Friday, December 15, 2017

The holidays

Christmas:  Four weeks (or more) of guilt, stress, guilt, headaches, stress, and more guilt.  Followed by a 3 day period of trying to be two places at once, driving too much, not enough sleep, not enough food, and too much rushing around.  Capped with having "our" Christmas at home on about December 27th if we're lucky. 

I hate Christmas. 

In fact, I hate the whole last quarter of the year, October through December.  It sucks.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Luck

I was lucky today.  Chase sent a replacement credit card, and it arrived on Friday.  I tossed the mail in the front seat for the school run, and somehow the Chase envelope fell out in the school parking lot.  Which I didn't realize until later last night when I was looking at the mail. 

Drove back to the school lot today, and there's the envelope, right where it fell. 

Whew.

Monday, October 16, 2017

Oh, Hallmark

The trip to Hallmark didn't go the way I'd planned today.   Instead of spending $30 or so in coupons and about that much in cash, it ended up being $80 plus cash and $3 in coupons. 

I've been finding all my old Rewards coupons roaming the house, sticking them all on the fridge as I went, so I wouldn't lose them again.  I need cheap birthday cards this week, so I thought I'd go spend my coupons, get my ornaments for the year, and hit the 99cent card racks. 

Turns out, the local store isn't accepting expired coupons anymore.  I can send them back to Hallmark and they'll re-deposit the points, maybe, and IF they're less than a year old.  Ha.  I found a coupon that expired in 2011.  Also, the 99-cent coupon rack is now 20% 99-cent cards, and the rest is 2/$4 "bargain" cards.  The 99-cent cards are mostly for kids, too.  So, off to Dollar Tree this week for the 2/$1 cards.  For a bonus, the store was out of the free-gift item I had a card for, and I didn't have the card for the one they did have in stock.  Le Sigh.

So.  Came home with 4 cards, 3 ornaments, and this year's singing snowman.  I got the Trek ship, Spotlight on Snoopy #20, and the blue Beauty of Birds ornament.  Still haven't bought this year's Pony for Christmas, and there's an anniversary Spotlight on Snoopy, too.  And, for pete's sake, a new Peanuts Band set that I hadn't seen yet.  Which I WILL resist - I've already got the Peanuts Band set and the Tree Caroling set.  And I can't afford, or justify, the cost of another 5-piece set at $15.95 per piece, plus the other item you have to buy to get the $15.95 price.  Plus tax. 

It's time to reconsider the Hallmark ornament collection.  Most of them never hang on the tree lately, since they're boxed and not with the decorations.  I hate to think how much I've spent on the silly things over the years.  Too depressing.  Definitely need to focus on a few series and skip the rest.  Doing the summer pre-order option that the local store offers might be a good idea, at least as far as cutting down on impulse buying.  But then I'd miss out on the extra points scattered through the fall, plus the free gifts and such.

Preliminary series list to focus on:

  • Beauty of Birds - just started a few years ago, gorgeous, but I'll never have the early ones unless I run across them at a yard sale
  • Pony for Christmas
  • Spotlight on Snoopy
  • Star Trek ships (because I've got all of these back to the first one)
  • Star Wars characters - have most of these, but honestly, why?
  • Rocking Horses - series is closed, but I have most of them
I need to haul them all out one of these days and cull the herd.  Some of my older ones may bring enough money to be worth selling on eBay.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Out the door

Out the door

today - 50 magazines (8 inches) to donate
yesterday - 7 inch stack of kid mags donated
Sunday - 4 FOOT stack of magazines recycled.  Plus a separate trip for cardboard

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Decluttering and cleaning up

The ongoing list for this year:


  • 3/11/17 - jumbo box of horse mags to a friend
  • 3/20/17 - big box of books (65 total) to the library
  • 3/21/17 - 3 bags of books to the library
  • 3/21/17 - bag of baby clothes to a teacher
  • 3/22/17 - 12 shirts and a box of magazines 

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

2017 Reading List

Just realized I hadn't started this yet.

  1. x
  2. x
  3. x
  4. x
  5. x
  6. x
  7. x
  8. x
  9. Stargate: Atlantis - Mirror, Mirror, by Sabine C. Bauer.  (3/15/17)  Not bad, could have been a good episode.  Hippie Radek could have been fun.