christine-murphy dot net

Almost down to the wire…

The voting for my contest comes to a close at the end of this Wednesday…go and vote for your favorite!

Also, my other contest is still running, since I have yet to receive my refund from the evil TracFone. You can find it on my other blog, right here. This contest will go on until I get the refund, and the prize of two DVDs.

Now I’m thinking about a contest that I might run on yet another of my blogs, Six Great States. Since I write about traveling a lot on that blog, I’m thinking of finding a sponsor and offering a bed and breakfast gift certificate. I have a couple of places in mind that I could approach, so we shall see. This woulfdn’t be until sometime next year.

I have another contest in the works for my cats’ blog, and that one will be coming much sooner.  Stay tuned!

You know what I should be doing around now…

…getting ready to go to Las Vegas. But I’m not. I won a trip six months ago, and they never gave it to me. And there’s no way they can give it to me now…plans need to be made pretty far in advance for something like this. I mean, flights, rental cars, finding hotels in Las Vegas…they take time, and they fill up fast.

I’m very disappointed that I won’t be able to go…I just don’t have the money to pay for it myself at this time, though. Maybe I’ll get to see Vegas some other time, after I’ve saved up some money.

We’re going up to Maine next weekend, though…that will be fun. We’re going to the Maine Brewers’ Festival, which is always a great event. I’m glad I bought the tickets months ago, because I saw on their website that they are sold out now.

I also booked a hotel room well in advance. The place we stay at for this is only a couple of blocks away from the festival venue, so we can drink all we want and not worry about who’s gonna drive home. Since this is a VERY popular event, and people come from all over New England to attend, hotel rooms in the area fill up fast.

See…you DO have to book things for in advance, if you want in. Those Vegas trip people did not do this for me, even after I asked about it, and now I won’t be going. Needless to say, I am not happy with those people!

When will you realize…Vienna waits for you…

…that’s an old Billy Joel song. So what if he’s a Y***** fan, I still like his music!

I’ve been interested in visiting Vienna since the city was used as a backdrop in at least two old John Irving novels that I read years ago…”The World According To Garp” and “Setting Free The Bears”. “Garp” didn’t take place completely in Austria, just part of it. I also think that Vienna was a part of some of his other books, such as “The Hotel New Hampshire”. I need to reread those, I’m pretty sure I still have copies of these books around here someplace.

Anyway, it’s clear that Irving has spent a lot of time in Vienna, and I bet if you asked him, he could recommend the best Hotels in Vienna.
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Maybe I’d want to visit nearby Germany, as well. In Europe, it is very easy to get from one country to another via the train. Many of the Hotels in Berlin are probably not too far from the train. You can purchase a Eurail pass that will make traveling easier, and save you money.
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But back to Austria…did you know that there is actually a “The Sound of Music” tour? If you love this movie, you can ride a tour bus and see where it was actually filmed. And perhaps you’ll even be able to see it as a stage play at the Vienna Folk Opera.

Vienna is also where many famous composers lived, such as Mozart, Strauss, and more. So if you love classical music, there is no shortage of it there…go and see the Vienna Imperial Orchestra in concert. Also, Vienna is home to some of the world’s greatest wines…there are many winery tours and tastings that await you. But first things, first…do some research and look for Hotels in Vienna, unless you plan to camp out on the streets!
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Where Austria is more famous for wine, in Germany, it’s all about the beer. Did you know that Germany has a “beer purity” law? It’s true…in order to be called “beer” in Germany, a beverage can contain only water, barley, yeast, and hops. Nothing more, nothing less. This might make you think that all German beers taste the same, but this is not so. There are so many different kinds of hops and yeast, and even the same kind of barley can be roasted to create different flavors. When you see dark beers, in Germany or anywhere else, they are that way because the barley was roasted to a nice, chocolate/coffee color.

Of course, the most famous annual event is Oktoberfest. It’s too late to look for Hotels in Berlin, or any other part of Germany in time for this year’s fest…it’s probably over by now. But it’s certainly not too late to start planning for next year!

