Last Day to Enter.....

....my giveaway, that is!

Get in one more entry to win all this nifty stuff........

Just make sure if your entry isn't link to a Blogger profile with your email address or a blog that I can leave a comment on to let you know you won that you put your email in your entry comment or email me your addy privately using my email linked on my Blogger profile.

I have had to draw a substitute winner once so please don't make me have to do it again.  ;-)

I have another Giveaway coming, due to start on Black Friday, and it should be a BIG one!

Anyway, the link to enter the Giveaway is HERE or use the link on the side bar.
Please tell me what you are thankful for this Thanksgiving on your last entry comment.


Sluggy

Our Trip to IL....Part 3 The Musical, History and Booze Weekend

 Despite the drinking binge of Friday evening and a night spent on the bed dubbed, "The Crippler", I was up early and feeling good.

Den was up early too and hard at work in the kitchen making a yummy breakfast with which to spoil us guests.
An egg, bacon and roasted red pepper with basil croissant sandwich?

Yes please!

Then it was off to explore Sonya's town.
We went up to the town's Historical Society Museum housed in an old town school building.

Hubs contemplating how much worse his current eye condition treatment might have been 100 years ago on this medieval-looking torture device.

A vintage dentist's set-up.  Open wide for that drill........

And yes I am a smart ass if you haven't noticed yet.
They had a display of hand painted porcelain china as a large national deluxe china factory is near this area and still in operation.

These vintage hand painted plates were on display with antique photos of the women who painted them.  I thought the plate on the left in this photo was amazingly life like.....that bug painted onto the plate was so realistic and I told everyone within earshot about this.

A second, closer look and I saw that the dead bug was in fact a dead bug laying on the plate.
I guess someone needs to tidy up the displays a bit sooner than later.  ;-)

After a leisurely poke around this small but jam packed museum(bonus points it was FREE!)Den took us up to Woodman's over the border in Wisconsin.
I kept telling Hubs about this Liquor Valhalla and he was eagerly anticipating this excursion.

And Woodman's did NOT disappoint!
Hubs took a good hour to make a decision about what to buy.

And this time I came prepared and had money put onto my debit card(Woodman's only takes debit or cash, no credit.)just for this visit.

Another great thing about Woodman's(besides the prices and the variety of beverages)is that sometimes if you buy stuff you get free stuff with it.

Eldest son wanted some MN made beers and Woodman's had a Deal on them-Buy 2 packs and get a free block of cheese........

Good beer and local cheese.  What's not to love?!?
I ended up with 2 blocks of free cheap for 4 packs of beer and I got to tick Eldest Son off my Christmas shopping list.

After coming home to Sonya's we sat and chatted the rest of the afternoon and Den worked his culinary magic and made us a feast for dinner.
Pot Roast with mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Corn and Butternut Squash.
Mmmmmm....

More talking and imbibing followed well into the evening.

Another night on the "Crippler" and I was still doing fine.
Sunday morning Den again cooked up another great hot breakfast.  I was feeling rather spoiled and loving it!

Sonya Ann and I went up to CVS later that morning since Den was not feeling great(a sore throat and maybe the beginnings of a cold or flu)so we went to get him some cough drops, throat spray and soothing drinks.
I had an old CVS cash card with about $11 on it so it was as good a time to finally use that.

I could really get use to drug stores like this in Illinois........

My view down the liquor aisle at CVS.

I even found some bottles of liquor on clearance.
What is not to love about a sale on alcohol and using an old CVS money card to get it for free?!? lolz

Back home to Sonya's to get Den his sick supplies so he could rest comfortably for the rest of the day and recover before he had to return to work on Monday morning.

About 1 pm Hubs headed off to have an adventure at the local library.
Sonya had found that her library was hosting a Drumming Circle on the Sunday we were visiting so Hubs put this on his agenda.
Hubs drums.

Sonya and I went for the experience too, just to sit in the back of the room and spectate.
Well only 3 people including Hubs showed up for the activity so the leader of the group(behind Sonya in the photo below)coaxed us into service to participate.  She had brought extra drums and other noise making instruments, I don't have a clue what they are called, so Sonya Ann dragged me into the circle and soon we were joining in and whacking on musical instruments along with the rest.

Who knew we were so musical, right?
We may have totally embarrassed ourselves but with only 5 people there(and no recording devices in use)we are ok with it.  I think Sonya Ann found a new side of herself she didn't realize she had.
Not the ballsy "let's crash this party" side but the artistic "I can hit a ribbed gourd with a stick" musical side.  We practically fought over that ribbed gourd and stick thing and who got to beat on it......

Before we broke off and left there was time for a group selfie to commemorate the experience.

On the way out of the building Hubs noticed advertising in the lobby for other activities/group meetings, including one called "Chess and Cookies".
Hubs is a long time chess playuh and who doesn't like cookies?

The next week or so I kept hearing Hubs talking about maybe it wouldn't be so bad an idea to retire to Illinois near this library.
Sorry honey but that ain't happening.....

Us three "Artistes" did some shopping afterwards.
I had Kohl's Cash to use so we hit Kohl's.
I didn't buy these Chicago Bears growlers but found a couple of other things for Christmas presents there.........

We also hit a nearby Dollar Tree.
You can pretty much find the same stuff in all these stores nationwide but I did find a pair of readers in purple they don't have at my local DT.

