You Pick Two

So, I went to Planter's Palette on Saturday, to pick up my free flowers, won by liking and sharing a post on Facebook. I don't have a lot of faith in those "like and share for a chance to win" posts, even though this one was from a business I know and support. I have to admit, when I saw my name, I had to look, look again and then a third time because I didn't really believe it was me. "I know that name. Wait..." I figured I'd stroll up and have a choice between a couple of preplanted containers that I could just plop onto the deck. I've been mentally arranging all my pots and what I want where. I'd been planning to go to PP anyway as I need begonias for the front pots and more potting soil for the ones I'm keeping. This worked out fine. 

Imagine my surprise when Diane told me I could have my choice of two (!!!!!) preplanted containers. These are designed to be broken apart and the flowers used to fill in or form your own containers at home. TWO of them! And look at my choices. There were at least 2 dozen on this display and I get two (!!!) free.

They are regularly priced at $25 each container.

These are huge; maybe 5 gallon pots. If you bought the plants separately contained in them, you'd be spending way more than the $25 price tag and I get two of them.

It took me a good 15 minutes, but I selected these two.

I really like that dark-leaved plant. No clue what it is, but I like the juxtaposition of the dark with the light.

I mowed the lawn and did a couple other things and didn't have the energy to break these up. I got my begonias, a couple of sweet potato vines and another white geranium. The one I've overwintered all these years is not doing well. I'll combine the two in the pot.

I've never been a big fan of the spiky stuff in containers. Designed to raise the visual height of the plantings, to me, those items seem to be more fluff than flowers. I'm not sure whether I'll save the ones I have in the pot I received or if those will be given away. I have to see how things fit. I did, however, fall in love with these.

With the sunlight shining on them, they just glowed. They are $6.00 each, but if I could have afforded it, I would have purchased one in every color. This is the kind of thing I'll happily put in a pot of flowers. Kitchy, yeah. I got a green and an orange one.

Something else I wish I could afford is one of these.

However, the littlest ones, like the one with the hands sort of over his eyes, was $50. One of the small ones would be so cute in amongst the flower pots on the deck. They are heavy. The little one weighs a good 5 pounds, but oh the cute. 

I was wandering about and found these statues.

I really like the piglet. I didn't pick one up to see how much it cost. After the $50 of the dragon, I decided I didn't want to be disappointed by finding out the pig was $40. 

So now comes the stuffing of the containers. I promised a cousin that she could have all my extra pots. That may come in fall. I'm really thrilled. What a wonderful way to start Saturday.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Donut Day

Of course, I would head to Dunkin' for my free donut today. That it is also D-Day is not a coincidence.

According to wikipedia, handing out donuts to servicemen predates World War II and was a chance to cheer soldiers still recuperating from wounds suffered in World War I. It started with the Salvation Army, but has been assimilated into commercial enterprises. My local Dunkin' was handing out samples of blueberry donuts. I know that flavor. It's one of the ones I get along with my double chocolate donut.

I hope every serviceman or woman gets 3 free donuts somewhere on this planet today. I also hope they never have to experience the kind of battle D-Day represents.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

These Will Do

Back before Thanksgiving, we won a box of foodstuffs with a drinking fountain. I haven't set up the drinking fountain as it requires an outlet and I don't have a spare on in the kitchen currently. (That's another blog post.)

The food is from Ideal Balance. The treats were rejected, dramatically. The girls sniffed at them and then gave me a look like to curdle milk. "This? You are seriously thinking of giving us these things to eat? You're nuts, right?" Fortunately, the wildlife liked them, but raccoons will eat aluminum foil if there's grease on it so maybe that's not saying much.

Enclosed was a stack of wet cat food.

I thought, perhaps, it was just one flavor, but it's six different flavors. I have tried a couple, the venison and the salmon versions.

Mija sniffs and then gives me this questioning look. She is not sold on this wet cat food idea. Pilchard, however, well, you can see above. This is the salmon flavor. She licked all the juice off the nuggets, ate a third of the nuggets and then noshed for the next couple of hours. She licked all the juice off the nuggets on Mija's plate but left her nuggets alone. Mija did come back after an hour had passed and ate a few of the nuggets, but she just doesn't care for moist cat food.

I know I can't find this at Target. It's a pet supply store item. It's got bits of vegetables in it. I could see green and orange which the label said was parsley and carrots. Cats need protein because their bodies can't make taurine, which they need to survive. But pure protein based food is hugely expensive, so companies put grains in their food to lower the costs. Grains do nothing for a cat other than add calories. These foods have a much higher level of protein than other cat foods.

So, we have 4 more cans to try. If Pilchard continues to enjoy these, I think, the next time I go to the pet store for dry cat food, I'll get a few more cans. Fancy Feast may be nice, but the science of pet food seems to indicate that my girls would be better served with a different wet food.

Beverage:  Yorkshire gold tea

Deb

I Won What?

There was a large box on the front steps last night. I have one more package coming but it's not even remotely as big as this box was. The box has "Hills" on the side, which I recognize as one of the leading providers of prescription and specialty pet food. As the box looked fresh, not recycled, I wracked my brain to think what I could have ordered from Hills or from anywhere, that would have come in such a box. Unable to think of anything, I checked the label. Yes, it was addressed to me. Let's see what we have here.

