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An Epic Review of the Back to the Roots Water Garden Fish Tank

Back to the Roots Water Garden all set up

Aquaponics for All

Every now and then it’s nice to change things up. A few months ago, Peter recommended that I get a fish tank. He purchased one for his office and it was a big hit. The tank that he got for his office was from a company I hadn’t ever heard of called Back to the Roots. At first I was skeptical. I remember when I was a young child the ordeals of trying to take care of a betta fish. I thought it was inevitable that I would kill whatever it was that I put into the tank. Fish seemed like fragile creatures. But what Peter told me was that this company had taken care of all of the difficult parts of keeping a fish alive– the kit was fully stocked with food and even a coupon for a free fish. Additionally, the tank was set up as an aquaponics system with a grow bed at the top. The plants in the grow bed would extract the harmful nitrogen from the water and clean the tank. So, I figured I would give it a shot. How’d my tank turn out?

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An Epic Review of the Dyson V6 Trigger: A Supercharged Handheld Bagless Vacuum

The Backstory

We have two really cute cats, Percy and Portia. Unfortunately, I’m mildly allergic to them (although I’m dangerously allergic to trees and grass, a problem I developed after my first Iraq deployment… something about the trees at Fort Bragg). My doctor told me to get rid of the cats, but they’re definitely part of the family and there’s no way I could ever give them up.

You can follow these two cats on Instagram
You can follow these two cats on Instagram

So I decided to place several more portable air filters in the house, increase the filtration in our A/C system, start immunotherapy for all of my allergies, and buy a serious vacuum to help reduce the amount of cat dander floating around. We’ve had some not-very-effective vacuums before, even from well-known brands like Daredevil, so I wanted to do my homework and avoid repeating those experiences. How did my vacuum search go?

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Anker Premium Stereo Bluetooth Speaker Review: Big Sound for a Small Price

Sound Envy

About a year ago I was on an overseas beach vacation with the other BuysWithFriends guys. One of the guys brought a bluetooth speaker system. It just so happened that it led me to the opportunity to listen to sweet, melodious tunes pumped out of a Bose SoundLink mini bluetooth speaker.  I was instantly impressed but knew that along with Bose’s impressive reputation for quality was also an impressive reputation for priciness. When I came home, I thought about beefing up our in-home sound capability. I was already benefiting from better sound on the road with an Anker portable speaker. This led me to do some more research and I ultimately settled on an Anker Premium Stereo Bluetooth Speaker for our living room. How did it go?

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Summer time… and you need a large patio umbrella

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Meredith enjoying our back patio

 

Making maximum use of our existing space

We moved to Philadelphia last year in July after five years of living in DC (Capitol Hill and H Street NE). We lived in a rowhouse which did not have a backyard so we were excited that our new place had a sizable (for the city) back patio and yard. We didn’t spend a ton of time back there last year so we told ourselves that we needed to make the space more “livable.” I took some initial steps towards that goal this weekend by getting a large patio umbrella.

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