New technology is cool

I finally got a new computer! Oh, wait, um .... guess what I got for Christmas?????

Its actually new and modern and everything. It even came with a keyboard that doesnt stick when you press Y and a mouse that doesn't double click even though you only single click.

As a "computer geek", you might think that I would update my technology a little more frequently (the last one was four or five years old) but why upgrade when the old one still works?

Man, I am becoming more like my dad every day (hahaha, now that is funny). Sorry Dad.

Side Note: "If it still works" is a great excuse to not buy things like nails, screws, hammers, planers, knives, shovels, finger nail polish, shoes, clothes and many other products BUT when it comes to electronics newer is generally better. For example, a flat panel TV can pay for itself in less than five years (in energy savings) compared to the old tube TV depending on the size and price you pay for the new flat panel TV and the picture is generally better.

The old computer had seen much better days. To make matters worse, it was my own fault. You should not keep a desktop computer locked in a small desk space with little or no room for airflow. If you have one of those computer desks with the little compartment to store your desktop computer, get it out!! Modern computers can take a LOT of punishment but like us humans, they need airflow.

Near the end of its life, the computer would overheat after an hour of normal usage and if I tried to stream music or video over the Internet it would overheat after about two minutes. Playing a game was not even possible (this is how I judge the quality of a computer), but the final straw for me was when it decided to overheat during the installation of a new software title.

The obvious question: Why would I even try to install new software on a machine with these problems?

Anyway, I got my new one Friday. Now, that I have the new one, I am running Windows 7. Thank goodness I was in Atlanta last week to learn a little something about Windows 7 huh? Maybe I wasn't too bad at scheduling this month after all (see the previous post).

I am having a little trouble moving my data from the old computer to the new one. Apparently, the old computer knows that I have a new one and will no longer run for longer than five minutes. Five minutes might seem like a long time, but when you are trying to make a copy of ALL your Outlook information (calendar, contacts, and email information) it is no time at all. As a result, I don't have anybodies' contact information at my hands.

Mom, I probably should have all this stuff written down in a little "black book", but I threw it away seven years ago when I got married. No, Im just kidding! Well, kidding my mom, who keeps a little book with everyones phone number, address, birthday, anniversary and other information. However, I am not kidding about not having one of those books.

The fact is that I am reliant on Outlook. I wouldn't know my own birthday without Outlook, much less yours!! I know the obvious question here is ... Why didn't you keep a backup? Well, I am lazy. Besides, you know your information and can give it to me again.

Now, I am hoping that I can slave (that is a technical term) the old drive into the girls computer (my new computer has a different drive connection technology) and pull the information from it.

In the meantime, if you happen to read this and want to send me your contact information, please send it to themtgylees@gmail.com, and I will use that address as a holder until I get Outlook back up and running.

With all that said, I also got myself a Webcam with the new computer. I know for you hardcore geeks out there, webcams are so 20th century, but I am slowly easing myself into this whole computer technology stuff. I plan on setting up the webcam this weekend. I am really looking forward to being able to see the nephews in Florida and talk to them over the computer (get ready Heather). If you are a webcam person, drop me a line at the address above and we can try it out.

So, having bored you with this latest post, I am going back to youtube, pandora, hulu, and several other sites to stream music, movies, games, videos, and whatever other stuff I can find just to prove that I can, because I can!!! That is cool and that is how I plan to surf the Internet now.

Green Tip of the Blog: We haven't had one of these in a while!! Get a new computer, they use less power AND you can do cool stuff with it too!!!

Until next time, onward CPU, RAM, and graphics card, we have stuff to see and do!!!!

OK, I Lied ...

For the past several years, I've done a lousy job of planning projects and as a result, I've spent the last couple of months of each year traveling. One year I bought 75% of all Christmas presents in the lovely state of Mississippi. Your welcome Hattiesburg.

I promised I wouldn't do that this year. We even managed to complete our big project the week before Thanksgiving!!! With that project complete, I should have been able to hold up my end of the promise.

Alas, I have failed.

I will be home for more days this Holiday Season than the past several years, but I am still traveling this season which in my book means I have failed. Of course, with every failure comes a good story, so here is my story for the week......

Last Wednesday, I hit the Montgomery Regional Airport promptly at 10:00 AM to insure that I would be on time for an 11:27 AM flight for Atlanta for a short layover resulting in a 2:11 PM arrival in Houston. At 10:01, as I was checking my baggage, Delta announced that my flight had been CANCELED!!!!

Rather than bore you with every twist and turn in the plans, lets skip to 4:00 PM when I finally got on a plane! OK, I will own up to spending a few minutes in the airport bar watching TV with some Canadians trying to understand the concept of bad weather despite crystal clear blue skies outside. Excitedly, we taxi'd out to the runway only to have the pilot announce that we were being delayed AGAIN and just for fun, we were going to sit in the plane on the runway!

Finally, around 9:30 PM I arrived in Atlanta (a 32 minute flight). Now, for those not familiar with our part of the world, Atlanta is only a 2:30 hour drive and Houston can be reached in less than 10 hours driving. So, here I am, nearly 12 hours into my flying experience and I've only made it to Atlanta.

As luck would have it, the flight in Atlanta was only delayed for slightly more than an hour. I finally arrived in Houston at 1:00 AM on Thursday morning. Thankfully, the limo driver was waiting for me (yes, life can be hard sometimes) with a smile and disdain in his heart when he realized I had no cash for a tip. Oh well, thanks for the ride dude.

The next day was a long day of demonstrations and more knowledge transfer than a tired traveler should have to endure in a single day. I know the information will help me especially the awesome book they gave us but I floated through that meeting like a zombie floats through the night. Speaking of the night, I was treated to an AWESOME steak dinner at Perry's Steakhouse that evening. If you are ever in Houston, check out that place (it was like a man's Chuck E Cheese but with Steak).

Anyway, I was up the next morning at 4:30 AM for a quick shower and trip to the airport for a 7:00 AM flight. To my surprise, Delta actually managed to be on-time that morning and thank goodness, since it started to snow that morning at 9:00 AM. It was the earliest snow recorded in modern record keeping for Houston.

Tired and worn out, I managed to stagger into the house Friday afternoon in time for nap, a couple of diet cokes and a kiss from my wife before leaving for the monthly poker game. Now, I will admit that I could have skipped the poker but I think Big E was happy for me to be gone anyway (something about cleaning the house for the big football party). Special thanks go out to the guys for handing over their cash Friday, "momma was happy!" when I got home.

Anyway, Saturday morning, I was at the junkyard at 10:00 AM pulling a motor out of a Volkswagen (long story not to be told today), and Saturday we had big party for the most awesome SEC championship game ever.

A Little Timeout from the Story ... I admit that I LOVED watching Alabama stomp a mud hole in Florida. I also enjoyed watching Tim Tebow cry after the game. I really don't mean to be a Tebow-hater but with all of the LOVE and ADMIRATION that the media heaped on that kid, it was bound to happen.

Anyway, back to the story ... I made it to bed around 3:00 AM Sunday morning. Before your brains go into overdrive, I was asleep long before then but it was 3:00 before Big E checked on me and invited me to bed. I was watching the UFC finals and fell asleep.

Yesterday, I managed to pack and do it all over again. Yeah, thats right, I am back in Atlanta, but I will be back home on Wednesday night. Until next week ...

I manage to hit the road again, but this time its with my beautiful bride!!! I can't wait, we haven't had a night away for just the two of us in a LONG time. I guess I will buy Christmas in Georgia this year, I hear the school system needs the money!

I hope that you are having a great season. Along the way, stop for a minute and thank your loved ones for all they do for you. No matter who you are, the season wouldn't be the same without those you love around you.

I don't say it often enough but I can't imagine what it would be like without the most awesome wife in the world not to mention a wonderful set of understanding kids ....

Big Time Saturday Fun

On Saturday, we got an opportunity to go see big time SEC football for the first time. Big E and I were lucky enough to be given a pair of tickets to the game, and Jessica went to the game with her boyfriend. You have to get up awfully early for a Saturday morning to make the two hour drive to Tuscaloosa for an 11:20 kick off.

