Hammer Time!

Thanks to all my bloggy friends who were worried about me yesterday.
The wind has blown away the dark clouds and I am feeling a bit better today.

Here's some fun for a Friday.
Go watch the video below and try to pick me out.
Sort of a Where's Waldo in gold lame pants.....

I so want to be part of a flashmob, don't you?

Have a good weekend and find something to smile about! ;-)

Sluggy

How To Diffuse a Ticking Time Bomb......Not Quite

I don't care who sees this.
I went and bought the largest damned Shamrock Shake they make, thinking a big old dose of unhealthy nastiness would make me feel better.

The gal at the window hands me the shake.....not in the waxed paper cup I'm use to getting something like this in.
No, she hands me this PLASTIC CUP!
I HATE PLASTIC DISPOSABLE CUPS!!!
And not only is it nasty plastic......it's nowhere NEAR the size a Large Shake should be/used to be!
The censor in my brain that keeps me for saying what I am thinking malfunctioned and I actually glared at her and said....
"THIS is a LARGE Milkshake?  You have GOT to be kidding me!?!?"



***Open Letter to McDonalds***

Dear Swollen Corporate BigWigs,

This may come as a shock to you but not everyone in America is in love with fancy pants drinks.
Yes, more than a fair share of this nation worships at the altar of the Starbucks.
And seeing all that potential for making even more profits, you have offered similar fancy pants coffee and other similar drinks in your establishments in order to garner some of those Starbucks destined dollars for your own bad selves.

Be it known that those of us who aren't lured by the Pied Piper's song of fancy pants, overly decorated and enhanced drinks aren't impressed.
We aren't impressed by Starbucks and we certainly aren't impressed by your mediocre imitation.

And we don't want to pay the extra money you insist on charging for all these liquid machinations.
If we want coffee, we want coffee.
Period.
Not flavorings.
Not whipped "topping".
Not cherries.
And we want to pay a fair price for the coffee.
Not an inflated price for the 'extras' whether we want them or not.

And when we want, oh, say.....a Milkshake.
A milkshake which is not a fancy pants drink mind you!
We don't want it covered in whipped "topping".
Or topped with a cherry.
A Cherry for gosh sakes!
How are we suppose to suck that 1" in diameter cherry through a straw that is 1/3" in diameter?
Forget World Peace, go spend some of your obscene profits on answering that scientific improbability!

And if we are paying for a LARGE milkshake, we expect it to be......LARGE!
I know, I know.....this is a brazen concept, so try to stay with me here.

Not Medium.
Not Small.
Large....like in a Large Milkshake cup.
Not in a much smaller than large, will never decompose in a landfill, fancy pants iced coffee drink cup....or fancy pants smoothie cup, etc.

You have toyed with the wrong menopausal already pissed off and wound too-tight woman today McDonald's.

Signed,
Internet Hellion
Sluggy

I'm a Little Teapot

Have you ever had one of those days.....

One of those days where everything you read or everything someone said to you just made you angry?

One of those days where everything you had to do or wanted to do or tried to do just pissed you off?

One of those days where you just kept dwelling on a thought or two and the more you picked it apart, the more negative you felt, and slighted and hurt?

One of those days where you were just danged tired of being taken for granted(or 'granite' as my kids use to say)and having people feel they owed you nothing....not the consideration of a reply, or the acknowledgment that you were going out of your way for them and arranging your schedule around THEM and their needs?

Well if you haven't, consider yourself lucky.

I am bubbling over with resentment in regards to some stuff that's come to a head around here.
I don't like myself particularly that I am reacting like this but gosh darned it!...I have a right to feel this way nonetheless!!

And it's family stuff so that's all I am liberty to say at this time though I want to scream at the top of my lungs at the moment....

You know what happened to the Little Teapot don't you?
"When I get all steamed up, I just shout..."

I just had to put it out there and get a piece of it off my chest or drown in it.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr

And now back to your regularly scheduled happy programming.....HA!

Sign me Seething Sluggy

Wednesday Stuff

Well I finally got around to paying the February bills. Let's just say for now that my Feb. totals are NOT going to be pretty. ;-)
Last week put me off my game a bit so I am behind doing lots of paperwork.  At least with so few trips to the grocery store, I have less paperwork to get to, right?
You would think.....
But Oh NOOOOOOOOO!
All that free time this month was taken up with the TONS of extra paperwork thanks to Uncle Sam x 9 filings, plus FAFSA......and then plus PHEAA(for PA state grants)for Daughter.

