We get a Sunday newspaper solely for the coupons. Sure, we’ll look through the ads and read some other things, but Abi digs through the paper and cuts out any useful coupon that she can find. These coupons are then filed in categories with the others for use on her next crazy shopping extravaganza. One of the tricks that Abi uses to save big is to only buy something if it is on sale AND she has a coupon for the item. Most grocery stores will double coupons, so after the sale and the coupon times two, it really can create some incredible deals.

For example, on her last grocery shopping trip to Kroger she saved a total of 51% off the bill, which was over $90. Just in case you think you misread, that is ninety dollars in cash. $70 of that was from coupons alone where the remaining was from in-store savings (sales, etc.). Some of the crazy deals she got this time include a large box of Russell Stovers candies for $.50, a family-sized pack of frozen Taquitos for $.25, a bottle of Herbal Essences shampoo for $.13, two bottles of Pert Plus shampoo for $.09 each, and even was able to get a toothbrush for free.

Sometimes Abi will actually pay negative dollars for things, ie, the store will pay her to “buy” something. For instance, let’s say something was on sale for $.75 and Abi has a couple for $.40. After the coupon is doubled the cost of the item is -$.05, which sometimes is actually subtracted from the total bill.

It’s ridiculously awesome, and that’s why Abi does the grocery shopping at the Lepolt house. I have no idea how many hundreds of dollars she has saved us since we have been married, but I do know that we’ve paid for the newspaper for the next couple years…and that’s just in her last trip!

Merry Christmas!

As best I can guess (and estimate from the date I got them developed), these were taken in the summer of 1996. My Grandpa Wagner used to take my cousins (Greg and Chris) and me on a yearly fishing trip to Robinson, IL, where his sister (my Aunt Carol) lived. Aunt Carol belonged to the Quail Creek Country Club, where we did all of our fishing. We made it three or four consecutive years without killing each other, and we always had a pretty good time. Each trip would last a few days where we would fish and hang out, but mostly fish.

]]> http://www.lepolt.com/blog/2008/12/04/just-for-fun/feed/ http://www.lepolt.com/blog/2008/11/15/my-first-try-at-a-wordpress-plugin/ http://www.lepolt.com/blog/2008/11/15/my-first-try-at-a-wordpress-plugin/#comments Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:30:03 +0000 Jonathan http://www.lepolt.com/blog/?p=149 In a previous post I talked about how I could never seem to get my photo albums to fit into my webpage templates quite the way I wanted to…so I ended up writing my own PHP script that tapped into my Picasa Web Albums to do that for me.

Since then I decided to take it a step further and write a WordPress plugin that did exactly the same thing…only was much easier for novice users to integrate in their webpages.

The result, Get Picasa Albums. Available here:

• WordPress plugin download
• Plugin homepage

So, if anyone out there is looking for some way to integrate their Picasa Web Albums into their WordPress site, this should help. Enjoy!

See the plugin used in action here

Fairbanks provided guests with beer brewed in the home countries of many of the composers that would be featured that evening, including Poland, Russia, France, Austria, Belgium, Argentina, and the United States.

As people sat down with their beers of the world in anticipation of a great show, Fairbanks got things going with some contemporary favorites by the Beatles, Chicago, and Charlie Chaplin. “Songs like these are always fan favorites,” said Roger. “People know the words and tend to sing along in their heads. It keeps them excited for more, and before they realize it they’ve become entranced by the classical pieces.”

The contemporary pieces were followed by a familiar tune, heard recently in an Xbox commercial for Halo 3. It was Chopin’s famous Prelude in D-flat Major, better known as the Raindrop Prelude.

Music enthusiast Joseph Valentin says, “Mr. Fairbanks dazzles audiences again with his latest release, Live in Cincinnati. On his newest disc, Fairbanks displays unusual versatility, bringing to life everything from the nostalgic melodies of the Beatles and Chicago to some of the repertoire’s most difficult riffs from Debussy and Rachmaninoff. Live in Cincinnati will keep listeners interested from start to finish and promises to bring audiences back for a repeat performance.”

For this special event Roger invited his piano teacher to stop by to play a few pieces. Judith Fleitas is a Doctoral candidate at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her musical genius was demonstrated tonight as she performed some classical pieces by W. A. Mozart and Alberto Ginastera. She wowed the crowed as her fingers moved magically along the keys, producing a sound that Ginastera himself would have appreciated. A quick biography about Judith can be found at the end of this release.

