Vaaaaacccccaaaaatioonnnnnn!!!

Yes, vacation!! I am going on vacation!! Can you tell I am excited!

About a month ago, Hubby asked if we could go visit our son, Chance, for Hubby's birthday, then spend a couple of days at a casino in Louisiana. Yes, sir! I had no problem honoring that request. So we are going on a birthday trip.

We will go first to spend some time with Chance, since he deploys to Afghanistan next month. We are hoping to have a family farewell party for him before he goes here in town, but Hubby and I want a visit with him to ourselves, so we are going. We will stay in a hotel in the town Chance lives in. He said we could stay at his apartment, but Hubby said we could not run around nekkid there, so we got a hotel. I got a discounted room through AARP and it even has free breakfast. Yeah for discounts and free! Then to the casino for a couple of days.

Since I am such a high roller, NOT, the casino comped our room, so it is FREE!(And the regular rate is $95 night!) My favorite. We are staying in what they call a "chalet", which is a little trailer. A little bigger than travel trailers, though. They have a separate bedroom and living space and a full kitchen, stocked with dishes, pots and pans and cutlery.

There is also a nice deck with picnic table and grill. So all we have to take is food to make there. (When we go on trips, we always take food and dishes, utensils, pans and a hotplate to make it. LOL!) We will eat out some, since I am sure I have some food comps at the casino just waiting to be used up, but we prefer not to eat out for every meal. We like to use most of our money for gambling. Yes, gambling.

I know some people have a problem with gambling, but I do not. I consider it entertainment and do not go to win. I just enjoy playing. And we never take more money than we are willing to leave there. We still spend less than we would if we just went on a vacation somewhere else and had to pay for hotels and all our meals.

I plan to spend some time just relaxing in the chalet and not as much time at the casino as I usually do, since I want to get the inflammation in my knee healed up and figure a week off work is the perfect opportunity. I will be taking my netbook, since the room has free wifi, and plenty of reading material. And of course there is a big tv in the living room for a couple of season premieres next week.

We will be home on Wednesday and I plan to spend Thursday and Friday staying off my knee as much as I can.

I am such a good wife to give Hubby a trip for his birthday. A cheap trip, but it is still a trip. LOL!

Hubby's birthday, last year.

Heredity sucks....

I have been having problems with my knee for the last month. Well, the problem was that it was hurting....most of the time. I did not hurt when I didn't move it, but the rest of the time I was in pain. I figured that I had just strained something at Curves, so thought that eventually it would quit hurting.

It did not.

So, yesterday, I went to an Orthopedic to have it checked out. He asked a lot of questions.

He took an XRay.

(This is not my XRay, but you get the drift.)

He informed me that I have osteoarthritis in my left knee, as well as bone spurs. And I have indications of OA in my right knee, though it is much better than my left. Then he put 2 cortisone shots in my knee, told me to take large doses of Aleve or Advil and come back in a month if it isn't better.

He was really nice, but I am sure hoping my knee feels better soon, so I won't need to go back. It feels a lot better today, though not 100% better.

I told him my mom has bad knees and has no cartilege in the joints, he informed me that mine will be like that eventually, as it is hereditary. Thanks, Mom.

I saved $115!

Yes, I did! Recently, I found out that our cars, both Hondas, have cabin air filters. Who knew??? I have been driving for many years and have had many cars, as has Hubby. I also grew up with both a dad and a brother that are excellent backyard mechanics. And I never knew that there was a cabin air filter in our cars. Maybe they are in all cars. I don't know. LOL!

Anyway, once I found this out, I decided that ours certainly needed to be changed as we had never changed them. I have had my car 2 years, but we have had Hubby's car for 6 1/2 years. So even if they were both changed by Honda before we bought them, it had been a while for both. So, I went on an internet search about how to get this done. When I read that it can cost $100-$150 to have it done by Honda, I of course, decided to figure out if we could do it ourselves.

Then last week, I got a flyer from the dealer where we bought my car and they had a coupon for a cabin air filter change for $64.95. How weird is that that I got this right after I found out these existed?

I went to some DIY car repair forums. Yes, I am either that cheap, or that talented. You decide. LOL! I found instructions and even found that there are how to videos on Youtube. I have no problem following instructions, but a video was just awesome! He and I both figured that I could do this easily. Notice I said I. LOL! He will assist on car maintenance, but he is not as comfortable with tearing apart something in a car as I am. (Please note, I do not do much work on cars. But occasionally, I am happy to jump in and get dirty.)

Last week, Hubby stopped by the auto parts store and got the filters for my car ($16.23), but they did not have his. I told him we would just order on-line instead of him checking stores all over town. Then we jumped on to ebay and there they were for only $9.50 shipped. So he ordered them.

After reviewing the instructions for my car, a CRV, I changed mine on Friday. It was pretty easy and only took about 25 minutes. I was totally impressed with myself. Of course, it only involved pulling out 2 stops on the glove box and the filters are right behind there. Still, I did it and saved. $54.

Hubby's car was another story. We went out Saturday evening after it had cooled off a bit, though it was still in the upper 80s, I think, and really humid. Hubby has a 2000 Accord and it took a little...no a lot more dimantling than mine did. I started unscrewing things. Hubby was my assistant. We worked at it for a good 45 minutes and though I had removed all the screws according to the instructions, I could not get the glove box out. I was hot. I was sweating. Sweat was stinging my eyes. I was getting cranky.

So, I said, maybe I needed to go rewatch the video on this, since I had not seen it in a week and a half. (I was working off paper instructions that I had found.) Hubby thought that was a good idea. (I think I was getting REALLY cranky.)

So in I went and watched the video and cooled off, both physically and mentally. LOL! It showed more screws to be removed than my paper did, so I was ready to proceed. However, by this time, it was really dark, so Hubby said we could wait until the next day.

