Happy Friday!

I've been feeling a little down lately, not sure why, hence the radio silence. I assume you don't want to hear me whine about being middle aged or wishing I had more money or complain about work (at least I have a job, right?).

We're not too busy at work this week (well, the Localization team was pulling their hair out, but the English team wasn't busy), so the timing was right to take a vacation day. I'm supposed to be domestic and take this opportunity to catch up on housecleaning since we're having someone over on Sunday, but instead, here I am at the computer again. My plan was for every 40 minutes of housecleaning, I can spend 20 minutes on the computer. Let's see how long that plan lasts. Time's up so it is back to housecleaning. Catch up with you later.

Planned obsolescence or more technology woes

Remember the new phones we got last month? What I didn't post was that Mr. Fix-it's phone crapped out the same day we brought it home. Which meant another trip to the phone store. And I discovered that all the notes I had attached to people's numbers didn't get transferred over to my new phone.

Then more joy this week--my battery wouldn't hold a charge. So today it was back to the phone store where they gave us a new battery, no questions asked. I had to ask the manager if we were unlucky or if these were crappy phones and batteries. Oh no, he said, these are good phones and batteries. But he did warn us that in three, four, five, months, the battery life would be less. I was charging my new phone once a week (very little use, obviously), but was told in a few months, I'd have to charge my phone every three days or so. What a waste of time and electricity!

I didn't have to worry about this with my old phone. That battery lasted almost five years (actually, it still works; it is the phone that died). Does this mean that five years later, technology is worse than it was or is this a planned obsolescence plot? And the memo feature? Only available on smart phones. I can't get a smart phone connected without signing up for a data plan. Which I don't want. But I'm willing to pay FULL PRICE for a smart phone because it has features I want. So what if I'd only be using a small percent of its capabilities. That's my choice, just not a choice available to me. Grrr, before I really go off on how change is bad and technology is driving me crazy, I'll just end here, lol.

A winner and a whiner

We have a winner in my giveaway. Congratulations Miwa! Please send me your address so I can send you some goodies. Here's a sneak peek of some of it.And a little vent...there was only one comment, though I know that there were several new readers that week. I guess scrappy goodness isn't too popular. I'm glad you're my winner Miwa; I know you (or your girls) will appreciate the goodies.

Technology is not my friend

Think I need a new phone? First, the camera function went out. Not that I took that many pictures, but still, it was annoying. Then a week or so later, the LCD went out, but at least I could still make and receive calls. Then the phone would randomly turn off. Then the faceplate fell off. So we decided my phone was on its last legs. I was slightly annoyed that the phone only lasted four and half years (and at the time, I preferred my analog phone to this phone). I hate planned obsolescence. Or maybe technology is moving too fast for me.

We finally found some time to visit the phone store and check out what was available. Our choices were limited since we wanted to keep our almost five year old plan (no texting, no data, and relatively few minutes); the current cheapest plan was $10 more than what we're paying now. Even though I was willing to pay FULL PRICE for a more expensive phone, Verizon would not let us add the phone to our plan. How's that for business sense?

Mr. Fix-it tried to add his phone to his nav system so he could finally have hands free calling, but then his phone locked up. Guess what, it was a bum phone so Verizon replaced it. I really don't feel good about our phones now.

Add to that our five year old computer is slow, slow, slow and we're running out of room on our hard drive (think they might be related), the DVR is acting up, and my printer died, and I'm fed up with technology this weekend.

And it just keeps on a comin'

the stress that is. There is just no way I can get all my projects done at work in an 8 hour day. Or a 9 hour day. Or a 10 hour day. Even if I cut corners. Even if I delegate. And my workload is going to be increasing. At least I have a job, right?

Let's just say

that it has been a very stressful week. Doesn't help that I keep forgetting to take my vitamins.

Oink, moo, gobble-gobble

If it oinks, moos, clucks, or splashes, has feet, fins, wings, or blood, it's meat. Just in case you were looking for a definition.

Some coworkers asked what I was going to do with the ginormous zucchini I had (because everyone, except me has a bounty of squash to share). I said Mr. Fix-it was going to make stuffed zucchini with meat, onions, cheese, or maybe breadcrumbs, onions, cheese since I was thinking about cutting down on meat. "Oh, you could use ground turkey instead." And they didn't understand why I was confused. Isn't ground turkey meat? Did I say I wanted to cut down on red meat? Beef? Pork? No, I said MEAT. Is this what vegetarians have to go through? Oh, and then the comment came that breadcrumbs are unhealthy. Whoa, what's wrong with bread? Why is America so anti-carb? Really, I think it is what people put on the carbs that are bad, not the carbs themselves. Yes, I happily eat white rice, French bread (that's basically white bread, right?), potatoes, non-whole grain pasta, and I'm sure other "bad" carbs that I can't think of at the moment (and I eat brown rice and whole wheat pasta and high-fiber bread too). Heck, sometimes I even eat multiple white carbs together, like curried potatoes over rice! Sorry, rant over. Just let me eat my meat, my red meat, and my carbs in peace. I won't critiize your meal if you don't critizie mine.

