Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Woot

Woot just played the first April Fools trick....fake bag of crap

Not cool Woot

Scammers

Extraordinary Mommy blog just posted a blog about fraud. It reminded me of something that happened to my dad. I left it in her comments but wanted to leave it for all of my readers also.

A few years ago, I got into pen palling, finding people online but writing real letters. Well one day, I got a call from a guy asking to be my friend. I asked how he got my number...my dad had given it to him. Thankfully the guy was harmless and I asked him to just please not call me again, and he listened. But I asked my dad what happened, and he said the guy had called asking for me and my dad said "you have the wrong number, here is her number". I told my dad anyone who is my actual friend knows my parents are divorced and would never call him for me. Since then, he has told me when people called, but he has always told them they had a wrong number.

Now, I enter contests. A few weeks ago, my dad got a call saying I had won a contest but they needed his card number. So he gave it to them!!!!!! The next morning he told me about it and I told him I never put his info down at all, and to never give out his card number again. Thankfully he called his bank to cancel his card and no money had gone missing.

I hate these scammers because they get genuinely nice people like my dad. He gave them the number because he didn't want me to lose out on a contest. :(

I hurt my thumb

It feels like I pulled a muscle in my thumb. I can't figure out anything closer to what the pain feels like. But it happened while I was doing nothing. It just started hurting a lot!

This stinks.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Food Journaling

Well, it's official, my pants are tight. They still fit, but they used to be loose!

So starting with my breakfast, I am going to keep a food journal. I did this once before and it worked really well. Even after I stopped keeping it, I kept to what I was eating (to be honest I wasn't really hungry for more).

Has anyone else done this or any alternative to it? I have also counted calories online but it took up a ton of time and wasn't any more effective than the food journal.

Should I keep my journal on my blog or private??

Wish me luck!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Paradise Cafe

Since I wrote that horrible review of Jungle George a short time ago, I thought I would balance it with an awesome review of Paradise Cafe in Santa Barbara.

Paradise Cafe is located in downtown Santa Barbara, but off of the main street. It is a big restaurant with a huge bar area, outdoor seating and indoor seating. The bar area is it's own room so if you aren't in there, you don't have to listen to it.

Their menu is decent-sized with a good variety of items. I ordered a turkey burger, as seems to be my usual lately. When I asked the waiter what came on it, he was able to tell me AND get me the mayonnaise that I wanted substituted. Such a nice change :)

There was tons of staff around, checking on us and refilling our drinks (and we EACH received one).

If you're looking for a nice, reasonably-priced restaurant in Santa Barbara, look no further than Paradise Cafe.

What I Actually got at the Garage Sales

No Bike :(

But......I found a ton of reading books and a few great looking puzzles.

And...a ton of cookbooks. I can't wait to try out all of the recipes!!

Garage Sales

I am up this early to go to Garage Sales. I love deals!!!!!!

This morning I am specifically looking for a bicycle. I think it would be one more fun thing to add into my exercise thing.

At all garage sales, I look for reading books, cookbooks, board games and video games, puzzles and just keep my eye out for anything else that looks cool.

There aren't really good garage sales during the winter so this is my first one in a while.

I am sooooooooo excited!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Crossword puzzles

Ok, I gave in and looked up blog writing prompts. I found one I liked asking about my hobbies. I picked crossword puzzles.

My dad has been doing crossword puzzles for as long as I remember, but they always seemed so hard to me. But one day, my 12th grade English teacher gave us a "free" day and handed out a few crossword puzzles for us to do. Since I didn't really have anything else to do, I gave it a try. I got some answers on my own. But then he helped me understand how the clues needed to be read and I was able to solve more. Since then, I've been hooked.

I buy crossword puzzle books, calendar-a-days and crossword puzzle dictionaries. I have tried them online also but prefer doing hard copies.

Do any of you like crossword puzzles?

Thursday, March 26, 2009

New laptop!!!!

