Can It Be? Why Yes, It's a Road Trip!

Tanner talked about taking vacations today on her blog.
That got me into the mind of telling everyone about our "big vacation adventure" for the year we are starting shortly here at Chez Sluggy.

Hubs sister is getting married.....again.
Ok, that wasn't nice was it?
She was married a few years before Hubs and I did the deed back in the early '80s.
But that one only lasted until about 1984 when she and her hubs divorced.
She's been single ever since.

She finally found someone she wants to share her life with again and they are getting married next month......out in Illinois.

So Hubs and I are using this as the starting off point to plan a vacation.
Since there is little to see/do in the part of IL where she lives(other than watching corn grow), we are planning on making a big adventure and many stops along a route that will begin in eastern PA, swing through OH and IN, into IL and then to TN and through western VA and back up to PA and home.
10 days of meandering across 9(or 10) states in a 1,500 mile loop.

Yah, I am tired just thinking about this..... lol

I have gotten in touch with a few people who we are making stops to visit with so this trip is getting a bit more interesting.
And we are trying to do this thing on the frugal dime.
Well except for the car rental since we aren't using our vehicles to do all this driving.

So I am taking ideas for things to see/do along the way.
It can be a quick short thing/sight to see or something more substantial.
And remember we enjoy seeing/doing weird stuff like....

walking Indian mounds

visting dead ancestors in Confederate cemeteries

going to farmer's markets

shopping for grocery deals on vacation

going up in dizzily tall bridge towers

eating fresh seafood at roadside shacks

smuggling Cuban cigars across the US/Canadian border(did I really do that???)
No, I meant going to a Chocolate Museum in Canada......yah, that's it......

eating at truck stops....on purpose!......

stalking Stephen King's house

Plus many more offbeat things.

And if you are in the area(or think you are located where we'll be passing through or stopping), and think your life would be greatly improved by meeting me and Hubs, shoot me an email privately and I'll see if the planets will align and allow a meet up.

Sluggy

 

Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway......Time to Enter to Win It!

Can it be?

Is Sluggy giving away another box of awesomeness already?!

 

Well the answer to that is.....Yes, yes she is!

It's another of Sluggy's BORING BLOG BOX GIVEAWAY!

 

Here's how it works if you are new here.......

 

I put things in the box(mostly what I have gotten for free or almost free)each week and when the box is filled we draw a winner from all the entries received.

 

This time the Box of Goodies is ALL ABOUT THE LADIES with things for your Girly side.

No shaving cream or manly stuff in this box folks!

Here is what went into the Box today......

 

 

 

1.  Lots of little sample tubes and bottles of creams, lotions, sunscreen, facial scrub, etc.

2.  4 samples of name brand perfumes.

If this is your first time, please go read all the rules for these Giveaways HERE.  *As always, if you are located outside the US, you CAN enter and win but weight restrictions/shipping costs may mean your prize box will contain less items.*

***Time to enter.....You can enter on this Giveaway post until I close this post to entries.

1 entry per person per day on THIS POST.
Leave your name/email address and a COMMENT on this post.  

This week I want to hear about how you feel about Summer and Summer weather.

Has your Summer been a good one?

Are you ready to see it go and move onto Autumn or no?

Hot weather is my least favorite of all.  I grew up in the south(if you hadn't heard me say that a billion times already)but I never got use to being uncomfortable in the Summer due to the heat and humidity.  By mid-July I am SO ready to move onto the Fall.

 

You can come directly to this blog post or find it through the link on the right side bar to leave 1 comment per day.  The current Giveaway Post will be linked right at the top of the side bar.

Please NOTE--You MUST be a follower to enter the Giveaway.  If you aren't one, just click on the "Follow" button on the right hand side of my blog to become a follower.

There are 2 ways to get 2 EXTRA entries on this and each new Giveaway Post.......

1. Put my blog on your blog's Blogroll.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with the URL of your blog so I can go check it out. **If I'm already on your Blogroll, say so in an extra entry comment once each week of this giveaway.

2.  Blog about this Giveaway on your blog with a link to this post.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with a link to your blog post so I can go view it.  You can do this extra entry once each week of this giveaway.

 

These giveaways run about 4 weeks, depending on how often I get a blog post done.  The winner will be drawn from all valid entries received before the closing date of the giveaway.


 Any questions?  Just email me.

Happy Entering!! 

Sluggy

Me & the Hoff Baby, Me & the Hoff!

A couple of months ago I went to look at my blog "stats".
Blog stats don't occupy every waking hour of my mind like they do some out here in blogland, but now and again I get curious and when bored I go gander at them.

I am a small potatoes blogger(and I sort of like it that way), so my "stats" aren't really anything to brag about. 8-)

Stats are the stuff like what kind of machine are viewers to your blog using(Windows at 75% of my viewers), the words or phrases that are most often searched on to find your blog(3 people landed on my blog recently by searching the keyword phrase "cliff diving"...wtf?!), what blog posts are the most popular/most viewed(not surprisingly a recent post from July 12th but also a genealogy themed post from May 2nd has 33 page views), where viewers come to your blog from in cyberspace(Google and the One Family One Income Blog are high on that list currently).

