Random Stuff

* Do the grocery stores where you shop put out those ultra-smelly "decorative brooms" that are treated with cinnamon oil and smell like an overload of "Fall"?
You know.....the ones that have that overpowering cinnamon smell.
Weis(PMITA)Markets in my town puts them out in the "foyer" area of the entrance, which gets a lot of sunshine, and that extra warmth in an enclosed area that acts like a solar oven just adds to the release of the cinnamon aroma.

I do love me some cinnamon smells but it's quite disconcerting when it's September and the brooms are out since late August and we have a heat wave of temps in the 80's and as high as 90, and I walk into the foyer and am hit with a wall of hot cinnamon fragrance while I am dressed in Summer attire and sweating my brains out.
It just isn't a pleasant thang.......

* A reader left a comment about why I do giveaways.  Well, people like free stuff, right?  I make a teeny tiny bit of $ on my blog from advertisements(thanks to everyone who clicks on those)so I can afford to pay to ship a box now and again out of that income.  Plus I get stuff for cheap/free at Rite-Aid and occasionally at other places too.  And I like to give stuff away(and it gives me an excuse to buy things, the few things I do buy).
So, why not? 8-)))

* As of this past week I have passed the 1.7 million views threshold for my blog.  That's a whole lot of people stopping by to read since this here blog opened for business in January of 2009!


*  My computer updated Windows last week and when I opened up my mail program(OE)the update had done something strange to my inbox.  I was no longer able to delete emails in there.  Well, I could delete them but if I closed out and opened the mail program up again they were magically back.
WTF?!?!  By Wednesday, which was when everything righted itself(sort of), I had over 400 New emails in my inbox(most of those unwanted).  I tried to google a solution but everything I could find was at least from similar problems people had 2 years ago and didn't apply to my situation.
Everything is sort of back to normal now except that now I have two inboxes....one with all my old emails from before the Windows update that is now inactive and the other new inbox.  I guess once I get the new inbox cleaned out I'll migrate all the old inbox mail over to it.
This whole episode does point out that I really need to clean out my mail hoard however. lolz

* I already did a post about College Boy's concert that that's about it for things going on around here lately.

What's happening in your world?

Sluggy

Happenings Lately at Chez Sluggy

*  Halloween has come and gone......

We had a couple dozen trick-or-treaters this year.
Very unusual for our neighborhood.
Hubs mentioned that most of the kids are aging out of trick-or-treating around here and the neighborhood is growing older.
This might be true but I think the fact that our high school had a home football game on Friday is more of a factor.
Football is almost a religion in these parts of PA, even high school football.  I think the fact that most families(including younger siblings of players, cheerleaders and band members)were at the game explains why there were no older kids(over 10)out begging for candy this year.

 

 

One little girl was especially cute this year.  She was about 3 or 4 and had on a homemade dinosaur cotume(a T-Rex to be exact).
She walked up the driveway while her mom stayed at the street and onto the porch.
I said to her, "Oh please don't eat me scary dinosaur!"

She thought a moment, then took 1 tiny step toward me and said very quietly, "Chomp!".
So cute.
She got extra candy......

 

 

Here's our bowl of candy once the night was over.
It's a huge bowl and held 4 large bags of candy.  Even with giving out handfuls of candy to each T-or-Ter it's still half full!
That's ok.
I can throw what's left into the next package I send #2 Son, or he can eat on this when he comes home for Thanksgiving break in a few weeks.

*  The day before Halloween, the police finally caught "suspected" cop-killer Eric Frein, the latest entry onto the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List from around here.
We use to live in the Poconos, near the town where they held his hearing last week, and I use to drive by that PSP barracks where he shot at the police quite often in my daily life.
Knowing this area I knew it would be awhile before they flushed him out of the woods being as he was a survivalist devotee.  But I didn't think it would take just shy of 7 weeks to run him down!
Hubs and I really thought the authorities would have to resort to issuing Frein tags to the local hunters(hunting--another things that's akin to a religion around here)to finally get him.
"Ok Mack, here's your doe tag, your buck tag and your Frein tag.....now go out and do some killing!"

Hunters have been denied any of the various hunting seasons since the beginning of October around here but they got Frein just in time not to ruin turkey season.
I am also so glad because that's all that's been on the local tv news around here for 7 weeks. 