(My cutting down on meat comment was prompted by a recent article about MRSA in meat processing plants, sorry don't have a link, but I'm sure you could Google it.)

Vent

A relative asked if Mr. Fix-it would take her to the airport next week. I told her only if he could pick her up early and take her there three hours before her flight so he doesn't miss any work. She wasn't too happy about waiting at the airport so long before her flight and in fact, I'm not happy that Mr. Fix-it is even considering it since it will still potentially cut into his work day. (I don't think that was a run-on sentence, but it sure feels like one, lol.) Since he's independent, that is money out of our pocket.

Hey, there's always Super Shuttle or a taxi. Yes, the former is a hassle and the latter is expensive, but she's the one who picked a mid-day flight for the convenience of the people picking her up. I flat out told her he can't change his schedule since it would be money out of our pocket and that isn't fair to us. It isn't like she's elderly, has health issues, or can't afford the taxi.

I'm not sure why this is bothering me so much. Maybe because this is the second time this has happened this year. I don't mean to imply this person expects us to drop everything to take care of her; she doesn't. But we've been helpful in the past and frankly, this time we can't afford to be. Especially when there are alternatives.

I'm going to scream

Just wanted to warn you ahead of time. Because the next time I read that I could save hundreds of dollars a year by cutting out Starbucks, manicures, and cable, I'm going to scream. Are people really so stupid that they can't figure that out themselves? That a latte and muffin picked up on the way to work is probably $8/day (including tax and tip). Going out to lunch another $6 (if you're lucky). That adds up to $70/week, which is way more than I spend on groceries for two for a week. As for the manicures, never had one. As for cable, never had it. How about some tips for those of us who already scrimp and save?

Bah humbug!

Argghhhhh! I had started a post about the commercialism of Christmas and accidentally closed my browser, so poof! it's gone. :( Now I have something else to vent about, lol.

I'm not looking forward to sending Christmas cards (I want to include a photo, but we don't have any good ones of the two of us). I really hate addressing them, but I love getting them so I guess I better get going (though the reality is I probably won't be sending my cards until the 22nd). And shopping. Yuck. Black Friday really turned me off. In fact, I really haven't enjoyed shopping for the past few years. We're not exchanging gifts this year on one side of the family and are not sure about the other side. I'm just not in the mood to shop. Probably because I need to buy a new dress for my nephew's wedding and am carrying a little too much weight right now. And I doubt I'll be able to take much off in the next month.

All the cookies and candy that show up this time of year aren't welcome since I need to loose weight. I expect to see a couple pounds of See's candy in the next week (we already devoured one pound today), plus an abundance of cookies. I'm going a cookie exchange this weekend and will bring in the goodies to work so as not to tempt myself at home. Maybe we'll get some vendor gifts this year (usually we get food though sometimes we get calendars). Or maybe not with the bad economy.

I really hate the commercialism and money grab this time of the year. Shouldn't we be giving year round? Please remember to donate to the food banks in February/March. That's when they run of the food and funds from the Thanksgiving/Christmas donations. Though it might be sooner since they've gotten fewer donations this year.

If you enjoy the holidays, I salute you!

I'm so tired of trying to save money

A few weeks ago, our grocery store was having mix and match buy 10 and get an extra $5 off your grocery bill. Some of the items were already on sale for a good price, then add in my coupons and the $5 and some of the stuff was free or practically free. Although you were supposedly limited to three deals, I went back on a different day to try again. And it worked! The bad thing is, both times, a couple items did not ring up as part of the deal even though they were so I had to go back and ask the cashier to adjust the price. Grrrrr.

This week, Kmart is doubling coupons so off we went to pick up some things. Since their shelves are not well stocked and all mixed up, it took a while to match my coupons to the item. Then there was the fun at the checkout. I purchased multiple items of the same brand and since they had different SKUs, the cashier had to match each coupon to each item so I had to keep fishing things out of my bag so she could match them. In the mean time, there were five people in line who wised up and moved to different lines. Then, one coupon still didn't match an item according to the computer so we had to wait for an overide from a supervisor. All that to save $28. Never again.

