I survived the weekend with just me and DH. I don't know if he thinks I need more attention or what, but he keeps trying to spend time with me! WTH? LOL. I'm sure that will fade away too, and he'll stay at his computer, while I'm busy trying to read my book, and leave me alone. Haha!
DD kept in contact off and on via messages and pictures from her morning hike and her evening stroll to the waterfront. She is loving it. I sent her a picture of one of our dogs sadly laying out in the driveway in her parking spot, as if it waiting and wondering when she will be home. And a picture of the yummy peanut butter cookies I made :-)
We got rid of a couple of fairly large items cluttering up our house.......in one case we've had it 20 years! What is it you ask? It's an old fax/copy machine. Quite useful in it's day, when we had our business. I think the last time it was used (and it barely works - you can send/receive like one page before the rollers jam) was a few years ago. DH was like "can't you sell it?" That gave me a good laugh. I said no, it's 20 years old and fax machines are pretty much obsolete now. We hardly even use them much at work anymore. Now we just scan stuff with our copy machine and it goes straight to email, where we can send it that way. This thing has been sitting in the corner of my bedroom, on a little table, so it could be plugged into the phone outlet. Then we got rid of our old small bird cage. Just one of those cheapy ones. I hung onto it when we got our 2nd bird (and a big, nice cage), just in case we'd need it to take a bird to the vet or to separate them for some reason. A couple years later and it's still never been touched. Plus, it wasn't too sturdy anymore.
I think my fairly new vacuum is starting to go bad on me. I have the worst luck with vacuums. They hate me. (the feeling is mutual). I knew the bag was about half full, so I did part of the house and then put in a new bag. Then it started just smearing the dog (black hair) hair all over the light carpet. I turned it over to make sure the roller was still spinning around and it was. Then I turned it off and cut and pulled all the hair and crap wrapped around the roller. Thought that would take care of it. It stopped smearing the dog hair on the carpet, but still didn't pick up much of it. Bleh!
Monday, September 29, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Lost in the changes
I changed my blog background/template and seem to have lost my followers! Oh no! I liked seeing my followers! The "widget" isn't working on my desktop, it just says "Followers" and nothing is below it. But, on my ipad mini I can see them there just fine. Hmmpf! I hate trying to figure out little glitches. Everything else seems to be working fine. I'm afraid if I delete the widget and then re-install it, I'll lose everyone.
Segue into my son, who seems to be another "lost" one. He's finally out of Canada, and back in the U.S., but still almost 1000 miles away.....again living in someone's spare room and doing odd jobs. He'll be 23 next week and just seems to be floating along getting by at the minimum. This latest move just took place less than 2 weeks ago, so not sure how long it will last. I tried to suggest he come home, get a good full time job, so he can save his money for racing or whatever, but he seems to think sporadic work, that he gets paid fairly well for, is going to come out ahead over a steady paycheck. Sorry to burst your bubble, Bud, but you aren't going to make $50k a year working odd jobs in some podunk small town. Ah well, it's his journey and lessons to be learned. I just see his friends on Facebook starting to act like adults. Either with college degree or not, they have full time jobs, one just bought his first house, another on his 2nd or 3rd promotion at his job, doing well. Another with a new baby and working hard to be responsible and take care of baby.
I only have to feel lost one more week and then DD is coming home for the weekend :-). Her roomie is making a very quick trip, for family reasons, out of the country mid week and returns Sunday evening and DD will be picking her up from the airport. Since the airport is closer to us than to college DD figures it's a good time to come home for the weekend and pick roomie up at the airport on the way back to school.
DH is just a lost cause, but he will always be, LOL He's doing fairly well with the adjustment of DD gone, so far. But, she is good about daily contact, even if it's just comments to his posts on Facebook, so that seems to keep him content. He's even been loading the dishwasher and unloaded it! I don't expect that to last, though. HAHA!
Segue into my son, who seems to be another "lost" one. He's finally out of Canada, and back in the U.S., but still almost 1000 miles away.....again living in someone's spare room and doing odd jobs. He'll be 23 next week and just seems to be floating along getting by at the minimum. This latest move just took place less than 2 weeks ago, so not sure how long it will last. I tried to suggest he come home, get a good full time job, so he can save his money for racing or whatever, but he seems to think sporadic work, that he gets paid fairly well for, is going to come out ahead over a steady paycheck. Sorry to burst your bubble, Bud, but you aren't going to make $50k a year working odd jobs in some podunk small town. Ah well, it's his journey and lessons to be learned. I just see his friends on Facebook starting to act like adults. Either with college degree or not, they have full time jobs, one just bought his first house, another on his 2nd or 3rd promotion at his job, doing well. Another with a new baby and working hard to be responsible and take care of baby.
I only have to feel lost one more week and then DD is coming home for the weekend :-). Her roomie is making a very quick trip, for family reasons, out of the country mid week and returns Sunday evening and DD will be picking her up from the airport. Since the airport is closer to us than to college DD figures it's a good time to come home for the weekend and pick roomie up at the airport on the way back to school.
DH is just a lost cause, but he will always be, LOL He's doing fairly well with the adjustment of DD gone, so far. But, she is good about daily contact, even if it's just comments to his posts on Facebook, so that seems to keep him content. He's even been loading the dishwasher and unloaded it! I don't expect that to last, though. HAHA!
Friday, September 26, 2014
Playing around with blog
Just playing around with different look on my blog. Can you tell I'm bored?! I don't think this will be the final one, but I haven't figured out enough yet on what changes I want and how to actually make them, LOL. I think I'd prefer if the background photo was one large photo, rather than a bunch of the same photo tiled.
So, here is version 1 :-)
So, here is version 1 :-)
A few wins
It was only a 4 day work week for me, but sure has felt like a 5 day one. We've had lots of rain this week. A welcome reprieve for all our lawn, trees and plants, though I'm already tired of wiping the wet dogs off when they come back in the house!
My turning the well owner into the county did the trick. As of yesterday a new well pump was installed and we now have normal and decent water pressure! Hopefully we can have a few years now without any other well issues and I don't have to deal with this annoying well owner, other than to send her my annual payment in January. I have no idea what will happen when she dies (she's 82) - the ones to take it over are her kids - the parents of the drug dealers. Nice...
