Here’s a quick freebie for those of you who blog, or want to blog, and have questions. Karen Rani (the designer of this blog, incidentally) has decided to host How2Blog as an informational resource for those needing some technical blogging help:

Welcome to How2Blog, a new column that will answer these questions and more. Previously known as the Graphic Design Series, this column will provide you with the tools you want to make your blog more user-friendly, more fun to visit and help you shed that Christmas Bulge.

Okay maybe not that last one.

This weekly column will be cross-posted at website-turned-blog Troll Baby Graphics.

Whether you’re on Blogger, WordPress, Movable Type or Typepad, we all have one thing in common: we want our blogs to be a reflection of our messages to the world.

Send your burning questions to me at:

I can’t possibly know everything, so if I don’t know the answer, I’ll hunt it down for you.

Karen knows stuff, so go ask her if you need some help!

You only get a $5 gift card, but if you have a local Big Lots and shop there, anyway, it’s free money. (And at Big Lots, $5 is… what? Say, about 10 rolls of toiler paper?)

The survey took me less than 5 minutes. Go check it out here.

It’s time to snag some great deals: Right now during Foot Locker’s Friends and Family days, you can save big. Check out their copious clearance section or just save on the regular stuff. Either way, you can take 40% off your order total with coupon code FF7JCE57. Discount can not be used towards ASIC, Heelys, Jordan or Nike products.

Coupon is valid through Monday, January 15th, 2007.

This goes great with the discounted fitness stuff I posted yesterday, you know. Either you get a great deal on workout clothes, or you suffer less guilt over wasted money when you buy the clothes but fail to work out.

Right now at SmartBargains you can take an additional 20% off of all clearance merchandise by shopping through this here link. Additional discount shows up automatically when you put stuff in your cart. Offer is valid now through January 13th, 2007.

If you haven’t shopped them before, SmartBargains carries… well… just about everything. And you never know when you’ll need to be able to shop for both a blender and a new pair of shoes in one fell swoop, right?

Gee, I wonder where my mind is, today? Certainly not on those cookies in the kitchen that I bought for the kids. Nope. Not at all.

Looking to get into shape? You might be interested in the BodyFlex+ System and Meal Plan now on deep discount (just $6.32 shipped). The Body Bar comes with a DVD or VHS (your choice) of three different workouts it can be used with, and the meal planner features healthy recipes that take no longer than 15 minutes to make.

I went ahead and ordered one. I think it’ll work great if I can figure out how to use the Body Bar to clamp my jaws shut.

I have expounded before (at length! verbose, much?) on my opinions about prescription eyewear. I still maintain that your very best bet is a small, independently owned optical shop. However, I was chided in comments and by email that some of the discount internet-order places are really quite good.

So, I’m amending my position (slightly). By all means, buy your sunglasses or your back-up pair or—in the case of those of us with small children in specs—your kid’s emergency pair from this place without too much worry. And so long as you’re doing that, why not get the best deal? Use coupon code Winter10 to take $10 off your total purchase. Coupon is good through March 15th, 2007.

(And no, not all of their glasses are $39. But most of them are. I guess mostly39dollarglassesexceptforthegooddesignerstuff.com was already taken.)

Ahhh, January. The new year! A fresh start!

The month that stores start putting out their bathing suits. The month that 99% of Americans look in the mirror and say, “You know, it’s possible that I did not need to eat all of those cookies at Christmas.”

Looking to change some habits and start getting into better shape? Wendy’s understands, and wants you to come have one of their entrée salads. Then, take the receipt from your Wendy’s salad to your local Curves and use it to get a free two week trial membership. Curves is also carrying Wendy’s coupons and other goodies, so you could eat a salad, go join Curves, get a coupon towards another salad, eat that one, give that receipt to a friend so she can join up, etc. It could be this whole viral salad-gym thing. Except that viral salad sounds really gross. Nevermind.

Hey, what a surprise! Restaurant.com is running another 60% off deal! Use coupon code Member to take 60% off your total order of already-reduced dining coupons. Looks like this one expires tomorrow night (January 10th, 2007) so don’t dawdle.

$25 certificates are going for $4 after coupon, and $10 certificates for $1.80.

Consider checking them again, if you’ve checked before and not found anything. (I keep checking back, because they’re “adding new restaurants all the time,” but there’s still nothing there for me. The joys of living in the sticks!)