When I originally ordered my new laptop, they gave an estimated arrival date of April 6. So I was sad but then promptly pushed it to the back of my mind. Then this morning my friend IMd me to ask if I had my new laptop. Just to humor both of us, I decided to go check on the status. Imagine my surprise when it said it was on the van ready to be delivered.

I get everything delivered to a po box (through the UPS store) so I went there to ask them when their deliveries were. So....at 4:30 pm...I headed back there to pick up my brand-new laptop!!!!!

It's a bit big but it is beautiful! It looks so sleek and pretty. I should probably have taken a picture to go with this post but I'm not that fancy yet. But it's all black. And it's the Dell Inspiron 15 if you want to just google a picture of it.

Wish me luck with this one, the last one was such a disappointment!

Woot-off

There has been a woot-off going since last night. If you've never been to woot.com, you should definitely check it out. They have a different item on sale each night, but they also have a shirt site, a wine site, and a sellout site.

During the woot-off, they list many items, putting up a new item each time the old item sells. They have something called a bag of crap which I have been trying to get since I started participating in woot-offs. It is $1 and contains random stuff. Sometimes it's junk and sometimes it's treasure.

Wish me luck!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Criminal Minds

I love renting TV shows from Netflix. I don't have to fast forward through commercials or wait for next week's episode. I get to watch many episodes all in a row (especially when I have multiple discs at a time).

I decided to move Criminal Minds to the top of my queue. There are so many good tv shows and movies that I can never decide what to watch. But, I always love Criminal Minds and how they are able to solve the crimes so I went with that one.

Does anyone have any suggestions for my next rentals?

Blogging every day

I am not a natural at writing. I like to do it but it doesn't always come so easily to me. So, where do you guys get ideas of what to blog about? My life isn't exciting enough to blog about it every single day!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Breakfast

I am tired of my same few breakfasts. I don't really like to cook in the morning so it limits my options. I normally have a bowl of cereal, an english muffin, or a bagel. But, I have been having these things every morning for way too long. What does everyone like to eat for breakfast that might be a nice alternative to the three things I mentioned? Thanks!!!!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Win a Tupperware Pitcher

Audrey's Spot blog is giving away an awesome pitcher from Tupperware.

For your first entry, comment with your favorite beverage that you might store in the pitcher.

For extra entries you can become her friend on facebook, join At Home Resources message board (a personal favorite of mine), make a purchase from Audrey's Tupperware store and/or sign up for her monthly newsletter.

To enter, click here.

Contest ends April 5 at 11:59 pm pst.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

100th Post

Wowee, this is my 100th post on my blog. I was gonna write asking people's feelings about being charged for guacamole at restaurants (sometimes $1.50 for a SMALL scoop), but that doesn't seem worthy of a 100th post.

So in addition to that, I would just like to thank all of my readers/followers for supporting me. Even if you're just briefly stopping by, leave a comment and say hi. Comments are really special to me :)

Friday, March 20, 2009

"Mosquito Eaters"

OMG

I thought those huge bugs all over my house were what they are called, mosquito eaters.

Turns out...that's a slang term. They are really crane flies and the adults don't eat anything at all.

So much for my theory that I like them because they kill mosquitoes. Can we kill all of them now???

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Natasha Richardson

I am actually really sad about the passing of Natasha Richardson. Yes, she was a good actress. But more importantly, she was FINE one second and brain-dead and then dead the next. It really shows us how brief our time on this earth can be.

So yeah...just kinda sad over it.

New Computer

I did it, I ordered a new computer. My dad brought over the newspaper on Sunday and a Dell ad almost fell out at me. Dell is doing 10 days of deals (but it's almost over) and they had an Inspiron 15 on sale for $479 (normally $699). I hemmed and hawed and then gave in and bought it. When am I going to find a better deal on a decent computer? It has a decent processor, plenty of RAM and a bigger hard drive than my last laptop.

Now, I just have to wait to receive it. It has an estimated ship date of March 31 with an estimated arrival of April 6 (even tho I picked 2 day shipping).

