3 days of sad, happy, lucky, productive & frugal things!
Because I'm writing this on March 17, I'll begin by saying happy St. Patrick's Day! :) My userpic today is a pic I took of one of my trinket boxes, this one with hand-carved and painted Celtic knotwork, one of my fave motifs! Now for a quick wrap-up of the weekend, including Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was for the most part a very good weekend!
Friday, March 15 was the one-year anniversary of my dad Al's passing. :'( I spent the day w/ my mom in San Jose. In some ways it feels like my dad's death was a long time ago. In other ways, it feels like it was just yesterday. Weird. But I'm sure everyone who has lost a loved one, or even a close friend, knows what I'm talking about. He passed away of pneumonia complicated by advanced COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which often has components of both emphysema and chronic bronchitis). My dad was lucky to live to 89! In his younger years he smoked like a chimney -- 3 to 5 packs a day!!! -- which is why he developed COPD later. This is why I feel so emotional when I see younger people smoking. :( Not everyone will go on to develop COPD or the even worse disease of lung cancer, but smoking INCREASES THE RISK many, many times! So if you smoke and have even just tossed around in your mind the idea of quitting, please KEEP tossing the idea around! :) And please consider talking about it with your doctor or nurse practitioner. Talking doesn't commit you to quitting; there's nothing wrong with just talking, but it MIGHT lead you to taking the next step, like joining a support group, weaning yourself off smoking by using nicotine gum or skin patches, etc. All I ask is that you THINK about the idea of quitting, and see where that thought might take you. *hugs* Hopefully I've said all this in a way that doesn't sound like a nag, because I know from personal experience (not w/ smoking but w/ other things) that nagging is the LEAST likely way to motivate anyone to do anything! heh
Saturday, March 16, Shawn and I had breakfast at once of my fave restaurants, IHOP. We went there because I belong to their email club and I got an email coupon good ONLY over the St. Patrick's Day weekend. It was the first of several examples of frugality this weekend. :) If you bought one entree and two beverages, you got another entree free! It was good for breakfast, lunch or dinner, but as is our usual M.O. we went there for breakfast. I had the "Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity" breakfast, which I haven't had in quite some time. I know, it sounds like the type of name I'd make up, but that's really the name of it! LOL! When we got home, Shawn moved the front lawn while I collected large- to medium-size sticks and twigs from the walnut tree in the backyard. Then Shawn moved the backyard (sans the limbs that would've hurt the lawn mower) while I swept the front step, walk, driveway and sidewalk from his lawnmower leavings. When he was done in the backyard, I then did a sweeping job back there. We were very productive working together!
Later, because we got such an early start to the day and because it was such a beautiful day, we took a motorcycle ride to Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo. Believe it or not, I've never been to there before. Shawn showed me the amusing Benny Bufano sculptures that have been inside the mall since his childhood. We had lunch in the food court at Rollerz, which I think is associated with Surf City Squeeze, as that was the name on their cups. We each got a fruit smoothie (Shawn orange-pineapple-coconut and me peach-guava) and we shared of their specialty wraps (lettuce, tomato, avocado, turkey and bacon -- basically like a club sandwich!) We had all that and a bag of chips! *giggle* Then we went to Macy's where I found some (ahem!) feminine apparel that was PURPLE and was actually in my size, which is lucky in and of itself! Then it turned out the merchandise was on sale. AND then I checked the Shopular app on my smartphone and saw that Macy's was running a 20% off coupon just for Shopular users and just over the St. Patrick's Day weekend. So we saved even more money! (This app is awesome; just visit its website and you'll see!)
Saturday evening, we played a Wii game called "The Malgrave Incident" that we'd been wanting to try for a long time (and was on Shawn's Amazon Wish List). He happened to find it at a drugstore the other day where he was buying Ricola throat drops and grabbed it because it was offered at such a good price! It had mixed reviews on Amazon but mostly good reviews. We had a GREAT time playing it and in fact lost track of time and play for several hours before realizing how late it was! :D To me, it's like a combination of the over-rated computer game Myst (with less frustration and lack of progress) and the under-rated old computer game Mindshadow. I definitely recommend it, and I also recommend you play it in "adventure" mode but with another player, as there are many instances where two brains puzzling things out are better than one! It also has some elements of "I Spy" so if you like finding hidden objects, then you've yet another reason to like this game!
Today, Sunday March 17, we used yet another coupon, this time for Carl's Jr., one of my fave fast food restaurants. We had a bunch of coupons of theirs and all expired today. We used the buy one new codfish sandwich, get one free. They have a new flame-broiled (not fried) codfish sandwich on a whole wheat roll with lettuce, tomatoes and just the right amount of tartar sauce. It was a healthy and very tasty alternative to fried fish sandwiches. I left the other coupons on a table near the door after we finished our meal, so hopefully some random strangers saw them and were able to use them to their advantage! :)
Later we took a walk to Red Morton Park and back, and while at the park Shawn saw a folded dollar bill on the ground. He said "oooh!" and pointed to my feet and I looked down and scooped it up surreptitiously! (Isn't that a good word?) It's been an extremely long time since either of us found paper money (as opposed to coins) on the ground, so this was a very happy surprise! And it was a cool coincidence to have something lucky happen on St. Patrick's Day! And not only something lucky, but something GREEN and lucky! Maybe it's because I wore my festive purple-and-green St. Patrick's Day socks that I found many weeks ago at Big Lots! LOL! Below is a pic of me wearing the socks; I posed above some wood sorrel (oxalis) because to me, oxalis leaves look more like shamrocks than clover leaves do, even though clovers are the traditional plant associated with St. Patrick. We also saw two very cute mallard ducks wading in the creek that runs thru the park.