My turning the foreclosed/vacant house around the corner from us into the county earlier this summer for the huge trailer load of garbage dumped there and the 3 feet high grass also did the trick. The county contacted the bank about it and they have been having someone regularly come and do yard work and keep it clean.
I reported our 2 street light issues to our power company a few weeks ago and they came out the other day to replace the bulbs, and with the new LED kind. The light out on our street between us and our good neighbor flashes off and on all night and the light at the corner has been completely out. Not something you want to have in our drug infested street. Speaking of which.....the drug traffic is back to an almost all time high the past month or so. I report it almost every day online to our police drug tip line. I sure wish this reporting did the trick, but it's all been going on a year now with no resolve. The past couple of weeks the drug house behind us has been doing banner business at their drive up window.
Here's an example of what I reported online to the drug tip line this morning - just a typical day/night on our street (that just has 3 homes on it). None of these live at the house:
Camouflage 4x4 truck - in/out 6 times
14 other vehicles in and out- all staying a minute or two
15 walkers or on bikes, with backpacks, in/out
this goes on all afternoon and night until 6:30 every morning
Seriously, if the cops spent 2 nights working all the people coming and going, they'd have enough evidence to get into this house and take care of it. SO Frustrating.
My turning the well owner into the county did the trick. As of yesterday a new well pump was installed and we now have normal and decent water pressure! Hopefully we can have a few years now without any other well issues and I don't have to deal with this annoying well owner, other than to send her my annual payment in January. I have no idea what will happen when she dies (she's 82) - the ones to take it over are her kids - the parents of the drug dealers. Nice...
My turning the foreclosed/vacant house around the corner from us into the county earlier this summer for the huge trailer load of garbage dumped there and the 3 feet high grass also did the trick. The county contacted the bank about it and they have been having someone regularly come and do yard work and keep it clean.
I reported our 2 street light issues to our power company a few weeks ago and they came out the other day to replace the bulbs, and with the new LED kind. The light out on our street between us and our good neighbor flashes off and on all night and the light at the corner has been completely out. Not something you want to have in our drug infested street. Speaking of which.....the drug traffic is back to an almost all time high the past month or so. I report it almost every day online to our police drug tip line. I sure wish this reporting did the trick, but it's all been going on a year now with no resolve. The past couple of weeks the drug house behind us has been doing banner business at their drive up window.
Here's an example of what I reported online to the drug tip line this morning - just a typical day/night on our street (that just has 3 homes on it). None of these live at the house:
Camouflage 4x4 truck - in/out 6 times
14 other vehicles in and out- all staying a minute or two
15 walkers or on bikes, with backpacks, in/out
this goes on all afternoon and night until 6:30 every morning
Seriously, if the cops spent 2 nights working all the people coming and going, they'd have enough evidence to get into this house and take care of it. SO Frustrating.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
The (fast) week off and sniffles
My week off work ended and I was back to work yesterday. The week went by so fast, even though we didn't do a lot. DD was sick with a sore throat Tues and Wed but feeling better after that. The only thing we did on Tuesday was go to her appointment to get a tattoo!! She had made the appointment over a month ago and wasn't going to miss that, haha! She got a very cute little tattoo on the back of her shoulder. It's a heart that flows into a heartbeat sign which then flows into the word "family". She loves it.
Thursday we went shopping and had lunch at a mall in a ritzy town where all the rich folks live. It had some stores we hadn't been to before - Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, etc. She wanted a new North Face jacket to take to college, so we went into The North Face store. As she was looking I spotted a purple jacket.....I had seen a North Face purple jacket in a magazine ad a year or two ago and ripped the page out of my magazine. I never did find that exact jacket anywhere online. This one wasn't the same, but I liked the color and it was a nice soft material. I've been wanting a nice soft zip up hoodie type of jacket for this fall/winter. It was $90 and I had $80 cash in my purse that I had forgotten I took out the weekend before when we tried to go to a Farmer's Market (I wanted to find a wooden windmill for our yard) but it closed for the season. So, I decided to splurge, put the "found" $80 towards it and get myself the purple jacket. The lady who was ringing our stuff up said they had just gotten the purple jackets in. When she rang it up it came to $53.99! All 3 of us said "oh!" at the same time. She said that must be a mistake, but she would go with the price. Woohoo!
Friday morning she took grandma (the one is is paying for this college!!) out to breakfast and to say goodbye. Saturday morning DD and I went to our town's Farmers Market. It was a good thing we had been before or we would have been very disappointed. There were hardly any booths at all. Maybe because it's the end of the season or maybe because there was some other big event going on that they didn't think it was worth it. But we did get 2 beautiful big bouquets of flowers for $5 each and I gave her one bouquet as a "dorm warming" gift.
The rest of the week was shopping for misc dorm stuff and packing and we left at 7am Sunday morning. We loaded up my car (a mini crossover type with good room for boxes and stuff) and I followed her up to the University. Move in started at 10am and I figured it would be a chaotic line of cars, etc. Not many where there yet and we pulled right up behind a couple others. DD went to check in and I started to unload the stuff and 3 girls came to help take it all to the room and by the time DD got back they were half done and then they all took the rest. Easy peasy, really.
Took pretty much all day to get moved in and everything set up. Lofting the beds wasn't as hard as we thought. DD is pretty handy with tools and with 4 of us (us 2 and her roommate and her mom) we got it all together. We took a lunch break and then her rommie and her mom went to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up some stuff she had ordered (she is from out of state) and it was nice to have the space to ourselves (since it's pretty small!) to get all DD's stuff unpacked an organized. They are in a suite style dorm, so they share a bathroom in the middle with 2 other girls on the other side. The closets in bathroom are pretty good sized. as well as they each get 3 big drawers in a big tall dresser. It's also a "no alcohol" dorm, so that is good and what DD wanted. She is not a partier type.
They had to go to a meeting with their floor and dinner with their floor mates, with social time after, so roomie's mom and I left for dinner and then we were sharing a hotel room for the night. She is a super nice, fun lady, and we had a great time visiting with each other and getting to know each other better.
Monday morning I picked up DD and we went shopping for a couple of hours. By then we had a pretty long list of misc stuff needed......paper towels, tape, padlock for dresser drawer, snacks, a chair to put under her lofted bed, etc. She also bought a bookcase at Target that they could set the TV her roomie was going to buy on and also gave them storage space underneath for their snacks and Keurig, etc. Roomie also bought a nice refrigerator/freezer unit. DD brought our extra microwave.