Congratulations what? The card reads, "You won a free bag! We'd love to hear what you and your cat think about the new Ideal Balance, so give it a try and send us a review at the link below. Feel free to take the opportunity to brag a little by sharing photos or video of your experience."

I what? I won a free bag of cat food? The top is a Drinkwell water fountain. I didn't see any cat food. So I pull all the green packaging out to remove the fountain. This is what I found.

Cat food; a small bag of dry, a package of treats and 6 cans of wet. Cat food. Sooooo...we will be starting week two of the mystery food for the survey. I have half a bag of that on the kitchen table. I'm not that impressed by it. The girls seem to love it, but I think they eat too much. While I don't feed on demand, I am tracking how often I see the dishes empty. It seems to be a lot, way more than with the Purina or the Merrick. I think that's because there is grain in the ingredients of this food and that is not as nutritionally dense as grainless cat food. They like it so I'll finish off the bag.

When the mystery food came, I had a fifth of a 16 pound bag of Purina left. I'll feed them that food to finish it off, then I want to go to the Merrick chicken. I had opened the bag purchased a month ago and was feeding it, sort of half and half, with the Purina. I have a full bag of that. Now I have this bag I won. It's a 2 pound bag so it won't last long when I do open it up to try. Based on this, I don't think I have to buy cat food until January.

I still have no idea where they came from. I just don't recall entering a contest with a fountain or food as the prize. I am really not sure about the fountain. If this has any kind of noise, beyond running water, I can see them being scared of it and not going anywhere near it. That kind of defeats the purpose. This isn't something I would have entered to win, so I'm just flummoxed.

Oh well, it's a surprise and will, if they like the fountain and the food, enhance their quality of life. Plus, the box was well received.

Beverage:  Rooibos tea

Deb

Banded

Doorhangers. They do get your attention. We used to make them for church in advance of the first service of the church "year" in September and go around in the neighborhood hanging them on front doors. I'm not sure it was the most effective advertising but it was inexpensive.

They died out for awhile, but have seen a resurgence of late. I get now, on the average, one a week. It's also a job for people to walk the streets leaving this bit of paper and a plastic bag affixed to the front door.

I came home last night to find another one. This was different however.

Huh? Well, this is something new.

I seem to remember "Bandz" from years ago. Do kids still collect these? It must not have cost a lot of money to include these in a plastic bag that has a better than average chance of being chucked immediately in the waste bin. I'm not like most people. I separated the component parts, recycled the paper flyer, put the plastic bag in recycled bags and set the "Charmz" aside. I think I'll just toss this in the give away bag unless one of my readers really, seriously, declares a lust for it. Ten words or less, "Why I should send this to you." Extra points if you write that in poetry. Next two weeks, until November 20th.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

They Like This, Too

The online research poll company to which I belong had another "try it" offering for me. This time, it's cat food. The bag arrived on Friday.

This is how it came. It's a 10 pound bag of food. Technically, I'm only to give this to Pilchard, as that was the cat randomly selected to try it. Um...no. That's not going to work. I feed both of them the same thing. If ever one of them has to have a special diet, it's going to be way too stressful on me.

Saturday, we started our two week experiment with this unidentified stuff. They smelled it through the box and tried to open the box to get at it. The label says to feed 2/3 rd to 1 cup a day. I looked at that and said, "Um...no." That's way, way too much cat food for my girls, particularly as I want them to lose weight. I read the ingredient list and there's a lot of grain in this stuff. Grain, for cats, is like potato chips for us, empty calories with little nutritional benefit. I got our scoop and put a scoop in each dish.

I have the remains of a bag of Purina Naturals in the kitchen and a bag of the Merrick Poultry flavor. Now a bag of this. I don't have to buy cat food until 2014, I'm thinking. There was a heady smell when I opened the bag. The smell reminded me of dog food. That's not what I want my cat's food to remind me of. The dishes were empty when I gave them a scoop so I knew they would be hungry enough to eat it. Pilchard chowed down immediately. Mija circled and then settled in to eat.

They seem to like it, even going cold turkey like that. Usually, you have to give 1/4th, then 1/2, then 3/4th and then a whole dish of the new stuff, a gradual wean. Yesterday, they kept the dish empty and this morning, I was 'yelled at' right after the radio came on, a sign that the dishes are again empty. While it seems that they do like this, I'm not sold on the amount of calories in the food being what they should have.

So far, so good in terms of being palatable. I forget how much money I'll earn for this. As we're heading towards feeding only the Merrick food in the future, this is just a slight diversion. I don't notice anything different in eating or other habits. Here's to free cat food. I hope they tell me whose it is. I'm interested to know that.

Beverage:  Lady Gray tea

Deb

Ladies, We Have A Winner

Layla Morgan-Wilde of Cat Wisdom 101, which you can find to the right in the "Blogs I Read" section, runs a lot of contests. It's a testament to how well she's respected that companies send her things for her pride to try. She, in turn, passes on the things she likes to her readers. I examine the offerings and only enter what I think the girls might appreciate.

I have no recollection of entering this contest but I did and I won this.

