It has been a while since I posted anything. There were a couple of things I wanted to write about that turned out to be very long projects, and somehow, I just never got around to writing them. And then I missed blogging about a couple of trips I took (and a few trips that I wanted to go on but missed). And then there were a few more things that I meant to write but somehow didn't.
I guess this just isn't my routine anymore. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and actually have something to do. Or, sometimes, I manage to get back to sleep for another hour or so. Or, maybe, I wake up early and watch whatever it was that I missed on TV the night before.
Mostly, not being obsessed with the blog is a good thing. Last month I actually had time to both get the house clean before the bug guy came and put up about half of the Halloween stuff. And I wasn't even home all of the time, having gone on a trip to middle of nowhere Texas and attempted to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival.
Still, I have forgotten to blog about a few things, and I regret that. It's good that right now I don't feel the need to bitch about every little thing that happens to me, but I like to look back and see what I did the year before and other things that I would like to look up, but I can't do that now, cause I didn't bother to write anything down.
Okay, so the big thing that I have to write down now is not our little trip to Houston, but I will talk about that for a bit. Earlier there was a planned trip to Houston, which was scheduled and then unscheduled and then rescheduled, but I got sick and didn't get to go. I really wanted to go. We had paid for a room in Webster, a bit south of Houston, about half an hours drive from Galveston, and if I had gone there would have been many trips to the beach and probably long soaks in a hot tub. But I didn't get to go then, and this trip didn't seem to be as good, being on the north side of Houston and much to far away for morning trips to the beach. But we could at least spend Sunday afternoon in Galveston, and I always have this thought that I shouldn't turn down any trips to places I like, no matter how dull I expect most of the trip to be, it might be my last chance to go for a while.
And I think maybe this is it, no more trips, even mostly boring ones.
The big news this week is that the company my husband works for was bought by another company. The second company is one that my husband has worked for before, two or three times, so we already know what to expect. More work, less pay, and no insurance.
The holiday season is already a tough time for us, not only because of the extra expenses that most people have, but also because of the expected two or three weeks off with no pay. But most years we have thought that if we didn't do anything too stupid that it would all be okay again by February. This year we don't think that it will all be okay again, and that if he even still has a job it will be with a much smaller paycheck.
So half of the time my husband talks of gloom and doom, and half the time he acts as if things are really good, and we go out and spend too much on lunch. I rather think that we should start getting used to peanut butter sandwiches, but I don't argue with him, and we go out and eat seafood or barbecue instead.
The new company is saying that no one should worry, and that there will be no major changes until 2012.
Like we can't all look at the calendar and figure out how soon 2012 will be here.
So I don't know what we are going to do. It will be a while before we learn anything useful.
A few weeks ago I was happy that we had been able to pay off one of the cars a few months early. And then we had to pay for some car repairs. And now this.
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Monday, April 26, 2010
Trying to eat what is good for me
Someone I know is going to try going on a diet. He's ordered two weeks of frozen dinners, and if he eats nothing but these dinners and some snacks that are included, he'll lose weight. I wonder how long this is going to last.
About a week ago I had the place to myself and tried to do the dollar a day thing for a bit. I usually am able to do this and have both yogurt and a small cola every day. This time a few prices went up, and I had to skip the yogurt. Not that I've been eating the yogurt for a while now anyway.
But I must start eating right, and I would like to stop spending so much money, and I would like to lose weight. The one time I did lose weight (safely), I ate a lot of spaghetti with a lot of veggies. And I ate yogurt. And I ate popcorn and drank V-8.
I've been reading a blog by someone who is trying to eat on a dollar a day for a year. She's a vegetarian. Her plan is to buy a lot of basic stuff and then after she has the rice and flour and such she would spend a certain amount every week or two on fruits and vegetables. Since she's a vegetarian (and almost vegan), she doesn't have much else to buy that needs to be bought fresh and kept refrigerated. Sometimes she might add some tofu and soymilk. Everything else is kept in the pantry and possibly bought in bulk.
I am not a vegetarian. Last week I tried writing down what I thought that I should be eating (plus a few sort of splurges that I tend to eat when I am not feeling great). I didn't write down the cost of veggies, cause those prices tend to change with the seasons, so I'd never really know what that would cost until the week of purchase. Still, there is almost always something I like on sale, so I didn't think that should add too much.
I was disappointed that after I added everything up I didn't have much that could be kept in the pantry except for spaghetti, and that what I wrote down added up to more than sixty a month. That is with the new low price store that just opened. I'm surprised how much I take for granted that they didn't have. They have a great price on milk, but they don't have 1%, so if I buy the milk there I will have to mix skim and 2%. And they have a great price on eggs, but I didn't see anything like Eggbeaters. They had sodas, but no diet cola. No sugar free pudding mix. Other things were good deals, but not really great deals. My plan for one-stop shopping isn't going to work here.
Okay, so with the what I think I'm supposed to eat plan (which is not vegetarian but has one vegetarian meal everyday), I'm spending sixty dollars a month plus veggies (the thing that I'm supposed to eat the most of), and I forgot to add popcorn and V-8 (another thing that they don't seem to have at the new store), and this is before I go to the added expense of buying any special diet stuff or substituting stuff like Eggbeaters for eggs.
I think that I'm going to try this on Monday, for about a week (except that I'm going to see about getting free breakfast at Subway on Tuesday). We've already had junk food this week, and I don't think that we need more. But we'll see how it goes.
About a week ago I had the place to myself and tried to do the dollar a day thing for a bit. I usually am able to do this and have both yogurt and a small cola every day. This time a few prices went up, and I had to skip the yogurt. Not that I've been eating the yogurt for a while now anyway.
But I must start eating right, and I would like to stop spending so much money, and I would like to lose weight. The one time I did lose weight (safely), I ate a lot of spaghetti with a lot of veggies. And I ate yogurt. And I ate popcorn and drank V-8.
I've been reading a blog by someone who is trying to eat on a dollar a day for a year. She's a vegetarian. Her plan is to buy a lot of basic stuff and then after she has the rice and flour and such she would spend a certain amount every week or two on fruits and vegetables. Since she's a vegetarian (and almost vegan), she doesn't have much else to buy that needs to be bought fresh and kept refrigerated. Sometimes she might add some tofu and soymilk. Everything else is kept in the pantry and possibly bought in bulk.
