Shiny Happy Living

Have you rate shopped lately?

Guest post written by my buddy Aldo Mays

When it comes to saving money I am on the fence about certain things. I would love to carry around a little notebook filled with all the right coupons and shop only the sale items and circle things in the paper to buy for next week. The problem is I am just not that organized when it comes to shopping. I always get what I need not the thing that I could potentially use based on whatever coupon I have in my purse. As it turns out the coupons that I actually do have in my purse end up being the ones that I can’t use on any product that I am buying on that day anyway. I wonder why I even bother saving the things sometimes. One really great way to save money without having to clip coupons is to shop around for your utility rates. I just recently checked out http://www.newyorkenergyrates.com and was able to save money on my expenses every month just from searching for a few minutes for a rate better than the one I already had.

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Ladies and gentlemen, gentle readers…

I would like to announce that I have triumphed over the internet despite my apparent shortcomings in the technology/code department! YES! I own the internet!

Dreamhost wouldn’t help me and told me I would have to be some sort of code expert to fix the problem and that if I wasn’t, I would break the internet. Cities would burn. Women and children would die in the streets.  You get the picture.  I’ll admit that the bleak prospect of my success daunted me a bit and caused a bit of a delay, but…no more.

Fortunately, I didn’t even have to get a PhD in computer science to do it.  Some super awesome nice nerd did it, and all I had to do was go find it.

Thank you, super awesome computer nerd.

It doesn’t make sense that I needed to do what I did, and I kind of cheated, but I’m okay with that, and you should be too because the bottom line is now that people will actually be able to see the posts again and access the site, I will resume posting.  Because obviously posting for myself was not enough; I need the adoring validation that only my tens of readers can provide.

You’re welcome.

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Ladies and gentlemen, gentle readers, I’ve been sitting on a secret.

…

I have a Vitamix.

That’s right, A VITAMIX!

OMFG.

YES.  I wrote about it a few months ago, and I entered sweepstakes for it, and I actually got it for Christmas from my mom, which was kind of the most awesome thing ever.

I love it.

I think my husband thinks it’s a little creepy when I talk to it and pet it and wrap it up in a blanket for the night, but I just tell  it that no one understands what we have.

So far, I’ve made:

• Almond milk
• Coconut berry soft serve ice cream
• Kale coconut soup
• Sweet potato mashed potatoes

It is AMAZING.  Will post pictures soon.  I think I was most surprised by the almond milk and how good it was.  For some reason, I just didn’t think it would be as good, but it was, and my kids liked it; my husband liked it, and even I liked.

Dan and the kids’ favorite thing is the sorbet/ice cream type things I make.  There’s this one, and it just takes strawberries, sugar, and water, and THAT’S IT. It is magic.

Of course, I have been using it to make green smoothies.  I mean, they’re not really green, but that’s kind of beside the point.

Serves two:

• 2 cups unsweetened almond milk, homemade or otherwise
• 1 banana
• about 2 cups of frozen berries
• 2-3 giant hand fulls of fresh spinach (preferably organic), microwaved for 30 seconds until slightly wilted
• a dash of vanilla

Bllllllllllleeeend.  You can’t taste the spinach at all thanks to the banana and the berries, although the color is kind of this murky purple greenish color that isn’t entirely appetizing.  Love.  And you’re getting so many nutrients in it, which I love.

It’s a double bonus for me because during the week, I just eat all this easy paleo/primal food like jerky, nuts, and seeds, mainly out of convenience.  I mean, I can keep it in a drawer, and it requires no refrigeration, preparation, or anything, which is great, but by the end of the week, it seriously has me craving fresh produce.

My daughter’s obsessed with its magical sorbet-making powers, which I have to say comes in handy in a house full of people with varying stages of lactose/milk intolerance.

Yum…..

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Weeeellll you know…

…

It’s that time of year.  Resolutions.

My resolutions, if you can even call them that, are:

• Read more books
• Yoga 2x a week
• Stick with Primal/Paleo

And that’s pretty much it.

Yoga’s been going pretty well.   On average, I’ve been getting to class around once a week, with slightly worse attendance during December.  All in all, not bad.  My headstands are a lot better; my balance and flexibility are much improved; my strength has increased, and my arms look amaaaaaazing.  Seriously, better than they ever did when I was just weight lifting.

I want to stick with the yoga.  One of my more specific goals is that I would like to be able to do these poses by next year:

• Crow, with no balancing aid
• Headstand, with no wall
• Balancing star

I’m excited that my studio’s going to be offering an advanced class, so I think that will go a long way in helping me progress.

As to the reading, I find it way more interesting than most of what’s on tv, and I also find it more relaxing.   As someone who was an English major in college, I do have a bit of residual snobbery that I’m trying to shake.   The thing is,  At this point, I don’t really want to read anything depressing.  I just don’t.  In college life wasn’t difficult or stressful or depressing.  Reading then, could be more of an intellectual exercise.  At this point for me, reading is more about escapism, and I’m okay with that.