As you can see, Rusty was a little jealous and begged his mommy to take him to the game too.

As I mentioned, we left early in the morning to allow us a couple of hours of walking around the campus before the game. Once we finally worked our way to the stadium, we stopped to take another picture of the girls.

Of course, we were playing a smaller school so we didnt expect a nail biter and we were not disappointed. We had a lot of fun going to the game.

After the game, Big E and I went out to lunch with another couple before making our way to the house.

There are so many things and poeple to see before, during and after the game. While I think it is more enjoyable to watch the game on TV, I think going to the game adds a completely different dynamic that is really fun too. If you are a people watching person (we both are), then you can have a blast at the game.

Now that we've done it, I think we will try and do it again next year. One game a year will be enough though. It is a lot of work to make the drive, mingle in the crowds, climb to your seats and try and watch the game with all of the other stuff going on around you (completely different than going to see a baseball game).

Roll Tide!!!

A Rude Awakening

Time: 7:45

Date: Today

Location: The bed

Get your minds out of the gutter, this isnt that kind of a blog ....

If you have pets, you can attest to the fact that they can tell time. At least if you keep them on a fairly strict feeding schedule. For our animals, 6:30 is the time for the AM feeding and 5:00 is the time for the afternoon feeding.

This morning, I decided to sleep in a little. Around 6:45 the animals started to climb into the bed just to remind us of the time. By 7:15, the animals decided to start announcing their presence a little louder and with some authority.

Finally, at 7:45, our oldest cat Boo Boo decided that he had had enough and "popped" me up side my head. No kidding, the cat literally hit me in the head with his little paw. If it was any other animal ... but it was Boo Boo. Once I recovered from the shock I figured that at 17 years of age, he deserves a little break. Of course, if it happens again, he might get a break ...

A Few Random Pictures and Thoughts

There really hasn't been anything too over the top lately in the house, so I thought I would share a few random pictures from 2009 and a word or two about each.

Before I jump into the pictures, let me warn you that I am doing this while listening to a Mexican "surf" music band that plays in full "Lucha Libre" attire. They are called the "Los Kanibales". Think Dick Dale meets mexican wrestling and you get the correct picture.

Not sure of who Dick Dale is? He is the guy that inspired the Beach Boys and many other's "surf" music sound. In fact, the Beach Boys recorded his most famous song, "Miserlou". Anyway, music has a tendency to impact your state of mind and emotions (at least for me) and that is what I am jamming at the moment. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought it would be fun to include a photo from a concert that wasnt country first. Most of you know that Keith Urban is her favorite artist and that I have a wide variety of rock n roll artist that I enjoy. We went to see Alice Cooper a few months ago since he was playing in Montgomery. Alice was schooled by Frank Zappa, turned the show into a "horror" show and spent decades making money as the "shock" master of rock n roll. Alice is famous for "Schools Out" and "Poison" for songs. All in all it was a cool show. Yes, that is a crutch built with bones that he is leaning on. At 60+ Alice is still very active on stage and puts on a fun show.

This is my precious wife at the LPGA event with Katherine Hull and her caddy. They were very kind to everyone and took a few extra minutes to speak and take pictures with Big E. They also were the ones that Little E followed around carying the score card for on Sunday. As you can tell, she is a large (in height) woman and she can stroke a ball deep and straight (not bad looking either). Mostly though, she was cool and both Big and Little E enjoyed her talking about being in the heart of dixie, fried chicken, people dressing funny (check out her shorts?), etc.

This is the most awesome dog in the world hanging out in the back yard. Big E took this picture before we had the fence replaced in along the back of the yard. Of cource, Rusty had no idea that his mother was taking a picture of him (at least he was poo-ing during the picture).

Well, this one should be fairly explanatory, two of Big E's favorite men in action together. Deirks and Keith playing a song togehter at the concert in Huntsville in May. This night is without a doubt a highlight of her year. I dont remember much about this concert, but that is fairly common for me and country concerts!!!!!

From the recent Washington D.C. trip, a double row tobacco planter. Ummmm.....Red Man!!

OK, so its time for the main event of the blog. Halloween 2009 Party. Each year one of the guys at Alfa has a Halloween Party. Dennis is the guy in the middle in the lederhosen outfit. Dennis is a really great party host and this year was no different. What makes the picture so special is my beautiful beer wench pictured on the left.

Big E learned early on that Dennis planned to dress up in the lederhosen, so she decided to dress the part too. Tiffany on the right is actually dressed in a Scottish outfit that matched her husband's traditional Scottish golf outfit to a tee (pun intended). I doubt Big E will be happy with the posting of the picture but its worth it!!!

Anyway, like I said initially, its been a little boring around the house lately. Maybe we will have a little more exictement in the coming weeks.

What have you done this week?

Saturday, Brooke and Big E left for the tenth grade school trip to Washington D.C. Here was the itinerary for their trip ...

Saturday
5:30 Depart for Atlanta airport
1:00 Arrive in Philadelphia
3:30 Independence Hall Tour
4:30 Liberty Bell
8:00 Arrive in Lancaster, PA

Sunday
9:30 Amish Farm and House Tour
1:00 Amish Buggy Rides
4:00 Strasbourg Railroad Rides
9:00 Arrive in Washington D.C.

Monday
9:15 Mt Vernon Tour
11:45 Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
2:15 Arlington National Cemetery Tour
4:45 Observation Tower at the Old Post Office
6:30 Evening monument tour (WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington)

Tuesday
9:30 US Capitol Tour and Picture with Congressman Bobby Bright
2:45 National Holocaust Museum
5:15 Dinner at the Fashion Center at Pentagon City
7:00 Walking Ghost Tour of downtown Washington D.C.

Wednesday
9:30 Museum of American History
2:00 Fly back to Atlanta
6:15 Back to Montgomery

Now, that is some mileage, some walking and some serious fun all packed into a five day period.

Both report that they had a really great time on the trip. To my surprise, Big E stated that it would be a fun "adult" trip. Get your minds out of the gutter, she meant a fun trip for me and her not that kind of adult. Of course, I think I would throw in a few additional days and stops; maybe a baseball game in Philly or Baltimore for example. But for an educational trip, I would have to say that their trip was first class.

Needless to say, you cant have sixty kids and adults traveling together without a funny story or two. I will share this one while Big E isn't paying attention.

Big E is only afraid of three things; heights, enclosed places and mice. The Observation Tower at the Old Post Office is a few feet tall, probably why they call it an observation tower. Apparently the kids talked her into "sucking it up" and riding the glass enclosed elevator (so you can overlook the mall inside) to the observation.

Apparently the elevator had a minor (major in her mind) problem and only made it to the ninth floor and you had to climb stairs to the twelfth floor. Hahaahaaa, I wish I could have been there to see Big E at this point. Well, Big E could not climb the stairs at this point. Apparently her body has some sort of internal height meter that warns her when she is above the ground floor despite being inside a stair well.

I have seen this little "dance" before though .... it is the back down the stairs (backwards no less) crouched as close to the cold concrete of the stairs in hopes that it will limit how fall she falls when the stairwell collapses (has this ever happened?). Look, I've only seen her survive a climb above three floors once and that was to see Keith Urban. Do you really think she is going to climb a couple of floors to look out across an observation tower??????

Well, she didn't!!!! She did manage to text me from the elevator and the stairs to inform me of her dilemma. Oh, she was calm in the messages, but I know she was cursing inside.

I hope one day we can go to Chicago so I can talk her into riding to the observation deck of the John Hancock Building (look it up, I've been there and saw the clouds below me!).

Time for a new dog food brand

Rusty is our spoiled rotten chocolate lab. When I say spoiled rotten, I mean so spoiled that the girls are actually jealous of him. As much as I think that dog is dumb, he really is rather smart. Occasionally, he will do something that truly boggles my mind. Last night I had one of those moments. Thinking about it this morning, I have to question who the master is in our relationship.

