Freebies, Week Sixteen

Before I actually start writing this, I want to let you know that my t-shirt from mental_floss came! I was so excited when I got that package in the mail. I walked inside, ripped it open, and tried it on.

So, if you'll excuse my absolutely terrible hair (I'd been running around couponing and stuff all morning, and I'd just changed shirts rather quickly, leading to a hair mess that I didn't bother to comb before taking a picture), this is my new shirt. My mother doesn't seem to like it, but that doesn't matter. It's not her shirt. I earned this one (although sometimes I do wonder if I should've gotten the English Major one instead, but that might've seen presumptuous to the editor-in-chief). 

Now, let's get on with the regular freebies:

• Nexcare GIVE Band-aids (I got six!!)
• Physician's Formula BB Powder (full-sized; alas, it broke apart in the mail :( )
• Energizing Face Cream from (not quite sure why I got this...)
• Teen Vogue, August 2013

The only /good/ thing, I guess, from this week would be that mental_floss t-shirt. (I LOVE IT.) I'm going to have to call the Physician's Formula people and ask them why they not only sent me the wrong COLOR (they sent medium/deep, when I requested fair/light), but it also was completely destroyed in shipping.

Have a good week, y'all! :D

June Report Card

WOW -- what a month this has been! Heartbreak, sabotage, long working hours, reading, cleaning... I don't even know where to start! Let's do a quick run-down of my resolutions, and how I ended up :) I think this month went really, really well! (Linking up with Kelli at She Learns as She Goes!)

Put $200 into Savings

I've been working A LOT lately! I worked a 27 hour week [June 4], a 29 hour week [June 11], a 24 hour week [June 18], and another 27 hour week [June 25]. It has been a piece of cake to put away $50 a week towards my savings account. Maybe next month, depending on how things are going, I can start putting $75 a week into savings!! (That would really boost my savings account!!)

Paycheck #1: $126.76. Saved: $50.00. [June 4]
Paycheck #2: $168.38. Saved: $50.00. [June 11]
Paycheck #3: $145.89. Saved: $50.00. [June 18]
Paycheck #4: $159.87. Saved: $75.00. [June 25]

Total Earned: $600.90 Total Saved: $225.00.
So, I finished the resolution, but I only saved about 1/4 of what I made. (Although I didn't spend that much; most of it's still sitting in my piggy bank. ... I should probably round up all my loose change and deposit it. Sigh.)

Grade: A+

Keep My Room Clean

Room Status: MY ROOM IS CLEAN. I mean, it's really clean. I even wrote a whole blog post on this a few days ago, remember? And so far, I've been able to KEEP my room clean, which is an amazing feat in and of itself. I'm not a very organized person, although  I really do try. I have all these ideas for organization, and I attempt to keep everything in its proper place, but it really takes a ton of effort, and some days I'm just so worn out from working at TreeTop that I have no patience for this.

Bathroom Status: Surprisingly, my bathroom's the easier of the two to keep clean. As long as I put away my clothes that I stack on top of my organizer-thing, either on hangers or in my hamper, my bathroom looks rather tidy. I've even managed to KEEP it tidy, even though my cat's doing her best to wreck it. (She likes to chase her brother through the bathroom, and they LOVE trying to get under the sink and explore. Not that there's anything to EXPLORE under there!)

Grade: A+

Clean Out My Closet & Dresser

Closet Status: How do I clean my room, you ask? I shove everything into my closet. Not. Cool. When I cleaned my room, I actually PUT STUFF AWAY. I threw out three gigantic bags of trash. Now, the only thing left to do is CLEAN MY CLOSET. I didn't get around to doing this THIS month, but it'll certainly be one of the things to tackle next month!

Dresser Status: When I cleaned out my room the other day, I also cleaned out three of the drawers in my dresser. Two were crammed full of junk, while the third just had a box of old diaries in it. (I had to shove those in the top of my closet.) I managed to get EVERYTHING clean, though, and now there's only one drawer of junk in my dresser. (If I wanted to, I suppose I could clean out that drawer, too, but I don't have anything to put in it. I want to leave it as a junk drawer for now.)

Grade: C+

Help Save Over $200 in Coupons

So far, this is what I've been able to tally up. The "Other" category includes BOGO deals, store reward card deals, and rebates (if any).

You'll notice that the first week has over a hundred dollars spent. That's not an outlier; normally we spend upwards of $200 per week at these stores. Thankfully, since we've gotten so many good deals lately, we have a lot of things stored up (you could call it "hoarded," if you wanted to be vulgar; my mother calls it "stockpiled"), so we don't have to buy anything but things like fruit and vegetables and meat. We have cereal coming out our ears, and ice cream by the truckload. So it's nice not having to spend a ton of money each week. And we still manage to save about as much as we spend!

