Archive for the ‘Around Here’ Category

Working Like Crazy

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Content by Sol Rosales

I’ve been working about 60 hours a week for the last year, so that has been tough on me. When I’m not working I try to spend most of my time catching up with my husband, who also has a very busy schedule at work. Sometimes we both work so much it feels like we are just roommates who see each other in passing instead of spouses. Because both of us work so hard, a lot of our home life is disorganized and crazy. We have a hard time fitting in our friends and family, and forget about taking care of bills. Sometimes we discuss making adjustments at home, like changing wireless internet providers, but then we just forget and it never gets done. I’m grateful that we at least have a maid who comes in once every other week to pick up after us, because if it wasn’t for her our house would probably look like a science experiment gone bad. I really don’t think that we can go on like this for much longer. I hope work slows down soon so we can spend some time together and get organized.

Getting truck state inspection/getting ready for tax season

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

Got up early and took my DH’s truck into town to have it state inspected.  The garage opened at 7:00 am,  I got there at 7:05 am, and still had to wait an hour and a half before they could inspect it!  I tried a few days ago to make an appointment to have it inspected, but all of the garages that do the inspections say that they can’t do that – it is first come, first serve.  **Sigh** 

Thankfully, their waiting room had a television in it, so I could watch the news while I waited, and there was a pleasant woman in the waiting room that I chatted with to pass the time.

Afterwards, went to Staples to pick up tax preparation software, I have found that I can save a lot of money by doing our taxes ourselves on the computer and filing online instead of paying someone else to do it.  Now I just have to wait for all of the forms to come in the mail from all the employers/banks etc so I can start to file them.  I’m sure we will get a refund this year.

His broken teeth

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

Ever since my husband and I have been together, he has been having trouble with his teeth. One of the reasons I agreed to marry him was so he could have access to my dental plan as my spouse, and medical benefits as well. Of course, love had something to do with it too, but at our ages we weren’t getting married to raise a family, we weren’t going to have any children. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re not going to have children, then the only reason to tie the knot is so that the couple can share in some sort of financial security. That probably sounds very cold, but that is the practical Virgo in me coming out!

Over the past couple of years he has really been having trouble – he needs a couple of root canals, a couple of his teeth have broken, and a couple have fallen out. I have a really hard time to understand how and why this is happening to him; I haven’t even had a cavity in over thirty years! I’ve bought a water-pik for him to use, but he won’t use it, and when we moved down here I don’t even remember unpacking it, so it may still be packed up in a box in the basement somewhere.

I feel badly for him because of his teeth, they cause him a lot of pain, and unfortunately our dental plan does not cover it all, and we can’t afford to spend the money that needs to be spent to save his teeth. I’m afraid he will have to have them pulled. And I’m afraid we will not be able to afford dentures.

My son can cook!

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Maybe cabin fever is getting to all of us. The weather has been so bad the past two weeks, and I’ve been sick for half of that.

So imagine my surprise when I didn’t have to cook dinner today – my son did it all and it was delicious! He cooked a nice lasagna, a green salad, and cheesy garlic bread! What a nice treat – I could get used to this!

Great price – Free!

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Is it even possible to fall in love with a website? Well, having just ordered some FREE toe warmers from nomorerack.com I have to say the answer to that question is YES! Here’s the scoop: my sister sent me an email about how she heard on television about a bargain website called nomorerack. This website offers great products at ridiculously low prices, for a very limited time.

Well of course I had to check it out for myself, and within a matter of seconds I was a registered user of the website and ordered myself a set of FREE toe warmers! As a matter of fact my toes happen to be freezing right now, sitting at my computer and I have two pairs of socks on! Seems to me that the only time my feet are ever warm is the month of July!

Anyway, back to the bargain website – I was looking all around and it appears that every day there are new offers put out on the website. The great deals are only offered for one day. The next day presents the shoppes with new merchandise to choose from. Apparently there are limited numbers on the products, because several of the deals that I saw on the website were already sold out.

There are some buttons on the website that you can click on to see past deals, and a button to click on that calls itself “insanity deals.” Apparently with the “insanity deals” the website displays a very short term crazy deal that has such a low price that it seems obvious that the website is using it as what is known in the retail business as a “loss leader.”

One of the “insanity deals” that I certainly wish I had seen when it was offered was for a Kindle Touch for under $20! My husband and I were just talking last weekend about whether to purchase an e-book reader or not. We are a little bit reluctant because the price seems to be a little bit steep for our budget right now. Another great insanity deal was for a Canon camera worth over $400 on sale for less than $20 as well! I am definitely going to have to bookmark this website and check it out every day to see what bargains can be had!