Squeaky Wheel

So they say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but I am not one to squeak. Maybe sometimes I complain, but that is mainly only to K-Bot and never to the thing that has gotten me upset. But I think I have changed my tune.

So on one of my many adventures down to Niagara K-Bot said we could stop at the Book Depot Warehouse, I was so excited. We spent an hour in there looking around, and they have great deals. I was looking at a copy of The Outsiders, it was a hard cover and the cover price was $25. But the Book Depot price was $9.99. Also they have sales maybe once a year, fill a box for $30. Anyways I didn't find the one book I was looking for. However I noticed that they have a website, so I went to it. They have their warehouse online so you can order books that way. They have great prices, this I knew, but the shipping wasn't that terrible. The one option is pick up in store, which they only charge you $1 for processing your order. So I look and to my joy they have the book I want. $7.99 instead of the cover price $25. So I order it and say I will pick it up in store. Now I was currently reading said book as I had taken it out from the library, so I took it back thinking that I would have my own copy to read. Well I took it back Friday morning (yes I walked to the library in the rain) and Friday afternoon I get an email saying that there really wasn't any of those books in stock, even though the web page said 2. So I was angry, as anyone would be. So I sent off an angry email. Not like me, and I regretted it all weekend. I felt bad.

Monday morning I check my email and what is there???? A response, very apologetic. They feel bad for the mix up and so if I place another order for that book they will give me free shipping to my door. FREE shipping. Well that was very kind. I didn't demand anything, just maybe if they don't have supply don't advertise to the contrary. So I ordered the book, the shipping statement said I could expect it in 21 business days. YIKES. Oh well that's ok, free shipping. I ordered the book Monday night and it was here Thursday morning.

I am really impressed with this store now. They seem to really care about their customers and work with them to get them their books. I definitely recommend shopping with them, if for no other reason then they are SO much cheaper than Chapters. And I learned that sometimes you need to stand up and say something when you are upset. I guess it isn't just men who aren't mind readers (K-Bot tells me all the time men aren't mind readers so if I want something speak up and I can have it).

Date Night

So K-Bot and I had a date night today, early evening still counts as a date night right?

So I will just start by saying that we are naughty and bring our own snacks to the movies, tisk! Anyways so we brought orange juice boxes, which were free on a box of pop tarts. Then we bought chocolate bars, what's that? a coupon for buy 1 get 1 free? Yep! Then off to see Rango. It is cheap night so it is $5.50 each to get in, but, and here's the sneaky part, I found a buy 1 get 1 free movie pass in my cereal box, so $5.50. But we didn't even have to pay that because Mamaz gave us 2 gift cards to the movies.

So date night cost us $1.50.

I love coupons.

Next week we are going to see Paul. Same coupons but this time we are buying the chocolate bars at Walmart so it will cost us a whopping 58 cents for date night.

Take that Space Coyote.

Young Frankenstein

I have wanted to see Young Frankenstein since 2007, so I was so excited when Saturday morning came and I was off to see it in Buffalo. K-Bot said it would be a fun care free weekend. What he should have said is, this trip will resemble Apollo 13.

Here's the set up. We leave my parents house (which is only 5 minutes from the boarder) at 8:30. The only time restraint on us is that the box office at Shea's opens to pick up tickets at 1 and the play starts at 2. We have about 5 hours to shop and get to Buffalo.