Week #1: Spent: $126.79 Coupons: $41.89 Other: $41.58 Total Saved: $83.47 [June 4]

Week #2: Spent: $68.87 Coupons: $7.90 Other: $54.16 Total: $63.41 [June 11]

Week #3: Spent: $41.83 Coupons: $4.34 Other: $29.84 Total: $34.18 [June 18]

Week #4: Spent: $52.12 Coupons: $67.67 Other: $45.70 Total: $113.37 [June 25]

**The June 25th Totals are ONLY for our CVS run. The Publix receipt has gone missing. I do apologize for this. (We didn't go to Winn-Dixie that week.) PLUS, Since this was a CVS-run, we got $15 BACK. So, essentially, we got over $80 worth of stuff at CVS for a measly $6.57. How awesome is THAT?! (The total before he started taking off coupons and stuff was around $81.)

Total Coupons: $121.80

Total Other: $172.63

Total Saved: $294.43
Total Spent: $289.61

Grade: A+

I'm counting this as an "A+" because I DID save over $200. I saved an amazing amount of that in coupons, too. It counts. And I feel ACCOMPLISHED. We saved MORE than we spent in June! (Just counting Publix, Winn-Dixie, and CVS, because we don't use coupons at Wal-Mart.) How awesome is that?!

Writing

I've really started working on my novel recently, which is FANTASTIC. My friend Kellie published hers (remember?), so now I've got to get mine out. She's going to proofread it for me, like I did for her, so I've got to find some place to print it out. I've gotten the introduction completed (it only took about forty pages for that), so now the real action can begin. And let me tell you, I'm excited. I'm so excited. Y'all will ALL buy a copy when I've published it, right? (Kindle version, print version, whatever?) I would seriously appreciate it.

I'm now up to 46 pages and 23,252 words. Hard to believe I was stuttering around 10,000 words just last month! (I'd been stuck at that point for months!!) Now, though, I might've hit another roadblock. We're going to see how far I can get next month! :)

Grade: A+

CONCLUSION: B+

I think I did really well on this month's resolutions! :) It's certainly better than last month's, to be certain!! The only thing that dragged me down was the fact that I never got around to cleaning out my closet (boo!). I'm excited that I was able to improve so much this month, and do things that I've been putting off for ages.

Who's ready for next month? How'd you do this month? :)

Books I Read in June

I wasn't able to match my book-list from last month, because I only read three books this month. (That's really sad, actually.) If it makes any difference, I spent a lot of time at work this month, and I really didn't have time to read. I suppose I could have sat down and read more if I wanted to, but most of the time I was so brain-dead when I got home that all I wanted to do was sit on Tumblr and look at Sherlock .gifs. (I apologize, internet.)

The few books that I did manage to read this month were absolutely fantastic, though, and you should certainly check them out!

Psych has to be one of my absolute favorite TV shows, ever. Snarky one-liners, awesome nicknames, and enough fist-bumping to rock the world on its axis. I may have watched too many episodes, though, because I read this entire book in the characters' voices. It was an absolutely awesome book, full of snarky advice and interesting diagrams. (Plus, tips on how to get totally-not-illegal tax deductions. Score!) If you're a fan of the show, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book. You're welcome.

Now, this book is something a little different. I first read it in tenth grade, when I borrowed it from my friend Katie. It took me a while to get through it, and I actually found it a little boring. Fast-forward three years, and I came across a copy of Graceling in 2nd & Charles for only $4.00. Of course, I picked it up, bought it, and started to read it over again. And I found that I enjoyed it much more this time around. I think I've got another book to put on my shelves permanently. It's actually really, really good. And I suck at summaries, so go pick up a copy yourself. It's really worth the read.

This is my friend Kellie's book. I posted about it a few weeks ago, if you remember. It's an amazing book. Very difficult to describe, so just check out its Amazon page. It's only $5, if you want to read it. (Or you can borrow it for free with Amazon Prime!) Please buy this book and support her. You certainly won't regret it, I promise you. Sort of a dystopian future society, but done the right way. All happy, all the time...at all cost. (Dun dun DUUUUUN!)

"Everybody in the House"

It's time for another puppet video! I hope y'all like these and that I'm not getting on your nerves :) I just like sharing videos!

This particular one is from October 2011. It was our church's annual Trunk-or-Treat, and we had my father record the songs. (This song's missing the first ten seconds due to technical difficulties, but you're not missing much!)

I'm the black puppet on the front-left side of the stage. Also known as "brother." He sings the second lead, too.

This is from a cell phone camera, so I apologize in advance for the terrible quality.