It's a new-ish entry in the cat food arena and they were promoting it by giving away boxes containing a variety of items.

There's dry cat food and a tablecloth. The tablecloth, while cute, is lost on the girls so I added it to one of my sewing boxes. Maybe somewhere down the line, I can come up with a use for it.

We have two cans of wet cat food, one chicken and one beef wellington. The plates are made of bamboo as is the "fork" which you use to remove the cat food from the cans.

Underneath this layer, I found these.

On the left is a stash of coupons. Collars would not be appreciated by either gal. So, right off the bat, if you have a cat who would like a collar, leave an email address and it's yours. Perhaps my girls should be wearing collars, in the hugely unlikely event either gets out and doesn't come back, but I'm giving a lot of thought to microchipping them which would remove the need for a collar.

So, how does the food taste? We started with the chicken wet cat food. Now, it needs to be mentioned that my girls eat dry cat food. Wet is for special occasions. Wet usually gets a look and a taste and then they look at me as if to say, "Is this it?" Wet is not our choice of food. They do, however, recognize the sound of a can of cat food opening and they come running. Mija roams about my legs. Pilchard sits in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room and watches. They were amused that I had to photograph their dinner.

It wasn't as "pate" as I expected. It was kind of runny. I'm used to the Fancy Feast pate that holds its shape when removed from the can. They sniffed it, took a couple of bites and wandered away. I don't know if that is a reaction to the lack of smell, the lack of taste or texture or the fact that it's wet versus dry. They just showed no interest in eating it right away. I left both plates on the floor and the stuff was gone within 4 hours. That's what usually happens with wet cat food.

I waited for two weeks before opening the can of beef wellington.

This is chunky in a strong-smelling gravy. It looked really unappetizing to me. I did not expect it to be even remotely appreciated although, with the strong smell, I knew they would know when I put down the plate that there was something to be investigated. The chicken pate didn't have enough of a smell for Mija to want to check it out. I had to point at the plate, circle it above her head, tantalize her, in order for her to be curious enough to check it out.

Mija checked out the beef, took a couple of tastes, then looked up at me as if to say, "This is is?" Pilchard, on the other hand, dived in with enthusiasm.

She licked up all the gravy first and then ate most of the chunks. Again, I left the plates on the floor for them to eat at their leisure. The beef was gone within 90 minutes.

The last thing to try was the dry food sample.

On the left is what they usually get. On the right is the sample. I had to fight Mija to get a photo. Most of my photos of the comparison looked like this.

To say she likes it is something of an understatement.

Perhaps you've heard me say this before. Cats do not manufacture taurine, a vital nutrient. They must have it from the foods they eat. In the wild, this is not hard to get. House cats, however, must get this nutrient in what we provide them. There is a large contingent who says a raw diet is the way to go. I have a book, buried somewhere in the library, with recipes to make a raw diet for cats. In some cases, where the cat is special needs, it is the right way to go. I don't have the desire to be cooking for myself as much as I should, let alone cook for the girls daily. I also do not want the expense of feeding wet cat food every day. Hence, having cats that will eat dry, and prefer to eat dry is a time and wallet saver.

But many dry cat foods get their calories from grain. While holding the line on cost, grain is just empty calories, kind of like putting Coke on your Cheerios. For Pilchard's long-term health, although she's just naturally large, she doesn't need to be chunky. Some of that can be traced back to her diet. Thankfully, she doesn't like people food, which can add calories without nutrients.

Label reading comes into play as much for my cats' food as for mine. The first ingredient on the package of dry food they currently eat is "corn". Last I checked, that's a grain. The first ingredient on the Merrick chicken dry is "chicken" and not "chicken by-products", but "chicken". Grains of any sort are nowhere to be found in the ingredient list of Merrick cat food. Neither is any kind of ingredient which could be traced back to China, long a problematic source of pet food ingredients.

This does come at a price. A comparable bag of food is twice as expensive as what I'm currently paying. Plus, it's not available at the closest pet store to me. I have to make a trip across town to get it.

Yet, what is their health worth to me? The answer to that question is that I do what's necessary to keep them healthy and happy. They like the Merrick dry cat food so much, Pilchard was licking the empty sample packet. I have a fifth of a bag of Purina Natural Cat to use up but I bought a bag of the Merrick chicken. We're doing every other day. I've noticed they don't seem to snarf down the Merrick like they do the Purina. Perhaps they are filled up more with Merrick.

The bottom line is that I can endorse this cat food. The girls love it. I love the ingredient list on the label. We'll see, in December, at her check up, if it makes a difference in Miss Chunky Monkey's weight.

If you've read this far, I have another give away. I must have a half dozen, or so, coupons for Merrick cat food that expire in December. I'll use one more before then, but I hate to just recycle these. If you want to try it, the coupons are for 40 cents off. Just leave me an email address where I can contact you. Merrick also makes dog food. It's worth your while to head to their web site and poke around. 

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Winnings

A while back, Dragon Stitches and Stuff, a blog you can find to the right or by following the link, had a contest to give away the instructions to make these two pillows. My name was drawn and they arrived at the end of last week.