K-Bot changed his mind about where he wanted to go over the morning of the play. So he got new directions and we headed out. I wanted to be across the Lewiston bridge and at Walmart by 9am, we left with plenty of time. Unfortunately as we came up to the train tracks a train started. It was the world's longest train. So now we are running behind. That's ok I tell myself, every trip has to have that 1 thing go wrong and this is it. We get to the border and we get through in about 10 minutes. We get to Walmart and they didn't have everything we were looking for but that's ok because we are going to the other Walmart across from the Walden Galleria later anyways. We hop back on the highway and we are on our way to Buffalo. As we get on the I-290 we see lots of signs about an accident ahead, oh well that's what happens on highways no biggie. Well traffic stopped, then slowly started again. Then we see why. The I-290 has been closed. GREAT. We get off at Colvin, but that's ok because we know that area well and stop at a store for directions. After alot of ummm's and ohhh's from a very unsure guy, we have directions and we are off to Buffalo. Still ok on time. Then the road we are on is closed due to construction, so we follow a detour and pray we are still driving the right direction. We turn down a street and think we are going the right way, luckily I recognize the area and how to get to the highway, which is open on this end and we are on our way, again. Time? Oh not so good. We get to the Galleria and run across the mall to get to Bath and Body Works to get some body wash (the whole reason we came) and run back out, and drive across the street to McDonald's. We eat and K-Bot says we have just over an hour before the play starts which is fine because it is only 14 minutes down the highway. Luck changes? Nope. We can't find the street to turn onto because it has been renamed and doesn't show that in our directions. Luckily we looked up at the sign that told us we were about to get back on the highway which lead right to the Peace Bridge, that wouldn't have been cool to end up back in Canada. After circling twice we find the parking garage we are looking for and park. 30 minutes till the play starts, and I still need to go to the box office to pick up the tickets. We start running, we got a block before realizing it was the wrong direction. We run 3 blocks back and by then I am out of breath (did I mention I had been sick all week? not good for running), we get the tickets, use the washroom, run up the 4 flights of stairs to our seats, forget to get a program, run back get a program and get in our seats. At least we had 10 minutes to spare.

The play was amazing. Hilarious.

As we leave I want to buy a shirt and take a picture with the poster. Well I get in line for a shirt and ask K-Bot for some money because the place doesn't take credit card (who doesn't take credit card?!?!) and low and behold, we have NO MONEY LEFT. So I didn't get a shirt, I was upset about that. But I did get a couple pictures with the poster.

Our next play at Shea's Performing Arts Centre is Wicked. We will have better luck then. If only for the fact that I will make it so.

I Love Giveaways (Say in Oprah voice)

So my friend Heather is doing another giveaway on her blog. 1 lucky person will win a 6 pack of My Lip Stuff lip balm.

Check out the giveaway here.

Check out the super cool list of flavors here.

I would love to try all the different and awesome flavors, but I always buy the same flavors when I need chap stick. Grape or Lime.

Laura's How To Guide

I am poor. Ok well only in the sense where if I am not feeling like buying something I will say "I am poor", the judges are out on if I really am. So one of the things I am too poor for is power tools. So how do you do work without power tools? Here's a guide.

Hanging Pictures:

Start with hammer and nail, hammer nail into wall, pull out. Put the nail back in the hole with your fingers, wiggle around making a bigger hole. Take a screwdriver and a screw, screw into hole, bring back out about half way. Now rip that sucker out of the wall. Now you have a pretty big hole. Big enough for you to put a plastic stud dealy in. Screw your screw into that and hang picture. If there is more than 1 screw needed make an approximate measurement of where they go and then when finished hammer at the sides of screws to make picture fasteners fit. Husband will no doubt ask if it is level, pretend to measure and tell him "close enough".

Hanging Speakers:

Nail deck screw into wall. It will be fine, say this to husband countless times.

Running Speaker Wire:

Hot glue to ceiling. No one will notice and if they do we can say they are racing stripes because they make cars more expensive, repeat to husband everyday.

This is seriously how I work on our apartment. I know how to do things proper, don't worry. I just don't have the tools. My house will be better.

Also as a note, if you are swapping out pictures and the one on the wall needed 1 screw but the new picture needs 2, don't think you can cheap out by running twine between the 2 picture hooks and using 1 screw. This won't end well.

So What's On My Bookshelf?

When ever I visit someone I always take a look at their bookshelf, curious to see what they deem worthy of being placed there. I figure it is normal for people to have a HUGE rubbermaid box full of books in storage, so the ones that get to the bookshelf are there for a couple reasons in my mind

1. They are the best of the best. This person loves this book, as is evident by the broken spine.

2. To show off. Maybe they are all a certain type of book because you think this will make you a certain way, lots of gospel books so people will think I am spiritual.

3. Maybe they are just the newest books the person has bought. As is evident by the book store look of the whole case.

So what gets the coveted place in my apartment? I will share with you, as you will never likely see my bookcase as it is in my bedroom.

I have 3 sections; picture books, chapter books, and gospel books.

Picture books

The Christmas Star, The Last Straw, Oh, The Places You'll Go, Something From Nothing, The True Story Of The Three Little Pigs, The House of Seven Colors, Smelly Socks, Where The Wild Things Are, Who Flung Dung, Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus, The Pigeon Finds A Hot Dog, Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late, The Pigeon Wants A Puppy, Franklin In The Dark, Rotten Ralph, Other Worlds, Veggie Tales Where's God When I'm Scared, and Good Families Don't.

