I've been taking a new approach to cleaning these days. I tend to put off cleaning because I don't want to be stuck doing it for 20 minutes or half an hour or even 1 hour. & My husband really doesn't want to get sucked in to cleaning for any amount of time. So together we procrastinate about cleaning...a lot. I talk about doing it and he ignores it.

When I was trying to follow Flylady (notice I say try--because I failed miserably at Flylady. I wouldn't wear shoes, I didn't want to smile and do it all by myself and I couldn't keep track of all the damn routines) I remember one of the things she talked about was doing 'crisis' cleaning. She suggested that if you absolutely had to get the house cleaned up because company was coming over that night then what you could do was set your timer for 15 minutes and clean one part of the house. Then when the 15 minutes were up go to another part of the house and clean for 15 minutes there. & to do the same when that 15 minutes were up. The wonderful thing about Flylady is that she told you to take a 15 minute break when that last 15 minutes were up and then when you were done the break to go right back into cleaning.

Anyways...the timer thing has always stuck with me. I love having the timer. I use it quite a bit when cleaning...just not usually in the way that Flylady wants us too. Really I can convince my husband to clean anything/anywhere for 5 minutes. It's even easier to convince him to clean for 5 minute intervals if I say that in between cleaning we will watch a movie or one of the TV shows we've downloaded or go on the computer for 15 minutes.

I also use the timer when I'm cleaning on my own. I like to set it for 6 minutes cleaning (I used to do 5 minutes but then I convinced myself that 1 more minute is not that big of a deal and I can do it) and then 10 minutes watching TV/crocheting/playing on the computer. In this house we are all about rewards. lol.

It might seem silly to relax for twice as much time as you are cleaning but it really seems to be working for us. I think the reason it's working is because we're DOING SOMETHING. Anything. There are still baskets and baskets of laundry to put away and papers stacked everywhere (yes--the stacks of paper are back, they are like tribbles!), and dishes to be done, etc, etc... but the dishes get washed and put away, the living room gets vacuumed, the clothes are at least washed and dried...things are happening.

It's all about Baby Steps. Me and Flylady can at least agree on that.

I love making lists. I have them everywhere and I make them for everything. Chores, job tasks, goals, dreams, hopes, crafts to make, crafts on the go, groceries, everything and everything. i make them on the computer, on scraps of paper, in fancy notebooks, on my blog, i love using different media.

The only problem is that I don't do anything with those lists. I like to look at them. Rarely do I follow through and cross things off. Even rarer do I actually complete the tasks.
At work the same 2 things have been at the top of my to do list for months now--File and Redo Subject Files. Months. I keep re-writing them...and then I keep re-writing them. At home I always start my health habits goals with drink more water and exercise and then just look at the words. Same thing in my church job...lots of lists of potential activities and then no follow through.

Like I've said a million times. I'm the idea girl. Nothing more nothing less. I can think of eleventy ideas a day and end up following through on negative 3 of them.

So, readers, don't get annoyed or pissed off at the fact that it is a different list, a different idea, a different plan, a different goal...it's all just who i am....unfocused and random.

This week has been okay. Steadily busy but not too busy. I started to feel sick yesterday and didn't feel any better this morning so I stayed home form work today. I took Gravol and slept most of the day and had some wild dreams.

I finished making the 'item' for the Hitched Kids Secret Santa and then wanted to make a hat for friends of ours who just had a baby but I could not get the pattern to work at all. I seriously unraveled over a dozen times. Eventually when the hat was big enough to fit Andrew instead of a 7 week old I gave up and unraveled it. So I figured I would make a baby blanket instead. Baby blankets are easy enough and small, right? Hah. Nope. I must have unraveled at least 4 times and it still wasn't right but I figured maybe it would work itself out in the end? Hah. Nope. I had to rip about 12 rows in. I knew what the mistake was and I just should have listened to my gut. Now that I've fixed the problem it's going along nicely. It's a round ripple and I've done about 15 rows now I think...so only like 30 thousand more to go. lol. Thankfully it's a baby blanket as I tend to lose interest in larger projects.

Tomorrow there is lots on the schedule:

• Wrap Hitched Kids Secret Santa package (card?)
  
