Show Me Yours & I'll Show You Mine!

Sometimes I wonder about myself.
I think I am aware and "with it" but then things happen and I just shake my head at myself.

Like the other day when I was on someone's blog who is on my blogroll.....and I clicked on a link for someone on their blogroll and went to read a new-to-me blog.....and then I saw that this person had my blog on their blogroll.  And I was like, What?!?  How did I not know that?.....or who are they, do I know them?....it was a verbal head scratching of sorts.

And then I looked and this person evidently had become a follower at some point on my blog and put me in their blogroll but they never said anything about doing that to me nor had they ever left a comment on a post.
Because if they had I sure would have gone to their blog sooner and probably put them on my blogroll too.

I try to operate with some degree of neighborly etiquette out here in cyberspace.  I love to exchange links with other bloggers if I feel they are a good fit.  A "good fit" could be interpreted many ways......they are frugal, they are retired, they have teens, they talk about finances, they are funny, they practice the domestic skills, they live an interesting life, they are a woman of "a certain age", they are fun to read about, and so much more.

If you look at my blogroll, you'll see many voices.  All of them unique in their own way.

Likewise, I don't expect, but I feel it's neighborly for other bloggers that I have honored with inclusion in my blogroll to include me on their blogroll.  That's not to say that I won't put them on mine if they don't put me on theirs.  Some people are just more particular then I am as in "I have a XXX blog and I only link to other strickly XXX blogs", some people don't even HAVE blogrolls, some people are narcissistic and don't even consider/care that there are other writers out there,  and then there are the some people who are assholes.  Nobody who I read is an asshole.   ;-)

I have removed a few blogs over the years too.  I try not to do this but if  a blog is abandoned and not updated after half a year or so or if the blog changes drastically and goes in a direction I don't find palatable I will remove them.  IE-I removed a blog awhile back because they changed from personally written posts to writing advertising posts full of marketing hyperlinks to get them a higher score of some sort in advertising rankings.  Yah, they would start out talking about a subject and then veer off and become an advertisement for a law firm halfway across the country from where they are located.  Not cool.  There are ways of making a little cash off of your blog without turning the whole thing into a commercial.

All I am trying to say here is that if you have a blog, and you would like to exchange links with me and possibly grow your readership, EMAIL ME!  Also, if you have put me on your blogroll please let me know so I can reciprocate.

Sluggy

Are You Smart Enough To Become An American?

As I started working on the genealogy stuff for my father's side of the family, I got to thinking about being an immigrant.

This half of my family tree is full of relatively new comers to the shores of America.  I am hard pressed to find an ancestor on this side that arrived before 1850. 
This is a very different story from my mother's side, where most all of the branches have deeper roots in America....deeper by 200+ years and such.

My paternal immigrants came over, mostly from Ireland, in the latter part of the 19th century, the earliest that I can find so far, having arrived in 1850. 
From those immigrants came my paternal families' 1st American born ancestors.  On my father's paternal side, my 2 x Great Grandmother was born in 1854, her future husband in 1861 and a Great Grandmother  on the other branch in 1885.  On my father's maternal side, my paternal grandmother was her family's first member born on American soil in 1909.  That's barely 100 years ago!

But I digress.....
I noticed while going through the census information that not all my paternal ancestors elected to become full fledged citizens.  Or rather, there is no evidence in the census rolls of them becoming naturalized.  Granted many of them were older and may have died before getting around to it.  Just staying alive and earning a living wage was a much more pressing need in those earlier times.
And my ancestors didn't have the added obstacle of learning a new language once they arrived too.
 
This got me thinking about what an immigrant coming to our shores 100 or 150 years ago had to do to become a citizen.  It has turned out to be very interesting reading how the laws have changed(or not changed)over time.
If you arrived before 1790(the date of the first legislation dealing with immigration), there was little required of you. 

Part of the process of becoming a naturalized citizen of the USA now, involves passing a written test about our country and government.  Anyone who's passed a high school Civics course should be able to pass this test.
It's been 35 years since I left high school so I was curious to see how difficult the test was and how much I had retained from my time in my Government course in 11th grade.

Except for misreading 1 question and getting it wrong(it is something I do know...honest!lol), I passed with flying colors.

