Brads Blog

shoes

Perfect for a night on the town or your next holiday party, the ultra high heel Moskoww pumps from the Steve Madden collection are the epitome of fabulous while being just over the top enough to make you feel younger, sexier and more confident. This shoe was definitely not made for walking but they will get you around your next event with an air of confidence and a feeling of superiority.

Peep toe heels covered in silver glitter with flecks of reds, gold and other rich colors, these 5 ¾ inch heels have a festive bow on the toe strap and a mirrored heel with a 2 inch mirrored platform to boot. These Steve Madden heels are so fabulous they will work with just about any party ensemble. Pair them with a little black dress and a silver clutch for an evening event or with a vibrant red dress made for celebrating the holidays.

While most women prefer to wear flats on a regular uneventful day, throwing on some Steve Madden heels for a special night compliments any kind of dress. These heels are made for fabulous legs to do yourself a favor and pair them with a short hemline to make the most of what you’ve got. If a dress isn’t in the cards with these gorgeous heels, pair them with your darkest skinny jeans, a black tank and a black blazer. Pile on the jewelry with necklaces and bracelets and let these heels add glitter and excitement to your outfit.

The soles are man-made and the women’s shoes are imported. The glittery upper portion of the Steve Madden Moskoww heels is made of leather and the heels are comfortable and easy to wear. Not for the office, or even for your first meeting with the people you hope will one day become your in-laws, these heels were made for fun and playtime. Be the envy of every woman in the room in these Steve Madden shoes at your next event.

Time Warner internet is affordable and incredibly easy to setup. Simply plug the modem into the back of your computer and you are instantly connected to the Internet. You can access your e-mail directly through the Web or by using a mail application such as Outlook or Outlook Express. Mail applications allow you to setup filter options and folders to better organize your e-mail. Time Warner internet keeps you connected to the Web all of the time, so your e-mail arrives as it is sent.

This review of Mr. Roof is an honest review. Mr. Roof in no way encouraged, influenced, or had any knowledge of my review.

Last year, when Hurricane Ike came rolling through Ohio and blew the shingles off of every house in the county, I decided that I only had about a dozen shingles missing and I would just make the roof repairs myself. That was fine until two weeks ago, when a wind storm came through again and know a bunch more off. Enough is enough.

I decided to call a roofer and get his opinion. After a couple of first-hand testimonials, I went to the Mr. Roof website and requested a free quote. The next business day, I was called and the appointment was made.

At the appointment, Daniel came out, and he could tell immediately that I had real damage and that I needed a new roof. He explained in detail how the process worked, dealing with insurance, etc. No deductibles are due until the work was done. He would handle everything, and all we needed to do was pick out what color shingle we wanted.

He also mentioned that our old shingles would be replaced with a higher quality, 30 year dimensional shingle.

12-18-2009
A day after meeting with Daniel, I contacted my insurer and explained the situation, and that I need to file a claim. He was friendly about it and said that an adjuster would soon be in contact with me.

12-23-2009
Over the last couple of days, I have had a series of phone calls with State Farm, and an adjuster will be coming out to inspect the roof next week. Right now there is snow covering the roof and the holidays are this week. I gave my Mr. Roof guy a call yesterday keeping him in the loop.

4-9-2010
Now that the weather has broken, I called State Farm and left a message that we get this process moving. Today when I got home from work, my wife said the State Farm guy was here today expecting the Mr. Roof guy and he wasn’t here. I guess there was some behind the scenes communication between the insurance and roofer. An appointment was set up for the adjuster and roofer for Tuesday.

4-13-2010
Today was the day for the inspection. The insurance adjuster came out, the Mr. Roof guy didn’t show up. I called him, and he said he had lost his phone and was apologetic about it. The insurance adjuster said that he will only pay for the back half of the roof. I told him I’d like the roofer to get back up there and give his opinion. Here are some pictures I took while up there.

5-19-2010
I left a message with the State Farm adjuster a week or so ago, never heard back from him. I learn he is on vacation so I get ahold of the claims office and spoke with another adjuster. I explained I wish to dispute the finding of the other adjuster. He and Mr. Roof will be back out here this Friday for another look.