I am not a vegetarian. Last week I tried writing down what I thought that I should be eating (plus a few sort of splurges that I tend to eat when I am not feeling great). I didn't write down the cost of veggies, cause those prices tend to change with the seasons, so I'd never really know what that would cost until the week of purchase. Still, there is almost always something I like on sale, so I didn't think that should add too much.
I was disappointed that after I added everything up I didn't have much that could be kept in the pantry except for spaghetti, and that what I wrote down added up to more than sixty a month. That is with the new low price store that just opened. I'm surprised how much I take for granted that they didn't have. They have a great price on milk, but they don't have 1%, so if I buy the milk there I will have to mix skim and 2%. And they have a great price on eggs, but I didn't see anything like Eggbeaters. They had sodas, but no diet cola. No sugar free pudding mix. Other things were good deals, but not really great deals. My plan for one-stop shopping isn't going to work here.
Okay, so with the what I think I'm supposed to eat plan (which is not vegetarian but has one vegetarian meal everyday), I'm spending sixty dollars a month plus veggies (the thing that I'm supposed to eat the most of), and I forgot to add popcorn and V-8 (another thing that they don't seem to have at the new store), and this is before I go to the added expense of buying any special diet stuff or substituting stuff like Eggbeaters for eggs.
I think that I'm going to try this on Monday, for about a week (except that I'm going to see about getting free breakfast at Subway on Tuesday). We've already had junk food this week, and I don't think that we need more. But we'll see how it goes.
Monday, April 05, 2010
A dollar a day week
I found another blog about trying to spend only a dollar a day for food. Only this one is a bit more ambitious. She's trying to do this for a whole year.
Well, most of a year. She cheats once in a while. And, since it is for the whole year she isn't totally cancelling her social life either. If someone wants to make or buy her dinner, she will let them.
So I was going to do the dollar a day thing with her this week. I have the house to myself for a bit, and I should like to save some money, so this is a good time to do it.
Okay, yesterday before my husband left we went to McDonald's. I had breakfast off of the dollar menu, but still, that adds up to three dollars and tax. So yesterday doesn't count. I ate leftovers the rest of the day.
Okay, so I'll do six days instead of seven.
First thing I always do is make black bean soup. I went to the store and spent $5.13, $1.49 was for two rather sad looking onions. Onions, even at my cheap produce place, have gone up to $1.29 a pound. While I usually make twelve cups of the soup for less than three dollars, this time it cost $3.38.
Still, it isn't too bad. About a week ago I found some quinoa on sale for a dollar a pound. It is usually more like three or four a pound, so I bought ten pounds. I keep wondering if I should have bought more, but I had an image of greedy little me emptying the shelves, spending a lot of money, and then having something happen resulting in either me not cooking or the grain getting spoiled some other way, so I decided that ten pounds was enough. I don't usually eat the stuff on a regular basis. Maybe I'll get tired of it before the ten pounds are gone.
Where was I? Oh, yes, I've measured out about a pound of the quinoa, which cost me $1.03. And I bought a dozen jumbo eggs, after being surprised that the large eggs weren't on sale for Easter. The eggs were $1.89 a dozen, and I plan to eat half of them. And I plan to eat half of the soup. And I plan to eat asparagus with the quinoa. And I spent $1.10 on my special diet cola, and then thirty cents on some diet breakfast drink I got on sale quite a while ago but forgot to make.
So that's $1.69 for the soup, $1.03 for the quinoa, $0.95 for the eggs, and $1.40 for the drinks. And I'm getting the asparagus out of my garden for free, so that's $5.07. I don't know how to figure in a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese or herbs, but I should think that it would be less than the $0.93 I have left. I'll probably add something to this, like popcorn. And I'll make a note if I decide to eat more of the soup or an extra egg or something.
And, like the new blogger, I reserve the right to quit if I should win the lottery, become ill, or find some other good reason. And if someone should invite me to lunch, I will probably accept.
Well, most of a year. She cheats once in a while. And, since it is for the whole year she isn't totally cancelling her social life either. If someone wants to make or buy her dinner, she will let them.
So I was going to do the dollar a day thing with her this week. I have the house to myself for a bit, and I should like to save some money, so this is a good time to do it.
Okay, yesterday before my husband left we went to McDonald's. I had breakfast off of the dollar menu, but still, that adds up to three dollars and tax. So yesterday doesn't count. I ate leftovers the rest of the day.
Okay, so I'll do six days instead of seven.
First thing I always do is make black bean soup. I went to the store and spent $5.13, $1.49 was for two rather sad looking onions. Onions, even at my cheap produce place, have gone up to $1.29 a pound. While I usually make twelve cups of the soup for less than three dollars, this time it cost $3.38.
Still, it isn't too bad. About a week ago I found some quinoa on sale for a dollar a pound. It is usually more like three or four a pound, so I bought ten pounds. I keep wondering if I should have bought more, but I had an image of greedy little me emptying the shelves, spending a lot of money, and then having something happen resulting in either me not cooking or the grain getting spoiled some other way, so I decided that ten pounds was enough. I don't usually eat the stuff on a regular basis. Maybe I'll get tired of it before the ten pounds are gone.
Where was I? Oh, yes, I've measured out about a pound of the quinoa, which cost me $1.03. And I bought a dozen jumbo eggs, after being surprised that the large eggs weren't on sale for Easter. The eggs were $1.89 a dozen, and I plan to eat half of them. And I plan to eat half of the soup. And I plan to eat asparagus with the quinoa. And I spent $1.10 on my special diet cola, and then thirty cents on some diet breakfast drink I got on sale quite a while ago but forgot to make.
So that's $1.69 for the soup, $1.03 for the quinoa, $0.95 for the eggs, and $1.40 for the drinks. And I'm getting the asparagus out of my garden for free, so that's $5.07. I don't know how to figure in a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese or herbs, but I should think that it would be less than the $0.93 I have left. I'll probably add something to this, like popcorn. And I'll make a note if I decide to eat more of the soup or an extra egg or something.
And, like the new blogger, I reserve the right to quit if I should win the lottery, become ill, or find some other good reason. And if someone should invite me to lunch, I will probably accept.
Monday, October 19, 2009
BUSTED!
