RED ROOM

Today (and yesterday) the painter was here (I am not that frugal) and painted the bedroom...gasp...dark brown. For the first time in 30 years Henry and I have a bedroom that is not Red!!!.....and I love it!! I LOVE IT!!

Those of you who know me well will be shocked by this....but I want it ALL gone. All my crap (that I cannot sell on eBay) gone. I never want to see it again. So if any of you want the painted fish peg rack
or the needlepointed fish pictures tell me now before I donate them....going going gone.


Seriously let me know I will ship...Just would like things to go to a happy home.

KINDLE II

Those of you who know me know that I love my Kindle. We are having the living room painted...how does this relate you ask. I had to clean out the bookshelves in the living room to move them away from the wall. End result...a donation to the SDPL of 300 books is the end result.

With my Kindle...I download a sample and if I don't like the book I don't have to buy it. It is perfect!! It is light and easy to use. I can read a 700 page book and it weighs the same as a Nintendo DS. I can set it up and read and knit at the same time. As I just said Perfect!!

The problem. They just came out with a Kindle II. Do I need it?? Do I sell my old one on eBay and get the new one. Do I give my old one to Henry as a birthday present and keep the new one (nice huh?).

OK...I just feel better not buying it...but you should!

JULIA IS 8!!!

...and this calls for a party!!! Or at the very least an infamous family get-together.


She is adorable...and I got her a Juicy Monopoly game.....she said that she would scream if she could in a restaurant. I would have been happy with the scream.


It was the usual suspects:

Julia, Jacob, and Jesse
Henry and Judy (and me!!...I am in the window..look closely!)
Jeff is looking terrific!!

Jen had to stay home with Jordan because he was sick, so they were among the missing.

Julia's choice of restaurant was Samurai Sam's in Solana Beach. Where our host was Ron, the flip/flap man. He was perfect, funny, talkative....oh, yeah, did he have a choice with out random bunch or yappers.

It was a great time....she looks happy doesn't she!!

Enough of this merriment! It is time to blow out the candles!!

a little too close to the cake!!
See! I was there!!

FRIED GREEN PICKLES

Fried green pickles...mmmmmmmgood. Thin sliced, light batter, good dipping sauce. Location, location, location. Madrid, NM. Population less than the number of fried green pickles sold in a day.

They look good don't they......they were!!

Now to get home and see if my Oscar predictions were correct...Sean, Kate, Slumdog, Boyle, Philip (Heath will win), and Penelope.

I am boarding....got to go!

SANTA FE FRUGAL STYLE

The weather in Santa Fe was spectacular today.

Began the day at one of my favorite little restaurants on the Plaza, the Plaza Cafe. I adore the fact that their walls are "tiled" with broken plates. I can almost see the idea germinating as you continued to see the plates chipped, broken, unuseable....let's tile the wall with them. Only black...only white....throw in a little tin ceiling and pink neon and it is perfect.


A walk along Santa Fe's infamous Canyon Road led to some wonderful large sculptures:

boy resting (only the trees are real--his legs are about 15 feet away)


a beautiful plated rhino

rock paper scissors (the only way to play the game)

girl with birds

and a close-up of her fabulous face

Walking from one gallery to the next I found some interesting juxtapositions of color and texture. This is definitive of Santa Fe for me.

Some of my favorite artists from my favorite galleries:

Olga Anatova teacups (I first fell in love with her at Chameleon Arts Gallery in Newburyport MA so I was excited to find her here at Selby Fleetwood Gallery

Also at Selby Fleetwood Gallery you can find the phenomenal works of Cristina Chalmers. Words and pictures do not do justice to this woman's work. I have encluded a few pictures of my fave work of hers currently.

Then wandering down to Waxlander Gallery

you find the wonderful whimsical works of Lori Faye Bock. In each one of the Polka Dots on her dress there is a fabulous quote from a fabulous woman...from Liv Ullman to Anais Nin to Toni Morrison. She rocks!

Then on to visit an old fave Melinda K. Hall at the Patricia Carlisle Fine Art Gallery where she was showing her new work---OMG. I thought it would be perfect to show her version of

rock paper scissors

While there I discovered a new artist Adam Shaw

The photo does not do his work justice.

All in all a good day. By my most recent calculations I saved $50,000 (estimated spending only includes paintings)...and, of course, a house with walls big enough to hang all of the above.

After all this saving I am starving....on to Cafe Pasqual (yumo)

RETURN OF THE EURO

No....not European Currency Exchange "Euro"--it is the return of the Ralph Euros....

Why buy Fabulous, gorgeous, Ralph Euros when you have Calvin Klein Euros the same color. It broke my heart but back they went.

Tomorrow an adorable jacket I bought....not so adorable on me.

I am proud of me.

This is a pat on the back blog! Thumbs up for me!