5-21-2010
Well I rushed home from work today so I could beat Mr. Roof and the State Farm adjuster there. It was raining a little bit and they were supposed to be here between 3:30 and 4:00. At 4:30 since neither one of them showed up I called the State Farm insurance adjuster and he said Mr. Roof called and had to reschedule for next week due to not wanting to be on the roof when it’s raining. This is all well and good, but I really would have appreciated a phone call.

5-24-2010
I called Daniel to find out why he didn’t call me on Friday. I was a bit pissed because I had no clue what was going on. I have to work on Tuesday, when the new appointment is scheduled. When I called, I got the voice mail that he couldn’t answer any calls and to leave a voicemail and he’ll get back with me. I left him one, and also asked if I needed to be present for the appointment. About ten minutes later he text messaged me and explained briefly that I did not need to be present for the appointment with the new insurance adjuster and he would call me after the meeting at 1:30 and bring me up to speed.

5-25-2010
Well the meeting was today on the roof at 1:30. I know it happened because my wife was home and saw then go up there. However, I didn’t get my phone call. Something has to give here.

5-26-2010
I called Daniel on my way home from work. I explained that the communication problem we are having is not working. I am the customer and need to know what’s going on all the time. He said he apologized but the State Farm adjuster had not made a decision yet and will probably be next week before he did. He didn’t want to call me without anything definitive. I told him he needs to call me and let me know he doesn’t have anything definitive. He is supposed to call me next week when he hears from the insurance guy.

6/5/2010
After not hearing from anyone, I received a check in the mail from the insurance adjuster. The check came with an itemized quote for what they will repair, which is both rear slopes.

After several more days I waited for Mr. Room to call, and the call never came. I was frustrated, ready to look for another roofer. I looked over our service agreement and the contract for a roof replacement was pending insurance approval. I called Daniel, again, and this time I told him that I received a check from State Farm and that I just wanted my roof fixed and was tired of playing games. I asked him to give me a quote for a roof replacement, as well as a rear slopes only replacement. He asked me if I wanted it emailed or mailed – I told him an email would be just fine.

Sticking to form, he never provided the quote for the work. In the end, I went with Weller Roofing. I was very pleased with the level of professionalism and quality work I received from Weller.

In this process, I learned that there are two different type of roofing contractors. There are those who are interested in earning your work, and there are those who are only interested in screwing the insurance companies and going for the fast easy money. I believe strongly that Mr. Roof is of the latter group.

Earlier in the month, I was contacted and asked to give an honest review of a pair of Pinhole Glasses. I never heard of these, and since they would ship them to me I figured it couldn’t hurt.

In preparation for this review, I took a look around thepinhole eyeglasses website to get some general background on the product. They claim these pinhole eyeglasses will strengthen your eyes, and may even correct certain vision ailments including Myopia, Hyperopia, Astigmatism, Cataract, Presbyopia and Computer Vision Syndrome. I don’t suffer from any of these, so I probably don’t really need these glasses.

Once I opened my package, I chuckled a little bit. I’ve never seen sunglasses with holes punched through the lenses. I put them on, walked around a little bit and decided they were too small for my head. After walking around for about 5 minutes with these on, my eyes started to ache. I remember this similar sensation when I first got reading glasses, years ago. I is probably my eyes straining, or getting a good workout.

The plastic frames are clear, and the dark part of the lenses you cannot see through, only the holes. Maybe you need to wear them more to get used to it, but I didn’t like it. I asked Samantha to try them on, she did for just a minute and didn’t much care for them. She said they were too small for her too, and didn’t like how it made her eyes feel.

In my opinion, the problem with these is that you feel like you can’t see everything you should be seeing. I had to move my head around to see things that were right in front of me. I’m sure there are people who really need these pinhole glasses, but I’m not one of them.

2/3/07
First of all, this review is based on my own personal opinion and was not solicited by anyone. I received no compensation from Gilkey or any other entity.

For a couple of years now, I have known that our windows were seriously in need of an upgrade. We have been dealing with our standard aluminum framed, double pane windows since we purchased this house nearly six years ago. This has been an expense I have put off time and time again.