Could you pass the United States citizenship test? » create exams

I must say that taking this test orally before an Immigration Officer and NOT having it be multiple choices based would actually be a bit harder.

If you are brave enough, you can try the same test below.  Just imput your name and hit
START.

 Good Luck!




Sluggy Smartypants

We Had To Part With Some Cash!

The last few weeks, since returning from Ohio, we've been on a mission.
A mission to find a replacement car for the car that was totaled by a 16 year old drive a year ago last May.

Daughter is home working full time now.  In August she will be commuting to college and working part time and will need a car.  #2 Son will have his license by October and will need a car to get to Marching Band rehearsals and performances.  One of them can borrow my car but if both need wheels at the same time?.....it won't work.
So we really do need a 3rd car now.

Of course we got very little for our wrecked car since it was 1 year younger than my son.....the son that turns 21 this week!lol

So we took that small check and put it with another small check(Hubs inheritance money from his mother), which gave us a grand total of $3,676.58 with which to buy a car.
This price point gave us a very limited range of inventory locally, but it was enough to give us choices.

After whittling the list of possibilities down to 6 or so, we decided on this one.....

A 1999 Buick Century.
An old person's car. ;-)
Hubs got them down to $4,100 and with the tags, taxes, inspection, etc. it cost us $4,600 Out of Pocket.
So I took $923.42 from the 2011 Savings Challenge monies I saved last year to cover that last bit over $3676.58.

Why we chose this car?
2 of the final contenders were cheaper but had no a/c and way more miles on them.
The mileage on this car was a mere 58 thousand miles.....on a 13 year old car!
While the MPG for this car wasn't the lowest of the contenders, it wasn't bad.  It's a nicer, read more substantial, car which is important, when it's your kids in there on the road amongst crazy drivers.
If they are going to get hit, I want something more than fiberglass between them and that impact.

And did I mention it only had 58 thousand miles on it?  I can picture the previous owner....an old lady who bought it new in 1999 and drove it to the grocery store, church, bingo and maybe to see the grand kids twice a year.  With that low odometer reading, that's about all the traveling she did in that car.lol

I know it's an old car.  The insurance will be lower because of it's age and the fact that it's safer because it's NOT a tiny compact car.
We don't buy cars to trade in later so we don't care about it keeping it's 'value'.
This car will be run into the ground.  After us, it will be junkyard fodder.  ;-)

It needs to last 2 years.  2 years and the younger will be done with high school and on to college or who know?, and the middle child will be done with college and on her own.
At that point if it's still on the road?, all the better.  Having to figure out what to do with it will be a happy consequence.

Now if we can just get the daughter out of the car when she isn't working!lol

Sluggy

Food Spending July Week 1 & Meal Planning July Week 2

Now is a great time to be eating seasonally in the Northern Hemisphere!  The fresh veggies and fruits are beginning to come in to your local market and/or farm stand.  And while they are fresh and found locally, deals on those lovely veggies can be found!  It shouldn't cost you a fortune in the coming month or two to eat well for a reasonable amount of cash.

So be sure to get out there and find some deals on fresh produce.

***********************
And here is the "meal plan" that actually happened last week.....

SUNDAY--Steak, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Salad
MONDAY--Baked Potatoes and toppings

TUESDAY--Salad, Grilled Cheese, Watermelon

WEDNESDAY--BBQ Ribs, Macaroni Salad, Baked Beans, Watermelon

THURSDAY--Chinese Take-Out

FRIDAY--Smoked Chicken, leftover sides

SATURDAY--Ribs, Mac Salad, Raw veggies and dip

Since the daughter was working nights at the store, she wasn't home to eat much, so after the big smoker/grill-out on Wednesday we basically just ate leftovers, except for Thursday when we took a break and had Chinese take-out.  It's Monday and we are STILL working on leftovers!lol

You may notice that my planned LOBSTER DINNER didn't happen.  Hubs stopped at Price Chopper on his way home Tuesday and they had no $5.88lb. sized lobsters.....didn't seem like they ever got them either!  The fishmonger was trying to upsell to the $7.99lb sized ones they did have.  You KNOW I don't play that....so we cobbled together some foods to eat instead.  I have grilled cheese and a salad, Hubs opted for burritos I believe.  Maybe next time I'll actually get my lobster.

