177: today's good deals

hey y'all!

how's your friday going so far?

just wanted to share some good shopping sites i've come across in the past few days.

there's JungleCrazy, a site that compiles the best/lowest discounts from amazon.com. the discounts are at least 70% and there's also a 1 cent page. i wasn't surprised to see the razor phones on the 1 cent page. the ones we got from verizon wireless really sucked rotten eggs.

there's also CCO. they're the website that gets all the closeout stuff from catalogs like Chadwick's and LaRedoute. they have some reeeeeallllly good deals but of course, sizes and quantities are limited.

keep in mind that i've never bought anything from either of these places so caveat emptor y'all and happy friday.

* * * * *

12:06 a.m.

update...

i tried to buy a few inexpensive items from JungleCrazy.com. i guess i forgot about the crazy shipping costs when buying from amazon when the items are being sold by several different merchants on the same tab. for 8 items (2 @ $9.99, 1 @ $5.99, and 5 @ $2.99)

merchandise total: $ 40.92
shipping: $ 20.89

needless to say, i'm chucking the whole load. i refuse to pay $20 for shipping and/or handling.
.
.
.

176: blissful dreaming...

hey y'all,

this week's collaboration (#42) over at Crazy Hip Blog Mamas is asking me to reveal my childhood dreams.

i know they don't mean the dreams we had while sleeping, but i'll tell y'all this any way. i had a recurring dream during childhood. a recurring nightmare. in the dream, i was always being chased by a round guy wearing black pants and a horizontally striped long sleeved shirt. he also wore a black hat and a black thingie tied around his eyes with slits so he could see.

i'm not sure but i think he was a character from a popular cartoon of my day. maybe someone out there knows who/what i'm talking about?

now on to the real topic of collaboration #42.

when i was a girl, i loved to play with my dolls. i loved to make clothes for them (from old socks), do their hair, let them have parties and what not. and whenever we went out and left the dolls home alone, i always had the feeling that they'd been moving around the place while we were gone. (call me crazy, but a part of me still believes this.)

although i loved playing with my dollies i also loved reading. i would read everything from the dictionary to encyclopedias to sci-fi. books took me to exciting places, some i'd never heard of. places i longed to see in real life... specifically, california.

at some point in my girlhood, my dream was to run away to california's bay area to become a hippy. (i'm still thinking about doing this by the way.) 

i didn't want to go to college. i didn't want to get married. i didn't want to have children.

that changed when i was 16 or so. i still wanted to move to california but not to become a hippy. i'd been reading the want ads and thought i'd make a good stewardess. then later i decided i was still going out to california but to attend a school that trained travel agents. (an ad i'd seen in the back of one of those teen magazines, maybe my favorite, seventeen.)

and guess what y'all? when i was 18 i met a man and got sidetracked into a less-than-blissful marriage i won't talk about here. '-)

now that you've read about my childhood dreams, sleepwalk your way on over to this place to see what other crazy hip blogging mamas are saying about their childhood dreams.

as i am one of the nosiest people i know, i'm going right now. '-)

.

175: fish tales

do y'all know sylvia? she's baby bliss's pet beta. we've had her since winter. she's our ongoing home schooling project.

she's pretty and funny. a beautiful shade of cobalt blue that stripes when she's scared or (i think) mad.

when we got her, we didn't know a thing about raising fish. she was a totally spur-of-the-moment purchase. once we got her home, we were afraid she'd die on us so i did lots of online research.

a few of the things i learned:

1. betas like greenery in the bowl. usually to hide behind.
2. if the fish rub against anything sharp, they can be injured and could die.
3. sea salt is good for them. celtic salt is better.
   
