Ok, the Title said it all actually.lol
The Boring Blog Box Giveaway ends this evening at Friday, Oct. 15th at 11:59pm Eastern time(10:59 for you Central time folks, etc.).
So if you haven't entered yet or used up all 3 of your Entry Options, go HERE now and enter!
There are only 39 valid entries so far so your chances are good.....
Sluggy
Friday, October 15, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Be Prepared for Unemployment.....Have a Plan to Reduce Spending
Do you see it?
Over there, in the corner.....that quite large pachyderm?
The elephant called Economic Recession.
Even when no one is talking about it, it's presence is always felt. I see less people in the stores buying. More 'for sale' signs going up on people's houses and condos. Fewer car lots still open. Restaurants closing up.
In these uncertain economic times, it is wise to have a plan to reduce your expenses if income loss ever happens to you.
Unemployment percentages and lay-offs are at record highs for this generation. While your job may be a sure thing today, no one knows what tomorrow may bring. Don't be blindsided when and if a loss of employment and income happens to you!
This is especially important if your household runs on one income and not two. If that one income leaves, you don't have the safety net of that second source of money.
Plan Ahead When Your Income is Good
Even before the thought of a job loss there are two things you should be working on well before you encounter an economic crisis--paying off/down debt and piling up cash.
If you have debt(anything except a mortgage)get serious on paying off that debt. That's a good plan no matter the economy or your income! The less bills you have sucking your limited income up in unemployment, the better. And make sure you have a hefty Emergency Fund. This would be a pile of money in an account somewhere(heck, even in a coffee can buried in your backyard!)that you can use to cover expenses if you ever lose your source of income until you go back to work.
When unemployment happens, the better shape your finances are in the better you can ride out the "laid-off storm".
Have a Plan to Reduce Expenses
Beyond eliminating/reducing debt, make an emergency budget plan for your family. When a job loss strikes, you need to take immediate steps to reduce your spending and preserve what money you have and make it last until the paychecks come rolling in again.
That point was brought home this week in my family. Hubs came home with glum news that his company, which had let go a handful of employees last month, was about to announce a much larger round of lay-offs that would affect many areas of the business.
Hubs is fairly certain that he isn't at any risk of losing his job at this point. But the facts are that A--many companies are "lay-off happy" lately, and B--that he is nearing retirement age and C-- that he has a larger than some at his level salary due to his many years of service.
These 3 things may put him in the "firing squad's" crosshairs in the future.
So in my copious free time....lol....I sat down earlier this week and contemplated a "Lay-Off" Budget for my family...just in case it's ever needed.
While we are pretty frugal here already and have no debt currently and live on a budget, there are 'wants' we can cut and 'needs' we can reduce if we had to.
Here is my list of what I'd change in my budget if a job loss happened tomorrow.
*Cable TV--Since we have a bundled service that includes high-speed internet too, we would shop around to either unbundle and drop cable altogether or reduce the cable component to bare bones. We could realize a small savings doing this. While not a 'need', Internet is the one thing that would go as a last resort, but for now it would stay.
Potential savings of $50 a month.
*Telephones--We don't pay for our kids cell phones and never have. If they want one, they find the money through work or allowance to pay for it so we can't save anything there. But we do have 2 pay-as-you-go cell phones between Hubs and myself, as well as a landline. We would drop the landline as I have a long distance pay-per-month plan on my cell. With #1 son away at school, some form of long distance service is a need. Dropping the landline would save us approx. $30 a month.
*Eating Out--This would be stopped immediately....ALL OF IT! While we would probably save $200 a month here(between the dinners out, the fast food for #2 son, and the hot school lunches) we would probably spend more on groceries to make up for it so I'm saying a savings of approx. $150 per month.
