My friend Kim just got new glasses. She fell in with the current trend of frames that are small, rimless, and rectangle shaped. Everywhere you look people are wearing the same style of eyeglasses as Sarah Palin. Like her or not, she absolutely launched a trend. Seriously, just look around and you’ll se glasses like the ones she wear just about everywhere.

Kim paid way too much for her glasses, though. Way. Too. Much. I told her so, but in a much more tactful way. I’m nothing if not tactful.
I found this pair of very similar looking glasses at Zenni Optical for $23.95 complete. They manufacture their own frames and therefore they are able to offer all of their styles for much less than you are going to find at retail outlets that need to mark-up the merchandise to compensate for the multiple middle men who are involved. Everything on their website is reasonably priced, even the extras like anti reflective coating. Anti scratch coating and UV protection are free. And if that’s not cool enough, they even have an entire line of Holiday frames.

In fact, you can get a complete pair of single vision eyeglasses for $8. Yep, that’s eight dollars. It’s a frugal girl’s dream come true. I probably should mentioned the $8 thing at the beginning of my post.

Every New Year’s Day I like to make my favorite pork loin recipe. I have missed making it the past couple of years, due to smaller family gatherings, but I am gearing up to make it again this year.

You want to make sure you buy a very high quality white meat pork loin. It’s going to be leaner, have a milder flavor, and a great texture.

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 Tablespoon caraway seeds
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons course salt
4 & 1/2 pound boneless pork loin
1 Tablespoon bourbon, or to taste
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped green onions

In small bowl, combine oil, thyme, oregano, caraway seeds, onion, garlic, and salt. Rub mixture onto pork loin. In roasting pan, chill the seasoned pork loin overnight.

Roast at 325 degrees for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until meat thermometer reached 155 degrees. Remove and let stand 10 minutes.

Bourbon Gravy: Add bourbon, chicken broth, and water to pan juices. Boil one minute, scraping up brown bits. Strain mixture into a bowl. In saucepan, combine butter and flour, cook the roux over moderately low heat, whisking for three minutes. Add the broth mixture in a stream, whisking. Bring to boil, whisking. Add green onions and simmer one minute.

When I was in high school, graphic t-shirts were in style. They were even more popular when I was in elementary school in the 70’s. The 90’s were a missing decade when it came to using t-shirts to make a statement. I mean, I know they were out there, but they just weren’t all that wild.

I think I made my first conscious statement when I was in about the 6th grade and was wearing braces. I got a shirt with a huge graphic of a smiling face with braces and the shirt said, “Braces Are Beautiful!” Nothing radical, I know. Once I hit high school I wore shirts for my favorite punk bands and tee’s with pithy statements. Sometimes, the name of the bands alone was shocking enough for most of the rest of the world – the Buzzcocks Orgasm Addict shirt and my Circle Jerks shirts got more than a few dirty looks. I suppose that is why I don’t bat an eyelash when I see kids today wearing shirts with semi-offensive slogans.

My kind of crazy t-shirts now days run more along the lines of the 80s t-shirts I found on the Crazy Dog t-shirts website. They’ve got vintage tees with Speed Racer, Voltron, Mr. Rogers, E.T., and others that will completely take you back to your childhood. Well, at least to MY childhood, if you happen to be too young to remember some of this stuff.

My favorite is the one that says “You Have Died of Dysentery.” My family was one of the first in my neighborhood to get a computer. We had a little Apple IIE and we would play the game The Oregon Trail endlessly. It took forever! The whole thing was text based and you guided your little wagon filled with a pioneer family out to the West where they could settle, IF they survived. Mine rarely did.

Shipping is only $4 right now over at Crazy Dog, so you should take this opportunity to check out some of their cool designs.

I used to do a lot of mystery shopping. I never looked at it as a way to make money, and if anyone tells you that it’s a good source of income they are lying boldly to your face. It is, however, a great way to cover the expense of a nice meal out or to make a little money – enough for a little gas or a treat. Mystery shopping is fun and gives you the opportunity to more highly hone your powers of keen observation and attention to detail.

I’m taking the last half of my Christmas break off school to update my mystery shopping accounts. Most of them list my information from two moves ago. I’ve not mystery shopped in a couple of years, save for the occasional movie theater shop for one of my favorite shopping companies. But, with a summer on my horizon that will likely be spent NOT working fulltime, I am eager to do a few fun shops.

The mystery shopping community is a highly secretive, highly competitive group of people. I am not talking about the mystery shopping companies, but rather those who mystery shop. All you need to do is spend even a little bit of time on any of the mystery shopping forums online to see how hostile some people get if anyone asks a question like which mystery shopping company has an account for Disney or Ruby Tuesdays or Sprint – or any other account. I suppose the major reason for this is that shoppers feel like the more people in their area who know about particular job information, the less work they might get.