The Hammered Dulcimer, Part II

If y'all remember my previous post about my hammered dulcimer, you'll recall that I was going to have it restrung and repaired and whatnot.

When I took it in, the guy was extraordinarily nice. (Quick shout-out for the Homewood Music Company! Please ignore the outdated website.) He talked me through everything, told me what I'd need, and gave a rough estimate of the price.

I would need:

• One bridge replaced
• Strings replaced
• Tuning and inspection (labor is $75/hr)
• Tuning wrench
• Hammers

The man estimated that it'd probably cost between $150 and $200, and nothing more. My mother told me that she'd go in halves with me on it, meaning that whatever the final price would be, I'd only be paying half of it. That is, if I promised to stick to learning this thing. And I want to learn how to play it. It's something unique, and while it may remind of me of a certain cowardly cowboy, I've got enough passion behind this to learn how to play it. I'm going to learn it because I can, and because it's there. I want to prove that I can do this. Plus, it sounds pretty.

I knew it was going to be a steep learning curve, and that I'd probably need every YouTube video about the hammered dulcimer available.

I've decided to call her Alanna. I looked up a bunch of Celtic names before I decided on this one. Alanna means, "meaning harmony, stone, noble, or fair." You can see the rest of the description of "Alanna" here. (It's worth noting that "Alanna" is also the name of one of the characters in a book series that I like: the Lioness series.)

When we got to the music shop, my mother told me she'd pay for the whole thing (considering that my sister had just gotten a new guitar/case/amp), plus a learning book. 

When I got back home, I pulled it out of its case and set it up on the floor. Within ten minutes, I could play "Are You Sleeping" and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." It was a bit complicated figuring out all the strings and stuff, but thankfully, I have color-coded bridges :) Makes everything easier. 

There's a couple songs in this little learner-book that I got that I want to learn to how to play. "Star of the County Down" is one of them. It's one of the songs that Charlie had on his Celtic CD. One of the songs that has over 3,000 plays on my iTunes, because I used to use it to fall asleep to at night, when he was in BCT. (I can't bear to listen to them any more. They hurt me. It stabs like knives in my heart and head.)

This dulcimer's going to take some hard work and dedication to learn, but really, I wouldn't have it any other way :) I hope I can get the hang of it soon. I kinda want to post some videos to my Facebook (or here!!).

The tuning's a bit difficult, but after my sister showed me how to do it (and let me borrow her electronic tuner), everything sorta fell into place. I can play "O Susanna!" now. And I have that one memorized.

So, while this is going to take a bit of effort, it's not going to be quite as bad as I thought it would be :) I just have to memorize where all the notes are and where their doubles are on the instrument. Thankfully, I have a book to help me with all that.

What instrument do you play? How'd you go about learning it? Were you forced, or did you just pick it up somewhere along the way?

"Don't Climb Up The Slide!"

I don't get scheduled for Clubhouse very often, but last week, I was scheduled for it twice. That astounded me. I picked out a good book, though, and settled into my little chair, ready to wait out a boring day.

And it was a boring day, until this group came along. Four children, all in varying stages of "My mother feeds me too much junk food." There were two kids who were siblings, one wearing a dinosaur shirt (hereafter referred to as Dino) and one wearing a Sonic shirt (hereafter referred to as Sonic). Their friends had on a Batman and a Red shirt (guess their names).

Now, these chubby kids sounded like little girls when they screamed. And that's all they did: scream. They all picked on Dino, claiming that he was a velociraptor. Dino thought the raptor was one of them. So they all screamed and chased each other. 

TreeTop echoes like nobody's business, especially in the enclosed space that is the Clubhouse. (It's got a high roof.) So I was fighting back a headache after about ten minutes of this.

Then things get out of hand. Dino starts screaming, and Sonic rushes out to his mother and says, "DINO CLIMBED UP THE SLIDE AND I SLID INTO HIM!" Batman and Red come out saying the same thing, so the mother scoops Dino up and takes him out of the playplace for a few minutes to recuperate.

The other three boys go back to their playing. Now that the velociraptor's gone, though, they calm down a bit, and there's no more screaming.

Soon, Dino comes back to the gate. His mother makes him apologize.

"Sorry I was climbing up the slide," he said.

"You can't do it again, buddy. Remember what happened when you climbed up it last time? I'll give you a warning the next time you do it, but I will kick you out. I can't have you breaking rules," I told him.

"I promise I won't climb up the slide."

So I let him in, and they resume playing. Not five minutes later, Batman comes up to me and says, "Hey, miss, that kid in the dinosaur shirt's climbing the slide again!"

So I get up and go over to the slide, and sure enough, Dino's climbing up it. 

"Hey, Kid, what did I just tell you? Remember what happened last time you climbed up the slide?"