I recently requested a free sample of Rachel Ray's new dog food. Yesterday, the freebie arrived packaged in a nice single serving box with a convenient little coupon tucked inside.

In typical Rusty style, he smelled the mailed as I brought it into the house. This is considered normal behaviour at our house. To his surprise, there was actually a little something in the mail for him. Usually, he takes a big whiff of the mail and moves on (he feels the same way we do when the bills arrive). Yesterday, he took a big whiff and started to beg and plead for the mail.

Since it was time to eat, I opened the package and gave him the sample of food. He really liked the new food and wanted more. Since I didnt have any more to give him, I gave him a few marshmellows (his favorite treat) instead.

After pouring the food in his bowl, I took the included coupon and placed in my stack of need to be filed coupons and went about my business.

Late last night, I heard a rather odd sound coming from the office and figured I better check it out. To my amazement, Rusty was proudly sitting in the middle of the floor with the coupon in his mouth. Thankfully, the coupon was sealed in a plastic wrapper. He was actually licking the plastic wrapper trying to get every last drop of dog food dust off of the wrapper!! In addition to the dog food sample, he had several other coupons (half eating) spread across the floor. I guess the other coupons in the stack had a little food dust on them too.

So, I guess this was his way of telling me that he really likes the food and would enjoy a change of pace. Of course, that means that I will be buying a bag when I go to Publix later today. See what I mean about who is the master?

More Good Days than Bad though ...

I've been "on the road again", so I haven't been able to post an update lately.

We were able to get Little E a "new" car. Actually, we did things a little different. We took Jessica's car and gave it to Little E and helped with a down payment on a really nice Toyota Rav4 for Jessica. Jessica will have to make the payments on the loan for the Rav4 but it will be a great growing up step for her and she really likes her "new" car.

Big E is working at the Navistar LPGA event this week as a volunteer. She is reponsible for picking up the players, caddies, etc and carrying them from the parking lot to where ever they need to go on the course. To say that she is enjoying herself would be an understatement. You can see a video of her and several other volunteers talking about the experience at www.wsfa.com. I dont know how long the video will be posted so go now and check it out, and yes, her head has swollen to the size of a basketball.

Little E got her acceptance letter from AUM yesterday. She is really excited about getting her first acceptance letter. She has already been awarded a $1000 dollar scholarship to AUM and I am hoping for some more soon.

She really wants to go to the University of South Alabama though. I dont know if I can handle letting her go away for school the first year. We will have to see if some scholarships can come her way from USA before the final decision. She is going to take the ACT again this fall to try and improve her score some more. If she can hit a 27, she thinks it will put her in the running for a good scholarship at USA.

Finally, to top it all off, I got a promotion at work this past week. The promotion wont have much of an impact on my day to day (at least not initially) but it is nice to be recognized for the work.

Fall weather has really been rolling in lately. It is nice to actually watch football and not have the air conditioner running in the background.

Good days and bad days ...

Sometimes you have good days and bad days. Lately, we have experienced a good share of both so overall, I cant complain.

The girls have started back to school with a bang. Considering the news about the flu, I would have to say we've been lucky not to have a sick kid at the house. For that matter, I guess Big E and I are both lucky not to have caught the dreaded piggy flu.

I've managed to put another couple of hundred miles under my backside traveling the state for the past couple of weeks. I've been out training people of how to use wireless networks and about comptuer security principles. I have a few more miles to travel over the next couple of weeks too.

Speaking of traveling, Big E and Brooke will be headed for Washington DC in a couple of weeks. I am going to try and convince Big E to blog a few times during the trip. Also, Big E will be volunteering at the upcoming LPGA event in Prattville. I will definitely have to get her to blog about the experience and hopefully post a few pictures.

Little E got her first paycheck recently!!! Boy was she excited about actually getting paid. I guess we will be taking a trip to the bank soon to open a checking and saving account for her.

Big E and I have had a couple of really great nights recently on account of the new mattress set. Last weekend she said we were going out to look at new mattress sets, but what she didnt tell me was that we were really going out to BUY a new mattress set. See, in my mind, there is a difference between LOOKING and BUYING. However, she decided that our backs and necks (both of which have been sore lately) needed a change. I dont know if I like the new set though ... I slept till 10:30 this morning. If the new set is going to have me sleeping late and waking up without aches and pains, how will I know if I had a good night of sleep or not?

Little E has had a little car trouble lately, so I finally got around to running the vehicle to the shop this morning (after I finally awoke). The poor little fellow at the auto shop hated calling me back about the results of the diagnosis. I listened to him talk about the necessary fixes and as he faded into the recommended fixes, I simply looked at Big E and whispered "the car is gone". I kinda felt for Mathew as he tried to gently break the bad news to me about the car. The poor fellow spent about five minutes on the phone listing out all of the things but I never really listened past the cracked head, leaking gasket and some other thing that I knew meant the engine would cost more to fix than it was worth. Now, I have to go and break the bad news to Little E. I'm not sure how to tell her that her first car is dead after only 2 and half months.

Oh well, that is the chance you take buying a used high mileage car for a kid. I guess we will have to do a better job of checking everything out next time. Of course, netiher one of us are mechanics. BUT we can, as a team, change a flat tire without arguing!!! We did learn that Firestone will inspect a car and provide a report for $20 dollars. I think we will spend that money next time.

The really shameful part is that I feel Little E tried to warn us about the big issues in time to have them resolved, but neither Big E or I actually listened to her in time. Instead, we waited until is was a major issue and with cars that is unacceptable. Gun, foot, bang!!!

Again, you have good and bad days. Today, I've had both. Tomorrow, I plan on it being only a good day. Shape your world, and if you have kids, shape theirs in a positive manner ....

Now, I am going to spend a couple of hours taking my frustration out on a few zombies and other baddies on the Xbox ....... I love the smell of fresh kills on the TV screen ........

Savings ...

Big E and I have been on a savings trip of late. Maybe it stems from having Jessica starting college or maybe it stems from Obamanomics. Either way, we are seriously trying to cut a few expenses.

So, in the vein of cutting cost, here are a few of our shopping trips this weekend...

1. Publix trip 1 - The total value of the items purchased was 34.20 (that includes the taxes too). The total amount paid "out of pocket" was 15.87. That is equal to a savings of 54%. The savings would have been a LOT better but we did not have coupons for Lucky Charms (yes, these are essential).

2. Publix trip 2 - The total value of the items purchased was 59.84 (again it includes taxes). The total amount paid "out of pocket" was 29.60. That is equal to a savings of 52%. The savings would have been a LOT bettter but we did not have coupons for milk, lettuce, taco dinners (2), velvetta cheese, or marshmellows. In fact, if we only purchased items with coupons we would have been around 78% savings.

3. Last, we made it out of CVS for only 15.33 today. For that, we managed to take home the following ...

2 Composition books with 100 pages each
2 Boxes of Panty liners
2 Revlon make up (lipstick and mascara)

Essentially, we only paid for the makeup today. In addition, we ended the day with more CVS money for next week than we started this week. All in all, that is a good CVS trip. If you aren't a CVS Extra Care bucks member, you really need to consider joining.

While that doesn't break down all purchases in detail, let me assure you that we did pretty good.

I've talked about stockpiling in the past, we are so far ahead with the typical personal items (deodorant, toothpaste, shaving and hair stuff, etc) that we have resorted to family and charity donations. We are doing really well with paper items too. To give you an example, unless toothpaste is free, we aren't buying.

We are struggling a little with some food items but only because I have concentrated on the personal items. In reality, I don't seem to find near as many food coupons as I do personal item coupons. With three girls that are going different directions, personal items are probably more important than food items.

What are you doing to save a little money? Leave me a comment with some good ideas.

A real quick one ...

Major announcement coming .....

Little E starts her JOB today!!! YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Welcome to Chik-fil-a can I help you?" will become the question of the day. I know she is excited and as you can tell, so am I. She can finally afford the gas she is burning each day!!!

WooooooooooooooHoooooooooooooooooooooo ...............

If you didn't get it in the title, let me say it again, woooooooooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooo ...

