Birthdays (No such thing as a free lunch? I beg to differ)

I had a birthday this month. The first of the month to be exact. I turned an age in my 30's. As I have gone through adulthood one thing I have really learned to appreciate is good value. For my birthday 'good value' is a good birthday benefit. There are three that I received this year that I specifically want to mention. Red Robin,  Wheeler's Handout and Souper Salad! . Sometimes I scan social media and blogs and I came across birthday specials that both these restaurants made available.

Red Robin- The birthday club from Red Robin is a free burger for your birthday. I was emailed a coupon that I could use the week of my birthday. So I had a $10 burger for free (with bottomless fries)! I can't complain about that. It was a nice lunch treat for my birthday. (@RedRobinBurgers)

Wheeler's Handout- Wheeler's is a Treasure Valley institution! They have been in the same location in Nampa since the 1950's. They even survived a car crashing into their small building. The birthday benefit at Wheeler's is a "Wheeler's Special" the week of your birthday. Like red Robin this is a burger and fries. To join this birthday club all I had to do was "like" them on facebook. Then on your birthday they post it on their wall and give you a week to use it.

Souper Salad!- This was the best one. They have everything at Souper Salad! and the birthday meal is good for lunch or dinner. Souper Salad! has a lot of choices which makes this such a good birthday treat. But the best part is that I had twenty-five days to use the birthday special. I didn't have to worry about trying to get it in the week of my birthday, I had plenty of time. So I used it today. (@SouperSalad)

Birthdays are great, but they can be even better with free stuff! Who says "there's no such thing as a free lunch"? I found some... I hope you can too!

Instant re-visit: Twitter connecting us all!

Looking through some posts in the past and I thought I'd revisit a post from last fall. There power of social media is amazing! Enjoy~


From October 03, 2010....

When I was in high school one of my favorite bands was Huey Lewis & The News (still have them on my iPod). There are many groups that I listen to and have ripped onto my Mac and then to my iPod. One artist is Michelle Branch. A little background. Michelle Branch released The Spirit Room in 2001. I had no idea who she was or anything. Spring of 2002 my brother-in-law, Tim moved in with us for a few months after moving to Idaho from Arkansas. One of the many CDs he brought with him was Michelle Branch The Spirit Room. I really liked it and wanted a copy myself.

Fast forward to 2010. My daughter Selah is 8. Earlier in the week we went to Grandpa & Grandma's and they had purchased a new karaoke machine. Guess who was on the demo cd- Michelle Branch "All I Wanted" from The Spirit Room. Selah listened to it, sang it and loved it. So later that evening we went on YouTube and searched for Michelle Branch songs. A few days ago she asked that I put some Michelle Branch on her iPod, so I did. Later that night she was at the kitchen table listening to her iPod and copying down the lyrics to "All I Wanted". Then she sang it to me. Then she sang it to Tammy & I.

The next day I went on to twitter and sent the following message to @michellebranch (I already know I put the wrong age for Selah)

This is the response I received.

In Junior High I wrote a letter to Huey Lewis & The News. A month or so later I got a post card back with their signatures on it and a form letter thanking me for being interested. That's how it was THEN. Now I send a message to the artist and within a few hours she wrote back. Thanks Tim for introducing me to Michelle Branch & thanks @michellebranch for the music that connected me & my daughter!

Twitter. Connecting us all. Who knew.

Where has the time gone.

This is not the place to discuss where the time has gone. I will share an interesting time lapse video. Watch it in full screen if you can!


Timelapse - The City Limits from Dominic on Vimeo.