I’ve always shared information freely with my friends, both local and distant. I can only hope that one day someone will share as freely with me. After being out of the circuit for two years, I am finding that some of the companies I worked with are not longer in business, that other no longer have jobs in my area, and that some of the jobs I liked doing the best must now have their accounts with alternate companies.

Some friends of mine recently did something very brave and adventurous. They sold their big house, both of their cars, and most of their belongings. They both quit their jobs. Then, they bought a Winnebago and set off for a minimum two-year adventure all across the United States.

They are not much older than I am, so they are nowhere near ready to retire. They just decided to enjoy their time together and the county we live in while they are still young and healthy and full of energy. What faith it took, I imagine, to quit their jobs, pull up roots, and just take off driving.

I admire them both for doing it and I am thoroughly engrossed in every update I receive from them detailing their latest stops, the things they have seen, and the people they have met. I suppose I am living vicariously through them right now.

They’ve both learned an awful lot about the upkeep of their new home, how to find the Winnebago Parts they need to keep things running smooth, and pretty much the best R.V. sites all over the nation.

For anyone who thinks living in a Winnebago would feel restrictive, let me tell you right now how wrong you are. I’ve been on board with my friends on several occasions and I’m amazed at how well the space is used. Inside feels like a little apartment on wheels. They even have satellite internet hooked up so they can stay connected with people no matter where they are.

When Tous les Matins du Monde (All the Mornings of the World) first came out of video, back in the very early 90s, I fell in love with the music and the story. I also began an appreciation for Guillaume Depardieu. He was achingly beautiful in this film, wise beyond his years, quite perfect in the role of the young Young Marin Marais. He was about 20 when he made the movie.

I followed his career over the years, his films, his motorcycle accident, the tragic events that led to the amputation of one of his legs, the troubles with his family, and on October 13 of this year – his death.

When I read of his passing from pneumonia, I was stunned. I knew he lived hard, but it seemed such a sad way for him to die after all he had lived through. I rented Tous les Matins du Monde again today, because I wanted to see Guillaume again at his most beautiful. I think I loved the movie even more this time around. Of course, knowing Guillaume is dead made it all the more poignant, but the music also impacted me on a deeper level than it did all those years ago.

Recently, I helped my dad photo catalog his collection of Roy Rogers memorabilia. Actually, I took the pictures some time ago, but I recently can across them again and re-started the project. My dad has been a fan of Roy Rogers since his childhood and all his life he collected little bits of this and that to remind him of the days he would spend a Saturday afternoon at the movie theater watching his cowboy hero.

Back in 1985 or 1986 my family took a two-week trip out to the west coast. We spent time driving around and seeing the Petrified Forest National Park, the Painted Desert, Joshua Tree National Park, the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Hoover Dam, and lots of other amazing attractions. We also took time out to visit the he Roy Rogers – Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, CA. The trip to the museum is one of my clearest memories of our vacation.

In 2003, the he Roy Rogers – Dale Evans Museum picked up and moved to Branson, Missouri. I have heard that while the museum retained much of its homey, personal feel, it also benefitted from the move. Now it is surrounded by hundreds of other exciting shows and attractions. I’ve been anxious to see the new museum and want to plan a trip out to see it, and the rest of Branson. My dad’s sister and wife and mother go often, so I would love to have them along as unofficial tour guides.

This is actually one of the better times of the year to visit Branson. Christmastime and the coming New Year celebration have inspired all sorts of charming light displays and special events. In particular, the packages at the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel are about as festive as you can get. They have already hosted special theme packages for Thanksgiving and Christmas (“It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Santa’s Coming to Town” were their themes – how cute!), the New Years’ Eve package is still to come.

I just keep thinking how fitting it is that the Roy Rogers Museum is part of Branson now.

I may not always post the details, but one of the things I am going to try to do in 2009 is make sure I get at least one amazing deal a week. I can remember years past when I got dozens of free Milton Bradley games or massive boxes of Ziploc reusable containers for $.19 a box. Deals like that used to be easy to find.

Now days you have to search a little harder.

I went ahead and started this week. I’ll call this my first great deal of 2009.

At CVS all Nature’s Bounty vitamins and supplements are Buy One Get One Free (BOGO). On top of that, CVS will give you $3 in what they call Extra Bucks (EB) to spend on a future purchase.

I signed up at the Nature’s Bounty website for their newsletter and they gave me a printable coupon for $2. I also found an additional $2 printable coupon elsewhere.

