Freezing Friday

[Nancy]

Calgon is calling done with kids this week. Found the table. Enough so I could change the table cloth yea! Toddler napped.
Hens are fed got another egg.
Cupbords need restocking glad I have soup on hand.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Entertainment Book Question:

This past year, we bought one of those Entertainment books (the kind with coupons for all kinds of businesses but mostly restaurants and, apparently, golfing.)

It cost us $30 and we didn't lose money but we have had a hard time using it. Dd and dsil have taken two or three of the restaurant coupons. Dh and I used one. I've used one $2.50 movie coupon. And ds used a discount for a car rental.

Despite us living in the city, most of the restaurants I want to try aren't in the book. We don't often go out to places that cost more than $15 - $20 for a main course. As well, quite often you must buy a beverage for it to qualify so saving $15 on dinner but spending $5 on a sparkling water isn't as good a deal as it sounds on a $50+ bill. So that eliminated the fine dining section and over half the restaurants in the 'family dining' options. At the pub in dd's neighbourhood, the "BOGOF" coupon is good for a main course up to $10. The cheapest main course on the menu is $13. So it isn't really 'free.'

The fast food coupons aren't for places we go to and McDonalds sends out coupons 3x a year so we use those up instead.

The travel discounts aren't for the kind of travel we do and our AAA discount is higher.

I'm getting renewal emails as the end of the year approaches. This year the book costs $40 but I can get it for $32. The kids offered to split it three ways but I'm not really sure it is worth it, even if I only pay $11 for it.

Does anyone see a flaw in how I'm using the book? Has anyone had a wonderful success with this sort of book?

[Lady Maverick]

I have tried the Entertainment Books several times and had 99% failure every time. I'm impressed that you did so well with your book purchase.

After being below freezing for several days, it warmed up this afternoon enough to open MPB. Never fails. Every time after the first freeze or the first 100+ temp the MPB has multiple equipment failures. DH has been on top of a ladder for hours replacing parts at MPB. Last night we met with Realtor to finalize putting MPB up for sale. The papers are now all signed and it should be showing up online soon. This should be our last winter with MPB. We are ready to move on to a different lifestyle that doesn't include 24/7 business responsibilities.

[Lynlee]

Happy Anniversary Harriet and HRH.

Waving from sweltering Saturday here.

G20 is underway and the city is a ghost town as many people chose to leave town to participating officialdom.
Pity the forces in their riot gear.
Huge traffic gridlock out of the city to both north and south beaches yesterday. (Powers that be made Friday a public holiday for the city. Then wondered why no one was about. )

[Harriet]

Agree with LadyM's failure rate for entertainment books. We never manage to save money.

Oh, I mean SEPARATE ebay account, private - no one knows my password but me. And still my recent ebay watched items are shown beside HRH's facebook pages on other networked computers in our home. I've seen both the LR and dh's work computer show them, and I guess dd's would, too, if she had a fb acct or her ddad pulled up his acct to show her something. In the past I've completely surprised various family with gifts found on ebay. It now dawns on me, with his use of facebook, I'd better not "watch" any gift item for him OR dd on ebay any more. As they glance at facebook grandchild photos or whatever, over to the right you'll see the advertisement of what Mom's watching, so there's no surprising any more.

It was very sweet this time to receive such a personal, ideal gift. But seeing this happen spoils ebay shopping a bit for me.

Harmony, that's great success paring down paperwork like that.

blessed, I'll have to be sure to listen to mine this year.

Enjoy that warmth, Lynlee! Believe me, I'm so happy for you! (shiver, shiver)

[Nancy]

I agree w LadyM's opinion of those. We get 99 cent refill with cups from our fav. Place to eat here honored at several establishments. The other day someone was telling me they just have water saves a lot for them while dining out.

Dinner is done.

I swept and mopped the kit. & dining room.
Got more progress on the dining room glad for that, it was piling up too much.

Hen chores are done for the day. Surprized to get 10 eggs today.
after several days of freezing temps. Looking forward to 40*s later next week.

[Harmony]

We don't go out enough to use those books. When my kids were teens I used to get one and as I recall we used the doughnut place one every Saturday morning. Used to go get a dozen doughnuts for the price of a few. Great healthy way to save money!

That's a bad joke having the ebay stuff come up on computers like that. I suspect my surprise for DH for Christmas is not a surprise any more. I bought something and had to go through a paypal, but I used a credit card not associated with the one he had set up with pp - and they accepted it - but a couple days later I got a telephone call from them trying to upsell me and they asked for HIM! So I'm not sure if he got an email about it...

Incidentally, his gift has arrived and they did stick something else in there with it and charged me even though I told them no. I guess I could return it, but it is something he'll use, just bad the way they did that.

Really really tired. I don't think DH and I said one word to each other this evening. He went to bed after eating and I woke up on the couch later. Been a hectic week.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Thanks for the feedback on the Entertainment books. Since we were in a new neighbourhood and dh wanted to eat out even more regularly, I thought it would be a great way to go out more. But it is all geared for me to try out what they want me to try, rather than going out more often where I want to go out.

Finished the service, which included learning a new hymn. There is a fantastic one in the retirement home book for this week, God of Everlasting Glory, all about space exploration and science. I'd love to use it but the tune is unfamiliar, the hymn isn't well known (at least on the internet) and the meter isn't common so I can't sing the great words to a more familiar tune. We gave up on that. I often wonder who decided which hymns got transcribed into the retirement home hymn book. There are several I've come across that we can't seem to find anywhere.

Off to bed now. I'm up over 13K steps which moved me up to 52nd place (from 57th.) I still have over two weeks to move up to 50th (my goal) but if I can not slip again, it will mean I won't have to do ridiculous numbers of steps towards the end of the month. My placement also depends on the others, not just myself, so I'm sticking to my average 10K steps a day goal as well, which is personal.

[Nancy]

I have washed the china hutch and sliding glass door on the inside. Getting in a few more steps and and a bit more progress as I do on the focus zone for this month.