But you can enjoy fine German beers at any time of year, and maybe you’d prefer to go when it’s less crowded, anyway.  There’s always plenty to do there, great dining, museums, theatre, etc.

All of this talk about beer and Oktoberfest is making me thirsty…think I’ll call Mike at work and ask him to bring home some Sam Adams Octoberfest beer tonight.  And maybve, someday, we’ll get to see the real thing!

Review: Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter

As I posted here a few days ago, I made the decision to buy a Cricut machine. The regular one, not the newer, pricier “Expression” machine. I really don’t need anything that big, and I didn’t want to spend $400-500 on this thing.

The regular Cricut (pronounced “Cricket”, BTW) retails for around $300, which is still more than I wanted to pay. But when I saw it on sale at A.C. Moore for $129.99, I decided that it was a good time to get one.

I bought it this past Thursday night, and on Friday, it came out of the box so that I could play with it.

This machine is pretty much ready to use right out of the box. Unlike some other electronic die-cutters, the Cricut does not require a computer, so there is no software to install. So how does it know what shapes you want to cut out? Easy…there are collections of fonts and/or shapes, which come as cartridges, which you plug into the machine. Since each cartridge is different, they also come with a keyboard overlay which corresponds with that particular cartridge. Included as well with each cartridge is a detailed handbook.

The machine comes with one cartridge, “George & Basic Shapes”. “George” is a nice upper-case font, and ‘Basic Shapes” are just that…circles, squares, hearts, stars, flowers, etc.

Now here is where Cricut differs from non-electronic die-cutting systems such as Sizzix and Quickutz…with those systems, you are limited to the size of the dies. Not so with Cricut. You can set it so that you can cut shapes as small as one inch tall, and as large as five and a half inches, with half-inch increments in between. This range of sizes is enough for just about any scrapbooking/cardmaking needs.

Each cartridge also has “creative features” which enable you to cut out the letter/shape in different styles. These are all clearly spelled out on both the keyboar5d overlay for that cartridge, as well as the handbook. They vary from cartridge to cartridge.

The “George” cartridge is very basic, but it’s plenty to get you started right away. Other cartridges, sold separately, offer more options. After I bought the machine at A.C. Moore, I headed over to Michaels, which had them on sale for $49.90 each (they normally go for about $89.99). After looking over what they had, I selected one called Opposites Attract. This one give you a LOT of bang for the buck font-wise…it’s really THREE fonts in one cartridge. The main one is a long flowing script, which can also be cut as am upright script. They can also but cut within shapes, such as a circle or trapezoid.

BUT…one of the “creative features” is the option to cut bold, block letters…the “opposite” here. And once again, all letters can be cut in various sizes. I love this cartridge, and it was definitely a smart buy. It would have been worth paying ninety bucks for, given what Sizzix and Quickutz alphabet sets cost. But how sweet to get it for just $50?

Read the rest…

Someday…

…Mike and I will be moving to Maine…as soon as we can manage to get a decent mortgage. We’ve had some credit issues in the past (mostly due to his working for a crook who didn’t pay him his salary on a regular basis), but things are looking better now.

We’ve decided that we want to live in the Munjoy Hill section of Portland. That way, we can walk or take buses to a lot of things, including the Old Port and the Sea Dogs ballpark.

Mike could probably work from home most of the time, for his current employer. As for me, I haven’t worked full time in years, and I don’t know if I can do so anymore. Mike has excellent life insurance so that me and the cats will be taken care of should something happen to him. But when we buy our house, mortgage life insurance will be a must-have. This would pay off the house should Mike pass on. It’s not a pleasant thing to think about, but it’s always smart to be prepared, just in case.

I just want to move from this place so badly! It’s really turning into a slum. Last night, there were little kids outside, playing, at 11:30 PM. Only really skeevy parents would allow this…I bet they were hanging out at The Skeevy Corner Bar, while their kids were out running wild late at night. I was about to call the police, when the kids went away. I wish I’d called right away, and the kids were still out when the cops came. I would have liked for them to find out who the parents were, and have them get in trouble for letting their kids run around unsupervised late at night.

It’ll be another couple of years or so before we can move, and that day won’t come soon enough for me!