If I did not want it heard, I would not have said it--Klingon proverb
Some of my friends have found my blog. Oh, well.
Last week I was looking at the tracker and saw that someone from Cedar Hill had Googled something that led them to my post about me having dinner with William Shatner. My friends R and J live in Cedar Hill, and they had also been at that event.
Crap.
Okay, a lot of people live in Cedar Hill, so it didn't have to be them. I've had a mostly anonymous blog. I rarely use anyone's real name, and once I deleted a post when I realized I forgot and used someone's name. I told one of my friends that I had a blog, and he said that he found it, but I was never sure that he had cause he didn't leave me a comment. I've met two fellow bloggers, but for the most part, my friends do not know that this is my blog.
Anyway, we were at dinner Saturday, and R said that they were Googling stuff last week because for some reason they needed to know the date for the captain's dinner, and they couldn't remember. So R and J from Cedar Hill did find my blog.
Crap.
Oh, well.
And it isn't like I've ever said anything really bad about anybody. And it isn't like I ever said anything that wasn't true. It is just nice to have someplace to rant about things that your friends and family don't know about. And now my friends can find this place if they want to.
Stuff happens. Whatever.
Some of my friends have found my blog. Oh, well.
Last week I was looking at the tracker and saw that someone from Cedar Hill had Googled something that led them to my post about me having dinner with William Shatner. My friends R and J live in Cedar Hill, and they had also been at that event.
Crap.
Okay, a lot of people live in Cedar Hill, so it didn't have to be them. I've had a mostly anonymous blog. I rarely use anyone's real name, and once I deleted a post when I realized I forgot and used someone's name. I told one of my friends that I had a blog, and he said that he found it, but I was never sure that he had cause he didn't leave me a comment. I've met two fellow bloggers, but for the most part, my friends do not know that this is my blog.
Anyway, we were at dinner Saturday, and R said that they were Googling stuff last week because for some reason they needed to know the date for the captain's dinner, and they couldn't remember. So R and J from Cedar Hill did find my blog.
Crap.
Oh, well.
And it isn't like I've ever said anything really bad about anybody. And it isn't like I ever said anything that wasn't true. It is just nice to have someplace to rant about things that your friends and family don't know about. And now my friends can find this place if they want to.
Stuff happens. Whatever.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Maybe I will make more videos
Today I am cleaning the dining room area, somewhat, as later today or tomorrow I will attempt to film another video. At least, I will if I find that dress I was going to wear, or if I find something else to wear. Anyway, I am partially redecorating the area with Halloween stuff, though I'm just moving stuff from the other room. I still haven't unpacked the other Halloween stuff from the boxes.
And then there's another video that I might work on. In fact there are several that I might work on, but not today. I believe that the contest is limited to five videos. The problem is narrowing it down to five, and which five, and once I've decided to film something should I spend the money to really film my idea.
For instance, David has this idea of feeding a hundred people with $20.09, but he hasn't quite figured out how to do it. I'm pretty sure I could make a hundred meals with that amount of money, though they would be very something very small and basic like soup. But it would be a very boring video if I'm just standing there saying that I know how to do it, without filming any cooking or anyone eating. But I don't really want to make a hundred meals next week. Maybe I could make ten meals for two dollars, and if you wanted to make ten times that amount it would add up to a hundred meals for $20.09.
But then, that is David's idea, and everyone knows that it is David's idea. I'm not sure that I should take his idea, even if he doesn't know how to make it work and I probably do.
In fact, I didn't even want to do the coupon thing cause David was already doing food. I used to do the coupon thing, but I mostly stopped doing it several years ago when I was trying to lose weight.
I know, now that you have seen my video, you don't believe that I was trying to lose weight very hard. Still, I was at some point, and I decided to stop eating so much packaged foods and start eating more fresh vegetables, and there aren't that many coupons for fresh vegetables, and it just wasn't worth the effort anymore.
I could do a travel thing, but again, if I didn't actually travel anywhere, that would be a rather boring video. Anyplace that I can actually get to for that amount of money is someplace that I've already been to and don't really need to go to again this week.
Maybe I'll only make three videos. That's probably a lot for someone who never made a video before last week.
I half want to do a video on things you can eat besides quinoa.
Yesterday, I went to look at one of the blogs written by one of David's readers. She doesn't write much, she just takes a lot of pictures. She had a picture of a garden bed she wanted to start. She currently has it right up against the fence. I tried to warn her that she should move it away from the fence, at least enough that she can walk all the way around her garden, but I couldn't get the comment thing to work.
Maybe David can warn her.
Yesterday, I got a comment from a new reader. And then he deleted the comment. That was odd, since he didn't write anything bad. Whatever.
And, yesterday, I got a look at the new CW show The Vampire Diaries. I didn't know that it was on, so I missed about the first five minutes or so. It looks to be a lot like Twilight.
I miss David's blog. Not that David's blog has gone anywhere, just that he isn't doing much with it right now. He's finished his first challenge, and he's come up with ideas for other challenges, but now he's wondering if he should actually do any of them. He has doubts about being able to feed a hundred people for $20.09. And he's back to school now, and he's busy with other things. There's not much time left for blogging anyway.
I keep telling myself that I shouldn't spend so much time blogging, and compared to what I used to do, I have really cut back. But I found a blog that I liked to read, and it's writer has gone back to his real life, and I miss reading it. It was a bit of fun.
Like this video thing. Next week it will be over, and I will again be waiting for things to get back to normal, which they never will. But I will be back to the same old stuff, without the distraction of the videos.
Same old stuff.
And then there's another video that I might work on. In fact there are several that I might work on, but not today. I believe that the contest is limited to five videos. The problem is narrowing it down to five, and which five, and once I've decided to film something should I spend the money to really film my idea.
For instance, David has this idea of feeding a hundred people with $20.09, but he hasn't quite figured out how to do it. I'm pretty sure I could make a hundred meals with that amount of money, though they would be very something very small and basic like soup. But it would be a very boring video if I'm just standing there saying that I know how to do it, without filming any cooking or anyone eating. But I don't really want to make a hundred meals next week. Maybe I could make ten meals for two dollars, and if you wanted to make ten times that amount it would add up to a hundred meals for $20.09.
But then, that is David's idea, and everyone knows that it is David's idea. I'm not sure that I should take his idea, even if he doesn't know how to make it work and I probably do.