For her to attend her 1st choice school she is going to be around $12 thousand.....yes I just said 12 THOUSAND!!! dollars short for the academic year AFTER we pay what we have allocated for her.  We are crossing our fingers for lots of scholarship money from the University to take up a heap of the shortfall.  I doubt it will be enough to cover it all so we are applying for whatever aid we can find.  The PA state grants are limited to around $4500 a year so that won't be enough even if she gets a full grant from them.  I see many Many private loan dollars in her future.....  It will be her choice and her burden to bear moving forward but I still worry because that's what us Moms do. ;-)

My youngest turned 15 years old yesterday too.  He's firmly entrenched in full blown Teenager-itis now!
When did my always happy little man who loved to cuddle, suck his thumb and carry his blankie everywhere and would watch Blue's Clues and play with his Power Rangers grow into the surly lifeform who feels that grunting is a sufficient form of communication?!
And who gave him permission to transform into this, because I certainly did not!

I am having a hard time concentrating and getting things done this week.  I just want to crawl back into bed and hide from the world.
I guess I am just dog tired....or is that tired of the dogs?
I'm dwelling in a full-on state of Ennui....


Sluggy

No Spend February.....Not Going as Planned

Well I was doing fairly well on trying to only spend HALF of my usual $250 Food/Toiletries Budget in February.

The 1st week of Feb. I did great until I took the BIL to the grocery store and went inside.lol  I only spent about $83 that week total.
The 2nd week of Feb. I did GREAT!  I didn't spend a penny of the budgeted $!!
The 3rd week the funeral happened so I broke down and bought some hot foods and baked goods at the grocery store to serve while Hub's family was here.  I consider this week unusual circumstances but I still spent about $60 on food.
For the 4th week I am trying to stay out of the grocery store again to salvage my $125 goal.  At the moment I am at $115.27 spent on food in February.  So I have just over $9 left in the budget.
Saturday we are eating out for #2 son's Birthday so I only have 6 days to meal plan.

MEAL PLAN  Feb. 20th-Feb. 26th

Sunday--BAKED ZITI & SALAD  *This used up stockpiled cheese, pasta, sauce and sour cream I had gotten on dairy dept. clearance a few weeks ago.  I also added some ground beef(stockpiled in the freezer)to the sauce. I make a double batch so we'll be eating this another meal too.
Monday--LEFTOVERS  *We finished up some Chili, some had more of last night's meal, and some leftover Chinese take-out from the weekend
Tuesday--CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS   *I'll be using up the leftover Baked Chicken Hubs bought at WeisMarkets that we served on Wednesday to the relatives before the funeral.  I'll add some more stockpiled chicken to make this dish and make the Dumplings from scratch.  We'll have enough for another meal or for leftovers.
Wednesday--BOSTON BAKED BEANS AND CORNBREAD  *One of my crockpot meals that makes more than 1 meal's worth.
Thursday--LEFTOVERS
Friday--FISH, FRIED ZUCCHINI, FRENCH FRIES  *Using up some potatoes, stockpiled frozen fish and digging into a large bag of breaded zuke rounds.
Saturday--Birthday meal out for #2 son

Lots of filling, hearty comfort foods due to the weather here and the apres funeral comforting needs of my family. ;-)
The only item that I need to buy for these meals is some carrots for the Chicken and Dumplings.  I'll probably buy some salad greens as I like to have them on hand and some lunch meat for sandwiches.
That will take care of my $9 that is left.

As for not spending on non-food items, all the toiletries have been free from Rite-Aid, as I've been using my +Up Rewards and free gift cards there.
I am not one to shop for non food/toiletries much so I don't have a problem staying out of those kinds of stores.  Except, with the funeral we had to buy #1 son some dress slacks and #2 son some slacks and a dress shirt, since they didn't have anything appropriate to wear to the service.  We did do some shoe borrowing so nothing was spent on footwear, but we did spend $60 on the clothes.  If I had had more time to find the stuff, I would have hit the thrift store and saved money of these things.  Oh well.....sometimes you have to spend in an emergency.

So are you doing a No Spend or Low Spend February?
How is it working out for you?
Has it been easy or difficult to stay the course?
Leave a comment and let us know!

Sluggy