4. they like to eat spirulina and it's a nice treat for them.
5. their little bellies are about the size of one of their eyeballs, so it's extremely important not to overfeed them.
6. they can go a week or two without eating cuz that's what sometimes happens in their natural habitats (shallow puddles in Thailand)

we had my bamboo plants in with sylvie when we had her in her first container. but that was a vase that wasn't very roomy. and the glass was frosty and so i thought sylvie might feel a lot lonely not being able to see us clearly.

we moved her to another home and put the bamboo back in their original vase.

baby bliss and i thought sylvie might want some decorations for her new home. we already had some glass pebbles here that we weren't using. they now line the bottom of sylvie's third (and final) home, an oversized brandy glass we got at walmart a few months ago.

sylvie's home could still use a bit of greenery but we haven't been able to find anything without sharp edges. i was feeling bad about that tho it wasn't my fault.

then the other day it dawned on me. sylvie could have something other than greenery if we so chose. while we were in walmart, i decided glass would be a good choice for sylvie's almost-empty nest.

it took a while to decide between several options. baby bliss thought my final choice (a small fish bowl with fluted edges) would be too big to fit in sylvie's bowl. mr. bliss agreed when he saw it.

wouldn't y'all know it? momma knows best cuz that little fish bowl fit nicely in sylvie's brandy glass. yeah, it's sticking out of the water a bit but that's good. i don't think it should be totally submerged cuz sylvie goes to the surface every so often. for air or to be nosey, one. i'm not sure which.

at first she seemed put out by the new accessory but now she seems to love it. we've seen her hanging out in her new fixture lots of times already.

174: watermelon

baby bliss and i were seriously jonesing for watermelon in here y'all.

even though we have supermarkets in walking distance, i hate getting it from the tarris heeter, moolb, and lood fion.

we used to get it at the local farmer's market but the closest one is almost on the other side of town. thank God for our local farmers.

when we drove to #1 Auntie's house a few weeks back, y'all remember i said we rolled thru farm areas on our way up? did i say i made a mental note to go back for produce?

baby bliss and i went today. the first place we stopped didn't have watermelon. :-( the man said for us to go see "that boy up the other side of the road".

so up we went to the other side of the road. "that boy" turned out to be a man older than my momma. o.O

aside: but in the south, every male is probably called boy by someone older than himself. shoot, my grandma still calls me a girl and i'm 40.

baby bliss and i really wanted that watermelon. and the man was so nice (and the watermelon so cheap) we decided to get some green beans (also known as string beans and pole beans) when he asked if we wanted some.

when we got home, baby bliss was darn near salivating to taste the fruit. but wonderful character-building momma that i am, i made her empty and re-load the dish washer, clean up her breakfast crumbs, then wash and dry her breakfast tray.

can y'all believe that lil mermaid got an attitude and rolled her eyes at me for making her work? i kid y'all not. and then she had the nerve to flop herself on the floor and lay down with her arm across her forehead. like she was exhausted.

instigating me said, "what's wrong? are you tired?" y'all know the response was more eye rolling. i just laughed at her. makes me no nevermind if she wants to act a fool. long as she did what momma said, we're alright.

i guess it was another 15 or 20 minutes 'fore we got to taste the watermelon.

did i tell y'all we got sugar babies? i've never gotten 'em before cuz anything with "sugar" in the name was just bound to be too sweet for me. i'm the one who adds a finger of water to most of my juice.

the best thing about the sugar baby is the size. ours were just right for "personal". i let baby bliss cut and serve. she halved it expertly, grabbed two giant bowls, then plopped each half right in 'em.

plastic knives and forks were all we needed to eat our way to two big ole melon bellies.

.

173: Meme me a.k.a. Five Things...

I snagged this one from Miz Susan over at Our Little Corner of the Upstate. Thanks Susan! :-)


5 things in your refrigerator:

1. rice milk
2. sour cream
3. Odwalla's pomegranate-lemonade juice
4. apple juice (which might sit awhile; we got it for our visiting cousin who said she loved apple juice. funny how she drank half a cup out of 32 ounces)
5. a bowl of basmati rice that's been in there for too long to remember (is it time to toss it?)


5 things in your closet (bedroom for me):

1. too many wire hangers!
2. off season clothes/shoes - on the shelves
3. seasonal wear - hanging
4. the linen shelves and clean linens
5. hubby's junk, waiting to be unpacked


5 things in your purse or backpack (in my case, it's the rolling laptop bag/backpack):

1. an orange mesh bag that i using as a small purse/large wallet
2. a 2-inch thick folder and a 1-inch thick folder, both holding notes from the novel i'm currently working on
3. a pack of wide-ruled notebook paper (unopened)
4. sunglasses i look at more than wear (in a cool case i found at the $ store)
5. a bunch of pens (half are red, half are black)


5 things in your car:

1. baby wipes
2. my P.E.C.K.
3. the owner's manual for my car
4. bubbles (we blow them out the window at stop lights/in traffic jams, to lighten the tension)
5. stuff that needs to be vacuumed from the flooooooooooor


5 things in the world you want to see before you die:

1. baby bliss take her first trip to Paris (she really wants to go)
2. my first novel, in print
3. any of my novels on the bestseller list
4. more of the world's beautiful beaches
5. kosen rufu! (world peace)
.

