Share Your Favorite Crock Pot Recipe

Funderdome Kids Play Place in Ft Lauderdale

A Review of Funderdome located at 1455 SE 17 Street, Ft Lauderdale, FL. Dated August 17th, 2012.

Funderdome is a 9000 square foot indoor play area for children ages 6 months to 12 years old. I have two children, ages 9 (girl) and 10 (boy) so I am always looking for something fun for us to do.

Funderdome has a climbing wall, a sky trail ropes course, ball blasting area, a laser maze, a three level play structure, basket ball area and a toddler area.

My Overall Impressions Were As Follows:

Clean

Fun

Physically active environment for kids to play

Supervision is provided for activities that require it

Air conditioned

Seating area for adults

WIFI was supposed to be available, however on the day I was there it was not working.

Café with good selection of food and drinks, priced pretty much how one would expect for this type of business.

Loud. The sound of children’s voices is very loud and the high ceilings magnify it. There was also loud music playing part of the time I was there.

Admission seems pricey for a kids play place, but there is nothing like it around. Businesses like this need to stay in business because there aren’t enough of them. My children each brought a coupon from school, for buy 1, get one admission for free, so with one coupon, the price was good. Regular admission on Friday was approximately $21.00 including tax for each child. (free for adults)

One thing I really appreciated about this play location was that there were NO arcade game machines and no redemption games. Children go through money so fast at places like Chuck E. Cheeses, Boomers, and Kabooms. I really appreciated having NONE of those games. Keep in mind those type of games bring in additional revenue, so children’s play places that do not have those games must charge more for admission and food because that, and birthday parties are their entire revenue source. My son attended a birthday party there last year that went on for several hours and he still wasn’t ready to leave because he was having so much fun!

I recommend Funderdome as a place to take your children to play. How many times have you typed into to your computer “what to do in Ft Lauderdale with kids”?

You will be required to sign a waiver agreement, which is normal for this type of place.

Have your children wear comfortable, physical activity type clothes.

Feed them before you go so that they won’t be hungry the minute you walk in.

Expect to stay at least 2 or 4 hours. One hour is not enough time, especially if it is busy on the day you go, because your child will probably wait in a short line for things like the rock wall and the ropes course.

Expect to purchase some food or drink there. No outside food or drink is allowed, which is pretty standard for this type of center.

I really had no complaints about the place, other than the loudness inside. It feels a little cramped when busy. However if it were bigger, it would be harder to keep track of your children, so the size is really okay.

Salon Express Nail Art Stamping Kit Does Not Work!

Salon Express Nail Art Stamping Kit like may other enticing items advertised on TV appeal to our young girls, making them believe they are a "must have" item. My daughter spent her allowance money on a Salon Express kit and after several attemps she realized it was yet again another product advertised on TV that does not work as claimed.

The packaging says "Fun, Neat & Easy To Use". It certainly wasn't fun, but rather frustrating. It wasn't neat because the stamp didn't work and she had to keep removing the bottom layer of nail polish with nail polish remover and reapply the bottom layer, wait for it to dry then try the stamp with another color on top of the base coat. It was definitely not easy to use because after many attemps she just gave up. The packaging also says "Professional Salon Results". Clearly you already know what I am going to say about that! They lied, and it is false advertising!

A few months ago she bought Slushy Magic and was faced with the same disappointment. What snow flake technology are they talking about? Her drink did not slushify!

Now I have started saving her receipts so that we can return these type of purchases that are advertised as something they are not. As a consumer it is so annoying to see these products being sold at many retailers to unsuspecting consumers. The company making them, Spark Innovators of Fairfield, NJ is making a profit and the retailers selling it are also making a profit because most people don't bother to return this type of item.

Let us not put up with these type of products that don't work! Save the receipt and for goodness sake return items like this, that don't work and get your money back. Why should the makers of Salon Express continue to sell this product and make profits?

We as consumers need to send a clear message to companies who falsely advertise their products, and to retailers who continue to sell them, not caring that they are garbage products that don't work. They make a profit, what do they care? Are most people really going to go out of their way to return a product under $10 or $20 dollars? For people who have little time, this is more of a hassle than it is worth, especially if if was purchased somewhere that they don't frequent.

Retailers are gambling on consumers loosing receipts and/or not having time to return the items that don't work. Walgreens has a specific shelf for products "as seen on TV". Well my friends stay away from these products because they are usually cheaply made and don't perform as advertised.

