Coupons and more deals…

Around late April, I started using coupons again. And it has been an adventure, let me tell ya. There’s a couple of websites, www.grocerygame.com and www.couponmom.com that I check out every Sunday, and plan my shopping. They both tell you the best deals to be found at the local stores. Couponmom site has free listings for my local Kroger and Randall’s, plus CVS, Walgreens, Target, and Walmart. And Rite-Aid, but we don’t have them here. Grocery Game has Kroger, HEB, Brookshire Bros, etc, but it’s like $10 for 8 weeks for one store, each additional store is an extra $5. I like their layout better, but only get the Kroger listing. I should switch to one of the other stores, or add one, but I do most of my shopping at Kroger, and Kroger doubles/triples coupons while the other stores don’t. Ah well. If you’re interested in joining the Grocery Game, I get credit for referrals, so let me know. You get a 4 week trial for $1. And yes, like a friend of mine said, why pay someone to do something you can do yourself, but it’s only $1.25 a week, and they keep track of the sales cycles, and let you know when it’s a “rock bottom” price and time to stock up.

Which leads to this: I am SO stocked up on cleaning supplies, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, toothpaste, laundry soap… it’s addicting, using those coupons. What’s fun is being able to change my shampoo/bodywash at any time, and I’ve bought stuff I usually don’t buy due to the price. But now I have Herbal Essence, Aussie, L’Oreal, Garnier, and Pantene shampoos (and styling products, oh my!), Olay, Softsoap, and Ivory bodywash. And of course Suave, for practically free. I’m sure my boyfriend is just shaking his head. But this stuff doesn’t go bad, right? Right?!? :)

So to keep up with all the coupons, I bought a little baby accordion file holder at Office Depot. It’s been a lifesaver. There’s only 13 sections in it, so I had to add sections – I used some ancient envelopes that were sealed shut, and just wrote the different categories on it. Kinda sorted it in the 13 sections by aisles at the grocery store. It’s been working pretty good. When I plan my shopping expeditions, I have some envelopes at the front labeled with each store name, I just put the coupons for each store that I plan on going to in the appropriate envelope, and bring the couponholderthing with me just in case I see something else that’s a good deal.

Then there’s someone in Missouri who REALLY wants to get me in trouble. She showed me www.gottadeal.com and I think www.woot.com and maybe www.yugster.com which also lead to www.buy.com and www.geeks.com … I’ve been good, I only ordered one thing, but oh my, the temptations. It’s dangerous.

And then there’s My Points. That’s a referral thing too. If you do any shopping online, it might be worth your while to join. It’s totally free, when you go shopping you just start from their site and you’ll get points which you redeem for gift cards. I’ve received about 6 gift cards so far, total value about…$300 I think. If you decide to join, let me know, and I’ll email you an invitation. Then when you shop at JC Penney, Sears, Macys I think, Target, Overstock, Avon, Ebay, Barnes and Noble, Home Depot, and just tons of others… points! (I do most of my Christmas shopping online, so that’s a real boost.) Some examples of purchases online:
Office Depot: ink cartridges for printer free shipping with $50 purchase, if you make it to $100, you get 1000 points…
1800petmeds: I have 3 dogs and 2 cats, so I need Advantage cheap and supplements when I’m feeling nice. I’ll also go in with friends who have pets, and get $300 purchase plus $35 off and free shipping, and points.
JCPenney: I’m a slut for their sheets and blankets. Usually a coupon for free shipping on $49 purchase. Also pick up men’s shirts on sale. POINTS!
Overstock: stuff… they also have sheets and blankies that I love to look at, haven’t really bought that much from them. But mypoints give you 4-10 points per dollar spent, so if you like to shop there…
Oh, and QVC and HSN….did Drugstore.com for awhile but now use Vitacost, not as big a selection but what they've got is much cheaper.

Hurricane Dolly and other hurricane thoughts

So, we have a hurricane out in the Gulf. It's headed towards Brownsville, which is right at the Mexican border, quite a ways away (geographically speaking) so we're not getting much action up here. It's been quite windy, I think sustained winds this afternoon were 10-15 mph. All the flags I've seen today were standing out straight. And we're SUPPOSED to be getting some much needed rain, but haven't seen any yet. If we don't get any rain tonight or tomorrow, I'm going to have to break down and water my yard. The grass is getting a bit crunchy.

