The vet visit was $268. Ouch

Mr Mao had blood taken and a refill of his tablets. He's not too bad about taking his tablets and vitamins. He's also got a bit of an eye infection so he's got eye drops too. Mr Mao loves eye drops slightly less than he enjoys most things. To put it in perspective it is easier to bathe him than to give him eye drops. The drops are only for a week but it might be a dangerous week for me. He has ways (and claws) to make his opinion very clear.

Strangely Mao doesn't seem to mind the actual visit to the Vet's. He pretty much purrs through it and accepts in his graceful Siamese manner worship from the various staff members there.

Otherwise he was doing well. I forgot to get them to weigh him though. He's Mr Porky on his expensive special prescription vet food.

And yes, like on all visits the vet and I spoke about whether this was the right thing or whether a "decision needed to be made". We spoke about Mao's quality of life.

I have a vet visit later this afternoon. The visit itself is about $50, I need cat food which for a case is about $50 and I think the cat will need tests.

YIKES

I don't begrudge doing this for my kitty (he's been part of my life for a long long time) but I am scared about what the cost for this visit is actually going to be. I'll be happy if it ends up under $200.

Once again our work was offering on-site flu shots to all employees. They were free but here that's not exactly a feature just a fact. I know I pay huge takes and sometimes have to wait for services. But it is nice that doing things to take care of myself aren't economic decisions.

I went on got my flu shot today. I actually barely felt it go in. The nurse giving it was amazing.

I, of course, had pain i my arm from the shot. Strangely The pain in my arm was where I thought the band-aid was and not where the band-aid actually was. Oh the other important fact about the pain is that it started coming this morning before the shot. I am pretty sure that it is safe to say the the pain wasn't real but psychosomatic.

Crossing my fingers that this stops me getting sick ths winter.

I'm sad. Was to have a weekend with my boyfriend and he's had to cancel because he is sick. We are in a long distance relationship (yeah we met online) and this is the hardest part of it.When one of us has to cancel a visit.

I understand and know he's making the right decision but I'm still sad.

Now to re-juggle my errands and stuff for the next few days. I still have stuff to do to get ready for the big family do we are having this weekend. I'm not holding it but I still have my contributions to sort out and food to make to bring etc.

Had a note that I had a parcel with the mail last night. I picked it up this morning. A cute teatowel and a hot pad with a cute snowmen on it. This was from an exchange on on of the coupon groups I'm on.

Also in the mail today a coupon train! I'll have to go through that tonight.

Stopped at the grocery store to pick up some of their free calendars (with coupons) to bring for my workmates. I love sharing freebies!

I like wearing skirts, even in the winter, but hate the entire pantyhose thing. I wouldn't mind if I didn't go through them so fast. Pantyhose sure aren't frugal. I stopped on the way to get some tights. At least with the Hanes tights I get more than one wear out of them.

Finally got my coupon for a free dove hand washing soap. This was the coupon I told a whole bunch of people about. They all got theirs a few weeks ago. I had given up on it figuring that my luck was all used up when I got the free Sonicare toothbrush.

But it came in todays mail along with a Christmas card - and even better, with NO bills

I'm feeling stressed about the upcoming weekend. Its our big extended family Christmas "do" and I've been assigned a vegetable. The main dish is ham and someone is already doing brocolli and a sweet potato/squash/apple veggie dish.

I'm not a fan of dishes involving a can of campbells soup so the bean casserole dish is out. Glazed carrots perhaps, our family likes brussel sprouts but do they go with ham?

Don't mind me I'll websurf tonight and see if I can figure out a dish that is make ahead and easy to heat up (don't want to add a last minute cooking dish to the mix)and in the vegetable category.

I'll do a relish tray and corn too as those are "no brainers".

Not a very exciting Monday to be honest. Started as many Monday's do with my not wanting to get up (yeah like that's a newsflash).

This past weekend I made a wee quilt for a coworker's daughter - proof it is possible to make a quilt without buying materials - believe it or not! I had made one for her daughter before and it has become her security blanket. She's at daycare now and carrying around a small crib quilt makes her a tripping hazard (insert visual picture of topsy toddlers tripping) So I made this small 13inch square "carry to nursey school" substitute quilt for her.





Unfortunately, my coworker managed to fall on the weekend hurting herself so she wasn't in. She's pretty badly hurt so I was more worried than upset that I had to buy lunch as the original plan was she was taking me to lunch as a thank you for the quilt.

Other than that a quick trip to the grocery store so I could get shake and bake (I need to find a copycat recipe for this and make up a batch) and spinach. I had a strange craving for creamed spinach today. If only I could find the recipe for the creamed spinach made by Morton's steakhouse..that has to be the ultimate creamed spinach. Mine did turn out pretty good though.

.. I'd not be hawking my buy real estate program on infomercials nor would I be running around the country putting on seminars in cheap hotel conference rooms.

I mean really... if you are that freaking rich, why can't you do us all a favour and stop filling up the airwaves with your crap?

