Shop For Car Parts Online!

Kevin has this old beaten up yellow Volkswagen Super Beetle '71 that he used to drive around back in the day. He stopped driving that when he went to IUP for college and just left it at his parent's place. A few years ago, he decided to restore it and tried to fix it up. We had such a hard time trying to source for all the various parts. We had to go to many different locations just to look for parts. Too bad we didn't know about CarPartsWarehouse.com back then! It's a one stop shop for all kinds of car parts. It's a place where you can shop with confidence, knowing that you will get good quality goods for your money. They pride themselves to be at the top of their industry in terms of quality, availability, and customer satisfaction. All you need to do is go to their website, enter in the year and make of your car and you can search for the parts that you need. If the part is not available in their catalog, they can assist you in getting it. Not only do they have fast delivery (parts listed in the catalog are in stock and will ship same or next business day) but they offer free shipping for orders above $50! Head over to CarPartsWarehouse.com today!

Saturday Afternoon in Times Square

We decided to head out to the city today to check out the all new pedestrian mall in the Times Square as well as the Herald Square area. We don't usually like to go to Times Square (unless we have visitors) because there are just too many tourist and the sidewalks are just jammed packed with people. You can't really enjoy the full offerings of Times Square because you will be too busy trying to push your way through the sea of people. I think the city of NY also know of this problem. Therefore, in an effort to reduce traffic and pollution, the city decided to try out an experiment. Starting last week, they have closed down sections of Broadway to traffic and make it into a pedestrian mall. The plan is to try this out for 6 months and if it works, it will be permanent.

We took the PATH down to 33rd St and walked over towards Macys in Herald Square. Check it out, I'm standing in the middle of the road that would normally be filled with traffic! They have closed down 33rd to 35th St and laid out chairs and tables for the public to just chill. In a way it's a good idea, but I don't know. It looked kinda silly too. Traffic was being diverted to the other streets while people just sat around, doing nothing. Isn't that what Central Park and all the other parks around the city are for?

We walked down Broadway to towards Times Square and they started to block off traffic starting from 42nd St. That's where the famous Times Square ball would drop every New Years Eve. People were just hanging out and relaxing on the green lawn chairs! It's quite funny to see Times Square without traffic (well, not counting the time when I went for the New Years Eve countdown).

We walked further down Broadway and now there were blue lawn chairs! It looks like a huge beach party, minus the sea and sand :P

Every time we go to Times Square, I would take a picture in front of that...haha! Don't ask me why. The difference today is....I get to take the picture from the middle of the street! I cannot believe I am standing in the middle of Broadway, minus all the yellow taxi cabs and traffic.

We decided to take a break and look for somewhere to go to for dinner. I wanted to check out Bubba Gump, so we went in. It was sooooooooo crowded and the hostess said that we had to wait for about 45 minutes to get a table. Forget that! So we continued walking in search of another place to eat(we ended up in Charley O's at the theater district, will blog about that later). Oh and if you are wondering why it's only me appearing in all the photos today, it's because Kevin says that he has been appearing in the blog too many times and there is not enough photos of me in here. Soooo, its all me today :P

As we continued walking up Broadway, the chairs got even more comfortable. Now there are deck chairs all over the place near the TKTS booths. For those of you who don't know, you can get last minute Broadway show tickets here for 50%! You should definitely check them out whenever you are in NYC.

After walking a little bit further up, this is what we see. Now the chairs are just plain absurd! Look at all various designs and shapes that they are in! I think it looks weird, but weird in a good way. Pretty cool actually.

This was towards the end of Times Square. I have never seen so many people (excluding the NYE countdown of course) in Times Square before. No traffic, just a sea of people.

There were all kinds of people from all walks of life down at times Square today. Also, all the Times Square 'celebrities' were out in full force. We saw the Birdman, Superman, the Naked Cowboy, some cartoon characters and even four Statues of Liberty! We also noticed that there were a lot of police standing around at every corner. At the time, I thought that the NYPD was stationed there for crowd control. They must have a lot of manpower to station so many officers just for this pedestrian mall. Little did I know at that time that there were two (well, three) very important people visiting the area around the same time as us.

