1NetezNet

I have been with HostGator as my webhost for several months now, after moving away from the awful Dreamhost due to the atrocious way they handled it when one of my sites became high traffic — I have never looked back so thought I would sign their praises a little here.

Set up was easy, I love that they use CPanel as I am used to it, every thing is easy to find and action within my control panel, the support forums are active and friendly and on the odd occasion I have had to contact support about something the response has been fast, helpful and professional.

They have also had absolutely no issue hosting my high traffic website, the one that Dreamhost could not handle, pulled offline without warning and told me to either buy dedicated private hosting or ship out.

No host is perfect and I am not going to claim HostGator is, this is not a sales pitch for them — for one thing I don’t like that they try and charge you for a lot of things that they really shouldn’t and most hosts don’t, such as restoring a backup for you. Plus they do seem to have a lot of scheduled maintenance.

But overall I rate and recommend them and hope I continue to have a good experience there as moving hosts is a huge pain!

Check out other possible reviews and a test account of HostGator at Web Hosting Column.

…or not to treat myself, that is the question.

Further to my last post about Mother’s Day fast approaching (May 10th, don’t forget guys!) I was doing a wee search around to see what I should get her this year. She is so easy to buy for because she loves all of the things women are supposed to love — chocolates, flowers and of course jewelry. Honestly, I imagine if we won the lottery and money was no object she would have an entire room full of rings and necklaces and bracelets — I would have a similar room but it would be full of shoes and handbags, drool.

Any way in looking for some nice simple jewelry for my mom I came across Blue Nile and ended up looking for myself rather than for her, oops, they have so many nice pieces that are to my taste and they are really affordable as well. Have you ever noticed how some stores up their prices close to Valentines day and Mother’s day? Uh huh they really do, sneaky. But these guys clearly have not done that.

Now as I say the question is do I treat myself to something, or be a good girl and wait until June when I can nag the husband to be into buying me something pretty for our anniversary?

Oh decisions, decisions.

Look at this, it shows the starting weight, weight loss and percent loss of all of the contestants who were on the show this year:

It really highlights the amazing effort of Bob doesn’t it, and I went into the finale thinking that Sharif and Sammy were in with a chance, hah. I think it’s great that the top four overall biggest losers actually placed 1 – 4, Stuart and Ben did amazingly well considering the time they spent in the house….and wow look how low down the list ‘threats’ Nathan and Andrew ended up, behind grandma Julie and ‘weak’ Cameron, teehee. I think it’s safe to say that Sean and Ben proved themselves as the alpha males in the end (that said, Nathan and Andrew do look amazing — very muscled!).

I wish there was more, I am having withdrawals!

OK this week I am going to make a start on watching The Office USA, my husband to be is a huge fan of the UK version and we keep saying we should give the USA version a try but have never gotten around to it — the only problem I have with watching The Office is that it always makes me want to buy new office furniture and accessories — I have always been a sucker for office stuff, does that make me a nerd?

You really shouldn’t have to wait until Mother’s Day to buy your mom flowers and let her know that you love her and appreciate every thing she does and has done for you, but let’s be honest most people do just that — which is of course better than nothing, some people don’t get their mother’s any thing other than a card for the big day even though they clearly do love and adore them and that upsets me greatly.

Here’s one of the many reasons I love my mom. I am pushing 30 now, but she still takes care of me when I am worried or stressed. I have to go to a wedding in just over a weeks time and I am not an experienced wedding goer, in addition to that the last few times I went to one I was wearing a whopping size 22 dress — this means I needed a new outfit and a lot of advice on what you are and aren’t meant to wear for a wedding — three weeks later now and after seven, yes seven shopping trips with my lovely mom I have my outfit sorted. A nice bright dress, a sparkly bolero, some new earrings and bracelets and some gorgeous little heals.

Thanks Mom, I would have been lost without you

Now that Julie from The Biggest Loser Australia is one hot momma she doesn’t need to worry about her husband leaving her, because if he does she will have no trouble pulling now — she could become one of those older women who like to date hot younger men, called cougars I believe.

She really was looking smokin’ at the finale

I sometimes think I must have been a magpie in a previous life, because I can’t get enough of all things shiny and blinging. I practically drool at the sight of cubic zirconia and twinkly amethysts — it’s one of the many reasons I love all the creative reality shows that are out there, like Next Top Model and Project Runway, Project Runway is especially good at feeding my wee gem addiction as they are forever emblazoning their creations with the stuff.

I want to be a fashion designer just because it would mean I get to work with gems and gorgeous fabrics all the time. Other than that I would hate to be a fashion designer because I am too clumsy and would constantly be pricking myself with a needle, heh.

I do worry about this wee obsession of mine though because my mum shares it and she feeds her obsession by watching those awful shopping channels 24/7 and buying all manner of jewellery and gems and other things that she then either sends back because they were too expensive or because they don’t look any where near as nice up close and personal as they did on the television — she never learns though, she always goes back for more.

I am officially out of hiding, for the first time ever I wanted to get to watch The Biggest Loser Australia finale without having already found out the winner.

For me any of the four really could have won it and I wanted to watch it without knowing.

Bob was the obvious winner in that he had the highest % and was a weight loss machine, but I did think there was a high chance he would throw it in order to let Tiffany win — the parents this season never made any bones about the fact they were there for their kids and wanted to get them far, and Tiffany had the double bracelet and the producers would have loved to have the gorgeous and sweet young mum as their first female biggest loser for sure.

Sharif was only a little behind in % and still had the weight to lose and although Sammy was the underdog she did still have the weight to lose — had this been a USA season where they get months at home rather than weeks, I think she really could have done it.

As it turned out, my favourite (along with Sherif and Teresa) won the at home prize, go Sean! Ben looked awesome, he was the only one that had really changed since the last time we saw him when he was still quite big. All the girls looked amazing, especially Meaghan and Holly and Mel….and…..big bad Bob won the title having lost a staggering 86.7kgs, that’s 193lbs for heavens sake, I am going to find out if that’s the biggest ever on any show throughout the world, it has to be surely?

Overall it was a great finale and I shall post my feeling on the series in general and the gap it has now left in my life in a few days time when I have had the chance to digest.

PS. Like a total nerd, I just added a bunch of them on Facebook hehe

Whenever I go away on holiday, as I am doing in just over a weeks time, I look up the area online beforehand and see what sort of attractions and events are nearby — one of the many wonders of the Internet hey?

I want to go to New York City one day soon so that I can purchase broadway tickets, I would absolutely love to see a show in such a famous place.

I am just going to my other halves parents place in a weeks time though and I have been so many times I already know what’s there, and unfortunately it is nothing exciting!