My niece is getting married in a few weeks. She has already been down the aisle one time and already has a household. It’s a little more challenging to get a wedding gift for a second marriage since she pretty much has everything she needs.

What I think will be a nice wedding gift for a second marriage will be a year-long pass to the local zoo. She has thee kids ranging in age from 7 to 5. She will be moving to a new town to live with her new husband, so I’m sure she will be looking for things to do. They will also be staying with his folks for a few months while they find some place to live.

The year-long zoo family pass for two adults and their children is $45.00. What is really cool is that there is a list of 100 reciprocal zoos that will also honor the pass. We have two zoos in our state, so when she comes home for a visit, she can take the kids to the zoo here for free as well.

The kids are almost out for summer break and could be quite bored in a new town. They will be living in the city as opposed to their country living. This by itself will be a major adjustment. A weekly trip to the zoo might help with boredom and the cramped quarters of the house and city life.

There are a few other attractions in the city that I thought about checking into to see if they have seasonal passes, but I don’t think I can beat the zoo deal. Not only is it a great deal but will be a lot of fun for the new family.

Imagine an auction where the lowest bid wins. That’s the concept behind Bid4Prizes.com. Bid4Prizes.com is a sweepstake website with a twist. If you win, you don’t have to pay the amount you bid, but you will have to pay shipping and any applicable taxes.

Bid4Prizes.com has given away many free gifts like a 42 inch plasma TV, a PlayStation 3, and a Nintendo Wii. There is a winner everyday. Cool items are not the only prize they give away. There is a cash prize game where the winner takes $10,000.

The winning bid of the auction is the lowest unique bid. Once you enter your bid, you will be told if your bid is unique.

Bid4Prizes.com is easy to navigate. You will have to register to play. You can either text in your entries or enter it from the web. There are plenty of auctions going on right now from Apple’s iPhone to a new 2007 Scion.

Brought to you by Bid4Prizes.com

Shepherd’s Pie is an easy recipe that can usually be made with what you already have on hand. In school, we always called it modern meat pie. I never ate it then as it wasn’t appealing. It was school cafeteria food afterall. I actually enjoy it now. It’s contains one of my favorite comfort foods plus it’s super easy to fix.

What you’ll need:

Potatoes
1 lb hamburger meat
1 cup shredded cheese

Boil your potatoes until you can make mashed potatoes. I recommend red potatoes and leave on the skins. Red potatoes are fairly soft and won’t take that long to be ready. Brown the hamburger meat and drain. I like to season my hamburger meat usually with Worchestershire sauce to give it a little kick. Any cheese will do.

Take your mashed potatoes and put them in the bottom of a casserole dish. Next, layer the meat on top of the potatoes. Finally, top with the cheese. Cover and back at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

We went to Toys R US and Rae naturaly became restless really fast. We were passing a ball pit, so I grabbed one of the red plastic balls for her to play with. She had the best tiime with the red ball in the store. It kept her very entertained.

She would run after it, throw it, even shared it with other kids in the store. She had such a good time that I bought it for her. It was only $1.49. That’s the best $1.49 I’ve spent in a while. We left it in the car, which proved to be a good idea. She became irate in her car seat but her red ball made it all better. We did finally bring it in the house where she has played with it a lot.

Playing ball can help her with her coordination and motor skills. Plus she’s having a blast with it. It’s always nice when she is entertained. That means I can get some work done.

I’ve been working with the content management system Joomla to set up another website. I like Joomla because I was already familiar with Mambo CMS.

Since I have a great Joomla template tutorial, I feel confident I can create a custom template. I feel more confident fiddling around with a WordPress template but that is just because I am use to the WP template concepts.

Everytime Rae has been sick and I mention it to someone, more often than not I hear the response, “There’s something going around.” Is there never a time that there is nothing going around? Right now there is something going around. I think it makes the loop and then starts all over.

Rae seems to be better but now I feel something coming on. So, next it’ll be Daddy’s turn, and there truly will be something going around..around our house.

After being sick, we wash all bedding, spray everything down with Lysol and Clorox Anywhere, and buy new toothbrushes. Hopefully it helps. At least if it doesn’t it makes us feel better.

I was asked to help someone set up an online store. There is a lot to take into account when setting up an ecommerce business. The most important part of setting up an online store is choosing your ecommerce software.

Ashop not only sells ecommerce software but stand by their product, helping their clients learn the ins and outs of the software. They offer free tech support by email, web chat, and phone. By visiting their site you can find out if someone is available right then to answer your questions.

A lot of shopping carts I have seen need to be bundled with something else to be useful. Ashop’s ecommerce software is all inclusive. You can build your web pages, add your stock, and make changes all from one place. The shopping carts are also search engine friendly, which is very important when trying to sell your wares on the Internet.

The next time I have a need for ecommerce software, I will definitely keep the Ashop in mind.

Drive is a new TV show on Fox that has become in record time my must-see TV. It doesn’t hurt that it stars Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame. I loved him in Firefly and Serenity. His character in Drive is just as interesting and compelling as Captain Mal.

The rest of the cast is great on Drive. Drive is about an illegal, cross country race with a huge cash prize for the winner. Some have entered the race while others like Alex Tully (Nathan’s character) have been forced into the race. It’s a great show. If you haven’t seen it yet, Drive comes on Mondays at 8 eastern on Fox.

You can watch Drive on Demand at Fox.com

I’m not the type of person to change photos in picture frames. I usually have to cull through all the frames every couple of years. My biggest problem with switching photos is that I still want to display the photo in the frame while adding more to a room.

My solution is a digital picture frame. A digital photo frame will allow me to showcase all the photos I want without taking up a lot of shelf space. Digitalframez.com is an online electronics store that has a wide selection of digital photo frames. The one that really catches my eye is their popular aluminum coated 7 inch digital picture frame.

The digital picture frame comes with a card reader, so I can add a memory card and load as many pictures to the photo slide show as I want. Plus with a price tag at DigitalFramez of $99 makes it affordable.

Mother’s Day is coming up. I can use the “email to a friend” link to send to the husband as a not-so-subtle suggestion.

Baking Soda is one of those essential products that we have on hand all the time. It ranks right up there with rubbing alcohol as a versatile and useful household item.

I had bought a used electronic toy that wasn’t working. I noticed the battery compartment was somewhat corroded. After using a Q-tip, a bit of baking soda and a touch of water to clean the connectors, the toy now works like a charm.

Baking Soda is also good to clean the battery ends on your vehicle. If there is a lot of corrosion, take an old toothbrush or another type of brush and scrub the battery ends with a mixture of baking soda and water. Rinse the battery afterwards.

We always have baking soda around the house. It’s not just for odor control in the refrigerator.