He nodded.

"Now, if you don't stop climbing up the slide, I'm going to have to kick you out. This is your last warning."

His mother noticed me talking to him, and she added in, "Don't do it, Dino! Listen to the lady - she makes the rules!"

So I let him go, and I went and sat back down. I watched him this time. He stood where he was for about ten seconds, then he climbed straight back into the slide.

I got up and grabbed his shoulder. "Let's go, buddy." And I escorted him out of the Clubhouse area. His mother was waiting on the other side of the fence, and she fetched him. He was throwing a fit.

"I'm sorry," the mother told me.

"Look, I'm just trying to keep everyone safe. I'm sorry, but I can't let him back in today."

That didn't stop Dino from coming back at least six separate times begging to be let back in. "I'm sorry! I said I was sorry! I still have my stamp!" (The kid's about four or five years old, if I were to guess.)

"Sorry, buddy. You broke the rules. You disobeyed me when I told you not to climb the slide anymore. I sat here and I watched you climb it RIGHT AFTER I told you not to. I can't let you in today, even though you have a stamp."

"But I'm sorry!"

"You said you were sorry last time, buddy. And you promised me you wouldn't climb the slide again, but you did. I can't trust you, buddy, so you can't come back into the playplace today." 

And his mother came and dragged him away again, while Sonic, Batman, and Red continued to play happily in the Clubhouse.

***

Now, this was a little frightening for me. What if the mother had blamed me for what happened to her kid? What if she had dragged my manager out and demanded that I be fired for "daring" to speak to her kid like that? (I'm really good with words, especially veiled-threatening ones.)

This Week's Lesson: Stand your ground. Don't let anything anybody tells you get you to change your mind. You said you were going to kick the kid out? Kick the kid out. Don't worry about the reprocussions. If things are serious (the kid had a giant bruise on his skull by the end of the day!), your managers will side with you, and they'll agree that kicking the kid out was your only logical choice.

If, by some reason, the manger does reprimand you, wait until you get home before you unleash that frustration. Their job is to appease the customer, even if the customer's being an idiot. Just try to stay calm and act rationally. If you think that what you did was fair, stick to your guns. Just don't antagonize your boss. That would be bad.

Do you work anywhere with small children? How do you keep them in line? Have you ever had to outright threaten somebody in order to keep injuries from happening? How did you deal with the outcome? Talk to me!

Flash Fiction Challenge #1

This is a prompt from a Flash Fiction Challenge at Terrible Minds. I rolled a thirteen (swords & sorcery), a sixteen (magical realism), a two (a hidden compartment), and a six (a pool of blood). For my first time rolling the dice, I think this particular mashup of genres/items is very, very good. This is the story that I came up with using those three things. It had to be under 1,000 words. It's exactly 99.

It's also a sort of backstory to my novel, The Thief Lord. (Title in progress, of course.) It doesn't really give away much of the plot, but it sets the stage for my villain!

*****

“Lady Victoria? Lady Victoria, where are you going?” Rosanne asked, her steps hesitant. “What are we going to do down here?”

Victoria smiled, but did not slow her pace. “There’s something I want to show you, my dear!” she sang, waving her hand in the air. “And it’s only viewable in the dark!”

“But it’s dark outside!” Rosanne complained. “Why can’t we go out there? It’s nicer than this smelly section of the castle.”

“Because, Rosanne, it must be pitch-black, and there’s light outside. We have to go to the Darke Room.”

Rosanne shivered. “But, Miss, the Darke Room was sealed three hundred years ago. Nobody knows where it is!”

“Well, I do!” Victoria stopped in the middle of the hall, beside a heavy tapestry. “Shh!”

“But, Miss, I wasn’t making any--” 

“Sh!” Victoria insisted. She reached up and flung the tapestry back, revealing a sunken impression in the stone. Her yellow eyes sparked and her smile spread wider.

“Is that--”

“This, Rosanne,” Victoria crowed, “is the entrance to the Darke Room.”

“But it’s so...tiny.” Rosanne was right. The impression only came up to their waists.

“Then we duck.” Victoria pressed her hand against the stone and murmured a few words under her breath. Rosanne glanced up at her Lady nervously.

The stone began to glow, increasing in brightness as the seconds passed. Rosanne raised her hands to shield her eyes, and so she missed the rock vanishing.

When she lowered her hands, the cavern was open. 

“Duck,” Victoria instructed, leading the way into the cavern.

Rosanne followed her mistress, terrified. She knew that Victoria was a sorceress; she was the castle’s court magician, after all. She trusted Victoria, though. She’d been serving the sorceress for nearly three years now, and Lady Victoria had never mistreated her in all that time.