*Entertainment--This item could also be eliminated from our budget. We can find free things to do to amuse ourselves if there is a personal financial crisis. Savings of approx. $25 a month. Yes, we are TOTAL Party Animals anyway, huh?! lolol
*Groceries & Toiletries--While I spend basically zero on toiletries now anyway, I could cut some fat from the food budget. I'd plan more meatless meals and try to reduce grocery expenses by using cheaper ingredients, much to the chagrin of Hubs. Daughter gets free food at her current job so those nights would help because I don't have to feed her. If the cost cutting had to be extended for a long period of time, I'd expand the size of the garden next Spring, in order to grow more of our own produce, which would bring down grocery costs over the course of the year. Short term, we could cut to a $150 a month food budget for a reduction of $50 to $100 a month as I spend $250 now.
*Laundry--Once I run out of almost free detergent, I'd make my own to save money. I'd wash only in cold water(I do use warm water some loads now). I'd figure out a way to string clotheslines somewhere in the house or garage to dry clothes in the winter so no using the dryer at all. Not sure how much that would save but it would be something.
Potential savings of $15 a month.
*Water Usage--I'd set a stricter limit of the teens shower lengths. Maybe a timer with a loud bell to get them out of the shower faster. If this period stretched into next year, we'd not open the pool, as it is a water hog.
We would also utilize rain barrels(if we could source them for cheap)to water the garden next year.
Potential savings of $10 a month.
*Electricity--We would eat down the freezer and then unplug it and make due without stockpiling the bulk of our frozen foods. We would still have the small freezer compartment over the fridge and the makeshift root cellar in the garage(during cold weather). Light bulbs would be replaced with lower wattage models. Some bulbs would be removed if the area only needs 'mood' lighting and not task lighting. I'd get all up in the teens faces more when they leave on lights and the tv when they leave a room......the teens would add that I couldn't possibly get more up in their faces about this. ;-)
Potential savings of $8 a month.
*Heating/Cooling--By far the largest component of our Electric bill. Turning down the thermostats another degree or two in the cold weather and make everyone bundle up more. I'd also add insulation by jerry-rigging heavy drapes or quilts over the back windows in the house. The back of the house gets the evening sun only so they are pretty useless for passive solar efforts, so I'd cover them with padded fabric to retain heat. Any of those rooms that I need sunlight in during the day for illumination, I'd made the drape removable. In terms of cooling/air conditioning, we only have window a/c units now and I don't find we need the a/c very often. I attempt now to keep the units off and utilize the ceiling fans as much as possible in the hot weather. The a/c would be used for emergencies only.
Summer months savings of $15 a month, Winter months savings of $50 a month.
*Home/Car Insurance--We would revisit our policies and see if there was a way to cut the premiums down without putting anything at risk with this coverage. The car insurance on the car for the teens use would either be discontinued(and they would drive my car when needed)or they would be asked to help pay for that part of the insurance from their part time jobs.
Potential savings of $80 a month.
Miscellaneous Expenses--Mostly this includes things Hubs spends on with the cash he withdraws every month(except what he spends on eating out and gasoline)...food at work(which he would no longer need to spend), dry cleaning(which he would no longer need to spend), coffee on the way to work(ditto), other incidentals and WAM(walking around money). It's hard to know for sure but I think this could be a $100 a month savings if he didn't need to spend for these items.
With just these items, we could potentially reduce our expenses between an additional $528 to $613 per month!
With the small amount of money we spend compared to many people I know, I am floored at how much I could still pull out of the budget if I had to! Yes, doing some of it would inconvenience us and would impact the lifestyle we are used to, but I feel all of this is still highly do-able and wouldn't cause undue strain on anyone in our family.
The teens would probably disagree vehemently with me though.... ;-)
So this Emergency Budget would be my first step if Hubs ever comes home with 'the bad news'. I feel a sense of relief just having something written up. I know what to do now instead of panicking!
Have you thought about making an Emergency Spending Plan with your partner?
I highly recommend having some idea of how to proceed, in writing, if the unemployment blues land on your doorstep. Having a plan beforehand is key to surviving periods of economic distress.
Sluggy
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Winding Down the Gardening.....Still Picking Though!
