10 Random Things for This Week

In no particular order...

1. Set your clocks forward on Saturday night if you live in an area that does this.
2. Speaking of springing forward, here are other semi-annual tasks to do when you change your clocks.
3. Check out the live Eagle Cam here.  These eagles just had a baby eaglet!
4. Something (else) to be aware of if you are older and alone.
5. And here is an excellent pre-flight video that everyone should watch.
6. Here are some great frugal living tips.
7. And here are some purchases that people felt were well worth the price.
8. I've been sitting on a folding chair at my desk for an age.  When I was at TJ Maxx I sat in a real office chair and decided I definitely needed a better office chair.  I didn't want to pay the $130 price for that particular chair that I tried so I found this much less expensive chair on Amazon and it is super comfy!
9. If you are as annoyed as I am that Google Chrome now blocks UBlock origin (an ad blocker that is desperately needed on many sites these days), here is how to continue to use it.
10. Finally, we had our annual active shooter training today.  Here are some good tips and resources everyone should check out.

5 Things We AREN'T Doing in the Near Future

My list of 'things are so crazy in the US these days that we can't even think of doing the following things'...

1. Moving.  We would like a single-story house but I never want a mortgage again so we will need to save cash, plus sell our current house, in order to buy a new house.  This won't be happening for a while...
2. Traveling.  My walking club is having a convention in a couple of months but between the cost of a basic hotel ($300+ per night !?!), plus flights, plus car rental, etc, I think we will just stay home and save several thousand dollars :(
3. Changing jobs.  I actually love my job and have no intention of leaving, but I have several friends, highly qualified and very skilled friends, who can't find a job to save their lives!  The job market these days is very scary.
4. Watching the news/doomscrolling/etc.  The news is nothing but awful awful awful.  Since there is nothing I can do about every terrible thing that is happening, I will just watch more positive and happy things instead of stressing out about things I can't change.
5. Eating junk food.  Since my birthday is in 50 days from now, I have challenged myself to not eat any junk food for 50 days.  We will see how this goes...

10 More Random Things

From this week... 

1. Our weather is perfect!  It was 76 degrees here today and our sunsets are still beautiful!
2. Here is an excellent video on why you need multiple sources of income in retirement, not just Social Security.
3. Some of our favorite movies on Netflix this week with unique twists...Age of Adeline, Don't Let Go, and Passengers.
4. And some of our favorite series' on Netflix to binge-watch...The Recruit, Night Agent, and Zero Day.
5. And a good documentary on Netflix that I recently watched...Buy Now!
6. Unrelated, these woodworking projects are utterly amazing!
7. Of course, I can't make a list without posts of cat memes.
8. On a negative note, I can't believe that my local Baskin Robbins, in a relatively "good" neighborhood, now has to lock up their ice cream and cakes because people keep stealing from them.  The owner showed me a video today where a woman came in with her kid, they chose a cake, took it out of the freezer, then just walked out the door with the ice cream cake without paying!  If you wonder why people are more awful than usual these days, it seems like they are taught this by their parents!  
9. Here is a huge list of birthday freebies.
10. Finally, here are some things to NOT to do to your house in order to save money (and a lot of headaches).

10 Random Things

It's still busy around here but here are some random things from my favorites list...

1. I traded my old cell phone for a Galaxy S25+ phone and I am loving the detail in the photos it takes (see photo above)!
2. I just learned that there are a variety of ways you can become a NOAA volunteer.  Cool!
3. This past week, Las Vegas broke a 214-day rainless streak.  We had a much-needed rainstorm which was a nice change of pace.
4. This lady wrote about a wonderful way to spend a major birthday year!
5. Here are a bunch of ways to save money.
6. And speaking of frugal, here are pages and pages of frugal tips.
7. This guy's YT channel features a lot of useful, and most often free, website lists...good info here!
8. Here is an article on five big things that disappear after you retire...hubby and I can confirm pretty much all of these things happened to us immediately after retiring (so these are definitely things to plan for if you are planning for retirement).
9. A friend of ours is dealing with and-of-life stuff will an ill, very elderly parent.  When I asked if she and her husband have updated their wills lately, I was shocked that neither one has a will!  And they are in their early 70s!  Here are documents everyone should have in place no matter how old (or young) you are.
10. Finally, I am so thankful that all passengers survived the horrible plane crash in Toronto yesterday.  What is going on with all of these plane crashes lately???

All of This for $20!

Hubby and I stopped by the grocery store today and picked up a bunch of loss leaders.  For a grand total of $20.30 we got...

• a loaf of French bread
• a loaf of white bread
• 10 pounds of potatoes
• 20 limes
• a pound of tomatoes
• a half gallon of milk
• a pound of grapes
• 7.5 pounds of chicken

Overall, it was a pretty good--and cheap--haul!

Long Time No Post!

 

I just realized it's been a few weeks since my last post!  Among our recent activities...

• Family and friends have been coming and going for the past few weeks for vacation--it's been busy around here!
• Hubby turned 76 last week so we celebrated at his favorite Italian restaurant.  The service was good, the food was just OK, and the prices were astronomical.  I've noticed prices at every restaurant, from the cheap fast food places to the higher end places, seem to increase every time we go out.
• One of our guests has been sick as a dog for more than a week; apparently the flu, covid, RSV, and a couple other illnesses are going around our city now.  I get hospital reports for the state I work in and it is the same there...patients are stacked up everywhere, for hours on end, before being seen.  Yikes
• The kittens haven't been seen in weeks, the mom cat. above, comes by very occasionally for a piece of bacon.
• Everyone is busy watching the Super Bowl as I type this.  This may be my least favorite game to watch because there seems to be one play followed by a half dozen commercials, rinse and repeat. Ugh
• Here is an interesting idea for inexpensive dental work.
• I did our taxes and was pleasantly surprised that we only owed about $600; I was thinking we would owe much more so this was great!

Now back to cooking...I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

10 Things From This Week

In no particular order...

1. Today is MLK Jr Day and Inauguration Day.  It's also a paid holiday from work so hubby and I are just chilling out today watching movies...back to the grind tomorrow!
2. I don't like how my every move is tracked via my cell phone so I bought a Pixel and De-Googled it.  There's a bit of a learning curve but so far it works perfectly...and privately!
3. I'll probably try to load Linux on my laptop next weekend for pretty much the same reason (one big tech project a weekend is more than enough for my brain to deal with!).
4. Three take-aways from the recent wildfires in nearby California...have a go bag, have a wildfire checklist, and note the GPS location of our house in case the entire neighborhood is wiped off the map.
5. Fortunately, while our weather is a chilly 48 degrees today, it is nowhere near as cold as most other parts of the country--I can't believe it is 20 degrees in Atlanta today!
6. So far this year, all 20 days of it, hubby and I have significantly cut down on the number of times we have been eating out.  It is much healthier--and cheaper--to eat at home!
7. I love the movie channels on Roku.  There are so many movies, generally older movies but the occasional newer movie, and they are all free!
8. A small news article about a fatal car wreck came across my FB feed and it highlights two important things...#1, always wear your seat belt when driving, these two people would probably still be alive if they had done this simple thing, and #2, when you are in a very remote area, EMS services can be few and response times can be long.
9. Here are some great tips in case you hit the lottery or receive any other huge financial windfall.
10. Finally, even though I buy literally all of my clothes at the Goodwill, for people who use Amazon's 'Try Before You Buy' program, it will be ending soon so just a FYI.