I’ve been using the Grocery Game now for over a year now and am really glad that I tried them out and stuck with it. The Frenzel Family has full pantries as well as full freezers. What does this all mean?
It means that the Frenzel Family doesn’t have to go buy groceries (except for milk and fresh fruits / vegetables) for a long time if we didn’t want to. It allows the Frenzel Family to be selective when we do purchase items to those items that are on a really good sale and not buying things because we need them. Extras we can also share with the local foodbank so we can share the wealth. Through the Grocery Game we can also help our oldest, Heather, be ready for her time interning in Florida where she gets to cook.
To really help understand how little we need to buy now, this week using the Grocery Game the Frenzel Family only spent $25.00 for over $75 worth of groceries. What a nice feeling to see the budget for food go down over time while not feeling hungry!
Tags: freezer, Grocery Game, money saving, pantry, Wendy Frenzel
Yesterday Jeff was coming home from the post office and told me that I needed to go down to the corner and look at the kits. Every year a fox has her den in the same spot in town. Great vacant lot where we can enjoy watching the little ones “romp.” This year, besides the normal red kits, there is a black kit as well.
So today, as I came home from appointments, I decided to take the long way home and the kits were outside the den playing. Since Kat had seen the babies yet, I called home to have her meet me outside. I picked her up and drove her to the corner to see them. And yes, they were still outside the den playing.
It did seem that the black kit was more adventuresome as he / she was further from the den then the others. One of the red kits kept dodging back down into the den while the other two were playing outside the den’s mouth. I was able to stop and get a few pictures of them playing which I posted on my twitter account. To see the pictures, visit http://twitpic.com/4mp5v and http://twitpic.com/4mp1o for the pictures. Enjoy!
I am finding that more and more entities are now using Twitter. There are towns, businesses, news, sports teams, individuals, and more on Twitter.
With Twitter, if I’m following a specific business, I can find out about new products. With towns that are Tweeting, I can be updated on snow removal updates or other town happenings. With a sports teams I can be kept updated on what is going on with the team. Different news groups will provide updates on news items and then I can choose what to read more about. Because of the way Twitter works, it only takes a few seconds to have a brief knowledge of an item. That’s why Jeff signed up for Twitter recently – it’s to follow those few items he’s interested in and not necessarily to tell people what he is doing.
That’s the other great thing with Twitter. It’s a fast blog. I know when I was appraising for Destination Imagination, I was able to post quick items about what I was seeing. I could snap a picture and share a cute costume. All of this from my phone and without having to log into a computer and typing out something long. Short, sweet, simple sent by me, Wendy Frenzel, to be read by someone else in a short, sweet, simple format.
This goes along with something that I learned in a teleseminar on Friday, April 24th given by Tim Wackel entitled “You Had Me at Hello.” People are doing more in less time. With that, you need to deliver clear concise messages as much as possible. Twitter is a good place to start and then you can “extend” it through your blog or other means.
Twitter has many other uses as well. Ellen has used it to let a group of her Australian Fans know that she was going to be calling them shortly. She did, they answered, and they are headed to California. Again, just another use for Twitter.
So, who are you following on Twitter? Why are you following them? What did you learn first through Twitter?
Tags: Twitter, Wendy Frenzel
The Frenzel family just received their Good NUz, the Nebraska Alumni Association magazine. Jeff and I both attended UNL and now Heather is a student there. Of course, Kat plans on going when she gets old enough. Jeff, Heather, and myself are all members of the Nebraska Alumni Association.
The Alumni Association will be sponsoring an art contest for children of alumni and friends that are in 5th grade and younger. This contest will have two categories – in celebration of the 300th consecutive sellout for Husker football or a favorite University of Nebraska Lincoln location or non-athletic event. Young artists can enter a separate entry into each of the categories.
For more information, visit the Nebraska Alumni web site for this contest at http://www.huskeralum.org/programs/homecoming/artcontest.htm
Kat is looking forward to creating an art project for this contest. I think she is most excited about it hanging at the University for everyone to see. The only thing is that Heather won’t be at the University this fall to search out Kat’s picture and send us a snapshot as she’ll be in Florida at her internship.
Tags: Alumni, Jeff, Nebraska, UNL, Wendy Frenzel
Because of the weather that was forecasted, we packed a bag and stayed downtown on the 17th to ensure I could pick Heather up at the train station and get us both to the Colorado State Destination Imagination (DI) tournament. Thank goodness I made that choice as the weather in Downtown Denver was mostly rainy while at home it was snowy.
Heather’s train made it in early though it backed into the station which took longer than Heather wanted, even though she was still early by about 20 minutes. She got off the train running to the car, conductors asked her to slow down as they didn’t want her to fall, so we could dash the short distance to the Auroria Campus for the DI Tournament. She made it in time so she could appraise (her favorite thing to do).
Heather’s section started appraising at 7:15 and appraised until 5:30 with a little break for lunch and very short breaks to get drinks. Some of these breaks they used to “catch up” by allowing the teams that came in late because of the weather to perform. She saw some really great teams where it was going to come down to the Instant Challenge to determine who was going to Globals in Knoxville. Because of Heather’s mad dash back to the train with food first (followed by work when she got back into Lincoln), she didn’t have the opportunity to go to the great party afterward where the team places would be announced. One of the team managers Heather and I have known for a long time (one of her teams went to Globals the year we did) was going to text Heather with the results.
I tried appraising for something different. This was the first year it was really done at the High School and State level – DI Extreme. I do wish this was an option back when Heather and Karen had competed. It is a big Instant Challenge. Teams really need to read and reread their challenge during the “Tinker Tank” time so they can understand what the challenge is really about. We saw many solutions but only one team had a solution that met the challenge criteria. It was a great opportunity to work with the High Schoolers after working with the Rising Stars. I think I’m going to volunteer for this level when I’m not working with the Rising Stars.