Nahhhh, not those two! :P Yeah, they were in Times Square too but they were not the important people I was talking about. President Barack Obama and his wife were actually just a few blocks away from us. Not on official business but it was 'date night' for them. They flew in to have dinner at the West Village and then headed to Broadway for a show at the theater district. No wonder there were so many cops! Guess who was the other? Prince Harry! Yup, Prince Harry was in town for a polo match earlier in the day and he was going about visiting tourist attractions like 30 Rock and other places in the city around that time too. No wonder security was super tight that afternoon/evening! No, we didn't get to see the Obamas or Prince Harry. We didn't even know that they were somewhere near us until we got home and watched the 11 o clock news!

We had a great time in the city today though we didn't get to see the President or Prince. We had loads of fun shopping, people watching and also had a super yummy dinner. Sooo, what do I think of the new pedestrian malls? Keep the one in Times Square and scrape the one in Herald Square! The Herald Square pedestrian mall is just plain silly. There were not as many people hanging out at the one in Herald Square anyways. I think that they are both too close to each other. One is enough. :D

All You Need To Know About Web Hosting

I've had this blog for more than half a year now. I've been thinking of getting my own domain and even started searching the Internet for web hosting providers. The only problem is, there are just so many to choose from! I'm not a tech whiz or somebody who is really knowledgeable about things like that. I'm pretty sure many of you are currently having the same problem as me. Fortunately, I came to know about WebHostingGeeks.com. It's an awesome website that has everything you need to know about web hosting and more.

It's jam packed with loads of information about web hosting. For example, there is a section about web hosting ratings. You can read up on all the independent reviews of the best web hosting providers. There are stuff like the Top 10 Best Web Host, Multiple Domain Hosting, Green Web Hosting, Free Domain Names, Free Yahoo Marketing and Free Google AdWords in that section about web hosting ratings. There is also a Web Hosting Awards section where you can check out things like Best Budget Hosting, Best Forum Hosting, Best Email Hosting, Best Ecommerce Hosting and a whole lot more. I find the Best Blog Hosting section really interesting and it helped me get an insight about who I should choose to host my blog. There are also tons of web hosting reviews to read, both from Webmasters as well as regular customers. I find the Web Hosting Geek's Blog very interesting and learnt a lot from it. I started reading the Web Hosting 101 section and I was instantly hooked.

So, if you want to know more about web hosting or if you are looking for a new web hosting service, head over to WebHostingGeeks.com. It's a one stop shop for all your web hosting needs!

Indoor Herb Garden Update!

I think it was early April when Kevin and I decided to grow our own indoor herb garden. It's been almost two months now and the herbs are doing pretty well, some better than others. For those of you who forgot, we planted four small pots of Rosemary, Oregano, Basil and Parsley seeds. Here are some photos taken at various stages of the herbs growth. Like I said, some are growing better and faster than others but I am pretty certain the rest will catch up soon.

The slowest growing herb is the rosemary. We were kinda worried that it would not even grow. I think it took over 3 weeks before we could even see little seedlings sprouting out from the soil. It now looks healthy and seems to be growing alright (still a little bit slow) but I think it will be a while more before we can actually make rosemary lamb chops with that :P I wonder how long more we have to wait.

The oregano started off slow too. The seeds were so tiny, it was hard to even imagine it growing up to be a plant..haha! It started to sprout out tiny tiny seedlings at about week two and didn't really grow much. We had to water them with a spray bottle because the plants were so tiny and weak. About two weeks ago, the oregano just started to took off. I don't know what happened, but it grew and grew. I guess they were tired of being tiny and small :P The leaves are pretty big now but it's still not ready to be harvested. Just a little bit more :D

The parsley was pretty easy to grow. Tall and skinny seedlings sprouted out within the second week of planting. There were so many seedlings that it started to choke each other. Kevin had to actually pull out quite a number of seedlings in order for it to grow better. They grew tall but remained skinny. We had to prune them pretty often. In the recent days, the stems started to look stronger and it doesn't flop around anymore! Kevin started plucking some of the parsley a week or so ago to munch on every so often. He said he tasted good.

