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A little of this, a little of that

March 27th, 2011 at 02:26 pm

Some time ago, I decided to downgrade the cats from the pricier Fancy Feast to Friskies. Not truly happy with either brand, mind you, in terms of healthful eating, but that's all my pocketbook can afford these days. So switching brands cut my monthly cat food bill nearly in half.

So I loaded up with quite a lot of Friskies at Wal-Mart last time I was there. But it turns out the cats distinctly dislike two flavors (both chicken). They seem to prefer the shredded flavors with gravy much better than the pate.

I couldn't find the receipt, but I figured I could return about 25 cans of those 2 flavors and was dismayed when Wal-Mart told me firmly they don't accept returns of food, even if it's cat food.

Fortunately, my brain was actually working properly yesterday and it occurred to me that Shop-Rite might take the returned cat food, and since I was headed over there anyway, it was worth a shot. (I honestly don't recall if the cat food in question was from there or Wal-Mart, but I do buy Friskies both both stores.)

I struck success at Shop-Rite and was able to get credit for the cat food, which I promptly spent on human food for me. And I jotted down the flavors the cats don't like, for future reference.

I also decided to sell a 300 mm camera lens for $10 to a guy who sells stuff on eBay. I had tried unsuccessfully to sell it at my friend's tag sale last year, and I knew it would be hard to do becus I don't have an interest in selling stuff on eBay and since the lens is only compatible with Minolta camera bodies, it would be tough to find a buyer. And, I knew i would never go back to using that kind of camera after becoming hooked on digital cameras years ago. So, $10 is $10. I think I spent about $300 on it 20 years ago when i was really into photography more. I'm really focused on decluttering my home and getting rid of stuff (for money, whenever possible) that is not being used or has no value to me.

I worked about 2.5 hours yesterday. I was thinking of working another few hours today, but I'm worried that if I don't take some break from it I will really burn out during the week. So much as I'd like to earn more $$, I think I will limit myself to putting in extra time any day but Sunday, my day of rest.

I'd been wanting to go to a movie today, but since girlfriend can't go, i decided not to go myself, becus, really what i need is more exercise. So I'll bundle up and go for a walk early afternoon, when it's warmest.

I was recently having problems with my Dell printer not working; Dell technical support wanted several hundred dollars to fix what they said was a Windows problem. I was able to fix it myself by uninstalling and then reinstalling the printer drivers, but that lasted for only a few days and then it wasn't printing again. So frustrating. I was prepared to reinstall the drivers again today, but when i turned it on and tried a test print, lo and behold, it worked.

So, not wanting to take any more chances with this thing not working when I need it to, I decided I'm just going to leave the printer on day and night. I think the added expense would be negligible. Provided there's no power outage, I could then always count on the thing working and I avoid Dell's rip-off fee.

Somewhere along the line I got out of the habit of preparing all my meals from scratch and have been eating more processed, pre-packaged foods than I like. So today I'm making one of my favorite cold summer salads, a wheat berry salad with chopped celery, dried cranberries, raisins, toasted walnuts and scallions tossed in a dressing of orange juice (and orange zest). Delicious and nutritious.

I'm watching the indicator on my oil tank very closely these last few weeks. The goal is to get through the rest of the heating season...realistically, through the month of April.... without having to refill the oil tank to the tune of about $3.50 a gallon.

Last I checked, it was a little more than a quarter of a tank. Naturally, we're going through a cold spell with temps off their normal averages by about 10 degrees. And nights continue to be below freezing.

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