Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto
Ok if you want to read my story about seeing some of the cast of Heroes you can visit Celebrity Scoop to read the story and have a look at five of the best photos that I managed to take on Friday night.
I must warn you that the cast was pretty far away. I zoomed in with my camera and then when I uploaded the photos to my computer I cropped the photos to get as close as possible, but the photos are not the best I’ve ever taken, that’s for sure!
When you are thinking of purchasing an item do you try to do a little research before you decide which brand or model you’ll buy? What about when you are about to sign a contract for a service such as one for a mobile phone, credit card or even something like an online dating service?
I certainly try to take the time to read a few reviews and or compare products when I’m thinking of paying a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for something. I want the best product or best service that my money can buy. I’m sure you do too.
That’s why I like the Best Buys website. You can read reviews and compare prices for a variety of products ranging from appliances, audio, cameras, computers, electronics, games, gifts, movies, music, office products, software, telephones, televisions and several other items.
One thing that I found kind of interesting about the site was that when I decided to search for a specific item the search box listed matching or similar search terms as I typed. I didn’t even have to type out the full product name as it guessed almost immediately what I was about to search for – now that was cool.
I had actually gone there to do belated research on the Canon EOS 30D digital camera. As you know I already purchased my new digital SLR camera about a month and a half ago and on this rare occasion I didn’t do much research before hand. However, every time I go looking for product comparisons and reviews for the camera that I purchased I always discover good reviews. Best Buys has 9 reviews for my camera and almost all of them give the camera five out of five stars. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that I purchased a camera that others feel is a good product.
I’ll certainly be going back to doing research before I buy in the future though. I lucked out on my camera, but I’d hate to end up purchasing a lemon just because I didn’t compare a products features, pros,and cons before buying!
If you decide to visit the site you should take a look at Best Buys Comparison Reviews. You can read comparisons on this page of various services. For example it’s said that some of the best and most popular antivirus programs that you can purchase are McaFee and Norton Antivirus. Well at Bestbuys.com you can read a comparison of the two products and find out which product has the best computer security features, best performance and which has the best support as well as finding out which product bestbuys.com thinks is the best buy for your money.
Likewise you can compare services such as Blockbuster versus NetFlix, or if you want to get internet phone service you can compare Vonage with SunRocket and so on. You can compare all kinds of services such music cd clubs, online dating services, satellite TV services, high speed internet services and so on. I’m sure that some of these comparisons will be quick helpful.
Some of the reviews that I’ve just listed above, such as perhaps Blockbuster versus Netflix also has what Bestbuys.com calls “Fine Print Revealed” reviews where you can read information that marketers might not necessarily openly reveal to their clients prior to their signing up for the service. If you want to find out what’s behind the Blockbuster Total Access marketing campaign do visit the service comparison page.
The Fine Print Revealed reviews can sometimes be eye openers and they are worth visiting the site to read if you are interested in comparing particular services before you sign a service contract.
Hopefully bestbuys.com will continue to add more Fine Print Revealed articles to their site. Since I live in Canada a few of their comparison articles aren’t relevant as we don’t necessarily have the same service companies here in Canada as there are in the US. I’m not complaining of course, of the 15 direct comparison articles that I found 11 are services that I might use at some point.
Overall I really like this site and I’ve already bookmarked it. I’m certain I’ll visit Bestbuys.com the next time I’m thinking of making a substantial purchase. The site is very user friendly. You can use the search box at the top of the page to easily find a product or service to read reviews on or to compare features and prices, or you can click on any of the tabs at the top of each page to get to any of the major category sections of the site. Remember there’s over 40 million products and services listed on BestBuys.com!
BestBuys.com also has a weekly newsletter to which you might want to subscribe. The newsletter lists best buys, freebies, and contest information. In fact, speaking of contests, when you refer friends and they subscribe to the newsletter you’ll have a chance to win a monthly prize of $100. I know I’d like a chance to win $100 so if you’d like me to refer you to the newsletter just let me know.
Don’t forget to bookmark BestBuys.com so you can comparison shop before you buy!
Sorry that I haven’t been posting over the last few days. We had our family reunion from Friday until earlier this afternoon and I’m just exhausted!