*  I got a letter back from the P&G laundry rebate I sent for on Saturday telling me I didn't spend enough to qualify for the deal.
Obviously someone working on this deal can't do math!
I have copies of everything I sent them to prove I spend enough.
You had to spend $30.
I spent $49.02.
Subtract coupons totaling $14.25.
That gives you $34.77.....well over the $30 required.

Now I am debating whether to just let this go or to send them a letter with copies of my copies and pointing out the math is correct and they have erroneously screwed me out of my $10 rebate...which they will probably ignore and I still won't get satisfaction.
Or I can just start boycotting P&G goods instead.
What would you do?


*  I got a deal last week.  This showed up in the mail about a month ago......

A sheet of coupons from K-Mart offering me various $ amounts of gift cards for transferring prescriptions.
It was expiring October 31st so I transferred an rx that was coming due the end of October and got a $40 gift card for my trouble.

The other 2 offers were only for $10 gift cards so I only moved 1 for the $40 card.

Free Christmas shopping money?
YES please!!  8-)


*  We have officially been cable TV free for 10 days now.
And I am not adjusting well.  Up until now I have been a cable show watcher.  There are very few shows I have watched on network tv for years now.  Big Bang Theory, The Middle and Modern Family being the few exceptions to this.  Though I am not a big tv watcher my fav shows are mostly on cable.  We don't have Netflix of Hulu Plus or watch DVDs here much.  It has been a difficult 10 days for me but I keep reminding myself that for the few shows I am missing it's not worth the $70 we are now saving each month.
The jury is still out on this experiment however.


*  It's the beginning of November so I dug through and organized the freezers.  I have lots of salmon in there as well as pork chops.  I keep putting pork chops on the menu but we always seem to not get around to making them. lolz  I am going to try to eat down the freezer over the next few weeks so I can hopefully get a second turkey cheap and fit it into there....or maybe just a turkey breast since it's difficult to finish off a whole turkey between just Hubs and I. 

*  I finally went though my Summer clothes last week.  About time since it looks like it might SNOW today.
bleh.
I had to wait until we went to OC to change out the wardrobe since I needed warm weather things to wear down there.  Now it's time to knuckle down and put away the sandals and shorts.
double bleh.


*  It's coming up on 2 months since we contacted Sears about our split-unit going out on us.  After sending out a repair guy who was clueless TWICE, they finally sent out the guy who installs these things and guess what?.....the whatever died last year on the compressor and was replaced is dead again.  Twice within 12 months they went.
He tried to get Sears to replace the whole compressor, since it seems to be a lemon, but guess who is opting to replace the part again?
Sears.
Have I said how much I hate Sears now??
When we called for service in August we didn't have a/c.  Now we need heat it's been so long. 8-(

Anyway, if last year's fun is any indication of this year's fun with this, the part is having to be shipped from Japan so it will take it's sweet time getting here and the unit getting fixed......again!
Have I told y'all how much I hate Sears lately???
So we hobble along using the baseboards and the ceramic storage heaters that still work to keep warm.
Boy, I can't wait to get out of PA and this house.
Only 3 more years.....

So what's new at your house?

Sluggy





 

Sluggy's World & Welcome to It

I'm ok, just not feeling like blogging much lately.
Blogging burn-out I suppose.

I didn't post a "This Week on the Dining Table" yesterday because frankly, I am bored with it.
And I really don't know if posting my meal plans and food spending is helping anyone or is even that interesting.  Heck, I am not even interested in it! lolz

Let's do a mish mash of highlights of what's been going on in Sluggy's World lately, shall we?

*  First off Hubs celebrated his birthday on Saturday.
And with the help of a fellow blogger at the Bloggerpalooza, I was able to give me a gift he really liked--a bottle of 9 year old Whiskey from Tennessee......

*  I called a realtor in Louisiana and she was suppose to start sending me emails of properties we were going to look at while down there later this month.
That was last Tuesday and I've yet to receive a single listing from her.
Ugh.
You would think someone with cash in hand and ready to spend it would actually WANT a commission??!!
I guess I am just not planning on spending enough to make any effort on her part worth her while. 8-P

So I have spent today looking for another realtor who actually wants to make money.....