Yesterday evening, I went out, took out the rest of the screws and it was easy breezy. I finished up in about 30 minutes and saved $61.

I am so macho!

For the College Students

You all know that I have not monetized my blog. I am not here to make money, just to have fun. And I am not here to sell you anything or advertise for any business.

That being said, I have been playing on the Barnes and Noble website, researching a purchase that I will tell you all about when I make it. In the meantime, I found something quite interesting. It is called Nook Study. It is for college students and professors and sounds really useful.

It was interesting enough that I sent the info to my sister, the college professor. I plan to tell Samantha about it. And I am sharing it with you. It sounds like it could be very useful to college students.

But wait, there's more! LOL! B&N is giving stuff away to people that download Nook Study. From a press release:

To celebrate the launch of NOOKstudy, Barnes & Noble is providing a number of fun promotional offers for the college audience. Students who download NOOKstudy now through the fall semester will receive a free College Kick Start Kit which includes 50 Survival Tips – advice about how to win at college, including time management advice and even ramen noodle-based gourmet recipes. Also included in the College Kick Start Kit are 12 Essential Books for College – free, high-quality Barnes & Noble Classics eBooks including Canterbury Tales, The Scarlet Letter and Poems of Emily Dickinson, and others.

And there is the potential to win MONEY!

Students who download NOOKstudy through October 29, 2010 will automatically be entered in the Barnes & Noble College Giveaway Sweepstakes, offering one lucky winner a $5,000 cash prize. (Sweepstakes details are available at www.NOOKstudy.com). And students who visit and "like" the new NOOKstudy page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NOOKstudy, will also have the chance to win a $1,000 Barnes & Noble gift card.

I wish I were a student!

We could use a little rain

But I don't know if we need this much!

I did not even know there was a tropical storm on the way! I didn't watch much news this weekend, obviously. Hubby and I went to Kroger yesterday....he has redeemed himself and is allowed in the store.....and the sun was shining. While in the store, we heard thunder. We walked toward the front of the store and it was POURING rain! And the wind was swirling, so the rain was going every direction. Ugh!

While I was checking out, Hubby went and got the car. When I got outside, he motioned me to a spot near one of the doors, then backed up under the overhang to let me load groceries into the trunk without getting wet. Several ladies huddled there commented on how sweet it was that Hubby did that. One of them then sent her son to get the car. LOL! And another backed up under the overhang near us. Hubby started a trend of nice gentlemen helping their wives or moms stay a little dry.

By the time we got home, the rain had tapered off to a drizzle, but I checked the weather on line and saw that there was a freaking tropical storm hitting Texas! Here is what it looks like right now....(See Houston? That is where I am.)

It is dark, thundering and raining outside. I have to turn around to see out of the windows, so have not seen any lightening. For our neighbors south of us, I hope the storm passes quickly for you.

Thank goodness I am inside today.

We had a lovely holiday weekend, spending most of the time just relaxing at home. I ran out to Walgreens on Saturday to get some deals. I came home with:

2 Nice & Easy Haircolor

4 Softsoap Body Wash, $3 total after RR

2 Colgate Total toothpaste, free after RR

2 Carmex Lip balm, free after RR

2 Wags 8 count tampons, free after RR

2 hand sanitizer, $.75 each on clearance

1 Visine

1 30-count Wags brand of Claritin

Total out of pocket was $34, which was a little steep, but I didn't have any RRs to use. (I only had coupons for the haircolor, one BW and the Visine), but I earned $22. So, I was really happy.

On Monday, Hubby and I went and ate pizza for lunch, then stopped by Kroger. He did really well and only got what we came for. LOL! We really only needed bread and some diet sodas, but I had read of a deal on Ronzoni pasta and had printed out coupons, so got 10 packs of Ronzoni for $4.45!! What a great price. I may print out coupons at home and get more if the sale goes on through next week. Darn, I should have checked the shelf tags. Well, I will check HotCouponWorld. I am sure someone there will know.

We had a really nice weekend. Hope you all did, too!

You spent WHAT?!

I should have known better. I really should have......

This weekend, Hubby and I were busy all weekend, working on reorganizing his entertainment system. I call it his, though it is really ours, because, he wired that thing up and it would take a real whiz to figure it out. He has our living room set up with surround sound, so that it sounds like a movie theater. LOL!

Anyway, we were making some changes and I helped him most of the weekend. Admittedly, the rest of the time I was doing nothing. I have been trying to stay off my knee as much as possible because I hurt it a couple weeks ago and I do not want to go to the doctor. I am pretty sure it is just tendonitis. So, I had a legitimate reason for doing as little as possible when at home.

I usually go tot he grocery store on Saturday, but did not this weekend, thinking we would be done that day and I would just go on Sunday. I was wrong. And I didn't go. And we would need milk and bread before this week is over.

So, Hubby said, "I'll go on Tuesday." I thought that if he just went for milk and bread and a couple of other things, it would not cost much. I didn't even send him with a deal list and coupons, though, he would have done my deals. I figured they will come along again and was not worried about missing out.

Hubby called a little while ago to let me know he had gone to the store and got everything. Then, hesitantly, he told me he spent $82! ....$82!!! I never spend that much at the grocery store for a week's worth of groceries. He started listing off all the stuff he got, and the prices he told me were good ones. It was just.......$82!!!

I told him he cannot go to the grocery store by himself anymore......or with me.

He is banned from the grocery store.

smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

I got an email regarding a site where I could sign up and try new products. After a little research, I found that it is legit and a lot of people really like it. I can't wait to start trying new products and getting to talk about them and you all know how I love to talk!

Check it out if you have not before!

Happy Saturday everyone!