Recent reads:

• All of the Sookie Stackhouse books
• The Hunger Games Trilogy
• Currently trying to get through the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books
• Also, might try to finish the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I was like 2/3 of the way through the second book when I had Sam and basically stopped reading altogether.

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve been having some weird blog memory data issues or something?  I guess it’s been causing a lot of errors and error messages and other weird stuff, so I updated everything and deleted some plug- ins  I don’t really use, and I updated all the plug-ins.  Hopefully that will help, but probably not.  We’ll see.  I’m not really terribly good with this sort of thing.  Suggestions?

Oh and THIS:

I have an infected wisdom tooth, and it effing sucks.  It probably doesn’t help that I’m a total pansy when it comes to dental pain: I’ve never had so much as a cavity, let alone braces, so anything that’s amiss in there registers as a major issue.  Let’s just say I’m not happy about it..

I think the worst thing about it, aside from the obvious pain, is that the unrelenting nature of the pain makes me super short-tempered, which is clearly not the best thing when you’ve got a 3 year old and a 17 month old at home… because let me tell you-kids that age require an endless amount of patience.   Here’s hoping the pain dissipates soon.  In a few weeks, I’ve got to get them all out, and I am not looking forward to that at all. Ugh.  I hope at the very least they let me keep them, because at least that might be kind of cool.

Ok, for the record, NEVER UPDATE ANYTHING EVER.  Now I can’t upload pictures, so this post will look totally lame.  Deal with it.

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Well, so far, I’m having a pretty awesome day.

I mean, the beginning kind of sucked because I had to wake up super early, but after that I had a great cuddle with my  munchkins in a pile of down blankets, and then I had a lazy morning with them, eating bacon and hot coffee.  Doesn’t get much better than that!

Hell yeah, days off!

Yesterday was good too.  My friend and I actually went to a MOVIE.  Now, for most people this is not a remarkable occurrence, but for me it is because I seriously go to the movies like once a year.  Yesterday was extra special because:

1) It wasn’t a kids’ movie, and

2) It was a mid-week matinee, which is something you can only do on days off, which made it the perfect thing to do.

When I’m old and retired, I’m going to go to matinees all the time because I can.

Anyhow, yesterday we saw The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and it was actually really good, and not just because I have a dragon tattoo! No bias! See it! It was interesting and intriguing and not stupid or boring at all.  For the record, I think most movies are stupid and boring, and they’re usually over-priced, but seeing as this was a matinee, this wasn’t a problem either. Awesome!

I actually have the book kicking around here somewhere, and I got mired in the beginning, which I found to be kind of slow.  While the beginning of the movie was slow too, I obviously powered through it (it being a movie and all), and now I’m actually interested in reading the book, which of course is now hopelessly lost in our book shelf or lent to some mysterious person. *sigh*

And the day before that, I read an entire book cover to cover in one day! Heaven!  Having two little kids, this basically never, ever happens, so it was an amazing event.  I read The Hunger Games, which was recommended and lent to me by a friend, and it was good.  It was a nice, fun, solid page-turner, which was exactly what I wanted.  I am now anxiously awaiting the second and third books for the trilogy. *twitchtwitch* It reminded me of 1984, We, The Long Walk, and The Lottery all rolled into one.  Read it!

Right now, I’m huddled up with a nice bowl of green soup.   I know you’re totally jealous, right? I’ve been feeling like I need some more veggies in my life, and I just can’t stomach a cold smoothie when it’s cold outside, so I settled for a blended soup instead.   While pretty, this version is not quite post worthy, but when it is, I’ll post it.  Until then it will do the trick:  it’s got kale, coconut milk, avocado, ginger, and garlic.   Roooooooar.  Nothing like a nice hot soup when it’s cold outside.   The one thing that’s kind of a bummer during the winter and during the holidays is seeing all the pictures of celebrities on vacation running around in their bikinis and wetsuits.  Anyone else hate that?

We celebrate the fact that we're better and richer than you by going on vacation! YAY!

I mean, way to rub it in.  Not only are they on vacation at some amazing resort at some fantastic beach where it’s hot and sunny while I sit swaddled in yoga pants and sweaters, hunkered down in the frozen wasteland that is upstate New York, but also look amazing.  Ugh.  Really?  I’m not going to have occasion to be in a bikini until at least June, maybe July, and given my proximity to the beach, my likelihood of ending up in a wetsuit is pretty much zero.  I mean, whatever.  It’s not like I’m in bikini shape right now anyways, but that’s besides the point. And when I do finally get to be in one, I will probably be woefully out of shape because the busy season at work will have just ended. Whatever. Rant over.

Anyhow, moving on.  Now, I’m trying to get to the “productive” part of my week off.  Remember how I said that I wanted to address my room and my clothes and stuff?  Yeah.  That’s what I’m thinking about doing now.  I’m totally procrastinating, but I haaaaaaaave to do it. The rewards will be great.  My room will look awesome.  Stuff will be easy to find. Ugh.  These motivational attempts are hopeless.

Afterwards, yoga and a bath as a reward.

When all else fails, bribery!

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