(NEW) SMART SPENDING CHAT THREAD

[Blonde Granny]

Nov 27, 2018 15:45:54 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

I'm still remembering how it felt to have David Crosby hug me.     Is that a bad thing?

Can you tell nobody hugs me these days?

Don't feel alone.....no one ever hugs me either.

[TheOtherMe]

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I don't liked to be hugged.

Happy Hanukkah!

[TheOtherMe]

I do.  Lucy does a very good job, but it isn't the same as another person.

[Blonde Granny]

Another person as in a guy....about 6'3" tall, cute, well dressed, smart, super nice car, graduate degree and has all his own teeth in perfect condition. Did I leave anything out?

Yes, I did leave something out....has lots and lots of money and doesn't mind spending it.

[Sharon]

They are in the process of putting down the new carpet and vinyl in my house.  In the hallway the carpet is going up the sides of the walls because they haven't tucked/stretched it yet.  Oreo is ripping up and down the hallway and I believe that she thinks I have now added scratching post walls all the way down the hall.

[chapeau]

Dec 3, 2018 22:19:27 GMT -5 Sharon said:

They are in the process of putting down the new carpet and vinyl in my house.  In the hallway the carpet is going up the sides of the walls because they haven't tucked/stretched it yet.  Oreo is ripping up and down the hallway and I believe that she thinks I have now added scratching post walls all the way down the hall.

Oreo’s best Christmas ever. A whole hallway to scratch!!

[NastyWoman]

Dec 3, 2018 14:51:16 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

Another person as in a guy....about 6'3" tall, cute, well dressed, smart, super nice car, graduate degree and has all his own teeth in perfect condition. Did I leave anything out?

Yes, I did leave something out....has lots and lots of money and doesn't mind spending it.

You still missed one. While a nice car and all that other stuff is nice... it is mandatory that cute guy is nice

[catsareme]

Oh, and a sense of humor please.....

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

One of my foster kittens died, and I've been really sad about it ... we had her for four months and we tried everything. I've fostered almost 200 kittens and this is the first one that I've lost. (We adopted her brother, Bear, so he's been a good comfort.)

We did some yard work today ... trimming bushes, raking leaves, and picking some grapefruit off the tree. We also filled up bird feeders and put some nuts out for the squirrels. It was overcast most of the day, but the sun came out just as we finished ~ and it was nice watching all those happy, chirpy birds enjoying some lunch. (We get a lot of wintering goldfinches in this part of California.)

It was busy Friday and Saturday at the adoption center, with fosters bringing in kittens for vaccinations as well as some adoptions. It's always nice to see happy families excited about happy kitties, you know?

My wonderful DH has this next week off (he took leave) but will go in on Wednesday to get some paperwork done. It should be quiet at work for him and assuming he doesn't have computer issues, he won't have to stay the whole day.  On Tuesday, we're having dinner at a friend's house ... we stayed home on Thanksgiving, but she won't let us stay home Thanksgiving AND Christmas. (She's a friend of mine from college and lives near us.)

We've got some showers scheduled for Monday and next Sunday, according to the 10-day forecast. Highs in the 50s, lows mostly in the 30s. Sounds like an Alaskan cold front.

For those that are celebrating anything this month, happiest of holidays!

[TheOtherMe]

I've been following the journey of your foster.  I'm so sorry, Molly.  I know it's hard.  

I follow Beth Stern on Instagram and see the ones that she loses.  It hurts every single time.  She has helped a police officer in Florida start fostering and she has lost a couple of kittens, too.  It's so difficult.  

Happy holidays to each and every one of you.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Thanks, Theo.

We ventured out today to shop for a large, blue planter-pot for our front porch area. We located one at a local pot store ~ it's 200 lbs and needs to be delivered. It's blue. (Pots are surprisingly pricey for glazed cement ones!) We then popped by Home Depot for bagged sand for the pot. Finally, we went treasure hunting at Grocery Outlet and picked up some yummy things for this week. We used the $350 VISA gift card we got for a focus group for this project.