I left around 1pm. I got teary hugging her goodbye and sniffled for the next 10-15 minutes on the 2 1/2 hour drive home. Got home to our now very quiet house with no kids. But the dogs really missed me and gave me lots of attention :-)
DD called me yesterday that her 6th grade boyfriend saw her in the dining hall and came over and said hi to her. She never had any contact with him during jr. high and high school and just at the end of her tennis season he and another boy (they played on the boys team) were at one of her matches talking to the coach (she coaches boys team, too) and DD was there and it got mentioned that they were going to the same University. He talked to her yesterday and sounds like he might have talked her into joining the tennis club and gave her his phone number so they could get together some time and play tennis.
She starts classes today. She ended up taking 4 classes, as she got in the class she was on a wait list for. I'm sure this weekend it will really hit me that she is gone and I gotta go do stuff by myself. Sniff...sniff....
Thursday we went shopping and had lunch at a mall in a ritzy town where all the rich folks live. It had some stores we hadn't been to before - Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, etc. She wanted a new North Face jacket to take to college, so we went into The North Face store. As she was looking I spotted a purple jacket.....I had seen a North Face purple jacket in a magazine ad a year or two ago and ripped the page out of my magazine. I never did find that exact jacket anywhere online. This one wasn't the same, but I liked the color and it was a nice soft material. I've been wanting a nice soft zip up hoodie type of jacket for this fall/winter. It was $90 and I had $80 cash in my purse that I had forgotten I took out the weekend before when we tried to go to a Farmer's Market (I wanted to find a wooden windmill for our yard) but it closed for the season. So, I decided to splurge, put the "found" $80 towards it and get myself the purple jacket. The lady who was ringing our stuff up said they had just gotten the purple jackets in. When she rang it up it came to $53.99! All 3 of us said "oh!" at the same time. She said that must be a mistake, but she would go with the price. Woohoo!
Friday morning she took grandma (the one is is paying for this college!!) out to breakfast and to say goodbye. Saturday morning DD and I went to our town's Farmers Market. It was a good thing we had been before or we would have been very disappointed. There were hardly any booths at all. Maybe because it's the end of the season or maybe because there was some other big event going on that they didn't think it was worth it. But we did get 2 beautiful big bouquets of flowers for $5 each and I gave her one bouquet as a "dorm warming" gift.
The rest of the week was shopping for misc dorm stuff and packing and we left at 7am Sunday morning. We loaded up my car (a mini crossover type with good room for boxes and stuff) and I followed her up to the University. Move in started at 10am and I figured it would be a chaotic line of cars, etc. Not many where there yet and we pulled right up behind a couple others. DD went to check in and I started to unload the stuff and 3 girls came to help take it all to the room and by the time DD got back they were half done and then they all took the rest. Easy peasy, really.
Took pretty much all day to get moved in and everything set up. Lofting the beds wasn't as hard as we thought. DD is pretty handy with tools and with 4 of us (us 2 and her roommate and her mom) we got it all together. We took a lunch break and then her rommie and her mom went to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up some stuff she had ordered (she is from out of state) and it was nice to have the space to ourselves (since it's pretty small!) to get all DD's stuff unpacked an organized. They are in a suite style dorm, so they share a bathroom in the middle with 2 other girls on the other side. The closets in bathroom are pretty good sized. as well as they each get 3 big drawers in a big tall dresser. It's also a "no alcohol" dorm, so that is good and what DD wanted. She is not a partier type.
They had to go to a meeting with their floor and dinner with their floor mates, with social time after, so roomie's mom and I left for dinner and then we were sharing a hotel room for the night. She is a super nice, fun lady, and we had a great time visiting with each other and getting to know each other better.
Monday morning I picked up DD and we went shopping for a couple of hours. By then we had a pretty long list of misc stuff needed......paper towels, tape, padlock for dresser drawer, snacks, a chair to put under her lofted bed, etc. She also bought a bookcase at Target that they could set the TV her roomie was going to buy on and also gave them storage space underneath for their snacks and Keurig, etc. Roomie also bought a nice refrigerator/freezer unit. DD brought our extra microwave.
I left around 1pm. I got teary hugging her goodbye and sniffled for the next 10-15 minutes on the 2 1/2 hour drive home. Got home to our now very quiet house with no kids. But the dogs really missed me and gave me lots of attention :-)
DD called me yesterday that her 6th grade boyfriend saw her in the dining hall and came over and said hi to her. She never had any contact with him during jr. high and high school and just at the end of her tennis season he and another boy (they played on the boys team) were at one of her matches talking to the coach (she coaches boys team, too) and DD was there and it got mentioned that they were going to the same University. He talked to her yesterday and sounds like he might have talked her into joining the tennis club and gave her his phone number so they could get together some time and play tennis.
She starts classes today. She ended up taking 4 classes, as she got in the class she was on a wait list for. I'm sure this weekend it will really hit me that she is gone and I gotta go do stuff by myself. Sniff...sniff....
Monday, September 15, 2014
One more day and then I am off work for a whole week! I ready for some time off.........but not ready for the end of the week....saying goodbye to DD :(
I got my weekend projects completed. The front door step looks much better not all torn up and the dark brown looks much better with our tan/brown/cream house colors. It was a bit more challenging to install squares of carpet, rather than the whole one piece I have always done in the past. But, when the one area starts getting a hole from our shoes stepping on the edge, in a few years I'll just be able to replace that square, so should save me time in the long run.
I did clean that glass screen door! it's just the reflection and a reflection of the patterned door mat inside my door :-) But I need a new welcome mat. And as an accidental benefit of this carpet, I got rid of one of my biggest pet peeves! It's a bit thicker than the old carpet so now the bottom of the screen door rubs on the carpet a bit.....the screen door can slam no more! LOL
The staining of the back french door cover is done. Now we just need to figure out what type of roofing we want to put on it. Some type of corrugated polycarbonate or steel panels. Should work great to keep the rain off the doors and help keep the sun out of that room in the summer.
