I am a total dork, but who cares!

I am so excited about my grocery shopping. The fiance was even laughing at me. He said I was all happy and dancing around. hehe I can't help it. It feels good to know that you have armed yourself with very good things to make some healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I also bought a few extra items that I normally wouldn't buy and none of them (uh, well except one) is junk food. I want to try somethign new each time I shop until I've tried all I can.

This time I got:

Roasted Chickpeas - I tried a few...its a little different. It's not knock down delicious but probably something I will eventually crave when I haven't had it in a while LOL
Butternut squash - I really am excited about this! I have no idea how I am going to cook, but we WILL be having butternut squash this week darnit!
A small jicama - I debated between the jicama and the yuca root. I finally decided to try the jicama. I think I can put it salad?
Envirokids Peanut Butter Panda Puffs - finally something organic the kids are excited about!
Soy nuts! - this should be interesting
Vita muffins - I have been looking and looking for these! Apparently I was looking in the wrong place!
Tru North (I think) peanut clusters - this is mainly for the kids for snack
Organic tri-colored pasta from the bulk section
Amy's spinach and feta roll thingy
BLUE corn tortilla chips - very excited to try these too

I think that is all my "new" products. On my list so far for next time is:
Yucca root
Swiss Chard - I debated for a long time whether I should get this or not today LOL
Sunny bears (I think) - organic fruit candy sort of thing. I am thinking of making a trail mix with it for the kids to take to school. I think it would be fun!

The disappointing thing about my trip is that my HEB is supposed to be the 2nd biggest anywhere right? Why can I find more of the products I want at the HEB by my work than the one by the house that is supposedly bigger?! I am so disappointed that I could not get Oikos greek yogurt. I had to settle for Greek God, which the first time I tried was not that great. These are flavored (1 honey and 1 vanilla) so hopefully it will be better! Also, I could not find sliced almonds in the bulk section! ARGH!I NEED my almonds for my breakfasts. Wah! I am kind of putting together a list of things in my head I need to get from Kroger. HEB also did not have Annie's graham bunnies which I need for the kids lunches. So I settled for Famous Amos cookies. Oops! That was another new junk food. A couple of mini chocolate chip cookies a day won't hurt right? Although, I forgot to check for high fructose corn syrup. Darn! I'll bet they have it too!

Wednesday is for complaining about stupid people!

Gripe #1

We decided we'd eat dinner, let our food settle and go to the gym around 8:30 or 9 pm. We got there about 9 pm I suppose. (We got caught up watching Jaws ) I dont' think we've ever gone that late, maybe around 8 but never 9. We get there and I take my Superfoods RX book bc I have been enjoying reading while on the elliptical lately. He was listening to my MP3 and all was well for about 5 minutes. Then these really annoying girls come in about 3 ellipticals down from us. One girl, decides she doesn't like the music the gym is playing - which is fine - BUT then she decides to BLAST music on her cell phone! Cell phones have come a long way yes. And when heard through ear buds, the sound quality of the mp3s are not bad, I had some on my phone before I had to get a new sim card. But, through your cell phone speaker - it is crappy! It was all staticy! I looked over at her because I could not tell if it was just her ringer or if she was really rude enough to disregard everyone else around her and listen to music on her cell phone. She looked right at me and didn't care one bit. By this time, the fiance took off his ear buds and learns why I am getting annoyed. Still, I tried to just ignore it and keep on with my reading of beans and why they are good for you. THEN, this heffer starts singing! And she wasn't any good either! By this time, about two other people have just plain left the area. The finace is looking at me and noticing I am beyond annoyed and I am about to just march over there and tell her something. So, being the peacemaker he is when I am the one getting angry, he tells me lets just go. I am about 20 mins into my 45 min session. I DID NOT want to go. So he tells me we will go downstairs and complain to a manager and do weights. I agree as long as he lets me make the 2 mile mark, so he does. Meanwhile, this girl is just grating on my nerves even more. And her friend on the treadmill is yelling at the people up front to turn up the music. So we go and complain and at that the manager wasn't very professional. Don't get me wrong, I agreed with him 100%, but when we told him the situation, we explained we didn't want to complain but it was very distracting and annoying and he responded with "No, I understand, they need to just shut their effing mouths". I totally agreed but, I was a little surpirsed he'd use that kind of language. Then, when he asked which girl it was, he asked if it was the "trashy looking one". I had to laugh bc yes it was, but again, was that professional? Eh, that wasn't a big deal. I feel a little bad for complaining but dammit! I didn't get to finish my workout! That pissed me off more than anything! We ended up leaving after talking to the manager (I think the fiance planned it that way). I was so pissed! I was looking forward to those 45 mins....

Gripe #2

I heard on the radio what had to be the stupidest reason for letting your child drop out of school. I don't think there is a good reason for that anyway. Apparently, some 16 yr old kid decided he was going to drop out to be a professional Guitar Hero player. That is not the stupidest part yet. The parents actually signed the release papers for him to drop out bc "they were tired of hearing him complain about it". SUCK IT UP PARENTS! They're kids, thats what they do, they freaking complain about not being able to do this or that. It doesn't mean you appease their every complaint...what is the world coming to?!

The Houston Gas War of 2008!