Adding up, looks like we made $760 this year in focus groups

My wonderful DH's dad sent us two $100 Amazon gift cards for the holidays ~ so we've got those to play with, too.  And I got a $50 gift card (restaurants/movie) from the cat rescue, too! (Employees get $$ bonuses, but I'm a volunteer so I got a gift card!)

Last night, we let Bear (5 month old kitten) sleep with us. Well, let's just say he's a purring pincushion.

We're forecast for the chance of rain ... 43% chance at 7pm. ... it's rather entertaining how precise that prediction is. Heh heh heh . 

Tomorrow, we're heading over to Mark+Stacey's for the annual holiday dinner with her family/parents. (Some years we do Thanksgiving and Christmas with them, other years, we can only handle once. We skipped Thanksgiving, so we're going for Christmas.)  Having dinner with her parents is a lot like having dinner with loud, grouchy, opinionated curmudgeons who want to argue and debate EVERYTHING.  Stacey begs me ahead of time NOT to start debating religion or politics with him, but sometimes I just can't help myself. (He's a Baptist pastor and to the right of ... well, everyone. Seriously. Everyone.)  Anyway, I've promised to behave myself.  The best part? They aren't MY family, hee hee hee.

Kittens Pepper and Bear are currently racing around the house ... which is fun to watch.

[3catslady]

Merry Christmas, everyone.  Hope to be back here next year.

[TheOtherMe]

I love kittens.

Took a nap this afternoon and woke up to Lucy sleeping tucked up under my chin.  Then I couldn't move until she woke up.  

[Sharon]

❤ mollymouser ❤ I too had been following along with how Bri was doing.  She truly was fortunate to be so well loved and so well taken care of when she wasn't feeling well.

Tomorrow we will have two little people for Christmas a two year old and one year old.  Oreo does pretty well with DGD, the 1 year old, we shall see how she does being double teamed.  She of course always has the option to disappear into the bedroom or under the couch.  Last time DGD was over Oreo ran her tail across DGD's face.  She wasn't sure about that, it was kinda funny and at the same time weird.  She made a face and rubbed her face and then we got a laugh.

[TheOtherMe]

I have a wand toy that I give to young kids to play with Lucy.  That way they aren't in her face, which she does not like.  The kids get tired of it before Lucy does.

[Sharon]

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Hope everyone had a nice day today. We did.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

It's nice and sunny here today, which makes me smile. I've got a garden pot being delivered after 3pm (it weighs 200 lb) ~ it's blue. I did some banking and bill-paying today, and had leftovers for lunch. Since our trash wasn't picked up yesterday, it's today ... so I need to bring in cans, too.

[TheOtherMe]

My recycling still hasn't been picked up.  I know they were doing a double route today, but it is almost dark.

They must have started in my town for trash because it was gone when I went for gas a little after 8 AM.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I spent the day in my jammies. Dinner was leftovers.

[TheOtherMe]

I spend most days in my jammies.  

[Sharon]

Our garbage pickup will be one day late again this week.  I guess rather than do double routes they just push everyone out a day and the Friday people have pickup on Saturday.  Today I went to the and got rid of some very large stuff.  It was packed, who knew the was such a happening place.

Some nice young men next to me helped me unload the very large stuff.

[TheOtherMe]

Ours is late, but it's a small company so the route is doubled up.  

The salt for my water softener will be delivered tomorrow, instead of Tuesday.  

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I've spent the last two days in comfy clothes, watching HBO's Game of Thrones marathon ~ it's been nice. We're in the 30s overnight (still), so we've been catnapping Jack and locking him on our Catio where we've got a heated place for him to snuggle down and sleep. We let him out in the morning. He does NOT want to come inside because he's not a fan of other cats.  Despite the weather, we've still got blooming morning glories, blooming sunflowers, blooming daisies, pineapple sage and yellow daisies (euryops) ... but I expect that they won't last much past this week.