Do you know what time it is? It's school time. That's right, its school time again and that means we are back to a normal schedule!!!!!!!!!!

I cant stress enough how much of a routine kind of guy I am. Does that sentence even qualify as English? It doesn't matter, its my blog and I will write whatever form of Stenglish (Stephen + English = Stenglish) I want to write. Back to the topic at hand, I am a routine kind of person. I know its hard to imagine that a father of three teenage daughters could call himself a routine kind of person, but with me it is true. I cant stand to be out of routine. Routine = Sanity, at least it does in my world.

Here are a few examples ...

1. I like to get up at the same time each day. Big E is working on my weekend wake up time, but its taken her 6+ years to get me past 7:00 AM.
2. I start every day with a shower!!!!!! I don't care if its a shower to go cut the grass, I will be clean and awake before I do anything.
3. I have the exact same post shower routine each morning. Those details probably should not be shared in public.
4. I take the same route to work every day.
5. I cant stand to have anything of mine moved or out of place. Dont even consider putting something on or removing something from my desk. I will hurt you .....

Now that I spell those few items out, I think the word neurotic might be a better word. Holy cow, that is only a couple of hundreds of items that I could easily jot down. Maybe that is why my beautiful bride and kids make soooooo much fun of me. I am weird!!!!

Nothing like a moment of clarity ....

Anyway, sure school starting means we have to buy school supplies, uniforms, etc. but it is all worth it. Besides, school supplies are SUPER cheap this year. Have you seen the low cost of paper, pens and folders this year? CVS has practically supplied us with half a year of supplies for FREE this year. FREE!!!!!!! In fact, we managed to accumulate enough supplies this year to denote multiple bags of goodies to charity.

Quick aside, if you aren't into CVS "extra care bucks", you need to learn about their program. Sure, CVS isn't the cheapest place in town but if you know how to use the program, it can definitely be worth the effort. I wouldn't even consider Walmart, Target or Publix for our various cleaning (human and non-human) items, makeup, toiletries, etc. In fact, with our stockpiling of items, I don't need to purchase shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste, body soap and many other items for the next six or seven months.

As an update, our oldest (Jessica) starts at Faulkner University this week, the middle kid (Little E) is starting her senior year of high school and the youngest (Brooke) is entering high school. Can you imagine? I know at least two grandmothers that are wondering where all the time has gone.

We are really starting to look forward to fall football games with Jessica (Faulkner is in year two with football) and with Little E and Brooke at the high school games too. Of course, that means fall needs to hurry up and get here!!!!

Changing subjects, we have been pretty busy around the backyard lately. Big E finally broke down and paid a fencing company to come out and replace the fence along the back of our yard. Elizabeth and I have been working (SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWLLLYYY) on replacing the planks on the fence since we moved into the house but she could take it no more. The fence looks awesome!!! With the fence done, we began planting a row a Crepe Myrtle trees along the fence. I love crepe myrtle trees (and azaleas too) so we are planting a full row of them across the back of the property to ultimately created a screen between us and the neighbors. I cant wait to see the trees in a few years after they've had a chance to grow. Big thanks go out to my mom and dad for letting us dig up their extra trees and plant them here.

With all of that said, I got to go!!!! 1 vs 100 starts live in a few minutes and we are playing tonight. What is 1 vs 100? Well, you've seen the game show, but now you can play it on the Xbox. Each Friday and Saturday, they have a live show with around 30,000 people playing for prizes. A few weeks ago, we were selected to be a part of the 100 mob. I wish I had a video of Big E's reaction to being selected. Regretfully, our mob did not win any prizes that time, but we had a blast playing.

One last update, last Thanksgiving we purchased a new washer and dryer. The washer is one of those front load fancy deals. We have been monitoring our water usage since then and I am proud to say that we have cut our water usage in HALF despite having Little E come to live with us full time as opposed to part time. Based on those water savings, you could actually use the water savings to pay for the dryer in a matter of a couple of years. Now, that is awesome and its green.

Till next time, learn a lot, leave my stuff alone, and root for your favorite team, see ya......

Rocking out with ...

If you read my ramblings often enough, you may have noticed music is a fairly regular theme. Today, music is the theme again. Today, we will be rocking out with Rockband.

Unless you are living under a rock or you are old enough to remember Elvis' first single, you have probably heard of a game called Rockband. Basically, Rockband is like playing karaoke but in addition to singing you can also play guitar (buttons not strings), drums (reasonably close to playing a real small drum set) and bass guitar (again with buttons). The goal is to play in synch with the song and to sing (usually poorly) in pitch.

In reality, it is really amazing to me that technology and creativity have come far enough along to allow total musical misfits (that would be our entire family) to have a family concert night pretending to be our favorite guitar player or singer.

Enough of the description of the game and on to the main reason for the post, Big E is completely nuts for the game. I don't mind her obsession with the game. Heck we paid a LOT of money for the game (and we will spend even more buying new songs, etc) so seeing it put to use is a good thing but she is obsessed with being better than everyone else.

She has actually started to play this game by herself. Many games are designed to be played by one person and some are actually better if only one person is playing alone. However, when was the last time you heard to one person band? OR in Big E's case, a solo drummer band?

Big E is the best drummer in the house. The only other person to play even half as good as Big E is Jessica and she isn't around that much to play with the old people. Now, Big E has gotten good enough that she is actually trying to play drums and sing BY HERSELF. Today, I walked in from work and she was playing a show for the dog and cats. If she gets any better, is she going to ask for a contraption to play guitar too?

I will try to get some pictures of her in action soon. In the meantime, if you have Rockband or you know someone that does, try playing the drums and singing at the same time. Let me know how that works for you ..... for me, I ended up beating the microphone with a stick and screaming into the bass drum, neither of which worked.

So long till next time ...

It was a slow day ...

Today, we had a first in the house. I figure we will have a lot more of those in the future (three girls and all) ...

As for today, we had a LATE fathers day plan finally happen. Big E and Little E took me for a round of golf. This was a special round of golf, as it was Little E's first round of golf. So, anyone with any knowledge of golf understands why I say it was a slow day, things didn't move to fast with Little E. However, Little E didn't play too bad.

Afterwards, the girls took me for some crab legs and wings. I REALLY ENJOYED the day.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend, but its back the grind in the morning.

Happy Independence Day

Happy fourth of July to everyone. I hope you all have great plans of BBQ, hot dogs, hamburgers and more on the grill with friends and family. Whatever you do, I hope you have fun and are safe.

The family and I have a few friends coming over today for a little cookout. We are going to grill chicken wings. For the sauces, we have multiple types of wing sauces that we will place into ziploc bags. This way everyone can choose their own sauce or have multiple sauces.

Enjoy your weekend.

Just been lazy ...

There is no other explanation than I've been lazy, and to be fully honest, disinterested in sitting in front of this keyboard typing out moments of my life. Actually, I've been completely and utterly worthless of late. In case you haven't noticed, its HOT outside and for some reason the heat and the change of seasons have been a drain on my brain. So with that said, here are a few tidbits for those that keep asking ....

We held a 50th Anniversary party for the worlds greatest mother and father in law recently. Can you imagine being married for 50 years? I can't imagine waking up each day to the same person for that long. It truly is a joyous accomplishment for them and I hope they have many more years of marital bliss.

As for Big E and I, I simply hope that we can make it that long. I would be 94 years old when we hit that milestone. I can't even fathom the concept of 94 years old in my head.

Anyway, I think everyone had a good time. We played the old Newlywed Game with three sisters and their husbands. Boy was that a site watching them try to remember the answers to the various silly questions; like

1. Feature that first attracted you to your wife.
2. Longest period of time apart
3. First Christmas present
4. Location of first date

Speaking of the in-laws, we had a wonderful trip to the lake last weekend. A few individuals didn't get to make it for health reasons, but those that did were treated to a first class time at Albert and Linda's lake house. They have such a beautiful location on the lake and the most awesome home. Each summer they open their home to everyone for a weekend of swimming, tubing, boating, relaxing, grilling and general family fun. We really appreciate the opportunity and hope they continue this for many more years.