Now DH has another project in mind. A small cedar fenced off area (just to the right of this picture) that will kind of separate our "top yard" from the rest below the block wall and pretty much block any view we would have of our junkyard neighbor and he of us. Will make grilling out in the back much nicer next year without having to stand there and look at all his crap. It's basically a 5' cedar fence with lattice top, almost as long as our house. I think he said we'd need 4 or 5 of the 8' panels and the posts. The panels are $65, so should be able to do this project for about $400 or less. Might be a good late Fall project. After I pay for the new tires I need on my car!
I got my weekend projects completed. The front door step looks much better not all torn up and the dark brown looks much better with our tan/brown/cream house colors. It was a bit more challenging to install squares of carpet, rather than the whole one piece I have always done in the past. But, when the one area starts getting a hole from our shoes stepping on the edge, in a few years I'll just be able to replace that square, so should save me time in the long run.
The staining of the back french door cover is done. Now we just need to figure out what type of roofing we want to put on it. Some type of corrugated polycarbonate or steel panels. Should work great to keep the rain off the doors and help keep the sun out of that room in the summer.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Free stuff
DD signed up for the Amazon Student Prime free trial, which is for 6 months of free 2 day shipping. I had read somewhere on the internet that the free trial doesn't include Amazon Prime Videos, but apparently it does, because I was able to load a tv show to my computer screen to watch, at no charge. Cool beans. Now we can add this streaming option to our blu-ray dvd player, along with our Netflix subscription. I'll split the cost of the Student Prime with her ($49, I think) in 6 months, when the free trial is over. Yay, now I can finally check out Downton Abbey starting with Season 1 and see what it's all about.
And I just got a free $25 Amazon gift card through work! More cool beans. I didn't even have to do anything, other than listen in on this webinar with one of the manufacturer's we rep and they emailed everyone a $25 gift card.
I was saving up my Swagbucks to cash in closer to Christmas. I didn't realize you can only cash in for 2 Amazon gift cards per day and 5 per month, so I cashed in what I could for the $5 cards, since they are less "bucks" than the higher value cards. Then this week they had on sale for 450 swagbucks $5 Walmart gift cards, so I have requested 2 of those. Now I am back down to 300 swagbucks, but I have been averaging earning at least 50 per day and I have 300 pending from a couple of online purchases. I guess if I still want to "save up" the points I could just buy higher valued gift cards, rather than small $5 increments. I was able to use $20 of the Amazon gift card codes towards the mattress topper I ordered for DD's dorm bed.
I was a bit miffed that a discounted giftcard I ordered last Saturday for Petco still has not arrived. It says it shipped last Monday and only a few states distance mailing, so should have been here in 6 days, ya think? Pup will be out of his food probably by Monday morning. So, this afternoon I went to the nearby Petsmart. I found a $5 off natural dog food coupon online (including Blue Buffalo, the brand we use), plus it was $5 off a bag at the store, so I at least I pretty much saved the same % as I would have with my Petco giftcard. Just still miffed that now I am out double the money for 2 bags instead of one. I have sent an email into the gifcard company to see what is up. I have never ordered from this one before, so now getting a bit nervous.
And I just got a free $25 Amazon gift card through work! More cool beans. I didn't even have to do anything, other than listen in on this webinar with one of the manufacturer's we rep and they emailed everyone a $25 gift card.
I was saving up my Swagbucks to cash in closer to Christmas. I didn't realize you can only cash in for 2 Amazon gift cards per day and 5 per month, so I cashed in what I could for the $5 cards, since they are less "bucks" than the higher value cards. Then this week they had on sale for 450 swagbucks $5 Walmart gift cards, so I have requested 2 of those. Now I am back down to 300 swagbucks, but I have been averaging earning at least 50 per day and I have 300 pending from a couple of online purchases. I guess if I still want to "save up" the points I could just buy higher valued gift cards, rather than small $5 increments. I was able to use $20 of the Amazon gift card codes towards the mattress topper I ordered for DD's dorm bed.
I was a bit miffed that a discounted giftcard I ordered last Saturday for Petco still has not arrived. It says it shipped last Monday and only a few states distance mailing, so should have been here in 6 days, ya think? Pup will be out of his food probably by Monday morning. So, this afternoon I went to the nearby Petsmart. I found a $5 off natural dog food coupon online (including Blue Buffalo, the brand we use), plus it was $5 off a bag at the store, so I at least I pretty much saved the same % as I would have with my Petco giftcard. Just still miffed that now I am out double the money for 2 bags instead of one. I have sent an email into the gifcard company to see what is up. I have never ordered from this one before, so now getting a bit nervous.
Friday, September 12, 2014
It's Friday!
Made it through the work week. Our weather has still been so nice and warm and no rain in sight for another week, it appears. Looking like good weather while I am off work for a week, starting next Tuesday. Looking forward to a week off, that's for sure. I haven't taken anything more than a couple of days since last Christmas/New Year's and I have plenty of vacation days available.
I want to start doing my weekly grocery shopping on Saturday mornings, again. When DD started working most Saturday mornings, I switched to Friday afternoons, because she likes to go with me. But.....she'll be gone in a week (eek!) and early Saturday mornings are so much less crowded and makes the shopping excursion much more relaxing for me. I feel like I can better think and pay attention to my coupons and good deals when it's not so crowded.
Today DD is helping DH clean out the gutters on our house, garage and shed, so one more home maintenance project out of the way. I will be staining the new back porch add on, this weekend too. The indoor/outdoor carpet tiles I ordered in dark brown, came too, so that project is on my list. Here is the old carpeted "step" that is tearing up. Not very inviting at the front door!
Those 2 projects should keep me more than busy enough this weekend, I'd say.
DD has 2 more workshifts this weekend and then she is done with work! She is so excited to be done and more than excited to get college started. I'd say she's done well in her 2 years of working at the restaurant. She has about $12,000 in the bank! Plus one more paycheck to get before she leaves. She doesn't plan on working while at school, at least for the first quarter. She's on a wait list to add an accounting class to her schedule, which would put her at 4 classes for the quarter and should be totally do-able (most take 3 classes) since she's not working. She's currently 2nd on the wait list, so sounds like she'll probably get into it.