We're going to a friend's house on New Year's Eve for an Open House ~ just a quick visit. On New Year's Day, we're heading back to my friend Stacey's house for a mid-afternoon "pajama party" (we're all supposed to wear pajamas) for some sort of egg casserole. I doubt her parents will wear their jammies ... but I've got several sets of "lounge pants" that will do the trick quite nicely.

Tonight's dinner is leftovers. We had italian food last night, but didn't eat the pasta that accompanied the main dishes ~ so we've got lots of penne pasta in a marinara sauce. We'll add some Italian chicken sausages to that and a salad ~ and dinner's done. Since it's Sunday night, there's a new episode of Outlander on at 8pm on Starz. (I love the show ~ then again, I loved the books the show is based on.)

I've got some banking to do tomorrow ~ it's the last payday of the year.

[TheOtherMe]

I might actually got to a pajama party!

[Peace77]

I got rewarded for speaking up today. I was grocery shopping and I noticed that a package of turkey ham was way past expired so I informed the worker who had just helped someone else. I also told him that 3 more packages were expiring tomorrow. He told me to wait, that he would mark them down. He marked them down with a portable label maker. I thanked him him and told him that every bit helps as I was buying for a needy family. He quickly marked all 3 packages down again. I was happy and the family was thrilled.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

My wonderful DH is an incredible, delightful man who provides beautifully for our family. He also appreciates my desire to be frugal/thrifty when possible, and to stick to and follow a zero-based budget. After months of investigating and research, he approached me yesterday ~ WITH CHARTS ~ explaining how he's figure out a way to save us money on our cell phone while upgrading from my beloved Samsung T-Mobile Flip Phone to an I-Phone 8s with Infinity. I should note that we share a flip phone since he has a work-issued Smart Phone ~ so he's very familiar with Smart Phones and I am a complete novice. Anyway ... we pay about $50 a month for T-mobile. But since we have Infinity bundled for internet, cable, phone ~ and they have a special deal ~ he went today and bought an I-Phone 8s for $700 from them. In a few weeks, they will send us a $200 gift card ... making the phone $500. We have cancelled T-Mobile (12 months x 50 = 600). The cost of the cell phone coverage is something we're already paying for with Infinity, so we will break even in less than a year. (So he has explained to me, three times, with me looking at him with an "I'm so confused" look!) Anyway, we've cash-flowed the phone and I now have a brand new phone that I have absolutely no idea how to use. Hooray for technology. And being thrifty, I think.

And, yes, we went online and ordered a really good case for the phone... plus a Wifi charger, too.

Rainy and windy today ~ it wrecked one of our patio umbrellas up front. We put it down, but it's still out front since it was pouring rain.  I went online to Amazon and spotted a royal blue one that I really liked, but it was pricey. Then I noticed Amazon was selling a used one for 1/3 the cost, so I've crossed my fingers and ordered it. I opted for No Rush shipping (since that gets us a $1 video credit) ... it will be here in a week.

Busy Friday and Saturday at the Adoption Center .... 4 adopted on Friday and 4 adopted on Saturday.

[TheOtherMe]

When I got my first smart phone, an iPhone, I hung up on some calls when I tried to answer the phone.  

It's rainy and windy here today.  

I bought Lucy a catnip toy on Etsy.  So far, she likes the envelope it came in and the tissue paper it was wrapped in.      Hopefully, she figures out the toy.

[Sharon]

I haven't joined the smart phone party yet but will be soon.  If I have a smartphone and this special app, that provides the top secret code, I can take my lap top home and work from home if it looks like the weather is going to be really bad.

Yesterday's commute brought unexpected ice and was really nasty.  I saw a car in the ditch.  We got word today that another lady who works there, I didn't know her and had never met her, ended up in the river.  They are working on pulling her vehicle from the river, no word yet on if she was in the vehicle or not.