• Mail Hitched Kids Secret Santa package out,
• Mail a gift package out for an order I have,
• Make an appointment for Family Pictures
• Make Spaghetti Sauce & freeze
• Type out Daycare Board Meeting Minutes
• Buy more cotton yarn
• Go to used store to look for sweaters to felt

It's quite a bit of stuff and some might spill over into Sunday and that's okay too.

I did some crafts for someone (& actually got paid!) and with my latest deposits from my yearly increment our savings for the Mini Holiday now stand at 155.94! Ideally I want to have 800 dollars in there for our trip so we can splurge and eat wherever we want and do whatever we want and buy whatever we want...but i'll settle for 500 and it looks like we might just be able to do that!

I'm so excited!

I got my yearly increment on my paycheque today. My cheque was for 22 dollars more then normal. I've set up automatic transfers to put 20 dollars every cheque into our mini-holiday fund. We are planning to get away in The second week of February so that will add $140 dollars to the fund! Currently I am transferring $7 a week into this newly created fund and my pinecone cheques are going into that account (usually $10 a month) and any profits I make from my crafty business are going into that account. Right now the balance is $115.94!

I have never saved for a vacation or a night away before. In the past everything has gone onto a credit card or LOC and then we've never dealt with paying it off. It feels so good to anticipate the trip by saving and seeing the funds grow and picking where we want to go by seeing how much money we have and figuring out other ways to get money into the account (ie. deposting pinecone cheques as well).

After the holiday that account is going to become the general saving account for things like christmas, birthdays, house repairs, car repairs, that kind of thing. By February I hope to be putting about $40 dollars a week into that account which would equal $2,080 dollars in a year. Not bad at all I say!

In other work related news it seems that my union might have finally settled our contract. It has to be ratified by the members but I'm pleased with it. Heck it involves a raise and no strike. What more could a girl ask for? By the time it goes through we will be getting nearly 2 years worth of back pay. That is pretty sweet as well. SWEET! I'm guessing it will be the Spring before I see any of that money, but it's also nice to anticipate.

Cheers!

PS. The Spell checker tells me that paycheque is not paycheque but rather paycheck. However, I'm sticking with my Canadian Guns on this one and leaving it QUE instead of CK.

We went grocery shopping tonight and man did we save money! We spent more then we usually do, but I think in the end it was worth it.

Junk & Snack Food
Cookies - 5.27
Chocolates (husbands doing) - .97
Cookies (ahem)- .98
Cookies (darn that husband) - .98
Fruit to Go's - 4.99
Granola Bars - 5.98
Chips - 1.48
Bulk Smarties (Jeepers smarties are expensive!)- 8.13
Bulk Toffees (Jeepers toffees are expensive!) - 9.25
Pop - 3.56
Pop - 5.46
Toiletries
Bar Soap *10 - 3.79
Case of Diapers - 26.99
Hair Elastics - 4.99
Allergy Pills - 3.99
Shower Gel - 3.99
Meat
Chicken Breast (Again holy expensive batman!) - 19.11
Ground Beef - 11.85
MISC
Orange Juice - 1.70
No name Cereal - 3.39
Instant Oatmeal - 2.28
Olives - 4.49
Jalapenos - 3.69
Guacamole - 4.99
Cell Phone Minutes (we have a pay as you go) - 15.00
Crystal Light - 2.29
No Name Crystal Light - 1.79
Jello - .48
Pudding - 1.38
Ice Melter (yes, this is a neccesity where we live!) - 6.99
DVD (Andrews Christmas Gift from Santa) - 23.99
Canned Goods
Artichoke Hearts *2 (stocking up for Christmas Eve dinner) - 8.36
No Name Olives (again for Christmas) - 1.28
Canned tomatoes *3 - 2.91
Pasta Sauce - 1.08
Canned Mushrooms - 1.94
Produce
Red Onions - .99
Celery - .84
Beans *2 - 1.54
Bananas - 1.76
White Onions - .82
Green Pepper - .87
Cucumbers - 2.56
Red Pepper *4 - 2.68
Frozen Spinach (stocking up for Christmas Eve) - 3.96
Dairy
Chocolate Milk (childs doing) - 1.79
Feta Cheese - 4.06
Extra Old Cheddar - 11.48
Large Cottage Cheese - 5.28
Ricotta Cheese - 4.68
Skim Milk - 1.98

GST 6.54
PST 9.16

WOW! That is a lot of food and items!

