This Weekend in The Buff

Well, this is a bit late... but if you know me, this is just typical. The Buff is a great place to live because there's always something happening. We live in a major city, small but major. Our city participates in all the national events which is great because it's just plain fun. There's always parades and other fun local events happening too. So what's going on this weekend? Well first it's a rainy day (actually couple of days) so if you haven't picked something out yet, try choose something indoors. Check out the weather for today, courtesy of Weather.com:

Right Now

Light Rain / Windy

43° F

Feels Like: 34° F

Wind: From ENE at 21mph gusting to 28mph

Details | Webcam

**FREE** Toys 'R' Us Event:

Today, Saturday, March 13th from noon to 2pm TRU is having a "BaRBiE MeRMaiD PaRTY!"

Make a splash and celebrate the release of Barbie in A Mermaid Tale with coloring fun and great activities!

These events are always a good rainy day pass time. They usually have toys relevant to the event set up for your child(ren) to play with, and beg for of course. Also they (usually) have a goodie bag with take home stuff and a free item... relevant to the event. So if you've got a little girl(s) that loves Barbie and nothing else to do ... go hang out at TRU@toys r us

Restaurant Week ends on the 14th:

This is a national event happening in some/most major cities. Restaurant week is where local restaurants invite you in to enjoy a wonderful meal for a specific price. This year being 2010 the price is $20.10 - WHAT A VALUE! This is dinner for 2 that includes appetizer, entree and dessert. Check it out HERE for participating restaurants.

From sushi to barbecue, diners should find a reason to try something new during Spring Restaurant Week. More than 120 restaurants have already signed on, agreeing to offer value-priced meals the week of March 8 to 14. ~The Buffalo News~

The Carrousel Museum:

The Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum is having a scavenger hunt, doesn't that sound fun! From noon to 4 you can hunt for the Leprechaun and his Pot Of Gold! It's $5 a person and promises to be lots of fun with the scavenger hunt and other activities and crafts.

A favorite rite of childhood is that first ride on an old fashioned carousel. The Buffalo area is home to the only carousel museum in the world housed in an authentic, original carousel factory building with an operating 1916 carousel as well as a vintage 1940s "Kiddie Carousel." ~from WrightNowInBuffalo.com

**FREE** Bison's Family Day:

Today The Buffalo Bisons have their Family Day Open House (free admission) from noon to 3pm at Coca-Cola Field. There will be free food and lots of fun events. Sounds really fun if you don't mind braving a little rain. Check out the details HERE.

Those are my picks for the weekend. What did I miss? What are you doing this weekend in The Buff?

Buffalo Office Supply Corp is having a Giveaway!

Thanks to Ann at Coupons Deals and More for cluing me in on this gem!

Buffalo Office Supply Corp seems to have frequent and NICE giveaways! Check out their current giveaway:

If we get 100 fans on our Facebook page by Sunday night, One Lucky Reader Will Win a Brand New Acess HD PTV 7000 Portable HD TV ($120 Value)

This 7″ Acess HD personal digital LCD TV is perfect for Road Trips, Tailgating, Camping, RV’s, Kitchen’s, Dorm’s, Power Outages, Office Use or Emergency Weather Conditions! This handy little portable TV has a 7-inch LCD screen is 16:9 aspect ratio. It has a built-in ATSC/NTSC tuner with detachable antenna enabling you to receive crisp reception of your favorite channels. The rechargeable battery offers up to 90 minutes of life between charges. The PTV 7000 includes an AC power adapter, a car adapter and a Remote Control

This giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, 3/14/10 and is open to all Western New York residents 18 years or older. We will use Random.org to select the winner. The first 100 fans of Buffalo Office Supply will be entered. Winner will be notified by email on Monday 3/15/10. Winners must respond within 48 hours of notification to claim their prize. Good luck!

Not bad huh? Well, get out there and become a fan of Buffalo Office Supply Corp in The Buff!

SwagBucks: Daily Tasks

Today I'll earn my 2nd $5 Amazon gift card this month, I LOVE this site! There are so many ways to earn 'bucks' on SwagBucks. We've talked about getting started and codes in previous posts. Now I want to tell you a little bit about how to earn bucks through easy daily tasks.

There are several things you can do that I would call 'Daily Tasks', all of which earn you a few bucks everytime/day you do them. With the new SwagBucks 3.0 there are so many little things to do.

1. Make sure you are using SwagBucks as your search engine. I earn between 10 and 30 bucks each day just by searching the web. I find that the more 'natural/real' my searches are the higher my rate of return is. For instance, if I get on periodically through out the day and search for things I'm genuinely interested in searching (even searching for sites I'm about to visit like Facebook) that I earn more per day than if I just search to get bucks. Know what I mean? Let's be really conservative and say you only win 10 bucks a day on searches (one win per day) that's 3650 bucks a year!
2. Use Your Toolbar! If you haven't downloaded the tool bar... DO IT! Each day you use the toolbar you will be rewarded with 1 buck. I know that sounds like pennies when you have to earn 450 bucks just to redeem for a $5 Amazon card ... but let's look at this. You can do it every day so if you did it EVERY DAY than you would earn 365 bucks in 1 year... that's almost enough for a $5 Amazon gift card JUST for using a toolbar once a day! Combine that with all the other things you're doing to earn and it certainly helps you along.
3. Page through the Special Offers Blue Box every day! Before the birthday you could only page through the blue box once a week and the max you could get was 1 buck a week (now equivalent to 10bucks). Now you can page through it every day and the amount can be 2 bucks, or 3 bucks, or more. The amount is usually the same all week long. This week it's 2 bucks. Again, sounds like pennies BUT if you do it everyday that's 730 bucks a year... combine it with your toolbar bucks... your coming along now.
4. Watch some videos! On the Special Offers page go to Wall 2 and you will see a few videos. Right now there are 3 different videos on my Wall 2. There is a Karate Kid trailer that is worth 2 bucks, it's about 2 1/2 mins long. There is an Axe commercial that is 17 seconds long worth 4 bucks. Finally on page 4 (still on Wall 2) there is a Macy's video, also 17 seconds and worth 4 bucks. You can watch each video once a day. Right now that's 10 bucks a day if I watch them all each day. That would work out to 3650 if you watch the videos each day for a year.

