My new favorite electronic invite

As I’m sure you’ve heard me mention, I have a wine club – the wine club’s invites are managed by an electronic invite site. I used to use evite, but I got tired of the huge ads and what not so I’ve switched. Recently, one of recent favorite “electronic invite” sites, Socializr, got bought and at first, things just didn't work right, then my favorite features went away- some I could pay for, but overall, even IF I wanted to pay, it wasn’t the same. Enter Anyvite. Things I like about it-it has an easy mobile interface (although it defaults to it when viewed in mobile, some people like that, some don’t) it doesn’t limit my description, let’s me customize the picture, still limits attendance and allows for comments, reminders, etc. You can even have an RSS feed on your website to keep track of invites. Things I don't like about it- not very "fancy" looking and the default mobile presence requires seperate clicking to view RSVPs and comments and the link to view it "standard" is at the bottom. One other thing is different-it counts "maybe's" as a "yes" in your total count, so make sure people know that.

Here's a quick look at the standard version online- as you can see, a small ad ontop, but really user friendly.

Here's the mobile version- as you can see, simpler, no pictures, seperate links to view guest RSVPs and comments, but very easy to RSVP and get the address. Note, I deleted the address and I put some arrows in to point out certain things, so this is a modified view.

All in all, I like Anyvite and will use it as long as it keeps offering these features for free! It took some serious googling to find it, however, so I wanted to share it with you all!

Walk off that Superbowl dip - at work!

Want a way to walk off all that Superbowl dip, pizza, lil smokies, wings, etc? Get your boss to spring for a Walkstation, so you can walk while you work.




I saw it today on the local morning show-what a neat idea, huh?? You can see a clip from Good Morning America here and find out more info about it here, so you can get all the ammo you need to convince your boss its a good investment.

Respect for the Evite

I’ve been annoyed with Evite lately. Well, not annoyed with Evite as much as I’m annoyed with people’s constant use of Evite’s yet still not treating it like a real invitation. I will be the first to say I use Evite for all sorts of gatherings, however, I count is as a real invitation. When I say I'm having a party, there will be a party. If I say I’ll be there, I show up. If something were to come up less than 2 days before, I would call AS WELL AS update my Evite response. This might be crazy, but I consider an Evite to mean a real party is going to happen and that “will you attend” to be a valid form of RSVP’ing to said party.

However, am I alone???

Recently, I sent out an Evite for a wine club function, and 2 people no-call/no-showed after RSVPing yes, and another 2 changed their response the day before. This isn’t horrible, but I still was annoyed. Until, the people who did show up told me of their recent horrifying Evite experience. They threw a surprise party for someone, and 25 people RSPV’d that they would come. Only 4 showed. That’s right. FOUR people. And….those 4 people were so late they had to delay the surprise party recipient.

Perhaps it’s a general RSVP problem. Have people just lost respect for those throwing parties? Have they been wronged so many times they are paying it forward? Do they overbook and forget? Or is it just Evite and with paper invitations people show up as their RSVP indicates? I have no other point of reference than our wedding, which the vast majority of responses did show up. Maybe 10 out of 130 didn’t show up, but that’s also a reception.

During a discussion about this, Mr. Luce (of the Luce family) suggested that Evite get some sort of feedback system. Something like eBay meets the airline on-time percentage, so you can judge the likelihood of them showing up to your party, based on how many parties they showed up as responded. I think it’s a great idea, but in the meantime, if you get an evite, please keep your RSVP. The people throwing the party assume you mean your response, just as you expect that when you arrive to the event, that they will be home.

Potential wine disaster avoided

Recently, the Lou was hit with a storm, aftermath of Ike. We live in an older neighborhood, which means big old trees and above ground power lines. I’m sure you get where this is going….we’re often without power. In fact, if you live in St. Louis and know someone is without power due to a storm, there’s a really good chance the Lush’s are powerless.

As you know, we’ve also purchased a 100 bottle wine fridge in the past year. It is glorious- dual digital temps, very nice. Well, last Sunday morning, the Lush’s went powerless with a full wine fridge. About 2 hours later, I called my good friend Lucy to ask if she could look up our outage status. The very first thing she said is “do you need to bring the wine over?”. Aww. What a good friend, right? I said no, I hope it comes back on soon and its not that warm outside, so I should be fine. (at the time the temp was about 55 and the expected high was around 70, I think. ) I stuck a regular non-digital fridge thermometer in the wine fridges to monitor the temperature, opened all the windows, and we left to go grab something to eat and watch some football. When we returned, still powerless, the temperature in the fridge was just under 65, about the temperature of the house.

Although the Lush Red Wine Storage Temperature is 57-58 degrees, in general, I feel anything under 65 degrees, even below 70, is fine. Since, as noted in earlier posts, wine stores and restaurants store and serve things at room temperature, which is usually 72-77, but I prefer to keep it under 65.

Well, the power returned a bit before 6. Luckily the temperature was on our side, so the wine held at 63/64 degrees. Potential disaster avoided. Whew. But for next time, I'm glad I have friends with extra room in their cellar. :)

Evite and I agree

Evite has a nifty drink calculator. You enter the party duration (4 hours), Guest Count of number of light (20) Avergage (60) and Heavy (40) drinkers that will attend. You put in if you’re serving wine, beer, or liquor (or any combination) and viola- you have what you should buy. We used said calculator for the Mr. and Mrs. Lush Reception, imputing the above numbers, overestimating a smidge because I’d rather have things left over than run out. Results were: 217Bottle(s)/Can(s) of Beer, 44Bottle(s) of Wine and 11Bottle(s) of Liquor (1 liter). We purchased about that much, but ended up with an abundance of alcohol leftover. Realistically, we went through less than 150 bottles of beer, 22-25 bottles of wine, and 7 bottles of liquor for about 95 adults and 15 kids. Astonishing how far off it was. I mean, really, I figured it would be right about on if I added a few more light drinkers and moved some avg drinkers to heavy drinkers, thinking evite wouldn't really know what a heavy drinker is. But no, I guess if you say heavy drinker, evite really thinks you’re a boozehound- we overpurchased by at least 40%.

However, when putting in what I would actually consider to be a heavy drinker, (ie someone who consumes over a bottle of wine by themselves, or 10+ mixed drinks) I changed it to 25 heavy, 50 avg, and 25 light. It came up with the following results: 167Bottle(s)/Can(s) of Beer, 34Bottle(s) of Wine and 9 Bottle(s) of Liquor (1 liter). Much much closer to actual numbers used. Hmm. Who knew-evite and I agree on what a heavy drinker is!!!

Although, worse things could happen-now we’re forced to have a party.

Letter writin fool update....

Update on my phone- its fixed. (see http://winelush.blogspot.com/2007/11/power-of-letter-writing.html) They replaced the screen, basically the whole top part of the flip. From letter writing to getting it back it was done in less than a month, and I took 10 days to put the phone in the Fed Ex box to ship it to them, so it would’ve been just a bit over two weeks if I had done it right away.

See? Next time you have a problem with a product, write a letter- you might be surprised.

The ultimate mattress pad.........

Not sure if other couples have the same problem we have, (doesn’t that sound ominous) but I’m much warmer than Terry is. It’s something he loves in the winter and hates in the summer. Either way, I’m always warm enough to sleep with a foot out from underneath the covers so when I saw this I was very excited, if only we had more disposable income. It keeps your bed cool / warm and they offer dual temps too!!!! I can’t even imagine….


http://www.chilitechnology.com/home.php