Choose a Prime membership and you can put off buying that Mother’s Day gift until Friday, May 11th and still get something there in time. They’ve even dedicated a page to help you find that perfect Mother’s Day gift, although I caution you not to give their suggestions too much credence. I personally think that giving a Dyson for Mother’s Day is a sucky idea. (Ha! Get it? Vacuum – suck? I kill myself.) A better idea is the Kindle reader, starting at just $79.

A better idea, although it does require a little more forethought, is to get yourself a SendOutCards subscription. Any mother would be thrilled to open her mailbox and find a greeting card featuring photos of her kids and grand kids, especially if it was accompanied by a gift. ( I personally recommend one of the many photo gifts and/or the brownies.)

SendOutCards is affordable, starting at just $9.99 a month. There are over 17,000 templates to choose from, or design your own using online elements and uploading your own photos and artwork. The best part, though, is that cards and gifts can be scheduled ahead of time. So if you’re the type to forget Mother’s Day, create the card and add the gift when you’re thinking about it, and then schedule it to get there on time. (Set-it-and-forget-it gifting. What will they think of next?)

Here’s the card that I designed for my mom – it took less than a minute to create. I chose one of the SendOutCards PicturePlus templates, dropped a couple of photos of her favorite people in the world (her kids and grandkids), and voila! A card! A few more clicks and I can add brownies and have the package mailed in time for Mother’s Day. Easy, fast, and affordable. My favorite trifecta!

If you don’t use all of your credits for Mother’s Day, don’t worry – they’re good for a year and they roll over. In addition to birthdays, June brings graduations and Father’s Day, too, so you’ll have plenty of occasions to use those points.

Need more information about SendOutCards? If you have 3 minutes and 47 seconds available, check out the short video for more details, or contact me to take it for a test drive.

I’ve been reading ebooks since 1998; that was the year that the Palm Pilot III debuted. It was also the year that PeanutPress (now FictionWise) was introduced, the first ebook site that I’m aware of. The convergence of those technologies – mobile devices, the Internet, and the ebook format – forever changed the way I read.

Ebooks didn’t really catch on, though, until the Kindle was introduced in 2007. And while I appreciated the growing selection of books, the costs were also increasing. (Thanks Apple.)

In the ensuing years, I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on ebooks. (And thousands more on devices on which to read ebooks; PalmPilots, iPaqs, BlackBerrys, tablets, Kindles, iPods, iPads, Android phones, etc., etc.)  So any site that will give a sistah a break while delivering quality reads is really appreciated.

Pixel Of Ink (POI) is that site. Each day, they feature free and deeply discounted ebooks from Amazon. (Nook deals used to be featured, too, but due to the cuthroat nature of the ebook industry, Nook offers have pretty much dried up. Pixel of Ink does include links to Nook resources, though, including this link to free Nook books on Barnes & Noble’s site.)

While the vast majority of the free and discounted ebooks that I’ve downloaded are fiction and business-related, you can pick up books from all genres, including cookbooks, young adult, and children’s. In fact, POI has  launched several sister sites, including PowerReads (business), Dining Downloads (cookbooks), Pixel of Ink Young Edition ( young adult / children), and Inspired Reads, a Christian Fiction site.

http://pinterest.com/daniesq/

That, my friends, will take you to an introduction to my new business.

I first found out about the SendOutCards service when I served as an alternate for my husband at his BNI group. After hearing the 45-second presentation that the SendOutCards rep gave (ironically, also an alternate that day), I chased her into the parking after the meeting to tell her that was the most brilliant thing I had ever heard of.

So what did she say? Basically that I could send real greeting cards from my computer. Cards that I designed with my own photos, logos, graphics, etc., or I could use one of their over 17,000 stock cards. I could import my contacts and send cards immediately, or schedule them. And I could even add gifts (brownies!!) or gift cards. If I liked someone else’s design, I could ask them to share it (something I’ve taken advantage of a lot!) And even customized, it was less than I would spend for a Hallmark card. I immediately thought of the possibilities – what this would mean to not only people wanting to keep in touch with loved ones and friends, but of business people that wanted to maintain and deepen relationships with their clients. And what this could mean for me, one of those people who fell into both categories.

I liked the idea of finally remembering my nieces and nephews’ birthdays. (I have 13 of them so keeping track of them is difficult.) The system will remind me ahead of time that a birthday is coming up, or if I’m really enterprising, I can go in and schedule a card with a gift card for all of them.

I also liked the idea of being able to reach out to someone on a whim, and let them know I was thinking of them. (I mean, really, how many times a week do you think, “I should call my mom.”? Or send someone a birthday, sympathy, or congratulations card. All the time, right? I know I do. But even if I actually remember to go and buy the card and stamps, half the time I forget to send the darned thing.)

I checked it out. I found out that not only could I use the product, but that I could make money by letting other people know about it. I would have done that for free – after all, it’s what I do on this blog, right? Let you all know about cool software, websites and gadgets. But making money off of a recommendation is always nice.

