New Favorite Website

A friend sent me a link to the Pioneer Woman's blog today because of these.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE them (might just have to get some).  But they came from this website which I totally love because it is so my sense of humor.  Watch out family, I know where I'm buying your Christmas presents!!!

USPS You Are NOT My Friend

Late Friday afternoon I got an email from a lady in NYC wanting some Halloween cookies for her child's party at school this Friday.  This was going to mean a quick turn around time, but didn't want to turn down the money so I told her I could do them.

I worked on them most of the day Saturday and a better part of Sunday afternoon.  Carefully packaged them so that they would not shift and break in the container I put them in.  I put them in a larger box than necessary so that I could put lots of packing materials around them.  Nothing was moving inside the box when I took it to the post office.

Before I package them...this is what they looked like:

This is not the actual picture of the cookies I baked this weekend - its from my Etsy site, but you get the idea.

THIS is how they arrived to the lady on Wednesday:

Thankfully I purchased insurance, but not only do I now have to refund her money (which means a waste of my weekend) BUT I didn't charge her enough for shipping and if she doesn't want to go to the hassle of filing the claim herself, I told her I would refund her the shipping costs to send them back to me, so instead of making some extra money, I LOST money on the deal.

USPS might be cheaper, but I've kind of lost faith in them.

Ouch!

Ever question the choices you make? “What made me decide THAT was the best way to solve my problem?” Sometime we don’t have time to think and just react.

Saturday, I was bringing laundry downstairs. I’ve often said that I’ll probably die from a fall down my stairs. I live alone and if it weren’t for work, could go days before anyone would notice I haven’t been heard from. (You’re getting worried now, aren’t you?)

Okay back to the stairs. As I reach the 3rd or 4th step from the bottom, I trip. Not sure on what. Maybe my own feet. None the less, I trip. At that split second, I thought “that is going to HURT if I fall” and without out even realizing what I’m about to do, I jump. Bare footed. A couple of feet down. Onto a tile floor. It HURT, but I don’t think I broke anything…but I am quite certain it sealed the deal on my need for knee replacement surgery some day.

Aggravating

I know that I have readers that are big coupon people and some that hate them.  I for one don't mind them as long as the person using them has them ready before they check out so as to not hold up the line.  I actually do use them when I have one for something I am going to need, but I don't spend a lot of time searching for them like some do (though realize the benefits if I would take the time).

All of that said, Saturday I went to do some grocery shopping and had a few coupons for some stuff I needed or would need soon and was purchasing before the coupon expired.  There weren't a lot.  Five total.  Had them all together so all the cashier would have to do is ring them up at the end of my transaction so speed up the process for all everyone's sake.  Well, I was busy putting sacks in my cart while the cashier was scanning the coupons, so I didn't watch to see if she scanned them all, but when I saw my total there was a thought in my mind "the total should have been a little less than that" because I saw the total before she scanned them.  But I was in a hurry and figured I just miscalculated.

Well, yesterday it was still bugging me a little (I live on a VERY tight budget so I pay attention to these things) so I pulled out the receipt.  Would you know that she only rang up two of the five coupons.  And though it wouldn't have been a huge savings...it would have been about $5.  Of course by yesterday there was nothing I could do about it and really just need to let it go.  But it was aggravating, especially since two of those items I wouldn't have purchased this pay check if it wasn't for the fact the coupons were about to expire and they were for something I would need soon.

Must Put It In Writing

Otherwise I won't do it. ;o)

This weekend I WILL clean my house (b/c I'm hosting my Bible study group).  I WILL fill in the gap where the wasps made their home (teach them to invade my house).  I WILL actually go out and do something (I spend too much time alone on the weekends).  I WILL get back into my workout schedule (fall allergies messed me up).  And I WILL finish my laundry.

There!  That's a perfectly accomplishable list.


UPDATE: Okay so I didn't accomplish EVERYTHING because I had an unexpected weekend.  BUT all that is left is to fold the towels and fill the wasp hole and I plan to do that this evening so I almost did it all.  That counts, right?

For The Record

When someone tells me "when you have a second" I WILL interpret that to mean that it is NOT urgent and WILL get to a stopping point on what I am currently working on before I help them.

Wasp Saga Continues

So I found another wasp in the kitchen when I got home Friday. Since it was becoming obvious that this was one of those things that was not just going to go away, I decided to finally go outside and investigate again. They thought they were being sneaky about their hiding place, but they should have been looking over their shoulder before entering their secret hiding place (though obviously they aren’t too smart or they would have figured out by now that whoever enters my kitchen does not come out alive). While scoping the situation out, I noticed a wasp enter a knot hole in the wood on the side of my house near the window. Then I saw two wasps come out. I have no idea how large their lair is behind the wood, but I found the entrance and that battle began.

I went into the garage and got a can of wasp spray and aimed it at the hole (which was a challenge because my spray is getting old and didn’t spray so well…but was sufficient for the moment.) As soon as the spray hit the hole, wasps started slowly emerging. Wanting to confirm that the spray was working, I stood back and watched…and then it happened. A wasp landed on my shoulder. I couldn’t see him or feel him, but I could hear him. So what did I do? I threw the lid to the wasp spray and ran along the side the house screaming and trying to knock it off. Thankfully I was successful before I was stung, but I lost one of my favorite earrings in the process. So sad.

Deciding that was enough adrenaline for one evening I went into the house…praying that they learned their lesson and hoping that I would not wake up the next morning finding that they had moved inside. They didn’t. And upon inspection the next morning, it seems the spray worked because there were dead wasps on the ground.
I have since found two more wasps in the house (though they were sickly so I put them out of their misery). I’ve caulked every possible crack in or around my windows that I can find and plan to fill the knot hole with expanding insulation this weekend. Still too soon to claim victory, but I think the war may be close to over and I have been victorious. Now if only I could have the same luck with the squirrels and raccoons.

OC Cookies

So this was my latest cookie order. I was a little nervous about how well I would be able to recreate the logo with decorating bottles, but I was pleased with attempt considering I was working on blind faith and hoping I hadn't overestimated myself. Of course as it is with everything else I do, it was not without some moments of panic.

Moment #1 – Grey icing looked purple when I was mixing it. I didn’t want purple icing. Turns out that the blue walls in my kitchen were making the icing look blue. It looked grey in the dining room. Lesson learned…don’t try to match colors in the kitchen.

Moment #2 – the bags I bought were narrower at the opening than they were at the bottom so the cookies wouldn’t fit into the bag. Made a run to Wal-Mart at 10 p.m. Say what you will about Wal-Mart, but their 24 hour stores have saved my life on more than one occasion.

Moment #3 – Though I had let the cookies set for 4 hours before trying to put them in the sacks AND to the touch they seemed like they had set up enough…in reality they had not. But I didn’t discover this until they were all in sacks and the leftovers were stack on a plate. This sadly flattened out and distorted the writing on some of the cookies. I was so aggravated because this should not have happened. Thankfully they didn’t all look THIS bad, but I was still disappointed to say the least. Not sure what the lesson is here since I don’t know why it happened.

Forgot to take a picture of the semi-decent ones.  This is one of the seriously messed up ones.

What!?!

You mean to tell me not everyone carries a pretty little sack full of nose sprays in their purse?!?  That's just crazy!

Welcome to MY world!