For all this the total after taxes we paid $276.11! Eichewawa you say...but we didn't pay $276.11...we actually paid $216.82. We saved $59.29!

This is how we did it

276.11
20.95 is taken off for my husbands colleague discount because he works for Superstore's Parent Company
This equals 255.16
Then $30.00 is taken off because we met the spend 250 and get 30 off coupon!
That takes us to 225.16
Take $2.50 off for a Superbuck coupon (when you get gas at superstore you get these coupons) and another $5.84 for another Superbuck coupon
This makes $216.82 for our savings of $59.29!!

This will feed us for a good 1.5 weeks and we purchased many of our big ticket items (ie. diapers, ice melter, chicken breasts, and cell phone minutes) today. We also purchased many of the kind of mid-range products (ie. soap, kalamata olives, jalapenos)--these things last quite a while but cost a bit to initially purchase. We also purchased Granola Bars and Fruit To Go's today--something we never to together.

Looking at the list broken down into sections I've realized 2 things...we buy way too much junk food and we eat way to much cheese. lol. My husband loves his junk food and I love my cheese. We are an odd pair.

I am also pleased that we purchased Andrew's DVD. It's the animated Star Wars Movie. He loves Star Wars (and so do I *blush*). It was a total stealth operation getting it into the cart without him seeing. I actually had it hidden in my coat sleeve for a while. I am just glad that the store's security didn't catch me.

The only thing we are kicking ourselves over is that if we had gone last Saturday or Sunday we would have saved the taxes (another employee discount incentive)...so we could have saved another $15.70, but it was just impossible to do this weekend. Oh well maybe next time.

As an aside Christmas Eve dinner has so far cost us $11.98. I want to keep an approximate running total. I'm curious how much it will cost.

I'm hosting Christmas Eve dinner this year for the first time in my life. It's a big change for my family. We have always had Christmas Eve dinner at My Grandparents. Always. But things are changing. Grandpa passed away a year ago and my Grandma is in her 70's. It's hard for her (even though she won't admit it) and she also cooks SO MUCH that it is TOO MUCH.

I am breaking with tradition and only having finger foods and snacks and appys. *GASP* Don't worry--no one is missing out on Christmas Turkey Dinner....we have that Christmas Day at my Aunt and Uncles. In fact Christmas in my family is a 3 day holiday extravaganza. Dinners and lunches and presents and booze oh my. This is my attempt to make Christmas more low key and relaxed and fun for everyone involved.

But, I need a plan of attack especially because Christmas Eve is exactly 1 month away today. I need a list (mostly because I like lists...) We have several areas that need addressing. We need a menu, We need a cleaning schedule which would also involve more de-cluttering, we need the home improvements to be completed by December 24th schedule and I also need to work on my holiday crafting list (which I have been avoiding doing...but had made a spetacular to do list of gifts to make and have not even looked at it since then).

Tentative Appetizer Menu

Veggies with dip (carrots, celery, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, tomatoes)
Cheese and crackers (variety of cheeses)
Hot Artichoke Dip with Tortillas
Seven Layer Taco Dip
Cheese Fondue with bread
Cold Cuts with Buns
Perogies*
Perishky
Maybe some sausage rolls
Maybe chicken fingers
Deviled Eggs?
Garlic Sausage?
Pickles?
Fruit Tray?

Cleaning Schedule

All the obvious things (sweep, mop, clean up, dust)
All the not so obvious things (THE BASEMENT, all my craft stuff needs to be moved out of the dining room, the bathrooms need a THOROUGH cleaning, & the crap outside in the yard needs to be put away somewhere)
Kitchen Cupboards need to be de-cluttered so everything fits nicely in them
Fridge needs a good & THOROUGH cleaning because I know my family and where they will look

Home Improvements to be done

I dream of having the kitchen drywalled (at least, painted would be like winning the lottery)
Back Door needs to be fixed
Kitchen cupboard needs to be put back on
Living Room needs to be drywalled and painted
Door needs to be put back on to porch
My Fathers junky old van needs to be gone from our parking pad

Crafty things to Make**

Slippers for Andrew
Slippers for Aunty Heather
Slippers for Rylie
Many, Many, Dishcloths
Some kind of blanket or something out of all the granny squares i have crocheted for my parents
I really really want to make felted wreaths but if I do I need to start scouring for wool sweaters stat
I am thinking of make nuts n bolts or granola as well for the gift baskets.