In fact, I didn't even want to do the coupon thing cause David was already doing food. I used to do the coupon thing, but I mostly stopped doing it several years ago when I was trying to lose weight.
I know, now that you have seen my video, you don't believe that I was trying to lose weight very hard. Still, I was at some point, and I decided to stop eating so much packaged foods and start eating more fresh vegetables, and there aren't that many coupons for fresh vegetables, and it just wasn't worth the effort anymore.
I could do a travel thing, but again, if I didn't actually travel anywhere, that would be a rather boring video. Anyplace that I can actually get to for that amount of money is someplace that I've already been to and don't really need to go to again this week.
Maybe I'll only make three videos. That's probably a lot for someone who never made a video before last week.
I half want to do a video on things you can eat besides quinoa.
Yesterday, I went to look at one of the blogs written by one of David's readers. She doesn't write much, she just takes a lot of pictures. She had a picture of a garden bed she wanted to start. She currently has it right up against the fence. I tried to warn her that she should move it away from the fence, at least enough that she can walk all the way around her garden, but I couldn't get the comment thing to work.
Maybe David can warn her.
Yesterday, I got a comment from a new reader. And then he deleted the comment. That was odd, since he didn't write anything bad. Whatever.
And, yesterday, I got a look at the new CW show The Vampire Diaries. I didn't know that it was on, so I missed about the first five minutes or so. It looks to be a lot like Twilight.
I miss David's blog. Not that David's blog has gone anywhere, just that he isn't doing much with it right now. He's finished his first challenge, and he's come up with ideas for other challenges, but now he's wondering if he should actually do any of them. He has doubts about being able to feed a hundred people for $20.09. And he's back to school now, and he's busy with other things. There's not much time left for blogging anyway.
I keep telling myself that I shouldn't spend so much time blogging, and compared to what I used to do, I have really cut back. But I found a blog that I liked to read, and it's writer has gone back to his real life, and I miss reading it. It was a bit of fun.
Like this video thing. Next week it will be over, and I will again be waiting for things to get back to normal, which they never will. But I will be back to the same old stuff, without the distraction of the videos.
Same old stuff.
Monday, August 10, 2009
We actually went to the movie yesterday
Yes, we spent about fourteen of the hundred dollars we have left going to a movie and eating dinner. What were we thinking?
Let me back up a bit.
About a week ago, my husband asks me if I want to go out of town with him for a few days. He says he is scheduled to work in Amarillo. (Sorry to have been unclear about that earlier, but I don't like blogging about where we are going. I like blogging about where we have been once we get back, but I know that there are weirdos out there, so it doesn't seem like a good idea to tell the whole world where and when I will be. Maybe that will land me right in the weirdo's backyard, and he will make plans to meet me. See?) Anyway, I haven't been to Amarillo in a long time, and I don't think that I have been there as a destination since I was very young. We have been there a couple of times on our way to New Mexico, Arizona, or California and have stopped there to eat lunch or something, but I don't think that we have ever stayed the night there. So that would have been interesting, and I was sorry that we didn't have time or money to go there a few extra days to look at stuff.
But as it turns out he was not scheduled to work in Amarillo, he was scheduled to work in Abilene. He claims that is what he told me, but I know that isn't what he said. We have this joke about Abilene, and if he had said Abilene I would have immediately started with the jokes. I am quite sure that he did not say Abilene.
Anyway, Abilene is not as far away, and probably not as interesting either. On the other hand, it would not be this long drive, and there weren't as many things to do, so maybe there would have been less temptation to spend money. And as it turns out Abilene has some cheap things to do and even a free museum, so going to Abilene might turn out to be a good thing.
So I was starting to look forward to going to Abilene, until I realized that we probably wouldn't have enough money left to make the trip. We thought that we would have two hundred dollars, and it turns out that we had about half of that, which probably wouldn't be enough for gas and the minimum two nights at a motel. So he called to say that he couldn't work out of town unless they could advance him some money, which he already knew that they wouldn't. His boss said that the Abilene schedule looked light, and could he work it if it was cut back to just one day? It is hardly worth the effort of all that driving and all that work for just one day, but yes, he could work just one day. We waited for them to call back and say either which one day it was, or that they were leaving it two days and got someone else to do it.
While all of this is going on, he needs new equipment and yet another computer doesn't work. They will have to send him another one and more equipment.
So now the entire idea of going out of town has been scrapped, and they have found him something to do in Dallas. This particular job probably became available because there is little money to be made and no one else wants the job. But fine, he'll take it, as long as he doesn't need going out of town expense money and he doesn't have to work on Saturday, he'll do it.
He kind of forgets that he has stuff to do on Friday too, and now he has to work Friday.
But, the schedule is done. He works Tuesday through Friday in Dallas. End of story. If they can get him a working computer and some other equipment today.
So, yesterday morning, he asks if I want to go see Julie & Julia.
Now, at this point I should yell at him. What are you thinking? But then I see what he is thinking. He's thinking that we now have a hundred dollars that we took out of the bank, and we don't have to spend it on going out of town Wednesday and Thursday. If we really want to, we can spend seven dollars going to see a movie.
Fine. I remind him that he should cut the grass first, which he does. So I'm looking to see where we might watch this movie he wants to see. And the movie isn't at our cheap theater, and to get the next cheapest price we have to go to a ten thirty showing, which we aren't going to be ready for. So I suggest waiting til Monday, but then I find a place not far away that has a one o'clock show that costs just under five dollars. So we do that.
The movie was okay. Not just wonderful, but okay. My husband has read the book and looked at the blog. The movie is half about Julia Child fifty years ago, and half about the blogger who made all five hundred and something recipes in 2002. So the movie isn't really based on the book Julie& Julia, but half based on that and half based on Julia Child's own book. My husband didn't like that, while I haven't read either book and was maybe more interested in the Julia Child parts.
Maybe I should blog my way through a cookbook. But it should probably be a diet cookbook. Or the way things are now, a budget cookbook.
Anyway, so after the movie, when he usually waits for me outside on a bench, we weren't at our regular theater and there was no bench. And I couldn't find him. And I guess that he was waiting out in the car, except that I couldn't remember where we had parked, and unlike our cheap theater, this place had a parking lot full of cars. So I am just wandering around this big parking lot, looking for my husband. And I don't find him, and I go back inside. It's hot. I go back out and find him.
