Happenings at Chez Sluggy Lately

                        Sign seen on my travels last month.

* I had my final post op check-up for my cataract surgery.  It's basically all healed up and my vision is enough for me not to need glasses to drive anymore....at least in that eye.
After wearing glasses for the last 46 years this is quite a change in my life!  And I still find myself reaching for my glasses every morning when I get out of bed. ;-)

Now it's on to the other eye's surgery appointment early July.  I just hope I don't go beserk and kill someone before July comes because I can't see well and I am cranky.

* While mulling over how much to budget in June for food spending, I realized I could possible go the whole month and not spend anything on food.
I don't mean not buying food and eating just what is already here.....I mean I can use gift cards and store scrip I have to pay for groceries.

Here's what I have on hand to pay for groceries in lieu of withdrawing cash from the bank--
$25 gift card to Price Chopper(gotten last Fall at Church auction, I forgot I had this!)
$100 gift cards(2x$50) for Walmart(gotten free with c/c pts.)
$100 gift card for Target(ditto)
$20 in store scrip at local Shursave affiliate grocer(gotten with a promotion there last month)

That comes to $245.
Not quite enough to cover a $400 food budget for June but if paired with what is already here at the house it's highly do-able.

Well any notion of doing this went out the window last Wednesday when I hit 3 stores about spent $185+ total. lolz

I will use the Shursave scrip this month at least and as for the other gift cards, I'll play it by ear.

* I was contacted while on the way home from Louisiana last week by the Social Media Team at Chobani about participating in a campaign for the possibility of receiving some free yogurt.
The email started....."Hi Linda!"(Yes, with an exclamation mark.)

WTG Chobani Social Media Team.  You want me to sell my soul to the Probiotic Devil for some over sugared yogurt(might, might not get this)and you can't even get my name correct.
Let's just put that big old "L" on the forehead now, shall we?

* I spent a couple of days out in the front yard trying to chop down the jungle of weeds that have sprouted up along our flower bed.  Yes, whatever neighbors where peeking at me through their closed drapes got a full view of my BPWA(big pasty white ass)as I bent over and pulled and/or used scissors to hack off weeds(the ones I couldn't pull up by the roots due to my reduced hand strength).

Front flower bed before............

And the after on Sunday after we planted some flowers.......

Still need to mulch the bed and rake some dead leaves and such.
I haven't heard of any increased incidents of eye injuries from gazing upon the BPW in the area so we all survived this adventure believe it or not.  ;-)

* Do you know  how long it takes a college student to unpack after moving back home for the Summer?  Around here that would be 30 days.
And that "short" timeline is only because a not-so-nice, crazed mom I know(ahem, hem) started yelling after Day 30 of not being able to walk into his room.  He had began annexing the upstairs hallway as well like some kind of mini-Hitler taking over Poland too, so I had to step in and put a stop to this.
Nein, nein, nein!
Ist verboten!!

CB can't seem to fit all his clothing into his dresser/closet/downstairs hall closet.  Now that's a sure sign that he has enough clothing.

* Despite going on a 2 week vacation, eating pretty much what I wanted to and not riding my exercycle I did NOT gain any weight.  I am sure swimming 9 of the days we were gone helped.

Yay!  I am back in the saddle now and back up to 2 miles a day on the bike. 
Speaking of which I need to go log some miles now.  8-)

So what has been going on in your life lately?

Sluggy
 

Eyeballs, Gift Cards, Spending, Flowers & More

Well my eyeball is cleared for all normal daily activities as of yesterday.
Rah!
And they scheduled the other eyeball for cataract removal.....in JULY!
TWO FREAKING MONTHS LATER!!!
I had to wait an entire month+ for the first surgery and now TWO months.
Argh.
Between other dr. appointments and other family members plans this blows up my entire Summer and my plans.
Argh.Argh.

So not happy about that but it is what it is.  I may have to do my gallivanting in September now.

I hit 2 Rite-Aids yesterday on the way home as the first one didn't have everything I wanted......

