Finding The Perfect TV Stand

I went to Nebraska Furniture Mart the other day and looked at some of their TV stands. Most of them seemed pretty overpriced compared to the prices you can find them for online, even after paying shipping charges. I’m trying to find a new TV stand for our living room, but I’m having a hard time deciding which one to buy. I’d like to find one that matches our furniture if possible, but I really like the looks of a few of them that don’t match. Oh well. The search continues.

Phillips DVP-5990 and Western Digital WDTV HD

About 6 months ago a friend of mine purchased a new Samsung HDTV. He got it for a pretty good price and I’m pretty impressed with the picture quality. We don’t really watch BluRay movies on it, but his Phillips DVD player (model DVP-5990) with 1080p upconversion via HDMI cable and USB video playback looks very nice on it. We compared playing DVDs with the standard RCA cables and the HDMI cables and there is a very noticeable difference when watching a movie with upconversion. I didn’t really think it would really play movies back much clearer with the HDMI cable, but I love it. I would definitely recommend the Phillips DVP-5990 to anyone who is looking for a great DVD player that has 1080p upconversion and also plays DivX/XviD video formats. We hooked up a few different USB devices, such as a standard USB flash drive, an external Western Digital 1TB MyBook, a 16gb SDHC card with a USB card reader, and a 500gb Western Digital Passport drive, and everything played flawlessly. The only thing you have to do is be sure your USB device is formatted to FAT32 instead of NTFS file system. Videos also loaded quite a bit faster from USB, compared to load times from CD and DVD media. I own the same Phillips DVD player. You can even download custom firmware to load on the Phillips DVP-5990 to change how the menus look, add your own splash screen while the player is loading and add more functionality to the player, such as skipping to a specific time while watching DivX videos. The Phillips DVP-5992 is the same DVD player, but it is silver instead of black.

Another video player I would recommend is the Western Digital WDTV Live HD player with network support. You can find it for about $99 and it plays nearly every video format you can think of. It even plays HD .mkv x264 videos, which I have been using for my home videos, to save space and video quality.

Vacationing in North Carolina

I’m thinking North Carolina for our next family vacation and particularly staying at one of the Outer Banks beach rentals. This place is truly a home away from home and it is one of those places that would always stand out in your mind. My wife and I spent our honeymoon there and have been going back for our anniversary each year. The homes here can really give you a homely feel and not to mention the pool and hot tub are just a few great amenities that they offer to keep you intrigued while you visit.

Area Rugs

I love my wooden floors but I just couldn’t resist the area rug that I saw at the department store over the weekend. This rug had some great patterns which go along well with my current living room color scheme. I probably paid around $50 for the rug and it is stain and fade resistant which means less work for me. The area rug comes with a matching mat which I’m also thinking about getting by next payday.

I Prefer Desktop Computers

While everyone is raving over laptops, I’ll prefer desktop computers any day. Yeah laptops are convenient for those on the move but desktop computers are more durable and not to mention it is less costly than a laptop computer. Desktop computers are also cheaper to repair and not to mention you can keep replacing your keyboard if and when it goes bad. I’ve switched to desktop from my laptop and very happy about this move.

Taking a Vacation to Orlando

It isn’t easy living in New England with the horrible winters that you can experience here among other things. That’s why I’m making the most of the winter with an Orlando vacation. Orlando vacations are filled with so fun for every member of the family. Disney World is a fun place to be with entertainment for everyone. There are also a few great beaches around and restaurants serving good food. Orlando is really the place to be. Here we come!

Buying Diamonds

One of the reasons I hate going shopping with my fiancé is that she always encourages me to spend extra money that I just don’t have. I mean who would have thought that a casual visit to the department store in search of pillows and scented candles could have resulted in me racking up my credit card buying her diamonds. It amazes me how good she has gotten at this game. There was actually a time in our relationship when she was too shy to approach me for things that she wanted. I think that day leaving the store the gleam on her face was brighter than that diamond.

Horse Supplies

One of my high school buddies invited me to his ranch to see and take a ride on his horses. I get to see him tend to them while I was there and boy does he have his work cut out for him. He had all of those horse supplies laying around for grooming and cleaning and I even helped him spray the horses down with a special shampoo that keeps mites and fungus away. Those horses were dirty and I was really impressed with the shampoo especially since we didn’t have to scrub the dirt away, they practically fell off with just a rinse.

Losing Weight Before The New Year

Appetite suppressants really seem to be popular these days. A few of the women that I work with and one of them men started taking an appetite suppressant called Anoretix a few months ago, all at the same time. They are trying to see who can lose the most weight before the end of the year. So far Caroline seems to be losing the most weight. She lost 27 pounds in the first month and has lost about 13 pounds a month after that. That seems pretty incredible. I wouldn’t mind losing about 15 pounds. I might have to give it a try.

Wholesale Liquidation

People who own there own business often buy the products for their business through wholesale liquidators. It is much cheaper to purchase their supplies through these companies rather than through regular retail companies. They can buy bulk or single items much cheaper there. Wholesale liquidators usually have large amounts of inventory that they can afford to sell it at wholesale prices and there are no defects in most of the products. Sometimes, you can buy clothing from these wholesale liquidators and the clothing might have a very small defect that you don’t even notice and save lots of money by buying from them. If you want to buy single items or bulk amounts, it is a very smart idea to buy from wholesale liquidators and be able to save lots of money.