Chapter books

Marley & Me, Wicked, The Mouse and The Motorcycle, Ralph S Mouse, Socks, Ribsy, Charlotte's Web, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy in Five Parts Boxset, Winnie The Pooh Boxset, The Princess Bride, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Through The Looking Glass And What Alice Found There, Chicken Soup For The Teenage Soul, Where The Sidewalk Ends, and Strange Stories, Amazing Facts.

Gospel books

The Book of Revelation Simplified for the Latter-Day Saints, All the Teachings of The Presidents books, You're Gonna Make It, The Latter-Day Saint Woman manuals, 100 Questions LDS Couples Should Ask Before Marriage, The Miracle of Forgiveness, Lectures on Faith, Gospel Principles, Jesus the Christ, Book of Mormon, Strength of Youth, True to the Faith, MEE Thinks, MEE Speaks, and Emma Smith My Story.

I ran out of space on that bookshelf so I keep my comics at my desk. Yes they count as books!
Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs, Star Trek: Countdown, Fringe #1 Tales From The Fringe, Star Trek: Alien Spotlight Tribbles, Star Trek Deep Space Nine #14 Nobody Knows The Tribbles I've Seen, Muppet Peter Pan, Muppet Show: Meet The Muppets, Star Trek The Original Series Omnibus, and The Muppet Show #9 Muppet Mash Part 2 That's A Wrap.

So that was a long post but they are all great books. So what's on your bookshelf?

Book Reviews

So for the past while I have been slacking on my reading. Meaning outside of book club books (which I always end up listening to an audio book of) I have read nothing but comics. Shameful I know. I have had a list of books I have wanted to read for a while but just filed that away and never looked at it again.

However, for my birthday in December I wanted an OZ theme. K-Bot bought me The Wizard of Oz on blu-ray, the promise of tickets to Wicked (they aren't on sale until Feb 12th) and the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

I read Wicked in 3 days, it only took me that long because I didn't want to finish it because it was such a good book. I loved it, except that some parts bothered me. It wasn't true to the movie in parts, such as the ruby red slippers being silver in this book. It got a bit graphic when talking about how Elphaba and her siblings were conceived, but they were small parts so I over looked it. It was real thought provoking with the whole what is wickedness and what makes one wicked debate. I would recommended it, only if you aren't easily offended by a few cuss words and some brief love scenes.

Next I read Bridge to Terabithia. I know I am all over the map with my picks. I have fond memories of this book being read to my class by our grade 6 teacher. I wondered if it would be the same all these year later. And it was. Though it is a very short read for an adult, I finished in 1 afternoon. I will definitely be buying this book for my children's library. However the movie was terrible, an abomination (during which I even called the girl an overly made up young tartlet) it wasn't very true to the story and if you hadn't read the book before watching it some parts left you wondering (K-Bot had lots of questions as it had been years since he read it).

I decided that since Wicked was so good, maybe I should try The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I should have started here. Apparently the movie is nothing like the book, it made Wicked make sense. However I didn't like it as much, or really at all. I think I will stick with the movie. Something about such fabulous ruby red slippers and Judy Garland (however if you are wondering, skip the blu-ray of Oz, definitely not blu-ray worthy).

K-Bot and I have planned that every Saturday will be library day, because it is on the way to groceries. And then every Sunday afternoon is curl up on the couches with herbal tea and a good book day. K-Bot is still working on his first book pick The Salmon of Doubt, while I am currently on my third pick The Outsiders (I didn't do a good job of reading it while in school...). However I do have a couple more in my pile from the library, Where the Red Fern Grows (which will be a re-read) and The Princess Bride.

Fun Giveaway

No not here.... here!

A friend of mine is doing a giveaway on her blog. $35 gift code for csnstores.com. So I checked it out. Super cool stuff.

What do I have my eyes on?

Why a pair of ruby red slippers! My Wizard of Oz fascination isn't over yet!

http://www.csnstores.com/Funtasma-CONT50G-R-FXT1033.html

I love them so much I think I might get them regardless of winning.

So head over to the blog for a chance to win! Good luck to all, but I hope I win.

I am a wicked witch...hence the shoes.

