Traipsing about the internets you can find very interesting things.
Take gift wrap.
Not that I am going to go out and buy any of this because A-I still have a stockpile of it from years gone by and B-the prices some of these are going for!?!?.
But still it's interesting to look and better yet it's free. ;-)
I know someone how'd adore this one(and you know who you are out there!lol).......
Grumpy Cat wrap says "Humbug!".
And for all my friends and relatives(and again, y'all know who you are too!lolz)who love to drink..........
Booze bottles, candy canes and Santa vomiting out "Merry Xmas" and "Noel".
For the comic book monster fan..........
For the Dinosaur fan......
For Sonya Ann......lolz.......
Funny food themed wrap.............
And for the Art Lover in your life.........
There were many more and many of these others are XXX and I'd prefer not to post them here. ;-)
And speaking of things that make you want to shove hot steel rods into your ears, here are some novelty Christmas songs that if I never hear them again, it will be too soon.
This one gets lots of play on the local station some years, not so much this year though........
An obnoxious tune from the 1950's.....
And here's a favorite around these parts. This group is out of Michigan but the redneck culture it alludes to is universal.........
And I sure heard this enough when my kids were little to last a lifetime.....lol
So tell me, what Holiday songs drive you over the edge?
On Monday, Day 9 of our trip, we headed over to the Daughter's house for a Memorial Day Picnic.
We sat out on the back porch with drinks and chatted with Daughter's Boyfriend's parents and watched the granddog wander around the backyard....
After awhile the barbecued brisket was done and it was time to eat. I was good and didn't eat a bunch of crap, choosing the meat, salad and veggies(with a bit of hummus dip)......
Can you believe we even forgot to crack open that overpriced Watermelon I bought at the flea market the day before? lolz
I took a picture of Daughter and Boyfriend before we left that afternoon.
The weather was fine all day but was starting to turn cloudy and dark by the time we got back to the hotel.
Hubs and I took a nap back at the hotel and we may have run over to the nearby Chinese take-out place for a small dinner.
A little after 8 pm that night the tv show I was watching was interrupted by the local news channel's weather team. Some violent weather was zooming due east from Texas into Louisiana toward us including straight line winds, driving rain and tornadoes....eek!
About 15 minutes later we heard a knock on our hotel room door. The front desk clerk was asking us to go to the downstairs hallway to gather with all the other hotel guests in the building.
We were already on the first floor so we just walked down halfway our hallway to the group.
The clerk was instructed to put us into the conference room to wait out the tornado heading our way. The only problem with that plan was that this room had WINDOWS! Bad plan....
So as the clerk and some of the guests were freaking out a local policeman came into the building to help out to keep us all safe since the hotel clerk had never been through something like this and got little direction from her higher ups. The policeman suggested we huddle together halfway down the hallway, kneel down and link arms. So we did a close facsimile of this plan.
I guess I am pretty calm in a crisis but folks around me were an emotional mess. One woman was rocking and saying, "Oh Lord.", over and over again. Two others were praying. This hotel is right across the street from a Shriner's/LSU Hospital so we had a couple and their severely disabled non-mobile child in our group. The child seemed to be having a grand time laying on the floor laughing and interacting with some of the guests. ;-)
A few folks just kept scrolling on their phones watching the weather in real time, creep toward us.
You could look down the hallway through a glass side door and see outside. The heavy rain by this time was blowing absolutely sideways!
About the time I looked out that door the tornado siren at the hospital across the street whent off.
This ramped up the prayers and anxiety in the hallway. We lost power briefly and it got very loud outside and then it was over.
Not our tornado.
We all returned to our rooms a short time later and I looked out our room window to make sure the car was still there and in one piece.....lol
I put the Weather Channel on and they still had a tornado watch out for our area......
You can see the local weather team's radar just after the eye of the storm passed us.......
Now wasn't that an exciting hour? ;-O
I've been through many hurricanes growing up in Virginia Beach but this was only my second tornado experience(the first being Dec. 1st of 2006 when an F2 left a 26 mile long path of destruction through our teeny tine town-the first recorded tornado to happen in December in PA).
I called my Daughter after the danger had passed to make sure they were aok and they were and there was no damage to her house either. Just some large branches down in her yard.
And then she said, "I guess y'all are rethinking that plan to retire around here, huh?" ;-)
* The next day we found out that the tornado had passed across a road we had been on near the flea market the day before on Sunday which was only down the road from Daughter's house.
I could do without excitement like this on trips, ya know? ;-)
After a couple of drinks we slept well that night and hoped for better weather on Tuesday.
Tuesday was nice and sunny. Hubs and I headed out after a nice breakfast to check out a newish place called "Brewniverse"- A local beer supply and craft beer store.
Just a few of the interesting brews they had........
Viking Blod. Hmmm....
State Penn Porter.....as opposed to Penn State Porter. lolz I bought a bottle of this.
I love some of the funny names.....Kilt Lifter....hehehehe
Before Noon Java Stout. "Not for Use With Donuts."
Now THAT'S a different take on your morning coffee!
Good old Orkney Brewery. I'd love to visit the Orkneys.
I wonder how many you have to have of Skull Splitter beer before yours feels split?
Yeah, I know Ben Franklin didn't say this but it's a great sentiment.
Brewniverse had a nice eclectic collection of brews plus some hard cider and meads and the prices were decent.
We'll be sure to visit again when we are in town there.
We met Daughter for dinner that night at Shane's, a local chain of seafood/Louisiana style restaurant.
We got a basket of assorted fried appetizers to share. My favorite were the fried green tomatoes.
