It may look like it, but this device is not actually a Russian Soyuz for cats. It’s a Litter Robot, which is essentially the best litter box ever invented. Period. I travel a lot and having to come home to several smelly dirty traditional litter boxes that have been sitting there for days is not something I enjoy. Now I always have a clean litter box. I’m happy and my cats are happy.

Find out more about the genius device here: http://www.litter-robot.com/. It will seriously change your life. My only complaint is that my cats make a serious mess with the clumping litter but that’s their fault, not the Litter Robot’s.

Many of the travellers in Moscow for our meetings have been stuck here since Saturday and are finally supposed to get home on Thursday pending that planes continue to fly. Sunday and Monday many airports opened back up again and lots of airlines have been flying (many have even added additional flights) but I read today that the volcano is acting up again which could cause more problems for travellers. Hopefully Eyjafjallajoekull will get its act together before my flight from Moscow to Houston on the 27th.

This blog is supposed to be about traveling which is something I do fairly frequently, yet I mostly post random crap or scams I’ve seen. So it’s time to start blogging about travel, which by the way, I am doing as I type this. I am currently on a plane to Moscow with four and a half hours left of my nine hour flight. It seems long but when you’ve been on a thirteen hour one-way flight to Japan you realize that you handle just about anything… especially when you’re sitting in economy. That’s where I am right now so I figured I would start off with a few tips I’ve picked up over the years.

So I’m sitting in economy class next to a Russian man in an aisle seat of course. That’s my first tip: Always sit in an aisle seat on a flight that is more than two hours. That used to be a tough one for me before I became a frequent flyer – who wouldn’t want that nice window seat? I don’t like the idea of being trapped in by at least one person but most likely two. That’s two people who have to get up from their seats when I have to stretch or use the lav (that’s travel speak for lavatory or bathroom) which limits the amount of times I can get up from my seat. I don’t want to be limited and I’m not going to ask two people to get up 5 or 6 times.

My second tip: Take control of the arm rest before the plane even starts to taxi, especially if you’re stuck in a middle seat. Right now the Russian man next to me has complete control of the arm rest and unless I want to get a little intimate with him, I have to remain distant and slightly uncomfortable for nine hours. It weirds me out to touch arms with strangers even though we both are wearing long sleeves. I’ve been in a middle seat before on an eight hour flight and both of the pax (travel speak for passengers) next to me kept trying to flight me for the arm rest. It was a battle I had to fight, there is no way I could sit in a middle seat for eight hours with my arms crossed or in my lap just so. No freaking way.

Some other tips: Bring lip balm, hand lotion, a bottle of water (you need to drink a lot of water even if it means you have to use the lav a lot), some snacks like nuts or an energy bar, and at least one book or magazine with you every time you travel on a flight that is more than three hours. For three hours you could sit there with nothing to do and be fine. For three hours the bag of pretzels (or other snack) that the airline provides will be just fine. For three hours you’re skin won’t dry out so much that you feel like a mummy when you land. Anything over three hours and you need to be prepared.

I’ve been on a lot of flights. A lot. Most of my destinations usually require two-three connections each way and so the miles add up fast. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten a book or figured I didn’t need one and my seat on a completely full flight was the only one where the TV system didn’t work. If you’re on a seven hour flight and you find out that you can’t watch a movie there’s really only so many times you can read Continental Connection, American Way, or Sky Mall. Be prepared.

Sleep if you can on any flight. Everyone loves a nap and if you’re on a long flight and can only sleep even a few hours that not only passes the time faster but also refreshes you, especially if you’ve got more connections or ground travel to do when you reach your destinations. Personally, I cannot sleep on planes. Too much noise and too many people walking around, not to mention the fact that there is no space and it’s downright uncomfortable in economy class. Now if I were in First or Business that might be a different story but I just can’t sleep in economy.

Stretch it out before and after your flight. If you do any yoga, fantastic! If not, a few simple stretches will do the trick. Trust me, stretching out before and after a flight is crucial. I’ve seen a woman doing actual yoga stances in a bathroom in Dulles before so I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who believes in a doing a few stretches to get your grove back.

So there’s some travel tips to make your journey a bit easier. Traveling a long distance can be hard on anyone so hopefully some of these tips will help.

Mexico:  May 20-25

Life is good.