Rosanne stepped into a brightly-lit chamber, which was disorienting after the pitch-blackness of the tunnel. She straightened up, blinking rapidly. 

The Darke Room was round, and it wasn’t nearly as dark as Rosanne thought it should have been. There were candles arranged along the walls, and the floor was scrubbed clean. The only thing dark about the Darke Room was the fact that everything was carved out of black stone.

“Lady Victoria, what did you want to show me?” she asked, turning around. “Lady Victoria?” Her voice echoed from the walls, bouncing back to her. Victoria was nowhere to be found.

Rosanne, came a whisper. It filled the cavern until it was booming, and Rosanne clapped her hands over her ears.

“Lady Victoria!” she pleaded, near to tears. “Lady Victoria, where are you?”

Rosanne, Rosanne, Rosanne, the whispers came again. They drove the maid to the center of the room. She was shaking now, more terrified than ever.

“ROSANNE!”

Rosanne shrieked and squeezed her eyes shut. She heard approaching footsteps, but she didn’t open her eyes. Something hard hit her over the head, and everything was washed away.

***

Rosanne moaned and slowly opened her eyes. She found herself on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She tried to turn over, only to find that she was tied to the floor. She tugged at the ropes binding her arms, and kicked furiously at the ones binding her feet.

“Sh, Rosanne.” 

Rosanne turned her head and saw a familiar purple robe standing beside her. The black shoes that she shined every morning were right next to her face.

“Lady Victoria!” she cried, tears slipping down her cheeks. “Lady Victoria, what happened? Are you here to help me?”

Victoria cackled, a cruel and evil sound. Rosanne shrank back against the floor. She’d never heard her mistress make that sound before.

“Lady Victoria?” she pleaded, her voice warbling. “Mistress!”

Victoria leaned down, her red curls brushing Rosanne’s face. She kissed the top of her maid’s head, then smiled. “Sorry, Rosanne. But you’re the only one who’s stuck near me, and you’re the only one whose blood will work for this sacrifice.”

“What?” Rosanne began to scream, tugging wildly at her bonds. Victoria laughed, her voice rising and echoing off the cavern, filling the space with maniacal cackles. Rosanne screamed even louder. “Help! Help me! Help meeeeee!”

“Silence, toad!” Victoria snarled. She yanked Rosanne’s hair and pulled her head back, baring her neck. A quick slash from her hidden blade, and Victoria was standing over a gurgling corpse. The blood dribbled out of Rosanne’s neck, forming a pool of blood around Victoria’s shoes. She pranced through it, tracking bloody footprints all across the floor. She walked in a very deliberate pattern, tracing a pentagram out from Rosanne’s corpse. 

She was kneeling next to the body, beginning her incantations, when a chorus of shouts reached her ears. She leaped to her feet, glancing at the entrance to the cavern.

The King emerged from the tunnel, and behind him, twenty of his best guardsmen. They were all heavily armored, carrying broadswords. They quickly formed a square around the king. A few of them glanced at the body on the floor, and their faces drained of all color.

“Victoria Monsea,” the King began, taking large steps towards her, his guard following, “You have committed an act fouler than the waters of the Stivian River. You have opened the Darke Room, murdered Rosanne Gladen, and were in the middle of a Black Incantation. You are banished from this Kingdom, and from this World. Guards!”

The guards surged forward, intending to capture Victoria. She backed up, until she was against the wall, absolutely surrounded.

She cast a look of hatred toward the King. “Be warned,” she spat, “the day you find me will be the day you lose your army.” She snapped her fingers and vanished, leaving nothing but a foul cloud of sulfur behind her.

The King would lose more than half his army attempting to find her, but to no avail. It would take the Thief Lord to track her down, and she wouldn’t go without a fight.

Ramblings

I guess it's time for me to do a rambling, nonsensical post, about anything and everything that crosses my mind. If you're not up for rambling, or if you're looking for something that's actually entertaining, why not check this page out? I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Otherwise, please read on.

***

I look at my blog way too many times a day, and I'm constantly attempting to figure out something to do with it. Can I find something to write about? Something to tweak? What can I do?

I've taken it upon myself to find a reliable stat counter, one that won't count my own page views.

I was browsing through Google, and I finally found one. So then I had to figure out how to get an accurate page count. I checked my Stats page on my Blogger account, and took the page count that it gave me, and subtracted all my spam page views. I'd started with 650 page views (or so Blogger said), and ended up with 420 true page views (which is good, I guess, for less than a month of blogging!). Or at least, the other page views weren't logged as SpamBots. So now I have an accurate counter, that should count visitors... Should. I'm going to try it out for a day or so, and then I'm going to check the stats and see how things all even out. If everything goes as planned, I should have an accurate, non-spambot visitor count :) Can't wait for that.