Monday I finally picked the squash in the front garden bed.
Let me rephrase that....I picked the squash on the lawn in front of the front garden bed.
The squash that had been swallowed up by the TALL GRASS under the squash vines that stretched out onto the lawn in front of the front garden bed.
The tall grass that was so dense you couldn't see the squash.
The tall grass that grew so dense since we couldn't move the squash nor mow under it for the last 6 weeks or so.
I'm so glad I don't live next door to ANNIE JONES or I'd have gotten a notice from the city for my patches of grass forest dotting my front lawn. j/k ;-)
Anyway, here's what I hacked off the vines before I ripped them up and let #2 son have at it with the front lawn....
Note the lone pepper too.
There is one more Butternut Squash to pick out in the barrel planter....well, the plant is in the barrel, the squash is in the back garden bed next to it.
Things are winding down in the garden quickly now. Not much left to harvest.
Though I still have collards, more peppers and tomatoes to pick. The jalapeno peppers keep on coming....
And there is this.....
A baby eggplant.....finally!
We put these plants in the beginning of June and they sat and did nothing.....and the baby bunny rabbit ravaged their leaves and we thought the sticks he left would die in July......and they didn't and grew new foliage later in July and continued to do no growing in Aug. and most of Sept.....and then they grew flowers and bloomed in late Sept. and one bloom grew a teeny tiny 1.5 inch eggplant.
So I have a mission now.
To construct a teeny tiny hoop house/transparent plastic covering to try and coax this plant to live long enough past the frost to get this eggplant to grow big enough to eat.
Stay tuned.......
This Harvest----
Peppers--2.9oz.
Squash--10 lbs. 5.4 oz.
TOTAL....10 lbs. 8.3oz.
Garden Harvest Weight Total to date....87 lbs. 11.02 oz.
Sluggy
Let me rephrase that....I picked the squash on the lawn in front of the front garden bed.
The squash that had been swallowed up by the TALL GRASS under the squash vines that stretched out onto the lawn in front of the front garden bed.
The tall grass that was so dense you couldn't see the squash.
The tall grass that grew so dense since we couldn't move the squash nor mow under it for the last 6 weeks or so.
I'm so glad I don't live next door to ANNIE JONES or I'd have gotten a notice from the city for my patches of grass forest dotting my front lawn. j/k ;-)
Anyway, here's what I hacked off the vines before I ripped them up and let #2 son have at it with the front lawn....
There is one more Butternut Squash to pick out in the barrel planter....well, the plant is in the barrel, the squash is in the back garden bed next to it.
Things are winding down in the garden quickly now. Not much left to harvest.
Though I still have collards, more peppers and tomatoes to pick. The jalapeno peppers keep on coming....
And there is this.....
We put these plants in the beginning of June and they sat and did nothing.....and the baby bunny rabbit ravaged their leaves and we thought the sticks he left would die in July......and they didn't and grew new foliage later in July and continued to do no growing in Aug. and most of Sept.....and then they grew flowers and bloomed in late Sept. and one bloom grew a teeny tiny 1.5 inch eggplant.
So I have a mission now.
To construct a teeny tiny hoop house/transparent plastic covering to try and coax this plant to live long enough past the frost to get this eggplant to grow big enough to eat.
Stay tuned.......
This Harvest----
Peppers--2.9oz.
Squash--10 lbs. 5.4 oz.
TOTAL....10 lbs. 8.3oz.
Garden Harvest Weight Total to date....87 lbs. 11.02 oz.
Sluggy
Rite-Aid on Sunday...turning +Ups into SCRs
Speaking of Rite-Aid, I just realized that they haven't done a Fall Gift of Savings Deal this year. Hmmm....I wonder if they will be a Holiday Gift of Savings Promotion either during the Winter Holidays?
I will miss them. 8-(
Here's what I brought home on Sunday from Rite-Aid.....
