Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

These are colorful blocks that are safely unisex.  This is not a boy toy or a girl toy, it is just a simple toy for toddlers.  The size of the pieces and the ease of assembly make them quite nice.  The stickers allow you to add alphabet to the blocks.  I am not particularly fond of stickers for toys but I guess it saves labor cost.  The quality seems better than what I recall from Mega Blocks.  I notice they are now from Fisher Price and if recollection serves me that wasn't always the case.  Overall I have found Fisher Price quality above average.  This is a nice set of beginner blocks.  $12.75 at Amazon at the time of the review.  From the Vendor: Teaching tool for lots of learning fun with letters Over 40 pieces with colorful letter stickers to decorate your little learner's school bus Sturdy lid doubles as two building and stacking base plates Compatible with all Mega Blokes First Builders sets for endless building ...

Tried these on as soon as I got them.  The fit is spot on!  They fit perfectly and I like the trim look.  I now find my old jeans too baggy now.  Just because you are over the hill, doesn't mean you have to look like it.  $31.00 at Amazon at the time of the order. From the Vendor: Machine Wash Sits below the waist, slim through the seat and thigh, leg tapers down to a 14.5 inch opening Signature deco stitch on back pocket Authentic Dickies branding on the inside waist Reinforcement throughout the jean If reviewing a product, it may have been received free of charge. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.

I tested this set with a variety of die cast cars.  It works, as it should with Hot Wheels but it also works with Little Tike, Matchbox and Corgi Junior.   I only not this because I have had some minor issues in the past with Hot Wheel track being a smidge too narrow for other brands.   This set connects up with the old track but has a much better connection scheme.  The old track and new has grooves on the bottom and you inserted a connector in one end of a piece and the same connector in another piece to hold them together.  This new track has a hole in the end and the more rigid pieces have a knob that goes into the hole, this would keep the track from separating as easily as the old track separated.  Just wish they would have included some extra connectors to connect to the old style track.   This set works well and should be a welcome addition to your Hot Wheels collection.  From the vendor: ·    ...

GRRR! Face it we are captive to our TV and Internet providers.  It is a major hassle to change from one provider to another.  Awhile back I got a price increase by FIOS.  I called and expressed my frustration with the continuing inflation of my bill.  More fees, bumping up the box payment leases a dollar or two a box.  Doesn't sound like much but consider the customer base and what a single dollar increase per customer equals.  Try $9,000,000.00 for a single dollar increase. (9,000,000 subscribers as of 4/24/14)   I called FIOS and a service rep told me because I wasn't screaming and ranting she would talk to her supervisor to see if she could help me.  She came back on line and told me she got my bill reduced $40.00 per month.  Wow!  I was totally impressed, I called over a $6.00 per month increase and she was going to get me a $40.00 per month decrease.  Just sign up for a two year agreement.  I would get an em...

I tried these antennas on a NetGear Wifi router and a Verizon Fios Modem with wifi.  I used Wifi Analyzer 3.9.5 to test the signal.  Both wifi signals on both devices are normally -50dbm.  They fluctuate but that is the normal signal strength. From what I have read on the Internet, 3 dbm difference in signal strength, depending on which direction, is a signal either 2 times as strong, or 1/2 as strong.  Both devices went to -40dbm which seems to signify that the antennas do what they are suppose to do.   Now to add a caveat to that information, those were the signals within 10 feet of the devices.   Thirty feet away I saw significant fluctuations and about a -45dbm signal strength.  Still that appears to mean a doubling of signal strength.   My only criticism of the product is that it came with zero, that is ZERO documentation.  Not one single piece of documentation was in the box.  I went to the Linksys site and th...

I have never lauded a garage door opener before.  This one deserves accolades.  Jason Steich of Jason Steich Overhead Doors Inc. installed this for me.  It claims to be a DIY product but I would suggest it for only reasonably competent DIY folks.   It has a LOT of parts.  Jason had only two concerns, the rail is multi-part which is necessary to get it into a box and the battery backup wire was tucked very securely out of the way and necessitated some gymnastics to attach.  Jason told me that this is the consumer model, top of the line and comparable to the commercial model he sells from the same manufacturer.  He said outside of the two minor issues noted above that it installed very easily.  This door is super quiet.  It came with an outside key panel.  The inside button has a screen that gives you the time and the temperature.  There is also a motion detector which turns on the door opener light when ever there i...

This is a good idea and possibly for Apple people it is easy to implement.  Those of us in the wider non-Apple world may find it more problematic.   I got this to pair quite easily with my Galaxy Tab however it wouldn't work.  I paired it with my S4 easily and it worked just fine.  I tried rebooting the tablet to make it work to no avail.   I went to the Belkin website as there is zilch documentation with the keyboard.  The packaging shows you how to pair it and the documentation stops there.   The website appears to be Apple-centric.   Every reference I could find referred to pairing with Apple products.   I eventually got the keyboard to work with my tablet but frankly I am not sure how as I kept re-pairing and rebooting until it worked.   I am dinging this in spite of the functionality and the good idea of  a two channel pairing because the documentation is flat out dreadful.   If Be...

Wrangler is still a good brand for jeans.  The fit on these was perfect.  With this said, they are most definitely relaxed fit and they are most definitely work jeans.   They have a hammer loop and an old fashion rule pocket which doesn't hold my larger cell phone.  My old flip phone fit in just fine.  These aren't jeans I would wear out at night but they are jeans I will use for working around the property. ·                         80% Cotton/20% Polyester ·                         Imported ·                         Machine Wash ·            ...