***

I'm working a lot this week, mostly six-hour shifts (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday). Two of those days (Tuesday and Thursday) will be spent outside at Jumpies. I. Hate. Jumpies. It's ridiculously hot and just horrendous. Half the time the Jumpies have to be taken down because they get overheated and they can cause burns. Thankfully, Thursday's supposed to be full of thunderstorms, so hopefully it'll rain and I'll just be rescheduled as a Utility. I can handle Utility. I can do Utility all day long. 

***

Today's the first day of our VBS. It's "Kingdom Rock," and I'm still not sure if I'm going to be able to get a t-shirt or not :( Mom didn't sign us up for VBS, because she assumed that somebody else had signed her up. (What?!) 

I really like this year's shirts; they're simple, and they're a beautiful red color. I really, really hope that that I'm able to get a shirt tomorrow morning. I'll only be able to get one if there are extras... Sigh. I want to be able to get a shirt! I'd look good in this shirt.

***

I get to go and pick up my dulcimer today! I can't wait to get it back home and try it out :) It's probably going to take the guy a little bit of time to teach me how to tune it, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to do it. I mean, I even bought a tuning wrench from this guy, and Sarah's got a tuner that I can use whenever I have to tune it. (And when I go to Montevallo, if I want to take my dulcimer with me, I'll have to buy my own tuner.)

***

I've got 23,000 words written in my novel so far, but still not a single title idea. (I mean, I have The Thief Lord, but that's a rather ridiculous title.)

I think I'm starting to ramble in my story, though. I may have to scratch out the last 2,000 words or so and restart those scenes. I think I need to get it out on paper, and then type it up. Just typing it into the computer makes it seem like it's not real. I can't look at it and say, "Well, that's crap!" I have to have it in front of me.

***

Y'all really should follow me on Instagram. Now that Instagram has that cool video-recording thing, you can actually see my kitties move and play and just be adorable :) Also, I take great pictures of cats. And I take great pictures in general. You really should follow me. I'll follow back, too! :)

***

I'm hoping that my free t-shirt from mental_floss turns up soon :) I want to put that thing on and parade around town! (Plus, the design I picked out will certainly turn my parents' heads, and I think that's going to be my favorite part of this.)

***

I'm going to order a KHAAAAAAN!! shirt next week! After I get my paycheck, that is :) Since I've had to shell out $109 for my dulcimer repair (my mom paid half), I don't quite have the funds that I would like in order to get it next week. But I'll certainly have enough after next week's paycheck! And I'm going to pay with my new credit card. 

***

Have I mentioned that I got a credit card? It's one specifically directed towards college students, called the Discover It card. I get 1% cash back on every purchase, and 5% cash back on selected purchases each quarter. For the July-September time frame, I get 5% cash back on all fuel purchases. That's really going to help, considering that we'll be buying gas a lot :) 

I've only used my card to buy one thing: an external hard drive from Best Buy a few weeks ago. (It works wonderfully, by the way.) 

My card design is a cassette tape. It looks really cool in my wallet. (Is it bad that I'm excited about this card? But I know how to be smart with it: I'm only using it for select things, and I'm paying the balance the moment it shows up in my account. I'm not an idiot. I know I can get into huge trouble with this card if I'm not careful.)

***

So, that's what's on my mind right now. Did I bore you? Did I entertain you? Or are you even still breathing? *waves hand in front of monitor*

Come back tomorrow for a short story I've written! :) It's a piece of flash fiction, meaning it has to be under 1,000 words! (I made it 998!) It was for a challenge I found online at one of the sites I've discovered recently. (It's the terrible minds link on the sidebar!) I hope y'all enjoy it, because I enjoyed writing it!

For now, enjoy this picture of me in a Captain American shirt!

Freebies, Week Fifteen

It's been a rather good week, if I do say so myself! I've gotten something in the mail every single day this week, which is awesome. I love checking the mail and having something with my name on it! (And if those things just happen to be shampoo samples, I'm even more excited. I love shampoo samples!!)

Here's what I got this week:

• P&G Q2 Sampler
• Floss sample
• Pamper's Wipes sample
• Always Infinity sample
• Glade garbage bags (not pictured; used already!)
• febreeze version
• one normal size
• Coupon Booklet
• John Frieda Shampoo Sample (Wal-Mart)
• John Frieda Shampoo Sample (Target)
• Elle, July Issue (I don't remember subscribing to this!!)
• Wired, July Issue
• Yogi Tea samples

In addition to this, I was able to put 9.8 gallons of gas in my car for about $27.00. This is quite a feat, if you consider that gas prices are currently at $3.34/gallon where I live! So how did I manage this? I used my Winn-Dixie Rewards Card! My mom has bought enough Fuel-Perks related things at Winn-Dixie recently that we had 55¢ off per gallon, up to ten gallons! (I'm thankful I didn't need ten gallons, even though my car was nearly empty! It's a 12-gallon tank, but I"ve never had to put more than ten gallons in it. I went from here to Kentucky, a 370 mile trip, on less than 11 gallons of gas. Awesome, huh?)