After about three months of due diligence that included attending one of the Treat ‘Em Right seminars, I was satisfied that this business opportunity was legitimate. By then I had also used the system to send out cards and I was impressed with the software (although there’s always room for improvement. You know me – no software is ever perfect.) I had also viewed tens of cards, and received quite a few, so I could vouch for the quality of the cards and the speed in which they were sent (within 24 hours of being created.)

So why did I take so long to apply for a license to represent SendOutCards? I was very cognizant of the fact that I have worked hard to get, and maintain, a good reputation. If I was going to associate my name with a product or company, I would have to be assured of a first-class experience for myself, for my customers, and for the team of distributors that I plan on building. There were many things that assured me along the way – from the excellent customer service to the fact that there’s no obligation to either distributors or customers. Anytime you want to quit, you can. From the website. (I can’t even do that with my Ancestry account. I have to call someone if I don’t want to continue. That really chaps my hide.)

Anyway, if you’re interested in knowing more and you have 3 1/2 minutes, click the envelope to watch the video. I’m a big believer in trying before you buy, so after watching the video, send a couple of free cards by clicking the Send a Free Card button.

It’s really free, there are no strings attached, nobody will spam you (although I will follow up with you) and it gives you a chance to try the system and send a customized card as well as a stock card. Most importantly, though, it lets you surprise someone with an unexpected greeting card. And it’s free, which is good, because you can’t put a price tag on that.

The Pocquettes line of cases was clearly designed with the on-the-go fashionista in mind. The pebbled, full-grain leather cases rock the season’s latest ‘in’ colors (currently black, red and plum) for full color-coordination with your entire outfit.

These cases don’t just rely on looks, though; they’re as useful as they are stylish. Two gusseted, double-zip, suede-lined pockets comprise the case so there’s plenty of room for the device as well as accessories like cords and flash cards. A cleaning cloth and a Pocquettes earbud holder are included with each case.

Speaking of the Pocquettes earbud holders, they’ve traditionally been bone-shaped for easy winding of earbud cords, however, Levenger has introduced Pooch and Kitten Pocquettes.

After dealing with all the back and forth, wiping one of the new laptops that had already been partially set up, processing the returns, setting up the new computers, and wiping and setting up my existing laptop, there was a lot to oversee on this end.

So it wasn’t until the next month that we noticed something odd. Amazon had refunded our $399 for the defective laptop but never debited us for the new one. So being honest folks, we contacted Amazon to let them know – and then had to argue with them to convince them to take their money back. The conversation was a bit difficult as it was obvious that English wasn’t the first language of the customer service rep, but eventually, logic prevailed and the cs rep agreed to have billing call us.

So imagine my chagrin when I awoke this morning, less than 24 hours later, to find my account overdrawn because Amazon had charged my account.

So no, I’m not happy. I was happy for them to get their money – why else would I have contacted them? – but I wanted to speak to someone first to confirm that they in fact hadn’t received payment before funding my account with the money.

Contacting them to point out the error was the right thing to do, and I don’t regret it, but I sure would like to see them do the right thing and cover my overage fees for what, in my mind, was an unauthorized transaction.

Infographic provided by CreditSesame.com.

On T-mobile, I think it still goes to the HTC Sensation because of the large 4.3″ screen, solid camera performance, HSPA+ network speeds (although to be accurate, the most you’re going to get out of the Sensation is 14.4 Mbps) and the Snapdragon dual-core 1.2 GHz processor. However, the fairly new Samsung Galaxy S II and HTC Amaze look to be giving it solid competition.

The newly minted iPhone 4s makes the competition a little stiffer for the other 3 networks, but on Verizon, it’s going to have to go to an Android phone. Why? iPhone 4s simply doesn’t offer 4g speeds. That’s why I’ll have to go with Droid Bionic for Verizon’s winner, even though the 4.3″ screen doesn’t knock my socks off. (I’m super excited about the Samsung Note coming out on Big Red in Q1 2012, though.)

Even with the new iPhone, Sprint’s best phone still goes to an Android device, the Samsung Galazy S II. Snappy response time, graphics that pop and great speakerphone performance are just some of the reasons Samsung’s latest Galaxy model has been labeled an ‘iPhone killer.’

AT&T is the only carrier to give the new iPhone model 4g, or more accurately, faux g, love, and that is why I ‘m choosing it for the best phone on AT&T. The 8 megapixel camera delivers pretty stunning photos, it’s compatible with a huge array of accessories, and of course, there’s the Siri intelligent assistant that has everyone talking. (Get it? Talking? Ha! I kill myself!)

**If you’re in the market for a new phone, or simply want to research the latest mobile technology, PhoneScoop is a good way to get the information you need. http://bit.ly/ormu4F

I took over 1500 photos during my two-and-a-half days of shooting. I started processing them on the plane for home and finished up at about 7:30 this morning. I am just waiting on approval from the CheerSurge folks. Once I receive that, I’ll have the photos available for sale.

In the meantime, here’s my favorite shot from the camp. It’s not the best one – in fact, it’s really not even a good shot. It is, however, funny, and shows the skill level necessary to do cheerleading.