Between Fairbanks and Fleitas, the night was a huge success. After the concert was over the fans erupted with applause, standing up and asking for an encore. Roger’s CD will be release to the public in the next few weeks, but in case you can’t wait, digital downloads of the individual pieces can be found here: http://www.lepolt.com/roger_live.

Press Contacts:
Jonathan Lepolt
Fairbanks/Lepolt Recording Studios
lepoltje [at] gmail [dot] com

Judith Fleitas is a Cuban American pianist. Ms. Fleitas is completing her Doctorate in Musical Arts at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her repertoire includes most of the Classical composers and her specialty is Latin-American Classical music. Besides that, teaching is also her passion. Roger Fairbanks is one of her adult students, and one of the most dedicated and entrepreneurial ones. Mr. Fairbanks has been taking lessons from Ms. Fleitas for several years, and this performance was one at his house, where several friends and music lovers gathered and both, teacher and student performed in an informal atmosphere for fun.

About the pieces: Alberto Ginastera was one of the most famous Argentinean composers of the twentieth century. The piece performed by Ms. Fleitas is from a set of three dances titled “Tres Piezas.” The earlier piece is the second movement from W. A. Mozart’s beautiful piano sonata in F Major K. 332. If you would like to contact Ms. Fleitas, please do so at: fleitasjc [at] hotmail [dot] com.

I tossed around the idea of writing my own PHP script to pull images from a directory, generate thumbnails, create pages, etc., but it always seemed like too much work and I never got around to doing it. Anything I found online never did “exactly” what I wanted it to do, so I was never happy with any 3rd party solutions.

A while ago I finally gave up with Photoshop and Dreamweaver and decided that I would let Google handle all of my photo albums online. Using Picasa Web Albums has worked out very well, but there was never any integration between Lepolt.com and my Picasa Web page. A couple weeks ago I found out that Google [more or less] provides an API to Picasa Web. This is nothing new, I just had never heard about it. It’s not a direct API, but basically works by reading the XML feed that Google uses to store information about the albums and photos within. After Googling around a little and messing with some code, I finally developed a version that I was happy with.

It can be seen in production here: (http://www.lepolt.com/pictures.php).

For those interested, I will post the final version of my code. Please note that this code carries no warranty.
http://www.lepolt.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/getpicasapics.zip

Additional links:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-picasalbum/
http://code.google.com/apis/picasaweb/developers_guide_protocol.html

Update: See this link for an updated version of the code for use as a WordPress plugin

Magnum XL 2000

#2: Location
Cedar Point is located on the Cedar Point peninsula in beautiful Sandusky, OH. Oftentimes referred to as America’s Roller Coast ®, many rides have a scenic view of Lake Erie (ex. Maverick, Aerial view, Top Thrill Dragster). While Lake Erie alone isn’t anything to write home about, there’s something special about riding the Magnum at dusk. The ride features a pretzel-like twist about halfway through that offers a spectacular view of the sun setting down below the lake. Experiencing this while on the ride is simply and utterly amazing; something that no water feature at Kings Island could ever offer. The Magnum has certainly lost it’s place among the latest and greatest record-setting coasters at Cedar Point and elsewhere across the World, but this ride is surely a classic. A classic that I won’t soon forget.

The Showdown: Part 1

#1: The Rides
The rides are why I go to amusement parks. I go to ride rides. I always have, and I always will; this is just how I was raised. It doesn’t matter how much flair your park has, if the rides suck the park sucks. Period. Cedar Point provides me with 75 rides including 17 roller coasters. I understand that these numbers include children’s rides, but did I mention that 17 coasters is more than any other park in the world? Kings Island provides a weak 14 coasters, half of which I can’t stand wasting my time on. Cedar Point also offers an overflowing handful of additional thrill rides to keep my heart pounding with excitement.

This is part one of a multi-part blog post designed to spur interest and conversation between my loyal readers. Part two will be released next week…

The other day we left our house and were headed down the street. All of the sudden some car backed out of a driveway, clearly not looking for oncoming traffic. I calmly hit the brakes and slowed to avoid a collision, only to realize it was the kid that had been practicing maneuverability with cones in his driveway for the past couple months…

He must have nailed that part, but skimmed by on the IMPORTANT aspects of driving (like not running into other cars). Oh well, at least he wasn’t headed the same direction that we were!