On Friday we went to see the Blue Jays play a game of baseball against the Seattle Mariners. Of course the Blue Jays won the game. 10 of us attended the game that day.
That day I’d wanted to get downtown a little earlier because some of the cast of Heroes was in town and they were doing some presentation at Dundas Square. I didn’t make it to that, but much to my surprise the four cast members that were in town went to the baseball game! I took some photos and I’ll be making a post on my Celebrity blog shortly with a few of the photos included. So I did get to see some Heroes after all. Pretty cool.
The next day we, 15 of us, went on a dinner boat cruise on Lake Ontario. We had a great meal and I’ve got some fantastic photos of the cities skyline at sunset that I took from the boat. Just beautiful. If you ever come to Toronto I highly recommend going on a dinner boat cruise. It was a lot of fun.
On Sunday we went to my brothers in Aurora, Ontario for a BBQ. I think there were 24 or 26 of us that day. I’d lost count by that point! We had a great day together. My niece brought a game called Washer Toss with her to the BBQ. It had been my parents washer toss boards that we’d always played with when visiting them in Ottawa. Most of us hadn’t played for at least four years so it was an interesting tournament! My sister in law and my nieces husband ended up being the big champs of the day, but my nephew and I came in second. Yes I can throw washers! LOL
Lets see, I’m so tired I’m trying to remember just what we did yesterday … Oh yes … My brother from Vancouver, his son, and his daughter and her boyfriend went to the Hockey Hall of Fame while my sister in law came over to our house. Chris and I took my sister in law to Toronto’s beach area and we had a great time walking on the boardwalk, watching volleyball games and eating ice cream.
Later that evening we all met up again at a downtown restaurant for dinner. Man that restaurant had huge servings! Every single thing I ordered I only ate part of and brought the rest home in a doggy bag. We had my left overs for dinner tonight.
Today was the final day that any of us could get together. My brother from Vancouver, his wife, son, daughter and her boyfriend were going back to Vancouver at 7 pm this evening, but they had the day to get together with whoever was available. Luckily Chris had today off work so we met up with them and went to an art gallery where one of my nephews had some of his photos on display. Since that was around lunch time my sister who lives and works in the downtown area was able to get together with us to see my nephews work and then we went and have some coffee and tea together before dropping her off a her office again.
We then went to the beach area again so those who didn’t go yesterday could see how lovely the area was. Around mid afternoon we had a nice lunch on an outdoor patio on the Beaches – complete with more left over food to bring home. Why do restaurants have such huge servings?
After that we lead my brother towards the highway so he could head back to the airport area to return their vehicle and check in to await their flight.
Can you see why I’m tired? I’m totally wiped out! I have to recover though ’cause my birthday’s on Thursday and I’m sure we’ll be doing something that day too.
I’ll be processing all the photos that I took over the weekend (probably 500!) on the computer and posting some soon. Stay tuned as there are some spectacular shots!
What did you do over the holiday weekend?
I just love hibiscus flowers. They are so large and colorful. I love the vibrant peachy orange of this one.
For years we grew a tall hibiscus tree indoors in our apartment, but when we moved to the house it died on us. Since then I think I’ve only managed to keep smaller tropical hibiscus plants alive for about two years at the most. Naturally I keep the hibiscus outdoors in the summer and then bring it in towards the end of September when it begins to get cooler during the day and night.
I think this year I’m going to get another humidifier for our house, but the new humidifier will just be in our spare bedroom where we keep our tropical plants during the winter months. The extra moisture in the air should help. I hope!
If you have success keeping hibiscus and other tropical indoor during the cold winter months I’d love to hear how you do it. Maybe one of your tips will work for me.
BTW sorry that my Green Thumb Sunday post is so late. I’ve had a whirlwind of a weekend. See the next post!
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
The other day I taped the movie Snakes on a Plane. I thought I heard good things about that movie? I guess it was ok, but at the height of the snake attacks it was just too unbelievable and corny for me. The beginning and end of the movie were fine.
Did you see the movie? Did you enjoy it? I’m certainly glad that I didn’t go to the theater to see this one!