How Boring AM I Anyway?

Every now and then I go take a peek at my blog Stats just for fun.

You know....the place you can go see how many views a page gets, where your readers are coming from and what country they live in, what keyword searches point toward your blog, etc....that sort of thing.

I must be fairly boring because the top viewed blog post in the past 7 days on my blog was THIS ONE .
I wrote that in 2011.
In the last 4 years they couldn't find anything more interesting to read on this blog??

It had more views last week than even the Giveaway post(which those generally get the most hits per week when I hold one)!

Either a bot is directing people to that page or I really need to step up my game here as my blog seems to be a real snoozefest. lolz

Here are the top referring sites from last week.....

Most people just google "sluggy blog" to find me if they don't have me bookmarked in their favorites.

But I also owe a big "Thank You" to OneFamily OneIncome, Sarah and Jenny at Digging Out of Debt, One Spoonful at a Time, Belinda at Saving Money in My Tennessee Mountain Home, Sam at It's Me, Sam, Alex at Living the Small Life and Lorraine at We are:Clamco for having a link on their blogs so folks can find me here.
8-)))

So who reads my blog?
Good question!

Take a look at this graphic to see who visited last week.........

Overwhelmingly it's USA readers with a smattering of Canadian and Ukrainian readers.  I was disappointingly only read last week by 134 internet blog readers in the UK(Hey, I don't get a lot of your slang terms either, so it's all good.)

 There were 50 or so English speaking folks in France, Russia, Germany who didn't think I was THAT boring last week(or they just wanted to practice their English with my dreadful grammar structure)as well as a few handfuls of Australians who probably read me to brush up on their North American/Yankee slang.

38 people in Ireland couldn't think of anything better to do last week(If  I was in Ireland I sure could think of a few better ways to waste my time!) and 14 couples in China must not have gotten the memo about that "1 child rule"no longer being in force and hadn't found the time last week to "get busy" yet......(for you Aussies "get busy" is US slang for "have sex").

But just to prove that the Earth has NOT tilted off it's axis and all is right with the world, the good news is that one of my top blog search keywords/phrases is still and will probably always be.............

Cat Hoarder

A gal writes one measly post about an episode of "Hoarders" yeeeeears ago and that's all people
see?
Either that or cat hoarding is a silent epidemic in this world and it's heading toward a crisis stage and why was I not informed?!?

Now I am off to Weis(PMITA)Markets to buy more unsalted chicken stock, facial tissues and butter while contemplating the growing cat hoarding crisis.
I bet a telethon or a celebrity "group hug" song for it is just around the corner!

And just for writing another post with "cat hoarding" in it, this will double or triple the keyword search hits my blog receives.
Go me!

If only my blog hits translated into real cash so I could get all this chicken stock, tissues and butter with all that free money and Hubs could retire now!!! ;-)


Non-Catty Sluggy

Getting Ready for Black Friday at Rite-Aid

I went into Rite-Aid today while I was out to the bank.
I had this from last Black Friday at Rite-Aid.........

JR Watkins lotions were a freebie last Black Friday, limit 2 bottles per card.
$5.99 on sale and gave a $5.99 +Ups Reward.

They never seem to have 2 bottles on the shelf of the same scent.....this rain check is for lavender.....so I hadn't cashed it in yet.

So I got 1 bottle of aloe and 1 bottle of lavender and cashed it in today.

Why cash it in this week?
Because when you buy 2 bottles of JR Watkins this week you earn 200 Plenti Points......

I also still have a Planters peanuts gift set rain check from Black Friday 2014 which I plan on using Black Friday 2015.  These nut gift sets will be on special......

$5.99 and gives $3 in Plenti Points.
My rain check lets me buy 2 of these gift sets for $2.99 and I'll get the $3 in points back making these .01¢ moneymakers each.
Sweet. 8-)

Also I am having a hard time deciding on my Black Friday strategy on what to buy of the freebies.
The plan is to use all my points(should be $37 on one card and $50 on the other card)on Day 1 of the BF sales on freebies and earning those same amount of points back on each card.  Then using those new points to buy more until I either run out of freebies(or freebies after coupons)OR time(3 Day sale).

So what are you planning on spending/rolling your Plenti points on during the Black Friday sale this year?