Yesterday was a great day at work. I was going through my commission reports and noticed a nice big commission payment we received, but the order was not in our system. Sometimes we get commissions on orders we didn't place, because it is ordered by a rep in another territory, but for a customer that is located in our territory. When that happens we usually get 50% of the commission, since it's still in our territory. This was a huge order of almost $1 million dollars! Our bonus incentive program is based on sales recorded in our system, not the actually commission dollars received on it. This sale was never recorded in our system, but it sure is now. That $1 million added to our YTD sales is a very nice boost to getting us closer to our annual goal and thereby getting a bonus this year! Yay me!
I want to start doing my weekly grocery shopping on Saturday mornings, again. When DD started working most Saturday mornings, I switched to Friday afternoons, because she likes to go with me. But.....she'll be gone in a week (eek!) and early Saturday mornings are so much less crowded and makes the shopping excursion much more relaxing for me. I feel like I can better think and pay attention to my coupons and good deals when it's not so crowded.
Today DD is helping DH clean out the gutters on our house, garage and shed, so one more home maintenance project out of the way. I will be staining the new back porch add on, this weekend too. The indoor/outdoor carpet tiles I ordered in dark brown, came too, so that project is on my list. Here is the old carpeted "step" that is tearing up. Not very inviting at the front door!
Those 2 projects should keep me more than busy enough this weekend, I'd say.
DD has 2 more workshifts this weekend and then she is done with work! She is so excited to be done and more than excited to get college started. I'd say she's done well in her 2 years of working at the restaurant. She has about $12,000 in the bank! Plus one more paycheck to get before she leaves. She doesn't plan on working while at school, at least for the first quarter. She's on a wait list to add an accounting class to her schedule, which would put her at 4 classes for the quarter and should be totally do-able (most take 3 classes) since she's not working. She's currently 2nd on the wait list, so sounds like she'll probably get into it.
Yesterday was a great day at work. I was going through my commission reports and noticed a nice big commission payment we received, but the order was not in our system. Sometimes we get commissions on orders we didn't place, because it is ordered by a rep in another territory, but for a customer that is located in our territory. When that happens we usually get 50% of the commission, since it's still in our territory. This was a huge order of almost $1 million dollars! Our bonus incentive program is based on sales recorded in our system, not the actually commission dollars received on it. This sale was never recorded in our system, but it sure is now. That $1 million added to our YTD sales is a very nice boost to getting us closer to our annual goal and thereby getting a bonus this year! Yay me!
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Danish, anyone?
Warning: if you are not interested in genealogy, or just just bored with me in general....feel free to move on to your next blog on the reading list :)
My sweet, loving Grandpa (my mom's dad) was the son of a Danish immigrant. He came to America and kind of late in life, married an American woman who had already been previously married and had children. They had my grandpa (and 2 other sons) when my great-grandfather was 44 years old. Sometime before WWII, great-grandpa Peter went back to Denmark and was never heard from again.
From my mom's records, I had his full name and date of birth. That's the only info I had, besides "Denmark" and that my grandpa was born and lived in North Dakota as a child. I found him listed in the 1920 and 1930 census's. The only other thing that came up for someone with his name and age on ancestry.com was a passenger list in 1909, listing a Peter Andersen, coming from Copenhagen, Denmark on his way to Janesville, Minnesota. Could be him. The age is right, and Minnesota is near N. Dakota, so that could have been his starting point.
Apparently Danish records are very hard to research - first it's in Danish and mostly written in cursive, so again hard to read, and anything back to the 1800's and before the names get really tricky, where they didn't use the same surname for families. For example, Peter Andersen's father's first name might have been Anders and therefore Peter might have been given the name Peter Andersen.
So, just for kicks I googled "finding Danish ancestors" and came up with a couple databases I could search (in English) so I entered in his name, Peter Jorgensen Andersen and date of birth, Feb 22, 1873. One person came up: a Peder Jørgensen Andersen, listed in 2 Danish census records for 1880 and 1890 and listing his age at those times, he could be a match. And sure, Peder is probably the Danish version of his name, changed to Peter on English speaking documents (passenger list and US Census's). The 1880 Denmark census listed him as 7 years old and listed his other family members, father (Niels Veng Andersen), mother, younger sister (Sofie Katrine - love that name!) and brother, all living in the Parish of Adslev. The 1890 census listed him also living there, but as a border in another household at age 17, occupation servant. Could be him.....and no other's were coming up with same name/age.
Could be him, might not be him. How could I know? Then I found a search where I could look at the pages of the churchbook from that parish during that time period. Since I had his exact date of birth, I might be able to find him. And I did! All written in Danish (I had to use an online translator to translate some of the words from that and the census's) but I could certainly read his name and date of birth! That meant the parents listed on the 1880 census were the right people for my great-great grandparents. They were also listed as the parents on the churchbook birth and baptism record.
So, now I knew my great-great grandfather was named Niels Veng Andersen. I knew his approx year of birth from the census. I found the churchbook from the same parish and looked through the pages and found the page with his birth year and found him listed in 1846 and baptised same year. From that I cannot read his parents name. The writing is too hard to read and I can't make out the Danish names. The only census I found him listed on had him in a household (as a 15 year old), with what appears to be his mother and a stepfather and the stepfather's mother. Trying to decipher the Danish words on the 1860 census a 28 year old was the husband/head of hous. Niels mother, listed as age 48. It lists those 2 as "married" next to their names. 20 year age difference? Plus the 28 year old's head of house's widowed mother living with them. So, from that I could not find his father and am probably at a stand still. I will probably try to see if I can find something on my great-grandfather Peder's death after the late 1930's. But, I'm still tickled pink to have found what I did (and on my own!) and since I don't speak/read Danish I'm probably done with that branch of the family tree. According to the Danish records website it's unlikely to get back farther than 200-250 years. Unless you were nobility, it wasn't recorded much prior to that, plus the surnames are all different one one generation to next. In the 2nd half of the 1800's the Denmark population was at about 2.5 million. During the 2nd half of the century 10% of the population emigrated out of Denmark, due to poverty and looking for a better life.
I enjoyed googling the parish on a map and seeing some arial and street views of the area. So pretty and green. My half sister (on dad's side) is going to see what she can find/remember on our grandmother's maiden name and see if I can find anything more on that family branch.
My sweet, loving Grandpa (my mom's dad) was the son of a Danish immigrant. He came to America and kind of late in life, married an American woman who had already been previously married and had children. They had my grandpa (and 2 other sons) when my great-grandfather was 44 years old. Sometime before WWII, great-grandpa Peter went back to Denmark and was never heard from again.