Now, applique and I have never really gotten along. I find her to be quite finicky and sometimes, outright demanding. So why do what was required for a contest with the idea that I could, actually, win? Well, the left pillow doesn't really interest me. The right pillow, however shows great potential. Oh yes, I can have great fun with that design.

Now, now, don't cluck at me about how I have 3 boxes of patterns and magazines and incomplete projects. Also please to remove your nose from the office closet where my boxes of fabric are located. I know. I know. I need another pattern filled with good intentions like I need a zit on the top of my nose. Since I've had the zit, your argument is invalid. ;)

I intend to put my feet up during this vacation that is rapidly approaching, watch movies and get back into crochet. I also set aside the cross-stitch I started in early April because I was working on it when the car died at the end of April. You know how things take on the association with events? Well, I haven't touched it since getting home from that misadventure. I've decided to pull it out and work on it again. One afternoon with the thread laid out across the back of a cat who wants my lap and I'll feel that I can pick it up again and finish it. The whole goal of selecting the project in the first place was that I've had it for years and I'm trying to remove projects. (I hear you clucking at me. Shhhh.)

This pillow isn't something I'll drop everything to work on. It's going in the box with the other grand ideas. When I get around to it, you'll be the first to know.

Beverage:  water

Deb

When I Needed It

Things get lost. We all know that. Your best intentions result in never seeing said item again.

I've been thinking about that since Halloween because one of my best friends, Patt, sent me a $10 gift card from Starbucks. While I don't drink coffee, their Christmas hot cocoa offerings will get my feet inside the store. This will be most excellent.

So, I set the card aside, some place where it wouldn't get lost and I'd remember it. Why I didn't, right then and there, stick it in my wallet, I have no clue. I know I thanked her for it, at least, I think I did. Things got crazy and my mind lost track of where I'd put the gift card. Isn't that the way it goes? When I do a house recycling sweep, I have to set everything down and go through it a second time, lest I accidentally scoop up a bill and recycle that. We won't discuss how many times that has happened. I had pretty much resigned myself to having recycled the card or maybe, accidentally sent it back to her and she was too polite to tell me what a doofus I was.

I was cleaning Thursday night. I don't know why. I wasn't looking for anything, but I did want to get rid of a pile that sits on top of my dead printer. I found, at the bottom of the pile, two Halloween cards. Not sure why I didn't recycle them, I opened the top one. Here was Patt's gift card. In spite of myself, I hadn't tossed it.

It's been a rough week just passed. There has been a major personal stress event developing. I can't really discuss it right now because it's not sorted. And, we had a major event at work. It was the kind of major event that causes you to wonder if you really ever did know someone as well as you thought you did. I've found myself in something of a funk, not really wanting to do much of anything except sit in the recliner with a cat in my lap and crochet. There's probably nothing particularly wrong with doing that other than I was out of pants for work and I swear the dishes were multiplying in the sink as I stood there and watched. One person can't have made all these dirty dishes.

Finding the gift card caused me to stop at Starbucks on the way home from getting yarn for my next crochet projects.

It's a large hot chocolate and a "morning bun". They call it a "morning bun" because "cinnamon sugar roll" isn't very healthy sounding. It's a yeast roll dipped in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar. It was very good.

I needed this. I wouldn't have appreciated the gift of the card had I actually put it in my wallet as I should have done back in October. I needed to be able to treat myself when I was feeling oppressed. The card showed up at just the right time.

So many things show up right when you need them. You might not realize it at the time. Thanks Patt, again. I needed a tall hot cocoa and a cinnamon bun. You can bet, if I get another gift card, it goes right into the wallet.

Beverage:  Lady Gray tea

Deb

Cuts Down on Costs

'Tis the season for the dun letters. We get them all year. "Please give us money" but they can get particularly abundant between October and December 15th. I keep thinking, "Lord, if you'd let me win the lottery, I could give this charity some cash." Somehow, that logic doesn't seem to have swayed the lottery god one bit. What do you mean I have to play to win? (sigh) There's always a catch.

Anyway, I got this in the mail recently. These are Christmas cards, return address labels and stickers, one for each card. I'm pretty inured to the pleadings of the enclosed letters. I just don't have cash to send to anyone. I make a donation to a couple of charities once a year, not at Christmas, and that's it, so your letters of misery and want don't move me. Well, I shouldn't say they don't move me, but when you have zero to give, that's what you're handing out.

I like getting these cards and address labels. I would hope it costs the charity in question a few pennies to have bulk cards printed. Labels, heck, I could, if I wanted to take the time, print my own address labels on a home printer. Merge a mailing list and you've just got the cost of someone's time to feed labels into the printer, box up the stuff and ship it. Hence, I don't feel guilt at all in taking the cards and labels and using them.

Every year, about this time, I go through the address book and count the number of cards I need. My count this year is 60. Now, I tend to buy cards that I like and I always seem to have cards left over. Two years ago, I was going to make my own cards. I still have that intention but I don't remember I was going to do that until right about now and that's no good for actually getting the cards made and mailed. So, once again, I'll need to buy a couple of boxes. Getting 5 cards from this charity, 6 from that one, 4 from another, help cut down on the total number of cards I actually need. I tend to gravitate towards cats or humor and love humorous cats Christmas cards, although they haven't been in abundance in recent years.