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "Finishing the Yardwork" Edition--

This was the last week of unseasonably warm weather here in NE PA so a chunk of it was spent outside raking and disposing of the leaves.  I helped Hubs this year and was immediately reminded why I don't rake leaves......the nose and eyes started running and/or tearing because I am allergic to dead leaves!
bleh.
But we got it done anyway.

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week.......

1. Sunday--Leftover Ravioli w/Meat Sauce, sauted Cabbage(leftover from the Cole Slaw head)
2. Monday--Pan Grilled Chicken w/sauce, Spinach Salad, leftover Corn Casserole
3. Tuesday--Leftover Spaghetti w/meatballs, Caesar Salad
4. Wednesday--Kielbasa on Rolls, leftover Beets
5. Thursday--Tacos or Taco Salad
6. Friday--Tuna Noodle Casserole or Broiled Rock Fish(depending on my mood), Tossed Salad, ?
7. Saturday--Leftovers of some kind

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Leftover Ravioli w/Meat Sauce, sauted Cabbage(leftover from the Cole Slaw head)
2. Monday--Pan Grilled Chicken w/sauce, Spinach Salad, leftover Corn Casserole
3. Tuesday--Leftover Spaghetti w/meatballs, Garlic Bread
4. Wednesday--Kielbasa on Rolls w/Onions, Harvard Beets planned-over
5. Thursday--Fend for Yourself Night(Hubs at Spaghetti, I had Broccoli Soup)
6. Friday--Tacos or Taco Salad
7. Saturday--Hubs had leftover Spaghetti, I had leftover Broccoli Soup

Mostly adhered too, except that Tuna Casserole thing and I made a pot of Broccoli Cheddar Soup.

As for my grocery spending last week......Weis, Bread Outlet and loss leaders at a local market in town South of us saw my food spending last week come to $48.53.  Then I went to Weis again for Purex to donate to the food bank and found all those meat discount stickers....what to do, what to do? lolz  That $77.39 trip brought the November grocery spending to a total of $125.92.  I still have $174.08 left in the $300 food budget for the month.

Leftovers going into this week....taco filling, broccoli soup and corn casserole.  That's it.

Here is this week's "food plan"--

1. Sunday--Roast Chicken with Carrots, Onions, Potatoes, Cauliflower, Broccoli
2. Monday--Garlic Honey Shrimp w/stir-fry Veggies, Rice
3. Tuesday--Dinner Out(on gift certificate)
4. Wednesday--Meatballs Subs, Caesar Salad
5. Thursday--Leftovers
6. Friday--Tuna Casserole, Brussels Sprouts
7. Saturday--Leftovers

What I need to buy for this menu?.........nothing really since I bought the stir-fry veg last week. I have the whole chicken, shrimp, meatballs all in the freezer and assorted other fixings in the pantry already.  I have hoagie rolls to use up and meatballs in the freezer that Wednesday's meal is a given. ;-)

Even though I don't "need" anything this week, I will still go to the grocery stores this week to get more loss leaders for me(facial tissue, butter, salmon)and for the food bank(mayo, tuna, pasta sauce, pasta)plus anything that pops up as a LL with the new Weis ad on Thursday.

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?

Sluggy

Gifting Gone Bad

I dearly love my friend and cousin Sonya Ann, however.......
Let this be a warning to you all.

Never let a non-beer drinker buy your beer!

Sonya Ann was a sweetie on our recent trip to visit her and went out and bought us some "special" beer.....a seasonal variety pack of Shock Top brewing brand.

But unfortunately Sonya Ann does NOT drink beer.
This means her estimation of what is "good" beer does not necessarily jive with what a beer drinker considers "good" beer.

After we returned from our Friday fish fry dinner Sonya shoved a bottle of the beer she had bought for us to enjoy on this trip into my hands.
Yes, I was to be the guinea pig......

You can see that video of me drinking it HERE.

Personally I feel sorry for Den since he'll have to drink all this beer whether he likes it or not. lolz

And I'll add that I made a bonehead move myself in the giving someone booze category.
See this bottle of fairly expensive cream liqueur that you can only buy in Virginia?

