what a week!!

and it's still going on......

I am soooooooooo buried in work. I just can't even know how buried I am. It's Saturday and I had home things to do, like grocery shopping, scrubbing the bathroom and kitchen, cooking, laundry, vacuuming, taking care of my kids and supposed to keep it all together. I was first glad yesterday that it was Friday. My friend was coming over to have sushi, wine and a chance to just gab. It was a great time!! We ate all the sushi that I bought, drank a wonderful bottle of Argentinian Carbernet. It had a special flavor, something like peppery or spicy fruity. It was really good. We loved it.

One of our other favorites is now available at Krogers for $7.99, it's Bogle, had it at Up Star Crow for her 50th Birthday party in December. I bought it for my party in Deember, and we loved it again. It has risen to the top of the favorite list. :) Anyway, we had a great time yacking and we talked about everything: the kids, their relationships, our relationships, our jobs, our plans, our hopes for vacations, planning on going to NYC, our ex's and my ex, especially, what a jerk he is and how badly he treats my kids, we talked about how we are going to be in 30 years and what our life is going to be like. :) It was loads of fun!!

After she left, Rainman got home from his first night of his new job. I was already in bed and was really tired from such a busy week. I kind of felt bad because there was no sushi left, but, I warned him that there might not be. So, he fixed some soup and took his shower, then joined me to a nice cuddly night of sleep. I love him so much, I am now understanding that his moving out to his own place is really a good thing. We will have some options about where to go, what to do and which house to stay. I think it's kind of nice to have a "safety net" so just in case I need a safe haven to go to or just need to get away I can do that.

So, today, I used a new service that helps with grocery bills, Grocery Advantage. It's a great service that I highly recommend. What they do is take your local grocery store sale ads and match up what's on sale with coupons that are in the Sunday paper. They just started in the Cincinnati area, so that means that they list the sales at Kroger's and Meijer's. From where I live, my closest store is Krogers. So today, I took the list of items from the website, matched up the coupons from the last couple of week's sale ads, went to Krogers, spent about $180 and saved a whopping $142!! 42% of the cost! The web app takes the sale price matches up a coupon figures out the double amount and shows you your final price, which aisle it is in, and I was very happy. It took me a little long to finish the cycle, but next week, I will do much better now that I understand the process. It's great. Right now it's free, but I think that I will pay for the service, it will pay for itself. Thanks John Materese, at WCPO TV, Channel 9 in Cincinnati. He has a segment on Channel 9 called "Don't Waste Your Money" and the point is he shows us ways to save money on services, gas, contractors, etc. This was a great recommendation! I love it. I'll try it again next week and let you know how much I save.

Tonight, after I scrubbed the house from top to bottom, I jumped in the shower and was getting ready for my friend to come over to visit. We had planned to spend some time, just hanging out, she wanted to see my newly painted kitchen and have a night out. Well, I was almost ready, had the cosmos already mixed when the phone rang. It was my girlfriend, I was sure that she was going to let me know that she was on her way. But unfortunately, she was detained and was not going to be able to come over tonight. Had a family situation. We're going to go out tomorrow, but in the meantime, there were the cosmos already mixed and I had one going. I watched what I wanted on TV and drank the pitcher of drinks. They were totally yummy.......and I was happy with the little bit of buzz that I got. So, I just hung out, relaxed after working hard all day long and all week long. I relaxed and watched Pittsburgh win, Atlanta win and some of my favorite shows. Now, I'm just hanging out in bed, watching some "B" British science fiction that is hilarious, but it's not supposed to be :)

Anyway, tonight, I baked a ham, made some green beans and when Rainman gets home, he's going to be VERY happy! He's going to have dinner. Dinner is good after working all day.

Well, I'm pretty tired, going to hit the hay. Tomorrow, I am supposed to go to lunch with my friend that was supposed to come over tonight. It will be nice to just go out and hang out together. Then I am going to have to do some work, real work, but it shouldn't have to be like this, I shouldn't have to work every day. I should be able to get by with about 50 hours during the week, not 70 hours including weekend time. :(