The Curse of Facebook

How do I say this?

Facebook is the devil. A brilliant, evil, time sucking devil. That I love, dearly. It's one of my favorite ways to waste time: I love seeing all the people I've ever met ever in the history of the world, lined up in small clips so that I can easily stalk their existence, breaking our relationship down in small, single sentence quips that belie the true tempestuous nature of relationships. I love the stupid social games that force me to beg copper pipes off friends and family, although I do try to be considerate of those that don't play.

I do wonder, though, how HEALTHY all of it is. One of the natural functions of relationships is the ending. It's an important part, although painful. People NEED to outgrow each other and move on. When I was young, I saw it as a personal rejection, as everyone from high school went to their separate states and separate worlds, and I was went from being surrounded constantly by a gaggle of giggling girls to living alone in a small apartment, it was crushing. Facebook wasn't around then (yes, I'm that old) and myspace was a year or two in the future. I clung to the few people I knew locally with borderline psychotic terror.

Fast forward *ahem* SOME years. A lot of years. Man, they go by so incredibly fast. A high school acquaintance that I barely knew when I went to school back in the stone ages has passed on. I'm in real mourning. I knew she was sick, although she kept that incredible attitude most days that only the truly ill can seem to. Not like when I stub my toe and curse the pain and carry on like a whiny little girl. Strong.

I grew to like her more than I even knew her in high school. I often read what she wrote with greedy eyes, along with everyone else in my "timeline", this girl who I can't remember if I even spoke to during the hectic time of high school. Rest in peace, Mary. I hope your husband finds some comfort.

All of this sadness this morning makes me wonder how wise my relationship with Facebook is. I mean, really. Is it better to follow the natural rhythm of life, which means out growing each other, or is it better to keep all people past in a list that you can constantly check? Can you move past old romances and ancient drama if it's highlighted for you daily in blue and white? Is it better to wonder occasionally what happened to so and so, or to know?

Is facebook a blessing or a curse?

Things You'll Never Get to Eat Again

My grandmother was a terrible cook.

I say that with the utmost of love and respect. The fact that she rarely did it may have had something to do with it, but in the span of my life, I remember more disasters than dishes. There was the Thanksgiving stuffing that floated in a pool of muddy liquid with large chunks of garlic and onion floating on the top...the salty soap soup that she produced in mass quantities whenever one of us felt ill. She carted the soup in Ziploc baggies all the way to where ever we were living at the time. As bad as it tasted, nothing was to be wasted, and she ate bowl after bowl of whatever she created, without so much as a blink.

Understandably, we dinnered at the local diners most often, where she would hit the salad bar with abandon, topping cottage cheese with french dressing and pronouncing it "Delish" years ahead of Rachel Ray.

Man, I miss that woman.

There were a couple things, though, that would make your head spin and your mouth water...things that were just too good to believe. A chocolate bundt cake that took seven eggs..SEVEN EGGS and she would go on about the expense and decadence of using seven eggs, which would quickly fade into the pizzas her own mother would make during the Depression, and the veggies she grew in pots on the fire escape, and how, even when there was no money and no jobs her mom always had a meal for the hungry on hand, along with plenty of food for her own large family.

She also made this fantastic fried apple pie. It was flaky and crumbly and sort of, well, dry, as in it didn't have the kind of syrupy apple pie filling that you would normally think of when you think apple pie. They were fantastic, and my mother's favorite. It occurred to me in a rare moment of clarity during my wild twenties that I should ask her to show me how to make them.

It was too late. She was already far too ill and far too tired and sliding rapidly towards the end of her life. I may as well have asked her to climb Mount Everest.

I'll openly admit I don't often try to replicate the recipes. Seven eggs is ridiculous amount for one cake, and frying an apple pie is a bit like gilding the lily and twice as fattening. I choose rather to think about the amazing woman who used to make these things for me with such love and dedication and take a moment to miss her instead, knowing full well that the secret is probably something the adult me WOULD NEVER put in her mouth.

I miss you, Grandma. You were totally awesome.

Deals too good to pass up at Giant this week

Even in my non-couponing state, there are some deals that are just too good to pass up!

Included this week:

FREE 2 oz packages of Oscar Meyer lunch meat. They are buy 4, get $4 off instantly. Priced at just a dollar each, these are instantly free. Note: this is NOT in your circular, the deal will be detailed out on store tags. The $1 lunch meat may not have the tags, but you will see the package on the other tags nearby. Please only buy four per transaction, that way, the instant savings will ALWAYS come off. Some local couponers are mentioning problems with the turkey, but the ham worked for sure for me today. Thanks, for the mommas!