I know I will have to turn in my Southerner membership card but this was my first time EVER having fried green tomatoes!
At the ripe old age of 56. Man, I have been missing a real taste treat.......
Then I had a fried gator plate with broccoli, Cole slaw and a piece of cornbread with unsweetened iced tea.
Hubs at 2 different spicy Cajun something or other sausages.
I saw a riff on the arcade crane game in Shane's as we were leaving..... The Maine Lobster Game. There were live lobsters in the tank and you could put coins in and try to get the crane to grab you a lobster. If you got one, the restaurant would cook it up for you.
Of course with the price of lobsters I am sure actually winning one in this machine was practically impossible but it was a novelty to see.
After going back to Daughter's house for abit to visit we drove back to the hotel but made a stop here along the way for dessert........
Southern Maid Donuts is a local donut shop chain. Daughter said I had to try the cream cheese filled donut they sell.
So I did, but just one.
I accompanied it with a bottle of blackberry cider I bought at Brewniverse earlier that day.
2 pair of pants and a top.
I had a Spend $30/Get $30 in SYW Points. I also had $5.59 in SYW Points already on my loyalty card so after sale price on the top and using those Points and after earning $30 in new Points I paid $5.36. Actually I used a KMart gift card I earned for transferring prescriptions to their pharmacy last year(or was it earlier this year?? I can't remember). As that was free these clothes cost me nothing OOP. I still have $24+ left on that gift card plus $30 in SYW Points on my loyalty card to spend. That $5.36 "spent" was the difference between the amount spend on Wednesday and what I earned back in points.
Got it? ;-)
The register also spit out this coupon--
So I'll be getting $10 more in points when I go back before the end of the year.
Then it was a trip to the nearby town's Shursave grocery store and I got this..........
After Qs and sale prices--
2 x Duke mayo=$3.98
2 x MM OJ=$3.00 (for CB)
2 x Philly cream cheese=$2.00
1 x 18 ct. eggs=$2.99
1 x milk=$1.68
2 x Lay's chips=$4.29 (for Xmas)
1 x Wheat Thins=$2.00 (for Xmas)
Total OOP....$19.93
We needed eggs as College Boy does eat them most mornings with a bagel or croissant(at the crack of noon).
Cream cheese is for CB's noontime bagel as well......as is the OJ.
Then while I was in that town I hit the Weis Markets to check for markdowns............
After Qs and sale prices--
2 x whole chickens=$6.21
2 x cottage cheese=$3.98
2 x Hormel no bean chili=$2.00
1 x Edwards pie=$4.00 (for Xmas)
Total OOP....$16.19
The chickens were marked .59¢ lb!!! These are reg. retail at Weis here of $3.49 so my savings rate was 70.92.
Yay!
It was all I could do not to tackle the old lady hogging the meat case in front of the 5 chickens marked this price to get to one. lolz
Heck, if I had had the freezer space I'd have taken them all. ;-)
I shoved one into the freezer when I got home since it was still mostly frozen and I'll do something with the other fresh one this weekend....not sure what yet, maybe a simple boiled chicken dressed with sesame oil and scallions over rice with stir-fry veggies.
The chili goes into the stockpile and the cottage cheese is destined for 2 lasagnas-one to eat and one for the freezer.
Then I went back to my town to hit my Weis(PMITA)Markets where I found nothing in the meat department but there were produce and bakery markdowns..........
Not a single coupon used on this transaction.
Spend $6.80 and saved $6.85 so a 50% savings rate.
All the grocery shopping on Wednesday averaged out to a 59.86% savings rate.
Good deals!
I made a short film about this last trip--
The new sales ad at Wis starts today. I won't be going in to check for markdowns as my freezer is about to overflowing so I have no more room for reduced meats. Yes, I know it's a great problem to have. lolz
Next week's menu will be a lot of leftovers being used up as I have cooked a lot this week. I just need goodies for our Christmas meal like carrots and a beef roast which I'll pick up a few days before Christmas, along with whatever deals I find when I go in to shop.
Weis has Domino sugar for $1.49 a 4lb. bag again and there are still Domino Qs online to print(and in the inserts). I have to check on my sugar supply for making fudge as that takes a lot. We don't go through much sugar except for fudge making and during canning season as I don't sugar my iced tea.
Crabmeat is suppose to be on sale for $5.99 an 8oz. container this week. Crabmeat has NOT been on sale at all this past year here. I'd love to make some crab cakes to put into the freezer or even try to make some crab soup for Christmas dinner. We'll see.....
Weis is also running that Campbell's/Swanson/Pepperidge Farms Deal again-Spend $15/Get $5 off Instantly. If it's still running off of reg. shelf price I can get 4 Stocks(or 5 Broths)and 1 can of soup and after $2 in Qs, after doubling(found at Campbell's Kitchen website)and $5 off Instantly pay $4 for all.
I've been using a lot of broth/stock lately making soups and stews so this might be a good thing to pick up.
Anyway......the total spend on groceries so far this week is $42.92.
We may just squeak by and stay under $350 on the food budget for December.
Please email me your mailing address information Kim using the email addy you supplied so I can get this box winging it's way to you asap.
Thanks to everyone who entered and keeps reading this little old blog.
Some days y'all keep me sane. And all the other days I appreciate each of you. ;-)
So let me close this by asking everyone, what do you personally want to see in a giveaway box?* Just speak up and let me know what I should pack it with in 2016.
Sluggy
*Besides fist fulls of money. Yah, we would ALL like to see more of that but it ain't happening. 8-)