Sigh. I love making lists. :P

I am being very low key this Christmas. I am refusing to get worked up over anything. I am not making ridiculous amounts of gifts so that they will not be appreciated. I am not fretting over what to make. I am just making whatever i feel inspired ot make. I am not exchanging with my cousins. I am not exchanging with my sister and her kids. My list to buy for this year is small. Steve and I aren't exchanging gifts and Andrew is still too little to realize what he's missing out on. I am going to be happy and relaxed and I will enjoy this Christmas. I will.

*Please note that the perogies are my grandmas idea. She has made 'mini' perogies and sent them over already. So I will humour her

**Please note that this list is subject to change at a moments notice. It always does.

I've blogged about de-cluttering twice now. Here and here. Of my original list I had 4 areas that still needed de-cluttering or were in progress. I thought I would give an update about what's happening.

As before, green is a good update and red is the not so good update...

* ANDREWS BEDROOM - HIS CLOTHES: we sort through them every couple months and still somehow they end up all crazy again days later. i hate little kid clothes. seriously. Update: We have gone through Andrews clothes and separated the winter from summer stuff (and tucked away the summer stuff). We have also taken out all the clothes he doesn't fit anymore--There was quite a bit of those! We put the clothes in bags...but haven't done anything with them...they are just sitting in the basement now.

* MASTER BEDROOM - OUR CLOTHES: need to take out old and not worn clothes. same as always. Update: We still haven't tackled this one. & we are still working on putting the clothes away after cleaning them. It's a never ending battle.

* BASEMENT - SHELVING UNIT: it's a zoo down there. i think the animals rearranged when i wasn't looking. *sigh* Update: Same as before--Even zooier. It's crazy down there.

* ANDREWS TOYS - these are strewn about the house and really we need to get rid of his infant toys and only have the ones he plays with. Updated: We continue to work on this one. I have taken 2 boxes of toys to church to donate there to the nursery. We have put more toys away so he is not overwhelmed with what to play with.

What I've started learning is de-cluttering is an on-going process. We accumulate stuff easily for some reason. It needs to stop! I want a clutter free home!

today there is nothing inspiring to talk about.

i think we are going to have some grilled cheese sandwiches, watch 3rd watch on DVD and start on the spring (in winter) cleaning.

that is all. all i can say is...when did we get so boring?

this week has been shitty work wise. tres shitty. but, such is life and there is not much i can do about it due to circumstances outside my control. hopefully next week will be better and the week after that fantastic! (a girl can dream, right?)

i'm hosting family games night tonight for the first time. part of me wants a large crowd, but part of me would also be happy if only 2 or 3 people showed up so i can get to know everyone better and have a low key evening. i also want to go see a movie tonight that starts at 9:30 that is about a 20 minute drive away.... (i'm so selfish, huh?)

we want to go see City of Ember tonight. it's playing at the cheap theater and looked to be the only movie that me and the hubster would agree on. lol. maybe we'll even go out for drinks afterwards, who knows because the kidlet is at nana's tonight! we are child free! woot for us. Tomorrow we are going to lie in and then do our grocery shopping. in the afternoon I am going to go for lunch at a friends house. i'm making the soup and she's making the sandwiches! it will be nice to visit.

i got re-assessed on my taxes and due to an error on my part i owe 207 dollars to the govt. *sigh* but hurrah for the emergency fund! so our fund is sitting at 255 dollars so that will leave us with 47 dollars in there...but at least we have it and we won't have to put the tax bill on the credit card or ignore for years like i did the last time i owed money...

other then that we are plugging along and i've got plans to a big purge/clean-up/reorganization of the house this weekend...(hubster if you're reading this consider yourself warned for cleaning duty!)

have a great weekend everyone. cheers!

ever have one of those days? or one of those weeks? or months? or years?

i'm in that right now. it doesn't seem what i do everything keeps unraveling or falling apart. the more organized i try to become, the more messy everything is. the more i try to do the right thing, the more wrong things seem to happen. the harder i try at work the more mistakes i make. y'know, that kind of thing.

