Month: September 2014

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Four Easy Steps for Evaluating a Bonus Offer

Bonus miles/points can trigger a Pavlovian response for me – dangle the possibility of earning more miles/points and I start salivating before I have even read the fine print. My heart races even when its not a program I normally care about. Take this email: I’ve been selected!  (I feel special.) DOUBLE POINTS!  (That’s twice…

Compared to This Your Last Seatmate Was Not Bad

No matter how bad your last flight was, chances are your last seatmate was not THIS horrible. A Modern Family editor, Ryan Case, live-Tweeted an account of one passenger’s in-flight antics late on Sunday. The 64 separate and progressively funnier (in a life-is-stranger-than-fiction kind of way) Tweets paint a vivid picture of the scene unfolding…

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Earplugs on the Nightstand – A Quick Poll

Interesting fact #1:  The last two hotels I have stayed in have had earplugs strategically placed on the nightstand when I checked in. Interesting fact #2:  I have ended up with disruptive noise from the room next door to me on my last two hotel stays. Coincidence?  Or correlation? In the case of the first…

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Hotel Reviews – Sheraton Sonoma County Petaluma

For me, some hotels will always be places where I primarily sleep, no matter the purpose of my trip. Doing hotel reviews for properties like this becomes a bit skewed when no matter what the purpose of my trip, I see the same things on the property each time. The Sheraton Sonoma County Petaluma, in…

Saturday Night Shopping – Things I Want (but Don’t Need) Addition

Me, champagne, Saturday night shopping?  What could possibly be wrong with that picture? Nothing… except my ability to find plenty of things I want (but don’t really need). Like this t-shirt from Anthropologie…. $48 for a t-shirt is a bit steep in my book (even if it does earn me 4 miles per dollar with…

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Birchbox OR Ipsy – September 2014

It’s time for another Birchbox OR Ipsy square off. Both services offer a monthly $10 membership where subscribers receive a selection of beauty product samples that is customized (somewhat) based on personal preferences.  Birchbox comes in its namesake box while Ipsy’s Glam Bag is a limited edition cosmetic bag each month. Each month, I review “the box” versus…

Trip Report – Napa Road Trip – Throwback Thursday

It’s Throwback Thursday and time for another retro trip report.  This one takes us back to early August  2008. That was a big change year for me… I was eight months into owning the house I had at this point dubbed “the money pit”.  My (then) business partner had a 9-month old little girl at home and we…