Sosuna-o-Lata

During our outing today, we stopped by the local home improvement store and did lots of window shopping.  You know the kind, when you say "when we do this, we’re going to get this".  Our window shopping was for the rest of the items for the basement and then the next big project, the upstairs bathroom.  We looked at several Tub walls, Pedestal sinks , Vanities and Toilets.  Sadly, for now it’s only browsing.

We had a fun day shopping today the whole family went and we all picked up some great bargains.  I picked up a cute pair of sneakers that my husband doesn’t like, he said it looks like I should be carrying some golf clubs when I’m wearing them.  I didn’t really need new shoes but I can never pass up a good deal.

(click photo to enlarge)

These stuffed burgers are easy to make with only four ingredients and are always a big hit.

1 lb hamburger

1 pkg dry onion soup mix

1 cup fresh chopped mushrooms (your choice)

1/2 cup monterery jack shredded cheese

4-5 slices cheddar cheese

Parchment paper

Rolling pin

(mushroom and cheese measurements are approximated, add as much or as little as you like)

Note:  One pound of hamburger should yield approximately 4-5 burgers.

Combine hamburger with onion soup mix until well blended.  Make 8-10 golf ball sized balls out of the hamburger.  Place the balls between two sheets of parchment paper, press with hand and then flatten with rolling pin.  Place mushrooms in center of 4-5 patties, top with shredded cheese.  Cover with plain patty and pinch the sides.    Grill, top with slice of cheddar cheese and serve on your favorite hamburger bun or kaiser roll.  We prefer onion sandwich rolls.

Last night, my daughter asked me how much a gallon of gas cost when she was born.  So we did a search to see what we could find and found a neat 1990’s Flashback web site. 

In the economy section of 1996 we found:

Cost of a new home: 
$166,400.00

Median Household Income: 
$35,492.00

Cost of a first-class stamp: 
$0.32

Cost of a gallon of regular gas: 
$1.23

Cost of a dozen eggs: 
$1.31

Cost of a gallon of Milk: 
$3.30

You’ll notice the only thing that has become absolutely outrageous is the gas prices, everything that we buy is bound gradually to go up.  The most interesting thing I found is that if you look at the 1960’s year by year, you’ll see that the difference was no more than a penny from year to year.  I thought it was an interesting find.

Shopping for a web host service can be hard,  I didn’t know where to start since I’m not a webmaster and I didn’t know the first thing about what to look for in a good web host.  I looked at site after site after site to find the best bang for the buck.  I eventually found a good host after a friend suggested one and I did my own research. You’ll want to look for the features that fit you best, maybe you want to find a host that features cPanel Tutorials to have more freedom controlling your site by managing email accounts, maintain your database and files. Remember to do your research and read several user opinions before you choose.

So, the government is sending us these "stimulus rebate checks" so there will be a boost in the economy.  They want us to go out, be good little consumers and make big purchases.  I’ve made a list of what I’m spending mine on.

1.  Milk

2.  Eggs

3.  Gas

Imagine getting out of your car at your house and Howie Mandel greets you. He’s got a laptop to show you how easy it is to buy what you need at Buy.com. It happened to one unsuspecting guy on the street, it’s hard to find this video because it’s a NO KEYWORD COMMENT ON YOUTUBE VIDEO. Howie whips out the laptop and has the guy select an Xbox 360 to put in his shopping cart and in a flash, the Xbox 360 is hand delivered to him. On top of that, Howie gets on the phone with the guy’s ex-girlfriend, who broke up with him the night before, and tells her that she picked a bad time to dump him.

When Erin started 6th grade, I thought it was silly for them to have a reading class AND a language arts class.  I thought, how could they grade the kids on reading?  The kids pick out books appropriate to their reading level and are assigned 30 minutes per night to read as much as they can.  I couldn’t have been more wrong on understanding the importance of the reading class.  I have seen such a change in her reading habits, she now reads every night because she has to but she also truly enjoys it.  If she finds herself with nothing to do, she’ll pick up her book and sit and relax with it. 

Now to work on my 7 year old…..

Since the price of gas is simply outrageous, I’ve been trying to change my driving habits to get better gas mileage.  I watched a special report on The Early Show this morning as they were doing an experiment showing how you can get better gas mileage by simply changes a few driving habits.  They used a Toyota Prius but the expert said that anyone could save in any car. 

In one 10 minute stint on the highway, the correspondent was asked to drive how she normally would, it was determined that she had gotten 42 mpg which was about 5 mpg under what Toyota says should be the minimum mpg. 

The second go at it, the correspondent was told to stay at a steady speed, do not tap brakes, coast down hills and gradually accelerate when needed.  She joked that she was passed by everyone including a school bus but in the end she ended up getting 77 mpg and it was only a difference of 4 minutes.

So, I tried it this morning. I don’t even know what I get per gallon right now but I know a full tank of gas lasts me one week if I do not do any extra driving.  It was hard to go a lot slower than I normally do and watch everyone pass me but I wasn’t the only one in the slow lane and I didn’t notice a huge difference in time either. 

I scoured the internet for other gas-saving tips and have started to compile a list of tips with links.