And surprisingly, the sacrifice last night ended up posting anyway. Oh well. I give up.

Day 33? I think so. Let’s check. (time passes, the phone rings…)

Yes. It is Day 33.

Today’s goals:

1. Finish the laundry

2. Write!

3. Look up a couple more books and maybe post some auctions. I only have one up right now.

4. Do the dishes. *g*

5. Write! Oh. That was #2. So, work down the basement a bit, then. That should do it.

Ok. More later.

And the inevitable sacrifice to the Blogger Gods…

If you’re wondering why I’m doing this, it’s because every time I use blogBuddy, Blogger decides not to post the current post. So it holds one in reserve until I post another one. Hence the sacrifices.

Now that I come to think about it, the same thing happened when I posted from Blogger’s site this afternoon. Hmm. Fishy.

Yes!!

Chris found the missing piece from my glasses. I said, “Hey, if you happen to step on the little nose piece from my glasses, let me know, ’cause it fell off.”

And he walks out of the bathroom, looks around for about five seconds (and I swear I had even walked across that piece of carpet barefooted!) bends down, and goes, “Here.”

I thought he was kidding, at first. But I said a proper thank you, and now my nose is much happier. Now I just need to find my superglue so this doesn’t happen again…

Oh, crap! Here we go again…

You know how I’ve been complaining about ebay forever and ever and on and on? Well, just like with everything else, every once in a while something that has been sitting in my basement or my room for years exceeds my expectations in a big way. No, really big. Like, speechless big. Like, I’m sitting there, and it’s at $30, and I think, cool. Then I notice there’s only an hour left, so I come back, and it’s at $50, and I think, wow! And then, with less than a minute left, that sucker shoots up from $75 (yikes!) to the end price of $124. So, as I’m sitting there goggling at the screen, going, “Oh my god! Oh my god! I can’t believe this! Oh my god!” the phone rings. And it’s Mom and Dad. Going “I can’t believe this! Can you believe this? We saw it had four minutes left and was at $50, so we figured we’d watch it! Can you believe this? Do you have any more copies up in your room?!?!”

That was so funny. *g* I really love my parents. I really honestly do. That’s the kind of connection you should have with people who love you.

You know, it’s almost like winning the lottery. Because that book didn’t cost me anything more than a lottery ticket. Hmm…

This is getting really irritating. Now I have to sacrifice a post each time I want something to show up?!?!?!!!

Today is Day 34.

For the record, Kroger Brand Yogurt is Not Bad. It’s not as good as Yoplait (my preferred brand) but I will live. *g* Especially since the Kroger Brand yogurt was 50 cents a carton. I will not be complaining any time soon, there…

I might use some to make scones, though. We will see.

Anyway, onto Day 34.

Today’s goals:

1. Finish laundry, fold it, and put mine away. Put Chris’ in the pile in the office that has been there for months.

2. Either find the piece to my glasses that fell off this morning, thus making me 15 minutes late for work, or get one of those eyeglasses repair kits from Walgreens (or wherever) and hope that the spare pieces fit my frames. If not, then I’ll have to venture into the Yellow Pages and see about finding an eyeglasses place around here. Argh. Irritating!

3. Fill out the paperwork for the dental insurance so I can go to the dentist! It’s due tomorrow. Yes, I waited until the last minute. Again.

4. Remember to check this list so I don’t forget to do anything.

I think that’s enough. Yes, I’m still planning to get done with the basement, probably not by May 1st, but I could still be wrong. At least by Chris’ birthday, which would leave me with what, three weeks of clean-basement-bliss before I leave for Florida? I could live with that.

More later, hopefully.

Got Royalties?

I received my second royalty payment from Writers-Exchange today. Yay! The first one was (I think) a month after The Tenth Ghost was published, so it wasn’t much, but this one was a lot larger. I am happy.

One of these days, I’m going to figure out a marketing campaign and get bunches of books sold! Sheesh.

Today’s question is:

Why would someone (name withheld to protect the guilty) who knows he is going to get home late at night and knows there are perfectly good leftovers waiting for him in the fridge, stop at a fast food restaurant to get high fat, high cholesterol, high-everything-bad-and-can-barely-be-called-food instead of coming home, popping the leftovers in the microwave for two minutes and eating that?

