Today while I was in the city I picked up some bamboo shades for our spare bedroom. My girlfriend is always trying to do this or that to make the spare bedroom look better, even though we hardly ever have anyone over, especially to spend the night. At least she puts most of her focus into that one room rather than always trying to fix up the whole house. But, I do have to say, bamboo shades really made the room look alot different, in a good way.

It doesn’t seem like Christmas should be here again so soon. Time is really just flying by. I’m starting to make little lists of what gifts I need to buy and who I need to buy them for. There are electronic gifts, sports gifts (sports gifts will probably be the majority, as I have lots of younger boys in the family to buy for), girly gifts and so much more that I need to start buying. Christmas is less than 2 months away. It seems like it just happened a couple of months ago. I just can’t believe how fast time is passing by.

My girlfriend loves candles. Every time I turn around she is getting some new candles in the mail that she found for a good price online. Yesterday UPS delivered some new Votive candle holders and candles that she found on QuickCandles.com. She got a set of 144 candles, yes, I said 144, one hundred and forty four candles, for $25.00. I like having some extra candles for when the power goes out during really bad storms and that sort of thing, so I was proud of her for finding such a nice deal on bulk candles. I might have to place my own order for another couple sets.

A few weeks ago I replaced our front and back doors with some newer, better looking and more secure ones. After looking at them every day for the past few weeks, I don’t really think I like the style of door knobs and deadbolts that are on them. They don’t really go with anything else in our house. I’ve been looking online at different door hardware and I have found so many different shapes and styles that I had no idea were available. Hopefully my girlfriend likes the looks of the new door hardware when she see’s it installed.

The best camcorder that I have ever owned or used has got to be my Panasonic PV-GS320. It’s a 3CCD video camera that uses MiniDV tapes. The quality is so clean and the colors are so vivid. I can’t believe this thing doesn’t sell for more. From everything I have read and seen about this camera, it’s about the best quality you can get without upgrading to a very expensive High Definition video camera. I would even compare the quality of the Panasonic GS320 to some of the High Def cameras that I’ve seen. I paid right at $380 for it brand new at Best Buy. I used a price match from a sale that Circuit City had going on. Best Buy’s price for it was over $500 at the time and the manager didn’t seem too happy that I was doing the price match. I ended up with a brand new 3CCD video camera, a 4 year warranty that covers the thing even if I drop it and it cracks in half, a nice Tripod and a carrying case, all for right at $500. I love this camera and I would recommend it to anyone shopping for a new video camera! To view video clips of PV-GS320, search YouTube for Panasonic GS 320. There is a PV-GS320 and an NV-GS320. The only different between the PV and the NV is NTSC/PAL. The PV is NTSC and the NV is PAL. Seems like they accidently got those model names switched around.

Yesterday I finally got around to ordering myself some new laptop memory for my home laptop. A couple of months ago I upgraded the memory on a few of our laptops at work and it really increased the performance like you wouldn’t believe. Every since then I’ve been wanting to upgrade my home laptop memory but haven’t wanted to spend the money or I forgot to even look at it when I’ve been online. HOpefully it gets here soon so I can put it in.

I’ve been working out, off and on, for about 2 years now. I’ve tried nearly every piece of exercise equipment you can think of and I think my favorite has got to be an elliptical. Treadmills have worked great for my girlfriend, but they never really did much for me. The only piece of equipment she will even use at the gym is a NordicTrack treadmill. I’ve been thinking about buying a treadmill and an elliptical for our basement so we don’t have to keep paying and going to the gym to work out. I think we would both get plenty of use out of them if I got them.

Last week the other managers at my office decided to hold a little raffle giveaway. We gave away a pair of MBT shoes, 2 iPods, an 8gb Creative Zen and a 16gb SDHC card. None of the managers were eligible to enter the contest or I would have had my eyes on the Creative Zen. I need a new portable audio and video player and I’ve read some very nice reviews about the Creative Zen. I checked them out at a local electronics store and really like the screen quality and the overall design of them. I might have to buy myself one for Christmas.