.. before the renovation!

They renovated. They took out most of the produce area and replaced it with a deli counter that sells lots of hot foods.

The veggies are now scarce. And the ones that are there are very expensive and most of them are shrink wrapped (why on earth does broccoli and cauliflower need to be shrinked wrapped anyways?)

I went to this place tonight - probably for the last time. Good deals on meat, but what point is a store where you can't find reasonably priced produce? That and a lot of the prices seemed to have gone up. Amazing how the cost of a renovation gets passed along.

The worst part of this? I'm not done with my grocery shopping. I have to go out again tomrrow for groceries.

With a boyfriend in the US and living in Canada I am quite aware of many of the differences between the US and Canada. Heck I'm in the US at least once a month, have many American friends etc. But every once in a while a difference in culture between the two countries hits me in the face.

Hearing all the US hype about Black Friday just hit me as "weird". Ready, steady, go shop! Here the Xmas season gradually comes upon us once Halloween is over with a Christmas parade (at least in my town) that really gets things ramped up. We just don't have that go nuts and shop day before Christmas. Well, unless you consider that to be Christmas Eve when all the procrastinators are in full panic!

However we do have the go nuts and shop day after Christmas. We don't have Black Friday Sales, we have Boxing Day Sales. Boxing day is the day after Christmas. Its the same thing as Black Friday to the deal happy consumer. The best deals, special sales, line ups, electronic stores with only 3 of that really great deal item, early openings, stampedes and craziness.

I didn't do the black friday shopping not being in the US that day. I think I'll balance that by skipping the boxing day sales too.

No deals, but I'll keep my sanity.



Cartoon from www.statehousereport.com by Bill McLemore

Ever buy something that seems to make sense as a purchase. And then realise that it wasn't that brainy?

I bought some precooked frozen organic rice from Trader Joes. Healthy, and convenient suckered me in. It has 3 packages of rice in there that just needed to be slit and then microwaved for 3 minutes to reheat. We had one and it was good and tasty, and oh so easy.

I saw it in the freezer last night and it dawned on me that I could just make up some rice, portion it out into zip lock bags and freeze it for quite a bit cheaper than I bought that rice for.

I only buy brown rice anyways so that isn't an issue. And I'm sure a bag of organic brown uncooked rice is a much better value than the precooked. And just as easy (its hardly difficult to make rice).

A lesson learnt.

A friend and I went to a cookie baking class tonight. It was a hands on class and we made a total of a dozen types of cookies.

Good Points: The instructor/leader was excellent. The recipes were varied and different but variations on old favourites - so nothing too weird. We came away with recipes and with suggestions for adaptions what to make ahead etc. We were taught a method for making dulce de leche that is oh so easy! Staff at the school did all the dishes - yeah, and all ingredients were measured out before we got there

Main Complaint: The equipment was lousy. The oven temperamental, the food processor was in the process of dying from old age and the hand mixer wasn't the greatest. A spatula fell part on us. My equipment at home, while not top of the line, is better than their equipment.

Disappointment: We got some cookies to take home but not as many as I was hoping we would get to take home.

Verdict. A fun three hours. A bit expensive but nice to do. Would definitely take another class by this instructor but would not take it at this cooking school unless they upgrade the equipment.

Wishing all of you in the US a Happy Thanksgiving. It is a regular work day here as we had our Thanksgiving back in October.

So in a few minutes I get myself ready for work and head out! I have a nice evening planned. Rather than make Christmas cookies at home a friend and I signed up for cooking "class" where we go to a professional kitchen and make cookies with other people. Then we bring home a share of what we all made. I'm looking forward to have good cookies without having my kitchen all messed up!

I wrote this post about my experience at Kmart a few days ago.

http://yummysaves.savingadvice.com/2006/11/17/kmart-rant_174...

As I said I would, I forwarded it to Kmart's contact us email. I got this response from Sears, with the email title "Outbound" today.

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting this office and sharing your feedback. We have noted your comments, and will share them with the interested parties for proper consideration. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.

Please be assured that we value your comments and suggestions. By sharing your feedback with us, you have made it possible for us to address the issues. Further, your forthright comments will enable Sears to achieve excellence in everything we do.

We value your relationship with Kmart, and hope that you will continue to make Sears Holdings Corporation your choice for quality and value.

Sincerely,
National Customer Relations
Sears Holdings Corporation

Words can not adquately express just how loved and cherished as a customer this response makes me feel.

Anyone confused why Sears and Kmart have a decreasing market share?

Went out to dinner tonight with one of the sales reps I work with, a client and broker. We went to this wonderful steak house. The food was wonderful and cost the earth. Salads $12, Steaks around $50 (and up), sides extra, and who even knows what dessert cost. The wine I drank was $15 a glass. This is way out of my normal league for restaurants.

With tip the dinner totalled over $700 - for 5 of us!

Wow! Glad I didn't have to pay!