This year, it finally came to a head and we decided to bite the bullet and go ahead with it. Who to choose?

Last year, we invited a rep from Airtite Windows into our home, only to get hammered with high pressure sales tactics, that resulted in broken promises and no new windows. This year, at the recommendation of my parents I decided to give Gilkey Windows a shot. I went the the website and requested an appointment.

The next day, we were called and an appointment was set up for today with Brian Schamel (Highly recommended for southwest Ohio 1-800-878-7771). He is the same guy that sold windows to my parents, as well as my Aunt and Uncle. Brian came as scheduled and showed us about Gilkey’s windows, and was very friendly and professional. He was not overbearing and seemed to truly have our needs in mind. We were impressed enough that we decided to also have him quote us for a back patio door, as well as a new front entry door system.

After two hours, we had ironed out all details of our purchase. We settled on a total of 11 new windows, a sliding patio door, and a front entry system (A steel door with the side window, and all the fixin’s). Total purchase price – about $9200. This price is well below retail, and well below what any kind of discount a coupon could give. This was “cut to the chase” sales and I like it. We financed a portion of this easy enough and we were told that they would be coming back out to take precision measurements, and that our new home upgrades will be ready for installation in 4-6 weeks. The front door may take a little bit longer because the factory is not local.

2/17/07
We were called this week to schedule the guy to come out and take accurate measurements of our existing windows and doors. The appointment was scheduled for the following day, but we had a major snow storm come through. Nobody showed up to take measurements nor were we called. However, we did get a call the following day and rescheduled the visit for Monday, February 19th.

5/14/07
With every major purchase in my life, there is always at least one thing that keeps everything from going perfectly. In this case, it has been the long delay in actually having the windows and doors installed. 6-8 weeks has turned into a matter of months, not weeks. Fortunately, the windows will be installed this Thursday (May 18th).

We are very excited, the house needs a face lift badly. I am dreading the fact that I will be taking down all of our blinds and curtains, including the mounting hardware. All this only to re-install everything later in the week.

Here are some images of our existing windows. I took the pictures this winter. Click on images to make them larger.

5/21/07
The day the windows were installed, I didn’t have to leave for work until 2pm. I normally sleep in a little bit on days I go in late. Today, my wife woke me up at 7:30am “The window people are here!”. They were right on time. I threw some clothes on and met the window installers.

The first crew to arrive were there to install my Gilkey front entry system. There were two of them. The other guys that showed shortly thereafter were to install the windows, and the patio sliding glass door.

Both crews were very friendly, and professional. My three year old son made a friend of one of them, and followed him around from room to room with his plastic tools asking him lots of questions.

By the time I left for work, all windows were installed and trim finished. The front door was also hung and very nice looking. Several days later, the only imperfection I can tell is where my son stuck his fingers in some caulk after the installers left.

I am confident that we made a good decision by choosing Gilkey. Only time will tell if the product is what they claim, but so far I am impressed.

2/18/2009
Two years has gone by since we made our purchase, and I am still very happy with my windows and doors. However I thought I’d post about my recent experience with Gilkey Service Department.

A few weeks ago, the locking mechanism on our new patio door broke. I called the service department, and made an appointment. When the service man came out, not only did he replace the lock on the patio door but he also made some adjustments on the front entry door. Very fast work, and professional. Thanks!

Here are more pictures of the installation:

If you are serious about making a Gilkey purchase, and call Brian, please let him know about this site!

8/24/09
A couple of weeks ago, our dog saw a bird, or a rabbit in the back yard and decided he couldn’t wait to be let out. He plowed right through the screen door and ripped the screen mesh out. I called Gilkey service, and they said to bring it in to the show room and they would replace it free of charge.

I took the screen to the showroom, dropped it off (took about three minutes) and a couple days later they called and it was ready.

After a few years since my Gilkey purchase, I am still pleased.

I recently purchased the Olympus Digital Voice Recorder WS-100. I bought it at Best Buy for $89.99. I’m sure I could have bought it for a lot cheaper at Amazon.com or other online outlet, but I had a hair in my ass to get it so I paid full price.

