Our new dining table has been installed. Now we just need chairs. :)

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Hotel room. Paid $55/night. Warning: sudden jaw droppage may occur.

All I can say is... "pimp status". Right on the beach/harbor. Sweet
dreams.

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Storm clouds slowly creeping my way just beyond the San Gabriel mountains...

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Oh to be a cat...

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Great article about weight loss by Melanie Polk: don't count calories; make your calories count.

Make your calories count By Melanie Polk, M.M.Sc., R.D., F.A.D.A. Fad diets come and go. But, the pounds they send packing often come back — sometimes with a few of their buddies. There's a reason for this. It's difficult to stick with an eating plan that's too strict or limits variety. After days of nothing but rice cakes and lemon water, you're bound to crave a bacon double cheeseburger or a gooey hot fudge sundae. And, that's the kind of hunger attack that can make you give up on all your good intentions. If this sounds familiar, here's some diet information you can finally sink your teeth into: Instead of counting your calories, make your calories count. For many people, feeling deprived and hungry is what dooms a diet. But, in general, it's the amount or type of food you eat — not the number of calories — that makes you feel full. The power of produce All foods can have a place on your plate. But, certain nutritious foods fill you up and may have fewer calories, naturally. At the same time, you'll give your body the nutrients it needs to function at its best. Foods with plenty of water and fiber fit the bill. You know them from the produce aisle: fruits and vegetables. Both supply vitamins, minerals and other good-for-you substances. And, both are typically low in calories. Well, that's if fruit isn't on top of ice cream, and veggies aren't breaded, fried, creamed or covered in butter. Subtract before adding One word of caution: You don't want to just add more fruits and veggies to what you're eating already. The key is to substitute them for higher-calorie foods. At breakfast: Put a little less cereal in your bowl. Make room for a sliced banana or a handful of blueberries. At lunch: Hold the cheese and part of the meat from your sandwich. Add lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, onion or green pepper instead. At snack time: Replace chips from the vending machine with a cut-up apple smeared with a little peanut butter. At dinner: Cut back on portions of meat. Instead, make veggies the main event. Enjoy a hearty bean soup. Or, fix a quick veggie stir-fry with a few strips of chicken breast and served over brown rice. A plan for life As you add more fruits and vegetables to your meals, don't think of it as a diet. Consider it a new way of life — one you'll likely prefer given time. And, remember: Produce alone doesn't provide all the nutrients you need. So, add balance with sensible portions of whole grains, lean meats, low-fat or fat-free dairy products, nuts and beans. Combine this way of eating with regular exercise,* and you can be on your way to losing a healthful 1 to 2 pounds a week. Best of all, you'll be doing it with eating habits that aren't hard to swallow. And, exercise is good for your overall health, too. *For safety's sake, talk with your doctor before significantly increasing your level of physical activity. Melanie Polk is a registered dietitian who specializes in educating consumers with simple strategies for better health. She has more than 20 years of experience in nutrition and cancer prevention, nutrition for seniors, and is a Fellow of the American Dietetic Association. She has been a nutrition consultant with OptumHealth for more than a decade.

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The Price Is Right: Get notified when the price of your favorite item drops

From: "Netted by the Webbys" <netted@netted.net>
Date: September 10, 2010 4:35:28 AM PDT
Subject: Netted | The Price Is Right
Reply-To: "Netted by the Webbys" <netted@netted.net>

Having trouble reading this email? View it on our website. Netted is editorially independent. We do not accept payment for editorial coverage.

Down Market Find The Lowest Possible Prices On The Items You Want Prices.  They go up and they go down.  This is what makes a market.  The goal, of course, is to catch them on the "down" part of their movement.   Short of running the Federal Reserve the best way to do this is with Price Protectr, a free service that tracks the prices of items you’re thinking about buying, ensuring you pay the lowest price.   The service makes it simple to watch prices, keep track of purchases, and even get rebates on top of price drops.   To use it you simply paste the product information page for a particular item into a box at the Price Protectr site (this is usually the page where you’d add the item to your shopping cart).  Then you add your email.   When the price drops they’ll email you.  Already bought something now available at a lower price?  You can use the service to get the difference from any of their 160 supported stores.   For serious shoppers there’s the Price Protectr Toolbar, which offers one-click checking, deal alerts and more. Alan Greenspan could have used this service...  Visit Price Protectr Tweet this Share on Facebook Sign up for Netted Send to a friend  Advertisement Follow us on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Netted by the Webbys, 19 West 21st Street, Suite 1004, New York, NY 10010

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Cool LED lighting system for closet and bedroom: only $20 at Costco.

