Sept 26th--In a small town

Today I had to see my out of area clients...one of them lives in a small town where the main street is a block long and the road leading there is full of cows and farmland (nothing wrong with that.) Today I ended up stopping at their corner gas station and trying Honey Mustard Kettle chips and the Mn Twin's Root Beer. I am a huge root beer fan and that flavor was NASTY. The Honey mustard chips were surprisingly good. Didn't even end up stopping for lunch they were so filling!

-Jackie

Day 170 (September 25th)--Make a Wish

Today's new thing invovled Cold Stone Creamery. They were having a free ice cream night where a large percentage of the proceeds went to Make a Wish. I got Emily's Flavor with the nutter butters and yellow cake. Hubby got Jack's flavor with Oreos, Fudge and Chocolate chips. (I tried a bite of it...too rich for me.) It was a great chance for hubby and I to get out of the house and to donate to a great cause! I have to give thumbs up to Facebook for all the advertising they did about this event. Way to get the word out!

-Jackie

Day 169 (September 24th)--Ooh La la!

I have heard the ads....Professional, affordable....for Tresemme shampoo but decided to try it for myself. I have a difficult head of hair to work with but I bought the Tresemme shampoo and conditioner....the results? Wow! The natural waves have come back and my hair is a lot more manageable. A+ for this new thing.

(OH, and we STILL have that stupid virus on our computer...I am at the library!)

Day 168 (September 23rd) Red Velvet

Today I had to take one of my out of town clients to look for housing (which I enjoy doing from time to time) and after I dropped him off I was craving something sweet. I went to SuperTarget and got one of their cupcakes. Something told me not to get it but I did anyway. I ignored my inner voice and got the cupcake anyway. It was Red Velvet and.....I did not like it at all. I had never had Red Velvet cake before (though I hear it is a popular choice for those who have groom's cakes). I gave the most of it to my hubby.

-Jackie

Day 167 (September 22nd)--Annoying and Stupid!

Today when I got home from work my husband told me the computer was as slow as molasses and we had an annoying pop up. Sure enough I had an antivirus program attach itself to my computer that I am thinking is really a virus. It is so annoying to try and navigate on the computer, the antivirus thing is constantly popping up and while I can remove the shortcut, I cannot remove the actual program from the Control Panel. If anyone has any suggestions I am open to hearing them. I am going to call Qwest today (as my internet was SUPPOSED to have popup blockers and the updates were supposed to defend against viruses) but I am not sure if they will be able to do much....

-Jackie

Day 166 (September 21st) See a penny, pick it up

Today I had something else planned but decided to do it another time because I was really sore from all that moving! I found random pennies just taking up space in my purse. Since my election judge check was pretty nice I decided to plant some of those random pennies in random places. One in our buildings laundry room, one in an aisle at Target, one at the Gas station.....Hopefully the random change can brighten someones day (or they can have good luck all day like the saying says....).

-Jackie

Day 165--(September 20th)---Move it!

Today hubby and I went and did something I have never done before, I helped a friend move. It's not that I have never wanted to before, it's just been I have either had to work or the friends already had enough help. My friend also moved a block and a half away which is the shortest distance I have had to help anyone move. She is going to be renting out her old house and living at the new one.

EXTRA CREDIT: Lunch was provided over there so I got the try Pizza Hut's new Pasta. Even though I am not a pasta fan I actually liked it...a lot! I tried the chicken pasta. Yummy!

-Jackie

Day 164 (September 19th)--In bed (no it's not what you think.)

Since I saw it on TV a couple of weeks ago I have been wanting to try it. Today I did. I got up at 5:45 and then ate cereal in bed. I seriously have never done that before. Maybe it's because we have a waterbed but I really didn't see what all the hype was about. It was hard to eat (and yes I was sitting up) and then my puppy got mad because I would not put the bowl down for him to finish while I was on the bed. I also do not like to eat cereal for breakfast on a workday, I just seem to get hungrier a lot faster. (Not that's not me in the picture. I think 90% of the population fail to wake up looking at good.)

-Jackie

Day 163 (September 18th)---Getting back into the groove

In college I was a fitness buff. I loved Rollerblading, Abs of Steel, yoga and walking (especially long walks I used to take with my College Roomate, Kristin. I also did some Tae Bo on a regular basis while working the overnight shift right out of college. After I got married my motivation for working out seemed to go away. Sure I take our dog for walks but the longer walks have become few and far between these days.