I NEVER MISS THIS LIGHT

I have spent the past few days driving places with Henry...common conversations include:

"I never miss this light,"
"The trips must be off.
"This light must be broken, it is never red."
"Why are you going this way? It is farther."
"Why haven't these idiots opened the Fast Track lanes?"
"Why is this road closed?"

The only thing that he should have said was "Watch out...my car is behind you!"

Then I might not have hit his car.

OCTOPUSSY

The movie???
The person??

I am clearly not the most frugal (as we know person)...but, if I could not afford the 6 children (EEK!) that I had...

no, let's go to the basic "Why would anyone have 6 children?" If you had 6 children that you could not afford or care for why would you want to have an additional child...much less EIGHT!!!

EIGHT CHILDREN, seriously. Eight!

I realize that she does not think that food stamps and SSI is welfare...but, if someone is giving you money that you did not earn or inherit...that would be welfare.

Pandering, however, would be having an official website take Paypal donations for what I do not know. (I would normally do a link here, but I just cannot bring myself to do it!--oh what the heck...if you feel the urge to donate go right ahead.) I have six grandchildren, to make a donation to me just sent a payment of any amount to cathi.rosengren@gmail.com...HEY THAT WOULD HELP!!! WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!

Others agree with me: “The Orlando Sentinel blasted both mother and doctors as 'indulgent, irresponsible, and unethical.' Reason magazine’s science correspondent, Ronald Bailey, wasn’t nearly so restrained; he slammed the 'idiotic fertility jockey' who made it possible for this 'loony sad jobless single woman' to bear eight more children. Columnist Ellen Goodman suggested that the doctors were guilty of something 'akin to malpractice' and that Suleman’s decisions were 'close to mal-mothering.' "



How uch do you think that that cost The Today show!!!

I know that I am not the only one that noticed she has lovely acrylic nails in the photos, since I have had several e-mails regarding the question?? Can welfare checks be cashed at the Nail Salon????

Oh well enough of my ranting!! Oh, and remember.....to help me....I have one child, one husband, a job, debt, two dogs, a poop picker upper (my version of acrylic nails) to care for....send any money you have extra, for no reason whatsoever, to...

cathi.rosengren@gmail.com

I would be forever greatful!!!

PRIUS SQUARED

When I got my first Prius half the fun was watching people try to figure it out. How many people would it take to get the car through the car wash. Explaining to the valet guy how to move the car. Loaning your husband the car and then walking away with the keys leaving him stranded a mile down the road.

So....Saturday evening in the pouring rain I went grocery shopping at Albertson's.

I walked out to the car with my groceries. As I walked up I thought it was odd that I had forgotten to lock the car. I saw Henry's rainsuit in the back and wondered why he had put it in there. I am madly tossing all the bags into the back of the car when a voice calmly says: "This isn't your car!"

When I quit screaming I looked at the three children and their mother in the car...which was an adorable Silver Prius, parked right next to my adorable Silver Prius.

Five years ago that never would have happened.

Lots of people must thing Frugal is a Four Letter Word.

DARWIN LIVES!!

The Darwin Awards celebrate, well, let's face it, the stupid. The stupid are alive and well and proving the theory that...the gene pool has indeed been reduced to it's lower denominator.

Last week one of our good customers had about $4,000 in domestics stolen from her car. She called to alert us that they might show up. We re-sold her the merchandise.

Today, I get a call from one of my peeps to help him do an override to give a customer back money rather than a mail check which is what was coming up in the system. When I got to the department...my guy was awaiting me. He said he thought something was "fishy" because the customer had said that it was a gift and who would receive a gift of different size and color sheets.

I tracked down the "CRL" and then found the original receipt...and "Voila!" it was our customer who had had everything stolen....she shall be called Polly Purchaser.

We called Loss Prevention, wrote down the Drivers License # of the returner. I explained that he could only get a send check. He says OK and goes to find the girlfriend.

Up he and the girlfriend come. She is carrying jeans. She is upset

• my aunt gave me those sheets as a gift. I just want to exchange the sheets for the jeans.
• Sorry I can only give you a mail check--no exchanges. Mail check or I can return it to the American Express it was charged on.
  
• But, I have a receipt!!
• A receipt??
• Here is the receipt!

...what does she hand me. Yup, it is true. She hands me the original customer's receipt for pick up of a pre-sell. She hands it to me.

"Oh, you did not tell me you were Polly's niece! She is a wonderful customer of ours--Sally helps her all the time. Shall we call Polly for you and see if she wants us to give you cash back. I can do that for you!"

Oddly enough they opted to await their "mail-check".

Can you believe they actually tried to use the original customer's receipt.

They are being frugal a whole new way!!

CONFESSION

Forgive me blogettes for I have sinned.

It has been five days since my last blog.

In that time...I have bought the following:

yarn

linens

shoes

jacket for work
jacket for play
(no photos available)

I have eaten...

way too much.

Wow! I feel much better now. I am back on track and ready to roll!!

Wish me luck!