4 x Sunday papers $.99=$3.96 *Not pictured*
2 x Airwick Freshmatic Air Fresheners 50% off($4.99)=$9.98
1 x Comtrex on sale=$3.99
1 x Nasogel on sale=$5.99
1 x Udderly Smooth Cream w/wellness 20% disc.=$1.83
SubTotal....$25.75
Coupons Used
1 x $5 off $25 IPQ=$5.00
2 x $4/1 Airwick Freshmatic ManuQ=$8.00
1 x $2/1 Nasogel IPQ=$2.00
1 x $1/$10 Household Cleaners=$1.00 The cashier/MOD said ok.lol
Coupon Total....$16.00
$25.75-$16.00=$9.75
Used $8.99 in +Ups...$9.75-$8.99=$.74 OOP put on Rite-Aid gift card
Earned $2 in +Up Rewards(2 x $1 for the Airwick Fresheners)=$2 +Ups
Earned $9.98 in SCRebates for Nasogel($5.99), Comtrex($3.99)
The Udderly Lotion was the wrong size/price that printed $1 +Ups....rats. They didn't have any of the correct size/price in the store.
I sat in my car and clipped my Gain coupons from the papers I bought and went back in and got this stuff....
2 x Airwick Freshmatic Air Fresheners 50% off($4.99)=$9.98
1 x Comtrex on sale=$3.99
1 x Nasogel on sale=$5.99
4 x Gain Dish Soap on sale $.89=$3.56
2 x Hall's Cough Drops on sale $.99=$1.98
SubTotal....$25.50
Coupons Used
1 x $5 off $25 IPQ=$5.00
2 x $4/1 Airwick Freshmatic ManuQ=$8.00
1 x $1/1 Airwick AdPerks/VV IPQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Nasogel IPQ=$2.00
4 x $1/1 Gain Dish Soap ManuQ=$4.00*
1 x $1/2 Hall's Drops ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $.50/1 Halls Drops AdPerks/VV IPQ=$.50
1 x $1/$10 Household Cleaners=$1.00 The cashier/MOD said ok.lol
1 x $1/$10 Cold, Cough Meds=$1.00 The cashier/MOD said ok and I forgot to use one on the first transaction.
Coupon Total....$23.50
$25.50-$23.50=$2.00
Used $1.99 in +Ups...$2.00=$1.99=$.01 OOP put on Rite-Aid gift card
Earned $2 in +Up Rewards(2 x $1 for the Airwick Fresheners)=$2 +Ups
Earned $9.98 in SCRebates for Nasogel($5.99), Comtrex($3.99)
*These Gain coupons do NOT beep even though they are $1/1 and over the $.89 sale price of the product.
THESE TRIPS Total Spent....$.75(put on free Rite-Aid gift card)
Value of Items....$86.15
SCR qualified for...$19.96
Gift Cards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned...$4.00
+Up Rewards spent...$10.98
This trip was a net loss of $6.98 in +Ups & profit of $19.96in SCRS, so a profit of $12.96 in the end.
GRAND TOTALS so far-October Rebate Period
Number of Transactions......8
Total Spent....$2.70 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Value of Items purchased....$309.01
SCR qualified for....$29.96
Other Cash....$0
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0
+UPS Totals for Oct. SCR Period
+Up Rewards carryover from last trip....$22.48
+Up Rewards spent....$10.98
+Up Rewards earned....$4.00
+Up Rewards left....$15.50
Sluggy
I will miss them. 8-(
Here's what I brought home on Sunday from Rite-Aid.....