From my mom's records, I had his full name and date of birth. That's the only info I had, besides "Denmark" and that my grandpa was born and lived in North Dakota as a child. I found him listed in the 1920 and 1930 census's. The only other thing that came up for someone with his name and age on ancestry.com was a passenger list in 1909, listing a Peter Andersen, coming from Copenhagen, Denmark on his way to Janesville, Minnesota. Could be him. The age is right, and Minnesota is near N. Dakota, so that could have been his starting point.
Apparently Danish records are very hard to research - first it's in Danish and mostly written in cursive, so again hard to read, and anything back to the 1800's and before the names get really tricky, where they didn't use the same surname for families. For example, Peter Andersen's father's first name might have been Anders and therefore Peter might have been given the name Peter Andersen.
So, just for kicks I googled "finding Danish ancestors" and came up with a couple databases I could search (in English) so I entered in his name, Peter Jorgensen Andersen and date of birth, Feb 22, 1873. One person came up: a Peder Jørgensen Andersen, listed in 2 Danish census records for 1880 and 1890 and listing his age at those times, he could be a match. And sure, Peder is probably the Danish version of his name, changed to Peter on English speaking documents (passenger list and US Census's). The 1880 Denmark census listed him as 7 years old and listed his other family members, father (Niels Veng Andersen), mother, younger sister (Sofie Katrine - love that name!) and brother, all living in the Parish of Adslev. The 1890 census listed him also living there, but as a border in another household at age 17, occupation servant. Could be him.....and no other's were coming up with same name/age.
Could be him, might not be him. How could I know? Then I found a search where I could look at the pages of the churchbook from that parish during that time period. Since I had his exact date of birth, I might be able to find him. And I did! All written in Danish (I had to use an online translator to translate some of the words from that and the census's) but I could certainly read his name and date of birth! That meant the parents listed on the 1880 census were the right people for my great-great grandparents. They were also listed as the parents on the churchbook birth and baptism record.
So, now I knew my great-great grandfather was named Niels Veng Andersen. I knew his approx year of birth from the census. I found the churchbook from the same parish and looked through the pages and found the page with his birth year and found him listed in 1846 and baptised same year. From that I cannot read his parents name. The writing is too hard to read and I can't make out the Danish names. The only census I found him listed on had him in a household (as a 15 year old), with what appears to be his mother and a stepfather and the stepfather's mother. Trying to decipher the Danish words on the 1860 census a 28 year old was the husband/head of hous. Niels mother, listed as age 48. It lists those 2 as "married" next to their names. 20 year age difference? Plus the 28 year old's head of house's widowed mother living with them. So, from that I could not find his father and am probably at a stand still. I will probably try to see if I can find something on my great-grandfather Peder's death after the late 1930's. But, I'm still tickled pink to have found what I did (and on my own!) and since I don't speak/read Danish I'm probably done with that branch of the family tree. According to the Danish records website it's unlikely to get back farther than 200-250 years. Unless you were nobility, it wasn't recorded much prior to that, plus the surnames are all different one one generation to next. In the 2nd half of the 1800's the Denmark population was at about 2.5 million. During the 2nd half of the century 10% of the population emigrated out of Denmark, due to poverty and looking for a better life.
I enjoyed googling the parish on a map and seeing some arial and street views of the area. So pretty and green. My half sister (on dad's side) is going to see what she can find/remember on our grandmother's maiden name and see if I can find anything more on that family branch.
Monday, September 8, 2014
More leaks!
GOOD GRIEF!
Saturday morning, as we were decluttering and putting DS's bedroom back together (it looks really nice now, by the way) DH looks up and sees a stain in the ceiling! We have a leak in the roof, now. Apparently, there is a vent type pole coming out of the roof from the wall between his room and the bathroom. Stain was most likely painted over on the bath side in our recent remodel (and guy didn't say anything to us, of course). DH thinks he can fix it with some roof sealant around the pipe coming out. Another trip to Home Depot and $30 spent.
Then Sunday morning, just before DD was leaving for work (DH still asleep) I was in her bathroom just to double check the pipes DH fixed to make sure everything was still sealed and no leaks. I feel a bit of water on the floor behind her toilet. But, it's kind of an oily feeling water. What the heck?! Then I feel her toilet connections and feel the same thing. I assumed it was leaking now (also new toilet and connections from the remodel) but why is the water oily? I was not thrilled about having to tell DH this news when he awoke. It took every ounce of energy he had and then some on Friday to take care of the first leak and also preempt a leak in our master bath, due to that plumbing being done the same way. He was not ready to deal with another crisis.
I mentioned to DD about the oily water. She went back in her bath to finish getting ready. She figured it out! It wasn't the plumbing leaking. It was a bottle of our dogs anti-biotic tooth rinse that was up in the cupboard above the toilet. It was leaking! an oily type water! She threw it out and cleaned it all up. Whew - crisis averted!
I want no more leaky situations around here!
Saturday morning, as we were decluttering and putting DS's bedroom back together (it looks really nice now, by the way) DH looks up and sees a stain in the ceiling! We have a leak in the roof, now. Apparently, there is a vent type pole coming out of the roof from the wall between his room and the bathroom. Stain was most likely painted over on the bath side in our recent remodel (and guy didn't say anything to us, of course). DH thinks he can fix it with some roof sealant around the pipe coming out. Another trip to Home Depot and $30 spent.
Then Sunday morning, just before DD was leaving for work (DH still asleep) I was in her bathroom just to double check the pipes DH fixed to make sure everything was still sealed and no leaks. I feel a bit of water on the floor behind her toilet. But, it's kind of an oily feeling water. What the heck?! Then I feel her toilet connections and feel the same thing. I assumed it was leaking now (also new toilet and connections from the remodel) but why is the water oily? I was not thrilled about having to tell DH this news when he awoke. It took every ounce of energy he had and then some on Friday to take care of the first leak and also preempt a leak in our master bath, due to that plumbing being done the same way. He was not ready to deal with another crisis.