I am too hot and tired to get into it. And so much for my resolve to not spend money on anything, especially dumb stuff like sodas. It is hot, and I don't even have any water in the car. And we need to buy gas anyway, so we decide to get sodas when we get gas. Only we nearly hit someone at the first place trying to get to the only empty pump. We go to a second place and circle around, but leave there too. Why the long lines? Is it some holiday I've forgotten about?
The third place is totally empty, and I am suspicious. Maybe the pumps don't work? But they do, and we get some gas. I go in to pay and to get sodas. The sodas are almost one fifty. Maybe I don't want sodas for that much. Maybe that is why the other two places were crowded, cause they had cheap sodas or Slurpee's. The sodas are going to cost three dollars. For four dollars we could go to Burger King and get dinner off of the dollar menu.
We don't find a Burger King, but we do see a McDonald's. We eat there instead.
Okay, no more spending money til Saturday.
Except for lotto tickets. I will lose my mind if I don't buy the damned lotto tickets.
I spend the rest of the day watching the X-files, and cooking beans in the crockpot while doing a dance around the dirty laundry on the kitchen floor. The laundry has piled up, and we ran out of soap. I've gone to the dollar store and now have soap, but I haven't quite decided it is time to try the soap yet. I'll probably do that today, or maybe tomorrow.
So that was all that we did this weekend, except that I have tried to get a little work done in the garden in the morning before it gets too hot. It is time to start on the wildflower bed, cause I will need that to be finished next month, even if it is too hot to do a good job of it. And then I will finish the pathway between the wildflower bed and the bulb bed. Unfortunately, the fire ants have decided to work in the same area. I will have to find out where they are coming from and kill them.
So I am off to dig in the dirt.
This really is going to be a long week.
Let me back up a bit.
About a week ago, my husband asks me if I want to go out of town with him for a few days. He says he is scheduled to work in Amarillo. (Sorry to have been unclear about that earlier, but I don't like blogging about where we are going. I like blogging about where we have been once we get back, but I know that there are weirdos out there, so it doesn't seem like a good idea to tell the whole world where and when I will be. Maybe that will land me right in the weirdo's backyard, and he will make plans to meet me. See?) Anyway, I haven't been to Amarillo in a long time, and I don't think that I have been there as a destination since I was very young. We have been there a couple of times on our way to New Mexico, Arizona, or California and have stopped there to eat lunch or something, but I don't think that we have ever stayed the night there. So that would have been interesting, and I was sorry that we didn't have time or money to go there a few extra days to look at stuff.
But as it turns out he was not scheduled to work in Amarillo, he was scheduled to work in Abilene. He claims that is what he told me, but I know that isn't what he said. We have this joke about Abilene, and if he had said Abilene I would have immediately started with the jokes. I am quite sure that he did not say Abilene.
Anyway, Abilene is not as far away, and probably not as interesting either. On the other hand, it would not be this long drive, and there weren't as many things to do, so maybe there would have been less temptation to spend money. And as it turns out Abilene has some cheap things to do and even a free museum, so going to Abilene might turn out to be a good thing.
So I was starting to look forward to going to Abilene, until I realized that we probably wouldn't have enough money left to make the trip. We thought that we would have two hundred dollars, and it turns out that we had about half of that, which probably wouldn't be enough for gas and the minimum two nights at a motel. So he called to say that he couldn't work out of town unless they could advance him some money, which he already knew that they wouldn't. His boss said that the Abilene schedule looked light, and could he work it if it was cut back to just one day? It is hardly worth the effort of all that driving and all that work for just one day, but yes, he could work just one day. We waited for them to call back and say either which one day it was, or that they were leaving it two days and got someone else to do it.
While all of this is going on, he needs new equipment and yet another computer doesn't work. They will have to send him another one and more equipment.
So now the entire idea of going out of town has been scrapped, and they have found him something to do in Dallas. This particular job probably became available because there is little money to be made and no one else wants the job. But fine, he'll take it, as long as he doesn't need going out of town expense money and he doesn't have to work on Saturday, he'll do it.
He kind of forgets that he has stuff to do on Friday too, and now he has to work Friday.
But, the schedule is done. He works Tuesday through Friday in Dallas. End of story. If they can get him a working computer and some other equipment today.
So, yesterday morning, he asks if I want to go see Julie & Julia.
Now, at this point I should yell at him. What are you thinking? But then I see what he is thinking. He's thinking that we now have a hundred dollars that we took out of the bank, and we don't have to spend it on going out of town Wednesday and Thursday. If we really want to, we can spend seven dollars going to see a movie.
Fine. I remind him that he should cut the grass first, which he does. So I'm looking to see where we might watch this movie he wants to see. And the movie isn't at our cheap theater, and to get the next cheapest price we have to go to a ten thirty showing, which we aren't going to be ready for. So I suggest waiting til Monday, but then I find a place not far away that has a one o'clock show that costs just under five dollars. So we do that.
The movie was okay. Not just wonderful, but okay. My husband has read the book and looked at the blog. The movie is half about Julia Child fifty years ago, and half about the blogger who made all five hundred and something recipes in 2002. So the movie isn't really based on the book Julie& Julia, but half based on that and half based on Julia Child's own book. My husband didn't like that, while I haven't read either book and was maybe more interested in the Julia Child parts.
Maybe I should blog my way through a cookbook. But it should probably be a diet cookbook. Or the way things are now, a budget cookbook.
Anyway, so after the movie, when he usually waits for me outside on a bench, we weren't at our regular theater and there was no bench. And I couldn't find him. And I guess that he was waiting out in the car, except that I couldn't remember where we had parked, and unlike our cheap theater, this place had a parking lot full of cars. So I am just wandering around this big parking lot, looking for my husband. And I don't find him, and I go back inside. It's hot. I go back out and find him.
I am too hot and tired to get into it. And so much for my resolve to not spend money on anything, especially dumb stuff like sodas. It is hot, and I don't even have any water in the car. And we need to buy gas anyway, so we decide to get sodas when we get gas. Only we nearly hit someone at the first place trying to get to the only empty pump. We go to a second place and circle around, but leave there too. Why the long lines? Is it some holiday I've forgotten about?