How do you like my big purchase?

We saw this barn-like building on the way home from shopping.
I thought it was very odd to find advertising for Rock City in Northern Illinois......

Turn out that Rock City is also a village in North Central IL so this could have been advertising their love of Rock City IL rather than the tourist attraction in Chattanooga TN.

Den feeling as bad as he did still insisted on cooking dinner Sunday night.  I feel bad because I didn't get a photo of what he made but I was too busy stuffing my FACE full of the Barbecue Pork Sandwiches he made.
The poor man was standing outside in the cold with his charcoal grill smoking a pork butt to make this meal.

But it was so good I had seconds!

I had thoughts of asking Hubs if we could adopt Den but then decided not to, because that would mean since Sonya Ann and are are cousins that she'd be married to her adopted cousin.....or something like that.

Yeah, I am nice like that......


Sluggy

Go Enter This Giveaway!

Fellow blogger, Linda, at Practical Parsimony is holding a giveaway which ends November 30th.
Use the link HERE to go enter it.

Be sure to tell her I sent ya! ;-)

Sluggy

More Rite-Aid, Ollie's & Weis

A return to Rite-Aid on Wednesday to get a prescription and do some deals.......

2 x Edge shave gel 20% wellness disc. price=$5.58
2 x Wet n'Wild nail color 40% off sale(.99¢reg.)=$1.18
4 x Wet n' Wild lip color 40% off sale(.99¢reg.)=$2.36
1 x Sure deodorant on sale=$2.00
1 x Brut deodorant on sale=$2.00
SubTotal......$13.12

Coupons Used
2 x $2/1 In-ad RAQ=$4.00
1 x .50¢/1 Edge IPQ=.50¢
1 x .50¢/1 Edge RA Load2CardQ=.50¢
2 x .50¢/1 Wet n'Wild any item IPQ=$1.00
4 x .75¢/1 Wet n'Wild lip color IPQ=$3.00
1 x .75¢/1 Sure deodorant IPQ=.75¢
1 x .75¢/1 Brut deodorant IPQ=.75¢
Coupon Total.......$10.50

$13.12-$10.50=$2.62 + .16¢tax=$2.78 OOP
This OOP was put on a R-A gift card.
I earned $2 in Plenti Pts. back on this transaction too so this lot "cost" .78¢.
$19.90 worth of regular retail goods obtained.

Then I hit Ollie's to use my 15% off Q they mailed me this Fall before it expired on Sunday......

Some Tuna Helper(to have on hand for emergency meals), sea salt, minced garlic and paprika.
$6.99 OOP spent on $16.95 worth of regular retail goods.

Then it was off to Weis(PMITA)Markets before the sale week ended to get a few items........

Go HERE to see the video I made of this trip.

$17.85 OOP on $35.15 worth of food for a 49% savings rate.

These 3 transactions bring my grocery spending thus far this week to $36.59 and $216.96 spent for November. $83.04 left in the food budget this month.

Sluggy

Kids Will Drive You Insane!

So last year College Boy was on the 14 meal a week Meal Plan at college.  And for both semesters he didn't eat all his weekly meals. (Each week starts fresh with 14 meals and none of them carry over to the following week in this plan.)  His schedule(both his practice schedule and his wake/sleep cycle) were so screwy that he couldn't get to the dining hall but infrequently. 
He's funny about eating......he'll not eat for awhile but then gorge himself at a meal then he'll skip 2-3 meals.....so he was only eating 10 meals a week.

I hate wasting money so this year we moved him to a Meal Plan which isn't so structured so he can eat his allotted meals in whichever weeks he wants without loosing a significant number of them after each week is over.

The problem with this different plan is that it is equivalent to the 10 meal a week Meal Plan(meaning he gets 10 meals per week-or 2 meals per day average during the week and no meal son weekends).  He ate so little at the dining halls last year that 10 meals a week Meal Plan should have gotten him through the semester(with the addition of all the extra food I sent with him in the Fall) but it was going to be close.

Well it wasn't close at all.
He told me on Tuesday that they informed him at the dining hall that he was out of meals for the semester, Nov. 17th.  He still has 20 days left in the semester to eat there, so just short of 3 weeks left of dining.

For some reason unknown to God and man College Boy decided this semester to go from hardly eating at all to eating 3 or 4 meals a day.
FOUR MEALS A DAY??!??
I reminded him that he is NOT a HOBBIT and does not require FOURTH MEAL daily!
Plus he's been NOT going to the dining hall(where he can get seconds and thirds and fourths at a sitting)and has been going to the contracted(1 meal and out)venues on campus so he's not filling up and then having to grab something else(another meal on his card)to get through the day.

So I had to put Money on his ID card so he can eat for the rest of the semester....$300 worth.
This means that I have now paid the equivalent of a full 19 meals a week Meal Plan(but have gotten far from that amount of food for him).
Sigh.

They don't have a Flex Week Plan on the 14 meal a week level so I guess we are going back to a structured 14 meal a week Meal Plan for the Spring Semester.  I just hope he can deal with eating all 14 meals per week since they won't carry over on this plan.  A Flex 14 Meal Plan would be perfect for him if he knocks off that 4 meals a day thing but of course they don't offer that. 8-(

You try to save where you can but then your kids change their behaviors and it bites you in the ass.
2.5 more years of this and I am done!

Sluggy