I'm not ready to join the CVS crowd since I have enough trouble tracking the coupons for stuff I want, much less stuff I'd buy just to get a deal. But I may have to resort to that if it is the best way to get stuff cheap.

I can't fit it all in!

The Olympics are going to take up all my evenings. There's family stuff this weekend and next. But there's also Scrapfest over at LM, which means I HAVE to scrap in order to earn my 200 points for a chance to win $. And I've got DT stuff over at Linnecards so more scrapping. And I signed up to be a cookbook recipe tester, but I haven't done anything with that yet. And I'm still battling aphids. And I'm behind on laundry. Think I can call in sick the rest of the month?

How rude!

My SIL had a "girls night out" dinner party at her place this weekend. I didn't know anyone there except her sister. It seemed that everyone was from her church or MOPS group. Which meant that everyone was a mom...except for me. I can handle that. I'm not as good as handling the rude questions. If you ask someone if they have children and they say no, move on. So when Mrs. Busybody asked me "Was it by choice?" I was going to ask her why she wanted to know. But I was afraid everyone else at the table would think that I was being rude and certainly didn't want people thinking my SIL has rude relatives. And age! That's none of your damn business and my husband's age is also none of your damn business.

And it was pretty obvious to me that some of the ladies were a little put off by how comfortable I was in the house. I guess they couldn't tell if I was the hired help or what, lol. But hey, if C was busy in the other room, shouldn't I try to make people comfortable? Help them put their purses away, get out the drinks?

C made a huge spread, very impressive with two kinds of pork loin, two kinds of lamb chops, risotto, and fish. All in all, it was a very successful evening for C, but not so much for me.

I hope this phase doesn't last long

At the moment, I'm feeling like a fat, middle-aged woman. I look at myself in yoga class, all hot and sweaty, not a pretty sight. I've been eating better for a couple weeks now (not that I ate bad before, and yes, there were a couple of slipups, but not many), drinking lots of water, and I've started exercising. I should be feeling better about myself. But I'm not.

Yes, I'm impatient and expect a small weight loss after a week of exercising. Don't tell me that a pound of muscle weighs less than a pound of fat. Come on, a pound is a pound is a pound (not like tons where you can have a short ton, long ton, or metric ton). Maybe muscle is denser than fat so if I've developing muscles, I'll look thinner. But that's not happening in a week. I'm still my same flabby self, maybe just a little more limber.

I still break out occasionally, but have to deal with dry skin. I've got age spots, wrinkles, thinning hair. Asian women are supposed to look younger than their age. Somehow, my age seems to have caught up with me.

9:45

It looks like 9:45 pm is the new time for cranky old relatives to call me. With no thought as to whether or not my heart might stop when the phone rings at that hour. With no consideration that I might have to get to bed so I can get up the next morning to go to work. Grrrrr.

Moments vs. events layouts

Just a little vent about all the scrapbook pages in magazines and product examples. Why oh why do the designers and editors continue to only give us one photo examples? Those types of pages are easier to create (at least for me), and show off the paper better, but the reality is, most scrappers are event scrappers with tons of photos to scrap.

One of my most difficult tasks is narrowing down the photos I'm going to scrap. I've got 93 photos from my last visit home, not including what J might send me. That's three events to scrapbook, so let's do some estimating. 93 divided by 3 equals 31; say half of the photos are usable, so we're down to 15. It's pretty difficult to fit 15 photos on a 2 page layout.

The last crop I went to, almost everyone was scrapping events. Come on people, we need more examples to inspire us!

Never ask a woman this question

I was at a luncheon with my cousins and friends of my cousins. My cousin is pregnant and brought her 4D ultrasound to share (just taken that morning). I'm curious, but not fascinated by the whole baby growth process. I always imagine it as an alien growing inside you. Maybe that's why I'm not a mom, lol.

On the other hand, I love babies. Love, love, love babies. I don't mind the crying, the pooping, the spitting when I'm babysitting. I love holding babies. I don't have one of my own so I'm always thrilled when someone offers me their baby to hold.

I'm not sure which side of me this person saw, but as we were admiring the ultrasound photos, she asked me, "Do you have kids?" I can handle that. But when I answer no, just move on. Don't ask, "Do you want kids?" That is an extremely personal question. It is none of your d*mn business why I don't have kids. Whether I answered yes or no, I was sure more uncomfortable questions would follow. So I told her the truth. It just never happened. And I guess she saw my pain since she shut up.