Futon Blog

As most of you may know, college expenses are rising exponentially as time goes by, and some times a little assistance would be nice. There are quite a few options for those of you who want to find a way to pay some of those expenses without having to refinance your life. Student loans can have a high interest rate, some people end up paying their loans off for the rest of their lives after college, so that may not be a great option. Scholarships are nice, like the ones given through the Bill Gates foundation but they also take a lot of work on the part of the student. Grades and hard work determine who is eligible for scholarships so they may not be available if you’re in the middle of your class.

Well, check out all the options out there before signing your life away to student loans.

Here I am waiting at the airport at four in the morning, Vegas time and I am so ready for my flight I can taste it. Not that that’s necessarily a good thing in Vegas. My flight was originally scheduled for twelve noon, but luckily the nice lady at the US Air check-in counter was able to bump me up to a much earlier flight. Now I can see my Noelle and Jay before they go to bed.

Oh yeah, I haven’t forgotten about my Expo Sneak Peek. Once I get home and digest everything, I’ll be posting about some great rugs that I found at the show. Check back soon.

On my trip to Las Vegas I saw a lot of people who had their iPods in ugly leather cases with not so nice see through screens. While this may serve a purpose, there are some nice ipod cases that are a clear plastic film that protects the screen of your iPod. I know your iPod is important to you, so why not keep it protected.

For those of you who can go to the futon expo, you still have a few days left. But, in order to get it all done, you will need to have a plan of attack. So take a look at the floor plan and plan your route. I was able to see every manufacturer I wanted to, and only in one day with a proper plan of attack.

Ok, now that I traveled to Vegas, I’m already planning my next trip. But next time I think I’d like to go to Europe. There are some really nice Spainish Motels at Cheaper Than Motels. The deals look good, and I think a laid back location would be a nice change from Vegas.

Cheaper than motels has great sections of the site dedicated to specific regions of Spain. If you know where you’d like to travel they have Mallorca Hotels, Lanzorote Hotels or Menorca Hotels are just a few of the many locations you can find while browsing through the selection on the site. If you are unsure, check out the site for ideas, there are quite a few areas to view and the selection can be narrowed if you see something in a sub category. It’s definitely a great place to find some great travel ideas and deals.

Tomorrow I leave Las Vegas for home, and it’s about time. Tonight we went to the strip and walked around. There were cops everywhere with bomb sniffing dogs, and a show at Treasure Island. I felt really bad for the performers, it was like thirty degrees out side and the performers were wearing next to nothing. So, even though there was a bomb threat the Vegas show must go on.

I’m ready for home.

Let me start by saying that the expo center was huge, I saw so much bedroom furniture, dining room furniture, bar furniture, and convertible furniture that I may never need to look again. Well, at least for a few years anyway.

The expo was huge. There were two finished buildings, two pavilions, and one building on the way. And it was full of amazing furniture as well as people who were trying to sell you everything. They were really going all out as well, most places had an open bar or food. Quite and experience.

As a lot of you may know, health insurance has under gone huge changes over the last few years. In Massachusetts, everyone is now required to have health insurance, or you lose the ability to claim yourself on your taxes. I mentioned this to my grandmother, who lives in Florida and is concerned about health insurance in Florida as it is also under going changes in Florida as well. But, for those of us caught in the middle there are great resources available, like People’s Health Insurance. Their site has tons of info about plans available directly to consumers as well as pricing. You can call them if you need assistance, which is nice, or complete the process online.

The whole issue seems like a tough one to solve, with a growing population and rising costs. Maybe any step is a step in the right direction. We’ll see.

I finished up all my marketing at the Las Vegas world market yesterday, so today I got to check out the sights. I’ll start by saying that I’m not a gambler or heavy drinker, so I went out to the Hoover Dam today and took the tour that takes you down into the depths of the dam itself. It was a bit cramped and the whole dam vibrated non-stop, which was a little disorienting, but it was a very interesting place to visit. Once! So, if you don’t mind the ground you’re standing on and really tight spaces visit the dam, if not just walk across the top.

About five years ago Noelle and I replaced all the windows in our house, and I would recommend using a company who specializes in actually replacing window. Like Houston windows, a company in, well, Texas, that actually has some experience with said task. When deciding on a contractor to replace our windows, we decided to support our local contractor who didn’t really have a whole lot of experience with replacement windows. Let’s just say that it was a bad decision, things took way longer tan quoted, were quite a bit sloppier, and are quite drafty today. So remember, stick with a specialist when you replace your windows.