I'm so excited!!!!!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Jungle George Grill

My mom wanted to try out a new restaurant last night, Jungle George Grill in Goleta. IT WAS TERRIBLE.

Ordering did not go well. The girl had a really hard time. My mom wanted a burger that was normally with chicken, but she wanted meat instead. The lady never asked her how she wanted it cooked. My dad then ordered a bison burger, that seemed to go okay. I then ordered a turkey burger with guacamole and cheese. I happened to look at the top of the menu and saw it appeared to come with a ton of other toppings. I pointed up there, asked the girl if it came with all those things, and then told her I only wanted lettuce. I asked if they had mayonnaise and she said no, they only had home-made thousand island. What burger place doesn't have mayonnaise? I then also noticed you had a choice of buns, so I chose wheat. My mom then realized she wanted wheat and asked for wheat as well. The girl NEVER offered us a choice of buns. We also ordered two orders of fries. At the end of ordering, she said something about two waters. My dad said, "That's three waters, right?". She said yes.

A short time after we sat down, a lady (not the one who took our orders) brought out two waters and walked away. We weren't sure if she was coming back with a third, but she never did. The same lady then came to deliver our food. She put down my dad's burger no problem. But then, she said something about a plain chicken burger. Well, I had ordered a mostly plain turkey burger and my mom had ordered what started as a chicken burger but substituted beef. So no one know what burger this was. The lady then decided it was turkey and said I ordered it plain. Well, it had cheese on it so it wasn't plain. But, it was missing the guacamole and lettuce. So either they thought it was plain or they didn't. I kind of lost my cool with her at that point. She said it wasn't a big deal to fix the burger, but I also pointed out we had received two waters for three people. At this point she offered us a free soda to try to help, but I don't drink soda so not helpful! After we all had our burgers in front of us (my mom's didn't have a wheat bun but she had no desire to argue with them anymore), the lady asked us if we needed anything else. We said we wanted our fries. She said, "Oh, those are coming". Well, why would you ask people if they wanted anything else when they didn't even have all of their food yet????

So while the food was okay (not great by any means), wow, what a hassle. We will definitely never go back there and will tell people how terrible they are.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

My laptop died

My laptop died Saturday night. I'm pretty bummed about it. I've only had it 18 months. I am on my sister's old laptop but it's also a CRAPPY HP. They should really just stick to printers!

I was actually depressed about it Sunday but I think I am starting to feel better. The computer guy from work is transferring all my files to my mom's external hard drive.

If anyone knows of any GREAT laptop deals, let me know :)

Friday, March 6, 2009

Oops

I completely forgot to blog for a few days. I think Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are just really busy days for me. I work a lot all 3 days.

We had a speaker at my work the other day, and he was great. He said one thing that really stuck out to me, "When you hold onto a grudge, it is like you are letting the person you dislike the most live rent-free in your head." I have someone in my life who I just can't stand so this really hit home for me.

I am really addicted to using my DVR and am finally watching "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon". It seems okay but not exceptional. Did anyone else watch this and if so, what did they think about it?

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Tupperware

Right now, Tupperware is having a sale on their 11 piece freezer square round set. It's a $138 value marked down to $55. These stackable storage containers save space in your freezer. Their rounded corners allow faster, more efficient freezing and thawing. They come in fun colors and are dishwasher safe!

They are also having a sale on their Heat N Serve (formally known as Vent N Serve) 7 piece set. They are a $119 value marked down to $59.50. These containers are very similar to the above ones, but they are microwave safe!!!!

If you are interested in these great deals, click here.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Food

I am a big junk food junkie. I'm always looking for ways to be healthier without being miserable or starving. I decided to only eat dessert on the weekends. I've only been doing it for a few days but it has been working.

But now I sit here after lunch, hungry. I ate a grilled cheese, 100 calorie chips and mandarin orange for lunch. My mom just told me that really isn't very much food.

So now I ask, what are filling foods that are fairly healthy? I don't like many fruits and veggies so it makes things difficult.

Thanks for any and all advice!!!!!!!