What's in a name?

I was watching SportsCenter the other day and they mentioned a game that happened at PETCO Park in San Diego. It's kinda depressing sometimes when sports arenas and concert venues have to change to the names of their corporate sponsors. Most visiting teams aren't going to be too intimidated by a name like Qualcomm Stadium.

Here in the New York area, we're still getting used to the transition from Shea Stadium to Citi Field. But we know it could be worse, and at least it doesn't sound too corporate. And on the west coast I'm sure it's similar. It sounds cooler to say that you're going to the Hollywood Bowl or got Great Western Forum tickets than it does to say that you're off to AT&T Park. (And if you do happen to be in the market for some Hollywood Bowl tickets and want to test this theory, Jack Johnson's going to be there next month. Love him.)

For football fans, the mention of, say, Lambeau Field conjures up images and memories of epic clashes on frozen tundra and other NFL Films voiceover phrases like that. (Although, not being a Packers fan myself, I'm curious about whether those Lambeau Field tickets are still selling like they did when Brett Favre was there.) It's not quite the same feeling when your stadium has a name like Sun Life Stadium or FedEx Field.

I guess I'm spoiled as a New York sports fan, because here we still have Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, and the Meadowlands. No offense to any of the teams that play at Corporate Park, but I hope our venues keep their names for a long time.

Music Monday: Taylor Swift's "Mine"

I have to confess that I love Taylor Swift. I know that not everyone's a fan, but I think she's adorable and talented. (I also love the way she handled breaking up with one of the Jonas Brothers.) Her new video for the song "Mine" is really sweet:

My Stately Manor

Confession time: I watched One Life to Live today. I have SoapNet and sometimes I'm not afraid to use it. I always have to laugh at how every soap has its own set of super powerful families with decades long roots in some small town and huge mansions and "family businesses" that are actually huge corporations that just happen to be set in said little town. On OLTL the big mansions even have names - Llanfair and La Boulet. (Admittedly the La Boulet naming was mostly played for laughs.)

If I ever own a stately manor, it'll have a name like GardenLakeGlenCrest Estates and I'll get a fancy address sign like this:


Nice, right? Or maybe I'll go for the wall-mounted address plaque style instead. Something like this:




I'll probably just get both. Can't be too careful. And of course I'll need one of these, because everyone needs to know how exclusive my fancy estate is:


Or I could go poetic and make people think that I'm some sort of mysterious reclusive writer or artist or something:



Of course, if you're rich enough to afford your own stately manor, you have to switch out your address plaques for all of the major holidays.
Wait, I found it! The perfect plaque for my manor house. It's beautiful. It's unique. It's sophisticated. It's classy.

What do you think? Perfect, isn't it?

Fun with Scholarships

So my little cousin is going to be a senior in high school this year, which means she's started her college search. (It also means that I'm probably going to have to stop calling her my "little" cousin.) She's the youngest in her family which means that her parents have already sent a couple of kids to college, so financial aid is an issue. She's started doing some research on college scholarships because she knows how helpful those will be for her and her family. Luckily, she's a really good student, which makes it easier.

I've been helping her out a little bit with the search. I used to love doing scholarship research when I was in high school. (Yeah, I'm a huge dork.) It's great when you find sites where you can do searches for free. It's still amazing to me just how much different stuff is out there, from minority scholarships for various groups to essay contests to scholarships contests from Fortune 500 companies to college grants from different foundations and nonprofit organizations. She and I have also found some cool scholarship opportunities specifically for young women.

And then of course there are all of those college scholarships for athletics, which I certainly never qualified for. My cousin tells me that there's going to be a new show on the CW this fall where the premise involves a girl who becomes a cheerleader because she loses her scholarship and needs to find a new one quickly. I wouldn't know anything about a show like that because I'm way too old to watch the CW. (Ahem.) I don't think my cousin is going to end up a cheerleader, but at least the scholarship part of that is something that a lot of young people can relate to.

Casino Practice

I mentioned last week that we're heading to Las Vegas for the first time later this year. None of us are really experienced gamblers, but we can't go to Vegas and not spend some time in the casinos, right? So we were thinking of trying our hand at a little online gambling before we go. I know, I know. Not something you want to just jump into without really knowing what you're doing. So, we found this cool site called casinoscandinavia - it's a site that has ratings, reviews, and other info about a lot of the different online gaming sites that are out there. There are also some posts about news stories and other issues related to the industry. It's a good way to us to sort of get our feet wet, learn a little, and maybe improve our sad gambling skills (in a responsible way, of course) before we head to Vegas.


*Casino research brought to you by casinoscandinavia.

Foodie Friday: Wondering what to make for dinner?

We've all been there. Sitting around in the afternoon, wondering what we should make for dinner that night. For the best answer EVER to that question, click here.

No, really, go ahead and click. You won't regret it.

Credit Scores Are Sexy

I mentioned that other day that I was looking into online trading and some other stuff to help me be more in charge of my finances. I'm also going to do something that I've been procrastinating on for a long time - get a copy of my credit report and make sure that it's all in order. I'm usually pretty good about the actual bill paying and staying out of debt, it's just the "housekeeping" stuff that I tend to put off. (My currently unbalanced checkbook will back me up on this.)

Of course, I don't actually want to pay for a credit report, because that wouldn't be very financially savvy of me. So I went looking for a site where you can get all three of your credit scores for free.

The one that I found has some interesting ads. One features Ben Stein and a talking squirrel...




...and the other involves hot guys in tight jumpsuits...



...so how can you go wrong?

Also, I just noticed that one of the sexy credit scores in this commercial is Greg Vaughan, who used to be on General Hospital. I know that Lucky Spencer would never lead me astray about my finances. My credit score feels healthier already.