When Did That Happen?!

So I just realized that yesterday was Mardi Gras.
How come y'all threw a boozy party and didn't tell me/invite me?!? lolz
I will continue this post in a whispered tone just in case anyone reading this through bloodshot bleary eyes is not up to snuff today.  ;-)

Oh, that's ok, I have been feeling punky lately anyway.  I thought I had a flu coming on or at the very least a bad head cold but either I nipped it in the bud with NyQuil and sleep and Afrin spray or it was just all in my head(not literally just figuratively it seems).lol
I blame the sea of unsanitatry/unhygienic humanity I encountered on Sunday when I went to Weis(PMITA)Markets to buy a frozen pizza or three for Hubs for his Super Bowl viewing pleasure.
My head is still vacillating between feeling like it's filled with hardened Portland cement and/or has a sewer of snot running through it.

Lucky for me that I had yesterday's post already written up in advance and WAS able to press of few keys and publish it so y'all had something to read here.

The good news is I am feeling a mite better today after 2 days of "bleh"(highly sophisticated medical term).
I have also stayed out of the grocery stores for the very same 2 days.....after the SpendFest of last week can you imagine that!.....and have spent $0.
Go me!
The bad news is that since I was feeling "bleh" Hubs went out and bought take-out food last night so we have spent "Eating Out" monies this month.
Boooooo!
In addition to the bad news I haven't been on the exercise bike in 2 days due to my feeling like my body would break if I tried exerting myself.
Exercise resumes today and we pick up right where we left off on that regard.

I am also feeling like digging(literally)back into the genealogy stuff so I'll likely be disappearing down that rabbit hole soon again.

Ok, I am off to finish writing up some tax forms so I can get something filed!
Ugh.

Boy, how I wish this country would adopt the FairTax plan and soon.  Yah, it would throw a lot of government workers out of a job(as well as CPAs and tax lawyers and less government spending would also be a great side benefit!)but man, oh man, it would sure simplify our lives in that regard.  And the less time I have to spend what little of my life I have left on tax shit, the better!

Sluggy

Genealogy-ish

Last Monday I watched PBS's American Experience.
This was an interesting program about President James Garfield, mostly taken from the book by Candice Millard called "Destiny of the Republic".  It concerned the trajectory of James Garfield's life from his humble beginnings and into politics and ultimately the Presidency.  Just four months into office he was shot by a madman and died a slow lingering death 79 days later, the book's author says is partly due to the conceit of the man who took over his medical care, Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss(not a typo-his first name was Doctor) and the lack of any antiseptic care, the idea of which was still in it's infancy in the US.

President Garfield has largely been forgotten in the history of our country due to his administration lasting only 4 months but his funerals(there were two)rivaled and even surpassed that of Lincoln less than 20 years earlier.  The expression of the nation's mourning of Garfield's rivaled that of Lincoln, if not surpassed it.

There was such hope that Garfield's time in office would heal and help the country as his getting to the presidency was unusual and he was an early proponent of civil rights, but he was not given that opportunity after Charles Guiteau's handgun found it's target.
I find it a fascinating time in our history and the backstories of all parties involved are rich and interesting and indeed the planets seemed to have aligned just right to set events into motion that led to Garfield's assassination.

And it's not because Garfield's Vice President, Chester Alan Arthur, married my 6th cousin, Ellen Lewis Herndon.  Cousin Ellen became a posthumous First Lady when Chester Arthur ascended to the Presidency in September 1882 upon the death of President Garfield.  Arthur only became Vice President due to a backroom deal with the most powerful man in NY politics at that time, Roscoe Conkling.  Once Garfield died it was thought that Chester Arthur, who had been Conkling's puppet back in the NY political machine, would allow Conkling to pretty much run Arthur's administration.
Much to his credit, Chester Arthur seemed to grow a backbone once thrust into the Presidency and made his term as POTUS his own.



As a footnote, if you are interested in the various personalities who have or attempted to assassinate American Presidents you might find the musical "Assassins" rather 'enjoyable'. ;-)

Also of interest to me is that tonight, on "Finding Your Roots", also on PBS, they will be profiling among their 3 guests, Senator John McCain.
Senator McCain is my 7th cousin.
We share ancestors, William ALLEN and Mary HUNT Allen, my 7 x Great Grands/his 6 x Great Grands.
I am descended from their daughter, Susannah ALLEN and Sen. McCain from their son, Lieutenant Colonel Valentine ALLEN a Early American patriot.
It will be interesting to see if they explore that branch of McCain's family tree but they will probably stay with the MCain ancestor, Hugh McCain, John's 6 x Great Grandfather.

Hugh was born in 1729 in County Antrim, coming to America in 1752(or was born in PA and his father, also a Hugh, was the one who had come from Ireland). He married and settled in the Waxhaws area of NC(Charlotte area).
The story goes that around 1756, a foraging party of Tories came through the Waxhaws area and demanded Hugh McCain give them a small fortune in money he had hidden on his property.  When he refused they hanged him and he lived only because a slave and her two sons rushed to cut him down after making a commontion to frighten the British soldiers away, savings his life.  Hugh lived another 50 years.  Four of his son's also fought in the Revolutionary War.
Senator McCain is also a third generation US Navy man, both his father and grandfather were Admirals.
As this episode is entitled "War Stories" I bet they focus on all those patriots.