4 x Sunday papers $.99=$3.96 *Not pictured*
2 x Airwick Freshmatic Air Fresheners 50% off($4.99)=$9.98
1 x Comtrex on sale=$3.99
1 x Nasogel on sale=$5.99
1 x Udderly Smooth Cream w/wellness 20% disc.=$1.83
SubTotal....$25.75
Coupons Used
1 x $5 off $25 IPQ=$5.00
2 x $4/1 Airwick Freshmatic ManuQ=$8.00
1 x $2/1 Nasogel IPQ=$2.00
1 x $1/$10 Household Cleaners=$1.00 The cashier/MOD said ok.lol
Coupon Total....$16.00
$25.75-$16.00=$9.75
Used $8.99 in +Ups...$9.75-$8.99=$.74 OOP put on Rite-Aid gift card
Earned $2 in +Up Rewards(2 x $1 for the Airwick Fresheners)=$2 +Ups
Earned $9.98 in SCRebates for Nasogel($5.99), Comtrex($3.99)
The Udderly Lotion was the wrong size/price that printed $1 +Ups....rats. They didn't have any of the correct size/price in the store.
I sat in my car and clipped my Gain coupons from the papers I bought and went back in and got this stuff....
2 x Airwick Freshmatic Air Fresheners 50% off($4.99)=$9.98
1 x Comtrex on sale=$3.99
1 x Nasogel on sale=$5.99
4 x Gain Dish Soap on sale $.89=$3.56
2 x Hall's Cough Drops on sale $.99=$1.98
SubTotal....$25.50
Coupons Used
1 x $5 off $25 IPQ=$5.00
2 x $4/1 Airwick Freshmatic ManuQ=$8.00
1 x $1/1 Airwick AdPerks/VV IPQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Nasogel IPQ=$2.00
4 x $1/1 Gain Dish Soap ManuQ=$4.00*
1 x $1/2 Hall's Drops ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $.50/1 Halls Drops AdPerks/VV IPQ=$.50
1 x $1/$10 Household Cleaners=$1.00 The cashier/MOD said ok.lol
1 x $1/$10 Cold, Cough Meds=$1.00 The cashier/MOD said ok and I forgot to use one on the first transaction.
Coupon Total....$23.50
$25.50-$23.50=$2.00
Used $1.99 in +Ups...$2.00=$1.99=$.01 OOP put on Rite-Aid gift card
Earned $2 in +Up Rewards(2 x $1 for the Airwick Fresheners)=$2 +Ups
Earned $9.98 in SCRebates for Nasogel($5.99), Comtrex($3.99)
*These Gain coupons do NOT beep even though they are $1/1 and over the $.89 sale price of the product.
THESE TRIPS Total Spent....$.75(put on free Rite-Aid gift card)
Value of Items....$86.15
SCR qualified for...$19.96
Gift Cards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned...$4.00
+Up Rewards spent...$10.98
This trip was a net loss of $6.98 in +Ups & profit of $19.96in SCRS, so a profit of $12.96 in the end.
GRAND TOTALS so far-October Rebate Period
Number of Transactions......8
Total Spent....$2.70 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Value of Items purchased....$309.01
SCR qualified for....$29.96
Other Cash....$0
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0
+UPS Totals for Oct. SCR Period
+Up Rewards carryover from last trip....$22.48
+Up Rewards spent....$10.98
+Up Rewards earned....$4.00
+Up Rewards left....$15.50
Sluggy
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
My Trip--The Ocean, WW2, Pruney Donuts and Russian Prostitutes Part 2
Here's where we left off last time.....
A beautiful sunrise on Wednesday morning.
Being bored with the cafe in the motel for breakfast(we had used 1 voucher and had 1 left for breakfast to use on Thursday before we left), Hubs ventured out early to forage for morning sustenance while I tried to pry my eyelids open.
I had introduced him to The Fractured Prune last trip.
Seems he was hankering for more 'pruney donuts' this trip.
The FP is a gourmet donut shop that originated in OC. A few years ago when we had a teacher's strike at the local school and the kids were out of school for 4 weeks at the beginning of that school year, I had taken my boys and one of their friends to Virginia Beach and then, OC and had dragged them to the FP for breakfast one morning.
There were only 2 locations at that time but it seems the FP has caught on and there are scads of outlets down in that area and beyond. The only problem is they are only open from 7am to noon during the off-season.
They make cake type donuts.....fresh and hot.
