Yesterday was a particularly busy shopping day. The night before the microwave died as I was making dinner! Ahhhh! No I wasn’t making “microwave dinners” or anything like that, but I do tend to use the microwave pretty much daily when I cook. I use it to heat things, steam vegetables, cook foods – it’s a well used appliance. I couldn’t live a day without my microwave or at least I didn’t think I could.

So … after doing the usually things like picking up some of my prescriptions (man I hate having Crohns!) and then getting groceries we started looking in a few stores for microwaves. I didn’t want a tiny microwave. Our previous one had been a 1.6 cubic ft microwave. Yes- big enough to put a good size dish, bowl or plate in. See I told you I cook in it. Unfortunately most of the stores that we went to had only .9. 1.0 or 1.2 cubic ft microwaves. I never realized how hard it was to find larger ones!

Finally we found the one we were looking for in two different stores – we’d gone back and forth doing a price comparison since the stores were close together. The store we eventually bought from had the microwave that we wanted listed at a higher price, but when we told them the other store had them for about $25 cheaper they immediately told us they’d match the price … then they said that oh .. the only ones we have of that model are in open boxes. So .. they said that if wanted an open box microwave that they’d drop the price a further $50 and then add a 3 year store warranty. We looked at all three open boxes and picked the one that looked like it had only been opened in the store. I’m so happy we got that deal! It was easy on our debit cards – that’s for sure!

The microwave worked just fine when we got it home and set it up so so far so good! It was a busy shopping day as I said .. but a very successful one!

Yes I believe that Actors, writers, Producers, directors and so on should get praise and trophies for the work that they do … but I don’t believe that it necessarily has to be televised for all of us to see. I think the TV ratings for most award shows proves that interest in these types of shows has been going down year after year.

Do you enjoy watching shows like the SAG awards or the Golden Globes?

I got rid of a lot of stuff from that room. Clothes, old computer gear and even a Keyboard that had a problem with one of it’s switches. I hated getting rid of that keyboard! It was kind of like this mpk 49 model. It was my keyboard that I’d had for years and years. My husband played it every now and then, but he mostly plays his guitars. I should have kept the keyboard and tried to fix it.

Oh well …

Well .. I guess I’ve got the jump on spring cleaning this year. I’ll be painting and renovating by the time spring arrives this year!

I don’t think I moved for about 6 hours. I remember waking up really early in the morning when the phone rang and I managed to fall back asleep in the same position that I feel asleep in originally and I didn’t wake up for another three or four hours. The only thing that might have made my sleep better would have been curling up with one of those body pillows.

I think the only reason I slept that well though was because I was on a major cleaning spree for the three days prior to that deep sleep. So it took three days of major physical activity to knock me out. I didn’t not sleep anywhere near that well the next night.

I wish I could have a deep sleep like that every night!

As it turns out she went to the store just the other day and ended up buying an upgraded version of the TV that was in that package, but just a little smaller. I think she’s going to be really happy with her new TV. She has a slightly older model of TV right now so I’m sure she’ll be thrilled this Friday once the new TV and home theatre is delivered and installed.

I’ve got a nice Plasma TV but I know the LED’s are really nice. Someday .. when my Plasma stops working I’ll probably switch to an LED too. Do you have a nice flat screen TV at home?

Now to equip myself with the necessary supplies … yoga mat bags, yoga gear, yoga DVD … what else? Maybe I should check around and see if there’s some kind of yoga class nearby? A cheap one. I don’t have a lot of money and I don’t expect that to change in the near future. Actually that’s part of my stress, I think my fiances are going to drastically change for the worse in the next month or two so anything free is good.

Any suggestions?

My sister and the rest of the gang did their best to cheer me up. I got more presents than I’ve received in years! I didn’t need any of them, but I appreciated every single one of them. I think my sister alone bought me six or seven gifts. LOL One of them was one of those funny t shirts with a saying on it that I’d better not repeat here that made me laugh for a few minutes. It definitely fit what I’m going through.

Another reason why Christmas was different is because I actually stayed over at my sisters. I’ve never done that before. I stayed over Christmas eve until boxing day (3 days) and because I have a dog she also stayed at my sisters too. Oh and it was the dogs first time around cats so that was interesting. Luckily the cats and my dog got along fairly well so that was a good thing.

How was your Christmas or Holiday season?

She’s just started her own home business making all kinds of craft items -everything from hair clips to fancy dog collars to home made soaps and so on. I don’t even know the extent of what she makes but there’s all kinds of things. I don’t even know where she finds the time to it all. She’s always posting new pictures on her Facebook page of new items she’s just made.

Anyway, the other day I called my sister and my niece was busy making some kind of no sew blanket. My sister explained how she was doing it, but I think I’d have to see it to really understand – but it sounds cool. The floor was apparently covered with material, bead, yarn and all her crafting tools. I’m surprised my sisters cats didn’t get into any of the stuff that was scattered about!

The Christmas gift I got for my niece has everything to do with her craft business. I hope she likes it.

Do you have a crafty person in your family as well?

Unfortunately I haven’t been a practicing nurse for about 6 years because I’ve been on medical leave … but, I’ve been feeling quite a bit better in the last 6 months or so … or I was until something very stressful started happening about three months ago – and I had started to think about returning to work.

I’m pretty sure I still have my job placement at the hospital if I want to return to it, so if I can overcome the current stressful situation that I’m under I might be able to go back to work. In fact, getting out of the house might be very good for me. I need a change of scenery and need to renew my sense of self worth.

So please wish me luck. I’m hoping that maybe by February I’ll be able to say that I’m starting back to work at the hospital. I’ll still be blogging of course too – so you’ll still hear from me.

Luckily I have call display so when I see the same numbers come up time and time again I just don’t answer it – or if I see a 1-800 type number or a number that looks odd like 1234567889 I don’t answer. I have an answering service on my phone so if a real company or person I’m sure they’d leave a message – right?

The only time this strategy kind of bit me in the butt lately was when I was actually waiting on a call for a life insurance rate and they called with a 1-800 number that I didn’t recognize and didn’t leave a message until their third call!

Do you get a lot of spammy calls on your phone or cell phone? I’m on our national do not call list but it doesn’t cover all kinds of calls – like newspaper companies or charities or companies that you’ve previously had dealings with, and also some of the calls come in from other countries so the DNC list can’t do a darn thing about that!