Regretfully, I did not get to enjoy the weekend to the fullest though. In a freak accident, I managed to pull a muscle, pop something, I don't really know what happened, in my lower back on the Friday morning of our departure. I was loading diet cokes into the cooler (mom, I promise they were actually Diet Cokes) and I felt a snap in my back (like being shot with a really big rubber band) and that was immediately followed by me hitting the floor.

Being the loving and caring woman that she is, Big E immediately accused me of trying to get out of the lake weekend!!!! Can you believe that? I had to spend twenty minutes convincing her that I wasn't trying to get out of a free lake weekend before she finally decided to worry about my health. This is what I mean when I say these girls are killing me!!! Sometimes I think our vows should have been, "... in sickness, in health and as long as you are doing what I tell you to do ...".

Now its been a week since the incident and I am back to walking normally and other than being a little tight, I am fine. I will probably go get a massage next week if the tightness continues. The good thing about the incident is that Big E felt so bad about giving me a hard time that she waited on me hand and foot AND I milked it for all it was worth.

Jumping from Big E's family to mine, my sister decided to roll into town this week for a little family time. Jacob and Jackson, my nephews, are enjoying a little Mimi (my mom) time. Tonight, we are headed over to mom's house for a little family game night action. I don't know what game I will be beating them at yet, but you can bet it will involve cards.

Tomorrow, we are all going up to Anniston to spend the day with momma's sisters for a mini-reunion of sorts. I don't really know much about the details so I will share the results in the next blog.

And now for the BBBBBBBBIIIIIIIGGGGGG news of the blog .....

We finally broke (yeah, we are that too) down and bought little Elizabeth a car. We stumbled across a Ford Taurus while running by her grandmothers house earlier this week. The little old man offered us a very fair deal for the little car and it drives fairly good so we jumped on the deal. I know that a Ford Taurus isn't actually a cool kids car, but she didn't get a vote on the car. Actually she is excited about the car and hopefully, this will get her excited about getting a job too!!!!!

And for EVEN BIGGGGEEEERRRRR news ....

We got the insurance bill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Since we both work in the insurance world, we knew adding yet another vehicle to the list of insured items was going to hurt, but we had never really paid attention to how much we pay (we figure our premiums support our paycheck). Holy cow!! Three cars + one truck + two teenagers = one heck of yearly sum. At least they are not boys!!

Oh yeah, I need to compliment my beautiful bride on her nearly twenty pounds of weight loss. She is looking yummier every day ..........

Until next time .... try to stay cool.

Back from the road ...

We've returned home from our trip to Huntsville. We stayed in a little area called the Village of Providence. I don't know if this area is its own little township or simply an upscale area within Huntsville, but either way, it was nice.

The picture below is the fountain in the "town square" of the Providence (hard to imagine I took that picture less than twelve hours ago). The town square consisted of restaurants, an old school barber shop, a gym, and our hotel. Surrounding the town square was a beautiful neighborhood with a paved walking and bicycle path, a community pool and play ground. The homes were all designed to look like old south cottage homes (with new south prices!!!) and small scale plantation style homes. We will stay in Providence whenever we are in the Huntsville area.


As for the show, we had our best seats ever. We essentially had third row with the way the stage was setup. I wish you could have seen her eyes light up when we got to the seats. As if that wasn't exciting enough, everyone was allowed to crowd in around the stage before the show started. As you can see from this photo, Elizabeth was one of the first to move to the stage.

Elizabeth was within arms length of "her man" for the entire concert.


As for me, I remained in my comfortable seat and occasionally made my way to the watering hole to remain hydrated.

Here are a few more nice looking shots of the show. I was impressed with the huge screens that hung behind the band. Throughout the show, the screens were used to project images, live shots of the crowd, videos, etc. In addition, the screens would tilt in and out making the stage seem smaller and more intimate for some songs or larger for other songs.

In this picture the screens are tilted partially inward and are projecting a really cool outerspace vidoe full of colors.

In this picture, the screens are back and projecting live shots of each of the band members.

Of course, I cant forget that Elizabeth also had a first experience with this concert, getting to go backstage before the show for a "meet and greet" with Dierks Bentley. She and a handful of other fan club members were randomly selected for the meet and greet. Here is her photo with Dierks.......

Dierks did a really good job opening the show and warming up the crowd.

Now, I am going to lay down on the couch and take a nap. Have a great day............

Its like a broken record ...

You've probably already read this post before, but here we go again. It's another big weekend for Elizabeth as we head to Huntsville for a ..... guess ...... you know the guys name ...... its a concert event ..... Keith Urban concert.

Yep, its that time of the year again. This time will be a little extra special for her since she won a ticket to a "meet and greet" with the opening band, Dierks Bentley.

Actually, Dierks is probably my favorite country artist, so I will have a little better time than normal with this show.

Since the show is tomorrow, we have endured a one hour fashion show today to determine what she will be wearing tomorrow. I'm not really sure what outfit won, but I know there was some heated conversation between the girls about which outfit looked best, fit best and would be the most comfortable. For me, a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and a hat is all I need. I figure as long as I am covering the important bits and pieces, it will be all good.

We haven't been to Huntsville in a few years, so I am looking forward to the trip. It will also be our first trip in Big E's new car.

Skipping gears, Little Bit is headed for a mission trip this week. I think this will be the last year for her to get to go on this trip though. She is really excited about going. Be sure to ask her about it when you see her next.

One last thought, I celebrated my fifteenth year of working with the same company this past week. It's amazing to me that I have managed fifteen years with the same company (more than one third of my life) especially in my career field. I was honored with a little get together with all of my past / current managers and supervisors (a few stories were told there) and fellow employees. Some of them actually had a few nice things to say about me too!! It made me think that I am truly blessed to be able to work for such a great company (that is why I stay there).

That is about all I have for right now. I will say thanks to everyone who was so generous to Jessica for her graduation. I know that she really appreciates the gifts. I will also say thanks to those who have "raised" me at Alfa, I truly appreciate it.

A few more pictures

Here are a few pictures from our recent past ....

Jessica's Graduation - Pretty awesome day and event. There were 78 young people in her class this year. Afterwards, we had a great dinner at Red Lobster with my parents.



Jessica's Junior/Senior dance - That dress is "far out man!!!!"

Little Bit getting ready for her Junior/Senior dance - Believe it or not, her date was already at the house by this time.

Another Big Weekend ...

First let me say that I apologize to everyone for not keeping this blog up to date. I know that there are only a few individuals that actually check it out daily but I hate that I haven't been up to posting of late. To be honest, I've been a little tired lately.

Maybe it has something to do with the impending end of school year, or that Big E is working till 7:00 every night, or that I have a 3 million dollar computer hardware purchase hanging over my head, or maybe it is the girls and their everyday lives...... regardless, we are busy!

With that, let me hit the highlights of the last couple weeks.

We are approaching the end of the school year. For Jessica, high school is over. In fact, we went to the graduation ceremony today. I will try to post pictures of the big event tomorrow. The other two finish mid-week.

As you can imagine this was a big day at our house (and for the other 77 kids that graduated from ACA today). The ceremony was at 2:30 today. We had two rows of family show up for the event (almost 35 people between her Mom and Dad's family). I really appreciate everyone that made it out for the ceremony. For those that didn't make it, Jessica understands why and appreciates your thoughts and prayers.

Speaking of Jessica, she will be attending Faulkner University this fall. Faulkner is a local faith based university that is located next to the high school she is graduating from today. Jessica was awarded a "commuter scholarship", which covers half of the cost of her four year degree as long as she doesn't live on campus. This is such a benefit to both Jessica and us.

I still cant believe that our oldest will be going to college next year!!

For graduation, we purchased a new HP laptop for Jessica. Our hope is that she can make it through college with this computer.

As a true geek, I spent a little over twelve hours preparing the laptop for her. Maybe that is why I haven't been posting any blogs lately? As I was preparing her laptop, I got to thinking about what I was doing.

