The holiday season is upon us. I thought you all might enjoy this as you start looking at your holiday shopping list.
Budget For Holiday Shopping
Personally, I'll be looking at some Amazon.com (Y.M. has me addicted) on Thursday and Friday because of their awesome price matching and shipping straight to my job.
Can fatty food make you stupid?
I knew fatty foods made you fat and there are a lot of fat stupid people (see: http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/) ...but I thought it was correlation not causation.
Sigh.
...because this puts my industruy into terms everyone can understand.
Plus it's funny.
I have to share this
One more reason that Raleigh > Charlotte
:-)
I was watching a Dairy Queen commercial and I had an epiphany.
The western world is messed up. In the rest of the world if you are poor, you don't have enough food,you are skinny and malnutritioned. However in the West, especially in America, if you are poor you are the more likely you are to be fat.
Think about it: 99 cent Value Meals at Wendy's, Dollar Menu at McDonald's, 5 for $5 deal at Arby's and pick 3 for $4 combo at Dairy Queen; you can get an entire meal for $3.00-$4.00 from your favorite fast food place but you'll get 850-1,200+ calories with that $1 fry.
But...
If you want to eat a wholesome lunch balanced 400-500 calorie lunch at Whole Foods it will cost you a good $5-$10.
So in the words of Main Thang (that's a whole 'nother blog post...) "Do the math."
You can have a $5 side salad or you can have 5 roast beef sandwiches. If you're broke than obviously you're trying to get the most for your money and therefore Arby's will probably win.
This list is exactky what I needed for this month.
Check it out:
September 2009 Keep-It-Together Checklist
Shared via AddThis
Thanks to MS Office and phones that complete our words, an increasing number of Americans can't spell for s**t. Unfortunately, I am included in this number.
On yesterday's post I spelled what should have been "their" (as in the possessive) "there" (as in the noun.) This is really sad coming from a former spelling bee champion (it was elementary school but still.)
This is an interesting article about the "lost art" of spelling. http://www.audiblox2000.com/learning_disabilities/spelling_problems.htm
Since this was the last weekend for awhile that I don't have anything planned, (it's wedding season, part deux) so I was getting my life in order. Whilst reading through some emails I came across this one from a work colleague: How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck.
Now the one thing that is clearly missing from this chart is any debt payments; not the things you charge to you your card every month (like food and clothes) but the cost of your debt (such as interest and fees.)
Either way, this chart is interesting and worth taking a look at. And while you're at it...
Take an hour and look at where you're money's going. I recommend using www.mint.com, it'll change the way you see your money. :-)
I have never been one who was obessessed with "me time."
All through college I was constantly with people and my idea of "getting away" was just to switch the group of people I was hanging out with for a short period of time. My over scheduled life plus dorm room and sorority house living didn't exactly lend it self to time with one's self.
But now the tides are turning...
Exihibit A: Two Friday nights ago
In lieu of going out with the crew, I decided to take advantage of Yankee Manfriend being out of the house by having a date with the dog, some chinese food, wine, and a girl double feature. It felt amazing.
Exhibit B: Last night Thursday Night
Though I was tempted with a trip to Blu with the coworkers, a dinner and a movie date with Ms. Symm, and a movie date with Y.M. I decided to put myself first and stick to my original plan for the evening: Be in my pjs and in the bed by 7pm...with a Big Mac and apple pie...and watching the Wedding Planner.
And you know what...I feel much more sane because of it. :-)
So my mommy is the new social chair of her department at work. Basically this means she is supposed to bring food and bring celebrations to her department. Here's the challenge though: Because she works for the state government, she's not allowed to celebrate any holidays or birthdays for fear of alienating people due to their religious beliefs. My mommy, quite perplexed on what to do, called me for some advice.
My solution: celebrate fake holidays
You know, like National Doughnut Day or National Relaxation Day. I did a little research and discovered that there's something to celebrate almost everyday.
Here's the list, http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/index.htm, for those days that you can't find anything to celebrate. :-)
Though this summer has been full of "enlightenment," life has been crazy and blogging comes after sleep in the priority list.
I vow to pick up my blogging again in August. :-)
Everyone had that awkward stage in life. It may have been when you were 5 or it may be still happening now, but everyone has it. And as awful as it was and no matter how great a job you've done of becoming a better person, I think that it's very important to never forget that stage in your life.
Why?
Because that's where you're humility comes from.