When they pull them from the deep fryer, you tell them what glaze to put on your donut and if you want toppings....like jimmies, chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, marshmallows, etc.
There are 'regular' combinations that are popular that they have on the menu you can get or you can make up your own.
This is something like what Hubs carted back to the room.....still hot.
They may not look like much, but if your computer had Smell-o-vision, you'd be licking your screen.
Seriously, if I lived down there, I'd weigh 600 lbs.....
This was just the incentive Hubs needed to pry my off of the mattress....at least until I ate 3 and then I just wanted to lay back down for 4 hours and sleep the sugar/carb coma off.lol
We did some sightseeing on Wednesday. Up in Delaware near Bethany Beach they are replacing the little bridge with this monster....
It's the same type of construction as the bridge on Route 1 that replaced/bybassed the one over Route 13 near St. George DE. Actually it's called the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge. It was one of the 1st cable-stayed bridges in the country and the only one in the Delaware Valley. This one just seems gargantuan for it's purpose.
Gee, did I just talk about another bridge on my Maine trip post? Maybe I have this latent 'thing' for bridges and engineering, huh? ;-)
When I took the kids during the teacher's strike to OC I noticed these big concrete things along the shoreline as we traveled up the coast from OC to Rehobeth.....
This shot was taken from the car so it only shows the top half. They are quite tall and obtuse, sticking out from the scenery.
I just discovered that they are fire towers that were built along the coastline in NJ and DE during World War II. Fire Tower is a misnomer since these were really enemy spotting & artillery aiming towers. Our military feared/expected a Pearl Harbor type attack on Trenton and the Philly munitions and shipbuilding yards at the head of the Delaware River, so these towers were built along the route to guard against the German battleships they thought were going to sneak up the River......ships that never arrived. Quite a few have yet to be torn down and there is a group taking on restoring them as they are historically significant.
This shot thrills me yet makes me sad....
The shoreline of Delaware is NOT totally developed and settled yet. There are towns dotting the shore but there is still open, undeveloped acreage without huge condos or hotels on it. This is a big contrast to the shoreline once you hit the Maryland line which is wall-to-wall monolithic buildings. There are some state parks on the beaches in Delaware too so some of the beaches will never be developed. This was a piece of a state park I saw from the road near where one of the fire towers is located. It just gave me chills to see a piece of shoreline without a building or a trace of a person having been there. An unsullied place....well, except for the road.lol
Besides buying groceries again on a vacation....lol....we went to Roses.
When I was growing up, our area was lousy with Roses stores. It was the Woolworth's of my part of the South. The Wal-mart of it's day.
Now it's barely hanging on. It concentrates on high-end dollar store junk....sort of like a Family Dollar or Dollar General, but the stores are usually bigger. There are still Roses in VA, DE, MD and NC that I know of.
If we are near a Roses as the holidays approach, we always stop in for this....
I am NOT a fan of fruitcake per se, but.....
Claxton's Fruit Cake is da bomb! As Alton Brown might say....
Serioulsy.
Good.
Eats.
But being the cheap, miserly, frugal gal I am, I refuse to pay $9 a lb. to buy it locally up north or online.
It was $3.50 a lb. at Roses. We stocked up......for eating purposes, not gift-giving purposes so if you are on my gift list, don't be a'feared that I'm sending you a fruitcake for Christmas.
You are safe....
After lugging fruitcake bricks to the car it was time for an early dinner so we headed over to West OC to search out a BBQ place we had seen in the phone book.
We found it quickly enough but gee, it was CLOSED like every other restaurant down there in the off-season.
So we drove down the main drag for a bit until I smelled a heavenly porcine aroma and turned me head and saw this....
A kitchy old motel sign, a motel office with a huge B for BUDWEISER Neon sign in the window and an OPEN Flag waving us in from the other side of the office building were a BBQ Joint was perfuming the air with pig from it's on site smoker pitt.
They had me at pig.
We had stumbled upon bbq heaven.
It's name is Rascal's in West Ocean City MD.