I mentioned to DD about the oily water. She went back in her bath to finish getting ready. She figured it out! It wasn't the plumbing leaking. It was a bottle of our dogs anti-biotic tooth rinse that was up in the cupboard above the toilet. It was leaking! an oily type water! She threw it out and cleaned it all up. Whew - crisis averted!
I want no more leaky situations around here!
Friday, September 5, 2014
Water this and Water that
It's been an all "Water" type of day. Got up early and got ready (DH too) because a guy from the county was coming out first thing to test our water pressure. But even before he came I was in DD's bathroom and noticed water on the floor in the corner next to the tub. Crap! We have a leak. We assumed it was coming from the tub faucet/behind the wall and we didn't see any water leaking under the sink. In order to get to the insides of the tub faucet you have to access it through a cut out panel from DS's bedroom....behind his big heavy desk that, since he hasn't been here for a year, has been piled with all his big trophies and misc computer crapola. I had to move it ALL out so we could move the desk from the wall. Ugh.
DH unscrews the panel and nope, nothing. No water seen. Now what? Then the guy from the county health dept shows up. Nice young guy, just learning his job and all it entails (I got that from the phone conversation I had with him last week). He attaches his little pressure gauge thingy to one of our outside faucets and it registers nothing. Well, there should be "something" - we do have some water coming out (but not much, as usual). So he grabs another gauge to screw on and it does the same thing. Then he tries 2 of our other outside faucets. Barely registers 5lbs of pressure! He says he'll go back, tell his boss and get her advice from there, but he does plan to come back on Monday, with a different gauge, because he just wants to make sure his gauge was working. Well, at least we are headed in the right direction with this water issue. I don't even think I have blogged about it the past week or two - same old same old - annoying beyond belief 82 year old water well owner who needs to replace the pump, but doesn't have $3000 to do it. We even offered to give our 1/9th share of the cost to fix it. She still has no money.
So, I reported her to the county week before last. The guy called me up last week. There is not a lot they apparently have authority to do, other than she has to have it tested annually and (new info) she does have to supply us with at least 30 pounds of water pressure. I told this to our good neighbor last weekend and he said he had a water pressure gauge, so he tried it out on his faucet and it only read 22#.
It sounds like (once this guy double checks on Monday that we really do not have much pressure) the county will than be sending her a letter telling her she is required to fix the well to provide at least 30# of water pressure.
Once he left DH had time to figure out that our bathroom leak was coming from the sink faucet plumbing and running down the wall/floor . Half-assed job done by our remodel guy, 2 trips to the hardware store later and DH basically redid the plumbing. He looked at our two sinks in our master bath - one was done correctly and one not - what the heck?!
Now it's all fixed and hopefully soon we'll have the county on the well owner and get that fixed. I have a practically brand new dishwasher and my dishes don't get clean because we don't have enough water pressure so the thing cleans like it should!
I was supposed to be working from home today. Emailed my boss that I'd be getting a late start to deal with the leak and then at 1pm emailed her back that I'm just writing today off as a vacation day. I hardly got anything done other then a few emails read/answered in between helping and running to the hardware store.
DH unscrews the panel and nope, nothing. No water seen. Now what? Then the guy from the county health dept shows up. Nice young guy, just learning his job and all it entails (I got that from the phone conversation I had with him last week). He attaches his little pressure gauge thingy to one of our outside faucets and it registers nothing. Well, there should be "something" - we do have some water coming out (but not much, as usual). So he grabs another gauge to screw on and it does the same thing. Then he tries 2 of our other outside faucets. Barely registers 5lbs of pressure! He says he'll go back, tell his boss and get her advice from there, but he does plan to come back on Monday, with a different gauge, because he just wants to make sure his gauge was working. Well, at least we are headed in the right direction with this water issue. I don't even think I have blogged about it the past week or two - same old same old - annoying beyond belief 82 year old water well owner who needs to replace the pump, but doesn't have $3000 to do it. We even offered to give our 1/9th share of the cost to fix it. She still has no money.
So, I reported her to the county week before last. The guy called me up last week. There is not a lot they apparently have authority to do, other than she has to have it tested annually and (new info) she does have to supply us with at least 30 pounds of water pressure. I told this to our good neighbor last weekend and he said he had a water pressure gauge, so he tried it out on his faucet and it only read 22#.
It sounds like (once this guy double checks on Monday that we really do not have much pressure) the county will than be sending her a letter telling her she is required to fix the well to provide at least 30# of water pressure.
Once he left DH had time to figure out that our bathroom leak was coming from the sink faucet plumbing and running down the wall/floor . Half-assed job done by our remodel guy, 2 trips to the hardware store later and DH basically redid the plumbing. He looked at our two sinks in our master bath - one was done correctly and one not - what the heck?!
Now it's all fixed and hopefully soon we'll have the county on the well owner and get that fixed. I have a practically brand new dishwasher and my dishes don't get clean because we don't have enough water pressure so the thing cleans like it should!
I was supposed to be working from home today. Emailed my boss that I'd be getting a late start to deal with the leak and then at 1pm emailed her back that I'm just writing today off as a vacation day. I hardly got anything done other then a few emails read/answered in between helping and running to the hardware store.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
I've become a Sluggy wanna-be!
I have dipped my toes into Ancestry.com! Woooo..........let me tell you, it's quickly addicting! I am a total NEWB, just started earlier today. I signed up for the 2 week free trial. For some reason I thought the free trial included international records, but no, just the U.S. My initial "interest" is in my biological father's side of the family, specifically that of his father and mother, who immigrated from Scotland when they were wee bairns.
Well, of course I didn't get too far, since I couldn't access any records from Scotland (yet.......Ha!). I was too impatient to try and read all the tutorials on learning to search and navigate and just decided to start entering info and see how far I got with them. I don't know too much info, because my parents divorced when I was 1 year old. I knew my grandparents names, my grandmas year of death and what was probably a derivative of my great-grandma's first name. I didn't find out a whole lot more. I did get my grandparents birth and death dates, but can't find anything on their marriage date, which I had hoped would lead me to my grandmother's maiden name and more family info. I did also find out my great-grandmother's "actual" first name. My mom had known it as "Anna" but the first record I found showed it as "Anniebelle", another as "Annie B." and yet another as "Annabelle". Hmmm. Dead end on getting to Scotland at that point!