So, yesterday we experienced the funniest thing ever! At the intersection of Eldridge and FM 529 there was a brand new Chevron and a newly remodeled Shell that had opened up. The fiance calls me yesterday afternoon that his friend's wife just called him and told him she put gas for $2.85! Everyone is like "WOW!". We haven't seen those kind of prices in a very long time! Well, then he calls me back and his mom saw it on the news and it is a gas price war. We get home turn on the news and sure enough. By then, the price had gone down even lower, I think in the $2.40s or $2.50s. So, his mom is telling us we should go gas up. Its not quite close to us, but its not far either, about 5 miles give or take. We werent' going to but we saw the 9 o'clock news and decided "Why not?". So we jumped in the car and made our way over there. It was crazy! There were cops everywhere directing traffic and news crews aplenty. There was a line out the wazoo but we kind of took a back street and it landed us near the front. We probably still waited a total of 20 minutes. The funniest thing is that we saw the price drop right in front of our eyes!!! Earlier on the news they showed one of the owners. He said they had dropped the price to promote more business and if the other gas station kept dropping the price they would too; they could do this all day. Apparently, they sure did! When we first got to the intersection the price was at $2.21. By the time we were in line, the price had dropped to $2.19. When we got into the gas station it was $2.17. As we were about to start pumping gas IT CHANGED AGAIN to $2.16!!! By the time we exited the gas station it was down to $2.15! It took us $27.00 to fill up his car. I still had plenty of gas since I only drive to work and back. In my big old Yukon it might not have been worth the wait. I probably would have wasted more than I would have pumped. haha I don't think we've ever filled up the Galant since we got it for less than $40. It was UN-BE-LIEVABLE! It was just one of those tripy things that happen.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6322872

Weekend trip to see my sister

Well, Friday we found ourselves with nothing to do for the weekend. My mom took the boys for the weekend and as the fiance and I were talking during I suggested, "What do you think about going to San Antonio?". So I got back to work, emailed my sister and low and behold she wasn't doing much that weekend either except redoing her floor. So the fiance got the day off Saturday and we made plans to leave in the morning. Since we have the dogs we couldn't leave them for two nights or else we would have left after work that day. We got there Saturday and went down to the Riverwalk for a little while. It was a very hot day! We cooled down by stopping at Rio Rio and having a nice cold drink! My sister had a margarita, I had a mojito and the men had ice cold beers. This was us at the bar which I believe was called "The Naked Iguana Lounge". lol

This is me and my sister:

We went back to their house and her husband barbequed for us and we ate lots of cheese dip and some yummy Julio's chips! This was the first shot of the night:

A drinking game that we played that started the night

Me and the fiance:

My sister is going to kill me for posting some of these (even though she's as beautiful as ever), but I think it is cute. This has been a love/hate relationship from the start, but they have really come a long way! You can see it in their eyes and grimaces. lol

Ok sis, I'd love to put some of the other photos on here, but I will cut you some slack. We had a wonderful weekend and I want to thank my sister and her husband for having us over. Love ya sis!

Defying the laws of electrical usage

So, we got our electricity bill for July. Can it really truly be or has there been some mistake? Is it really possible that I have LOWERED my electric bill by $40 from June to July? No way!

Every year, without fail, our electric bills go up progressively from April all the way until about October. Typicall the highest month is September for some reason. At least it has been for the past 3 years. BUT, somehow, some way, I have managed to lower our bill this year from June to July! Yiiiippeeee!!!! Forty dollars may not be much for some people. Its a months worth of lattes maybe. I consider that a small feat. Typically, our electric bill would have jumped up about $50. So, in actuality I saved $90. Right? I will admit, I was totally surprised when I saw the bill. I even had to jump online and look at my lat month bill...yep I did lower my bill. How the hell did I do that? I don't have a river behind my house that powers our electricity or anything. Here's what I did differently (and not to any discomfort either):

1. Upon leaving the house I raise the thermostat to 82 degrees. Out of a 28 day cycle this actually gets done maybe 20 days. Honestly, sometimes I come home and it hasn't even gotten to 82 degrees in the house - it might still be at 80 degrees or so. When I get home I lower it to 78 degrees. Yes, I read somewhere that is the "energy efficient" number. lol Lately, its been going down to 76 though no efficient. Summers in Houston are BRU-TAL!

2. About 40% of the light bulbs in the house are now energy saver lights, but that can't make that much of a difference can it?

3. I try to wash and dry clothes only at night. I'm not entirely sure what the benefits of this is exactly, but I read it somewhere and so decided to do it. Again, out of say 30 loads, I wash about 22-25 of them at night.

4. Months ago we bought a high efficiency washer and dryer. Maybe it takes a few months to kick in?

5. At night and before I leave the house for work I walk through the entire house and turn off unnecessary lights. Common lights that are left on are: front and back patio lights, garage light, pantry light, hall light, guest bathroom, closets, stove light, desk light. Apparently, IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. I do my run through about 95% of the time.

6. WE HAVE BEEN TURNING OFF THE COMPUTER! Again, I read this somewhere in some environmental article no doubt, and I started doing it. Maybe people do know what they write about....sometimes.

7. I stopped buying bulbs for my youngest son's night light. I know it seems cruel, but he is about to be 7, he'll live. And hey, we saved $90!

I think that is all, but honestly, none of that really seems like a big price to pay when you save a little money. I've known peopl with houses not much bigger than mine that end up with $300, $400 or $500 summer bills. I have to admit, I am quite proud of myself for lowering my electric bill AND it makes me feel a little greener too. =)