Looking Forward to the Rest of 2016

I am sitting here on a hot and hazy Saturday morning looking at what is ahead here at Chez Sluggy for the rest of the year.

We are almost halfway through August already(can't say as I am NOT happy that the hot weather is leaving soon!lol).

College Boy will be leaving to go back to school in 2 weeks.
I have barely seen him all Summer!  It's been all I could do to corral him to A-get his school bill paid(you have to do this online through his account)and B-get me the info so I could reserve and pay for his textbooks.
He's been working full time this Summer and filling his off hours with rehearsing with various bands, playing gigs with various bands, hanging out with friends, and yes, sleeping as little as humanly possible.  Ah to be young and full of energy..... ;-)

Before you know it, September will be here.

There is the family reunion in Virginia the end of that month.  At this point I am on the fence about going this year.  One of the few relatives who talks to me at this thing(and I actually "know" somewhat)died back in January and no one bothered to tell me until I took the Daughter to visit my brother in July.  Another thing for me to have hurt feelings over besides the sadness I feel at losing this family member.
Between my frame of mind at the moment and just feeling old and not up to anymore traveling right now I might just stay home this year.

Then Hubs will get a hankering to go somewhere in October as he is want to do.
I would love to return to Ocean City Maryland this year as we were last there 2 Octobers ago.  Last year we went to visit my crazy cousin Sonya Ann in October. 8-)

 I do love it down in OC in October when the tourists have left but the weather is still nice and we can get an oceanfront room for $100 a night.  It always seems like our last hurrah before Winter sets in.....
But I don't know if I want to travel again in October this year.  Plus the expense of vacationing?  I just don't want more vacation expenses right now.

Speaking of expenses, we've had a lot of them up to this point this year.
I am still trying to slog through Daughter's medical stuff from Louisiana to match up payments to bills to EOBs.

I figured out that one doctor was overpaid by us to the tune of $126.  So back in early June I had Daughter call their billing office and find out when they were going to return our money.  Well they weren't actually going to send our over payment back until we found it and requested it! Unreal.....

So we asked for the money to be sent back and were told it would take another month's billing cycle before they could cut us a check.
So Augusts 3rd, while I was in Maine the check finally arrived......(identifying info has been blacked out)

Please not that no one there bothered to SIGN THE CHECK!
Ass hats.....
So this meant yet another call to Louisiana to figure out what to do with this.
They want it sent back so someone can sign it.....I wonder how long THAT will take after waiting almost 2 months for this one?!?

The problem reusing this check is that my Daughter only has an online bank and she has to take pictures of checks to deposit them and since the online bank rejected this particular check/number, she needs a whole new check or the bank won't accept it.
Ugh.
So now I get to try to deposit this into my account IF it ever gets returned AND signed.

It's always something isn't it?  8-P

At the rate the bills are piling up this year I am having serious doubts I can get to my savings goal for the year.
We really shouldn't do anymore vacationing in light of this.  Hubs can still take the time off but we can stay home and putter or take local trips if he wants to "do" something.
Maybe I can talk him into cleaning out the shed as a "FUN" activity on his vacation? 8-)

It's not that I don't have the money to cover the bills, for which I am thankful, but spending on non-necessities just doesn't seem prudent for the rest of this year.
Plus I need to reserve some of December's savings to help cover the high-deductible on our medical insurance when it rolls over in January.  I know our premiums will go up(meaning more deducted from the paychecks)plus our deductible may also rise(we'll get the details on that in October).

And then there is that holiday coming up in December......don't make me say it's name! lolz
I have very little put aside so far for the "Bacchanalia of spending" in December.  I have a bit tucked back and have a few things bought but nowhere near the amount I like to have set aside at this point in the year.

But I keep telling myself that as long is everyone is healthy and well it will all be fine.

So what does your remainder of 2016 look like?

Sluggy

A Couple of Deals Earlier This Week & A Mystery

Even though I was deliriously sick earlier this week I still got my butt up to Weis(PMITA)Markets for a few good deals.

Part of the Mix & Match/Buy 6, Get $3 off Deals were Huggies wipes and Country Time lemonade.
Both were $1.99 on sale and I bought 12=$23.88.
I paired various IPQs totaling $11.50 with the deal...$23.88-$11.50=$12.38
Subtract the $6 for 2 x the Deal and my OOP was $6.38 for 8 packages of wipes and 4 canisters of lemonade.

Snapple bottles of tea were on sale for $1 each and almost all of them had BOGOFree hangtag Qs on the bottles making the tea bottles .50¢ each after sale/Q.
But these hangtag Qs all rang up for the regular retail off of $1.49, making each bottle .25¢ after sale/Qs.
$3 for 12 bottles.  These are a treat for me.  I love Red Rooibos tea.

