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Home > Archive: June, 2014

Archive for June, 2014

Stupid Commercials!

June 29th, 2014 at 07:18 pm

Stupid commercials are getting on my nerves.

Marie Osmond’s Nutrisystem ad is like fingernails on a chalkboard (wonder how long I will be able to use that simile?). She states that one day she discovered she was 50 pounds overweight. Really? She didn’t notice it before? How stupid does she think I am? I am overweight and believe me, it isn’t something I just discovered. Sheesh!

The ad about someone checking their credit score is about as ignorant. The father said he cosigns a credit card for dear daughter and her not making payments has messed up his credit score and now he can check it. Let’s see, daughter dear didn’t pay so he’s worried about his credit score and not the fact daughter can’t handle money? Dear dad must not be too bright to cosign anyway and possibly he didn’t raise daughter to handle money.

I understand the concept of commercials…they pay for time so we can have programs and they hope they entice us to buy what they are selling. Persuasive writing at its finest.

I have a real problem with Fred Thompson and Henry Winkler using their “credibility” to sell reverse mortgages. A lot of people know these actors and consider them trustworthy. Personally, I feel like they are selling out for buck. I get the need to make money, but I wonder how many people because they like these personalities are getting these reverse mortgages?

Same thing with some actor pushing silver. He goes on with the scare tactic of how nothing is safe, but silver is and what a great investment it is. Hasn’t silver dropped lately?
I was thinking back at some commercials I didn’t dislike like the “I’m a Pepper” and Coke’s “I’d like to teach the world to sing.” Both were to sell products and I imagine they got on people’s nerves too. I used the first one as part of a persuasion lesson with some classes a year or so ago at school and every staff member informed me they held me responsible for not getting that song out of their head that day!

Well, I’ve ranted. Best way to stay away from commercials is to turn media off and go read a book!

The garden is starting to pay off

June 25th, 2014 at 12:19 am

My dear husband has a very small area for a garden, but what he does have, he makes good use of. He was delighted tonight to bring in 5 ripe cherry tomatoes. With the lettuce and radishes from his garden, it made a nice salad for our supper.

I tried a new recipe tonight called parsley potatoes. DH planted parsley and I wanted to use some of it. He liked the recipe. I found it on this site:

http://www.copykat.com/2011/09/27/parsley-potatoes/

I also made herb biscuits with some of the herbs he has planted. The biscuit recipe is simple -- 1 cup of flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, 3/4 cup milk, 2 tablepoons of may, 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Mix together and bake in a greased muffin tin. I have baked them at 400 degrees and today I baked them at 325...just extended the length of the time ... I had them with turkey tenderloins as well as green beans and it made a good meal and lots of leftovers.

We recently returned from vacation. We saved and paid cash for the entire thing. It was a bus trip with a church group and we have traveled with them before. We had a great time and some fabulous meals. We toured the Biltmore, Charleston, Savannah, and Chattanooga. It was nice trip, but I am so happy to be home. A dear friend watched over DH's garden and watered from our rain barrel and things look lush.

DH has planted green onions, carrots, and bell peppers too and we look forward to enjoying those in the future. We planted garlic last fall and hope we get a good crop of that as well. It's nice eating homegrown stuff. And eventually, it pays for itself.

I may regret this in the morning

June 9th, 2014 at 03:01 am

Ever notice how things seem like a good idea at the time? We went for a long bike ride today. I've been wanting a bike for a long time. I used to ride one for pleasure years and years ago, but between moves and this and that, my bike disappeared. My parents may have sold it.

Anyway, I have wanted one and DH and I bought bikes and helmets Friday and went for our first ride together. He was worried he wouldn't remember how; he said he hadn't been on a bike for over 50 years.

Fortunately he did and no training wheels needed. No ride last night because it started raining yesterday afternoon.

My husband is a walker and everyone is asking him if he's giving it up to ride his bike, but he said no, just to add to his exercise. I have an exercise bike I have been using, but it isn't the same as riding the real thing on rises and pavement.

Could we afford them? Yes. It wasn't an impulse buy. And we think that the exercise will also be beneficial. I don't regret the purchase.

As for the morning, we may be sore and may regret the longer ride tonight.

Using up bits and pieces

June 6th, 2014 at 03:09 am




It is Thursday which means I use up what we have before getting ready to grocery shop. Supper was bits and pieces. I had some dry pasta in the pantry. I had leftover sausage and tomato sauce in the fridge as well as different types of cheese. So, I put the pasta in boiling water and crumbled up the sausage and added it to the tomato sauce. I did have to add some tomato sauce to the mixture that wasn't leftovers. I mixed this together with the drained pasta and put cheese on top. I baked it for 35minutes at 350. After taking from the oven, I put chopped parsley and cilantro on top.

I picked lettuce and radishes and with a tomato I had on hand I made a salad.

Not a bad supper and easy on the pocket book!

Spending and saving as well as cooking

June 2nd, 2014 at 07:47 pm

School is out and it is nice to know I can sort of take it easy for awhile.

Of course, Thursday was my first day off and we ran like crazy people. Not because we wanted to, but things came up at the last minute. My husband's high school principal died and he really wanted to attend the visitation. The man had a long, healthy life and died at 97...it was a good way for DH to remember him and the good memories of his high school days. Plus, he saw some of his classmates at the visitation.

I think one of the best things about being off is getting to do things around the house at a much more relaxed pace. It is nice shopping for different foods knowing I don't have to rush home and fix them after work. And I don't have to have a cleaning marathon every weekend.

DH had his yearly physical Friday morning so I went to Aldi while he was out. I found turkey tenderloins which are seasonal. I grilled them Saturday night as well as grilling potatoes and zucchini so I didn't heat up the house. I was as excited about this meal than if we had gone out to eat at a fancy restaurant. They were good -- I grilled them and then added barbecue sauce right before I took them off. Moist and flavorful and enough for at least another meal.

I was teasing DH we spent big money today. Actually, we did. Our property taxes are due. But, it is nice to know I could just take the money out of savings and pay them and it was taken care of. We also put money in our different savings accounts. We have a lot of different accounts...one is our basic emergency account, we have one we are using for home improvements and we call it our new roof account at this point. We have a vacation account and a Christmas club account and then there is a basic savings account we sometimes put money in just to keep it active. Someone told us we were crazy to have so many accounts, but I explained it helped us plan for things. We know we have a certain amount of money for vacation so if we didn't save enough, it means our spending stops and we don't do as much or go as far. We have a Christmas club so we have a set limit to spend and aren't tempted to spend more. Actually, DH uses half of it for Christmas and half of it for my birthday since my birthday is less than 12 days after Christmas. Of course the same friend who was telling us we didn't need all these accounts is the person who eats out at least once a day and puts everything on a credit card. Think I'll keep my multiple accounts and pay cash.