3 x Puffs facial tissue on sale=$3.00
2 x Ziploc bags on sale=$4.00
2 x CeraVe cleanser BOGO50%=$7.93
4 x Mentos(cinnamon)BOGO sale=$2.30
SubTotal......$17.23

Coupons Used
3 x .25¢/1 IPQ(coupons dotcom)=.75¢
1 x $1/2 Ziploc items IPQ(coupons dotcom)=$1.00
2 x $3/1 CderaVe items ManuQ(don't remember which week's insert)=$6.00
1 x $1/2 Mentos Rite-Aid FaceBook Q=$1.00
Coupon Total.....$8.75

$17.23-$8.75-$8.48 + .80¢ tax=$9.28 OOP which I put on a Rite-Aid gift card I bought online last Fall at a 15% discount from one of those gift card reselling sites.  It helps bring down the costs at least a little paying this way, but it takes planning ahead.

I earned 500 Plenti Pts.(300 CeraVe, 100 Puffs, 100 Ziploc)to add to the 100 Pts. I earned the other day, giving me a total of 600 Plenti Pts.
Whoo-pee.

Had a little chat while in "my" Rite-Aid with the employees when she asked me how I liked the new program.
Oh, she got an earful! lolz
She said many of their "regulars" like me haven't been coming around at all or not nearly as much and she suspects sales are down.  She also said other customers were grumbling about the new program.

I also got this in the mail this past week.....

A Kmart pharmacy incentive to transfer prescriptions to them.  It expires in July and I have 2 rxs that are due for refills in June so I'll take advantage of this $60 deal next month.  The wording says a $30 Kmart "Award" Card, not a gift card.  I wonder if they give you $30 in "points" or something?  I need to read the fine print to see what exclusions it carries too.
It would be awesome to get $60 of free toilet paper though, wouldn't it? lolz

Then I used some of those credit card points I earned from putting the car purchase on the card briefly and ordered this, which came this past week......

A $100 Target gift card.
Since it's one of the few stores they have around here that my c/c points program offers(really, how many Walmart gift cards can a person use? lol), I got this Target card.  I figure I go into Target now and again to do a deal(though not very often and I don't like Target on the whole)and if push comes to shove my Target now carries a full grocery section so I can spend this on food if need be.

I also sold & shipped out another piece of fabric this week.
Rah!
Someone asked me about another piece of fabric too, a twill weave woven denim-like one.
The potential buyer wanted to know if it was stretchy like denim?
Hello!.....What??
Since when is regular old denim stretchy? lolz
She's been buying spandex denim much too long I think.....

And while I was on the phone on Thursday I heard a truck pull up in front of the house and then a THUMP as something hit my front porch.
Here is what I found when I went out to check......

A box of flowers.
The UPS driver never even rang the doorbell.
What an idiot to drop of something perishable like this and not alert anyone?!
When I opened the box the HEAT wafted out.
It was in the high 80's here that day and much hotter it seems in the back of that UPS truck!

Imagine what would have happened to these flowers if I hadn't gotten them inside quickly.....I'd have EX-Flowers.....

Stargazer lilies and irises.

Loved the sticker on the wrapping....

 

It's a good thing I had had my lunch already, huh? ;-)

And of course my smart ass daughter sent this card enclosed........

"Happy Mother's Day...to someone who has been just like a mother to me."

If you aren't up to speed on the origins of this family tradition go read HERE and click on the link to read more on that post.

And lastly today is the last day to enter my giveaway!
Use the link of the right sidebar or go HERE to leave a comment and enter.

And with that I am off.  I am a traveling woman today.
Back tomorrow.
Enjoy your weekend!

Sluggy


 

Random Stuff

Lots of small items to cover today---

*  We got word this past weekend that Hubs sister, who just got remarried Aug. 2013(and we traveled to the Midwest to attend the wedding ceremony), is getting divorced.
Things just didn't work out due to her husband's issues so instead of just riding it out until he drinks himself to death and being miserable, she's bailing.
I don't blame her at all not that I would have married the guy in the first place, but that's just me.
8-(

*  College Boy has the promise of a Summer job in a town nearby here.  And hopefully it's more hours than the bakery he worked at in high school use to give him.  He also has a possible second Summer job if the first one doesn't keep him working enough hours per week.
Being broke his first year of college has spurred him into going back for his sophomore year with the cash he saves from this Summer employment.  Hopefully he feels confident enough in his course work next semester that he can try to get a part time job while attending school.  That would help a lot to keep him from draining his college fund at the alarming clip that it is now being depleted.

