Has anyone else discovered the website lala.com?  We used lala.com several years ago when it was a music trading site.  Jeremy and I had probably 100 duplicate CDs or music we no longer wanted and found lala.com where you could trade CDs with other people, and get something you wanted.  Well, there are similar sites out there like this now, but lala no longer provides this service.

Lala.com is now a music streaming site, but it’s different than others I’ve seen.  You can use it several different ways, once you have an account set up, you can listen to most songs one time for free, some songs they only let you listen to a 30 second sample.  After that, you can purchase the right to stream that song from lala.com anytime you want, usually for 10 cents.  That means if you’re interested in an album but not sure if  you want it or want the whole thing or not sure if it’s something you’re really going to like, you can listen to that entire album for about $1.00 depending on how many songs are on it.  And, you can listen to it as many times as you want online from any computer.

You can also use their Music Mover to detect what MP3s you already own on your computer. This allows you to stream these songs that you already own from any computer as well. Now, I can listen to the songs I’ve loaded on lala, on my laptop, or if I’m in the basement where we have another computer I can listen to it down there, Jeremy can also log in and listen to the music at work.

I will admit, we don’t buy too many albums lately, but I really like having a physical CD in my hand, I like looking at the music liner with pictures, and the words for the music. I am still trying to get used to owning music that I don’t have a physical CD for, but this site is helping convince me.

Apple just bought lala.com and I’m hoping they don’t change it too much, or if they do change it they allow me to stream my music through our Apple Airport Express, which is hooked up to the speakers in our living room!

Here’s what Jake and I have been listening to today - She & Him - Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward’s band.   Enjoy!  (I think you can listen to this without registering for 5 days, and then you are required to register - which is free).

We just paid our last electric bill and it was much higher than it has been on average.  We usually pay around $100 a month in electricity and this month it was $155.  So, I’ve decided we need to do something to try to get this back under control.  It has been cold here, and there have been days in January when we did not leave the house because it was too cold and snowy outside, so I’m sure between the extra heating and using the lights, TV, etc. more added up.

I’m going to start simple and see how much I can reduce our electricity by doing some basic things:

1) Turning off lights - I’m usually pretty good about turning off the lights when I leave the room, however sometimes when I’m in a hurry or have a toddler squirming in my arms I see that a light is on and just don’t turn it off when I leave the room.

2) Unplugging things - Standby power for appliances you have plugged in but are not actually using has been estimated to be around 5% of all of your household power.  I know we are guilty of leaving things plugged in that don’t necessarily need to be.

3) Opening the windows - I’m home a large portion of the day since I stay home with Jacob and don’t go to work.  But, I know sometimes I turn on lights instead of opening the blinds to let light in.

I’m going to leave it at that, and try to get in the habit of doing these three things before I delve deeper.  I’ll try to report back in a month or two when we get our electricity bill and see how it’s going.  Of course, it won’t be as cold in March as it was in January so it won’t be a great comparison, but I’m still hoping we’ll be able to see a difference.  I’m hoping we’ll be able to become greener and save a little money at the same time with this undertaking.  If anyone out there decides to join me, you’ll have to let me know how you do with it as well!