Money and Snow

Again, I didn't know what to title this blog posting so instead of wasting anymore time on it, I just called it as I saw it......

I saw a little TV report on the dollar bill this week, how it costs 7 cents to make a dollar bill and the dollar bill only lasts 36 months in circulation. They were saying that they are eventually going to take the paper dollar bill out of circulation completely and replace it with a dollar coin. Well, the first coin dollar was minted in 1794, but it either hasn't caught on or is not too popular today (or both).....but what I'm thinking is that people are just set in their ways and have a hard time adjusting to major changes like switching over from a paper dollar bill to a coin dollar after all these years.

If you want my opinion on the whole thing, I like the dollar coin. So in my effort to switch over from one to the other, I went to my bank yesterday and gave the teller a $5 dollar bill and asked for some $1 coins. The teller told me to hold on while she gets some for me. No wonder these $1 coins are not getting around, the teller had to "go get them". Okay, *tap tap tap* I waited. She came back and said "We only have three, do you still want them?" So I said "Sure". She passed me the three coins and two dollar bills. How are we suppose to get these coins into the public cash flow if they aren't easily accessible? Do you like the dollar coin or would you prefer to keep the dollar bill around?



Well, we got snow today......I was hoping it would just come up to Massachusetts and turn around and head south again (yeah, I know, wishing thinking), but the storm showed up on our front door step with heavy snow. There were a fair share of accidents on roadways and 100,000 people lost power by before 9pm. It started snowing around 3pm and I got home around 4pm and stayed home. It's crazy to drive in this weather condition and if there's not a need to go wandering around out there, then just don't.

Now, speaking the snow. Jake is not too crazy about the snow. I brought him downstairs to do his duty around 6pm and I put him under the stairs where it was dry and he was happy. Now, this little 8 pound baby has a game he likes to play when there's snow on the ground. I don't know where he learned it, but he's gotten good at it over the last few years. So anyways, when he's done doing his business, he'll step in the snow and stop. He then pulls up one of his front paws slowly and look at me and acts like he has a broken foot and can't walk. That front leg is raised with paw dangling down and he has this pitiful look on his face. So, of course, sucker me, walks over to him, picks him up and carries him up three flights of stairs. Now, he doesn't do this in the other 3/4 of the year, just when there is snow on the ground and he just doesn't like walking, or standing, or crossing over it at all. Now, I forgot about this little game of his until he reminded me about it today. So, sure enough, once again, he did his business and the second his paws hit the snow, the front paw comes up and he's goes into this "frozen" mode like he's stuck with a "broken foot". I call this the "broken foot" game. And, of course, after I carry him upstairs, his runs in the living room all happy again. Funny how all four paws work the minute then he hits the living room floor.

So, I think I yapped enough for today. Have a good night! :) I'm gonna put "broken foot" to bed now. LOL!

Lunch and Laptop

Hello! I'm backkkkkk! :) I got my laptop back from the technician at Staples. I always go there for the annual software updates and anti-virus upgrades. I get a report saying how much smoother my laptop should run and all that jazz. I got my laptop home and for some reason it is running a tad bit slower than what I'm use to. Maybe it will self-adjust over the weekend, maybe I'll bring it back to see if I can get more fine tuning out of it. Not sure yet. Moving on....... :)

This morning I went to the gym. I did a 4 mile walk in 90 minutes....the highest my heart beat went up to was 146 beats per minute......that's a pretty solid workout for me......and, of course, I got my Dr. Oz TV show in at the same time :) I hope to go back again tomorrow, but I have some errands and appointments to catch up with before the weekend.

This afternoon, Mom, Dad, and I, (too many commas??) went to Hebert Brothers Seafood in Kittery, Maine. My Mom had heard that they have a special on Wednesdays for $5.00 lobster rolls. So Dad and I each ordered one (mine with no mayo) and Mom ordered chicken tender basket. Well, when Dad and I finished our lobster rolls, we had to order another one! Order UP - Two More!!!! :) They were so good.....I would definitely go back. Definitely worth the trip! I got pictures! :)

Here we are!!! It's a restaurant and deli. Very nice people.....

Here's they deli case. See those crab cake on the bottom, Dad took two home for $3 dollars each. Not bad!

Here's the restaurant area. No waitress...you order at the counter.....

We sat in the corner, we were the only ones there at 2:30pm

Here is my lobster roll (with no mayo)....hey, I can get a better picture than that....hang on....

There it is!!! Doesn't that look good! I mean, the picture Does say it all! :)

So that was a nice road trip. I can see Hebert Brother's Seafood doesn't have a detailed website or twitter account yet, but at least it gives the address.

Oh the way back home, Staples called me and told me that my computer was ready to be picked up, so I picked that up along with some lottery tickets on the way home :) And here I am now, relaxing. I hope you have a nice night too! :)

Sunday Morning Walk (with Pictures) :)

Okay, this is going to be a simple blog posting......I have pictures so there's usually not much I can say than what the pictures can say for themselves......We drove to the next town over (10 minute ride) and recently walking/biking trails have been made. So we decided to drive down there and check them out. I got pictures......

We are walking - we parked the car behind us......