*  I have been scanning the MLS properties online for weeks now.  Ifound this listing.  For a mere $29,900 I can become a ghetto landlord......

For my money I'd get a ready made piece of land with 8 1 bedroom shacks on it.
Nice, huh?
I can add Slumlord to my list of accomplishments.....

*  #2 Son got his letter from school today and he made the French Honor Society again.
Rah.
He wasn't too sure he'd retain his membership this school year as his grade had slipped a bit with all the time he's been spending on musical stuff.  But he managed to eek out an A for the last 3 quarters.

*  On the health insurance front, I got a bill a few weeks ago for my DME....actually it was TEN BILLS.

I have traded in a totally incompetent DME company, who by the way is still billing our OLD health insurance provider(even though they were informed Jan. 15th about the new insurance provided)AND they are billing for service/equipment for a time AFTER it was all picked up and we discontinued using them.

Now the new DME provider, on the other hand, is totally anal about billing.  They billed me not only for the rental of a Bi-PAP, an Oxygen Concentrator(I use with the Bi-PAP at night), portable Oxygen tanks service, but they also billed me for 7 more items beyond those 3......every tube, hose and widget they sent over with these 3 items/services they also charged me for.  With the old DME, they didn't bill for every single piece of plastic.
So I received TEN ITEMIZED BILLS totaling over $1000(yes FOUR Zeroes!)for one month's worth of service.
Egads!!!

And even with that, the prescriptions, an odd bloodwork-up or two and my daughter's 3 x weekly visits to a chiropractor, we have still not exceeded our high deductible for the year yet.  Once this 2nd month of DME is billed, that will change however.

*  Later this week I will be returning the Bi-PAP and the portable O2 tanks to the DME and discontinuing those services.  The old DME provider did NOT pick-up their Bi-PAP when they came for their equipment since I had paid rental on it long enough that I now own it.  When the new DME person came to drop off their equipment I told them I don't need their Bi-PAP because I have this old one that works, but they left it anyway and billed me over $500 for a 1 month rental(along with the humidifier tank attached to it).
Ugh.
And I am getting rid of the O2 tanks since I don't use them, haven't needed to since last June.  Why am I paying all this $ for stuff I don't need??!

*  On Friday #2 Son attended with his high school Jazz Band a Jazz Festival held annually at Bloomsburg University for PA high and intermediate school bands.  His band did well and he came home with this, which I posted about on FB last week.....

He won an award at the competition for his bass guitar solo with his band.
It was totally unexpected but he was right proud of it.

*  Speaking of music, his flute instructor wants us to help locate a venue for #2 Son's solo flute recital.
I am clueless about where we can find something that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
It has to have a piano(obviously)so we are checking into local churches that will rent themselves to us for the evening for not a big amount of $. 
I think it's silly, not the recital but renting out a hall, since no one will be coming to hear him.  We have no family in the area to invite(other than Hubs brother and the nephew and I doubt if they'd come)and we have no friends here to invite.
So it's just going to be me and Hubs(even #2's siblings are here)and maybe #2's music director from the high school.  I figure we can rent a piano for a day and hold this in our empty living room/dining room.  It's just the right size and not being used for anything else. lolz

*  Our remaining doggie is having problems again.  She's an old beagle and they are known to have back issues.  She also have slipping kneecaps on her hind legs.....the knees slip every time she walks.  Up until now this has just been a small annoyance but today, she couldn't get up out of her bed.  I've given her some meds but they don't seem to be helping with the pain and she's lying on the kitchen floor and not even trying to get up.
Sigh.
I fear she is quickly starting down that road to the Rainbow Bridge. 8-(

*  I got some sewing done last weekend and I have another shirt for me, 2 pair of PJ pants for daughter and 2 pair of pants to alter for Hubs before the week is finished.
I've been working on ETSY listings as well the past 2 weeks.  As soon as we get back from our trip I'll be launching most of those fabric listings.  No point in doing that until I get home, right?, since I won't be here to ship packages.  I also have a big pile of listings for later in the year, of flannel, corduroy and other winter type fabrics, ready to launch in "draft".

So now you are up to date on the Life of Sluggy, such that it is.

Aren't you glad you asked? ;-)

Sluggy