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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Puppies vs. Babies. All opinions are 100% mine.

I like contests and I like to vote, especially when it comes to Puppies vs. Babies. I've been a fan of puppies for about, oh, just over 7 years, which coincidentally matches up to how long I've had one. And yes, I consider my 7 year old boxer a puppy. I always will. However, if this whole baby thing works out, I may have a hard time choosing which is cuter between our baby and Riley. Sorry, future child, but that's just the way it is.

In the meantime, I'm comparing four-legged cuteness with two-legged adorableness in a Puppies vs. Babies online contest. Holy. Stinking. Cute. If you like cute, you should explore some of this nonsense.

I've seen a dog or two that makes me think perhaps someone tried to put it in a paper bag and drown it by throwing it in a lake, but then the bag got dropped and ran over by a dump truck. And I've seen babies who shouldn't leave the house until they're old enough to cover up that ugly with a stylish hat. We can't all be perfect like my puppy and my future kid, right? You know what is perfect? This puppy right here:

If you ever wonder how I wound up with a dog, that picture right there explains it all. Even at 8 weeks old, I couldn't say no to this dang dog. That explains why he's in the living room right now taking up an entire piece of furniture, no?

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Untitled Jersey City Project. All opinions are 100% mine.

I was recently pointed into the general direction of the Untitled Jersey City Project, which just sucked me into YouTube videos for longer than I'm willing to admit. Here's a short clip, so you can see what I'm talking about:

It's not like you can just watch two minutes of that and stop, right? I already have a full DVR and a Netflix Instante queue bursting at the seams, but when I watch something that can suck me in after just two minutes, I think it's something I've gotta keep tabs on.

I hadn't heard of the whole thing at all. It's a work-in-progress show. In other words, the script isn't written, as far as I can tell, and someone's just throwing out a bunch of random ideas that could be some type of a drama series, but it just hasn't been fully developed yet. Kind of an awesome concept. Never heard of any of the cast, but I hadn't heard of any of Glee's cast either, so I'm not complaining too much about that one. Overall, the concept has me super intrigued. I'm curious to see what happens with it!

Reality singing shows and drama series are all I'm spending my time watching lately. If I start singing a bunch of serious songs, I'm going to be sad.

This post brought to you by Straight Talk. All opinions are 100% mine.

The Kid's been taking the bus (the city bus here, folks!) just about every day after school to come to my work. He keeps track of his bus card and is getting really darn good at it. He usually gets to my work a few minutes after 4pm, which would be ideal if I were one of those douchers that watched the clock and bolted out the door the second it was time to go. I'm not. And so we're thinking it might be easy for me to text him when he gets out of school to give him an idea of where I'm at on finishing up with work, etc. Good idea, right? So, that means we need to fire up his cell phone plan again.

The Android on Straight Talk might be our best bet. I'm pretty sure this 14 year old will need to have something that at least looks cool and there are definitely some of those options, the same options we've seen at our local wireless shops. Those local wireless shops require contracts and more money than we really want to spend on a fickle-minded teenage, if you know what I mean. So, awesome selection of fancy phones? Check. Rates that don't make me cry or think twice about? Check there, too. (Some plans are half of what we'd have to pay if we added him to our current plan!)

Since we're not huge fans of him having web access on his phone, limited data might be right up our alley. I don't care what he does with his minutes: Call a friend, order pizza, check the bus routes. Doesn't matter. I know the kid and he'll only talk for 1000 minutes (in a row) if you're in person. This might be our shot to get him on the train of a new phone, makes sure he's excited about it and becoming just as responsible about it as he has been his bus card. I think we can reel him in on it. Hook, line and sinker.

And then he can in commercials just like this one:

This post brought to you by T.G.I. FRiDAY'S. All opinions are 100% mine.

One of the best things I'd been doing lately is taking my lunch to work. It saves a minimum of $8/ a day and pretty much anything I bring from home is healthier then anything I'd be able go pick up or have delivered to my work. Quick places to grab a somewhat healthy and relatively inexpensive lunch? Kind of hard to come by in my little corner of downtown Minneapolis.

I'm fan of the prepackaged frozen dinners and cans of soup. The sodium's not the greatest; I get that. But when I'm at my least finest form at 6:30am every morning and I need to get some lunch and run out the door, the fewer things I have to grab, the better? Box from the freezer? Can from the pantry? I got that down.

Yesterday, during our grocery shopping expedition (Saturday afternoon = horrible idea), I ran across T.G.I. FRiDAY’S “Entrées for One”. Here's what I couldn't stop staring at:

Mac and cheese + chicken = my favorite foods in one container where I don't have to do anything but microwave it for six minutes? SOLD. I couldn't find the nutritional content anywhere online, which was a little frustrating, but I'm sure it's not going to match some of the other stuff I eat. In other words, I can't have Friday's frozen dinners every day. But occasionally? YES, PLEASE.

Also, here's an even better way to try these new entrees: Fun Freezer contest. If you enter and win, you can find yourself with a year's supply of freezer-based goodness!