I have a love / hate thing with hurricanes. I find them intensely exciting, it's just so much power contained there, there’s excitement and/or a sense of urgency in the air, or maybe that’s just barely controlled panic. The emergency signs on the freeways were flashing “HURRICANE IN GULF, GAS UP”. I really wasn’t too concerned that it was actually heading this way, as I’ve been following the updates on it over the weekend, but they have been known to do weird stuff and it was still a slight possibility there could be a change in the landfall area, but I’m pretty much prepared, could use some bottled water but I think that’s about it. So as long as it was a tropical depression or storm or small friendly hurricane, I don’t mind them. I did like them a lot better before I bought my house. Now I want them to be gentle giants, breezy heavy rainstorms. Bad stuff needs to go somewhere else. Category 4 or 5, I’m heading out. You’ll see me at Ford or Chevy buying a truck and tow that Silver Streak and load it up with my dogs and cats and go. I’m still working on having a PLACE to go – something else to think of after the mass exodus during Hurricane Rita. Absolute panic. I was fluctuating between OH MY GOD WE NEED TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE and hey, we’ll be cool. I gots lots of Benadryl for the animals, we have a generator, we’ll be good.. Actually the worst thing I’m worried about is
#1 losing the roof
#2 having pine tree(s) fall on house
We’re 75 miles from the coast, so that’s some buffer zone, but not much for a Cat 4 or 5. We went thru Hurricane Alicia in 1983, I believe that was a Category 3, but I was like 22 years old and living in an apartment, I ran home to Mom’s house with my sister and her son and her boyfriend. It was a blast. We definitely weren’t sober!

Anyway, my desk at work faces the 2 story glass entryway, so we have a decent view. Watching the wind stir the tree branches and the sky go from relatively cloudless to a gradual increase of poofy clouds scudding by, I wonder.... way back when, before radio and tv and radar, that these the first signs that people had that a sunnovabitch storm was was in the vicinity, but no knowledge of where it was going or how intense it could be. And a lot of the people that lived here way back when were immigrants from Europe, where hurricanes aren't that common, so they didn't have a friggin clue. But then I guess I just need to look back on the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 - http://www.1900storm.com/ or http://www.history.noaa.gov/stories_tales/cline2.html- to find my answers.

Some other cool things I found after researching hurricanes in the last few years.

Here is the last paragraph of the last post of the National Weather Service’s bulletins for the 2005 season (ended in January, 2006!!) on the 30th!! Tropical Disturbance, Zeta:

“I SUPPOSE IT IS ONLY FITTING THAT THE RECORD-BREAKING 2005 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON ENDS WITH A RECORD BREAKING STORM. TODAY... ZETA SURPASSED 1954 ALICE #2 AS THE LONGEST-LIVED TROPICAL CYCLONE TO FORM IN DECEMBER AND CROSS OVER INTO THE NEXT YEAR. ZETA WAS ALSO THE LONGEST-LIVED JANUARY TROPICAL CYCLONE. IN ADDITION...ZETA RESULTED IN THE 2005 SEASON HAVING THE LARGEST ACCUMULATED CYCLONE ENERGY...OR ACE... SURPASSING THE 1950 SEASON. SO... UNTIL THE 2006 SEASON BEGINS... UNLESS ZETA SOMEHOW MAKES AN UNLIKELY MIRACLE COMEBACK... THIS IS THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER SIGNING OFF FOR 2005... FINALLY.
FORECASTER STEWART
4 PM EST FRI JAN 06 2006
(yes, weathermen have a sense of humor too!) http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2005/dis/al302005.discus.030.shtml?

The Houston hurricane of July 27th, 1943 is known as the "Surprise Hurricane". Due to wartime censorship there was a huge lack of information provided to the public:
http://www.history.noaa.gov/stories_tales/surprise.html

The first radar image of a hurricane was broadcast on tv in 1961:

It began in Galveston with Dan Rather reporting on Hurricane Carla in 1961.
"Our graphics were a little unpolished, but that day we did something that had never been done before: put a live radar image of a hurricane on television," says Rather. "It's hard to imagine today, as we routinely air not only radar but satellite images, but that day we agonized over whether showing our viewers what was going on would cause mass panic. Ultimately, up to a half a million people evacuated the coast and the storm's relatively low death toll, 46, confirmed that we'd made the right call."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/07/eveningnews/main678646.shtml

Word of the week: Paleotempestology

Okay, so I sorta cheated

So, I sorta cheated. I wasn't even really CRAVING a cigarette, I just WANTED a few puffs. So I got a cig out of an open pack, and it wasn't that nice. The pack I've had open and laying around for over a week is getting a bit stale, which is a good thing. Every time I decide to be BAD I'll just smoke part of one of those nasty suckers. Yech. So five puffs cheating out of 98 cigarettes not had is still a passing grade in my book.

Nothin really new and exciting going on. Ho Hum...