Yep, life is good :) (Especially considering that this was the first tank of gas that I've had to pay for this summer; usually my mom pays, because she's the one using my car the most!)

And this afternoon, I'm going to the hunting range with my dad, and we're finally going to shoot the pistol he bought me back in November! (I'll be able to get a concealed-carry permit on my birthday! I'm so excited!)

Have a great week, y'all! :)

"Sunday School Rock"

I've got another puppet video to show you, from about four years ago. I had pretty much just joined the team, so I wasn't put on lead or anything. (We had maybe seven people total on our team then. We have over 20 now.)

I'm doing the pair of kids talking to the teachers on the back row. Not my greatest performance, but hey, I was brand new!

This is to the tune of "Crocodile Rock," and it was before we got our "hand" puppet for the pianist, so you'll have to excuse the banging! :)

At the end, our "mascot," Belmont, appears. He's missing his neckerchief, but he's still enjoyable. (You don't see the whole sketch, which is a shame. It's really good.)

Enjoy!

Fantastic Onion Rings

It amazes me that I've gotten this far on this blog and I haven't put up a single recipe yet. Well, actually, I'm not at all that surprised. I fail utterly at cooking, but the few things that I can make, I make really, really well.

Just ask my family about my chocolate chip cookies. I'm sure they'll agree whole-heartedly. In fact, my mother's no longer allowed to make the cookies. I'm the only one who can. I HAVE POWERRRR! :D

But seriously. Life can't be all desserts, all the time. So here's something that's a little more...deep-fried:

ONION RINGS.

I can hear y'all moaning now. "But what's so great about onion rings?"

I'll tell you.

My onion rings are absolutely fantastic. Crispy, not too oniony, and with a thick, delicious crumb-crust-shell-thing. What else could you possibly want in an onion ring? (I'm also going to share the recipe for the dipping sauce we use!)

Are y'all drooling yet? Let's get this puppy started, shall we? 

INGREDIENTS:

• Sliced Onion (amount up to you)
• Plain Breadcrumbs (amount varies)
• 2% Milk (amount varies)
• Flour (amount varies)
• Cooking Oil

MATERIALS:

• Knife (to chop onion)
• Three Bowls
• Pan
• Paper Towels
• Fork (to dip onion rings and to fish them out of the oil)

Step One: Get yourself three bowls. It doesn't matter how big they are, just make sure that you have three of them. Also, cut yourself up some onions. I don't care how many you use. I usually just cut up one onion, because only three people in my family eat the onion rings.

Step Two: Fill your bowls like so: the first one with flour, the second one with milk (I use 2%, but you can use whatever you want; I'm sure whole milk will work better), and the third with breadcrumbs (I use plain, but again, use whatever you want). It works better if you keep your bowls in this order, too.

Step Three: Dip your onion in the middle bowl full of milk. Make sure the whole thing gets wet.

Step Four: Take your onion and place it in the flour. Make sure you coat it completely.

Step Five: Put your onion ring back in the milk. Make sure you get every bit of flour covered with milk. Milk makes things stick!

Step Six: Chuck that sucker into your bowl of breadcrumbs. (Your breadcrumbs will gradually ball up as you continue doing this; refresh your breadcrumbs every so often so that you have more loose ones to work with. You'll see what I mean after you do a few of these.)

Step Seven: Back into the milk with that bread-ring! We're giving this baby two coats of crispy breadcrumbs.

Step Eight: And now we return to the breadcrumbs. Coat the onion ring thoroughly, making sure you don't see any flour. (Well, I guess you can see a little. But full coated is probably preferred.)

Step Nine: Place your onion rings either straight into the frying oil or onto some sort of pan. (I put them on the pan so my mother can fry them.)

Step Ten: Fry those babies up! High heat, until they're nice and golden brown. (You can see the knob on my stove, can't you? It's between the nine and the eight, one of the highest heat settings available.)

Step Eleven: Place your fried deliciousness on some paper towels to drain the excess grease. And you're ready to enjoy these things! Even my father says they're amazing, and that's a compliment, coming from him! (My mother's no longer allowed to make onion rings. It's now my duty, I suppose.)