I also picked up a package of uncured natural hot dogs for 1/2 off at $2.  Also picked up a package of salmon filet for $4.39 and a package of beef strips for stir-fry at $4.91.  Each of those had $3 off instant meat discount stickers on them.

2 trips to Weis this week with a savings percentage of 54% on 1 trip and 45% on the other trip.

I also made a trip to the farm stand because I was seriously Jones-ing for a REAL tomato!

Those tomatoes were almost as big as the cantaloupe I got! lolz
The 'loupe was $1 and each tomato was $1.25.

I've already finished off 1 of those big maters..... ;-)

And there is a mystery veg lurking in the garden.
I spied this baby 2 days ago hidden under the lush undergrowth......

That dark green orb looks like an acorn squash.
Now I have NEVER planted acorn squash before but last Fall I bought some and probably threw the "guts" from them out into the garden bed.
A lone volunteer squash "of some sort" plant appeared in the garden in early July and has been flowering for the last 3 weeks.  There were no baby veeggies on that plant when we left for Maine but now there is.
I'll get Hubs to take the netting system down over the garden this weekend so we can check this out, check for zucchinis on those plants and weed the bed.
While this netting system he set up keeps us out of the garden it has also kept whatever was eating everything in there last Summer out too(I suspect it was deer and/or racoons.)

More on the mystery veggie later......

Have you found anything unusual in your garden this Summer?


Sluggy

On Losing Friends

There are a couple of online friends who I no longer have contact with.

One has disappeared from the online community as far as I can tell and no longer responds to emails.
I think of her often and hope she is doing well and hope that someday there is some contact from her.

The other one hasn't responded to my attempts to contact her for 2 years now.  At first I thought she had decided to remove herself from an online presence.

But a few months ago I saw that she was still(or had returned to being)online.
I had been seeing someone commenting on a few blogs I also frequent. Her writing and phrasing seemed familiar and I finally figured out it was this second online friend who had stopped communicating with me.

These blogs she was commenting on were not the kind I would have seen her on previously so I deduced that she was going onto my blog roll at some point and found these particular blogs there.

Her comments on these other blogs linked back to a new blog she had begun and by reading a bit there I confirmed that yes, this was that online friend who evidently didn't "need" me in her life any longer.

At first I was hurt that for the last 2 years she had just ignored my attempts to be her friend.
I did a somewhat large favor for her "back in the day" when her life turned upside down.  Knowing now how our relationship would turn out I would still have done this favor for her given the opportunity again.

It's funny that through this action I brought her into contact with the person who is her current BFF.
I am glad to have helped her in this way too.
But beside that, it would have just been plain old common decency to have written back to me and said I don't need your friendship any longer instead of ignoring my attempts for TWO years!
That's what really hurts.....to be treated so callously, like I don't matter as a person.

It is said that people come into our lives for a reason and leave when they are no longer useful to us.
I guess that's true.
This "no longer my friend" person talks on her blog about hoping the people she's hurt can forgive her.
Well they just might if she were to communicate with them directly and tell them she is sorry.

It's one thing to ask a higher being for forgiveness when we wrong others but there is also owning up to the person you have hurt to ask them for forgiveness.  You can't do one without the other to truly heal your soul.  Giving something up to God without also making amends with those you wronged is just empty and won't ultimately assuage any guilt you feel.

Maybe she is not emotionally strong enough to face someone she has hurt, I don't know.
Or maybe she doesn't view me as someone she has hurt and I am not even worth her consideration and she is totally unconscious to this hurt I feel.

I do know that I am tired of making an effort and getting radio silence.
I am moving on now with my life and she needn't worry about me bothering her again if she or any of her current friends are reading this.

I won't be sharing her blog information, putting her new blog on my roll or visiting her blog since she seems to not need/want me in her life any longer.
Continuing to seek her out just seems creepy to me and stalker-ish.
And that's not my style.

I wish her only the best.
And some day I will get over the sadness I feel.

Sluggy

What's Been Going on at Chez Sluggy Lately

I'm trying my best to get back into a blogging groove since I am back from our latest adventure/trip/vacation but it's been difficult.

Feeling like crap with what is now a head cold doesn't help matters any.
Hubs was so nice to share the virus he picked up in Maine with me....what a guy, right? ;-)
He is better but whatever he gave me I just can't seem to shake.
bleh.

I still have hundreds of photos to edit from the trip.

Interesting story about my camera though, speaking of photos.

