Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote Control for $117 after rebate

Amazon.com has the Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote Control on sale for $130.  That alone is a great price as the MSRP is $250, but you can combine it with a 10% off rebate from Logitech to get the price down to $117.  I've had the Harmony 880 for the past year or so and absolutely love it.  It's much better than your average universal remote as it will set up each of your components for whatever activity you choose.  For example, if you are going to watch a DVD it will turn on your DVD player and set your TV and audio receiver to the proper inputs.  Then when you're done with the DVD and you want to go back to watching TV from the antenna/cable then it'll switch all your components back.  It's truly the last remote you'll ever need.

 

Act fast because this price is sure not to last long. 

 

It's been raining so hard here in Texas that I keep looking around for an old guy building a boat.  Anyway, on Saturday we got another big downpour which seems common lately.  There's a nice little stream that runs through the wooded area behind my apartment and if you follow it upstream and across the street it "sort of" runs through another apartment complex there.  I say "sort of" because I think the complex was designed so that it usually runs underground, but also so that when it overflows it runs through the park area of the complex.  Well, on Saturday I looked out my window and noticed the little stream running much bigger than usual.  So I grabbed my camera and went across the street and sure enough there was a nice little river running through the complex.

 

There's no need to worry as this is how it was designed, but it sure was a lot of water.  Enjoy the pictures. 

 

OK, so this is a bit late, but on Friday the 13th I had the lucky misfortune to get a flat tire right after I had picked up my lunch.  As luck would have it, the holes were in the side of the tire and could not be repaired, I needed a new tire.  I then spent the next few hours putting the spare on and driving around town trying to find a place with a tire in stock for a replacement.  No one had any in stock so I had to order one and wait a week.

 

So, was it bad luck due to Friday the 13th, a coincidence?  To each his own. 

 

This post is for the real Dr. Pepper fans.  One of the things I've come to love here in Austin is Dublin Dr. Pepper.  For those that don't know, Dublin Dr. Pepper is manufactured in Dublin, Texas at the first and oldest Dr. Pepper bottler and uses the original Dr. Pepper recipe.  Now, I know what you're thinking if they use the original recipe, then what does everyone else use?  Well, the original Dr. Pepper recipe, and the same likely holds true for most soft drinks, uses cane sugar as the sweetener rather than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  Pretty much all soft drink manufacturers switched from using cane sugar to HFCS in the 70s when the price of cane sugar rose above that of HFCS.  This is likely because it's much easier to grow corn here in the US than it is to grow sugar cane.

 

Anyway, when everyone else else switched to HFCS, the Dublin Dr. Pepper plant decided to continue using Imperial Cane Sugar as they had always done to preserve the original Dr. Pepper recipe.  When I found out about this I became intrigued and decided to find some to try it for myself.  Finding Dublin Dr. Pepper is not an easy task.  The franchise area covered by the Dublin Dr. Pepper plant is not very large, only about a 44 mile radius.  And with Dublin, TX about 140 miles from Austin that leaves quite the drive.  Fortunately though there are a few places in Austin (and apparently most of Texas now) where you can at least buy Dublin Dr. Pepper, even if it isn't on the cheap.

 

Read on for my quest in tracking down a good source of cheap Dublin Dr. Pepper near Austin...