Here’s what it looks like:

Congratulations Category A prize winner! You have been selected as one of two winners of the UK NATIONAL LOTTO 2009 NEW YEAR PROMO, computer ballot draws and thus will be a privileged recipient of the grand draw prize of ?2,500,000.00 From a total sum of ?5,000,000.00 shared
among the 2 winner in this category. You/Your company, attached to Winning File Reference number NLUK/2030/0181/08; ticket number 101-OIO-77/A.

Contact your claims agent:

MRS. Susan EDWARDS
TRANSFER OFFICER
TAMAR FINANCE LTD UK
Email: tamarfinance333@gmail.com
TEL: +44(0)701 115 2991

Please Send to MRS.SUSAN EDWARDS. the information below via her company email for the processing and transfer of your win to you: EMAIL: tamarfinance333@gmail.com

LOTTERY CLAIMS PERSONAL DETAILS

Full Name: ___ Complete Address____ Country:_____ Age:_____ Sex:__  Marital Status:____ Occupation:____ Telephone:_____ Fax:____ E-mail:_____

Congratulations once again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotions program. You advised to send your filled Lottery Winnings Claims Form to your claims agent via her email address>> EMAIL: tamarfinance333@gmail.com

Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Nancy Miettinen-Knutson
Online coordinator
UK NATIONAL LOTTO

Sounds legit except for the fact that I am not from the UK, the personal details file is some text in an email and actually includes “email address” (which they should know since they emailed you), and Susan’s email address is listed as a Gmail account.

I don’t know about you but I am sure sick of the laziness. How hard would it have been to put up a fake UK lottery website where the people who are foolish enough to fall for these obvious scams could enter their bank account info into a database at their leisure? I would be much more willing to believe I was one of two winners for a lottery I didn’t enter if there was even some effort put into this scam. At least the Nigerian prince sounds legit, albiet farfetched. These scammers today don’t have the pizazz of the Nigerian prince and they certainly aren’t willing to put forth the effort. Lazy scammers.

I’m really terrible about checking my mail. Sometimes I’ll go for several weeks without paying a visit to my trusty mailbox (I pay all my bills online, everything else is junk anyway) and today I had to finally empty out the box overflowing with coupons for pizza, junk mail, and those stupid coupons for Bed, Bath & Beyond. In addition to the usual, I found a letter addressed to me with a Canadian stamp and no return address. Hmm, I thought.

I opened up the letter to find a check for $2980.40 made out to me with a letter from Elite Marketing Group and a worksheet. The letter stated that Elite Marketing Group was a mystery shopping company and that they had selected me for a position with their company. Then the letter stated that I would be compensated $370.40 for “Employee Probationer Training Pay + Expenses” and all I had to do was deposit the check and take out the requested about of money. I was to spend $20.00 at Burger King and then rate their customer service, $75.00 at Wal-Mart and rate them as well, and then visit Western Union and setup a transfer for $2360.00 to go to TIFFANY BROWN, 140 LOWER MARCH, LONDON, UK SE1 7AE, plus a $155.00 transaction fee. Those amounts combined were what the check was made for.

I immediately knew this was fishy. I have done mystery shopping before for legit companies and NO ONE gives you thousands of dollars upfront and requests you make wire transfers to random people in another country. They also don’t request that you fax or email them the Western Union receipt to a fake email address (I Googled it, the domain name is a fake). I did a few minutes of research — it didn’t take long — and comfirmed it was a scam. There’s a couple of names I’m supposed to contact if I have questions so I believe “John Banks” and/or “Jessica Powell” at 1-866-971-7778 Ext. 20 will be getting a call from me next week. I’m sure it’s a fake number, but if it’s not my questions will be something like “why are you scamming me?”

If you’re not familiar with these sorts of scams, basically they want me to deposit this fake check, take out all the money, eat a healthy lunch at Burger King, stop on over a Wal-Mart and spend $75.00 and then send the rest of the money out of the country where there is no way that I will ever be able to get it back. So inevitably when my bank returns the check, I’ll owe the bank almost 3K because I sent all the money to Tiffany Brown in Lower Marsh. It’s a  pretty good scam really, but at least they could have put up a fake mystery shopping website or something. That would probably get more people sucked in.

I always thought there was something strange about Shamir… I had no idea it was his thirst for blood that made him stand out among a crowd.