Aaron Ewer

Last weekend was a holiday for most people but I had to work all three days, so it wasn’t much of a holiday for me. I did donate to the veterans group selling poppies at the Kroger and I watched fireworks Sunday night courtesy of the lake’s water park, so I had a little bit of celebration. Didn’t get to take advantage of any of the Memorial Day sales at the stores - actually didn’t even get to read the newspaper to see what was on sale until yesterday.

So this weekend we’re going to go shopping and do all the honey-do list items that we can cram into two days. I’ve already checked the internet for discount coupons and my favorite site had some great deals. With the price of gas at $3.85 a gallon, we’re looking harder for ways to save money on other purchases and coupons are an easy way to save with just a little forethought.

We have to buy a baby gift for the new little nephew. Right off I found discount code promotions from Fisher Price, TikeTech, Safety 1st, Kiddopotamus, Evenflo and Kidsline and we’ll be giving that top priority on Saturday morning. The hospitals send new mothers home so quickly now that it is hardly worth ordering flowers for the mother, but I wanted to send something to my sister-in-law on the good chance that they will deliver the flowers this afternoon or at the latest tomorrow morning before she heads home with the baby.

We have to do a lot of yard work on Sunday - there’s little chance of rain and the weeds have taken over parts of the lawn. I’ll get some gardening and lawn care supplies and tackle those chores Sunday morning. If all goes well, I can be finished in time to throw some steaks on the grill and settle down for the NASCAR race in Dover with a couple of cold ones. Or, if the yard work takes too long, we’ll still have the steaks but we’ll cozy up on the couch to watch some movies to wind down.

Since the wife has to lay off caffeine for a few days while she battles a bladder infection, we’ve been trying to find something for her to drink besides water. We got the brainstorm this morning to head over to the local Sonic Drive In and she ordered a watermelon slush. That really hits the spot when the temperatures outside hit into the 80′2 or 90’s, and today we with 84, last I looked.

I love the Sonic Drive In for the basic hamburger and chili cheese dog kind of quick meal, and the types of beverages and multitude of flavors is awesome. It can be hard to make up your mind just which one you want to order!

I wish we had Sonics when I was a kid, but I never saw one until we moved to Tennessee back in the 90’s. Witht he Sonic version of a drive in, you pull into a stall and stay in you car, then order through a car-side menu and speaker system, then a carhop brings your food out to the car. Some of them still have carhops bring the food to your car while skating on roller skates. That’s a lot of fun - reminds me of American Graffiti.

Around here a trip to the beach is a major undertaking, as it is an 8 hour drive, one way, and with the cost of gasoline it will probably cost as much as $250 or even $300 just for gas to get there and back. The beach means Panama City or Destin to the people here, and many have regular beach houses or condos that they rent on an annual basis for their summer vacations.

On the other hand, the beach to me has always meant Virginia Beach, in the Norfolk area. And now that Southwest Airlines flies into Norfolk with direct flights every day, it makes sense for use to just fly to Norfolk, rent a car, and enjoy the familiar beachfront of my childhood.

If we have to rent a car, I want to get something small, good on gas and a cheap daily rate. I was searching the online discount coupon site for cheap deals on daily, weekly or monthly auto hire and think I found what we need.

I found some other deals on the coupon site that we’ll want to use, too, such as a new portable DVD player for my son to watch DVD’s on the airplane. My daughter wants to get a couple of new outfits from Banana Republic before she “can be seen in public,” and the wife wants to get a couple pairs of new sandals to go with her beachwear.

So even though this trip is going to cost me some money, we’ll be saving some by using the online coupons and we can use that savings on fun at the beach this summer.

The Jonas Brothers live in this area and occasionally I see them out and about when they are here and not on tour. Last week they were at a local coffee shop - although they were drinking tea - and just hanging out waiting for others to meet up with them. They were pleasantly polite and not at all stuck on themselves - just regular teenage guys sitting around chatting and joking.

They were on Oprah a couple weeks ago. Backstage, they had the whole family there, both sets of grandparents, the manager, and two of them were taking photos and videos with handhelds, just goofing around. The link for that couple of minutes is on YouTube and it was fun to watch, as you can a good idea of their true personalities, not just the stage presence. If they can keep their heads on straight they have a bright future ahead.

Heard a great song that was made into a video called, “The Flyer Song,” by Leslie Ellis. If you know anyone in the military, you will love watching this video, made by the guys aboard the U.S.S. John C. Stennis, stationed “somewhere in the Persian Gulf.”

The video clip is on Leslie’s MySpace page, plus you can listen to a couple of her other songs and check her performance calendar to see when she might be doing a show near you.

We’ve seen her at the Bludebird Cafe with Casey Kelly, another great local songwriter. The show was awesome.

Check out Leslie’s MySpace page and think about buying her CD - it’s a good one if you appreciate a sentimental songwriter and great vocalist.