I found bottles of Potassium Gluconate 595 Mg Caplets at my local CVS for $4.89. I picked up two bottles, used a $2 coupon for each of them and ended up paying $.89 for the two bottles, since one was free. I also received the $3EB.

Essentially, I made $3.11.

I take the Potassium when I have had to take a diuretic or am dehydrated. It also helps when I have a headache or when my high-protein diet causes a potassium shortage.

My laptop is rather on its last legs anyway. I got it when my daughter was very young and she knocked it to the ground one too many times. Still, it works and I use it now to take to the high school with me when I work. I suppose I know that the risk of it being damaged is pretty high there as well, so I may as well use the poor thing. Once I finally get around to buying a new laptop for myself, I surely won’t feel inclined to take it to the high school It’s just a rough environment, full of kids moving too fast to stop and see where they are going.

Here’s the thing, though, I know that with the right laptop case that my laptop will be reasonably protected no matter where I want to take it. I admit that the bag I have right now is all but useless. It came with an old laptop when my ex got a good deal on some used laptops at one of his tech jobs years ago.

Spire USA sells laptop bags that are designed to last a lifetime. They invite you to use the bags under the roughest conditions you can imagine. I like the idea that someone out there is still making a product that is meant to last instead of engineering it so that they can try and get your repeat business when you have to buy a replacement a couple of years later. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes I think the shrinking quality of consumer goods is happening on purpose and that the end consumer is getting screwed.

I LOVE this review on the Spire website. It’s from one of their customers:

“I’m currently working in the Northern Kuwait desert — it’s one of the most inhospitable regions in the world where not even scorpions survive. My Meta has now survived six months of daily use. Through thick mud, blazing heat that can reach 150 degrees, and merciless sand storms the Meta has faithfully protected my laptop. Not only has the Meta failed to break in any way, it still looks like new!”
JW, Meta Owner

Sounds like I’ve found a way to take my personal laptop into the high school with me without feeling like I’m risking its safety. Now, if only I’d had one of these bags back when my daughter kept knocking it to the ground.

When I have things to donate, I often give them to the Hospice. Around here, the Hospice runs the BESTY thrift shops. They get the cleanest, coolest stuff, their volunteers sort it well and it is always priced reasonably. I love getting paperback books for a quarter and board games for about a buck.

Anyway, today has been a big day at our house for sorting and tossing. We went through my daughter’s toys, costume jewelry, and shoes today. I will go through her clothing tomorrow. Then, I will take a few loads to the local Hospice donation center and come home to sort through my own things.

I admire the Hospice organization for what it does best, too. They are with people as they pass from this earth, working hard to make them comfortable and surrounding by peace. My mom’s late husband passed away at the Hospice unit down at Bay Pines V.A. Center. Mom often comments that shopping at their thrift stores is sometimes difficult for her, as she knows families sometimes donate entire estates worth of stuff to the Hospice. I think it makes her feel too close to the reality of death. I actually feel very peaceful at their stores myself. I like knowing that everything is going to good use.

Movie night is a whole new animal now that I have a daughter. Gone are the sexy French films, subtitled Japanese horror flicks, and difficult to understand indie films. When I bring a movie home to watch on a Saturday night now, it needs to be suitable for both me and my five-year-old daughter.

When I was still married, making our movie choices suitable for Gigi’s eyes was a hard sell for my ex. He pretty much never joined us for our family movie night, preferring to stay up later and watch something wildly violent.

Anyway, now that it is just me and Gigi we can bring home all the family-friendly films we want. We generally pile onto the couch, grab some cold drinks (milk for Gigi and iced tea for me) and enjoy of a couple of hours of snuggling and movie watching.

I am always looking for great idea for movies I can share with my daughter. “All Roads Lead Home” is being billed as the perfect family night movie and I’m inclined to agree that it looks just like the sort of movie I want to see with Gigi. It’s family-focused and showcases forgiveness after a difficult situation. Loss is dealt with in a moving and real manner. And, there are characters in the film that my daughter and I will both be able to relate to in a natural way.

Plus, I love Peter Coyote and Jason London. Peter Boyle has a part in the film and died before it was released. It is the last film he appeared him and it seems a fitting end to a memorable career. Since animals play major parts in the movie, I know my daughter will be engrossed no matter what is happening. Little girls can always relate to horses and puppies.

Watch the trailer. I was misty-eyed before it was halfway through. All Roads Lead Home The Movie came out in theaters back in September and will be released on DVD on January 13, 2009.