If you hanker for smoked/barbecued chicken, brisket or pork, check it out. Good eats and cheap eats!
We stumbled along to the back entrance of the building into a tiny poolside bar with a few boofs and sat down.
In walked Roscoe Nelson, the owner/manager of the Alamo and Rascal's.
Roscoe turned out to be a pretty colorful character.
He told us all about the history of the Alamo and it's original owner and then about himself.
He knows all the locals in OC and told us to get Denny, the guy who owns the tavern next door to our motel, to tell him the "one armed man" said hi.
Did I mention that Roscoe has one arm?
He lost it when he was 12.
After about a minute and a half of talking to him you forget he's got one arm....that is, until he brings the subject up.
Seems because Roscoe hires pretty foreign women to work his bar and more pretty foreign women live in his motel during the in-season when they work at the hotels in OC, rumors of Prostitution Rings at the Alamo started going around. And drunk men started showing up in the late evenings/early mornings looking for the whores.....wreaking all kinds of havoc.
Bullet holes in motel windows anyone?
The gal working the bar & tables when we were there was decidely American, not foreign. Though this rumour started years ago people still turn up at the motel looking for some 'comfort' besides the bbq kind.
Figures I'd end up at an infamous seedy motel owned by a one armed man, with fabled Russian hookers.
Even when I try to be boring, I can't. I can't make stuff like this up.....lol
Here's a you tube vlog that the DC paper did on the story.....
I personally liked this article located HERE that the same Washington City Paper outfit also put out.
And before you ask, no, I didn't play horseshoes or "party" with Cory and Roger. ;-)
The motel is decidedly flea bag-esque but worth the trip for the 'Cue!
After a leisurely breakfast in our motel's cafe Thursday morning-served by Fran who after 2 pots of coffee in her by 8am was chatty as a flock of seagulls fighting over a tourists dropped bag of salted peanuts-we packed it up and headed home.
No lingering since we had to get north of Philly before rush hour started at 3pm.
Here's one more pre-sunrise shot of the Atlantic Ocean.
Funny thing I noticed this trip......usually I can smell the sea air miles before we hit the coast. This time, not so much. The beach didn't smell like the beach should. Hubs even commented on it. Maybe our noses have shorted out from old age or something....lol
Sluggy
A beautiful sunrise on Wednesday morning.
Being bored with the cafe in the motel for breakfast(we had used 1 voucher and had 1 left for breakfast to use on Thursday before we left), Hubs ventured out early to forage for morning sustenance while I tried to pry my eyelids open.
I had introduced him to The Fractured Prune last trip.
Seems he was hankering for more 'pruney donuts' this trip.
The FP is a gourmet donut shop that originated in OC. A few years ago when we had a teacher's strike at the local school and the kids were out of school for 4 weeks at the beginning of that school year, I had taken my boys and one of their friends to Virginia Beach and then, OC and had dragged them to the FP for breakfast one morning.
They make cake type donuts.....fresh and hot.
When they pull them from the deep fryer, you tell them what glaze to put on your donut and if you want toppings....like jimmies, chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, marshmallows, etc.
There are 'regular' combinations that are popular that they have on the menu you can get or you can make up your own.
This is something like what Hubs carted back to the room.....still hot.
Seriously, if I lived down there, I'd weigh 600 lbs.....
This was just the incentive Hubs needed to pry my off of the mattress....at least until I ate 3 and then I just wanted to lay back down for 4 hours and sleep the sugar/carb coma off.lol
We did some sightseeing on Wednesday. Up in Delaware near Bethany Beach they are replacing the little bridge with this monster....
Gee, did I just talk about another bridge on my Maine trip post? Maybe I have this latent 'thing' for bridges and engineering, huh? ;-)
When I took the kids during the teacher's strike to OC I noticed these big concrete things along the shoreline as we traveled up the coast from OC to Rehobeth.....
This shot was taken from the car so it only shows the top half. They are quite tall and obtuse, sticking out from the scenery.