for example: way back in like june or july i was given the keys to my church because i am the new children's ministry co-ordinator. i took them, put them somewhere (& not on my key chain) and never gave them a second thought. fast forward to the last few weeks where i've had this niggly feeling, and had circumstances where i could have gone to the church to do some work but haven't because i haven't been sure where the keys are...but i've put it off and put it off until tonight. tomorrow i'm hosting an event and i will invariably be the last person out of the building and need to lock up. so i start looking through my key ring and nope. no keys. i look through my purse, drawers, coat pockets, counters, little bowls full of crap i have, i look everywhere. panic sets in and i call the other CMC and fess up that i have lost my keys...and ask to borrow hers. she agrees reluctantly and i still feel awful. i'm dreading telling the church secretary that i've lost it, dread having to make them get another key cut. my anxiety is through the roof....and then...then i find it in my 'safe' spot...which is so safe that i don't even remember putting it there. i'm so thankful to have found they keys but now i feel silly for having called her only to find them 10 minutes later. bah.

now i'm anxious because i can't remember what i picked as the security code.

A local Christian College is running a new ad campaign that is all about 'busting' stereotypes of Christians. I've been sitting across from these ads on the bus quite a bit lately and I'm really not seeing the stereotype.

This is the first one. & I'm not sure what they mean by 'crutch' and I'm not sure why the blonde is confused. I really don't get this ad and I am an avid church goer and I have a degree in Religious Studies. I've stared at this picture for days now and I'm still no closer in understanding.


I looked up these ads on the Providence Website and this is what it tells me

“Think” shows a pretty blonde in a classroom setting who seems confused, with the headline, “Christians use their faith as a crutch.” This ad is meant to show the stereotype that many young Christians go on to secular university or even a good Christian school and still find themselves unable to clearly and intelligently converse about their faith with others.

Now, I would never have gotten from A to B on this one by myself...Am I alone here? I know that I can talk about what I believe quite well. However, I just don't think OTHERS need to hear me go on about my Faith and my Tenets... To me this is all very personal... So it's a stereotype that Christians can't express their faith because they are pretty and go on to post-secondary education?


This is the second ad. When I first saw this ad I was pleased because I at least understood it. Mind you I didn't agree with it, but I UNDERSTOOD what they were saying. I didn't need to consult the website but just for kicks here is what they have to say about this ad:

“Serve” shows a homeless person with the headline, “The end is near, so Christians don’t care,” to show the stereotype that some Christians think they aren’t going to be on earth very long so they don’t need to care about issues like homelessness, poverty, or even the environment.

Really? There's really Christians out there that act/think/live like this? Enough that this is a stereotype of Christianity? Really? This has really dumbfounded me and after thinking about this for a few days I have decided that this 'stereotype' is really not a stereotype but the exception to the rule...especially because we have successfully made it past Y2K.

The third ad is probably the most clear and accurate of stereotypes regarding Christians...however, have I seen this ad on the bus? Nope. Not even once and I take a lot of buses during the day. It's too bad because I think most people would/could understand this one the best.

God loves us all and we should all love one another. simple.

The Fugees - Killing Me Softly
Graduation, 1996.

Immediately this song takes me back to June, 1996. Just finishing up high school...not knowing where to go or what to do or how to do it. This was on the radio A LOT at the time and everytime I heard it I cranked it so loud the little tercel shook.

I especially remember that they played this song not once, not twice, but four times at my high school grad. & I especially remember dancing to it every single time. Twirling around in my barefeet with my shoes safely under the table.

Telling my whole life with his words, killing me softly with his song. I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style

I get my yearly raise from the government on my next paycheque (November 26). I desperately want to implement Gail's simple idea to live on your pre-raise income. It's such a simple idea that it is absolutely brilliant and a must to follow through with.

From what I can gather it will be an extra 20 dollars a cheque...so 40 dollars a month. Now, I know that Gail & others would advocate that we use it to pay down debt or improve our emergency fund...but i have a different plan for this money. Steve and I are planning on taking a little mini holiday in February (nothing exciting--just a few nights away from it all in Gimli or Brandon or a cabin--in honour of Christmas/Valentines/Steve's Birthday) and while I have already started saving for this holiday I am going to apply my raise money towards it as well. It should add about 150 dollars to the holiday fund. Pretty Sweet!

I'll blog more about the trip when I know more.

Cheers!

This week was very busy and draining at work. Lots to do and not enough time to do it all in. (As usual). We are having our yearly 'evaluation' (the military have some crazy term for it that makes no sense, but whatev) next week and it has been crazy the amount of stuff they have 'reminded' me that I'm supposed to be looking after/doing/updating even though I never knew it in the first place....