A year or two ago I bought the pictured DVD in hopes of getting back into the Yoga routine again. Yoga is one workout where I can stick with it and feel so relaxed from it. Today I actually put the DVD in and completed the workout. Since I took a long walk with my hubby and puppy yesterday, that makes 2 days in a row I have worked out. I am hoping I can make the walking/yoga combo a regular thing.

-Jackie

September 17th (Day 162)--Rip off!

Epilogue: I finally did get my mystery shop check on 9/19/08 and the postmark date was 9/8/08. I still don't think I will mystery shop with them again though.

I have been doing mystery shopping for various agencies since 2003....never run into any trouble with payment for these shops. One of the agencies I have worked for specializes in apartment mystery shops. Like I said, never had a problem with them...until now!

In August I did mystery shops for 2 of their apartments. I submitted the reports on time and was told to expect the check to be mailed out around the 6th of the Month (September). I look and look for the check...nothing. Check the mailbox each day after the 6th...no check. I e-mailed the first time and was told the checks were sent out around the 6th. SO I wait...nothing. Yesterday I e-mailed them to let them I know I had not received my check. I get an e-mail from their accounting department stating the check was mailed on the 9th and they would only reissue a check IF I DO NOT RECIEVE THE CHECK WITHIN 60 days! I did the mystery shop because I needed (and was counting on) this extra money. SO my new thing is that I got jipped by an apartment mystery shop company I have worked with for 5 years. Needless to say, I will not be doing any further mystery shops with this company! What a rip off!

-Jackie

Day 161 (September 16th) Educate yourself!

(DISCLAIMER: This post is not to endorse any candidate either way.....I will not welcome any political propaganda towards either candidate in the comments section.) I have decided who I am going to vote for but only discuss this on a need to know basis. But I feel this new thing needed to be done (See post below)

It's election season....with election season comes numerous e-mails that clutter up my inboxes and commercial after commercial of political ads. There has also been a barrage of Propaganda popping up on Facebook lately (so an so joined a group to support such and such a candidate OR so and so says you need to go to this website to check up on so and so OR (and this one really irks me) So and so says such and such candidate needs to shut up.)

I will say I am getting kind of burned out by the propaganda but I will also say this is a VERY important election coming up. With that said I made my own statement today on Facebook. On my status I encouraged people to go to this site to check their facts on candidates instead of blindly following what political ads or e-mail forwards (which I do not read anymore I simple delete) say. If one were to buy a car they would find out the ratings on the make and model they want to get. If one were to rent and apartment or buy a house they would go through inspections and check information. The same should be with voting. People need to do their research and pick the candidate that's best for them....not because of Party lines, not because their friends like so and so and not because of a political ad or e-mail.

(Stepping off my soapbox now)....Just some food for thought.

-Jackie
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Day 160 (September 15th)--Wow!

Today was a long day for me. I had to drive 75 miles each way to get to a team meeting (luckily this should only be a one time thing) and I am still struggling to catch up with work after only working 2 days next week. When I got home I got a pleasantly surprising phone call from my Church. I had put in a prayer request for a couple of things that had come up lately and they were calling to check up on me and see if there is anything that they could do. I have never had a church do that....especially a church as big as the one we currently attend (it has 3 campuses and we have only been attending since late June.) It's refreshing though as I have been to former Churches that prided themselves on coming around those in need but seemed to pick and choose who to come around. It really brought a smile to our day.

-Jackie

Day 159--(September 14th)---A bad Apple

Today I was craving a Carmel apple and even though it was pouring rain I decided to walk to the corner store anyway. I decided to get one of those "GOURMET" carmel apples to see what the hype was about. Now, I have had carmel apples before that I thought were a little small or needed more carmel but today was the first time I thought a carmel apple was terrible. I ate half of it and threw the rest away. One good thing was a rang it up at the self checkout along with some rootbeer and headed home. When I got home I looked at the receipt and somehow it rang up as one of those carmel apple pops (though I scanned the code right on the apple) so it only came up as .75. Not a huge loss financially. From now on I think I will stick with the SuperMom's Carmel apples. They are delicious!