Puffs plus money maker! If you buy 3 boxes of Puffs plus cubes, at $1.25 each, you'll get 20 cents off per gallon of gas. If you have a vehicle that takes 30 gallons of gas, or can fill up a couple of gas cans to make thirty dollars, you'll save six dollars in gas for every $3.75 you spend. Sweet deal! Thanks to Ed's friend Jimmy for sending me this one.

Free Iced Tea bottles: You can print a coupon for $1 off one, or $.75 off one Gold Peak Tea, on coupons.com. The .75 off one will double to a dollar, so you can score up to four free bottles. Remember that Giant only doubles the FIRST like coupon, so you must do two transactions if you want to use two .75 off one and get both for free. If not, you'll pay .25 for one (still a nice deal).

Kashi is also providing a $5 coupon ONYO if you buy five items. Recyclebank and Coupons.com both are offering coupons that work well for this deal:

What I did:

You can print one $2 off Kashi coupon PER DAY at Recyclebank. So, I've been printing for four days, in order to have $8 off. Then, I got one $1 off a Kashi steam meal, so this was my deal:

buy four packages of Kashi TLC crackers @ $2.50 each
buy one frozen Kashi meal, @2.50
Total, $12.50
use, $9 in coupons
Pay, $3.50

Get $5 off my next order. You still have enough time to try and make this deal, but I had a LOT of recyclebank points saved up. The coupons are 75 points each. As usual, I learned all this good stuff on For The Mommas You should totally check her out, she rocks!

Truvia Natural Sweetener Product Review via Influenster

Are you sick of me talking about how much I love Influenster yet?

I was chosen to participate in the February LoveVoxBox program: Vox Boxes are awesome. Basically, it's a box of FULL SIZE products, for you to try and tell about. Anyone who knows me, knows my love of free stuff, so this is easily my fave website. You don't have to have a blog to participate, so please, go, sign up, and see what they send you!

In the LoveVoxBox, I got a sample of Truvia- a stevia based, no calorie sweetener. I've used stevia for years, so I'm really familiar with the taste. I'd never tried the mass market versions, though, just the crunchy health store stuff. I was really pleasantly surprised.

Just a warning, it's REALLY sweet. One packet is NOT equal to one packet of sugar, it's equal to two. That part takes a bit of getting used to. The flavor is much nicer than splenda and is just...sweet with no aftertaste. Definitely my favorite no calorie sweetener on the market. You can find out more about Truvia at their website.


I received a complimentary sample of Truvia Natural Sweetener through the Influenster program. I highly recommend you try it.

Stockpile goods up for grabs: Place your bids here!

It's getting closer, and closer, and closer: six weeks is NOT a lot of time to pare an entire household down to a trailer. I've got a stockpile roughly the size of the entire house to get rid of, forms of currency accepted include bartering, begging, pleading, whining. All bids should include a form of barter: for instance, what you want, plus what you are willing to do for it, and possibly a good sob story or some whining for my reading pleasure. You can send your bids to my cell phone, my email, my facebook, my husband or leave a comment here (preferred). Cash is NOT an option, it will not amuse me in the slightest and I require entertainment at the present.

Free babysitting offers get preference: no smoking environments only, and no serial killers, sex offenders, or anything else that freaks me out. This includes any number of items and should not be seen as an insult. I'm a weird helicopter parent and I know it.

Up for grabs:

six bottles of Dial lotion
twelve bottles of Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner
various bottles of Pantene shampoo and conditioner
Centrum Omegas
Crest Pro Health mouth wash, large bottles
Bread crumbs. Almost unlimited, multiple flavors
Flipz chocolate covered pretzels, several dozen
Taco shells, hard, about 8 packages
taco shells, soft, small, flour
cranberry sauce, ten
flavored vinegar, five, too lazy to walk downstairs and see WHAT flavors.
Shaving cream, womens, mango skintimate, about 12 bottles
Olay face soap, Regenerist, two bottles
Olay body wash, several varieties, several bottles.
All purpose flour, Wegmans, 3 bags
More items to come: I have to clean up from the massive lunch I just made my kids before I go downstairs again. Feel free to place requests, I'll take a look and get back to you!