To Deal or Not to Deal... that is the question

During a recent conversation it was brought up that the 'other blogger' on here doesn't appreciate the "Deal of the Day" posts that I do & maybe I should do my own blog after all. I think if I had my own blog that I wouldn't be as consistent with posting as I am on this blog, since this one isn't really my "responsiblity" (yes there is a prize if I use so many quote marks per post) :) Anyway - I need to know from you - do you use the Deal of the Day? Do you find it to be beneficial? Do you think I should limit it to like the Deal of the Week or do I just need to pull up my boot straps & get my own blog? Let me know how you feel about it, because I love deals & I like to share good finds but if no one is using them, then I'm just wasting my time & annoying the 'other blogger'.

Riding Sparkles on the trail

Over the holiday weekend Phil & I had the opportunity to go horseback riding at Jerry Cooper's Ranch - Black Horse Run. Let me just tell you it was a pleasure to meet this man. He was kind & gentle with the animals. He made sure that both Phil & I felt comfortable on the horses before taking us out on the trail. The ranch is not that far off of Fairview Road but on the trail you feel like you are so much further out from the city. There are beautiful trees & a lake as far as you can see.

During our trail ride Jerry told us about a previous ride where he had seen a baby black bear run across the trail. You could tell that he just loved doing what he does. We had such a wonderful time & plan to make it back out to Jerry's ranch in the near future. His prices are also quite reasonable. For both of us to ride for an hour it was $75 and the more people that go, the lower the prices are. So if anyone is interested in a group ride (..lifers?) let us know & we'll go enjoy some time together at Black Horse Run.

Jerry Cooper - #864-505-7920

MuteMath

We saw MuteMath at the Tabernacle last fall & they yet again topped their previous show. We didn't tape any of it, but someone else was able to get some shots. Check them out. New album is coming soon (can't wait!!)

Tales from the trip

Savannah- Glad we went it was good to get away but there were some disappointments. Here come the negativity: ;)

the "dueling" piano bar we went to check out was a step below upstairs @ Wild Wings including a "divorce party" like a bachelorette party but she was wearing a black veil & the group were all wearing black. I'm not making this up. The pianos didn't duel so much as take turns playing different songs.

Hotel room - we only had to pay for one night because we had free night points stocked up from Wyndham Rewards fka TripRewards. First room had ants crawling all over the air conditioner. Second room was perfect

Eating in Savannah was difficult for every meal. The advertised restaurants in town were mostly overpriced & had long waits due to the holiday weekend. Our eating schedule was totally off beginning the day we arrived in Savannah having us eating lunch between 2 & 3 and dinner as late as 9 one night.

Southern hospitality at all places that we went to (exception being Paula Dean's) was lacking BIG TIME. Including the visitor's center. They had pamphlets on a tack board that you had to ask for & one was called "Park Smart". So we asked the guy behind the counter for one & he says ,"I'll tell you how to park smart, it's free after 5 downtown". We were kind of taken aback & didn't get the pamphlet. We got back to the car & were discussing & decided to go back & park because HELLO where do we park BEFORE 5pm?

Tybee Beach was great. We went & toured a lighthouse (yes i went up the stairs but not out on the ledge) and just chilled at the beach for a few hours. We had planned to go to a highly advertised restaurant.. our lack of planning got us again. we went, just beating the dinner crowd (actually were there by 6) sat down & realized ummm we don't like seafood. LOL. We already knew that but they had no FRIED seafood. That is the only kind I will eat. Takes that whole fish taste out of eating fish. :) So we left & went to a restaurant back near the beach that had no wait time & had fried seafood. It was a good meal & we were able to sit & watch the traffic leaving the beach rather than being stuck in it.

Working Hard for The Money

I had another one of my hair-brained schemes the other day. I'm always looking for ways to bring in more money & save it up. I 'm a big saver & tend to spend more on loved ones then myself. So since we've had the recent car purchase & with Phil going back to school, I thought it was valid to want to pull in some extra cash. There is a publication that gets delivered in our neighborhood. We'll call it the Neighborhood News. In the NN I saw an ad that you could get extra money to deliver the NN & to email if you were interested. I emailed them right up & didn't hear anything. Figured they filled up fast since it was summertime & there were prob. a lot of college kids home for the summer until I got a phone call 2 weeks ago. Those of you locals know that 2 weeks ago we had record highs in temp on the weekend. The lady called & said that someone had cancelled their route & they needed to have the NN distributed by Tuesday & she told me how much it was & that it was only 400 houses & was I interested? Well of course I was! :) We were having a lazy Saturday so we were able to meet her in town to get the NN that was already supposed to be stuffed in the bags that you hang on the doors. - only to later find out that she lived in my neighborhood & I could have walked to her house to get them-
Well when we met she noticed that there were not in fact stuffed so she told me how much more I would get for stuffing them. Then she told me that the neighborhood had to be done by Tuesday (it was about 4PM on Saturday). Then I realized that 400 houses, is well FOUR HUNDRED houses. I will just come right out and tell you I am NOT directionally savy in any sense. The way the neighborhood was laid out practically every street was connected to the next so it would be hard to just stay on one side of the street without missing houses. We had plans with our Lifegroup for Sunday night, Phil had school on Monday & I didn't want to hand them out last minute. Now you are prob. wondering why does it matter if phil had school on Monday? Well I roped him in to help me with MY project because of the amount of houses & because it was so freaking hot. So we traveled out to the neighborhood, and for 3 straight hours on Saturday night in the heat we handed out the NN on all the doors. It wouldn't have taken nearly that long if you didn't have to actually walk up to every door of all 400 houses, which I knew I would have to do, but didn't realize how much time that would add. We ran out of daylight on Saturday & finished up the last 100 or so homes on Sunday after church, again in the blistering heat. I swear I sweated off at least 4 pounds that weekend, but never fear I ate plenty of Salsarita's with the Lifers that night. I am going to continue to try & hand out the NN as new routes become available, but I told the lady in charge that I think I would prefer to do smaller neighborhoods. (You know that way I don't have to rope my wonderful husband - who by the way has been roped into plenty of other 'I'm in over my head' projects that I decide to take on without ever complaining.)