Loralee's Looney Tunes | A little crazy. A lot of fun.

Memorial Day

May 28, 2012 By loralee 17 Comments

EDIT: Many people have written to say that Lex’s site is back up, for which I am VERY glad. I hope you stop by. The man graduated from Annapolis and I considered him a VERY fine writer. This post in particular, is my favorite (Though I was infuriated at the therapist.) Whether or not you agree with his politics or not, damn…that man could turn a phrase. He is very missed.)

Normally, my Memorial Day post is about Matthew and I post an annual photo of our family, but for one, the weather hasn’t allowed us to go to the cemetery until today and to take a photo and also…his year, my little blogging world suffered a huge loss.

Actually, it was far greater than the blogging world.

A wife lost her dedicated and loving husband of many years.

A family lost an amazing father.

Many lost a good friend, who they felt understood them, even though many had never met him.

The loss of an veteran with an amazing record of service to both the Navy and his country.

And mainly, the earth lost one of the best men to set foot on it.

Here’s to you, Lex. Our sum total of personal conversation was small but you lef

t a hole that is far, far too big to fill.

A cold one will always be waiting. (Those who get it, will get it. Those who don’t, click here. But I’m sad you’ll never have to chance to really understand.)

Fair winds, Captain.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

P.S. His site seems to be down. Which made my hurt heart a little.

Filed Under: Every Day 17 Comments

Win a Magnesium vacuum! (ERV $600)

May 18, 2012 By loralee

I am SO excited to be giving away an ORECK Magnesium vacuum cleaner and handheld valued at $600!

I love the irony of this post considering the last post that, eh?

Before I tell you this story about my experience with ORECK, I need to declare that ORECK does not make any statements that any Oreck product provides any health benefit or is intended for medical purposes, including to treat, relieve, or prevent any ailments, diseases or symptoms. I tried really hard not to say that but I wanted to makes sure you knew, just in case. :)

When Oreck asked me to review and give away to one of you luck, lucky people, I JUMPED a the chance. (This is when I could still Jump, let alone get out of bed. I ordered my first Orkeck 13-years ago. It was the middle of the night and I was up with (Surprise!)…back pain, a commercial came one TV and the things hooked me. One they said that they were used in hotels more than any other brad. The other was that is was so light. (7.7 lbs) and that you could easily run the vacuum and be lifted with one finger. Considering that we had a literal TANK if a vacuum that was so difficult to push I had to lay down for a long time afterward. (To be fair I discovered about a year after I sent my tank to my husband’s office that there was a ‘drive’ button that did make it easier by FAR to vacuum but it was still pretty darn back hurting for me.) And then there was an iron that I LURVED and still use.

AND THEN MY ORECK CAME AND MY HOUSE KEEPING WORLD CHANGED! I was a newlywed and it was the first BIG purchase I made without my husband permission, but he came around eventually.

So, when my Oreck died 2-days before we moved, I was brokenhearted. We had already spent so much more money than expected that my husband said that we just didn’t have enough money in the budget for a new vacuum, I was pleaded with him to get me an Orkeck for my birthday or Christmas, or all three.

So to say I was pleased to do this review and be able to give away one of my favorite products to y’all is just plain fun. THIS IS WHAT I’M GIVING AWAY TO YOU ALL, PEOPLE: AN ORECK MAGNESIUM AND A HANDHELD VACUUM!

I had everyone who walked through my door use the vacuum and the handheld so I actually had several people review the Oreck (their opinions are their own) and had a short little video make of their responses as well as mine. I think it was the first time I’ve put makeup on since December. (I figured that I should but some on because I am so white from these months in bed (back surgery) that I was afraid someone would mistake me for one of the rejected, dumpy part of the Cullen clan and then I’d be endlessly bothered for a chance to meet Edward by a gaggle of teenage girls and 40-year-old women and really life is just too short for that.)

THINGS THAT I LOVE:

THE LIGHTNESS:

That I can literally pick it up with one finger and that I can vacuum in my condition without further injuring my back.

DURABILITY
You can literally throw that sucker down the stairs. My first one survived over a decade with two boys hanging from it, jumping on it, it is one TOUGH cookie that will endure a WHOLE lot.

MAJOR SUCKAGE, BUT IN A GOOD WAY:

Did you notice how in the video the oatmeal started jumping before the vacuum got too near it? IT is an AWESOME.

This is an EXCELLENT vacuum with some major power behind it.

IT’S PRETTY DANG SEXY LOOKING.

My husband and I and pretty much everyone love the sleek design. More girls than boys wished there was an alternative color to bright blue, but I don’t mind it at all.
LOTS OF CORD LENGTH

NOTHING is as frustrating as having a few measly feet of carpet left and you run out of cord. Chances are, that won’t happen with the magnesium. (However I somehow wish the cord retracted but that would add weight to the thing I love the most …the lightnighess of it.

THE HANDHELD

While I don’t use handhelds often because of my back I love this one. The are enough parts and strong suction that make it very easy for me to use.Now if I can just keep most of the parts from ending up lost because my boys are playing forbidden games of “Star wars” with them and they seem to make to best light sabers in the world.

