My Love/Hate Relationship With Wii Fit Plus

OK, I know that I’m hauling around more than a few extra pounds lately. But it’s a little insulting to hear a plastic balance board with a munchkin voice telling me I’m overweight and making little highly condescending sounding “ohs!” when I step on the thing!
Not only that… I’ve learned that I’m unbalanced and uncoordinated as well!
What really irritates me is that the darned thing is right! Here’s proof…

That’s my first Wii injury! I confess I uttered a few very unladylike words when this happened!
BUT, my personal Wii trainer is very nice and encouraging, most of the time anyway… she does mention that certain body tests aren’t exactly “my forte”.

I do enjoy most of the fitness games and exercises that I’ve tried and being ’scored’ after I do them and learning that I was less than good makes me want to keep trying to get better which means more time actually exercising!

A side note to BFG… you’re supposed to take the body tests that measure your Wii fit age more than once! Just because you were 27 years old on your first test doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels!

I would certainly recommend the Wii system to anyone… it sure beats being a couch potato!

Product Review/The Slip ‘n Grip

Our couches are big brown cushy leather. They are not really intended for people that are ‘dainty, delicate’ sitters… they are for floppers
and that suits Mr.C. and I just fine… we are definitely floppers… neither one of us would ever claim to be delicate or dainty!
We also have hardwood floors.
That presented a problem because when we flopped onto our couches, they tended to slide across the floor all helter skelter.
My first solution was to cut little circles of that grippy shelf liner or the stuff that is supposed to keep your rugs from slipping on hardwood floors. I placed the circles under the feet of the couch and love seat and it did work for a couple of days, but it wouldn’t be long before I would see the cats dragging them around the house.
I was pretty much resigned to just having to adjust the furniture daily.
BUT THEN…
as I was perusing the isles of our local Big Lots store, I spied these little beauties…

The Slip ‘n Grip Dual Function Furniture Pad made by Shepherd Hardware Products LLC

The inner ring is made of an anti-skid material so the furniture grips and stays put when it’s flat on the floor.
BUT if you want to move the furniture, you tilt it and it slips easily across the floor.

I snatched up two sets of four for a mere $3.50 each.
Then I had my handsome handy-man install them

(While the couches were tilted up I took the opportunity to vacuum up an embarrassing amount of kitty-fur dust bunnies!)

AND THEN we test-flopped them!


Mr C. and I both did highly exaggerated flopping and the couches stayed put! Never moved!
Four thumbs up from Mr.C and I

Don’t forget to CLICK HERE TO VOTE for Suzanne!!

Trail Cams are AWESOME!

We bought the Tasco 3 Mega Pixel trail camera for $79.00 at Wally World.
It has given us proof positive that we have at least THREE different bears raiding our bird feeders! There are never more than one at a time. There is the one that I posted pics of before… she came back after I left for work yesterday!

Unfortunately for her, this big guy had emptied the feeders at around 11:30 the night before…

His coat is very thin… he may have mange or something… I hope he finds a warm place to hibernate!
This one came a few nights nights ago… we are pretty sure it is the smaller one we saw with neighbor Mike the other day.

I put seed in the feeders yesterday and we set the camera up again last night. It’s still too dark out to see if the feeders are down this morning.
I’m home from work today because… YAY, it rained last night and I’ve got to go and get some supplies later on. I’ll be anxiously watching to see if our morning bear comes back today!
After today we’ll start bringing the feeders in before we go to bed. As much fun as it is to see the bears, we really don’t want to encourage them to hang around.

I’ll highly recommend this trail cam if you’re thinking of getting one. Mr.C was looking through his Cabelas catalog and there are some that sell for over $500! This one is great entertainment and does a great job at a great price!

I think we’ll set it up on the porch for a few nights to see what critters are coming and eating the cat food!

The Wagner DeckMate Review

Unfortunately, I can’t recommend this one.

We have a Wagner power painter and have been very pleased with it. So when I saw this on our recent trip to buy stain for the front porch, I was all over it!
“Master your deck in one pass” sounded great to me!
Maybe it would have worked with something like Thompsons water seal or a thinner product. But this year we went with a solid color stain which was as thick as paint. The box says that it has a “variable control valve for thick or thin materials” , but I had it wide open and the stain didn’t move into the pad easily and it took forever to do one board with multiple passes! I finally gave up and returned to the trusty old paintbrush.
Then came time for cleaning… PAIN IN THE BUTT!!!
It came with an extra pad, but guess what… the pads aren’t snap in… they are glued on so you have to scrape off the old one in order to put on a new one! Cleaning the tank was a pain too.
Because I got an extra pad I’ll probably give it another try with a thinner stain or water sealer next time but I definitly wouldn’t advise my friends to buy this product.

Product Pushing

We don’t have a pool anymore… maybe someday.
But for those of you who do have an inground pool I HIGHLY recommend this product!
I was so tired of going into work and opening the skimmers to discover many dead frogs, newts, salamanders, and toads. This product has saved the day… any many little lives as well!

It’s the Critter Skimmer an awesome invention! It replaces the cover of your skimmer with a new one that has a little ramp attached so if a little someone gets sucked into it they can just crawl up the ramp and escape!
I installed these on the three skimmers at Chesley and we haven’t had a single fatality since!!!!
LOVE IT I rate it a million gazillion stars!

Product pushing

I’ve decided to start a new category with product reviews.  I’m a firm believer that if you find a product that works great and makes your life better you have a duty to share the joy. I also feel the need to tell people when something is a big P.O.S. (piece of S#@!)

So here it is… my first ‘you’ve gotta get this’ review

The Shark Steam Mop. Sold at major retailers everywhere. Between $79.00- $99.00.

I love this thing! I was a bit apprehensive at first because of the flimsy plastic feel of it, but I guess that is what makes it light enough for me to lift with one little pinkie finger!  You fill the little reservoir with plain water and it heats up in like 30 seconds to a nice warm steam.  While you mop it cleans and dries almost immediatly with no streaking. No harmful chemicals needed! Best of all water is free! I did put some wood floor cleaner in a spray bottle for spots of gunk that needed a bit more cleaning power though; I just mist the floor with that first and then run the steam mop over it.  The pads are wash and reuse too so that makes it an even greener product.

 For those of you fellow Swiffer Wet-jet devotees it’s kinda like that but on steriods! I did love the Swiffer, but didn’t love the price of the disposable pads nor the fact that they go to the landfill, plus cost of the refill cleaner was more than I like to spend. So  this is now my mop of choice for my wood floors. Love love LOVE it!