Rather than tearing off into a political tirade, let me say that protection is "nothing more than a tax on the innocent". I wish I could take credit for the statement or even remember who said it first. The bottom line is that regardless of what you are talking about; cars, homes, computers, or even our lives, protection is the price we pay for those that don't value those items like we do.

I will try to get a few pictures up tomorrow. Until then, have a great weekend.

When it rains it pours and pours and pours

What a week of rain, or has it been two or three weeks now. Regardless, the ground decided it can't handle any more rain so the flooding began this morning. We are supposed to get a break tomorrow with more rain to follow.

Take a look at this link to one of the local news channels photo website of the flooding around town ...

http://www.wsfa.videos.vmixcore.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=4040241&collection_id=6783

Sadly, there has already been one confirmed death related to the flooding.

A couple of Photos for the Impatient Ones

OK, for all of you that have asked, here are a couple of photos of the girls from yesterday.

This one is Jessica with her date. They went out to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival gardens for their pre-banquet photos. Jessica's dress is a straight out of the 60's go-go dancer pattern with a really low cut back. She looked very nice in her dress.



Here is Jessica and Mara with Big E at the garden again. Check out the "this is the last picture, right?" smile on Jessica's face. I think this was around picture 200 between Jay's parents and Jessica's duel set of parents.

Here is Little Bit with her date. She is wearing a fairly standard style dress that took way more than standard tailoring to fit her extremely thin frame. She also looked stunning in the dress.

We took this picture at the house. They were headed out of town to a small community for their pictures. We didn't go out for the picture session, but I hope to get some photos soon. Also of note is that this is thirty minutes after the poor fellow arrived at the house.

All in all, I think the girls had a good time. Both are complaining about being tired today. I guess they can't hang with the big dogs yet. Of course, I find that to be a good thing since they are my kids!!!!!

I hope to return in the coming weeks with more pictures. Until next time, have a great week.....

Estrogen ....

Ughhh ... its an estrogen weekend!!!!

The two oldest girls have their "junior / senior banquets" tomorrow (code for prom night). So, tonight is all about getting their finger and toe nails done. Tomorrow will be an entire day of trying on their dresses, complaining about weight gain/loss since they purchased the dresses, hair problems, pictures and little fellows coming to our house to get our girls for their big night out.

UGHHHHH .... I'm going to say this one straight out for everyone to understand ... it will be a beer night tomorrow.

UNTIL ... they are gone!!!!

Then it is just Big E and I. I think we might have to go out for our own little prom night. You know what I mean, dinner and dancing with me and the wifeeee!!!! Whoo-hooo!!!!! Of course, we are broke so it will be more like pizza and a rental movie (we're old so that will be awesome too).

I'll try to get a few pictures of the girls getting ready, all "dolled up" and maybe a picture or two of me reminding the boys that I don't mind going back to prison. That will be my favorite part of the night. Actually, I am really looking forward to sitting those young men down and having the short discussion about long beatings and pain.

Little Elizabeth is now interrupting me to say that her little man can't handle the fatherly discussion. So, we might get a picture of a pair of wet pants, that would be awesome!!!!! She thinks she is going to edit this one before it is published, but that ain't going to .f.dfsd.g.g .... happen. She is grabbing the keyboard, have a ff great weekend

Lazy Blogger

Wow, sorry for the time between posts. To be honest, I've been feeling a little lazy and haven't spent as much time online of late. Also, I've got this really cool game for the Xbox and it takes up a LOT of my time now.

To continue my laziness, here are a few shorties ...

1. Jessica went to New York and had a fun couple of days seeing the sights.
2. Jessica graduates on May 17th. Scary!!!!!
3. Big Elizabeth bought a new VAN. Its a really nice grocery getter.
4. I will get into trouble for number 3, but it is worth it.
5. Sunday night is our Larry the Cable Guy concert. Its going to be awesome.

Final words for the day ....

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to Big Elizabeth,
Happy Birthday to you,

and many more .........

Special Day Blog Two

OK, so today is the BIG special day and you probably have already guessed but my mother-in-law really isn't the one turning 40. I won't say how young she is turning, but its a special day that we share together.

Yesterday was an awesome day. I took the day off work with Big E. We had plans to go for a round of golf, but those plans got rained out. Instead, we spent the day taking turns playing on the Wii.

For dinner, we decided to go to a local steakhouse for dinner. I didn't know it but Big E invited about sixteen others for the dinner too. WOW! It was really fun to get out and have a dinner with all of our friends. The dinner was a lot of fun and we carried the party over to one of the guys house for a little Rock Band II fun.

I want to say a big thanks to Big E for putting together all of the fun and to all those that particiapted. I really had a great time. I feel a little rough this morning, but it was well earned.

This morning, once we finally crawled out of bed, the girls surprised me with a little scavenger hunt for my birthday present. At the end of the hunt was a brand new special edition Xbox 360. It is exactly what I wanted. Now, having spent a couple of hours chasing zombies, I am ready to go to the store and grab another game or two.

To close out the birthday fun, Big E and I have a date tonight with my mom and dad. We are going out to dinner and to see James Gregory. James bills himself as the funniest man on Earth. This will be our second time to see him, ironically, the first time was last year on my birthday. I can't wait for tonight.

Special Day Blog One

Well, we are another day closer to the big day. I'll let part of the secret out of the bag today. If you've kept up with my blog for a while, you have read about me referring to the worlds greatest mother-in-law. I am truly grateful and blessed to know her. Many of you know her too and I know you agree.

This Saturday is her birthday. Since she has been going backwards with her years lately (or for more than a few years), she will be turning forty this Saturday.

Some people like to think that forty is a big birthday. Heck, I would if I was turning forty, but part of my joy would be simply making it that long. Today though, forty is really like the new "twenty". I mean getting to forty simply means that you are finally old enough to know better and still young enough to care less. Also, by forty you are probably far enough along in life to no longer care what others really think about you but not old enough to verbalize it out loud.

So, with that being said, happy early birthday to the worlds greatest mother-in-law. I hope that she gets to do everything she wants for her birthday.

As for the second part of the announcement, I'll save that for another day this week. Which of course means, there will be another post this week.

Now, for a little coupon update. I hope that I didn't bring anyone down with my disappointment about this weekends coupon situation. I still managed and executed a pretty good plan. Check out this picture...

Throw in three twelve-packs of Pepsi products and you have my total trip to CVS (twice) and Walgreens this weekend with total cost out of my pocket of $15.32. Thats

3 Twelve packs of Pepsi, 1 tube of Colgate Professional Strength enamal building toothpaste, 2 Cans of Oust Spray, 2 of the new Pledge Pet Hair Fabric Brushes, Scrubbing Bubbles for the bathroom, 2 Kleenex boxes with lotion, Pledge Multisurface cleaner, Right Guard Professional Strength, 2 70 foot Reynolds wrap, 2 Dry Roll-on Clinical Strength, Fruitopia Conditioner, a six-pack of toothbrushes and holder, Chap Stick, Walgreens Extra Strength Headache 20 CT Gel Pills, Peter Pan peanut butter, Healthy Choice Rotini lunch meal, 5 cans of Hunts tomato sauce, 4 packs of Stride gum and 2 packs of IceCubes gum.

I guess, I did OK and I will be getting another 20+ in rebates from Walgreens.

Last, I also got the coolest thing at CVS this week. I got a six pack of toothbrushes in a cheap plastic round white toothbrush holder for $1.00. Sure the brushes may end up being lousy after a couple of weeks, but you can use them in other ways too. For example, clean the wheels on your car, clean that nasty underside of your toilet or even the nasty bottom of the sink drains and tub drains. We use them to clean the grout of tile (a little mixture of water, lemon, clorex bleach and salt or arm and hammer). Regardless, you can find something todo with 6 toothbrushes for $1.00 dollar. Give them to a charity or church if nothing else, I bet they would love to have them.

Until next time, if you are in our part of Alabama, get your duck shoes ready, its going to be a long and wet week....

Anonymous Comments

I love getting comments but sometimes the anonymous ones truly are anonymous. Generally, I can figure out who you are by the way you write your comment, especially since so few comment. I got a comment on the last post and I dont know who it was from. Creepy?