172: way past my bedtime

i really should be sleep but i'm not even sleepy yet.

guess what i'm doing y'all. (besides typing this, i mean.) i'm checking out other people's blogs. specifically, i'm checking out all the blogs on the Crazy Hip Blog Mamas blogroll. i'm still on the A's y'all and i've been at it for 2 days now.

but i'm taking my time. i'm reading at least 3 posts per blog, to see if the blog touches a nerve, makes me feel some sort of kinship, or moves me in some other way. then i'll leave a comment or two; maybe more.

i really do need to get to sleep. baby bliss and i are 'sposed to make it to the 10:30 free movie later. if i don't get at least 4 hours sleep, i'll be nodding off during the movie.

on a totally different topic, my scalp needs a good scrubbing. i don't know why it's gone all itchy on me. there was a time i could go weeks without washing my hair and it never bothered me.

maybe this is cuz it got used to being shampooed every other day or so?

171: grab a holtuvit

hey y'all.

baby bliss and i were watching a documentary the other night called Okie Noodling. we turned it on halfway thru and were disgusted (me) and enthralled (her) with the practice.

the fish (ginormous, alien-looking catfish for y'all who don't know) were frightening in appearance. something that would make me never stick my foot in a puddle of muddy water ever again, i tell ya.

their skin was green and yellow, their whiskers thick and rubbery-looking, and the noodlers were pulling off the fishy skin with pliers.

nas-teeeeeee.

the highlight of the whole program? (and no, i didn't change the channel cuz baby bliss wanted to watch and it was eh-dhu-kay-shun-ul people.)

the highlight of the entire program was when one of the noodlers was showing and telling one of the researchers how to get the fish out of the holes.

he said, "... grab a holtuvit..."

baby bliss looked at me, clearly confused. she said, "mommy, what's a 'holtuvit'?"

my own amazement was authentic as well . i didn't have a clue what she meant. then she said, "is it another name for bucket?"

then the dam broke as i realized what the guy meant. and i screamed/laughed so loud that baby bliss thought i was gone off the deep end for sure. after i wiped my tears, i explained to her that "holtuvit" is just the way some people say "hold of it".

our public t.v. station showed it again that same night. we watched it and we watched it again the next day too. all to hear that guy say "holtuvit" again. :-)

we shared the story with mr. bliss and got him to watch it with us the third time so he could hear it too.

that's been our private joke over the last few days. and not to make fun of the guy. i have a thing for accents, colloquialisms, slang, etc. but only if it sounds cool. '=)

on another note, mr. bliss has decided he wants to drive down to charleston for a visit. one of my relatives used to visit charleston often and she loves it. i've never been and i'm wondering how i'll like it.

i know it's on the water. is it more humid there than non-coastal towns? are there beaches or is it swampy? i don't have a clue. i'm gonna do my research (online) soon cuz we might be going this weekend.

we haven't taken a weekend trip in ages. i'm a bit excited but apprehensive too. maybe i shouldn't have mentioned potential travel plans around grandma but i did. now it's threatening to be an extended-family road trip. which could turn into a family feud cuz one or more of the extended family members have "control issues".

and one has a dog that sometimes travels with. i love that doggie but i don't want critters on vacation with me. and i surely hope that person doesn't want to car pool y'all. we'll be taking our own car, thank you. so we can come and go as we please and not have to wait on the group.

so what's the point in us all going as a group any way? i can guarantee that we won't agree on what to see, where to go, what to eat, where to stay... there will also be dissension on how often to stop for potty and food breaks, how long those stops should be, who should get out and who should watch the vehicles/valuables.

maybe we should just sneak off without them?

but the real question -- the one that will cause the most trouble around here -- is should i take the laptop?


.