LED HEADLIGHTS

l love them. It makes such a difference!

EASY BAG CHANGE

I normally HATE vacuums with bags. It’s like you have to have a degree in engineering, but Oreck not only makes it environmentally better by having a HEPPA filter and not releasing all that dust into the air, but they put a zipper in the front that makes it so, so easy.

IT GOES DOWN COMPLETELY FLAT
I can’t say how much easier this makes vacuuming under dressers and beds and couches. I just love it.

EASY TRANSITION FROM RUGS TO HARD WOOD.

I have carpeting upstairs and a rug downstairs with one rug so I love how it can go from hard wood to carpet (even though I confess I am still a fan of the broom for hard surfaces.

THINGS I DON’T CARE FOR SO MUCH
/
THE PRICE

I know $600 is quite a pricey buy but honestly, I put this down more for y’all who haven’t taken a chance on ORECK before. I KNOW that they are worth every penny.

THE BUTTON LOCATION/AND TWO SPEED

I am so not used to the button being on the back by the chord and I wish there had been a different place to put it on a low setting. Sometimes the suction is so hard is would start to suck up something it shouldn’t and the problem was increased by having to hit the ‘Low’ setting before you got the vacuum off.

If you move to hard wood that has a lot of debris on it without turning it to the low setting it will blow debris all over. It might be nice to have a brushless section to clean the hardwood section.

But again, it is much easier on my back to vacuum my tile and spot check with a broom than sweeping the entire length of my tile and flooring.

BRUSH LENGTH

I wish the brush went further to the sides to get the edges better.

all in all, I love this vacuum so much I want to marry it and have little Oreck Magnesium babies. It is a BEAUTIFUL vacuum and I envy the person who wins one!!

The mandatory entry will be “Visit Oreck.com and tell us one thing you learned about the Magnesium.”

Things to get you additional entries: (Make sure each action has a different comment!)

Follow @oreck on Twitter.

Follow @looneytunes

Like Oreck on Facebook

Tweet about the giveaway, mentioning @looneytunes and @oreck with a link to your post. YOU MAY ENTER AS MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE BY TWEETING ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AS OFTEN AS YOU WANT.

Sign up for Oreck’s email list by clicking on “Sign up for Email” in the top navigation bar and entering your email address.

Sign for Loralee’s Looney Tunes email list by looking in the middle of my sidebar on the right under my BlogHer ad posts.

Enter this giveaway on a site that lists giveaways, like Contest Girl, if this giveaway is already listed then sign up for the site. (If you aren’t familiar with those, I found Googling “list my giveaway’ “Best places to list my giveaway online) or the like very helpful.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. Congratulations to Debbie L!

Filed Under: Every Day

If you are a blogger that works with brands, you should be upset by this post at The Huffington Post…even if you don’t like McDonald’s

May 15, 2012 By loralee 34 Comments

First things first: I DO NOT CARE IF YOU LIKE MCDONALD’S. As long as you are not spreading BLATANTLY FALSE INFORMATION THAT IS BASED ON A STUPID INTERNET RUMOR STARTED IN 1998 OR FROM PRACTICES THAT EVERYBODY DID THAT WAS STOPPED IN THE 70′S ?WE CAN BE FRIENDS. It’s true I am passionate about McDonald’s and the incident last week is a PERFECT example of why. Last week I read a post in The Huffington Post that targeted McDonald’s so unfairly that I think steam literally came out of my ears.

Last week I read an ‘article’ called “McDonald’s to shower bloggers with parties and gifts for positive posts”

BARF.

You can click here for the ‘article’ of wish.

I rarely get so outraged but if you are a blogger, you should be upset as well. Even if you HATE Mcdonald’s.

For one, if that is what McDonald’s is doing EVERY BRAND THAT IS AWARE OF WHAT “THE TWITTER’ IS, IS DOING THE SAME FREAKING THING. It’s just that it is so much more fun to attach a controversial band to it and like usual BLAME THEM!

I’m torn between being outraged that MY integrity as a blogger and person was personally attacked as I had personally been at or involved with many events mentioned in the article and quoted in The New York Times article the author of this post, Rachel Tepper, wrote about and wondering if we had been hurled back in time to 2003 when this was actually a new conversation.

Nobody buys my opinion.

NOBODY.

(Ok, I GUESS if Mike Rowe batted his eyes at me and asked him to come and dredge a sewer with him and write that it was the most glorious experience of my life I MIGHT consider it, but write something I don’t believe in just because someone flew me somewhere and gave me some nail polish? Sorry. Wrong girl.)

I went to an event in New York last week for the day.

It’s the type of event that is thrown all the time by brands. In this case it was Mcdonald’s “Flavor of Summer” event and they were debuting their summer line of new ‘berry’ foods. Namely their Blueberry Banana and Walnut Oatmeal and their Cherry Berry Chiller.

They paid for my airfare. transportation while I was in the city, they had a dinner for all the bloggers the night before and then the next day they had a fun event where we sampled the oatmeal and the chiller and also had some fun things like chair massages, mani’s, makeup and fashion consultation all with a “Berry” theme.