The stickers with this batch went into my sticker pile and the address labels went in with my address labels. I'm getting low on the labels I like so I'm probably going to have to send in an order at the end of the month, but the sheet I got with these cards will help stretch what I have.

I know a number of people chuck the whole packet in the garbage. Not me. I may not send you any money, but I certainly appreciate you sending me something I can use.

Beverage: Green tea

Deb

It Doesn't Smell Like Mold

This has been a year to cull. But, I can't cull and just toss. Oh some stuff I can but when it comes to something like cologne, I can't. I'm not sure why. I have no emotional attachment to the stuff in the drawer, it's just not something I want to give away.

After doing a cologne test, I rounded up all the little packets and used those up. It took from March to June to dispatch the stack. There were a lot of them. Now, I don't wear cologne on the weekend unless I'm going to be going out for something other than errands or to work in the back yard. It's mainly at the office or events or meetings where I wear a splash of something. Once the packets were used up, I decided it was time to work on the small tubes of fragrance. Wednesday, I finally used up the scent to the right.

It was a rather long tube, 2 inches long, fill with fragrance. I started wearing it on July 2nd; I wrote the date down on the card. With my self-imposed usage boundaries, it took 2.5 months to use up 2 inches. It wasn't an unpleasant scent. Truth, which came out in 2000, is classified as "refreshing, oriental and woody". Meh, I don't know about the woody part. Woods don't smell like that where I'm from. As with the Michael Kors sample that I got which started this all, it's not something I would spend $40 on, even for a designer bottle.

Recycle both the card and the cologne container and open the next package. This one is Escada, "Into the Blue". Created in 2006, this supposedly has blue waterlily and star fruit as the base with peony and "wet woods", whatever that is, rounding out the scent. I wore it for the first time today. I'm not sure I smelled the woods part, but the flowers, yeah.

What I really like about this is the bottle. Look at that. It's a spray bottle. The biggest problem with these little demonstrator bottles is that they have this small top, the size of a pencil eraser crammed into this glass bottle. Make no mistake. Those little bottles are glass. I've broken enough of them to know that. The plastic stopper has to be tight to prevent evaporation since a cologne's ingredients are suspended in alcohol. Getting that little stopper out without spilling the entire contents or even part of the contents on you is always an exercise in probability. "Am I feeling lucky?" Spill. "I guess not."

With this tiny spray bottle, I won't ever spill it all over my hands or the top of the dresser as I go to apply it. Actually, I don't really care what the cologne, which is a light blue, smells like. I just like using the spray bottle.

Beverage:  Earl Gray tea

Deb

We'll Be the Judge of This

Yup, that's what it's called. Says so, right on the bag. "World's Best Cat Litter".

You can imagine that I go through quite a bit of this. It's certainly nowhere nearly as much as it was when there were 5 felines living with me, but it's enough. All the books on cat care recommend having one box per cat and one extra. Hence, we have 3. I've noticed that they pee in two of them and poop in the other. I've never been quite sure why but the shorter walled litter boxes are easier for me to clean and that's where most of the cleaning occurs.

I've been fairly brand loyal to Fresh Step. All the cats I've had liked that litter. Perhaps you remember the scented fiasco of earlier this year. I've been very careful to look at the packaging now so scented never comes across the threshold. Fresh Step has a program whereby you plug a code printed on the inside of every box and you get points, redeemable for items. It's a silly reason to be brand loyal but, once I got started, the cats liked the stuff and it was reasonably priced.

Lately, however, the codes printed on the inside of boxes have been impossible to read. I have no idea how many points I have. I haven't redeemed any as I was working toward a cat tower. I've seen, in the rare loyal programs to which a belong, a change in what you can get with your points. They are pushing magazines. I don't need more magazines. I have the the pile on the ottoman cut by 3/4ths now. Although I hear books calling to me, I am determined to get the magazines down to nothing by the end of the year. Plus, Fresh Step has gone up in price while Arm & Hammer kitty litter has gone down. Well, loyalty program or no loyalty program, the pocketbook reigns here.

I started reading Cat Wisdom 101 and one of the sponsors is the above kitty litter. I can get, one time only, a free bag of litter. Well, free tends to be up my alley. I would buy the litter and send in the UPC with the receipt and be reimbursed. So, needing litter, I checked for this at the store. It's not real cost effective. I got an 18 pound bag for $8.19, on sale. Twenty-five pounds of Arm & Hammer is $8.99. This is going to have to be really incredible stuff for me to switch. Even a math phobe like me can see which is the better buy.

It's made from ground up corn stalks; for real. In fact, as I was scooping it out of the bag, bits and pieces of dried corn kernels were seen in the mix. It feels just like any other scooping litter. It does not have the dust of Arm & Hammer or Fresh Step, something I very much appreciate. It also does not have a chemical smell. Even the "unscented" cat litter has a deodorizer smell to it. This smells like chopped up dried corn. Having grown up on a farm, I know precisely what that smell is. The question is, how well will it do the job and how will the girls like it?

There have been some instances lately of peeing outside of the box. That's usually a sign of urinary distress or anger at something in the house. I've never caught who is doing it but I'd walk in the door after coming home and wow. Um...yeah. Since going to this, no one is peeing outside the box. I won't say they love it, but they tolerated the mixing of the Arm & Hammer with this in one box only, quite well.