The camera died 9 days or so before we left for Maine.
Thinking it might just be the battery that died I ordered one online but I paid for the "expedited" 2-3 day shipping which was $5 more to ensure that the battery would arrive here before we left on the trip.

Well, by Friday morning, the day before we left, said battery had still not arrived......if should have arrived Tuesday at the latest if they had truly sent it an expedited rate.

Friday morning I said screw it and went to Best Buy to buy another of my same camera and an extra Canon brand battery.
My thinking was, open and try to battery first, and if that was the camera issue, I could return the new camera when we returned and I'd only be out $50 for a battery replacement.
But if the battery wasn't the issue I'd need to open/use the new camera and be out $275+ for both the camera and an extra battery.

So I got a new camera and extra battery on Friday and came home to find.....and you know what I am going to say here.....the online ordered battery had showed up in Friday's mail.
Ack!

First off FIRST CLASS MAIL is NOT Expedited!
They sent the package the cheapest rate they could and charged me Priority mail rates.

They charged me $8.99 to mail this and actually spent $2.45 for postage.
So I shot off an email and reamed them a new one.

On Monday while checking emails in the motel room I saw that they had refunded the $5 extra I paid for expedited service.
Satisfaction but still a big old hassle to have to deal with.

I opened the online bought battery and indeed my camera sprung back to life so the battery replacement was the cheapest fix for the problem.  I did take the Canon $50 battery with us on the trip just in case this online bought generic battery crapped out, but thankfully I didn't have to open the package and use it.

So when we got back Hubs took the unused camera and extra battery back to Best Buy and that was $275+ less to pay on the August c/c statement.

I took a shot of the garden before we left........

These were the largest tomatoes we had as of 29 July.  They were slightly larger than the size of a golf ball on that date.
As of today we have some "tennis ball" sized tomatoes out in the garden.  Seems it didn't rain here while we were gone and nobody thought to water the plants.
I'd show you a shot of them today but it's currently pouring down rain thankfully.

I also baked a blueberry coffee cake with lemon buttercream frosting the day before we left for Maine.

Hubs dearly loves blueberries and Weis(PMITA)Markets had a BOGO deal on pints of berries that week so I make a cake.

Of course Hubs didn't eat any of it before we left(I snuck a small square that evening)but the kids sure enjoyed the heck out of it while we were gone.

I think the dog was more upset about us going on a trip than the kids were.......

Between hacking up a lung I am trying to get back into my blogging routine, editing photos from the trip, putting stuff away, doing laundry and keeping the dog hair in the house down to a low roar.

And I'm trying to come up with new ways to use Zucchini since we have 2 in the fridge right now that need using.
I'll tempura some and then make a zuke casserole.  That should take care of what's on hand at the moment.  I'm scared to even look under the zucchini plants in the garden and see more coming. lolz

Ok, that's about all I got for today.  Off to the grocery store to get some deals and the farm stand for some "real" tomatoes.  I have been craving a real tomato the whole time we were gone.

What have you been up to lately?

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "I Brought a Head Cold Back to PA" Edition.............

I feel too bad to crop/edit photos right now so no pictures now.  Feel lucky I am even writing what I did. lolz

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Pizza(home made with Boboli crusts)
2. Monday--Kielbasa on Rolls, Onions, Veg.
3. Tuesday--Tuna Noodle Casserole
4. Wednesday--Salsa Verde Carne Burritos
5. Thursday--Leftovers
6. Friday--Beef Pie
7. Saturday--Take-Out of some kind

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Homemade Pizzas
2. Monday--Italian Chicken and Pastaroni
3. Tuesday--Chicken Burritos
4. Wednesday--Leftovers
5. Thursday--Burgers on Rolls, Fries
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Take-Out Pizza

6 meals cooked at home, 2 of them nights of leftovers and 1 night of Take-Out.

As for the grocery spending..... I left Daughter $75 in cash for groceries and she spent $68.70($45.29 on groceries and $29.71 on Take-Out).


Leftovers going into this week........

Here is this week's "food plan".

1. Sunday--Leftover Pizza(We weren't home yet.)
2. Monday--Glazed Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Caesar Salad(Daughter cooked.)
3. Tuesday--TV Dinners(I'm sick, I need easy.)
4. Wednesday--Beef Pie
5. Thursday--BBQ Ribs, Sliced Tomatoes, Baked Beans
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Tempura Shrimp and Zucchini

This week will see 5 new meals cooked(well 4 really since the pot pies are premade) and 0 nights of  Take-Out and 2 nights of Leftovers.

What we need to buy for this menu.....ribs and tomatoes(REAL tomatoes).

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