Oh, and tonight we played more of The Malgrave Incident!
Friday, March 15 was the one-year anniversary of my dad Al's passing. :'( I spent the day w/ my mom in San Jose. In some ways it feels like my dad's death was a long time ago. In other ways, it feels like it was just yesterday. Weird. But I'm sure everyone who has lost a loved one, or even a close friend, knows what I'm talking about. He passed away of pneumonia complicated by advanced COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which often has components of both emphysema and chronic bronchitis). My dad was lucky to live to 89! In his younger years he smoked like a chimney -- 3 to 5 packs a day!!! -- which is why he developed COPD later. This is why I feel so emotional when I see younger people smoking. :( Not everyone will go on to develop COPD or the even worse disease of lung cancer, but smoking INCREASES THE RISK many, many times! So if you smoke and have even just tossed around in your mind the idea of quitting, please KEEP tossing the idea around! :) And please consider talking about it with your doctor or nurse practitioner. Talking doesn't commit you to quitting; there's nothing wrong with just talking, but it MIGHT lead you to taking the next step, like joining a support group, weaning yourself off smoking by using nicotine gum or skin patches, etc. All I ask is that you THINK about the idea of quitting, and see where that thought might take you. *hugs* Hopefully I've said all this in a way that doesn't sound like a nag, because I know from personal experience (not w/ smoking but w/ other things) that nagging is the LEAST likely way to motivate anyone to do anything! heh
Saturday, March 16, Shawn and I had breakfast at once of my fave restaurants, IHOP. We went there because I belong to their email club and I got an email coupon good ONLY over the St. Patrick's Day weekend. It was the first of several examples of frugality this weekend. :) If you bought one entree and two beverages, you got another entree free! It was good for breakfast, lunch or dinner, but as is our usual M.O. we went there for breakfast. I had the "Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity" breakfast, which I haven't had in quite some time. I know, it sounds like the type of name I'd make up, but that's really the name of it! LOL! When we got home, Shawn moved the front lawn while I collected large- to medium-size sticks and twigs from the walnut tree in the backyard. Then Shawn moved the backyard (sans the limbs that would've hurt the lawn mower) while I swept the front step, walk, driveway and sidewalk from his lawnmower leavings. When he was done in the backyard, I then did a sweeping job back there. We were very productive working together!
Later, because we got such an early start to the day and because it was such a beautiful day, we took a motorcycle ride to Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo. Believe it or not, I've never been to there before. Shawn showed me the amusing Benny Bufano sculptures that have been inside the mall since his childhood. We had lunch in the food court at Rollerz, which I think is associated with Surf City Squeeze, as that was the name on their cups. We each got a fruit smoothie (Shawn orange-pineapple-coconut and me peach-guava) and we shared of their specialty wraps (lettuce, tomato, avocado, turkey and bacon -- basically like a club sandwich!) We had all that and a bag of chips! *giggle* Then we went to Macy's where I found some (ahem!) feminine apparel that was PURPLE and was actually in my size, which is lucky in and of itself! Then it turned out the merchandise was on sale. AND then I checked the Shopular app on my smartphone and saw that Macy's was running a 20% off coupon just for Shopular users and just over the St. Patrick's Day weekend. So we saved even more money! (This app is awesome; just visit its website and you'll see!)
Saturday evening, we played a Wii game called "The Malgrave Incident" that we'd been wanting to try for a long time (and was on Shawn's Amazon Wish List). He happened to find it at a drugstore the other day where he was buying Ricola throat drops and grabbed it because it was offered at such a good price! It had mixed reviews on Amazon but mostly good reviews. We had a GREAT time playing it and in fact lost track of time and play for several hours before realizing how late it was! :D To me, it's like a combination of the over-rated computer game Myst (with less frustration and lack of progress) and the under-rated old computer game Mindshadow. I definitely recommend it, and I also recommend you play it in "adventure" mode but with another player, as there are many instances where two brains puzzling things out are better than one! It also has some elements of "I Spy" so if you like finding hidden objects, then you've yet another reason to like this game!
Today, Sunday March 17, we used yet another coupon, this time for Carl's Jr., one of my fave fast food restaurants. We had a bunch of coupons of theirs and all expired today. We used the buy one new codfish sandwich, get one free. They have a new flame-broiled (not fried) codfish sandwich on a whole wheat roll with lettuce, tomatoes and just the right amount of tartar sauce. It was a healthy and very tasty alternative to fried fish sandwiches. I left the other coupons on a table near the door after we finished our meal, so hopefully some random strangers saw them and were able to use them to their advantage! :)
Later we took a walk to Red Morton Park and back, and while at the park Shawn saw a folded dollar bill on the ground. He said "oooh!" and pointed to my feet and I looked down and scooped it up surreptitiously! (Isn't that a good word?) It's been an extremely long time since either of us found paper money (as opposed to coins) on the ground, so this was a very happy surprise! And it was a cool coincidence to have something lucky happen on St. Patrick's Day! And not only something lucky, but something GREEN and lucky! Maybe it's because I wore my festive purple-and-green St. Patrick's Day socks that I found many weeks ago at Big Lots! LOL! Below is a pic of me wearing the socks; I posed above some wood sorrel (oxalis) because to me, oxalis leaves look more like shamrocks than clover leaves do, even though clovers are the traditional plant associated with St. Patrick. We also saw two very cute mallard ducks wading in the creek that runs thru the park.
Oh, and tonight we played more of The Malgrave Incident!