I'm not completely sold simply because of the disparity of cost. If this was a couple dollars cheaper, I would go with it in a heartbeat. "World's Best"? Well, I think it has a lot of merit and, if money is not an issue, yes. Where money is an issue, Arm & Hammer on sale can't be beat.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Free!

Frequent buyer cards. Ho hum. I rarely get anything from using those little pieces of plastic I have on a separate key ring. I've mentioned before that really, it doesn't cost a company much to offer such a program. The percentage of people who will actually use the $10 off they get for frequenting the store is low so it doesn't hurt the bottom line to have it. (That reminds me. I have $10 off at The Bookstore to use up.)

I'm not quite on a first name basis with my pharmacist but it's getting there. Let's see: Prednisone, Folic Acid, Vitamin D and Methotrexate. All of those come up for renewal at odd times so last month, I was in CVS every week. I'll be needing the Folic Acid and the Methotrexate next week.

I need to check around to see what other places charge for the metho. That's the killer. I had my friend, Jon, figure out my medicine cost for the rest of the year. Assuming Dr. Francis doesn't change anything, it will cost me $390 to finish out the year. Fortunately, my health insurance, such as it is and don't get me started on THAT, will cover it. The other pills are a pittance. I got 90 Prednisone at the last refill for $3.47. I can handle that.

All of these little bottles on top of the microwave mean that I use my CVS frequent buy card a lot. Every script purchased means a swipe of the card. I think I've blogged before about the coupons they have at the bottom of the receipt. I almost never use those. They aren't useful to me.

But last month, one came up that was useful. I had accumulated enough points or whatever they track that I got $10 off my next purchase. I had to go back to get yet another script so what could I use it for? I went through the house looking. I didn't need groceries. I didn't need laundry detergent. I didn't need cat food. I didn't need shampoo. I wound up getting soda and a couple of birthday cards. I didn't need the soda either but free is wonderful.

In hindsight, I should have used the $10 to stock up on something I use. Toilet paper. Fabric softener. Package tape. Heck, I should have purchased a giant size bag of M&M's. At the time, those things didn't occur to me. It was the thrill of actually being able to use a $10 off coupon.

So, when I wander in this weekend, I wonder what will be at the bottom of this receipt. Free chocolate and Dr Pepper. Can't go wrong with that.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

Beauty

One of the blogs that I read, listed to the right, is Otchipotchi. I don't remember how I stumbled upon this blog but I love it. The blogger is Paula, a potter living in Portugal, and I very much enjoy looking at all the wonderful things she makes. I took a pottery class in college. It was fun, but it didn't grab me as something I would do for a long time. There are days, however, when I look at what Paula has crafted and my memories take me back to the time spent bending over a potter's wheel trying to get this lump of clay to resemble something more than a lump of clay that's taken a few too many turns around a potter's wheel. In addition to the pottery Paula makes, her photographs are gorgeous. You can tell she's an artist by her point of view in everything. Plus, she has a cat. What's not to like about that? Artistic AND a cat lover.

On July 13th, there was a post about red currants as well as a contest. I wrote up a couple of lines and forgot about it. Imagine my surprise when, checking back a few days later, my name was pulled from the pile. I was so delighted, I actually squealed, much to Pilchard's distaste as she was asleep in the chair next to me. The box came yesterday.

Both Pilchard and Mija looked at the item and deemed it boring. That means, of course, it's been thoroughly inspected, sniffed and approved and there is nothing else about the item worthy of further consideration and I shall now lie down where I cause the most impediment to your photography. (sigh)

I am not sure what I was expecting even though the contest clearly showed the bowls. The box wasn't very big. Here it is relative to my purse. I knew Paula was sending a porcelain bowl and the crunched nature of the box had me more than a little distressed. It fit very nicely in my mailbox so had there been some of this intermittent rain coming in unexpected downpours, it wouldn't have gotten wet, sitting on the front steps behind the milk box.

I opened it carefully, rather scared at what I would find. Paula's signature in her blog is the word, "Enjoy". I was delighted to see this in the package. Look! It's not a very clear photo since I have to use my phone's camera, but there is the word on a sticker affixed to the main bulk of the wrappings. Such a simple word. "Enjoy".

My anticipation grew as I removed this packet from the box. Nothing felt crunchy. You know if something fragile is broken. You pick it up and it moves in ways it probably shouldn't. Plus, there is a sound, a broken sound, coming from the parcel if it's not intact. There was none of this.

I unwrapped further and the parcel dwindled in size. Wow, I won both of them. I guess if I learn to read, I'd see both were the prize. I thought she was drawing two names. These were small. It was so exciting to remove layer after layer of tissue and a layer of bubble wrap to finally get to the reward.

Ta da! Two porcelain bowls. They are beautiful. My phone camera really cannot do justice to how delicate, yet hardy these are. They have the impression of, I think, baby's breath in them. I'm kind of a dork for not remembering since she talked about making these and showed a bit of the process.

Here's one of them outside where the lighting is a bit better.

