magazine
Babytalk Magazine
Focus on the Family Magazine
Animal Times Magazine

Make a reservation for McCormick & Schmicks online through 09/30/07 and get a free $25 gift certificate

eCOST.com offers the Pharos Drive 135 GPS Navigation System, model no. PDR135, for $175 with a $40 mail-in rebate lowering it to $135. Deal ends October 12.

The Nintendo Wii play bundle is $349.95 at Gamestop and includes the following items:
Nintendo Wii system (system, remote controller, nunchuck, stand, sensor and Wii Sports)
Wii Memory SD 1.0GB
1 additional Wii Nunchuck Controller
Wii Play with Remote

From RealArcade.
Click to download the game Splash from RealArcade for free. Limited time offer.
I did download this. I didn’t like it much, but you might.

From Gamehouse.
Click to download the game Safari Island from Gamehouse for free.
(The checkout page used coupon code FSIEA. It required no credit card info.)
I did download this and I like it. It’s like Shanghai but better.

My youngest son loves Thomas the Train (and all the other trains too). I found some really good deals at the HIT Entertainment website. They had many things on clearance, as well as a lot on sale. They carry all the other popular characters as well, including Bob the Builder and Barney and others. The site was easy to navigate, with categories both my character and type of product. Placing an order online was easy and the order was delivered within a week via ground shipping. The shirt I originally ordered in size 6 ran out of stock after placing my order but before fulfilling it. I got an email confirmation of the order and noticed there was no shirt. I called, they were manually sending out emails about the item. The rep on the phone sent out the same shirt in the next size right away, and didn’t even suggest I’d need to pay shipping like some places would for a second box going out. I’ll definitely shop there again.
My son is wearing his new Thomas shirt to school today. He was so excited when he saw it this morning. He ran in and woke up his father to show him all the trains and tried to say their names.

My favorite book store. I buy most of my books from them online. I don’t get exactly why a bookstore wants people to come in and read in the store. Doesn’t that discourage the buying of the books? Let me know what you think.
Use coupon H7C8K4K for 10% off one item thru 09/23/07.
Happy reading!