Adorable Puppy

My Daughter loves to visit the pet store to hold the puppies. We held this adorable puppy today. We have an older dog who would most likely to be jealous if we came home with this puppy, and we are planning to travel in two days so the timing would not be good to add to our family at this time. However it was hard giving the puppy back and seeing it in the pet store cage. I felt bad leaving it and saying good bye! Any other dog lovers out there?

Google's Privacy Policies And Their Power!

Google plans to start tracking and keeping the data on our activities on all of its services and combining it into one big file about each one of us. This is set to start on March 1, 2012.

When we use Google’s services it is not so surprising that they keep track of that, but when they combine it all together to get the complete picture of YOU, that is a little scarey!

Here are some services you may use from Google...

Google Search (all your searches and clicks are tracked
Google's Chrome browser
Mobile phones (Android or other device)
Image Search (all your searches and clicks are tracked)
News (what stories you click on)
Google Apps
YouTube (all your searches and clicks are tracked
Docs (all your content!)
Groups (discussions)
Ad Sense (you income from such)
Google +
G mail (all the content of your emails)
ETC...

Google's policy is that you can opt-out by not logging in to ANY of their services!

Here's the thing, Google isn't properly getting our permission to do this in a clear manner that everyone understands. If everyone was clearly aware of what they were doing, and use their service anyway, then they have made an informed decision.

Most people don't know that Google collects this information, but then to take it a step further and combine all the separate information into one big picture of YOU, and then be willing and able to turn it over to the government when requested is way too BIG BROTHER!

For more information check this out http://www.change.org/petitions/google-ask-fairly-about-our-privacy .

Many of us use Google because we love Google, but let's not have the wool pulled over our eyes and be led around like a herd of sheep. Government must NOT have access to everything about us, and neither should Google.

Whitney Houston May You Rest In Peace And Sing With The Angels

Whitney Houston may you rest in peace and sing with the angels. It was a sad evening as we turned on our TV's to find another wonderful singer gone too soon, at such a young age. We expect older people to die, but we are always shocked to hear of a young famous person's death.

Many of us never personally knew her, but her music touched our hearts and we feel blessed to have heard her music. I was always saddened to hear of past turmoil in Whitney Houston's life with addiction. Unfortunately drugs have caused so much harm to such wonderful people.

I often wonder how as a society, we can do such seemingly impossible things like put people in space, send robots to mars, create space stations, yet we can't come up with a sure fire way to cure addiction.

As a parent of young children, I pray my children don't go through any substance addiction issues as they grow up.

One seemingly common thread I notice is that often people have self esteem issues, which perhaps play a part in their addictive disease. Do these issues come from childhoold or experiences or is someone predisposed biologically to have self esteem issues, has often been a question in my mind. Perhaps, it is a combination of both. There is an article I found as follows about that at 4therapy.com

Ironically the lyrics in her "Greatest Love Of All" song speak directly about loving yourself. "Learning to love yourself. It is the greatest love of all."

Whitney Houston had the voice of an angel and her voice was an inspiration to many singers. I hope people who loved her will look at their own lives and if they are having similar struggles, will reach out for the help they need to recover before it is too late.

Granted at this time, we do not know if substance abuse had anything to do with her death, but it certainly affected her life in a negative way.

Whitney Houston's death should remind us, that if any of us have people in our lives who struggle with addiction, we should love them and encourage them to seek help as many times as it takes.

As Whitney Houston reminds us in her song, we need to show our children all the beauty they possess inside and give them a sense of pride so they can love themselves. (and hopefully avoid the self esteem issues that can lead to substance abuse).

Thank you Whitney Houston for all the beautiful music you provided to the world and for sharing the gift of your voice with us! I hope you have found everlasting peace!

Is Sending Flowers Important on Valentine's Day? Find Out Now!

Is sending flowers important on Valentine's Day? The answer depends on who you ask. Some couples don't acknowledge Valentine's Day and other go all out and make it a big deal.

If you can afford flowers you should get your sweetheart flowers. Unless she doesn't like flowers due to allergies or some other reason. Most women love flowers and why not? Valentine's Day Flowers are beautiful and giving them shows you thought of your loved one and decided to part with some money to show her that she is special to you.

Click on the picture below to order some beautiful Valentine's Day Flowers!



There are a few things that go nicely with flowers such Precious Moments items. Click on the picture below if you want to order Precious Moments.



These are simply adorable! Precious Moments always have the cutest items!



Then of course there is always jewelry which will cost more. Many women love jewelry. I myself like how it looks on others and when it is not on me, but I don't wear it often.




Men you should give your woman something nice on Valentine's Day. What is the perfect gift for Valentine's Day? Beautiful flowers are always wonderful to give either alone or with chocolates, or a figurine, or jewelry.

I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!