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Besides the idea of supporting our troops more often, which I just blogged about earlier, I have two more things on my list of resolutions for 2009. I am not going to make things so hard for myself that I fail in keeping the resolutions. I want to set myself up to win, so two more are all I am going to add to my list:

1. Start using coupons again
I used to make a game out of it. I got a small thrill when I would be able to combine a store sale with a store coupons and a manufacturer’s coupon. I took the time at least once a week to comb sales flyers and couponing websites. I am going to make sure this is a part of my life once more in 2009.

2. Get Back In Shape
I lost 10 pounds in about 11 days. I am only weighing myself once a week. That way I won’t get panicky if I have a little fluctuation from one day to the next. However, I do plan on making weight loss a weekly occurring all though the next year. A little bit at a time, I plan to look like I did before I met my ex husband. That was a good place in my life – the before him time. ?

Christmas might be over, but as we coast into 2009 there is no reason to stop with the charitable feelings that permeate the holiday season. As you sit down to reflect back on 2008 you are more than likely going to made at least one New Year’s Resolution.

Might I suggest that one of your resolutions be to find a way to support the military families that sacrifice so much all year round?

I have an idea for a very easy way that you can accomplish such a resolution. Check out what Sears is doing with their Sears Heroes at Home Wish Registry. It’s a heartening program, to say the least. People like you and I can simply donate money to the program. Qualified military families can register and then Sears distributes the funds equally in the form of Sears gift cards.

The Heroes at Home Wish Registry program is not a non-profit organization, so you cannot write off your contributions as a tax reduction. However, this is a program that is DIRECTLY accessible for the over 30,000 military families registered. There is no overhead or salaries to pay. Whatever is donated is then passed right on to the military families. That is something you can feel great about.

While you are checking out the Heroes at Home section of the Sears website, don’t forget to leave a message of support for our military men and women.

I have been carrying Coach bags for about 15 years. I’ve not bought a new one in at least eight years, though. The bags I have are the classics that were made in the United States with glove-quality leather. They have lasted through abuse and many years and still look wonderful. I’ve never had to be particularly careful with them and they retina both their youthful looks and their sturdy construction. My favorites have been my Willis briefcase style bag and my handy Rambler’s legacy bag.

So, I noticed that this past month Dillard’s had been offering their Coach bags for 30% off. I took a couple trips in to look around and finally ended up with the black leather and brass Julianne. Ideally, I wanted the smaller black leather Sabrina, but even after calling around to several stores I could not locate one.

So, I took the bag home and that was when I started having my second-thoughts. First of all, the Julianne is bigger than any purse I have ever carried. Even with nothing in it, the bag is a tad awkward. It’s comfy, but it’s just plain big.

Then, as I went about my way doing Christmas shopping I noticed how MANY people are carrying Coach bags – it seemed like every 4th woman I passed was carrying Coach. Most were carrying the cheesy fabric “Signature” bags that scream, “I own a Coach!” When I began carrying coach, I did so for the streamlined simplicity of their styles, the unsurpassable quality of the leather, and the fact that carrying a Coach was still something rather unique. I do not want to be just another face in a sweltering crowd of Coach devotees.

And then there is the fact that Coach bags are all made in China now. Not only have they largely come away from using quality leather for their new designs, they are farming the work out to Chinese factories. I like to buy American in general, and when it comes to Coach, there is something absolutely special about their New York craftsmanship that is sadly long gone now.

So, I took the Julianne back to Dillard’s. I will just get out my classic bags and give them a little TLC with some milk oil. One needs a new D-ring, but the local Coach store can send it off for repairs, so there is no need for me to buy a new one. I’m good with the old, American-made, understated Coach bags I already own.

Since Cryo-Cell is an international company that is local to me (they are located right up the road in Oldsmar, FL), I took an interest in what they do years ago. My sister banked her son’s cord blood with Cry-Cell. So did many of my friends. I signed up for the program, but my hospital overlooked some of my paperwork and I ended up donating the cord blood from my daughter’s birth, but I still feel good about that decision overall.

Anyway, I have been blogging lately about the fact that not only does Cryo-Cell offer cord blood banking, which is a method of storing stem cells that a lot of people are familiar with – they also have a service called C’elle, which allows women to collect and store menstrual blood, because the shed uterine lining contains viable stem cells as well. When you combine these two services they call it “Protect Baby and Protect Mom”, and they offer a $300 discount when you enroll online.

Stem cell technology is growing on an almost daily basis. The research is heading the medical world in directions we may never have imagined even a few short years ago. And as controversial as embryonic stem cell research has been, it is a great relief to me to see that non-controversial sources like cord blood and menstrual blood are edging their way into the limelight more each year.

If you know someone who is pregnant, keep in mind that you don’t have to give them a predictable gift like a layette set or a stroller. You can purchase Cryo-Cell gift certificates for them in $50 increments.