So, I put in my mom's parents names, birth dates and death dates. Found all that, but again, no marriage records. I did know my grandma's parents names and WOW! It has taken off from there!! I am currently up to my 10x great grandparents - all the way back to born in 1577 Comptom, Devon, England. All this thanks to other people who have already created family trees with these relatives! So cool!.
I still have so much to learn. Like I just got more info on the 10x great grandfather - the other person's tree even had a picture of him! But, even though I linked the info the person had the picture did not transfer to my tree and now I don't know how to get back to that person's info that came in the "hint" leaf :(. Just before that all the ancestors were all in Ipswich, Massachusetts from the 1600's on. I just clicked on my 11x great grandfather info and other member trees have info and pics. I have to figure out how to save those pictures, that's for sure.
I guess the next thing will be to pay so I can try and get the Scotland side of my family info. I'll probably just pay for one month, if possible, instead of a year so I can first see how far I can get. Then I'll probably end up picking out some interesting ancestors and see what more I can find out about them.
Well, of course I didn't get too far, since I couldn't access any records from Scotland (yet.......Ha!). I was too impatient to try and read all the tutorials on learning to search and navigate and just decided to start entering info and see how far I got with them. I don't know too much info, because my parents divorced when I was 1 year old. I knew my grandparents names, my grandmas year of death and what was probably a derivative of my great-grandma's first name. I didn't find out a whole lot more. I did get my grandparents birth and death dates, but can't find anything on their marriage date, which I had hoped would lead me to my grandmother's maiden name and more family info. I did also find out my great-grandmother's "actual" first name. My mom had known it as "Anna" but the first record I found showed it as "Anniebelle", another as "Annie B." and yet another as "Annabelle". Hmmm. Dead end on getting to Scotland at that point!
So, I put in my mom's parents names, birth dates and death dates. Found all that, but again, no marriage records. I did know my grandma's parents names and WOW! It has taken off from there!! I am currently up to my 10x great grandparents - all the way back to born in 1577 Comptom, Devon, England. All this thanks to other people who have already created family trees with these relatives! So cool!.
I still have so much to learn. Like I just got more info on the 10x great grandfather - the other person's tree even had a picture of him! But, even though I linked the info the person had the picture did not transfer to my tree and now I don't know how to get back to that person's info that came in the "hint" leaf :(. Just before that all the ancestors were all in Ipswich, Massachusetts from the 1600's on. I just clicked on my 11x great grandfather info and other member trees have info and pics. I have to figure out how to save those pictures, that's for sure.
I guess the next thing will be to pay so I can try and get the Scotland side of my family info. I'll probably just pay for one month, if possible, instead of a year so I can first see how far I can get. Then I'll probably end up picking out some interesting ancestors and see what more I can find out about them.
August Savings Total
$$$$$$194.97!!
Not bad, eh! I kept track of every way I saved or earned a little extra this month. This total doesn't include buying something on sale and writing down the price difference.......I always try to buy stuff on sale when I can. This is using additional methods to save extra or earn cash back or gift cards.
Here's the breakdown:
Swagbucks: $30.00 in Amazon giftcards (thanks to the great tips from Abigail at http://ipickuppennies.net/2014/07/swagbucks-beginners/ I was really able to increase my Swagbucks earnings!)
PayPal Debit rewards 1% cash back: $20.61
Walmart Savings Catcher : $25.82
Discounted gift cards: $79.14
Coupons used:$26.81
Chase Debit Rewards: $2.59
Plink points redeemed: $10 gift card (forgot I even had this account and found out I had enough points for $10 gift cards!)
I also earned points with MyPoints, though not much, and I'm not going to count them until I redeem for a gift card.
Not bad, eh! I kept track of every way I saved or earned a little extra this month. This total doesn't include buying something on sale and writing down the price difference.......I always try to buy stuff on sale when I can. This is using additional methods to save extra or earn cash back or gift cards.
Here's the breakdown:
Swagbucks: $30.00 in Amazon giftcards (thanks to the great tips from Abigail at http://ipickuppennies.net/2014/07/swagbucks-beginners/ I was really able to increase my Swagbucks earnings!)
PayPal Debit rewards 1% cash back: $20.61
Walmart Savings Catcher : $25.82
Discounted gift cards: $79.14
Coupons used:$26.81
Chase Debit Rewards: $2.59
Plink points redeemed: $10 gift card (forgot I even had this account and found out I had enough points for $10 gift cards!)
I also earned points with MyPoints, though not much, and I'm not going to count them until I redeem for a gift card.
Monday, September 1, 2014
I put it back
Willpower can be a hard thing sometimes! I ran over to a neighborhood store this morning. They were having good sales on their bedding and I also wanted to check out their 50% off garden decor items. DD still needs a mattress topper. As I'm wandering the bedding aisles trying to find the mattress toppers (they didn't have anything I liked or in twin xl size) I come across this great deal on a king size duvet cover and pillow shams. It was in a nice bluish/teal color, with a bit of pattern in the fabric, that I thought would look great with my dark wood sleigh bed. $27 with coupon. The one I currently have is a light cream color (which does well to mix in with our yellow lab's fur color, LOL), and I have a brown blanket folded across the bottom of the bed. I decided to buy it. I liked the color and wanted a change in the bedroom.
Then I wandered over to the garden center. They didn't have much, but I did find a cute stepping stone with a hummingbird on it 50% off, for $6.50. Then I stood there and looked at the duvet cover in my hand.....did I really NEED this? No, I do not. Plus, there are other things I need to buy that are NEEDS right now....like replacing the torn carpet on our frontdoor step. So, I put it back.
Got home and ordered the self stick carpet tiles I need, for not much more than the duvet cover. I feel much better now :-). But I still kinda want that duvet cover.........oh and the new couch they had on display, that I just fell in love with! Haha!
Then I wandered over to the garden center. They didn't have much, but I did find a cute stepping stone with a hummingbird on it 50% off, for $6.50. Then I stood there and looked at the duvet cover in my hand.....did I really NEED this? No, I do not. Plus, there are other things I need to buy that are NEEDS right now....like replacing the torn carpet on our frontdoor step. So, I put it back.
Got home and ordered the self stick carpet tiles I need, for not much more than the duvet cover. I feel much better now :-). But I still kinda want that duvet cover.........oh and the new couch they had on display, that I just fell in love with! Haha!
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