The third place is totally empty, and I am suspicious. Maybe the pumps don't work? But they do, and we get some gas. I go in to pay and to get sodas. The sodas are almost one fifty. Maybe I don't want sodas for that much. Maybe that is why the other two places were crowded, cause they had cheap sodas or Slurpee's. The sodas are going to cost three dollars. For four dollars we could go to Burger King and get dinner off of the dollar menu.
We don't find a Burger King, but we do see a McDonald's. We eat there instead.
Okay, no more spending money til Saturday.
Except for lotto tickets. I will lose my mind if I don't buy the damned lotto tickets.
I spend the rest of the day watching the X-files, and cooking beans in the crockpot while doing a dance around the dirty laundry on the kitchen floor. The laundry has piled up, and we ran out of soap. I've gone to the dollar store and now have soap, but I haven't quite decided it is time to try the soap yet. I'll probably do that today, or maybe tomorrow.
So that was all that we did this weekend, except that I have tried to get a little work done in the garden in the morning before it gets too hot. It is time to start on the wildflower bed, cause I will need that to be finished next month, even if it is too hot to do a good job of it. And then I will finish the pathway between the wildflower bed and the bulb bed. Unfortunately, the fire ants have decided to work in the same area. I will have to find out where they are coming from and kill them.
So I am off to dig in the dirt.
This really is going to be a long week.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Monday Morons--these numbers don't seem right to me
Okay, so when you go to check your email, all this news stuff pops up. Like, wouldn't you rather read one of these stories before you read your email. Actually, no. If came here to read my email, then I want to read my email. If I had wanted to watch the news, I would be in the other room watching the news, or maybe I would have Googled a particular news story when I came in here.
But once in a while I do go back and click on one of the stories. Yesterday, there was something about making money in your spare time, and I like money just as much as the next person, so I looked. I have looked at this sort of thing before, and it usually turns out to be nothing that is useful to me.The particular thing I read yesterday is here. And I got a little annoyed, because I happen to know a little bit about a few of these things.
The first item suggested that if you become a part-time baker that you could sell cupcakes for $2 each, and that if the business was successful that you could make an extra 40K a year for working ten to twenty hours a week, and that if you really wanted to get into that sort of thing you should consider renting space in a professional kitchen.
It doesn't say anything about actually needing a professional kitchen, because the Health Department probably won't give you a permit to work out of your house. I've never wanted to be a professional baker, but I do happen to know about that because the Health Department came and canceled our little community bake sale, even a month after we asked for a temporary permit and we were originally told it would be okay. And I doubt that the ten or twenty hours per week includes the time it actually takes to sell the baked goods, or the time it would take to transport the items to someone who would sell the stuff for you, and then of course you would have to split the profits with other people. So an average of ten to twenty hours a week making an average 40K sounds a bit unreasonable, even if you do happen to have a professional kitchen and have permits and such.
The second item suggested becoming a professional blogger. Even after saying that few bloggers make enough to earn a living and that most earn nothing at all, it then suggests that writing for a few hours everyday you could earn an average of 24K a year. What numbers are used to come up with this average? All bloggers, or just those that consider themselves "professional", or all those that happen to make any money at all? My husband tried to make money blogging. He had a couple of blogs that he spent a lot of time on, and he ended up with about five hundred dollars a year. One year he really put some extra effort into it, had five blogs going, and wrote about not what he cared about but whatever dumb thing was on Google Trends, usually something about "naked pictures of ___________" to get more people to look at his blog. And it sort of worked, even though he didn't even have the "naked pictures of __________", he just mentioned that people were talking about it. So more people came to his blog, and he made about a thousand dollars that year. He's now back down to five hundred, and only working regularly on the one blog.
So we know from experience that writing a few hours a day is unlikely to result in making 24K a year, and I suspect we are not in the minority.
The third item was also something that we have tried. The article suggests that for several hours a week you could sell stuff on eBay and have average sales of 22K a year. At least it did say average sales and not average profit. At one point the eBay stuff was taking almost as much time as our regular jobs, and the profit never got much over four thousand dollars a year.
I know nothing of being a professional flower arranger, but the article suggested that for three to twenty hours a week an average of 21K in sales was possible.
At home jewelry making on evenings and weekends and spending between five hundred and two thousand dollars on materials and tools was said to result in an average sales of 30K per year. I know someone who does this sort of thing and doesn't do anything near that. Also, I used to have a reader in England who had a degree in art and had planned jewelry making as a career, and last I heard she had no luck with it.
Pet sitters were mentioned as making an average of 22K a year, mostly on weekends and holidays and some evenings. While I do know that some people are paid a lot of money to do this, the people who make the big bucks are practically nurses. You usually don't get paid a living wage to go and play with someone else's dog, but you could make some money if you were able to give shots to diabetic cats and such.
Then we come to part-time photographers who make 26K a year, mostly on weekends and evenings. Now that is something we really know something about, as my husband has been a full-time photographer for more than ten years now. Until about three years ago, he made less than 26K a year, and that was for between 40 and 70 hours a week. You're probably not going to make that much money in addition to your regular job. And of course, if your regular job is as a photographer, your probably already working evenings and weekends for somebody else.
Interpreters and translators were said to make an extra 21K. I always thought that people who spoke a second language would have cool jobs and/or make extra money. But most of what I see are a lot of people who speak Spanish who have the same dumb job that I have or they work at Walmart or something. And they usually don't get paid extra to translate, they are just expected to drop what they are doing and come and talk to other people who can't be bothered to learn English. Lately some of the jobs I would have wanted have started listing Spanish preferred or even Spanish required, but the pay rate has not gone up, just with the new requirement I am no longer qualified for the job.
T-shirt vendors were said to make 48K a year after an investment of about a thousand dollars. I've never tried this, but again it sounds too easy, and I wonder how many people lost money trying to start a business so that the average ends up being 48K.
Web designers were also said to make an average of 42K. I know some people who do this, but nowhere near that kind of money or they would quit their regular jobs.
I think the people who are really making money from these part-time business are the people who sell the thousand dollars or so of start-up materials and equipment.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Monday Morons: Please do not block the shopping carts
A few days back I went to Home Depot and while I was there I bought some of the scrap lumber to do garden stuff with. I had such great luck with that the first day that the next day I went to a different Home Depot to buy some more. It was raining a little bit that day, so I had my head down a little bit to keep my glasses from getting too wet.