Quitting Update

Well, it's been 66 hours, 42 minutes since my last cigarette. I've only had a few bad moments, like RIGHT NOW. And it would be soooo easy to give in and have "just one", but I don't want to.
I've tried quitting a couple of times before, but decided to quit as my birthday present to myself. It will be nice not to smell like cigarettes and spend all that money on cigarettes. Heh, I was generally only smoking about 8 cigarettes a day - since the first time I tried to quit the rule was no smoking in the house, so that cuts down a LOT. You have to really want to smoke one to go outside, get dressed, it's either cold or way too f'kin hot (the majority of the time). If I was still smoking in the house I'd probably be smoking about a pack a day. When I was at Sydney's over the 4th of July weekend I was smoking OVER a pack a day. Which is why I didn't quit ON my birthday, I knew I was going over to her house and that would be like setting myself up to fail. I figure I won't be able to visit her much for a while, until I get over this shit.
I might have to have a test cigarette, right? To see if it tastes like crap yet? Is it too early to do that?
I've only been smoking for 10 years... I'm almost NOT looking forward to being a non-smoker, going to bars you'd always smell like an ashtray, and when you're with friends that smoke the smoke always seems to blow in your face, or they forget to open the window while you're driving so you always seem like a whiney asshole. When you smoke, all that crap bothers you a lot less. Heheh, Sydney already smokes outside when her sister or daughter-in-law comes over, I guess I'll just add to that list of inconvenience. :)

Post-Independence Day

Well, it was a nice long weekend. I went to Sydney's house Friday afternoon. So did everyone else, looks like! Her son and daughter-in-law were there with 3 (or 2?) of their friends, and her brother Freddie, and neighbor Merle. Then Ryan shows up with his wife I presume and like 4 kids...and Bobby's sons show up for a bit.
It was crowded!
I had to go hide out in Bobby's office for a bit just to get away from the noise and bodies. lol
But the food was great, the music was good, most of the comedy marathon was good, and it was nice and quiet when everyone went home. With the exception of Freddie, he's NEVER quiet! haha.
Saturday we hung out for most of the day, then got fishing licenses for R & S, then out to eat. Looked for Yanni's Italian and Greek restaurant, but was closed due to a fire (plus I figured it was on Uvalde but was actually on Normandy) so we decided to go to Antonio's or something like that in Deer Park, but it was closed, so went to Char Burger in Deer Park due to some good reviews I read about it.
It was vastly over-rated. Both Sydney's and my order were messed up, the burger had pretty good flavor but was like one of those preformed burgers instead of a GOOD burger that's handmade, ya know? And ran outta burger long before I ran outta bun. Fries and onion rings were good. But overall, a disappointment.
Next stop was Harbor Freight, where I didn't spend a dime - I left my 15% off coupon at the house, and I want to buy a baby air compressor. This is the one I'm looking at:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96087
I like the fact that it's on wheels like a little suitcase. :) It'll run a brad nailer for the little Shasta that I'm supposedly fixin up. But, what I really really want it for, is kick-ass dusting. LOL It should be interesting. The coupon is good for about another 2 weeks, so I have time.

Anyhoo. We watched a couple of movies which were....all...very good, "The Bucket List", "Fool's Gold", and "National Treasure 2". Ended up going to bed at 03:30...and slept til almost noon Sunday. Sunday we farted around and mainly added toys to the blog. And Sydney created a blog, woo hoo!

I had my last cigarette Sunday night, after smoking like nobody's business all weekend. I usually smoke about 7 cigs a day, but I was smoking over a pack a day. Hasn't really been that bad, except for driving. That's the worst "habit" smoke I have, is getting in a car. I light up. But made it thru all 4 drives today without. I bought some sugar-free hard candies and some gum today at lunch. Figured it might help. So wish me luck! It's going to be hard to be around my friends for a while, except for Melodie, since she quit almost a year ago.

On the work front, one of our LAX truck drivers was killed in a traffic accident on Thursday night/Friday morning. From what I understand, they were just 30 miles (minutes?) out of the LAX terminal when a drunk driver cut them off, and the truck overturned and caught on fire. The passenger was ok, but the driver was killed. A lot of the freight was damaged in the fire. We did not know the driver, as far as I know. I was looking at the LA Times, but couldn't find anything on it.

We had someone coming into the office to pickup freight that was supposed to arrive on that truck, and he was like "Oh, that's bad, sorry to hear that". He was almost outside the door when he came back in and asked "So does that mean ya'll are hiring?". lol We had to laugh, mostly at the audacity to do that I think. He came back about an hour later and apologized, which was considerate.

Other news from Thursday, when I went to customs and lunch, I took my little timer with me since I'm allowed 30 minutes for customs and 30 minutes for lunch. During my lunch, I stopped by Walgreens and picked up some of the single-serve drink mixes (for water) and a candle and prolly some other crap. Then stopped at Jack in the Box and made it back to the office in exactly 1 hour, which Cindy and Melodie verified. But Jooooonior went and told his daddy that I was gone for more than an hour and I had SHOPPING BAGS (GASP!!!) with me when I came back. So now, I have to drive to customs, drive back to the office, punch out for lunch, drive to get something to eat, drive back. Stupid stupid STUPID. I want a voo-doo doll. I hate that boy. He just turned 21 but he acts like he's 12. It's so nice when he's not at work.