This my 8th Cousin, John and his second wife's daughter, Meghan McCain.  She had a show on a cable network and is a sometimes political pundit.

I also see that they will be exploring Patricia Arquette's ancestry on this episode of "finding Your Roots" as well.  I think Patricia has a distant connection to Meriwether Lewis(as do I)so I am sure they will hit upon that ancestor in her segment which will be interesting....at least to me.  ;-)

You just never know what you'll find when you start down that genealogy/ancetry road.....

Sluggy

Giveaway Winner Is......

17 valid entries on my Birthday Giveaway.
I used Random dotorg to pick the winning entry and they chose.........

RhondaFebruary 7, 2016 at 3:17 PM

My second entry- the ceramic bunny is really cute and looks a lot like 3 others we have that a former neighbor made for us. 

Congratulations Rhonda!

Please email me with your mailing address within the next 48 hours and I'll get this out to you asap.

Thanks for everyone who entered this one.  I'll have another "box o' toiletries" Giveaway coming up in a couple of weeks so stay tuned.....

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "Doesn't That Look Good?" Edition--

I saw WeisMarkets had a BOGO sale on a selection of new Asian dinners at my store.
There was also a $2/1 Q online so I tried something new last week.
I bought the Garlic Chicken dinner.  To go with it I finished up a restaurant supply sized bag of stir-fry veggies(plus I added fresh cashews)in some sesame oil and opened a bag of purple jasmine rice I got at World Market last year.
This combination sure made for a colorful dinner and Hubs pronounced it a success.
Not bad for a dinner costing about $5 total either.

The Garlic Chicken was pretty good, not as garlicky as I would have liked but tasty still.  At $2 a box(after sale and Q)I'd buy it again but I wouldn't pay the full retail price of $5.99.

Onward to the meal planning!

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

1. Sunday--Chicken and Dumplings(chicken from freezer)(I'll put the leftover Collards into this too)
2. Monday--Beef & Green Chile Enchiladas(using leftover taco meat & enchilada sauce)
3. Tuesday--Bacon/Mushroom Quiche, Brussels Sprouts(freezer)
4. Wednesday--Fried Shrimp and Scallops(freezer), Cole Slaw, Corn on cob(freezer)
5. Thursday--Kielbasa(freezer)on Rolls, leftover Cole Slaw, Calif. mix veggie(freezer)
6. Friday--Broccoli Soup, Biscuits
7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Chicken and Dumplings(chicken from freezer)(I'll put the leftover Collards into this too)
2. Monday--Beef & Green Chile Enchiladas(using leftover taco meat & enchilada sauce)
3. Tuesday--Ravioli w/Meat Sauce, Tossed Salad
4. Wednesday--Leftovers(I had chicken n dumplings/Hubs had lasagna as I hadn't put the leftovers into the freezer yet))
5. Thursday--Barbecue Pork on Rolls, Cole Slaw
6. Friday--Garlic Chicken, Stir-Fry Veggies, Jasmine Rice
7. Saturday--Leftovers(I had chicken and dumplings)

After Sunday and Monday's dinners the weekly meal plan was abandoned.  I bought a pork shoulder last week and made barbecue.  We also had meat spaghetti sauce leftover so that called for ravioli. I got 2 frozen Asian chicken meals with BOGO sale and $2/1 IPQ for $3.99 for both and I cooked 1 of them last week.  So much for most of my meal plan last week. lolz
7 meals cooked at home(4 new meals and 3 using up leftovers).

As for my grocery spending so far for February....oy vat!
Even taking out what I paid for items going into the Food Bank donation it still came in at $242.28
Geez!
But if you look at it as getting $531.09 worth of reg. retail items for $242.28 making for a 54.38% savings rate it's not so bleak.  I just need to stop going to the grocery store for the rest of Februrary. lolz

Leftovers going into this week......taco fixings, beef enchiladas, ravioli in sauce, garlic chicken w/veggies and rice(1 helping), pork bbq, Cole Slaw.

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

1. Sunday--Pizza, Salad
2. Monday--Barbecue Pork(leftover)on Rolls w/Cole Slaw
3. Tuesday--Sloppy Joes(using taco meat leftover)on Onion Rolls, Sugar Snap Peas
4. Wednesday--Bourbon Salmon fillets, Cole Slaw, Veggie TBD
5. Thursday--Beef Enchiladas(leftover)
6. Friday--Broccoli/Cauliflower Cheddar Soup, French Bread
7. Saturday--Leftover of some kind

Hubs wanted pizza for the Super Bowl, we have plenty of bbq left, I'll doctor up the taco meat into Sloppy Joes, I bought a piece of Salmon w/Instant meat discount sticker last week, there are leftover enchiladas and I used 2 bags of frozen veggies for the soup.

This week will see 3 new meals cooked and 4 meals of leftovers(re-purposed into new dishes or not).
I went ahead and made the soup on Sunday as electric rates are lower then, so that will just need heating up in the microwave.
I've got so much food here that the quiche and shrimp I was going to make just gets moved to next week.