See, the impression of the flowers? See how small they are? They came to me all the way from Paula's studio in Portugal. She knows how to pack things. There's nary a dent or a chip or an atom out of place.

You can see a bit better, the imprint of the flower here. I'll bring the office camera home this weekend and see if I can take some better photos, more representational, than these.

They are beautiful, so delicate, yet so strong. I love how they fit in my hand. I feel as if they want to be used somehow but I'm not sure what I'd put in them. I've never had anything like this before and I want to care for it properly. Right now, they are just sitting on the top of the organ in the living room, sitting with other things that have meaning for me.

The girls don't go up here unless I've cleared it off for dusting. These are in no danger of being knocked off by wayward cats.

We like to surround ourselves with stuff. This stuff represents a part of us. I have a commemorative football from my Iowa Hawkeyes, a globe made of slivers of semi-precious stones and a nutcracker. All of these are gifts and would fall into the category of "stuff". They represent parts of who I am. What about beauty? How many times do you add something to your life simply because it's beautiful? These two small bowls represent beauty to me, a simple and delicate beauty I can often overlook because I'm busy.

I am so thrilled to have received these. Thank you, Paula, for the contest. I don't consider myself very lucky but luck smiled on me when you drew my name. Enjoy? Yes, I shall.

Beverage:  Raspberry Zinger tea

Deb

So Worth the Price of Admission

Perhaps you've seen the movie poster to the right. It's the new Pixar movie "Brave" or "Pixar Does Scotland", if you want to be somewhat cynical about it. The Illinois St. Andrews Society did some promotions for the movie and gave away tickets to it at the Highland Games in June. I finally got to see it this past Sunday, with Pam. Now, I have not been to a movie in a theater since Carole took me to see the Star Trek prequel back in May of 2009 when she lived in Seattle. Yeah...I don't get out much.

But, I am sorely tempted to go again. This is a great movie. The premise is something that we see repeated in a lot of movies. The parent and the child are talking but neither are listening. Something happens which changes one or both of them, not for the better. The rest of the movie is spent trying to reverse the change before it becomes permanent. In the process, the two people come to understand each other. The ending evokes tears of happiness and the you see the two people riding off into the sunset, happier than they have ever been.

I really enjoyed what they did with Scotland in this movie. There is no definable place. The landscape is an amalgamation of many Scottish landmarks. There are the "highlands" and the mountains. There is the sea and the lochs. There are the trees and the forests. Celtic iconography is heavily featured. The myths of the Celts showing up throughout the story. There is also the kilt and there is one section which features a creative use of the kilt that left me in stitches.

We stayed to the end to see the cast, many, many actors who are Scots. And the music. Oh the music. It's all original and is distinctly Scottish-influenced. My only "bone" to pick with the the music is that it's the London Symphony Orchestra. They couldn't use the Royal Scottish National Orchestra? I will be getting this soundtrack. It's sort of up-tempo Scottish music but I hope that exposing people to the bagpipes via this will cause them to want to find out more and that will lead them to Scottish traditional music. There's so much out there that deserves a wider audience.

We had quite the adventure ourselves in the theatre. About 45 minutes into the movie, it stopped. An usher appeared and apologized for the loss of power. She advised us that if the movie did not come back in 5 minutes, they would issue refunds. If you did not wish to wait that long, they would issue refunds. Pam and I looked at each other and decided we'd stay. We really didn't have any place to go other than lunch. After about 4 minutes, up comes the movie. It runs for 5-6 minutes and quits. We said another 4 and up comes the movie. It runs another 7-8 minutes and quits. This time, it was down for only 3 minutes but when it came back, there was no sound. Pam had seen the movie the week it came out and the part where we were missing sound wasn't crucial to the plot. This ran for about 6-7 minutes before stopping and restarting with sound. From then on, the movie didn't stop at all. We weren't sure why they had problems but, oh well, we got to see it.

As we were leaving the theatre, after watching the credits for the voice actors and the music, we were met by an usher who gave us free passes. Pam gave hers to me as I had expressed an interest in going to see some of the movies advertised in the previews, movies she's not interested in seeing. We were quite surprised and thanked the guy. We'd stuck through to the end so we weren't expecting any passes.

We were still mulling over the power outages as we got to the front door. With the heat, was this a brown out? That would seem to make sense. Consumption of AC would be huge and a theatre is a large open space that needs a lot of cooling. Once we were outside, we realized heavy storms had rumbled through the area and they were responsible for the loss of power. AMC did not have to give us passes. It was an act of god, so to speak. This is exceptional customer service and the passes don't expire until June of next year. I think I can find a movie to go see before then.

As a person of Scottish ancestry, I like what they did with my homeland. I like the movie. I like the theme. I like that the female lead doesn't need a prince to rescue her. I like the portrayal of family and clan. Go see this. You don't need to buy anything from the concession stand. That's overpriced junk anyway. Just go see the movie. You won't regret it.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

Using Them Up

You've all read the stories about how merchants love gift cards. Great Aunt Sally buys you a $25 gift card from Bath and Body Works because she really doesn't know want to get you. You're okay with the card although B&BW isn't one of the places you go to a lot. You stick the card in your wallet and, 18 months later, it's still there. It might have even expired. The store got Aunt Sally's money. You have a piece of plastic.