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Camping! The wifi base station is a nice modern touch. Especially since cell service is a no-go.

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How to handle an apology

Pretty good apology from the co-founder and CEO of Posterous, Sachin Agarwal. He could have blamed the outage on whatever, but instead simply stated what happened, stated the results, and manned up and apologized for the outage, complete with reasons why it will be less likely to happen in the future.

Almost as good as the apology from Jeff Bezos during the Amazon Kindle book deletion, but really... a better apology than Jeff's cannot be found.

Steve Jobs should take note for the iPhone antenna issues that I've personally been able to duplicate by simply touching my finger to the black bar (not using the death grip).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Posterous Newsletter <no-reply@posterous.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 7:13 PM
Subject: The Path Ahead After a Tough Week
To: Michael Paul

posterous

You're receiving this email because you signed up for a posterous account.

Hi Michael

As you’re no doubt aware, Posterous has had a rocky six days.

On Wednesday and Friday, our servers were hit by massive Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. We responded quickly and got back online within an hour, but it didn’t matter; the site went down and our users couldn’t post.

On Friday night, our team worked around the clock to move to new data centers, better capable of handling the onslaught. It wasn’t easy. Throughout the weekend we were fixing issues, optimizing the site, some things going smoothly, others less so.

Just at the moments we thought the worst was behind us, we’d run up against another challenge. It tested not only our technical abilities, but our stamina, patience, and we lost more than a few hairs in the process.

I’m happy to report Posterous is at 100% and better than ever. Switching to a new data center will help us avoid the type of attacks we saw last week, and the new, bigger, beefier servers will speed up the site and increase capacity. We were hit pretty hard, but we’ve come out stronger in the end.

While we were certainly frustrated, we know that no one was more frustrated than you. Your website was down, and I humbly apologize for that. Know that throughout these six days, restoring your site and your trust has been our number one priority.

At the same time, I have never been prouder of the Posterous team. Garry led the team in the server migration, Vince worked like a mad man until he passed out on his desk, and Jackson helped the community understand the impacts of some pretty technical issues. This week has been all hands on deck, and we had some pretty great hands.

We have great plans for the future of Posterous. Our team is stronger than ever, and we are laser focused on developing better ways for you to share your content online. Thank you for believing in us, thank you for trusting us, and thank you for sticking with us through the past six days.

--Sachin Agarwal

Cofounder and CEO, Posterous

Posterous loves posting for you!

Post now by emailing post@posterous.com »

Attach photos, music, video, documents and any type of file. We take care of the rest.

Posterous is the place to post everything. Just email us.

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The beginnings of fresh homemade pizza

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It's nice to see the bamboo from our wedding has been recycled appropriately...

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A tool that takes the guesswork out of decorating:

It's funny how Netted seems to predict exactly what I'll need at any point in life. If you're not subscribed to their newsletter, I highly recommend you do so. So many cool things out there on the interwebs.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Netted by the Webbys <netted@netted.net>
Date: Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 4:35 AM
Subject: Netted | It's Your Move
To: mapaul+netted@gmail.com

Having trouble reading this email? View it on our website. Netted is editorially independent. We do not accept payment for editorial coverage.

Room Service A Tool That Takes The Guesswork Out Of Decorating One of the most difficult parts of buying new furniture is picturing what it will look like in your home. To avoid the guesswork, try Roomle, a free online room-planning tool that lets you visualize changes to your living space. Sign on to Roomle (a free account isn't required, but you can't save designs without one) to begin assembling your dream room. Once you specify the basic dimensions of your room, begin adding from a list of hundreds of household items, like windows, couches, or beds and even smaller details such as art or plants The layout editor has both 2-D and 3-D views so you have every perspective of what your new room will look like. When you're happy with your design, save it as an image and send it off to your family and friends (and your decorator).  Now you just need to convince your spouse that an L-shaped bean bag couch is a good idea…  Visit Roomle Sign up for Netted Send to a friend  Advertisement Follow us on Twitter Join our Facebook Page You're receiving this email because you signed up for the Netted newsletter at Netted.net If you do not want to receive these daily emails, click here to unsubscribe. Netted by the Webbys, 19 West 21st Street, Suite 602, New York, NY 10010

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