The easiest herb to grow among the four is the basil. Seedlings came out within the first week of planting. It just grew well and fast. Our basil plant is now fully matured and we have been harvesting it to cook with since last week. In fact, I used some of it when I made the Rotini with Ricotta and Bacon last week. I just love the smell of fresh basil, its great! I'm pretty happy with the progress of our indoor herb garden. It's just nice to have some fresh herbs growing in the kitchen. We were so encouraged with the progress of those 4 herbs until we went out to get some mint seeds to grow too! I just can't wait for the mint to grow. When it does, I will make myself a nice tall glass of Mojito to celebrate!!

Win a Manta "Front Of The Line" Pass!

There is a fast, trilling and exciting attraction opening in SeaWorld, Orlando this summer. Check out their newest ride, the Manta!! Find out what it's like to glide, spin, skim and fly like a giant ray when you ride the only flying roller coaster of its kind in the world. It's a seamless blend of up close animal encounters with a head-first, face-down thrill ride. How cool is that? To celebrate this opening, SeaWorld is running an awesome contest where you could win a "Front-of-the-line" pass to Manta at SeaWorld, Orlando.

How do you win "Front-of-the-line" passes? Just head over to http://www.ridemanta.com/ and check out the "Participate and Win" section. There are six activities for you to complete. There is the Manta Quiz, where you have to give 5 correct answers to about Manta. You can find hints throughout the Manta website and by following @RealShamu on Twitter. Next activity is for you to submit a photo of yourself displaying "I Heart Manta" to Flickr. The third activity is to spread the word about Manta by participating in "Fill Your Row" followed by the fourth, which is making a video of yourself showing how excited you are about Manta and uploading the video onto YouTube. Next, make a Manta Mask, take a photo of you wearing it and upload it onto Flickr. The last activity is to follow @RealShamu on Twitter and "tweet" Shamu on why you're excited to ride the Manta!

Once you have done them all, you are set! Yes, it's THAT easy!! Head over to the Manta website to win your "Front Of The Line" pass today!!

Country Chicken, Mash & Biscuits Bake

We were walking around Walmart the other day when we came across this. Banquet's Homestyle Bakes. It's a one stop dinner kit that requires only 5 minutes of prep time!

What's even better? It cost only $3.00 for the whole kit! Kevin said that he will make dinner for us that night and chose the Country Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Biscuits flavor.

This is what's in the box. One packet of biscuit mix, one packet of mashed potatoes mix and a can of creamy gravy with white meat chicken. Here is Kevin showing you how easy it is to make this homestyle bake!

Firstly, pour in the mashed potato flakes into a 8x8 baking dish.

Add in 1 and a half cups of hot water.

Mix it all up until it is well blended and spread it evenly with a spoon.

Pour in the can of creamy gravy with white meat chicken over the potatoes.

In a separate mixing bowl, add in the biscuit mix and 1/2 cup of water.

Mix it together until it forms into biscuit dough.

Drop 9 spoonfuls of biscuit dough onto the gravy. Please excuse the uneven size and shape of the dough balls. Kevin says that it doesn't have to look nice, it only needs to taste good (what a typical guy :P)

Pop it in a 400F oven for 30-35 minutes.

Once it's done, allow it to stand for about 5 minutes before serving.

Here we go. Instant (well, almost instant) Country Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Biscuits Bake. Didn't Kevin do a good job in making dinner? It tasted really good too! We each had a large portion for dinner and there was even enough leftovers for lunch the next day! All that for $3! Definitely a great deal :D

Summer fun and festivities in Branson!

Memorial Day was just a few days ago and summer is officially here at last! It's time to kick off your shoes, relax and take that long awaited vacation. Choosing the right destination for that much deserved summer vacation can be pretty daunting at times, with so many destination choices to choose from. Let me give you a heads up. Branson, Missouri is the place to be for a summer of fun and festivities!

There is just so much to do in Branson. Affectionately referred to as the "Live Music Show Capital of the World," Branson boasts over 49 theatres and features over 80 shows. Unknown to many people, Branson has more seats than New York City's Broadway! If that's not your cup of tea, head to the new Branson Landing retail and entertainment district situated on Lake Taneycomo for a fun day of shopping and entertainment. There are many fun things to do for families too. Spend a day at the Silver Dollar City theme park or explore the Titanic Museum. There is just loads of fun for everyone!