So I looked for the thing where you put the shopping carts when you get done with them. I'm not sure what they are called, but I think it is called a shopping cart corral. At Home Depot, the shopping cart corrals are rather large, because in addition to putting regular shopping carts in them you also park larger carts there if you were actually buying lots of building supplies.
Anyway, so I looked for one of these shopping cart corrals just to get a regular shopping cart before I went in the store. And I saw where one was that had shopping a few shopping carts in it, and then I tilted my head down again and walked toward it. And there were only the really large carts on the one side, which I didn't think I needed, but there were regular shopping carts on the other side. So I was going to get one, but then I couldn't because someone had parked their car halfway inside the corral, so that you couldn't get the shopping carts out.
I mean, I realize that they had someone paint the parking lot before they put in the corrals, and that technically the place was stripped as a parking space, but do they really not have enough sense to know not to park in the corral? Can they not handle walking an extra twenty feet or so to park in regular parking space?
What is wrong with people?
Okay, I have a few other things that are not really about morons, I was just wondering about them.
This first thing would fit better in a Freaky Friday, but I haven't done one of those for a while, and I would rather not do one this week either. For the last few days I have been getting hits from China. I see China on the tracker, but I don't see any search words or referrers or anything like that. Just like forty people from China stopped by for no apparent reason. And I haven't written anything particularly interesting these last few days, and I haven't written anything about China, so I totally don't get it.
The other thing was an odd bit of clothing that I noticed about a week ago.
There are these dollar stores around, and they have been around for many years, but in the past few years I haven't gone to those as often as I have the newer stores that are part of large chains like Dollar Tree and Only 99 Cents Store. But I still went to the independent stores once in a while, cause they sometimes have something I want that the other stores don't. Like there is this store near my house that tends to have a lot of stuff like nails and clamps and other tools.
Recently, this particular store decided to drastically change the store. So they moved all of the dollar store stuff to one half of the store, and some of that stuff stayed a dollar and some of it got marked up a little bit. The other half of the store is now thrift store stuff, mostly used clothing. And then there in the middle of the store is some new clothing, mostly cheap bras.
So I am looking at the new clothing, and they have these cheap girdles, and I notice that they are a bit odd looking. And for a moment I thought that maybe they were made for men. I don't know if there are girdles especially made for cross-dressers, but maybe there are, and maybe the items weren't selling well and they ended up in this thrift store. But, no. Closer inspection of the item revealed that the odd looking part of the garment was a pocket.
Okay, I don't think that I have ever seen a girdle with a pocket before.
Are these made for hookers or what?
Maybe I'm just out of the loop. Maybe this is the new thing. Or maybe everybody out there is wearing girdles with pockets, and I'm just the last to know.
So, should I get a girdle with a pocket?
So I looked for the thing where you put the shopping carts when you get done with them. I'm not sure what they are called, but I think it is called a shopping cart corral. At Home Depot, the shopping cart corrals are rather large, because in addition to putting regular shopping carts in them you also park larger carts there if you were actually buying lots of building supplies.
Anyway, so I looked for one of these shopping cart corrals just to get a regular shopping cart before I went in the store. And I saw where one was that had shopping a few shopping carts in it, and then I tilted my head down again and walked toward it. And there were only the really large carts on the one side, which I didn't think I needed, but there were regular shopping carts on the other side. So I was going to get one, but then I couldn't because someone had parked their car halfway inside the corral, so that you couldn't get the shopping carts out.
I mean, I realize that they had someone paint the parking lot before they put in the corrals, and that technically the place was stripped as a parking space, but do they really not have enough sense to know not to park in the corral? Can they not handle walking an extra twenty feet or so to park in regular parking space?
What is wrong with people?
Okay, I have a few other things that are not really about morons, I was just wondering about them.
This first thing would fit better in a Freaky Friday, but I haven't done one of those for a while, and I would rather not do one this week either. For the last few days I have been getting hits from China. I see China on the tracker, but I don't see any search words or referrers or anything like that. Just like forty people from China stopped by for no apparent reason. And I haven't written anything particularly interesting these last few days, and I haven't written anything about China, so I totally don't get it.
The other thing was an odd bit of clothing that I noticed about a week ago.
There are these dollar stores around, and they have been around for many years, but in the past few years I haven't gone to those as often as I have the newer stores that are part of large chains like Dollar Tree and Only 99 Cents Store. But I still went to the independent stores once in a while, cause they sometimes have something I want that the other stores don't. Like there is this store near my house that tends to have a lot of stuff like nails and clamps and other tools.
Recently, this particular store decided to drastically change the store. So they moved all of the dollar store stuff to one half of the store, and some of that stuff stayed a dollar and some of it got marked up a little bit. The other half of the store is now thrift store stuff, mostly used clothing. And then there in the middle of the store is some new clothing, mostly cheap bras.
So I am looking at the new clothing, and they have these cheap girdles, and I notice that they are a bit odd looking. And for a moment I thought that maybe they were made for men. I don't know if there are girdles especially made for cross-dressers, but maybe there are, and maybe the items weren't selling well and they ended up in this thrift store. But, no. Closer inspection of the item revealed that the odd looking part of the garment was a pocket.
Okay, I don't think that I have ever seen a girdle with a pocket before.
Are these made for hookers or what?
Maybe I'm just out of the loop. Maybe this is the new thing. Or maybe everybody out there is wearing girdles with pockets, and I'm just the last to know.
So, should I get a girdle with a pocket?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Where the hell are you?
Okay, so I follow various blogs. Some of these people I really care about, others are maybe not really friends but I find their posts interesting, and still others I just lurk around so that I can make fun of them later. Probably most are in the second group.
People stop blogging sometimes. Sometimes it is for a long time or even a permanent thing. Usually it is just that they got busy with other things or just didn't have anything to say for a bit. Sometimes they are nice and warn the rest of us that they won't be around for a while and that we shouldn't worry.
So there have been people in the first and second groups that haven't blogged in a while, and that kind of sucks, especially when they don't warn us that they are going on vacation and we start to worry.
Some of them have come back recently. Good for them.
One in the second group did just the opposite. Friday's post said very little, except that Saturday's post would really be a big deal, and we should not miss it for any reason.