Jake is taking the high side! :)

Just enjoying the scenery!

More scenery....

Coming up to the power lines.....

Yep, the trail goes under the power lines and then T's off each way....

Here's the "T"....which way do we go....left or right.....

We go right......this is what we saw when we took a right and walked straight...

And when I turned around and looked back....

Across the lake.....

Still taking pictures looking back....

Can you see Jake tagging along.....

Hmmmm, Jakie, I don't think you want to get too close to the edge....

Yep, it's down hill straight down to a stream....

Okay, let's get out of here.....take me home Jake!

So that was our walk today. It was fun and we went in the morning before the temperature dropped. I wanted to show you Jake's AKC Canine Good Citizen paper and all his report cards for being a super good dog. I'm actually thinking of what the next step for him would be. What's the next level/degree/step for him to improve his behavior and well-being. He's great, I just want to push him to his potential! :) A good dog is a happy dog! :) Okay I'll leave you alone for now. I'll bug you a little later. Tomorrow I have a few things to do. I have a couple of errands to run, poker at 7pm and a free online class at 10:30pm......so all that tells me is that I have to be running on time all day and no slacking off! We shall see! LOL! Have a good night :)

Hello! A few recent updates...... :)

Hi! Well, I've been slacking off the blog postings and it's time to get back on the wagon again......it seems to me that I haven't been doing much, but actually I've been doing quiet a bit......

Let's see here....just going to throw some stuff out to you and if I repeat myself.....well, that's just me being me..... :)

I'm not too happy with any of the RSS readers I have tried......the problem with the blog readers I try out is that it does not allow me to leave a comment on the blog I'm reading......I want to get into the habit of leaving more comments on blogs that I read......not just read a blog and leave......some people create and update blogs to create a community of interaction, as for me, I just don't advertise this blog.....I just use this blog to mark where I've been, what I've done, and where the heck I'm going next......

My poker league has definitely caught my attention and I've increased my league attendance from just Mondays to Mondays and Thursdays.....I like that......they have two poker league sessions every Mondays and Thursdays but I only sign up for one session at 7pm....and coming in 12th place each week right now takes about an hour and 15 minutes so I'm home by 8:30 with is perfect for me. The second session which is optional for me to sign up is at 9:30pm on Mondays and Thursdays, but that's way too late for my liking, I don't care how much I like poker, that's way too late.......I like being in my jammies and comfy on the sofa by 9pm tops! (yeah, guess how old this old gal is.....no late night heavy partying for this old lady LOL!!!!!)

Another thing I want to talk about is that I went to the monthly neighborhood community meeting this past Thursday. I like this meeting alot, it brings the neighborhood together to tackle local issues and keep everyone up to date on what going on around us. So, this organization wants people to come up with our opinion on how we can make the neighborhood better. Well, we've had some, unexpected changed in our immediate neighborhood, so it has been a turn of improvements around us where we live. There has been less kids running around and traffic has died down a tad with a company going out of business next to us. But, I will brain storm and look around me and come up with some more ideas to make this neighborhood a better place. The one thing that I will bring to the table is that the speed limit signs around us are too high for drivers to pay attention to. The main street in front of our house is fine, we have a stop sign right in front of our house because we live very close to a corner intersection (you can see the intersection from our window), but the back alley (back of our house) is where the speed limit signs of 10 mph are posted on telephone poles too high up. So, I'm going to snap some pictures of that and bring it to the organization's attention. I mean, I could go to the highway department about it, but I want to talk about it at the meeting too. And I can't wait to hear other people's opinion is to improve this neighborhood.

The MYPN 1 hour class about Wordpress on Thursday was great if you don't know how to use Wordpress. It was very basic and alot of people were there (about 25 people). The instructor asked how many people has built a website on Wordpress and only about 3 or 4 people raised their hand (including me). I've seen people switch from Wordpress to BlogSpot and vice versa. Everyone has their preference and I've used both blogging platforms. In my opinion, I think BlogSpot is easier to upload pictures and Wordpress is easier to customize. So they are both different in their own ways. I may even go back to Wordpress someday, but for now, BlogSpot does the job for me to update a blog quickly and easily.

Okay, what else......I have to say that we've been getting nice weather lately. Jake has been tagging along when I go walking with my walking group on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. This coming Monday's walk will be a long walk, so I will leave Jake home and bring my headphones for the music and podcasts in my Blackberry. Jake likes to walk, but I have seen him walk so much that his muscles get so tired that his back leg gives out. So, I bring him to the shorter walks on the schedule so he doesn't push himself too much, but still gets the exercise he needs to be healthy and active.

Okay, speaking of healthy and active and exercise......I've looked online to the Dr. Oz website and saw the schedule of this week's TV programs so I can tailor my treadmill schedule to the shows that I would find more interesting. Story of my life.......LOL!