If you are looking for a great play to stay, check out the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel. Situated within the electrifying entertainment capital of the Midwest in Branson, Missouri, the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel offer guests access to shops, boutiques, restaurants, a river walk and other attractions. The new Payne Stewart Golf Club, managed by Hilton, is also close by and features hole after hole of breathtaking scenery. They have a few great packages available this summer for you to check out. Among the exciting packages are the Hilton Visa Summer Savings, Hilton Bed & Breakfast, Golf Package, Third Night On Us and my personal favorite, the Romance Package.

Branson has ongoing events for everyone’s entertainment this summer. Events like the exciting Father’s Day Salute, National Kid’s Fest at Silver Dollar City, the 10th Annual Clown Jam, live entertainment, theaters and much more. Both hotels are within easy driving distance of Branson’s championship golf courses, lakes, museums, theme parks and 49 live entertainment theaters. With so much to offer, this exciting vacation community is perfect for everyone! Hurry on to check out the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing or the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel and book your stay today!

Driving Record from DMV

As many of you may know, we won a 4 days 3 nights fully paid vacation to the Marlboro Ranch in Montana sometime early this month. We received our Pre-Trip Documents early last week with a whole bunch of documents to sign and also for us to bring to the public notary to be notarized. We were given 7 days (well, 4 days actually, by the time it got to us) to complete all that and send it back to them. We managed to do all that and sent it back to them via FedEx within 24 hours. They received the envelope the very next day.

I was surprised to get a knock on my door the following day and I received another envelope from D.L. Blair Inc (the Independent Judging Organization for the Marlboro Sweepstakes). In it was a letter as well as a check for $5.00.

The letter states that since Kevin's driver license was issued in the state of Pennsylvania, we would need to obtain a copy of his driving records from the PA DMV ourselves to enable him to participate in some of the activities at the ranch. It seems Pennsylvania doesn't release driving records to anybody except to the person it belongs to. We had 14 days to do so. Since Kevin intends to take part in activities like off roading on a Hummer and stuff like that, we had to go obtain the records ourselves.

It wasn't really that difficult actually. We just had to go online to the Pennsylvania DMV and request for his records. Just fill in his ID #, D.O.B as well as the last 4 digits of his SSN and pay $5.00. We could then print out the records immediately. After that, we just faxed it over to D.L. Blair and we were set to go! I called D.L. Blair about half an hour later and they confirmed that they received the fax and all documents are in order. Now we have to wait between 4-6 weeks (for the background check) to get our travel dates and tickets. I was pretty impressed that Marlboro even sent a check for such a small amount as $5. I guess when they say fully paid trip, they mean fully paid trip! Hahaha. We are sooo excited and can't wait to go. Will keep all of you updated about the progress of this trip, whenever we have any update!

* Click here to be directed back to the Crazy Mountain Ranch Homepage. You can check out other ranch related posts as well as look at photos from the ranch during our Summer 2009 trip!

Google Android Phone Services

Was there ever a time when you wanted to upload a particular new song that you like into your mobile phone only to find out that there is no more space? What about running out of storage space on your phone memory card when you wanted to upload that photo you took at the beach as your wallpaper? Well, it has happened to me many many times before, it's just so frustrating! The good news is that there is now Google Android Phone Services!

What's Google Android Services, you might ask. Well, it's a soon to be launched set of main applications and a service which will allow you to store your music, videos, movies, photos and files on the web. Not only that, they will also make them all available to your G1 or Android compatible phone. This way, one can access all their files as if they are stored on the phone memory card without having to use the phone's actual memory card!! This allows Google Android phone users to reserve their phone storage for programs and applications and not multimedia and files. How cool is that?? Android Storage provides a "virtual" and unlimited memory space for all Android phones and appliances and streams the content seamlessly to and from the phone. It's as if you have memory available locally, yet accessed remotely.

