With the economy the way it is today, I want to make absolutely sure that I am getting the best value for my hard earned dollar when I have to spend it.  This applies to every aspect of my daily life, from groceries, to clothes and shoes, laundry supplies, to home improvement, and even to work on my car.  That means that I am spending the extra time to research the credentials of everyone and everything that I possibly can.  Was it Ben Franklin who said “A penny saved is a penny earned”?  Well, I’m not earning enough pennies, that is for sure, so I need to save all those I can get my hands on!

My youngest son is staying in Philadelphia this summer, doing a college internship job.  My oldest son has never been to Philadelphia and expressed an interest in living there someday.  So last weekend I sent him off to spend the weekend with my youngest.  He took the train to Philly, which worked out wonderfully well.  If I ever send him up there again I will definitely send him by train!  He went up Friday afternoon and came home Monday afternoon.  They saw some sights, ate some good food and watched a few movies.  They both said they had a good time, and I was glad to have them spend some time alone together.

I have a gift card for Starbucks and since I prefer tea and have have never tried any of their coffees, I thought I would use the gift card to try one. I just don’t have any idea which flavor to ask for.

I went grocery shopping yesterday and decided to buy a couple of new dog toys for our dogs.  They have squeakers in them, but are largish in size; they remind me of the stuffed animal toys I had as a kid.  Anyway, I had heard that dogs can see a few colors; they gravitate towards blue, so I bought two blue teddy bear squeaky toys.  When I got home with the groceries and had put all the food away, I gave the toys to the dogs.  What fun they have had playing with the toys!  Our big dog has pretty effectively ripped most of the stuffing out of one already in her desperate attempt to kill the squeaky part.  What a mess!  Now I wish I hadn’t bothered to vacuum yesterday!  I’m going to have to vacuum again tomorrow!

The past few nights, after dark we have been hearing what my husband is convinced are gunshots.  We live in a rural area, and I don’t think that they are gunshots – no one would be shooting after dark!  I think one of the neighbors just got their hands on some illegal fireworks and have simply been having a good time setting them off over the past couple of nights.  At least that’s what I HOPE it has been!  Fortunately they stop by ten pm, so we don’t lose too much sleep – I’d be very annoyed if they went on much later than that – I am an “early to bed and early to rise” person!