To answer the post, some of the girls where at their "other homes". In our house that is code for going to visit their other parent(s). One of the girls was running around the Zoo with her friends enjoying a break from me (since I made her pull weeds, by hand, that morning).

Keep those comments coming and thanks for reading my trivial tidbits, I am truly grateful that this is a little more than a diary for me in my older years!!!!! Can you imagine the "remember whens" when I grow up?

Its a Two-fer day

Since I've been left alone at the house today, I thought I would take advantage of the time and have a little fun. No, I have not been playing video games all day, but I am about to get started. I mean a different kind of fun. OK, if what I am about to describe is fun to you too, then you are as cheap as me. Otherwise, you probably will not understand this one....

I figured I could get a jump start on my couponing and planning for tomorrow's trips to various stores (this is now an every Sunday effort for me). The circuit generally includes Publix, CVS, Walgreens, and if the sale or BOGO items are just right, Winn-Dixie. The planning process for these trips currently takes me about 3 hours depending on the quality of the sales and the coupons that I need to find (including Internet search efforts and printing). I generally handle this fun time on Sunday mornings while the girls are asleep and I can watch a movie in peace and quiet. Today, I have peace and quiet, so I am getting it done early.

Now, the reason for the blog, I figured it was a good day to sort through the coupons and pull the expiring coupons out of the envelopes (where I store them sorted by type). To my digust, I have a larger pile of expiring coupons (by March 31) than I have not expiring. In fact, my expiring pile is nearly three inches tall. Think about that, three inches tall stack of coupons!!!!! That is a tremendous amount of savings that I didn't take advantage of. Now, I admit that there are hundreds of coupons in that stack that I would never take advantage of but there are many I would have used.

Here is a quick breakdown of some of the coupons I didn't use ...

1. $50 plus dollars of Oil of Olay coupons
2. $25 dollars of Home fragrance coupons (Febreeze, candles, etc.)
3. $10 dollars of laundry detergent coupons
4. An insane amount of dish detergent (hand and machine wash) coupons
5. A few mouthwash and toothpaste coupons
6. $10 dollars in hair care products
7. $25 dollars or more in shaving (male and female) products. Do you know what razor blades cost?
8. At least $50 dollars in general cleaning coupons.
9. Another $25 plus of body cleaning coupons.
10. There are a few food coupons in there but not many (at least I used those wisely).

I don't know why I am allowing the expiring coupons to bother me today. I guess it's that this is the first month to have so many expiring simultaneously. Did I not use them wisely or am I just collecting more? Either way, I feel like I left something on the table (savings wise) and I dont like to ever leave something on the table!

Oh well, I have a few days left in the month, hopefully I can find a reasonable sale to pair some of them with. Otherwise, I will be in for a bad day next Sunday.

Speaking of next weekend, it is a BIG day for a couple of people. At least one person will be crossing into a new decade of ages and one will be getting another day younger. I will have more on that topic soon.

Until next time, use your coupons or send them to me. I promise I will try to put them to good use.

Big news announcement

I mentioned in the last post that Big E had some big news to share soon. Well, I can officially announce that she recieved a promotion in her job last week. She was promoted to the supervisor of the Networking team. She has worked really hard on this team for several years and was rewarded with a chance to lead it. Big round of applause for her.

Speaking of Big E, she is off to spend the weekend with her mom today. I think they are planning a girls night out and a special trip tomorrow. I hope they have a good time. I wonder what I am going to eat though?

Nahhh, I'm sure that I can find a pizza or something.

I hope each of you enjoy your weekned.

The Tax Man Cometh ...

Its been a tough week and a half since the last post, but we've had a few things that may be of interest to share.

First, Big E got some exciting news at work. I'm not going to share it just yet but we are all very excited about it. I will probably be able to share it "officially" next time.

Sunday is Brook's birthday. She will be 15 this year. I know Brook hopes you didn't forget. It's hard to imagine that our "baby" has reached the learning to drive age. I guess it will be another brutal year of teaching for Big E. If you see Big E's car on the road, pull over just in case Brook is driving.

Brook hasn't decided where we are going for her birthday dinner yet. I have no doubt that it will be good though, she usually has good ideas for her birthday dinner. I'll give everyone an update next time.

We haven't been on the running trail much lately. My physical therapy has been a little tougher than I expected which means that I am too sore most days to consider running. I hope that after next week, I will be able to finally shake off the sore and stiffness so that I can get out on the road again. If we don't get started soon, I doubt we will be able to handle the run in April.

And now for the main event ... Paying taxes ....

As I mentioned last time, it is tax time (you probably knew that, huh?). I love this time of year. We get to learn how much (or little!!!) we earned this year and how much our government feels we should share for earning it.

This was the first year that Elizabeth and I decided to actually do them ourselves; together. I am very proud to say that we did not cuss or inflict damage upon each other during this process. I'm glad its done. Now, to quote Bill Cosby, "let the beatings begin!!!!!".

Its a yucky day outside, I think we are going to spend it inside straightening the house and watching TV. I hope you have a great day.

Havent had much to say..

I haven't really had too much to say so I haven't blogged. Have you noticed? Don't really have much to say today either, so here are a few bullets..

1. Brook has a track competition this weekend, so we are headed for Mobile. Don't know if we are driving down Friday or Saturday yet.

2. I haven't been able to run since the 5K race. My knees are really feeling sore and they sound like its time for an oil change. I went to see the doctor today and the verdict ... physical therapy. It seems that my knees are not strong enough to support my weight so the ligaments under the knee caps are grinding (hence the squeeking noise when I walk). The solution is to build the muscles in my upper leg to bare the brunt of the action. Funny that I started running to lose weight but my weight is making it difficult to run.

3. It snowed on Sunday. Snow in our little part of the world is an oddity. The dog enjoyed chasing snow balls.

4. Amazing Race has started again. I am pulling for the red head ex-cheerleaders. Big Es team went home this past week.

5. Its tax season again. Can't wait to see how much I owe the government. I guess its my small way of helping Obama help the economy. Maybe all his stimulation packages will stimulate the market to help me in return. Its almost like investing in my future. Now that is funny.

Until next time, try this Green Tip of the Post ... Clean out the from behind your refrigerator to insure good air flow. While you are back there, clean the air intake grates. Try this with your washer and dryer too. Good air flow helps the units to run better and smoother.

Race Day (A Quick Report) ...

This morning was our annual Huntington College Founders Day 5K race. I can call it annual since at least one of us ran the race the last three races.

For a quick recap of the previous years race, you can go back to the Feb 23rd 2008 blog. We had a big group for the race last year but this year it was only Lil Bit and I. Big E is stuck at Faulkner University with our oldest daughter trying to squeeze some extra scholarship money out of the school (I hope she sharpened her bargaining skills).

Since this wasn't my first race, I wasn't as anxious (nervous). I did follow through with a healthy dinner last night of "Ho Fun" at the local Chinese joint but this year I chased the dinner with a couple of tall cool ones (I didn't do that last year). Wheat and barley are carbohydrates, right?

Like last year, we awoke to a cold morning (28 degrees when we awoke). Thankfully the sun came out by the time the race started and we could no longer see our breath.

We've been training with the Couch Potato to 5K program and are up to week 4 now. I figured that I am a little better prepared for the race this year. As a result, I was feeling confident that I could finish it better than I did last year.

Our morning routine this time was very similar to the previous years routine and at 7:30 we departed for the race. Upon arrival, we registered, grabbed our goodies, and promptly returned to the truck to thaw out. We couldn't help but watch some of the other racers arriving and their outfits. I won't make fun of those people as they all finished before I did, so maybe it is the shoes or the tight leotard looking pants (on men no less). I don't care if it is the pants, I ain't wearing tight leotards for no one.

I loaded up (on the MP3 player) week four of the Couch Potato series figuring that I would be nearing the end of the race by the end of the podcast, and for good measure threw a few extra songs in the mix.