At this moment, there are four different apps available. They are the AStunes™, AScinema™, ASpics™ and ASdisk™. If I had an Android phone, I would definitely be a fan of the AStunes™ app. It's an application which makes my entire music collection mobile. This means that it can make ALL my music available for playing without the need to store it on my phone! It also has a continuous play feature which keeps the music going and a shuffle feature that mixes up my tunes. Not only that, it has a "Refresh" feature that syncs my phone to the latest MP3 list in my Android Storage account!

All this and more will be coming out real soon in the market and 350 million users are expected to use the Android phone platform here in the US as well as the UK. Their services and applications will also be available to 300 million Chinese at http://AndroidStorage.cn.

Hot Sausage & Chicken Casserole

Remember when I blogged about ordering in some Colombian BBQ last week? Well, it took us a few days to actually finish up all that meat and guess what? We were still left with almost half a tray of yellow rice. So, I decided to make a casserole with some hot sausages, chicken and the leftover rice.

First, saute one large yellow onion with some butter.

Then add in some sliced hot sausages. I used about 3 whole sausages.

Next goes in the chicken. I deboned 2 chicken thighs, chopped it up into small pieces and marinated it with some soy sauce and black pepper for about an hour before cooking.

Once the meat are all nicely browned, add in a can of diced tomatoes. Remember to drain the tomatoes well. Mix the diced tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients and allow it to simmer.

Add in a can of cream of chicken soup.

Stir it in with the other ingredients. Allow it to cook until it goes to a boil.

Turn down the heat and add in the leftover yellow rice.

Mix the yellow rice with the other ingredients.

Transfer the yellow rice mixture from the pan to a baking dish (spray on some non stick cooking oil onto the dish before transferring the rice).

Sprinkle some shredded cheese over the rice.

Top it up with some Italian breadcrumbs.

Cover the baking dish with aluminium foil and pop it in a 350F oven for about 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Once it's done, allow it to stand for about 5 minutes before serving! I just love how this dish comes together. It's a little bit spicy (from the hot sausages), yet creamy and has a little tangy taste from the tomatoes. It's one of my personal favorites!

Mesothelioma - Linked to Asbestos Exposure

Cancer awareness and cancer research has always been a cause very close to my heart. My grandmother passed away due to cancer about 10 years ago. Since then, I have been keeping myself abreast with the latest news and developments of this terrible and potentially deadly disease. I recently found out about the risk of cancer being associated with Asbestos exposure. Exposure to Asbestos is being linked to a very dangerous form of cancer called Mesothelioma.

What exactly is Mesothelioma? Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops in the mesothelium, a protective membrane that surrounds many internal organs. There are three main types of mesothelioma: pleural mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lungs; peritoneal mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the abdominal cavity; and pericardial mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the heart. The most common type of mesothelioma is the one that effects the lungs.

How does one get mesothelioma? Well, in approximately 80% of cases, mesothelioma develops as a result of prolonged exposure to asbestos. It is the result of inhaling or ingesting asbestos fibers. The fibers become trapped in the mesothelium, thus causing damage to it and it creates a condition that can contribute to the growth of cancerous cells. Mesothelioma is most common among workers in the shipbuilding industry, construction, auto mechanics, contractors, and demolition. Not only does it effect the workers, it also effects the family too.

People who are diagnosed with mesothelioma are often entitled to compensation and working with an aggressive and experienced Mesothelioma Lawyer can make a big difference. Why are people diagnosed with mesothelioma entitled to compensations? Like many other dangerous products, the manufacturers of asbestos knew about its dangers before they revealed it to the public. As a result, thousands of people were needlessly exposed to this dangerous substance. Therefore, I would think that it's the manufacturers responsibility to compensate the victims of mesothelioma. However, many manufacturers of asbestos have gone bankrupt over the years. That is why only an experienced lawyer can help victims receive compensations. If you are a victim or know of someone that has mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure, do not suffer in silence. Please contact an experienced Mesothelioma Lawyer for an immediate and confidential review of your case. Remember, you have rights. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.

Happy Memorial Day!

Wishing all of you a

safe & happy Memorial Day!

(take out your sunnies and white shoes, summer is here!!)