Last week was wickedly hot!  Running the oven was NOT an option!!  We got around that by using the grill(steak), the smoker(ribs,chicken), the crockpot(crockpot, beans) and the microwave.  And I used the stovetop to make a grilled cheese sammie.

The weekly food spending was $7.62 for mostly produce and milk.  We made 2 trips to the ShurSave affiliated market.  I sent Hubs or daughter and I didn't even go to the store last week.  It was too hot to go for me!
The regular retail value was $18.83 so I had a 59.53% savings rate.  Well, if you count the $65.53 worth of stuff I got at Rite-Aid last week for no $ OOP, the rate goes way higher!lol

As I reset my July Food Budget to $300, I now have $292.38 left to spend on food/toiletries this month.

Going into the new week I have the following leftovers to use up......some steak, 2 servings of ribs, 2 servings of baked beans, a LOT of macaroni salad, half a smoked chicken.

***********************

This week's menu.....
SUNDAY--Smoked Chicken, Cornbread, mixed Veggies in Chinese Sauce
MONDAY--using up the leftover steak....steak sandwiches, steak salad-not sure yet

TUESDAY--Ribs, Beans, Macaroni Salad(yet again!lol)

WEDNESDAY--Fajitas with smoked Chicken

THURSDAY--Stuffed Shells, Salad

FRIDAY--Squash Casserole, Grilled Salmon

SATURDAY--Marin Joe's Special, Glass of wine

 

What I need to buy this week to serve this menu?.....

Well, I have everything through Tuesday to make those dishes, since it's mostly leftovers anyway.lol

After that I need.....mushrooms, peppers, onions(maybe), salad greens, yellow squash, frozen spinach.

Add in some seasonal fruit and we are all good.  There will be more spending though for Daughter's needs, which will be mostly breakfast type items(bagels), milk(for her protein drinks)and other things she hadn't told me about yet.

 

I have premade shells and shredded cheese in the freezer as well as raw salmon and ground beef for Friday's and Saturday's meal. 

 

I'm figuring about $30 for this week, besides any stocking up opportunities I may find.


So what's on deck for your menu this week?

Sluggy

How We Celebrated the 4th

Here are some photos from our 4th of July. I spent a good piece of the day looking out from the front porch.....

It was beastly hot but a clear sunny day with a slight breeze.  As long as you were in the shade you could deal with the day.

We didn't have anyone over, nor did anyone invite us to their cook out.  We had a quite(except for the pyromaniacs in the neighborhood) day, just the two of us and the dogs.

And here is why I spent so much time on the front porch....

Just me and my little smoker.
This is the first time I've used it this Summer.
The problem is, in order to make it worth the effort/time, you need to load it up with meats.
And that's great if you have a lot of people around to eat what you smoke.

But this Summer, it is basically just Hubs and I here.  The sons are off working at summer camp and while the daughter is home, she is either working when I serve meals or off with her friends on her day off.  And she doesn't seem interested in eating leftovers, even awesome leftovers.lol

And here is what I cooked in the smoker......

About 8 lbs. of pork ribs.  What do you think of that bark?  This is apres sauce.

On the rack underneath is a whole large roasting chicken.  I figured I would cook it all up and we could eat on this goodness for most of the rest of the week.  No running the oven this week, just reheating in the microwave or on the grill outside.  Cook once and eat 5 times?  I'll take it!

And here is another thing I made from scratch in the crockpot.....

Boston Baked Beans made with Yellow Eye Beans from my last trip to Maine.
I made these on Tuesday and we just reheated them on Wednesday.

While the ribs and chicken smoked I made a big batch of macaroni salad.
I put the sauce on the ribs and then it all came together.....

A truly home cooked and awesome meal for the 4th.

After licking my plate clean(ok, maybe not "clean"), it was a long swim in the pool and then a nap next to the a/c window unit.

After cleaning the smoker out that evening, my day ended as it began, sitting on the front porch, watching the town's fireworks over the tree tops from my hillside home.
No pics of the pyrotechnics though, due to my camera's delay feature and my lack of timing.lol  I do have about 8 totally black/dark photos I could share.....

The good thing about smoking a lot of meat at once and only 2 people eating?
We are still working on that chicken and those ribs from Wednesday and there is plenty left to go!

Sluggy