Tag Archives: recommendations

A Recommendation

It’s not often I get to make a significant purchase of something and enjoy it so much that I feel compelled to write a recommendation.  It’s even less often that we as a family get to go on an extended vacation.  So it is doubly appreciative when both happen at the same time.

Recently we had to make a lengthy trip across the state of Virginia to drop off my oldest daughter at college.

First of all, Virginia is a big state.  Nearly 475 miles wide at its longest point; and that is in a straight line!

Our travels required a trek of nearly 320 miles one way to reach her college of choice.  Add to this the requirement of transporting not only her but all her belongings, 3 siblings, myself and my lovely wife and our two greyhounds and you can see how much of a logistical feat this is.  Needless to say, there is not a car big enough to carry all that!

After much research, studying of options and coming up with a plan, we decided to rent an additional van, leave a nearly a week early and rent a vacation cabin.

The van was a Budget Rental Van and they proved to have the least expensive rate.  So Kudos to them.

The real welcomed surprise was the cabin we rented from New River Retreat.  This cabin had everything, except internet access.  This, in my opinion was a blessing in disguise.  The cabin was located next to the New River and was near state parks, hiking trails, boating, fishing, horseback riding, bicycle riding, wineries, golf courses, and yes even civilization (30 minute drive to nearest town) for buying supplies.

The BEST feature of the cabin is by far the beautiful, calm and quiet location which allows anybody to do anything they want, whenever they want, or even nothing at all except sit on the porch and enjoy the moment.

With all that is involved with traveling and the emotional event of leaving your daughter at a school 300 miles away; this cabin and retreat was a welcomed blessing for all.

We thoroughly enjoyed our far too short stay, definitely recommend New River Retreat for renting a vacation cabin to anybody looking to make a trip to that area, and most definitely plan on going back.

The New River is one of the oldest rivers in the world, travels mostly south to north, offers recreational activities for all ages, and in the areas of West Virginia offers some of the best if not THE best white water rafting east of the Mississippi River.

Because the ages of our family range from 6 years old on up, white water rafting is pretty much out of the question.  One does not take small children on Class III rapids!

So we opted to rent along a much tamer section of the river south of the Blacksburg VA area.

From our cabin we could launch and land any canoe, kayak, raft or even tube and gently cruise down the river.  Swimming and fishing was also easily done at our leisure.

Our cabin owners had thought of everything and maintained the cabin very well.  They even created a secret hiking trail with little surprises along the way such as chairs and hammocks at strategically placed locations, small hidden statues, and this personalized rock collection which guests are encouraged to contribute to.

But perhaps best of all was this calm beautiful view from the porch which was a pleasure to sit on at any time of the day or night.

Well done NRR, thank you, and we’ll be back!

What Do You Recommend?

Wow, what an open ended question. A reader sent me this question. No qualifiers, suppositions, or hypothetical references at all.

I could take a lot of liberties here, Blondes, Brunettes, Boxers, Briefs, but I will try to keep it to topics covered in my blog.

Stock wise, I recommend anything on my watch lists. I also occasionally invest in stocks that are not on my watch list. I need to start posting more about those, and why.

Sports / Fantasy Wise, I recommend perennial favorites, bookends, and people going against the weakest defences for their position.

Otherwise, lately we have had some record cold weather, snow and such which made me go looking for my winter gear about a month earlier than usual. This reminded me of my favorite pair of boots. Wolverine Boots. These are simply the best boots ever! I have spent many a cold day and night in all kinds of weather and conditions with these on and never, not once, have my feet been cold. If you need a good new pair of boots, get these. I mentioned them, and their stock back in February, 2010. Since then both the boots and stock have performed admirably. The boots are still as good as new and the stock has gone up over 50%!

I would also recommend INGDIRECT as an on-line bank and investment institution. In fact, I use them for my Covestor and Fumbled Returns Performance Tracking. They have a great investment plan where you can invest free on virtually any Tuesday. It is called automatic investment. Great for keeping costs down and dollar cost averaging. You don’t have to invest every Tuesday. In fact you can turn the feature on or off at anytime. You can schedule for just one Tuesday every month or only when funds are available. What is also great about this is that you can invest dollar amounts, not specific number of shares. This means you can allocate, say $200 to purchase Microsoft, and ING will purchase (at today’s value) 8.30 shares. Yes, you can purchase fractions of shares. This is because they pool every order together and buy in bulk. It does not cost you anything to buy stocks on auto Tuesdays, but you will need to pay $7.95 to sell. Still a pretty good bargain!

As for the previously mentioned topics? Well believe it or not, there really is an adult party game called boxers or briefs party game and, from what I can tell, it is not too adult and actually loads of fun (based on the reviews) to play.

I’d recommend playing it with either Blondes or Brunettes. 😉

Until next time. . .

Be Good, Do Well, Have Fun!

Draft Recommendations

After my last post, I had a comment requesting draft recommendations.

So, here they are:

1) First and foremost, have fun. And like the picture said in my last post, Eat – Drink – Draft. And if your league mates are after your same players, have them Drink some more!

2) Keep the conversation on topic and appropriate for the occasion. Discussing family, women, booze, sports, music, entertainment, etc. is all acceptable, but discussing work is not. Discussing work is grounds for immediate removal from the party at which point your selections will be made at the discretion of your league commissioner.

3) Bathroom breaks are only allowed immediately after your selection in any given round. And only liquid breaks please. No Albert breaks and under no circumstances no stinkies.

4) Using the “T J Whosyourmomma” joke is grounds for everyone in the room to toss various projectiles in your general direction.

And last but certainly not least. . .

5) Having ESPN, SportsCenter, Any Football Game, or Rock Music / Videos are perfectly acceptable and even necessary for complementing the occasion. But, not just any music / video.

Please choose from the following:

• Led Zeppelin
• Pearl Jam
• Rolling Stones
• Metallica
• Aerosmith
• AC/DC circa 1975-1980
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Eminem
• Incubus
• Anything else you consider bad ass in the rock and roll or hip hop genres

Please burn and break anything remotely like the following:

• The Jonas Brothers
• Katy Perry
• Miley Cyrus
• The Backstreet Boys
• O-Town
• Britney Spears
• Justin Bieber
• Anything featuring Justin Bieber
• Any artist that rhymes with Justin Bieber
• Anthing that makes others stop and say out loud, “Wait…is this Justin Bieber?!?!”

Oh, and if you were hoping for some insight into draft strategy beyond drafting the best person available for a position . . .

Here is mine for my Borderless Team this year . . .

8 – 6 – 4

A special Kudos to the first person to figure this one out . . .