And then there is the stat that tells you were in the world your viewers are located and THIS is where things get "interesting".

Since I am American, I write my blog in English and I write about my life here in the USA, you would think that the majority of my viewers would be in the States, with a good smattering of Canadian viewers, and then some additional readers in places where English is a major language, like the U. K., Australia, etc.

And up until a few months ago you would be correct.

But I noticed something bizarre in the Spring.
The majority of my audience of readers is NOT from America, or Canada, or the United Kingdom or even Australia.

No, I have been "Hassellhoffed".
For whatever reason, I am BIG in......Germany!

I know.....you are thinking to yourself, "Self?....WTF?!"
And you know what?
That's exactly what I am thinking to myself.

W.
T.
F?

Indeed.

I don't know if this is some weird fluke black hole of the internet causing this or if a big portion of German blog readers suddenly have confused me with David Hasselhoff.

*By the way....I just discovered that yesterday was David Hasselhoff's birthday.
Happy 61st David!

Hey, I do sort of resemble a 61 year old American actor, singer(sort of), producer and ex-sex god.
If the lights are down low enough that is.....

I had a smokin' hawt body like that many MANY years ago.....and I didn't need to photoshop it.
Only with a lot less chest hair.

And just to prove that I am NOT making this up, here is a screenshot of my audience stats for the week of July 11-18, 2013--

(Click on the graphic to 'Embiggen' for more details.)

My US audience for the week number is 2,582.
That's only my second highest viewer stat.
My Germany audience for the week sits at 27,954.

Yes, if you add up all my viewers from the next 9 top countries of readership, that number is only 3,320.
I have 88ish times more viewers in just Germany than I have in all these other countries?
Really??!

I know this is some sort of weird abhoration(that's been going on for months now!)or someone in Germany is sitting at a computer all day and hitting the refresh button on my blogsite over and over and over again in order to play some sort of strange internet prank on me personally.
But hey!
I'll take what I can get and enjoy this while it lasts.

And because I have mentioned David Hasselhoff and shown his photo so many times in the blog post, I reckon I'll have even more German viewers in the next few days! lol

I can now state for the record that I am truly like Hasselhoff, Big in Germany!

Never mind not Hasselin' the Hoff.....

Don't Hassel the Slug!

Sluggy

The Good, The Bad & The Mundane

First for the Mundane......

I finally sat down to pay some July bills this morning.
I can't believe we are already on the backside of the month!

Everything is paid up and I still have money leftover from the 1st paycheck this month.
Go me!! ;-)

I figure about $750 more in spending until the end of July here...between prescription refills, the couple of regular bills not received yet, gas fill ups for Hubs and a bit of miscellaneous/cash spending.
We have another paycheck before the month ends so unless something really expensive pops up before August, I should have a healthy chunk of change to put into my Savings Challenge goal.
Go me again! lol

I'm going to enjoy having spare money this month because next month the semi-annual car insurance premium is due.
*sad face*

On the Good News side of things.....

 

Firstborn got a job!!!!!!
A real, fulltime job that pays a decent amount.

It's not a teaching position but having an education degree helped him get it......that and having worked every summer for the last 6 years w/special needs campers too.
It's something he's comfortable doing and is a great fit for his skill set until he lands that teaching position he hopes to one day find.

Plus he and the girlfriend got approved for the apartment in Pittsburgh they wanted.
So they are making plans for the "big move" to P'burgh next month.
And since Firstborn got a decent job, even though we had to cosign their lease, they will be able to afford to pay the rent, the utilities, gas, food and student loans.  His expensive craft beer habit will have to be put aside for awhile though....

On the Not-So-great News.......

Why on earth do they make swimming pools out of metal that rusts?
Seriously.
If you are fabricating something to HOLD MANY GALLONS OF WATER, why would you NOT use stainless steel or heavily treat said metal sheeting with rustproofing?
Oh yeah.....because they don't want your pool to last more than 5 years so they get to sell you another one, and at a higher price because that will go up over 5 years like your blood pressure will when you find out you need to basically replace your pool.

Hubs has had a pool liner leak he has been trying to find all season.  We have taken the liner partly off to patch this and that numerous times.
But the water level keeps dropping and it's not all due to evaporation.
Something was up and it wasn't the pool water.

And Hubs keeps refilling the pool and my water meter keeps spinning like a crazed hippie hyped up on meth at a Grateful Dead concert.
Kaching!
Those regular bills that haven't arrived yet this month.
Yah.....the water bill is one of them and this will not be pretty when it does get here.