Anyways, I think I've yap enough for one posting.......don't have plans for tomorrow, but you never know......Have a good night! :)

Reporting In On My Last Three Days

Hi! It's been a couple of days since my last posting......let's see here.....first off, Jake got his AKC Canine Good Citizen certificate in the mail. So, I went to the store and bought a frame for that. Of course, when I got the certificate, it came with a brochure of all kinds of Canine Good Citizen's pet tags, leashes, etc. So, I ordered a small silver tag for his collar with his name on it.......he's doing super good.......and he deserves a trip to PetCo real soon. :)

My classes are done for this year.....they will start back up next year, so my schedule right now has opened up a tad......my walking group is still 3 times a week.....rain is coming for the next two days, so I'll end up going to the gym on the treadmill instead of walking outside. I hate wet sneakers LOL! I went to the gym this morning to watch the Dr. Oz show......I like going to the gym when there is a good TV show, it keeps me there double the time I would of stayed without a workout distractor :)

Last night's poker tournament was okay........I lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes coming in at 12th out of 30th for the second week in a row. Just can't seem to jump into that top 10 yet......but it's so much fun. I would say that out of 30 players, there are only 4 women playing (including me). I will continue my quest to gain card playing experience and, of course, feed my social interaction. :)

The Manchester Young Professionals Network has a "Power Lunch" class on Wordpress on Thursday from noon to 1. The class looks pretty basic for people who want to start a blog on Wordpress, but I still want to attend to see if there are any Wordpress advanced topics that might come up in discussion and it might lead to other networking events that I might be interested in (and it's free) :)

Other than that, it will be a quiet week and thru the rainy days ahead I will hang out with Jake and go to the gym. I'll be back to bug you again. Have a great night! :)

Goffstown Downtown Pumpkin Festival

Yesterday, Jake and I went to the Goffstown downtown pumpkin festival. It was spread out thru the Main street area and Jake and I walked around and looked at all the vendors and the super large pumpkins.

Then we just walked around the Main street area and I got some pictures......I thought there was going to be more dogs around, but there wasn't many at all.....only around 4 or 5...........

This table on the right were promoting adopting a cat.....

Two little kitties.....

Hello!

So anyways, this is a two day event and we are going back today to look around some more since it is nice outside and it will be something to do. It's Sunday, a quiet day, hope you have nice day too..... :)

Walking and Today's Little Project

Hi! I got 103 Podcasts downloaded on my Blackberry (average Podcast is 40 minutes long) I'm waiting for my Blackberry to explode. These Podcast downloads are a real battery killer, big time. My Blackberry battery (now, remember, I got this new Blackberry two months ago) use to last 5 hours......downloading Podcasts and the battery is low in 2 hours. But soooooo worth it. Do you know what a Podcast is? In my own words, a Podcast an audio file downloaded off the internet and updated from a feed. So, in my little world, the Podcasts I listen to are archived talk shows on my favorite topics. I listen to dog talk shows, poker talk shows, comedy talk shows......actually, here's the website I actually pull the Podcasts from to download on my Blackberry. The app on Blackberry is called PodTrapper. I'm on a 30 day free trial, then I have the option to buy the app......don't really remember how much it is to buy, less than 10 bucks I'm sure, but I'm getting alot of use out of the free trial and you know how some apps are cheesy and work half the time or not at all, I've got to say, this one works great so far.

This morning's walk was held at Stark Park and I got pictures. First let me tell you that this walk was mostly thru little neighborhoods and there wasn't much to take pictures of, but I got a few........

Stark Park in Manchester, New Hampshire

Everyone showed up to walk.....see my car, the black SUV, right there.....

Another picture of Stark Park

Stark park is located next to the Youth Detention Center (YDC)

Another picture of YDC

So that was fun. I like my walking group and we are half way thru the walking schedule.....13 more walks to go and that will get me to Nov 11th. We have a little get-together (they call it a banquet) on Nov 15th for lunch and then say good bye to each other until the walking group resumes in the spring. But let's not talk about that now, I still have 13 more walks to go and a whole lot of Podcasts to go thru! :)

So, I bought a little 2 year calendar at the store a few weeks ago and I got a plain, simple one because I wanted to decorate it myself. I'm sure you already know where I am going with this LOL! So, I put some pictures on one of those USB memory sticks and went to CVS to develop the pictures. 11 tiny pictures (double prints) cost me 89 cents!!! Not only do I love little projects, I love Cheap little projects! :)........Okay, that's it, I'm done talking, time to show you what I did, step by step........

First we get the tools together that we are going to use.....

Then we get the pictures out that we developed today....

Then we cut the pictures apart and take the plastic jacket off the calendar...

Then we assemble them in the order we like....

We work from the bottom up, sticking them to the cover of the calendar.....

All the pictures are stuck on the cover of the calendar....

Make sure we do both sides and put the plastic jacket back on......

And that's what it looks like! :) Uh-Oh, we got two pictures left over....

We won't let those go to waste.....

Nice huh!!! :) I love it! And so does Jake!

So, that's what we did today! And then I had class tonight. This blogging class was a 6 week course and it was free and something for me to do. I learned a few little things about blogging I didn't know before, like changing out the blog template to a customized one, but I'm not going to do that, because I like the template I'm using now. So, now we wait a few months for a new class to start. This was held at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communication. The next class I want to take here is Sports Writing but it's not being offered yet, so I have to wait and I will take another interesting class in between now and then. Sooooo, that was my day today! How was yours? :)