I took my parents out for supper tonight because it was my mother's birthday this past week. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was good.

I downloaded the Hair Soundtrack and I'm listening to it right now on the comp. It's rocking. ROCKING. I sure do love this musical. I've also finished downloading Degressi TNG Season 5 so I'm preparing to kick back and relax and watch this.

Tomorrow morning we are going grocery shopping, then in the afternoon me and Andrew are going to go to the Santa Claus parade it should be fun and not too cold. I haven't been to the parade since I was in single digits. lol.

I only have about 6 dishcloths left to make and after that I am going to move into finishing the cross stitch for my aunt or maybe unraveling a sweater. I haven't done that in ages and I kind of miss it.

These are some of the dishcloths I've been working on. There's a dozen in that basket. I think they look so pretty...especially all in the basket like that.

This is my latest foray into plarn. I made this for a friend of a friend who said she would buy one off me if it had thick straps and very long straps. The bags are from Zellers in BC that my Granma brought back for me after her trip there.

I quite like the red and white. I think it looks super sharp. I even reinforced the straps. This sucker is not stretching at all. I was surprised at how well the red bags worked for crocheting. The bag worked up quite quickly...maybe I'm just getting better at working with the plarn. I think in total this took abotu 2.5 evenings to make (not counting making the plarn--my grandma actually made it all for me this time round...)

In other plarn news someone else wants me to make a bag. She only wants me to use that bags from the store she works at. I think this is a brilliant idea...as long as she doesn't just steal the bags but rather saves them up or gets customers to save them up. At first I thought that the bags were some kind of colour like green or red or purple...but no, they are simply white with green and yellow...

We need a new vacuum. But we don't want to spend a fortune on one but we want it to work like we did.

We have been to Wal-Mart and Superstore and looked at the vacuums, but really have no idea what to get. We know that we cannot spend more then 100 dollars before taxes and really the cheaper the better (but it still has to work good). We also know that it HAS to be bagless and not need further purchases of silly attachments/filters/gadgets/or gizmos.

What kind of vacuum do you have? What brand do you recommend? What do we need to know?

PS. Does anyone else think the way vacuum is spelled is completely ridiculous?

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day.

Please take the time to remember the veterans of the past and the veterans of today. Attend a ceremony.

The three of us will be at Vimy Ridge tomorrow at 10:30 for the ceremony there. It is the one I have always gone to. It's small and informal and meaningful. It won't be too long of a ceremony for Andrew and if need be him and Steve can go play in the adjacent park.

Where will you be?

On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a drug store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the store's PA asking customers who would still be on the premises at 11:00 AM to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.

Terry was impressed with the store's leadership role in adopting the Legion's "two minutes of silence" initiative. He felt that the store's contribution of educating the public to the importance of remembering was commendable.

When eleven o'clock arrived on that day, an announcement was again made asking for the "two minutes of silence" to commence. All customers, with the exception of a man who was accompanied by his young child, showed their respect.

Terry's anger towards the father for trying to engage the store's clerk in conversation and for setting a bad example for his child was channeled into a beautiful piece of work called, "A Pittance of Time".

I think it's official. Celery has beat Cucumber. I asked a lot of people and it always seemed about even, so I'm going with the one that i like the sounds of the best. I really like the eeeeeeeee sound at the end and the soft c.

I've been working on some business cards. I've even found a font that has a celery stalk as one of the letters. I have a tagline 'fresh, green, crunchy. delicious handmade items'. I've got plans for an etsy store. At some point I'm going to work on a website.

It's all happening....at my very slow pace....

Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby McGee
Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for a train

Circa 1996-2008

My best friend, sings this song when she's drunk. She especially sings it while drunk in the car on the way home from the bar. In my car, our friends cars, even taxis. I've heard her sing this song many times...dozens. She's a good singer. I've sang it with her--drunk and sober too. It's a good song to sing.

Tonight we are staying in sans child (he's gone to Grandma and Grandpas for a sleepover), watching Bones Season 2 and eating Spinach & Artichoke Dip with Taco chips. Yum-o!

Our income was not as much as expected this week so we are slightly poor. this is our version of saving money.

I went to Safeway after work tonight and somehow walked out spending 46.10! 46.10?!? How the heck is that saving money? I'm flabbergasted. What did I buy you ask? Not much...