I wanted to buy this for a couple of reasons. First, I was itching pretty bad to record my first podcast, and didn’t want to deal wth microphones, etc.

Second, my son needs to record himself reading, so he will now be able to play back his recording, to help him read better.

Ok, so on with the review!

The recorder came with a single AAA battery, which is all it needs. I was up and recorded my podcast before I even got out of the car. I like te quality of sounds it records!

You are able to store audio files in five different folders. This helps me keep things organized.

This recorder also serves as a mass storage device and can record up to 27 hours!

Once I am ready to pull my recordings off, the bottom of this recorder pulls off to reveal the USB connection, and plugs straight into my computer.(a cable is also provided)

Recrded files are automatically exported as .wma type files, so will be ready to go with Windows media player.

So far, I am very pleased with this recorder and would recommend it to anyone.

Well, it’s closing on four years ago we made the silly decision to lease my wife’s Honda Odyssey. With that, we have not yet decided if we are going to buy it outright, or shop around and find something a little newer.

My wife would like something a little bit bigger, we have car seat issues to deal with. We test drove the Chevy Astro mini conversion but it was big to drive, and didn’t gain very much interior space. We also drove the Chevy Uplander and we weren’t very pleased with it.

The next phase is to revisit the Honda Dealer and see what we can do.

I know what I’m NOT going to do, and that is lease another vehicle.

I was trying to figure out a good “As Seen on TV” Product to review, so I did a search. One of the first thing I came up with was the Swivel Sweeper, so I went with it. First, here’s some of the specs and manufacturers blurb about it:

4 Way Action Brushes And Swivel Head Reach In To Even The Hardest To Reach Places

Swivel Sweeper lets you clean carpets and floors faster and easier than ordinary cordless sweepers. Swivel Sweeper dual cleaning power comes from its use of Quad Brush Technology, four rotating brushes that quickly picks up dirt on all sides, and its 360 degree swivel head that allows you to maneuver around furniture and other objects easily. Sweep around and behind furniture. Gets into hard-to-clean corners on carpet, wood, tile floors. The swivel Sweeper is great for picking up crumbs, dirt, pet hair, dust, and more. Use swivel Sweeper in the kitchen, family room, dining room, and bathroom, on tile, carpet, hardwood, and more!
Swivel Sweeper Swivel Sweeper Features:

* Swivels 360 Degrees for easy movement around furniture
* Quad Brush Technology sweeps up dirt and messes from all 4 sides
* Removable dust trays
* Extendable handle – extend to 4′
* Lightweight – only 2 lbs.
* Cordless
* Rechargeable battery
* Runs up to 45 minutes on a single charge

Includes

* Cordless Swivel Sweeper
* Built-In 7.2 Volt Rechargeable Battery
* Battery Charge

I then went to Amazon.com and found this product for sale there. I went to the consumer reviews and found that this product was rated an average of 2.5 out of 5. In my opinion, this is less than satisfactory.

Reading the reviews, the people generally were quite pleased with the swivel sweper until the battery started getting use. The battery does not seem to last more than a couple of months, then you’re left with a piece of plastic crap.

Back in November, I posted about a survey I did to get a free Supermax Ultimate Razor. I finally got the razor in the mail last week and have been using it.

I must say, I was quite impressed with this razor. The design is such that it is not easy to drop or lose grip. This is important to me because I shave while in the shower.

The cutting blades actually look larger, so they probably are and this may be why I get a clean shave. I’ve been using it all week and have not noticed dulling of the blades. I have no clue how much these razors cost, but if they are reasonably priced I would probably go with them.

The last ring in the Titanium Ring Review Series will be the Titanium Diamond Ring s46.

This unique band features 5 diamonds embedded into the band. The band also features a colored “wave” design.

The colors available for this band are blue, dark purple, green, red, or you can leave it with the natural titanium look.

The finishing styles available are the same for both the inside and the outside of the ring. They are satin, polished, or matte.

The sizes for this ring range from 4 to 14.

You an also select different widths when you order. They can go from 5.5 to 10mm.

I can definately see myself wearing this one!

This ring is listed for $1,179.00 on www.tirings.com