Reviews and More

My whole family is into motocross, so we have a few different bikes in the garage. My favorite is our Honda CRF50 minibike, which we’ve modified to accommodate adults. Some people go all out and spend thousands of dollars on these mods, but since we don’t race, we just made a few basic changes. For example, we bought bigger handlebars and had some work done on the suspension. Plus, we also bought Fastway footpegs for the bike.

The CRF50 is supposed to be a kids’ bike, so it comes with tiny footpegs that are very uncomfortable for an adult to use. The Fastway pegs we bought are huge — more than twice the width of the stockers, which is precisely what we needed.

I really like our Fastway footpegs. We got them at a great price, they were easy to install (no special mounting bracket needed), and they’ve taken a beating without problems.

If you’re a minibike enthusiast or if you want to change the stock footpegs on your regular MX bike, I recommend going with Fastway!

For most people, finding a new job would mean having to spend countless hours polishing their resume, scouring job boards and classified ads, composing emails to HR managers, and attending interviews. That’s a lot of work right there, and I’m sure that discourages people from looking for a new position even if they’re unhappy with their current one.

One alternative to this process would be to let a professional recruiting firm do all the work for you. For example, I know of a civil engineering recruitmentment firm that specializes in helping candidates find civil engineering jobs in hundreds of locations across the country. The firm is called Civil Search International (CSI), and they have years of experience in placing candidates with excellent companies. All you have to do is register with CSI, talk to one of their specialists, and then sit back and let them do the rest of the work.

If you’re looking for a civil engineering job, give CSI a try!

When my husband and I heard a couple years ago that there was a supercross movie in the works, we couldn’t wait for it to be released. Supercross is one of our favorites sports — so much so, in fact, that we’ve often traveled thousands of miles to watch a single race.

Unfortunately, the 2005 Steve Boyum film Supercross was one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life. It was an embarrassment to me as a fan, and I know I’m not the only one who felt that way.

There was nothing original in the entire script. Supercross follows a standard sports movie storyline wherein the hero is an underdog and has to overcome several disadvantages in order to make it to the top. Of course his talent and his determination prevail, and it all culminates in the big race where he finally beats his rivals.

Notice how I didn’t use any names or specific details in that last paragraph? That’s because it’s a cookie-cutter description of a cookie-cutter movie, which is precisely what Supercross is.

Besides not having a decent storyline other errors in the film. I could sit here and nitpick about the way the motorcycle sound effects didn’t match the bikes that were actually on the screen or how the racers’ equipment changed noticeably in different shots of the same race, but why bother? The movie only grossed $3 million at the box office, so you probably haven’t seen it anyway!

Even though I love the sport of Supercross, I have to give this movie 3 stars out of 10. Yes, it was that bad!

At the beginning of each calendar year, I take some time to review my household finances from the previous year. I basically just want to make sure that my family is staying on budget and that we’re not living beyond our means. Because I scrutinize our expenditures like this, it’s easy for me to see where most of our money is going. One of the biggest drains on our budget is insurance: car insurance, home insurance, and life insurance.

While I think the policies we have are decent, I do keep an eye out for better rates. Today I found out about a site called Insure121 that offers cheap home and auto insurance, as well as travel insurance, caravan insurance, and even pet insurance. Too bad I don’t live in the Uk or I’d definitely try to take advantage of those rates!

Regular television programming is finally back!!! This is a good thing, because I was going pretty crazy thanks to that long hiatus. I did some checking and saw that the last new Desperate Housewives episode aired way back on November 26. That seems like ages ago, doesn’t it?

Sunday’s ep was called “No Fits, No Fights, No Feuds,” and was a welcome return for the show. It wasn’t a great episode, but I was so happy to watch something new that I didn’t mind! Here’s what happened. Spoilers throughout, so be warned!

All the characters made at least a token appearance, which was somewhat unusual. I’ll just give a quick rundown of what they did:

Bree/Orson: Orson’s first wife Alma suddenly shows up at Bree’s door. If you remember, she disappeared mysteriously and a lot of people thought Orson killed her. Bree wanted to gloat about Alma returning because she thinks that clears Orson of Monique’s murder, so she invites the girls over for dinner and gets Alma to make a big entrance. Everyone is suitably shocked — until the police come knocking on the door to question Orson once again.

Susan/Ian/Mike: Susan went to visit Mike in prison, which was expressly forbidden by Ian when he agreed to foot the legal bills. I have never been a fan of the Susan/Mike pairing, and they still have zero chemistry on the screen. Yuck. Anyway, later on Ian finds out Susan saw Mike, he gets mad, she says she loves him (Ian), they make up…. kinda boring.

The Scavo clan: Kayla finally comes to live with Lynette, Tom, and the other kids. She’s predictably a brat and pulls the “You’re not my mom” card on Lynette. That whole storyline is uninteresting to me, so whatever.

Austin/Julie: Julie finally agrees to sleep with Austin, but little does she know that he’s also sleeping with Danielle (Bree’s daughter, in case you forgot).

Gabby/Carlos: Gabby gets dumped by Bill, but that was a good thing because he didn’t seem to be her type at all. Then she and Carlos have a nice scene out on the porch of Mike’s house. You can tell they still care for each other, so I hope they get back together soon. They’re the only couple that really seems like they belong together.

Like I said, this wasn’t a particularly strong episode, but it was nice to see the wives again after all this time!

My husband has a friend who is a huge fan of motocross. He not only watches every amateur and professional race he can get to, but also rides whenever he has a chance. Of course, since we live in the Chicago area, he has to stay off the bike for several months due to the weather. This guy has often talked about moving to southern California, which is the capital of U.S. motocross, in order to get a job in the industry and be able to ride the entire year.

So he’s been looking for a house in the Temecula area, but hasn’t found anything suitable. One reason for this is the fact that he had no idea how expensive southern California real estate is. He can’t afford anything right now, so will have to keep monitoring the market to see if something in his price range comes up.

An easy way to do this is by checking out a website like mlsprintouts.com. On this site, prospective buyers (and sellers) can get free printouts of properties on the market in Murrieta, Temecula, San Diego County, and cities in the area. Again, the site is completely free and seems like it’s a fantastic resource for those interested in the SoCal real estate market.

I’m going to pass this info on to my husband’s friend. Maybe he’ll be able to get his dream home and his dream job after all!

When you travel to a foreign country, one of the most important resources to have at your disposal is a guidebook that will show you the ins and outs of the places you want to visit. I used to think that all of these travel guides are pretty much created equal(ly), but practical experience has shown me that’s not the case at all.

Take Exploring Japan, which is part of the Fodor’s series of travel guides. I picked up this volume a short time ago because I wanted yet another perspective on travelling in the Land of the Rising Sun. I purchased the book from Amazon.com, so didn’t have a chance to leaf through it before making my decision. That was a big mistake!

The volume is thin, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I actually prefer compact travel guides to the big bulky ones. But the problem with Exploring Japan is that it doesn’t provide much information on the few pages that it contains. You get the most cursory explanations and descriptions, no pricing info at all, and terrible maps. I tried using this book to plan a trip to some resort areas outside of Tokyo, but found it to be completely useless.

If you need a guidebook for an upcoming trip to Japan, DO NOT go with Fodor’s Exploring Japan. It’s a complete waste of money!!