It doesn't matter if you've become a supermodel from being a fat kid or Rico Suave from being socially awkward, you need to always remember where you came from; and more importantly how you felt during that stage.
Remembering when you were, "Fat kid," "Four-eyes," "Pizza face," "Weirdo," "Nerd/Dork/Geek," or "Freak" can keep you from getting to big for your britches and make you a better person. :-)
It's that time of year. It's getting hot and it's going to stay that way so it's time to put away the winter wear and bring out the sundresses, mini skirts, tanks, and sandals. Unless you're like me and you look in your closet and realize all you own is jeans and black dress pants...then it's time to go shopping. :-)
This week thanks to a sale and a coupon at New York and Company, I was able to get 2 pairs of shorts, 2 shirts, a belt, a pair of dress pants, and some breath mints for under $50. :-)
They are all pieces that will easily mix and match with each other and my existing wardrobe, which is the middle of being revamped. I was only able to shop effectively shop because I had done the steps 3 steps in this "5 cheap tricks to fix your closet" so I knew EXACTLY what I had in my closet and what I needed to round some outfits out.
Read through it and happy shopping.
So yesterday afternoon I realized that I spent a lot of time talking to Stepdog (Yankee Manfriend's 4 year old "puppy.") I mean A-L-O-T.
To you pet owners: You know exactly what I'm talking about.
To you non-pet owners: Don't judge. Pets are an endless stream of praise, love and affirmation and everybody needs that. (Plus pet owners live lover than non-pet owners so :-P)
I ask her questions when I'm thinking out loud. I tell her my to-do list. I ask her if she has to go to the bathroom. I ask her if she would like to go see her aunt Lisa and play with Tank and Delta. I'll ask her if she's already had dinner. I even let her choose her treat if she's been a good girl.
And do you know what I get in return?
Her version of communication: "Woof," kisses, and a whole lot of funny facial expressions. She can only say one thing and yet she always manages to communicate (and get) exactly what she wants.
You can't help but think maybe talking is a bit overrated; maybe it's actually getting in the way of us actually communicating...
I love to organize things.
I love plastic Sterilite containers.
I love matching hangers.
I love label makers.
And I love Real Simple for putting this into their email: Organize Your Closet Like a Pro
Happy Organizing.
So in an effort to get back on track with my (house)Work Wednesday Resolution I made the following three dinners in the past week or so.
* This is the one Y.M. liked the best.
What did I learn in my cooking adventures?
This weekend I'm slated to do A LOT of work. And normally I would not let anything distract me from doing that work, because I believe in doing what I promised others I will do.
However, when free tickets for the NASCAR race in Richmond became available yesterday morning, I decided that some self gratification was in order. Though I did work in the car...and all of today (Sunday)...I still think it was completely worth it spend my Saturday crossing something off my bucket list since the PERFECT situation arouse.
What was the perfect situation?
Y.M. ended up with an invite to join Neb at the race (since Lisa couldn't come because she was busy with this awesome event) at around 10am; they decided to head up together around noon, leaving me with the stepdog. As they were packing up to go, Mrs. R-D called to brag about how she, her hubby, and his coworkers had gotten free tickets to the race and knew her NASCAR fan friends would be jealous...only to find out that they were on their way there too. So they decided to meet up at the tailgate and then continued packing. Then Mrs. R-D discovered that her group had one extra ticket and asked me to go (HELL YEAH!!!.) One phone call to my mommy to make sure she could watch the stepdog, beer run, and shower later, the three of us are on the way to Richmond for my first NASCAR race. And I didn't have to do anything but sit in the car and not get lost once we got the race. :-) And the whole trip cost me less than $30.
See? Perfection.
Perhaps it was someone from above letting me know that I need to take some me time, especially when I've had a week like this past one...and I really appreciate it.
Earlier this week I was late to a meeting at work and there weren't enough chairs so I sat on the floor. During the meeting (of course as I was paying attention to everything going on in the meeting) I starting looking around at the only thing I could see: people's feet.
As I looked around I noticed something: Everyone's big toe was shorter than their second toe. And on some people's feet their big toes were really short, like even with their third toe short.
Now on my feet my big toe and second toe are the same size and if anything my big toe is a little bit longer. I know that some people have longer second toes (like my Manfriend) but I didn't realize I was so outnumbered. This got me looking into what the toe length variation means, genetically and otherwise and this is what Google told me:
Go ahead. Look at your feet.
I know you want to. :-P
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