Free ebook: The Stay at Home Mom's Guide to Successful eBay Selling

Suzanne Wells emailed me to let me know that her book, Stay-At-Home Mom's Guide to Successful eBay Selling,is available as a free download at her blog.

Thanks, Suzanne!

Free Diet Dr. Pepper

The first 2 million people to sign up at http://www.freedietdrpepper.com/ get a coupon for a FREE 20-ounce or 2-liter bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper.

Via Bargain Briana.

For Twilight fans: Read fan fiction at Twilighted

As I've previously confessed, I've had a hard time saying good-bye to the Twilight universe.(Read my review of the Twilight series and an update.) I've been able to extend my stay in the Twilight universe through the fan fiction site Twilighted.

As you might expect, there's a huge variety. The quality ranges from awful to amazing – the reviews and star ratings help, but really you just have to start reading to see if you like something.

You'll find stories set during the series, before Twilight, and after Breaking Dawn. There are stories that simply fill in the blanks, stories that are set in alternate universes (i.e., what might or could have happened), and even alternate universe stories where everyone is human (those are rather weird, in my opinion, and have nothing to do with Twilight except that the characters have the same names).

I won't recommend anything specific, since I haven't kept track of the stories I've read. I just kind of browse and read whatever has an interesting summary. If you enjoyed the series and have wished for more, I highly recommend you check out Twilighted.

Note: The site has some NC-17 rated stories that some people might wish to avoid. And I don't think there's anything to prevent a minor from visiting the site so parents might want to look into their site blocking options.

Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival starts on Monday

The Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival starts on Monday! If you've never participated before, you're going to love it! There are literally thousands of giveaways posted in the Mr. Linky at Bloggy Giveaways, with a wide range of prizes from very small to rather huge. And even the biggest giveaways end up with just a couple thousand entries, so your chances of winning are actually fabulous compared to a national sweepstakes.

And if you're a participating blogger, you'll get quite a few new visitors. The trick, of course, is to convert those new visitors into regular visitors, so be sure to (at a minimum) include a snippet about your blog in your contest post.

Have fun!

P.S. I'll be participating with a giveaway over at Chief Family Officer . . . although I'm not sure what I'll be giving away just yet!

Free bottle of Suave - today only

I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of Suave - I find the super cheap shampoos just don't work for me. But, I'm also not one to pass up anything easily gotten for free - especially since free-after-coupon items help me get my total up to $75 so I can use my $5 off $75 purchase coupon at Ralphs and still keep my total out of pocket expenses to a minimum.

So, don't forget to get your coupon for a free bottle of Suave at the Suave web site. The offer is good today only.

Review: Katsu-ya

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Marc and I recently got to go out to dinner and discovered a new favorite restaurant: Katsu-ya. My friend K. has raved about this place many times, but we already had a favorite sushi restaurant so whenever we got the chance, we always went there. Unfortunately, they've gone out of business, so when we wanted to go out for Japanese food, I remembered K.'s effusive praise and made reservations.

We ordered the omakase menu (Japanese version of prix fixe), and were absolutely delighted. Unfortunately, I only have a clear memory of the first and last courses. We started with scallops and cucumber in a sunomono (vinegar) style dressing. Very refreshing and delicious. The subsequent dishes included ahi sashimi (raw tuna) with crispy onions on top, and a different kind of fish in some sort of soy marinade. We finished with a dessert trio of green tea tiramisu, chocolate cake, and banana tempura. There were seven courses in all, so I'm obviously missing a few dishes due to a faulty memory, but I do recall that they were all very tasty.

At $48 per person, this meal is obviously for special occasions only. The rest of the menu, while not cheap, is perfectly affordable. If we hadn't gotten the omakase, I would have ordered the chirashi sushi, which is a bed of sushi rice topped with sashimi, roe, egg, and other delicious components. That would have been a very reasonable $12.50.

The verdict: Katsu-ya is our new favorite Japanese restaurant. And I can't wait to go back!