Black Friday

So I know all you out there want to know about my Black Friday Shopping. Well it was FUN!

I went with K-Bot, J-Potty, Dew-Drop, and Mamaz. We got up at 4am, that's right folks I can't get enough of early morning in the summer so had to try it in the winter! Not as fun, far too cold. We were out the door around 4:30ish and there was only 1 car ahead of us in our line crossing the boarder. Cool beans.

Our first stop was the Factory Outlet mall in Niagara Falls (though all of our stops were in Niagara Falls, we didn't get far). Stores like Coach and Juciy were crazy long lines to get in...lucky none of us are into that. We were there for Bath and Body Works, in which I was able to pick up some Christmas presents and a free Snow Kissed Berry body wash for myself! We went into Old Navy but there wasn't much we wanted in there, though the boys needed new jeans and they were only $15 that day.

It was almost 6 so we headed over to Joann's and there was already a line, 10 people but still very much so a line. So we got in line and got in and guess what, every adult that came in got a $5 gift card. SCORE! I needed some material so I divided it up between the 5 of us so we could each use the $5 gift card and then the 20% off coupons. I also picked up 2 dress patterns 99cents each! Flannel was on for $1.29 a yard, and that's pretty much the only material I bought. I ended up saving $150 and spent about $40. That was exciting.

Next was Walmart, I thought that it was going to be bad, I mean they had barriers set up in front of the entrance. But it wasn't bad at all and it was only 8ish by that time. We went to buy a new plastic container set for K-bot's lunches (the set was 40 pieces for $9) however they didn't have any left. We seen they had blu rays on for $5 so we set off to the entertainment department looking for that but nothing, so we were ready to head out, walking by the ladies underwear department we spotted the blu ray sale. We stopped and it ended up it was a mix of dvds and blu rays for $1.98 - $10. How can you beat that?! So we bought some DC Universe dvds for K-Bot(those were the $1.98 ones) as well as Blade Runner. Then we bought Batman Begins on blu ray($5) and The Wizard of Oz($10) as well as some Christmas present blu rays I can't write about.

Next we went to target, and by this time it was about 9 and the line hadn't gotten much smaller. The line was from the cash around the back of the store and wove through the isles. So we walked around to get warm before heading back out empty handed.

Before we headed home we stopped at Tops for some fresh doughnuts. Best doughnuts ever, if you are over there find Tops and have one, also have some of their pizza, it's to die for!

We came home and then drove to Canada Computers in St Catherine's so K-Bot could buy himself a solid state hard drive. And walked the Pen Centre but didn't see much there.

And that was my shopping day. Oh I should add I also got a Blueberry Maple pie at McDonald's, try those too they are great!

The Crocodile Theory

"You may very well be well bred

Lots ot etiquette in your head

But there's always some special case, time or place

To forget etiquette"

~Never Smile At A Crocodile

During markets as we set up for the day we all chat about random things sometimes, on one particular weekend a group of us were discussing books. Jurassic Park came up and we talked about the amount of swearing in it, I argued that it was all within reason, if I was on an island and about to be eaten by a dinosaur it is directly within reason that I would let out a swear (or some other non appropriate witty remark). My father in law, listening in on this whole conversation said "well I wouldn't swear, those words aren't in my vocabulary". Our conversation ended there, but I have continued to think about it, I mean swears aren't my everyday words either but then again my everyday doesn't in anyway involve being eaten by a dinosaur.

I was listening to the Peter Pan soundtrack yesterday and singing along to Never Smile At A Crocodile (I never made it through the movie as a kid but have always been able to sing every word of this song) and when the lyrics at the top passed through my mouth I got it. Even Disney song writers think that you would forget etiquette in certain situations. I told this all to KBot in bed last night and he agreed that I had a very valid point. I told him that I would call it the Crocodile Theory, and that if ever I got my hands on a dinosaur I would test this theory (no worries KBot will make sure that I never get a dinosaur, he is funny about allowing my theories to be tested. Alas I shall never have a theorem).

I have always been a believer in the small slice of pie, you know that one that says it will happen no matter how unlikely the situation? Yeah definitely not the real pie, if it is real I believe in the big piece and then seconds. For those of you who read this and are Doctor Who fans, I finished my Crocodile Theory Pie rant with this, there is always that small slice of pie and you know where it is KBot? In the corner of your eye, that place you never want to look.