I brought a bottle of this on the trip as a gift for Sonya Ann......totally forgetting that Sonya is lactose intolerant.
Yep, stupid me, right?
I guess Den ends up drinking this one too. lolz

The Moral of the Story here is that friends shouldn't buy friends booze.

Sluggy

Highway Robbery in Illinois' Toll Hell

Visiting Sonya Ann recently meant traveling into and through the great state of Illinois, specifically around the Chi-town area.

I have decided after this trip that the Illinois Tollway System is the biggest PITA I have ever experienced!
It is confusing and designed to make you, the user, have an aneurysm or a stroke if you don't live in Illinois and have an I-Pass account.

I-Pass is the Illinois toll paying account for using Illinois toll roadways.  If you are from the East it's the same thing as an EZ-Pass.  You have a transponder in your car and you load your account to pay for tolls electronically instead of having to stop at a toll booth and pay the old fashioned way, with cash monies.

Since we don't use many toll roads in our daily life(nor in our traveling life for personal use)neither Hubs or I have an EZ-Pass.
It works for us fine everywhere we go, except for THIS trip to Illinois!

Not only is the price of gasoline in this area sky high, they also extort you every few miles on the roadways by requiring you to pay tolls on the major roadways.

We stopped at each toll booth on our trip home through the tollway maze that is suburban Chicago, and paid with cash and got a receipt(I ALWAYS get receipts at toll booths when traveling, without fail!).
From entering Illinois until almost leaving the ChiTown area we paid $30.00 in tolls!
This included $2.80 toll when we mistakenly kept going down a road that turned into a toll road before we saw the sign on the way back from Milwaukee on an excursion.

Compared to the $15.75 it cost to cross the breadth of Ohio via the Turnpike or the $8.20 it cost to cross the breadth of Indiana on it's Tollway, just tooling around the Chicago 'burbs cost us $30+ in tolls!
Now which of these was the worst deal, huh?

We paid $30 in tolls while in Northern Illinois except we needed to pay $31.50.

When we were driving home and left I-294 to get onto I-57 to Southern IL there was NO toll booth!
You could only pay with I-Pass as you left at Toll Plaza 42 to get onto I-57.

Even in Indiana which is notorious for unmanned toll booths(on some less traveled exits)there may not be a person to take your cash but they have machines to insert cash and get change.
But this no toll booth deal was new to us.....

As you drove down this stretch of I-294 toward the exit in question, they had many signs on this stretch of roadway about having 7 days from the date of not paying this toll to go online to pay this toll or else some nefarious fate would befall you......

Way to go Illinois!  Make your visitors feel all warm and fuzzy inside why dontcha!

So I sat down a couple of days ago at my computer and attempted to go online and pay this toll the state of Illinois forced us to not pay by not having a means to pay for out of state visitors who didn't foresee the need to have an I-Pass account.

Let me just say that if the traffic and congestion on the roads outside of Chicago isn't enough to cause you to foam at the mouth then trying to pay a "missed" toll in this clusterf**k of a system is!!!

First off, you have to remember the actual toll exit number/gate/plaza you didn't pay at. 
Who the hell traveling from somewhere else has the presence of mind to commit to memory a toll plaze/exit number? lol
Of course, I DO recall many signs at the time with the AMOUNT we were suppose to pay but can't recall a single sign with a toll number for that spot.
Great!

All the signage on the roadway at the time said the toll due in question was .75¢.
And once I figured out the Toll Number 35 minutes after starting this process on their website, I discovered that the .75¢ is only if you pay through an I-Pass account.  The cash rate is $1.50.  None of the signs on the roadway at that time said anything about a higher cash rate until you go onto the IL website.
Thanks for giving only half the information!

So I have finally gotten this thing paid and can sleep at night without worrying the authorities from Illinois DOT will come kidnap me from my bed.

But really, I have to ask......WHY set up a system that attempts to trick out of state drivers into breaking your highway laws by not providing a system for said drivers to pay their highway usage fees at the time of use?
Next time I need to drive South from Chicago 'burbs I'll go west and THEN South on non-toll roads and avoid this Toll Hell!

So the moral of this story is the Highway Robbery & Chicanery is alive and doing quite well in Northern Illinois.
But then again I shouldn't be surprised as Chicago has a long held and hard-earned reputation as a World Capital of Thievery and Political Shenanigans......

Sluggy