There was music and mingling and lots of photo taking and networking. Then we picked up a small brown paper ‘swag’ bag full of information about their product and some fun berry nail polish, lipsticks and blush.

Then we were taken to the airport and flown home. (And I went straight to bed because it was a LOT for my back. But due to everything going on lately everyone thought going to NYC for the day would be good for me.)

I’ve been to several events like this and I started thinking in my head and looking over my notes about what I would write about and what opinions I would issue.

THEN I got a letter from Molly telling us that an article in the Huffington Post had come out about McDonald’s and their relationships and she wanted to clarify that McDonald’s TRULY wanted our honest opinions and they would continue working with us, even if we had negative opinions.

AND THAT IS TRUE OF EVERY BRAND I HAVE CHOSEN TO WORK WITH.

Ms. Tepper quoted, “Many who did take part, however, wrote positive things.”

This doesn’t really surprise me.

For one, I am VERY picky about what brands I work with. If I think we aren’t going to be a good match, I won’t do it. For example, I have LOVED Oreck vacuums for years. Their company contacted me back in November before my back went out and asked if I would like to review their new Magnisium vacuum because they did their research and saw a post I wrote in 2006 (For free) about how much I loved my Oreck. They are not paying me to write this post other than supplying me with a vacuum to review AND ONE TO GIVE AWAY TO MY READERS. (I’m posting the giveway next week, so stay tuned.) The very first question that I asked when I was contacted

was if I could give my honest opinion, even if they were negative. They responded that not only could I give my honest opinion but that it is policy that they encourage honest opinion of their product. It’s how they improve. And guess what? There are some things that I would improve about this vacuum and I told them all the ways I felt they could improve and they were glad for the feed back. That is what I have found with most companies.

And that is what I have found with every reputable brand I have worked with….they want honesty.

I DID work with a brand I didn’t have much knowledge (GE’S Lighting and appliance center) about simply because I was (again) going through a hard time and a trip to Louisville and a banquet at The Downs with hats custom made by a top Kentucky Derby milliner sounded uplifting, I went determined to give my honest opinion.

And guess what? I had a GREAT time and even rediscovered my funny when we were asked to reveal our laundry “secrets”.

They showed us a product called “Clean Steel”. It looked exactly like stainless but could handle Butterlump’s many, many handprints without a mark? GUESS WHO BOUGHT ALL CLEAN STEEL APPLIANCES FOR HER NEW HOUSE?!!!!! And I love them all. Especially my fridge. But the ice maker is on the fritz and that is disappointing but I am being honest about it. I am sure it is something I am doing wrong and the warranty covers it.

So it’s not just YOU that we are learning for and about. I would have gone for a mismatched jumble of the cheapest appliances out there if I hadn’t gone and except for the ice maker thing I am so, so, so, SO happy with my choices.(They have an AMAZING product called an Advantium oven that I would KILL FOR, people. We tried to make it work but my appliances had already been put in and it was too tricky to try. (ALTHOUGH AT THAT TIME I HAD FORGOTTEN THEY MADE IT IN A MICROWAVE SIZE. EHEM. ;P)

And I had SO many more examples of positive brand work but it’s probably time to stop (Just don’t miss my Oreck giveaway peeps, you will KICK yourself)

I’m sorry if this post seems “ME! ME! ME!” but I HAD to give you my personal opinion on this. This article thinks that just because people throw parties for flights or dinners or gifts that we’ll lie and mislead YOU. YOU, the people WE LOVE.

I would never do that.

And I don’t only write about things that people pay me to. Heck, I have a post planned about the miracle of WEN shampoo, the best nightlight for toddlers ever and a book that Ree recommended to me when my poor puppy died called, Dog Heaven, so that we could better explain to Aaron why “we put his puppy in the mud”. i have written and written and written how much I adore Lisa Leonard’s jewelry and Diet Coke has NEVER compensated me and I have their image on the bottom of my blog. I am writing about all of those things because I love them.

If you hate big corporations, or consumption of animals or fast food, then that’s fine. We’re never going to agree. But I have NEVER seen a company like McDonald’s work SO HARD to stay WHAT THEY ARE (They are a fast food restaurant, people.) and ALSO try to improve and make everyone happy and still take SO MUCH CRAP. (And if you think it’s all roses and rainbows to stand up and say I AM PROUD TO WORK WITH MCDONALD’S!!! Than you are even more drugs than I am. The president of their company has to have a ton of security to go EVERYWHERE with her JUST TO DO HER JOB. That is so, so, WRONG!)

I like working with brands. I do like the perks that blogging has brought me. While I swear this blog will NEVER be a walking commercial, I need the work. I’m out of a job, have medical bills and frankly, I am VERY grateful for the times I’ve been able to buy groceries for my family from the money my blog has brought me. (I should clarify I have never taken money directly from a brand other than the product I review or the trip I am on. If i work with my Ad Affiliate is when I am usually paid for my time and I get money every time someone loads this page or I do other freelance work.) BUT…this blog will NEVER be a commercial. And you can call me out if it is. And try to avoid turning your nose up at me just because I chose to work with brands and your blog doesn’t even have ads. We Blog differently, that’s all.

In my opinion there’s room for us all.