Friday Finds – February 23, 2007

– Are you smarter than a 5th grader? Although this new Fox game show may be corny, both my husband and I want to watch it. He thinks he is smarter than a 5th grader. Me? Not so much. This week, someone had to remind me how to correctly write the formula of water: H2O. (The “2” should be subscript. Not superscript. Thanks, person-who-paid-attention-in-class.) With luck, I’ll reach 6th-grade level before the summer. The show premieres Tuesday night.

– Check out the ReStore for your remodel. Find building materials at a low cost at a Habitat ReStore. Many of the materials are donated by builders and contractors. Proceeds from the sales help fund construction on Habitat houses. Plus, by it helps the environment by reusing good, usable materials.

– Free Coffee-Mate! At our house, we go through Coffee-Mate creamer faster than you can say, “You’re making a second pot, right?” So I was excited to find this offer for a free 7-day supply of Coffee-Mate. Sign up to receive a coupon by mail.

– Who’s really living near you? A friend of mine emailed me this website that shows you a map of sex offenders living or working near your home. Enter your address at FamilyWatchdog.us and get the names, addresses, photos of registered offenders in your neighborhood.

Susan’s Finds

– You deserve two hours of belly laughs. So tonight, or sometime soon, get a babysitter and go see Reno 911!: Miami. One of the funniest TV shows ever is premiering tonight as what’s sure to be a gloriously stupid (and hilarious) feature-length film. For those who haven’t see the show on Comedy Central (shame on you!), think Cops meets improv sketch comedy. If you don’t laugh your ass off … well, trust me, you will.

– Do something Good for you. I just heard about Good Magazine, defined as “media for people who give a damn.” Hey, I give a damn! So what is it, exactly? For one, it’s a bimonthly magazine. The most recent issue’s articles cover topics such as the moral implications of where you buy your gas, opening your home to traveling strangers, and “unconscious consumption.” Interesting, thought-provoking stuff. Your entire subscription price goes to help the organization of your choice. Good also produces feature and documentary films, original multimedia content, and local events–all with the goal of changing the world for the better. Go ahead, call me a hippie.

– Make friends while you make money. If you’re a mom who’s also an entrepreneur, did you know you’re a “mompreneur”? It’s an English-French hybrid buzzword. Anyway, you might want to check out BusinessMom.net, a new social/business networking site designed for mompreneurs like you. Even though I’m not really a mompreneur, I’m on the site. But I don’t have any friends–yet.

– Go ahead, let it all hang out. Kleenex’s new Let It Out campaign celebrates the famous tissue’s place in your life. When you laugh hysterically, bawl unabashedly, or well up with emotion, what do you reach for? A Kleenex, of course. The website features emotional vignettes with real people talking about real Kleenex moments. You can upload your own stories, too. Sara and I both got a little weepy looking at some of the Let It Out videos. So before you click, grab a Kleenex.

Tela’s Finds

– A calorie-burning drink? I admit, I was suckered into buying the new drink from Coke, Enviga. I’m an early adopter, as marketers would say. The drink promises to burn 60-100 calories a day if you drink three cans. Or something like that. Enviga was actually quite tasty, but I looked at the list of ingredients and was shocked–aspartame, potassium benzoate, phenylalanine. Not exactly sure what those last two are, but they don’t sound like they are good for me. I tried the Berry kind, and have the “regular” green tea kind to try later. I only bought individual servings, and I’m not sure I’ll buy again. While tasty, some of the ingredients are scary, and it’s expensive.