I just discovered that they are fire towers that were built along the coastline in NJ and DE during World War II. Fire Tower is a misnomer since these were really enemy spotting & artillery aiming towers. Our military feared/expected a Pearl Harbor type attack on Trenton and the Philly munitions and shipbuilding yards at the head of the Delaware River, so these towers were built along the route to guard against the German battleships they thought were going to sneak up the River......ships that never arrived. Quite a few have yet to be torn down and there is a group taking on restoring them as they are historically significant.
This shot thrills me yet makes me sad....
Besides buying groceries again on a vacation....lol....we went to Roses.
When I was growing up, our area was lousy with Roses stores. It was the Woolworth's of my part of the South. The Wal-mart of it's day.
Now it's barely hanging on. It concentrates on high-end dollar store junk....sort of like a Family Dollar or Dollar General, but the stores are usually bigger. There are still Roses in VA, DE, MD and NC that I know of.
If we are near a Roses as the holidays approach, we always stop in for this....
Claxton's Fruit Cake is da bomb! As Alton Brown might say....
Serioulsy.
Good.
Eats.
But being the cheap, miserly, frugal gal I am, I refuse to pay $9 a lb. to buy it locally up north or online.
It was $3.50 a lb. at Roses. We stocked up......for eating purposes, not gift-giving purposes so if you are on my gift list, don't be a'feared that I'm sending you a fruitcake for Christmas.
You are safe....
After lugging fruitcake bricks to the car it was time for an early dinner so we headed over to West OC to search out a BBQ place we had seen in the phone book.
We found it quickly enough but gee, it was CLOSED like every other restaurant down there in the off-season.
So we drove down the main drag for a bit until I smelled a heavenly porcine aroma and turned me head and saw this....
A kitchy old motel sign, a motel office with a huge B for BUDWEISER Neon sign in the window and an OPEN Flag waving us in from the other side of the office building were a BBQ Joint was perfuming the air with pig from it's on site smoker pitt.
They had me at pig.
We had stumbled upon bbq heaven.
It's name is Rascal's in West Ocean City MD.
If you hanker for smoked/barbecued chicken, brisket or pork, check it out. Good eats and cheap eats!
We stumbled along to the back entrance of the building into a tiny poolside bar with a few boofs and sat down.
In walked Roscoe Nelson, the owner/manager of the Alamo and Rascal's.
Roscoe turned out to be a pretty colorful character.
He told us all about the history of the Alamo and it's original owner and then about himself.
He knows all the locals in OC and told us to get Denny, the guy who owns the tavern next door to our motel, to tell him the "one armed man" said hi.
Did I mention that Roscoe has one arm?
He lost it when he was 12.
After about a minute and a half of talking to him you forget he's got one arm....that is, until he brings the subject up.
Seems because Roscoe hires pretty foreign women to work his bar and more pretty foreign women live in his motel during the in-season when they work at the hotels in OC, rumors of Prostitution Rings at the Alamo started going around. And drunk men started showing up in the late evenings/early mornings looking for the whores.....wreaking all kinds of havoc.
Bullet holes in motel windows anyone?
Figures I'd end up at an infamous seedy motel owned by a one armed man, with fabled Russian hookers.
Even when I try to be boring, I can't. I can't make stuff like this up.....lol
Here's a you tube vlog that the DC paper did on the story.....
I personally liked this article located HERE that the same Washington City Paper outfit also put out.
And before you ask, no, I didn't play horseshoes or "party" with Cory and Roger. ;-)
The motel is decidedly flea bag-esque but worth the trip for the 'Cue!
After a leisurely breakfast in our motel's cafe Thursday morning-served by Fran who after 2 pots of coffee in her by 8am was chatty as a flock of seagulls fighting over a tourists dropped bag of salted peanuts-we packed it up and headed home.
No lingering since we had to get north of Philly before rush hour started at 3pm.
Here's one more pre-sunrise shot of the Atlantic Ocean.
Sluggy
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