We started at 8:30, learning from the previous years fast start, I hung back in the pack and followed my own pace. I lost Lil Bit around the first half mile point as she was running with the pack. Once again this year, I found a couple of other runners to pace myself against and resorted to doing what I had to do to finish and not finish last. It really is sad to resort to being satisfied with next to last so early into the race.

All was going fairly well at the one mile point. I was following the program. I wasn't too out of breath, my knees where no longer hurting, and the back was happy with the stick on heating pad. At the two mile marker, someone hollered out 23:00 minutes and I realized that despite my training and progress, I was on no better a pace than last year.

At this point, I would like to pause and review last years race.

1. By the half mile point last year, I was passed by a woman pushing a stroller!! The little kid in the stroller, that could not even walk, finished the race before me. This year, that didn't happen. Oh, there was a woman pushing a stroller in the race this year, but I tripped her at the one mile marker and dared her to get up. NO, that didn't happen, she actually started the race ahead of me and I never saw her again till the end.

2. Last year, I had a short and round man to pace myself against but in the end I pulled ahead for the win. This year I had a short and round "fast walker" lady to pace myself against and in the end she strolled past me like I was standing still. Yes, that did happen. I got passed by a "fast walker" at the two and half mile point, while I was running. What the .... I was running!!!!! Maybe I shouldn't call it running anymore.

3. Last year, at the end of the race, I was thrilled to still be breathing and had to lay down for five minutes to recuperate. This year, I was mad that my time was actually worse than last year, but I could still breath and stand on my own two feet. Yes, that actually is true too. I finished with a turtle record of 37:08 BUT I COULD STILL BREATH AND STAND ON MY OWN.

After completing the race, Lil Bit informed me that I was only 1 minute behind her. Huh??? She took a little over 36 minutes to run the race. She did it in 33:40 last year. What happened? As she tells it, she managed to run the first two miles without a problem but she never took a walking break, so she ran out of stem and had to walk the entire last mile. She blew up!!! If I had known that she was blowing up, I would have stretched it out a little harder and passed her. OK, so that wouldn't have happened.

In the end, we are both happy that we got out of bed and ran the race but disappointed in our results. I am going to blame it on the shoes ... no,no,no ... the weather. It was too cold to be out there running.

Speaking of shoes, the podcast ended not long after the two mile marker. I was thankful that I loaded the extra music on the ole MP3 player. The first song that came on was "Sensible Shoes" by the David Lee Roth band. How is that for irony? Even funnier is that I finished the race listening to "Greasy Grannys Gopher Gravy" by The Government Mule. Sounds yummy, I'm hungry.

Seriously, I know I am getting older, but I didn't think it was time to officially call me old (at least not till March 28th of this year). I cant believe that I was a full minute slower this year compared to last (can you say 10 pounds?). Hopefully there will be another race coming up in April, I will be better prepared, it will be warmer AND I will be old enough to move up to the 40 - 45 year old bracket too.

Until next time, I am hungry and I must go grocery shopping. Publix better be prepared for the coupon machine.

Green Tip of the Post: Haven't had one of these in a while. Try using white vinegar instead of fabric softener. It works just as well and it doesn't leave your clothes stinky unless you use way too much.

Starring tidbits of us .....

Elizabeth sent me this link today, check it out .... Keith Urban's "Sweet thing" video.

If you aren't a country music fan, I can understand that, just bear with it. There are several hints related to me and my beautiful bride in the video. Most of the stuff is pretty subtle, no pictures. I spotted 12 items the first time I watched it but I may have missed a couple.

If you watch it, leave comments with what you spot.

Speaking of Keith, Elizabeth purchased tickets for our yearly trek to see him. Ths time we are going to the Huntsville, AL show in May. I really like the Von Braun Civic Center. We are sitting front and center on the eigth row this time. She is so excited!!! I think her sign plan is to have a poster asking Keith to sign her "Monkeyville" tatoo (since she wants to get the autograph tatoo'd below the emblem).

In addition, she is really pumped that Dierks Bentley will be opening the show. I got to meet Dierks a few years ago here in Montgomery before a show. As a part of the deal, she is getting a signed copy of Dierks new CD.

Its like Christmas in February at our house.

Coupon report

So I've been really working on the art of using coupons and store loyalty cards for the past two months. I had one of my best trips this morning and thought I would share it with you ...

This is my trip to CVS this morning ….

Products purchased (sorry I dont have a picture today)

3 Suave body Washes
2 Colgate Total Toothpaste
1 Charmin Ultra 9-pack
2 Herbal Essence Shampoo
1 Gillette Shampoo
1 Venus Razor Blades

Here is the breakdown on the costs ... ECB are "Extra Care Bucks" that you receive when you purchase certain products, etc. that can be used for future purchases at CVS.

Total value 35.93
Coupons Used 9.75
ECB Used 24.49
OOP 2.83
ECB Back 14.98

The plan would have been a little better but the store was out of Pringles, CVS children chewables and Bodiheat heating pads. The original plan would have cost me an extra 2 dollars and netted me an additional 5 dollars in ECB. I will go back later this week to finish the plan.

Stockpiling is awesome. I don’t have to purchase toothpaste for the rest of the year unless its free. I have enough mens shampoo to last the next two – three years for myself (so unless its free I don’t need it or I can give it away).

At this point, we have stockpiled:
6 toothpaste tubs
8 or more female shampoos
4 deodorants
2 packs of toilet paper
1 hair coloring thing
5 body washes
4 facial cleaner towelettes (those things are expensive)
and a small group of one off stuff.

Now, I need to start concentrating on the grocery bill a little more but grocery sales of stunk of late. We are low on meat, so I may have to break down and actually pay full price for a few things.

I'll keep everyone posted with more later.

Level my ....

Sorry mom, but I couldn't help the title. It was just too good, once you read this update.

As I mentioned in the previous blog, I installed a new toilet on Sunday. I had a little trouble with the installation (self induced trouble). You can read the post, no need for me to recap.

Anyway, while I thought the toilet to be stable, my lovely and caring wife did not feel the same way. Apparently, when she used the toilet, it would rock a little from side to side. At the risk of getting into a LOOOOOOTTTTTTTT of trouble, I will simply say that I did not notice this issue when I used the new toilet.

I may be a risk taker (see the previous paragraph) but I am not a full blown idiot. So, we had one of the local plumbing companies out this morning to fix my mistake.

The end result was a $200 dollar learning experience for me. Some lessons are hard to learn, but this was not one of them. Even worse for me (and I haven't owned up to this one to Big E yet), is that Elizabeth suggested this solution but I blew her off. Can you imagine the trouble I am in now???????

The plumbers arrived and promptly walked in the door with the exact parts that Big and Little E purchased initially yesterday (again, see the post). Then they explained the process that they planned to use (which I told Big E would not work) and did it. No less than an hour later, the toilet was back in place, and did not rock (I tried really hard to make it rock but it wouldn't do it).

I see the crow, I grab the crow, and now I will proceed to eat the crow. The crow tastes terrible but will definitely be better than the crap that I will take from my lovely and caring little lady when she reads this one.

So fellows, the lesson learned from this one is to lie to your wife. No, no, no, that's not it. Maybe the lesson is ... If the toilet is a rockin, don't bother a knockin. No, no, no, that's not it either (but I thought a Stevie Ray Vaughn reference would be fun). Actually, the lesson is that if your lovely and caring wife offers a suggestion, it might be worth taking a minute from your disgusted, angered, childish temper tandrum and consider it. It might actually save you a little money (that could have been a down payment on a Playstation 3!!!!!)

OK, so I've told on myself, again. Does the title make sense now though? I thought this blog was supposed to be about the women in the house, not me. Lately, it seems to be more about me and the trouble I cause them. Arrgghh.

A little update on the walking and running. We are still following the Couch Potato to 5K podcasts.

Little Bit is way ahead of me (she is on week three) and I feel she is ready for the February 21 run. I am way behind (I am on week two) and not ready for the run. Big E is somewhere in between (she is ready to start week three) but she is ready for the run. I will try to post pictures and times of the race. If you need a great way to ease yourself into running, the podcasts are a great way to do it.