Overall it was a great day and I think fun was had by most. I know I appreciated how close the buildings were for the different challenges so even though walking was involved, it was not miles. The other great thing – parking was a lot cheaper than past years.
Tags: Destination Imagination, DI, DI Extreme, Heather Bright, Wendy Frenzel
Dedication. That is one word that you could use for Heather Bright, my oldest daughter. She is riding the train from Lincoln all night to come to Denver for the Colorado State Destination Imagination (DI) Tournament on Saturday, April 18th. She won’t be coming to just watch the tournament but to appraise. I just hope the train isn’t late because the first teams start early!
My biggest worry for Saturday is the weather forcast. I know that the South Metro Region worried two weeks ago when the weather forcast was not good for our tournament, but it was a winter storm that didn’t materialize. I’m hoping the “big” storm they are talking about for Saturday doesn’t materialize as a winter storm but instead as nice rain showers. I know that I’m not the only one with this wish for good weather for the tournament.
I’m not sure how long Heather and I will be able to stay for the awards ceremony to see which teams will be moving on to Destination Imagination (DI) Globals. Heather has to catch the train back to Lincoln that night. Yes, that is dedication!
Tags: Destination Imagination, DI, Heather Bright
A while back I wrote how I was a “victim” of someone taking one of my listings and claiming it was their own on Craigslist. Several people emailed me or called and stated, “But I saw it at a lower price on Craigslit. What’s the deal?” So from there I needed to ask them if the email addresses matched mine? Or if all the pictures matched? I knew the written “ad” and the front picture of the home matched as the scammer copied it directly from one of the many places that I list my properties.
I talked to Dave Dugdale about this as he’s the owner of the rental listing sites www.RentVine.com and www.PickRent.com. Dave likes to do research on these types of items and blog or videocast on what he finds. So, I provided Dave with the contact information for the scammer so he could see what they were doing so he could write about it. He went even further by creating a Rental Scam Checking Tool so people could check to see if the property they have found is just a really great deal or “too good to be true.”
Dave has put together a videocast describing How to Unmask Rental Scammers. In this video he has interviewed others who have first hand knowledge of scammers. They discuss some of the ways these scams work, how far they have gone, and how they can harm innocent people. You can also learn how to protect yourself by looking the address up in the county assessor’s records (verify the owner’s name) and doing a google search to see if the address is listed somewhere else but listed at a different price or by someone else. Dave also put together a Rental Scam Detection Tool.
The Rental Scam Detection Tool asks a series of questions to help you determine if that home you found is just a great price or too good to be true. By taking your answers to the questions, this tool will provide you with a percentage of the home you are interested in possibly being a scam. At the end of the “check” you can specific addresses against a database of email addresses used by scammers.
Even though I wasn’t happy having one of the properties I work with used in a rental scam, I’m glad that it helped Dave in look at this in a way to help others. Because I think it is a great tool, I’ve added it to the www.AVantageProperties.com web site as well as links to the county assessors in my area to provide people more tools to help them keep from becoming a victim of a Rental Scam.
Tags: craigslist, Property Owner, Rental Scam, victim
I couldn’t stand it anymore so I deleted Internet Explorer 8 from my computer and am now back to Internet Explorer 7.
Why did I go back to I.E. 7? Many sites weren’t ready to be compatible with I.E. 8 so I had to go back and forth between browsers. I didn’t like that it would periodically ask me if I wanted to help it improve.
So how did I do it? I went into the add or remove programs in the control panel of my computer and found Internet Explorer 8. I told it to remove. Once it was done, I restarted twice, just to make sure that it reset itself, and then I was back to I.E. 7. Again, this is how I did it so if you are not comfortable changing things in your computer, make sure you work with a computer person to help you through it.
Tags: 7, 8, Internet Explorer, removal
On Saturday, April 4th, the South Metro Region in Colorado held their Destination Imagination Tournament. From what I’ve heard from the other Challenge Masters, they had some very good teams competing in the challenges and some creative solutions.
I know that I saw some great solutions provided by the Rising Stars. I always enjoy watching the teams and being able to say “Wow!”. I know that my appraisers enjoy that as well. Though sometimes, team managers, are a little worried about what their teams do in Instant Challenge, but all I can say is, “We’ve seen just about everything, so nothing surprises us.”
I do think that those that have grown up with Destination Imagination in the South Metro Region believe the best part (well maybe after finding out you are advancing to state) is the party! It’s a great place to celebrate the creativity of all the participants. The way South Metro starts it out is with dancing and then the great parade of Rising Stars. I always love the parade as the Rising Stars march around the gym to a standing ovation. It makes me so proud of those kids!
After the Rising Star parade, they recieve their medals and lead the gym in dance to the A-Totlie-Tot. Yes, I know I’ve most likely misspelled it and can’t do the song justice but I believe many DIers understand. Poor Jeff, as he was in the stands, I was helping a group of Rising Stars with the actions, and being abandoned by Kat so she could really “groove” was chastised by a grandparent for not dancing along. Knowing that we’ve been involved with DI for at least 9 years some way or another was not an execuse he could readily use or that others want to hear – they just want to see everyone dancing to this silly but fun song.
If you haven’t yet, take a moment to view some of the pictures I posted to my twitter account from the night. You’ll even get to see an Italian Rat and Gumby that were made as props by a South Metro team that they will be taking to state and most likely to Global finals in Knoxville.
Tags: Destination Imagination, DI, Rising Stars, Wendy Frenzel