What I need to buy for this menu? Luckily I need nothing.  I have a ton of food here already so I am going to try not to spend on nonessentials this week.

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

Stuff Here Lately at Chez Sluggy

**  Today is the last day to enter my current Sluggy's Boring Blog Giveaway!
Go HERE before 11:59 pm EST to enter.

**  I went back to Rite-Aid this week to do this Deal on son's card............

4 x Ziploc(I was running low on bags)freezer bags BOGO sale=$8.98
2 x Blue Diamond almonds BOGO=$6.29
SubTotal.......$15.27

Coupons Used
2 x $1/2 Ziploc IPQ=$2.00
1 x $2/2 Blue Diamond items IPQ=$2.00
Coupon Total.....$4.00

$15.27-$4=$11.27+.42¢tax=$11.69 using Plenti points.
I earned back $5 in new Plenti points(Spend $15/Get $5 select items)so this all cost me $6.69 in Plenti points.
I also bought some gift cards(restaurant and movie theater ones)that were giving back Plenti points and earned $20 in new Plenti points on this card.
My BPE points on this card are now at $66.87(the Ziploc spending counted toward the BPE)and $66.17 on my card.

**   I was at the grocery store this week and the woman checking out in front of me had lots of snacky-type items on the belt, so the cashier asked her, "Getting ready for a Super Bowl party?".  To which the customer replied, "Nah, I really don't care this year."  The cashier then said, "I hear ya!  'Our' Steelers aren't in it so who cares??  The customer nodded and retorted, "Exactly!!".
So the consensus around these parts seems to be, "Who Cares about Super Bowl w/out the Steelers?!?"

I say NO MATTER WHO PLAYS, WHO FREAKING CARES, PERIOD!?!
It's a game people....a game played by guys who end up with CTE and brain damage for the entertainment of their fans.
It's not on my personal enjoyment radar and I am tired of hearing about it.
8-)))

Having said that I'll be going out for sour cream to make Hubs dip later today so he can nibble chips while watching it.
If the game is NOT a rout(as Hubs informs me that many times these SB games are)then it will mean I WILL MISS TONIGHT'S DOWNTON ABBEY EPISODE!
Grrrr.
Now THAT does NOT make me happy at all......
But I will give it up and watch it later online so Hubs can worship at the Altar of Sports Lunacy.

**  And speaking of going out later to the grocery store.......
This week has been a killer of spending!  Here are all my receipts from trips to various stores this week--

I've just been piling them up on a corner of my desk all week.
Ugh.
Of course the Rite-Aid receipts I actually spend no grocery monies there, the Bakery Outlet receipt wasn't much and there was little spent at CVS out of pocket BUT the Weis(PMITA)Markets receipts....oy vay!!!  Not a lot of spending on each one but there are so many of them!!! lolz

I know it's not a lot of spending for the month, but it's all been concentrated into one week.  I am sure that once I add it all up on Monday that the bulk of my grocery money for Februrary will have been spent. sigh
I'll get over it with time. lolz

                    the checks I want but not for $70+

**  I got to the place in my checkbook recently where it says that you should think about reordering your checks last week.
Since we can no longer order checks through our credit union, I went onto my current check's check printing website and saw that a 4 box reorder(the cheapest way to go)would be over $70 + shipping!
EEK!!!
So do you think I reordered my checks there?
Of course I didn't!

I went right to a different check printing company's website and bought my 4 boxes of checks as a new customer(which gave me a new customer discount)for around $40 w/shipping.

I guess my old check printing company thought I'd just reorder what I had from them because I A-liked that check design so much I couldn't even THINK about not having it again, or B-they thought I was just lazy and would keep reordering from them because it was the easiest thing to do.
Neither of those scenarios apply to me unfortunately for them!
You want my business?
Then give me a quality product for a good price and don't try to rip me off.

**  Yesterday we went to Lowe's and signed the remodel/renovation contract and shelled out a big hunk of money we had put aside from Hubs Bonus check last year.  The job actually came in under budget(shock!)but that didn't make it any easier to give over all that cash.  We got a Lowe's credit card and put it onto that for a 5% discount on the costs.  I'll pay it off in full when the bill arrives.
Even with that discount I still thought, "Ugh.".
I will be less upset once the bathroom is done and I can use it again.

As the 2015 Bonus money stands, we still have over $4K left of it.  We'll see what happens once the contractor opens up the walls in the bathroom and if any hidden surprise costs materialize but it's possible we could still have most if not all of that $4K leftover once the job is done.
So now we have to decide what to possibly do with all that leftover cash.
Stash it away with all the cash I save each year to augment the Retirement Funds?
Keep it in reserve for College Boy's school costs?
Splurge on something for us for a change?.....like a special trip?.....some new furniture?.....or ?
Give our grown kids some money?
Just hang onto it for now and see what 2016 throws at us?

What do y'all think?

Ok, I have to go run to Rite-Aid to do a deal or two and then to Weis to brave the Party Gathering Hoards there for Hubs' sour cream.

Sluggy