I would like nothing better than to have food waiting for me at home instead of spending more time at the drive-thru window (not to mention the fact that said someone does not need to eat another double triple burger with cheese and a extra-large order of greasy fries…) I just don’t understand.

What do you want to bet that this someone (name still withheld, but I’m just about positive you know who I’m talking about) eats out more than once a week while I’m in Florida? Can we say BUDGET?!?!

Anyway. Just a wondering, since I obviously don’t get it. *sigh*

And because I know Blogger won’t let the previous post show up until I post this, here’s a wasted post to satisfy the Blogger gods.

And of course my sacrifice did not work. So let’s try this again. Argh!!

A Thought or Two about Orange Juice.

We drink quite a bit of orange juice. At least a gallon a week, which is quite a bit for two people, I think. I tend to buy whatever’s on sale, except for the store brand, because none of the store brands I’ve seen have pulp and to me, it’s not really orange juice without pulp.

Of the three major brands available at our local Krogers–Minute Maid, Tropicana, and Florida Natural–I’m going to have to say I prefer Tropicana, but Florida Natural is a close second. Florida Natural tastes the closest to fresh squeezed, but Tropicana has a thicker feel. I know that sounds weird, but that’s all I can say. Also, I’ve found that Florida Natural doesn’t have as much acid in it. Sometimes when I drink Tropicana, it irritates my mouth. That never happens with Florida Natural.

Last week, we had Tropicana. And thenChris found Minute Maid on sale, so he bought some, and I remembered why I don’t like it at all. Minute Maid orange juice tastes like it should be carbonated. I’m not quite sure what it is, but there’s this taste… and I can’t stand it. But if it’s the only thing in the house, I will drink it. I need that daily dose of calcium since I don’t usually drink milk or eat many dairy products.

Just in case any bigwigs from Krogers is reading this, if you’d put pulp in your orange juice, I’d buy it and try it, but pulpless orange juice reminds me too much of instant tea. And me being such a tea snob, I hope you know what I mean.

So anyway, this little departure from the usual doesn’t really have a point, of course, but I just thought I’d make my preferences known. Down with Minute Maid!

Am I missing something, or does Pepsi or Coca-Cola own both Tropicana and Minute Maid? Or are they competing? Hmm. I’ll have to check that out.

Now, off to fold some laundry, and write a bit. Still waiting for Chris to get home, but he should be home soon.

———————-

Oh, yeah. Update on the weather situation here…

I saw that a largish branch had snapped on a tree right at the end of our parking lot. This is not a surprise, as this particular tree seems to lose a branch every other time it gets windy. I’m surprised it has any branches left. While it was 70+ earlier, the temperature has dropped quite a bit (I think Walgreens said it was 45 when I went out.) When I came home, though, it felt awfully hot in the house, so I opened the upstairs windows. Now it’s quite nice in here. I like it kind of cool at night; I like to use my covers.

I did go to Krogers. I looked through the ads for this week, decided to stick to a budget of $40, and ended up spending $42. That’s pretty good. According to our budget, I spent less than 1/2 the week’s worth of grocery money, and I got everything we needed plus some. I might go back next Saturday and buy milk because it’s on sale, and maybe more yogurt. But I still maintain that to spend $400 a month on groceries, we’d have to be sticking to non-sale items and buying expensive brands. This $42 trip to the grocery stocked us up for the week plus some. I bought boneless skinless chicken breast, salami and bologna because it was buy one get two free (I have enough of that in the freezer to last a month now, at least.) Kroger brand yogurt, because it was 10/$5.00, and I’m paying $1.10 at the cafeteria when I get it at work, apples (of course), a cantelope, Hamburger Helper and Chicken Helper (Buy one get one free!) bread, milk, lettuce, mini carrots, bacon, and some other stuff.

We seem to go through at least five pounds of apples a week, I kid you not. I pack Chris one a day and I pack myself three a day–one for my midmorning snack, one to eat with lunch, and one for my afternoon snack, when I remember. Of course sometimes I have yogurt instead, but most of the time I eat the apples. Luckily, apples are relatively cheap. I can’t wait until Dad’s apples are ready so I can stock up and won’t have to buy any for months.

Okay, so this once small little departure on orange juice has now morphed into something else and I have laundry to fold and writing to do. And I’ve read almost the entire Hamish MacBeth mystery series (by M.C. Beaton) today, so I really have to do something else.

Signing off now, or I’ll start prattling again. Sheesh.