It's the same way with loyalty cards. It doesn't really cost Hallmark anything to issue me a $7.00 gift certificate for being a loyal purchaser of their product. I forget what the percentage I saw quoted is about certificate redemption but it might have been just over 50%. That means, there are a huge bunch of certificates which will expire before the customer uses them. I know that first hand. I just don't have a need for cards so the certificate hangs on the fridge until I find it with the every other month cleaning.

When you're trying to make every penny stretch, this is and isn't a good practice. I tend to get Hallmark gift certificates when I really don't NEED cards or wrapping paper or anything they have to offer. I like having cards available so I don't have to swing by the store for a birthday card, so I have a stash. I don't want to get more cards so I can get $5 off a $15 purchase. That's not cost effective. But sometimes, the money off actually works.

As part of Panera's loyalty program, they send out Internet offers. One of them was for free soup. I love their chicken with wild rice soup. An Internet offer, I am not likely to remember, print out or use so it costs them nothing to send it to me. This time, however, I got soup...and a brownie...and a drink, so lunch on Thursday was $2.97.

Today, I hauled out all the cards I've received over the months and tried to use them up. I stopped at the hardware store and bought more ant killer and a rake. Now, I can feel guilty about not doing more yard work, because I have a rake. That was $5.00 off on my total purchase. It wound up that the ant killer was, essentially, free.

I went on to Target and bought groceries. It was just a lot of little stuff excepting the cat food and kitty litter. I'm in a cooking frame of mind and the things I wanted to cook required one ingredient I didn't have. I'm good, now, until the end of the month. I received a $25 American Express gift card so that took care of half of the purchase.

My friend, Patt, sent me a Starbucks card for my birthday last year. I did get several of Starbucks' seasonal hot cocoa drinks, but I never used the card up completely. On the way out of Target, I got a hot cocoa and used up the card.

I forgot the $1 off coupon from CVS where I picked up my vitamin D pill script this morning. It's not a very costly script, but saving a dollar is saving a dollar. I have it stuck to the fridge and I walked right by it.

So, that uses up all except one. I did rather well today to get things I needed for less. I have a Best Buy gift card, won for knowing more answers to a trivia questionnaire than anyone else in the office when we were doing mandatory training. I do not know the amount. Some were $20. Some were $25 and some were $50. I don't know what I want to use this for. I thought I'd be needing a new mouse but that got resolved. Should I buy movies? I don't watch many now. Adding to the collection seems like a waste. Hence this card just sits. I don't think it has an expiration date but I'd rather just use it up than hang onto it and, by extension, lose it.

Any suggestions, and no, I won't mail it to you.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Scents of Time

The survey featuring the free Micheal Kors perfume is over. I get to keep the small bottle I received. I marked it an 8 out of 10. The biggest fault is that bottle design. I never, ever could get it open without some spillage. As packaging, particularly for colognes, is part of the overall effect, I had to make sure my vote was reflective of my difficulty.

So, now that it's done, what to do with the cologne? I rather enjoyed wearing a fragrance daily. I'd gotten out of that over the last 12 years of employment because of the hazards of cologne on a job site. You wouldn't think wearing cologne around sweaty construction or quarry employees would have hazards but there is a big one; bugs.

I cannot tell you how many times some bee or wasp has tried to land on me because I smell like some flower that surely must have pollen grains for pick up. Less common is the implied message you are sending by being a female on a male-dominated work site and smelling of gardenia or something else. Scents attract and sometimes that attention is not in the form you want. My wearing of cologne grew increasingly less and less until it was, maybe, once a month and then only because I was attending a concert or other kind of public event. I might have worn cologne to the office Christmas party. Then again, knowing me, I might not have.

The testing of the cologne and the knowledge that I spend most of my days in the office has inspired me to wear scents again. There are dozens of bottles and samples in a drawer in the dressing table and in a basket on its top. They sit there, collecting dust. Cologne is a mood elevator and heaven knows sometimes I need my mood elevated.

I decided to fish all the free samples out and start with them. The above are all those freebie packets I've got. One-by-one, I'm going to wear these to use them up. Then, I will gather up all those little sample vials and use one until its gone and work on another. I will probably find something, like the Michael Kors sample I received, that I like, but I am not replacing a sample with a big bottle of the stuff. I have dozens of bottles of fragrance. The desire is to use them up. It's part of a much grander goal of decluttering my life.

Since taking the photo, I've worn one of the pink Givenchy samples and am wearing one of the light pink Avon Soft Musk samples. Both are nice and are colognes I could see wearing long-term. I shuffle the stack and whatever comes out on top is the pick for that day.

In looking ahead, some of what I have, I have had for a very long time. I also have some rather large bottles of some scents. It's going to take years to use up some cologne. I don't wear scents when I'm not leaving the house or when I will be outside at a job site. This is just for those days when I'm in the office or out and about. Plus, I have to remember that not everyone can be around someone wearing cologne. Even I can't apply a scent as rigorously as I might have in years past. It's not a good experience when I'm coughing. As the old Brylcream commercials said, "A little dab will do ya'."

In another week, I'll post what vials I have and I have a lot.

Beverage:  Lady Gray tea

Deb