ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Looking like a wild animal, Payton worked on a poster for a book report project on our dining table.

We recently found a memory stick that had some old photos on it. Can't believe how much the kids have changed in 5 years!

Blake (2 years old)


Blake, Payton (almost 9), Isaac (age 5)


All the grandkids at that time (there will be a total of 12 as of next year) - Blake, Payton, Mia (nearly 2), Joey (nearly 1), Isaac


Then Christmas morning at my parents house...

The toys that Santa left....

I do a lot of reading online about all topics but recently I've been spending more time reading about ways to save better or earn more. Here's a few interesting things I've come across and I have verified they are all legit.

YouData - You sign-up on youdata.com and fill out a survey about yourself including gender, income range, number of kids, etc. The site will then show you ads via a widget that pertain to your demographics. You get paid for each ad they show you. They deposit the money into your PayPal account. Blake and I had fun doing it, we made probably $5 in just a few minutes and I actually really liked some of the sites that I went to.

HouseParty.com - You sign-up to host a party and advertisers sign-up to give out goods for people to host parties. The parties are themed around certain things such as living green or cooking. It's totally free and win/win but you can't predict which parties you'll be chosen for. Once you are chosen, you can send invites through the site and there's an area to upload pics from your party.

SmartSourceJobs.com - This is an actual part-time job opportunity that involves going to stores and switching out the ads that appear on shopping carts or displays. The company sends you the materials and then you go on your route to various stores. What fascinates me about it is that it's totally flexible so it's great for stay-at-home parents to do when they can (while kids are in school, at night after they go to bed, etc.). Many people do it with their spouse or older kids as well. There's 1 week out of the month where the hours are close to full-time but the other 3 weeks, it's just a few hours each week.

I love John King and his crazy map on CNN. He's just so passionate about it. SNL on Thursday spoofed him and cracked me up so much that Andy said it was the most he'd seen me laugh.

Move the slider to 5:20 to start seeing the magical map.

I had a Facebook status recently that said "Shannon Albert doesn't like undecided voters" or something like that. These last few weeks of the presidential campaign are all about throwing millions of dollars at undecided voters to try to sway them one way or the other. I propose we stop caring about them if they can't make up their minds without millions of dollars of ads being run on their TV. Undecided voters say things like "but the candidates are so much alike" or "it's like choosing the lesser of two evils." No, it's not. We have two good men to choose from who are very different from each other. Make a choice. Or don't. But let's not waste time and money on people who maybe shouldn't be voting in the first place.

David Sedaris (a favorite author of mine and one of the only authors whose books I'm compelled to buy as soon as they come out) recently wrote an article about undecided voters for The New Yorker. An excerpt:

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?

Update: Just after I posted this, I read an article about some possible reasons people might be undecided. Yeah, these seem about right. :)

Somebody said to me recently "are gay rights the only reason you are voting Democratic?" The answer is no (in fact, I swing very conservative on fiscal matters) but the fact is, civil matters trump fiscal ones. This looks absurd in 2008 and I hope that lack of gay rights in 2008 someday look just as absurd to us.

We went to KC for the weekend and I took pics but my memory card once again got messed up. Not sure what's up there but maybe time to get a new memory card.

On Friday evening, Dan had a party at his house to celebrate signing the papers for his restaurant. There were a lot of people there including some people we haven't seen in years. So excited for Dan.

On Saturday, we went with my parents to Parkville, Missouri, to meet up with my brother, his wife and their son for some pizza and shopping. I can't believe I've never been to Parkville. It looks like a New England town with lots of quaint shops and restaurants and has a university there. It was voted one of the top ten coolest small towns in the US. I haven't been to the other 9 but I think I agree.