-Jackie

Day 158 (Sept 13th)----Mamma Mia

I rarely see movies when they are in the theaters. I think I may take myself out for 1-2 in the year when they are in the actual theatre...prior to today the last time I saw a movie in the theatre was back in May. (I saw the Other Boeyln Girl in the theatre in February but that was for free.) Today I decided to treat myself and I saw Mamma Mia in the theatre. I have been really wanting to see this. Unfortunately the sing along version was not in the theatres here any longer but I don't think it mattered. I think people were singing along just the same. I really want to own this movie when it comes out on DVD.

-Jackie

Day 157 (September 12th)--Rap vs Country

I was driving back from a visit with a client today when I noticed the Escalade next to me was THUMPING rap music. I was already having a bad day and wanted to enjoy the fresh air without hearing whatever the driver was listening to so I cranked up my tunes and gave him a little competition. Rap music vs Toby Keith ......(Beer for my horses)....this went on for a couple of miles until his lane sped up and he drove off into the sunset (so to speak). Then I went on my way listening to my Toby Keith on the way....."mmmm mmmm mmmm mmm mmm I love this bar." (The song after beer for my Horses)

-Jackie

Day 156 (September 11th)---It's not easy being cheesy

Last night I wanted to make sure I had everything ready for work yesterday as I knew I would have a lot to catch up on after being out of work for 3 days. I went to the grocery store and bought items for my lunch. I did not realize it but my new thing ended up being trying a variety of cheesy things....the first being Beer Cheese soup (which was just okay), the second being I bought a sandwich that had pepper Jack cheese on it (I did not like the cheese, too spicy) and the third thing being the new Pringles...the Extreme Kickin Cheddar). I am actually pleasantly surprised with these. They also have extreme dill pickle. I will have to try those sometime....

-Jackie

Day 155 (September 10th) A hot dog on my deck

I was supposed to be back to work today but the migraine in the back of my head had other plans. So I ended up having to use another day of PTO. I went to let Pretzel on the deck and found a rubber hot dog on our deck. I had no idea where it had come from leaving my new thing of the day being finding a random squeaky toy on our deck. I later found out that the toy was from our downstairs neighbors who had moved out and the toy was for Pretzel.

-Jackie

Day 154 (September 9th)--15.5 hours!

As you know I am an assistant to the Head Election judge at my polling place. They are making all judges in my city work full days instead of the former half shifts (because of people not showing up.) Today I worked 15.5 hours at the Primary election where both the Head Judge and I were rookies at leading everything. It got a little tedious because of the low turnout (since it was the primary and the crucial items for our city come on the general election ballots.) It still ended up being okay. I am going to go to bed SUPER EARLY before the General election. That will be a VERY late night and my head judge and I will be the last ones who get to go. At least we get paid well for our times which will help fund a very fun new thing (COMING SOON TO A NEW THINGS EACH DAY PAGE NEAR YOU!)

-Jackie

Day 153 (September 8th) Lollipop Lollipop

Hello!
Believe it or not I have NEVER had a big lollipop before. I have had regular suckers before but never a huge lollipop. That changed today. Ever since I saw a thing of lollipops on one of the reality shows I have been telling my husband. "I want one" He replies with "Why don't you get one then." I found a HUGE one at Walgreens for $1. Therefore my new thing for the day is finally getting a Lollipop. Unfortunately it is better to not eat it when my puppy is around. He thinks he is entitled and will try to come right up and taste it for himself!

-Jackie

Day 152 (September 7th)--Document the journey

Today I was really looking forward to the NFL kickoff. None of my close friends are big football fans like I am (some even end up rooting for the wrong football teams, ha ha!) So it was pretty much my puppy Pretzel and I watching the game I was anticipating....Jets vs Dolphins. In celebration of the kickoff I decided to document my excitement for the game via photos. I think I got at least a couple of cute shots!

-Jackie

Day 151 (September 6th) HELLO KITTY!

I am a huge Hello Kitty fan! I have a Hello Kitty Toaster as well as a Hello Kitty lunch bag that I bring to work. My hubby knows this and bought me Hello Kitty Roller Rescue for Game Cube. With that said my new thing for the day is helping Hello kitty defeat the evil box people, save her town, her friends and unlock new outfits and wands on the way. There are 12 levels to the game, I have made it through 3 so far. It is a really fun game. Maybe I like the saving the town and helping others theme because I am a Social Worker. Who knows?

-Jackie