*~*~*~*

BUT WAIT! What are onion rings without some type of delicious sauce to go with them? I present to you, Zesty Onion Sauce. You'll see why it's called that in a few minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons Ketchup
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons Prepared Horseradish
• 1/2 Teaspoon Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
• 1/4 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

Step One: Mix all your ingredients together in a bowl. Don't be shy. Measure 'em and dump 'em all in the same bowl and mash 'em together with a spoon. 

Step Two: Dip your onion rings in the sauce! Or, if you're slightly more germaphobic, spoon some sauce onto your plate and dip your onion rings from there. If you're looking for more spice, add more cayenne. If your sauce is a teensy bit too pale, add some ketchup. It'll take a bit of tweaking to get it just how you want it, but that's the beauty of a recipe like this: you can do whatever you want with it.

*~*~*~*

PLEASE tell me how your onion rings turned out!! Tell me how you liked them, tell me how your family liked them, tell me how your significant other liked them... I've worked hard on this, and I'm hoping that people really like them! (Oh, and tell me how you did your sauce!)

Cleaning, Part One - My Room

If y'all can remember all the way back to the beginning of the month (or maybe just to the middle), you'll recall that one of my resolutions for this month was to clean up my room and my closet.

I was off work today, and my mother was going to have my sister and me clean the downstairs, because, apparently, it's filthy. (I can't tell. Then again, maybe we're just so used to the filth by now...) Anyway, I said, "I was going to clean my room," so she decided that we'd clean the upstairs today. (We cleaned the basement on Monday, my only other off-day this week.) We cleaned the office first, as a group effort, then Sarah and I went to our respective rooms and started cleaning.

I had no idea where to start.

Yeah, it's an absolute disaster. Thankfully, you can't see my bathroom from here.

I decided to start by cleaning out one of my dresser drawers so that I could fit some more clothes into the dresser itself. My dresser has seven drawers, but I've only ever used three of them for clothes. The other four are full of random crap. So I cleaned out three of those drawers, put my oversized shirts (VBS shirts, community events, etc.) into one drawer, my "nice" shirts into another, my sweatpants and shorts into yet another, and my jeans into one more drawer. The final two drawers I organized into my underwear/sock drawer and my tanktop/bra drawer. (Sorry for any guys reading this.) It didn't take quite as long as I thought, but it still took around two and a half hours, total. (I took breaks in-between. Hopped from one mess to the other.)

Mid-drawer organization.

After I'd finished with my clothes (I had everything put away into its respective drawer, and had taken out all the stuff that was too small/too big/didn't fit right), I went downstairs to have some lunch. I like food, and today I had a corn dog. Then I went back upstairs, and decided to tackle my bathroom, as a change of pace.

I swept first, and then got down and scrubbed the bathtub and toilet and organized my little hamper-thing. Then I turned my attention to my sink.

The iPad's just there for my music.

It's like an explosion happened. I clean it about once every two weeks, but it ALWAYS ends up looking like this again. This time, I'm going to take special care to keep it nice and clean. After about ten minutes, it looked like this:

Everything's nicely organized.

I hope I can keep it looking like this for more than just a few days. It shouldn't be too hard, because I got rid of a lot of unnecessary things that were just clogging up sink space.

Then I returned to my room.

Getting there...

I still had to pick up all the stuff on my floor, and then clean off my bed so that I could put my sheets back on. It was a challenge, but I finally managed to do it. I vacuumed and then pulled the chair out so that I could do my curtains. (I got about two whole cats' worth of fur off those curtains o.o And it was so hot. The sun was coming straight in the window, and the vacuum was overheating from all the fur.) Thankfully, my mother helped me with my curtains.

I started cleaning at 10:30 or so this morning. I finally finished at 4:37 this afternoon. That's six (not-so-solid) hours of cleaning right there. I'm exhausted. I haven't even taken a shower or put on different clothes yet. I may skip the shower and just put on different pajamas. It's a bit too late in the day to even think about looking nice -.- Not like my family's going to care, anyways.

Isn't it gorgeous?

My bathroom's clean, too!

Now all I have to do is wait for my rugs to come out of the washing machine, so I can put them back on my bathroom floor. It's been a long day. I think I'm going to go find myself something chocolate! 

This was probably a very boring post for most of you, but I wanted to share my accomplishment! I'm amazed I was able to get everything done, and while my dresser's not quite as clean as I'd like it to be, and I've got some stuff at the foot of my bed that I need to tidy up as well (it's not pictured here at all, because it's like a mini-disaster area itself), I'm counting this resolution as D.O.N.E. Now I can sit back and relax a little bit.

I just hope I'm able to keep it this clean for a long, long time. I hate cleaning, so if I'm able to keep it looking nice, I shouldn't have to clean big-time for a while yet.

Have a great day, y'all! (Or what's left of it, anyways!)