Let's add those daily tasks up: 3650 for daily searches + 365 for the toolbar + 730 for paging through special offers blue box + 3650 for the videos = 8395 or 18 $5 Amazon cards* in 1 year for 5 mins a day ($90)! Nice little chunk of change!

Have I convinced you to join yet? Well, what are you waiting for? Go Join Now and get your $90+, probably even in time for Christmas!

*Amazon Gift Cards (e-cards) are currently 450 swagbucks. They are in my opinion the best deal and let's face it Amazon has EVERYTHING! You can stack the gift cards - use more than one at a time - and they will even apply to your shipping charge.

SwagBucks: All About Codes

Occasionally SwagBucks will put out codes that will help you earn even more 'bucks'! You have to find them and you are not supposed to share them or tell others where they are (your account can be deactivated for this) BUT you CAN give hints. It's like a treasure hunt every time they are out!

Codes can be worth various amounts and put out at any random time. They put them on their Facebook fan page, Twitter, Flickr, the SwagBucks website, their Blog, the Toolbar and even in the monthly Newsletter. Oh, my... let's not forget about the Swidget where you will find hints and codes on occasion as well. The Swidget is a widget you can put on you blog, your facebook page and various other locations. You'll find one at the bottom of THIS blog! You can find out if there is a code available and any clues of where to look for it, or the directions to find it, on the Swidget. You can download your own Swidget through the SwagBucks website. On the bottom of the Swidget is a button that is labeled 'SC' for SwagCodes, you click on that and it will tell you if there is an active swag code or not. As stated previously, the Swidget on occasion will also have a code directly on it. All you have to do once you find the code is to copy and paste it into the "Enter Code" box located on the right of the SwagBucks home page.

For more information about SwagCodes and where to find them check out their page about it HERE. Then check out Adam's blog TattooAstronomy where he walks you through finding previous SwagCodes that have expired. (this will help you find future swagcodes).

Sign up NOW if you haven't already and start being rewarded for surfing the web!

SwagBucks: Getting Started and the Basics

If you haven't already signed up for SwagBucks you really should! I LOVE SwagBucks! Last month SwagBucks celebrated it's 2 year anniversary... errr, birthday. Now it's even better than before with more was to win and a cool new look.

Last month I redeemed for $20 in Amazon gift cards (well, e-gift cards but the same since Amazon is only online) and I'm just a beginner! It's super simple and easy. SwagBucks is a 'Search & Win' site that is powered by Google and Ask.com. Basically you use it to search the web - can it get any easier than that? As you search you will randomly win "swagbucks" which you can redeem for giftcards, and/or swag (many, many items). They have a toolbar you can download for Internet Explorer and for FireFox that will allow you to do your searches very quickly and easily with out going to their home page. If you use Google Chrome you can change your settings to use SwagBucks as your search engine.

There are other ways to earn 'bucks' as well, one is through codes, another through daily tasks, special offers and online shopping and finally through referrals. I'll be telling you more about these other ways in the next few days so stay tuned....

For now watch this video of SwagBucks in the news and GET STARTED Swaggin' or in other words, searching the web and getting rewarded for it!

FREE Taco!

photo from www.drivethrudiet.com

Did you forget your lunch today? Do you love tacos as much as I do? Then this post is for you...

Taco Bell has announced it's new Drive Thru Diet. The idea is to NOT skip fast food or the drive thru but to make better choices. If you love fast food as much as most Americans than this is a pretty great diet for you! From now until the 28th (the end of the month so hurry!) Taco Bell is offering 1 FREE Fresco Taco to each person. All you have to do is go HERE and print the coupon for one FREE taco. Take your coupon down to your nearest Taco Bell and redeem it. This coupon is limited to one per person, you can print 2 coupons per computer so take the whole family (if you have enough coupons) and make it a lunch date!

National Pancake Day

photo from of www.ihoppancakeday.com

Next week we'll celebrate National Pancake Day. Wonder what it is and how you can get some? Let me tell you...

IHOP (that's International House of Pancakes for those of you that aren't too familiar with late night pancake eating), started their National Pancake Day in 2006. Here's their details:

Known also as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, National Pancake Day dates back several centuries to when the English prepped for fasting during Lent. Strict rules prohibited the eating of all dairy products during Lent, so pancakes were made to use up the supply of eggs, milk, butter and other dairy products...hence the name Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday.

Since beginning its National Pancake Day celebration in 2006, IHOP has raised more than $3.25 million to support charities in the communities in which it operates. While IHOP's National Pancake Day typically takes place on Shrove Tuesday, this year the company will host its free pancake event on Tuesday, February 23, extending the fundraising window by one week to maximize donations for Children's Miracle Network. With your help, we hope to raise $5 million in five years for Children's Miracle Network through your donations in 2010!

Basically, on Tuesday, February 23rd you can go on down to your local IHOP and get a short stack of pancakes for FREE. They would like it if you made a donation to Children's Miricale Network but it's not required. So mark your calendars, Tuesday February 23rd from 7am to 10pm

Get out there and get some free pancakes, and donate to a great cause, in The Buff!