*  Now seeing as College Boy will have employment this Summer this also means that he needs transportation.  We are down to 2 cars here--my purple bop around town vehicle and the old used Malibu(which was the 3rd kids' car)he took over when we donated his Elentra last Fall. 
So Hubs has decided to get a new, used car within the next month.  He may even buy it this weekend.
He found a good deal at Enterprise(the car rental people-they also sell cars)on another Malibu.
We'll be using part of his yearly Bonus which we received in February to pay for this.
Not only does this mean forking over $$$ for a new-to-us cars but having a third vehicle will mean our car insurance will again go up.  *sigh*  Well that reduction in insurance was nice for the 7 months it lasted......

*  Speaking of bonuses--Hubs and I need to sit down and talk about how the rest of the Bonus money will be spent this year. 

*  We need to pay for a bathroom redo this year so most, if not all, will go toward that.  It's a redo but we aren't going high end.  Just replacing worn out fixtures/cabinet/floor/toilet and taking out the moldy tile(yuck!)and fixing the wall behind where the tile is and installing a new tub.
Pretty much everything is being changed because we can't even THINK about selling this house until this work is done.

*  I would also like to get a freezer as I never replaced the one that died 3 weeks after buying it.  We've been limping along using the small compartments on two fridges-the one in the house and the older one in the garage.  I am figuring on getting a small chest type since we don't need/use as much food as when all the kids were home.  A small freezer will be adequate and will fit just fine where the older fridge resides in the garage.

*  I just saw that cable channel TLC is bringing back another episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" this Sunday.  And we no longer have cable.
Bleh.
I suppose eventually they'll put the episodes online or on YouTube and I can catch them there.
So don't anyone give away the endings to me, ok? lolz

*  We are set to travel to Louisiana in mid May.  The Daughter has gotten time off from work so we are trying to plan some activities and such.  There is the Bonnie & Clyde Festival(weird)and a War of Northern Aggression Battlefield/Museum(boring) and a new brewery to visit(hic).  I just hope the weather down there in May isn't too humid.
I am still trying to set up motel reservations that don't cost an arm and a leg.  I don't want to stay where we were last trip there(too far)but I don't want to spend a fortune.  I found a reasonably priced motel but the reviews mentioned roaches and crack 'hos in the lobby........ick.

*  I go to the eye surgeon on Monday for my cataract surgery consult.  Still have forms to fill out before then and decisions to make about what type of lens to get.....the regular or the corrective lens.
I am sure insurance won't cover the corrective lens as much so that decision may be already made due to cost differences.  I still don't know when they will cut my eyeball open but it had better be well before the middle of May.

*  Easter is sneaking up on us soon.  College Boy won't be here for it this year, so I've got to decide if we just have a small meal Hubs and I or invite the brother in-law and nephew over.  We'll probably just hide out from family this year and relax. ;-)

*  Speaking of genealogy......I've already heard back from the Huguenot Society folks.  On the positive side of thing, there is someone who was confirmed into the Society using my Huguenot ancestor already and our lines are in common down to my 2x GGs, which means if she agrees to let me use the information in her application, I only have to prove 4 generations back from myself instead of 8.  It will be much easier to obtain documents going back to the 1800's rather than the 1600's, but while easily to get, it will cost me for official state vital statistical forms.
On the negative side here, the cost to apply is $20.  Then there is the annual dues to the National Society($25 or if over age 50 you can pay a one-time lifetime membership fee of $500) and then there are the yearly State fees for your chapter($10 or included in the lifetime membership fee).
So I'll be out $55 to start and then $35 each year.....or $520 in fees now and forever more, no more fees for my lifetime.   If I pay for the lifetime I'll have to live another 13 years to break even and after I am 69 it's all gravy.  ;-)
I also need up to 8 different vital statistical forms at $12 a pop to apply, so another $96 + postage.

*  I bought that Steve Jobs biography that came out a year or so ago at Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!) It was less than $3 with my discount card.  I'm about 2/3rds of the way through it and I can safely say the man was a narcissistic jerk!  I am glad I never worshiped at the Apple altar......

*  In other news, my oldest son is going to an educational job fair in Pittsburgh this weekend.  His GF is finishing up her degree in nuclear medical imaging and by August they will be ready to relocate so he has begun the search for a "real" job in his field.  He has a teaching degree in History and wants to land a job in a high school setting.  Please keep him in your thoughts this weekend that he gets some interest from the school districts in a state he has targeted and that his GF can land a job in her field in the same city/area.

*  Oh, and Happy Spring!
I went out for an Rx first thing this morning.
Now look at my backyard......

Mind you yesterday this ground was bare, save a few areas of leftover snow.

@#%$&%!@$@

Spring my ass........

Sluggy