Beef Jerky - 9.98 (total impulse buy and this is where I went wrong)
Tortilla Chips - 3.09
Pineapple Bits - 4/5.00 (another not-so-wise purchase. i wanted to get 1 can of pineapple chunks so i could make sweet & sour chicken another day...and got sucked into the 4/5 deal...which is not as great as I initially thought)
Artichoke Hearts - 3.52
Cream cheese - 7.38 (I got 2 packages...and I don't think I need to for the recipe, but I didn't want to run short...)
Frozen Spinach - 1.79
Mozzarella - 6.49 (again, this is more cheese then needed for the recipe but the little blocks of cheese were the same price as this big one so I went with the big one)
Parmesan - 4.49 (holy jeebers expensive!)
Frozen Potstickers - 3.99 (these were on clearance...regular 11.99)

For the total of 46.10. I want to divide this up and figure out how much this meal at home is costing...When I add up all the ingredients that will be used in this dish (not factoring in the leftover component of cream cheese and mozzarella) we get 26.76. Divide that by 2 and we get 13.38! Add in the the 3.99 potstickers which I am also going to cook tonight and we get a meal that is 16 dollars each for me and Steve (30.75 total). Steve will probably pick up some beers (but he would have done that regardless) and I might have a rye and coke (which I already have on hand). So even if we add in say 10 bucks for Beer then it is 40 bucks and we're still coming out ahead! Even more ahead because we have the beautiful LEFTOVERS. I love leftovers.

This is WAY cheaper then our usual Friday night fare. Generally when we go out to eat on a Friday or Saturday night we drop 60 bucks minimum. Minimum. Often it is closer to 100 bucks.

I'm feeling better about staying in tonight already now.

Now on to the 15.99 chicken wings. Steve really likes chicken wings so I was going to pick up a box of frozen wings to go along with the artichoke dip but holy crap they were 15.99!!!!! 15.99. So I ditched the idea of the wings and bought the 3.99 potstickers. When did frozen chicken wings become so expensive? I definitely noticed that the price of food seems higher then it used to. I'm also hoping that items were more expensive at Safeway because it's Safeway and more upscale then Superstore where we do 995 of our shopping at.

Now I'm off to make the dip. I hope it tastes marvelous...

I am pleased to report that I currently have the following crafty orders on the go right now...

1. 10 dishcloths for A (1 done now)
2. 12 dishcloths for C (10 done now)
3. 2 dishcloths for K (done!)
4. 1 plarn messenger bag (found a pattern--sort of--will start Friday night)
5. 1 plarn bag for A (i have one done for her)

Not to shabby. I can't wait to take pictures of all the stuff once I'm finished.

Once I finish all that I want to start making Andrew's other slipper for Christmas. I also made one slipper for my aunt so I need to make the other one now. Really, I still have a ton of Christmas presents to make.

I've also got this crafty plan to make a bag for my aunt out of a t-shirt she gave Andrew for Christmas a few years ago (I've seen some neat bags like that on Etsy and here but haven't had the time to try anything yet). Can we say crafters ADD? hah!

I have not forgotten about the idea posts I've made and not followed through yet. We have the cutlery case plan that I still plan on making, and I am still eager to fuse plastic. Not enough hours in the day to do all the crafting that I want.

I've also got to finish a swack of cross stitches for Christmas...I think I've taken on more then I can handle...again...

Johnny Cash-- Hurt

Every time I hear this song I thing of Phillips.

Phillips was singer I met right after the debacle of Serge and right before Chris. He was gorgeous and smart and funny and intelligent and best of all he liked me. We never really went out, but we hung out and fooled around for a few weeks. They were an amazing few weeks. We talked for hours about incredibly serious topics and he sang to me and I sang back and he encouraged me to sing even though I am tone deaf, we went out and had fun. He had just broken up with a girl and I was still screwed up from Paul.

After the whole bizarre courtship-that-didn't-go-anywhere ended we decided to be friends and one night he took me to meet his friends where I saw this video for the first time.

I remember it being on the computer and me and Phillips stood in the doorway and watched it. It's overwhelming and powerful and I remember we held hands and felt sobered by the beauty of the song and the beauty of the graphics.

That moments is frozen in time for me. It was short. 4 Minutes only. But it was a long 4 minutes.