As for the pool--
Hubs has stopped refilling it and it's about bone dry now and the source of the problem has finally been found.  The bottom where it meets the side of the wall of the pool is where the leak is.
And it isn't just a leak, it's dry rotted such that if you took your finger and poked the liner it would puncture and then you could run your finger along the bottom and open up a gash the size of a Volvo.
Ok, so that's a real weird metaphor/simile(never could remember the difference between those two!)but it's fairly accurate because most everything about my life is strange/bizarre/funny.

The verdict is we need a new pool liner.
Plus the skin/metal walls of our pool are rusted and rusted through in a couple of spots.
So putting in a new pool liner is just asking for it to be torn by jagged metal panels.
I'm not sure what we are going to do about all this.

Basically, we need to replace most every piece on this pool.
And while I do enjoy having it for the 2 months a year we get to really use it, I don't know if it's worth replacing at this point.

* We just have one kid left at home and he never uses the pool.
* And it's a big expense between the cost of the pool parts itself, all the water needed to fill and top it off each year, the electricity to run the pump all season and then all those pool chemicals....oy!.....the chemicals that cost an arm and a leg.
* Plus we will be moving in a few years, so why bother putting up a new pool?  I hear it can make selling your house more difficult if you have either an in-ground or above-ground pool.

I sure wish we had a community pool like in our old neighborhood.  If you wanted to use the pool you paid a yearly fee which was quite reasonable.

I am thinking maybe to go the hot tub route instead.
Granted it isn't cool and refreshing in the Summer and you can't swim in it......but it can be used almost year round here if located in the right spot because it's heated.
And relaxing in a spa with a glass of an adult beverage is almost as good as a refreshing dip in a pool when it's 90 degrees outside.

What do y'all thing?
Replace the pool, get a hot tub instead or just do without for the time being?

Sluggy

All I Am Going To Say On This

While I have stayed out of the blogger fray on this Zimmerman/Martin Shooting and Trial until now I will share some of my thoughts with you all here.
Feel free to move along and not read this if you can't help letting emotions cloud your powers of reasoning.

It really doesn't matter what anyone thinks happened or didn't happen in those 2-4 minutes that are unaccounted for in the timeline of this incident. The only ones who truly "know" what transpired and in what order are Messrs. Zimmerman and Martin.  Ultimately the state of their immortal souls is between their individual consciences and their makers(if they believe in one).

I believe cases like these, which are labeled racial incidents but aren't necessarily so, are used to push certain politic groups agendas forward and these groups really don't give two farts about the actual humans involved and what the resulting Trial Circus does to their lives.

And the trying in the court of public opinion and the media only serves to divide our country as a nation.  But that is how the Powers That Be keep control over us all, by diverting our attention and separating we, the people, from each other and thus dissipating our group power.

If the race baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton truly cared for their "people", where is the outrage over the thousands of African American youths that have been killed in the time since this highly publicized deemed "racial" killing occurred, African American youths who have been killed by other African Americans in their own racial community?
I think rapper Lupe Fiasco said it best in his tweet....."Yeah gimme that anger...once again that rage...that misguided angst when you true enemy is your own complacency and cowardice.".

Our lives are all about the choices we make.  As PF bloggers you all know that if you are in a bad place with money, it isn't only because of bad luck or for no reason.  Primarily, you make your own luck in life by the choices you make throughout your life.  Sure, a fluke thing can happen to throw your finances into a tailspin but it's all those decisions you have made, all those little, seemingly insignificant and "unrelated to any other choices" decisions you made, that pile up year after year which had formed the path on which you are now trodding into your financial future.

Life is about personal responsibility.

And much like the financial decisions you make over the course of a lifetime, you make other non-financial decisions too that have led you to where you are today in life in all aspects of that life.

This article HERE sets the Martin/Zimmerman incident on it's ear, by presenting that while this shooting was what many call tragic and certainly a needless waste of human life, that it could have possibly been avoided or drastically altered by the actions and decisions made by, Trayvon's parents and Trayvon himself.

By making the personal life decisions that they did, shouldn't his parents be held accountable for forging the path that led to a drugged up 17 yr. old gang member from a broken home in the first place?
The fact that his parents didn't put this kid's needs in life ahead of their own wants and desires speaks volumes about them in particular and about our society as a whole.
Kids are not throw about objects that you have just because you can and only take care of when it's convenient for you and the life you lead.

I know "the system", since it is run by fallible humans with their own issues, to an extent is still rigged against certain classes of citizens, but you can't blame "the man" for all your failings and ills in life and take no responsibility for what befalls you.  Sure, you may have more challenges in life than the next guy/gal due to who your parents are or what socio-economic class you/they are from, but many in our world have risen above challenges and by making those little choices, one heaped upon the other, have built lives that honor themselves and their families.  I can cite you volumes of  cases of "the world was against them but they rose above their situation" people.


I feel for both families of Messrs. Martin and Zimmerman.
But I want to tell them maybe instead of looking to other's faults we should be looking within at our own hearts and the place of personal responsibility in our lives for that justice  that they feel is still eluding them.

God speed George Zimmerman.
Rest in peace Trayvon Martin.

Sluggy