Saturday came, and there was no post. Sunday, again, no post. And last time I checked on Monday, there was still no post.
I start to suspect that whatever they were going to post about on Saturday had gotten them into a bit of trouble, and that explained their absence. Well, they are both grownups, and they had been warned. These things happen.
It also occurred to me that since they live up north that they might have been in some terrible car accident or fell on the ice or some such thing. Living up north has never made much sense to me, but people continue to do it.
And then of course there are all sorts of unpleasant things that might happen to a people even if they do not have little projects that might get them into trouble and have little or nothing to do with living up north. People get the flu and food poisoning and have power outages and such. Sometimes bad things happen and people just can't post anything.
Yesterday was one of those Monday holidays that I can never remember. It caused us a bit of trouble yesterday, as my husband had planned to spend his day off doing some business downtown, and of course on the day he decides to do this all the government buildings were closed. Unfortunately, he has two extra days off this week, so he'll just do that stuff either today or tomorrow.
Since it was one of those holidays that I can never remember, I couldn't email a certain friend of mine who does not have her own computer and can't email except Monday thru Friday from nine to five. So that got me thinking that maybe the bloggers in question had something go wrong with their home computer, and maybe they also had Monday off and couldn't get to a computer until Tuesday morning, and then all would be explained.
But, no. After I stopped checking on Monday, they posted twice, and neither post was the thing that we were not to miss on Saturday. And neither post was an explanation of their absence. They just went on about this and that as though nothing unusual had happened.
On a totally different subject, some friends and I received an email from someone we have never met, who likes the same stuff and wants to join a club or something. After being told where the club meets and such, she had something come up and couldn't make the meeting, and then she missed it again the next month too. And then Saturday she sends out an email that she's so upset that she's thinking of killing herself, and so we shouldn't expect to see her at the next meeting either. She got various responses, including admissions from club members that they had also thought about or even attempted suicide and that she should get some help and help is out there, etc....
Last night she sent out another email saying that she didn't go through with it and that she didn't see the point of "getting help" if it meant paying someone to ask about your personal crap. And then she said something like she'd gone out and bought herself a nice t-shirt and some DVDs.
I think buying t-shirts and DVDs is usually a better idea than killing yourself.
Everyone else who got the email has now decided that this person is a total fake and we shouldn't have anything to do with her. If she really had a problem she would go and get help instead of going shopping.
I don't know. I don't think that not wanting to talk to a shrink is proof positive that you're a fake. It wasn't like the email was an actual suicide note. People vent. Personally, I would not vent like that to a bunch of people before I meet them, but I suppose other people have different ideas of what is appropriate. I just thought that I should stay out of it cause I don't know her.
I don't care to "get help" by paying someone to ask me personal stuff either. Probably after talking about a lot of stuff that upsets me, I would just be more upset, and I would be told something like I would probably feel better if I got a job.
Duh.
People stop blogging sometimes. Sometimes it is for a long time or even a permanent thing. Usually it is just that they got busy with other things or just didn't have anything to say for a bit. Sometimes they are nice and warn the rest of us that they won't be around for a while and that we shouldn't worry.
So there have been people in the first and second groups that haven't blogged in a while, and that kind of sucks, especially when they don't warn us that they are going on vacation and we start to worry.
Some of them have come back recently. Good for them.
One in the second group did just the opposite. Friday's post said very little, except that Saturday's post would really be a big deal, and we should not miss it for any reason.
Saturday came, and there was no post. Sunday, again, no post. And last time I checked on Monday, there was still no post.
I start to suspect that whatever they were going to post about on Saturday had gotten them into a bit of trouble, and that explained their absence. Well, they are both grownups, and they had been warned. These things happen.
It also occurred to me that since they live up north that they might have been in some terrible car accident or fell on the ice or some such thing. Living up north has never made much sense to me, but people continue to do it.
And then of course there are all sorts of unpleasant things that might happen to a people even if they do not have little projects that might get them into trouble and have little or nothing to do with living up north. People get the flu and food poisoning and have power outages and such. Sometimes bad things happen and people just can't post anything.
Yesterday was one of those Monday holidays that I can never remember. It caused us a bit of trouble yesterday, as my husband had planned to spend his day off doing some business downtown, and of course on the day he decides to do this all the government buildings were closed. Unfortunately, he has two extra days off this week, so he'll just do that stuff either today or tomorrow.
Since it was one of those holidays that I can never remember, I couldn't email a certain friend of mine who does not have her own computer and can't email except Monday thru Friday from nine to five. So that got me thinking that maybe the bloggers in question had something go wrong with their home computer, and maybe they also had Monday off and couldn't get to a computer until Tuesday morning, and then all would be explained.
But, no. After I stopped checking on Monday, they posted twice, and neither post was the thing that we were not to miss on Saturday. And neither post was an explanation of their absence. They just went on about this and that as though nothing unusual had happened.
On a totally different subject, some friends and I received an email from someone we have never met, who likes the same stuff and wants to join a club or something. After being told where the club meets and such, she had something come up and couldn't make the meeting, and then she missed it again the next month too. And then Saturday she sends out an email that she's so upset that she's thinking of killing herself, and so we shouldn't expect to see her at the next meeting either. She got various responses, including admissions from club members that they had also thought about or even attempted suicide and that she should get some help and help is out there, etc....
Last night she sent out another email saying that she didn't go through with it and that she didn't see the point of "getting help" if it meant paying someone to ask about your personal crap. And then she said something like she'd gone out and bought herself a nice t-shirt and some DVDs.
I think buying t-shirts and DVDs is usually a better idea than killing yourself.
Everyone else who got the email has now decided that this person is a total fake and we shouldn't have anything to do with her. If she really had a problem she would go and get help instead of going shopping.
I don't know. I don't think that not wanting to talk to a shrink is proof positive that you're a fake. It wasn't like the email was an actual suicide note. People vent. Personally, I would not vent like that to a bunch of people before I meet them, but I suppose other people have different ideas of what is appropriate. I just thought that I should stay out of it cause I don't know her.
I don't care to "get help" by paying someone to ask me personal stuff either. Probably after talking about a lot of stuff that upsets me, I would just be more upset, and I would be told something like I would probably feel better if I got a job.
Duh.
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