That Hobbit Lady

One of the responsibilities of my new job is to take the “Deposit” to the financial office across campus about once a week. To do this, I have to take the campus bus. I actually like taking the bus. I also like being able to add an extra half hour on to my lunch , and going to “The Ferg,” a kind of “student union” where you can get an iced tea, and even a Whopper Jr. from Burger King—tho lately, with our house-hunting and serious attempts to pay off our credit cards, we’ve been carpooling and brown-bagging, so Burger King is not usually on the menu these days.

Today I took my Deposit envelope and my salad and boiled egg and went out to wait for the bus. I had been very busy all morning, so I hadn’t had a chance to eat anything but a couple of little muffins, and by this time I was HUNGRY!!! So I decided to take out my boiled egg and eat it while I waited for the bus. I took out the egg and began to peel it.

It immediately occurred to me that the way the universe so often works, once I began to peel the egg, the bus would probably show up before I had a chance to eat it. But then I thought…hey! Either I will have the chance to peel and eat the egg before the bus comes, thus relieving my hunger, or the bus will come, I’ll have to get on, and won’t be able to eat my egg right away, but then I’ll get to “The Ferg” that much faster and be able to sit down and eat my salad. Thus relieving my hunger. No matter how I looked at it, I was close to relieving my hunger. It was a win-win situation.

With these thoughts, it also occurred to me that in life there are probably plenty of times when it would be a wise strategy to concoct a “win-win” situation, whenever possible. Some people might call this looking for the cloud’s silver lining. It’s kind of like that, I suppose. My point is that whenever something seems, at first, to be a negative, if you try, you can put on a positive spin by connecting it to another situation, which also appears to be negative. If only one of those negative things CAN happen, then the fact that the other negative thing DOESN’T happen is automatically transformed into a positive.

See? It’s all about attitude.

I bought this bowl at the Thrift Store for about $1.50.

I bought it because it brought forth some nostalgic feelings. I have a feeling that in my past, in my childhood, there must have been a bowl like this. In fact, I think my mom has this bowl, only in clear glass, not green.

I kind of like the green. I’ve used this bowl a couple of times now for salad. It’s just the right size, and salad looks good against the green of the bowl.

I *always* drive with the windows down, so I am extremely aware of other drivers’ windows, whether they are up or down. For instance, in the Spring or Fall, when the weather is gorgeous, I look around and see 95-99% of people driving with their windows up, using their air conditioning, and I think “What is WRONG with you people???!!!”

So, when, over the last couple of days, I am suddenly noticing maybe 15-20% of people driving with their windows DOWN, I know that something must be going on. Somebody somewhere said something that has caused at least a small portion of the population to make this change. But I’m asking around, and I’m looking on the internet, and I can’t seem to find anything about it.

Did somebody on Good Morning America suddenly announce that it’s incredibly more fuel-efficent NOT to use your car air conditioner, and for some reason, everybody now believes them and gives a darn? (I personally feel that not using the car air conditioner is better for your gas mileage in most cases, but apparently there is some controversy about this.) Has Katie Couric reported that fumes from car air conditioning has been proven to cause cancer? Did Michael Phelps request everyone in America to turn off their car air conditioners in support of the US Olympic athletes?

Now, here I’m assuming this is a nationwide phenomenon, and perhaps it is not. Maybe it’s just happening in Alabama, maybe just in Tuscaloosa. But I’ve looked everywhere on the internet and can’t find a single damn thing about it! The next time I go out in the car and pull up next to someone with their windows down, I swear I’m going to ask.

In the meantime, I’m asking here. If anybody reading this knows what the heck is going on with the windows being rolled down, please, please tell me!! I feel like a kid in school and there’s this big secret, and everyone knows about it but me and is laughing behind my back.

Well, Russ and I have been talking about this for some time, and we’ve finally got it going. We’ve created a user profile for half.com and we’ve got some books and music for sale there. John told me Amazon would be a better way to go, and I’ve considered that, but for the time being, we’re just sticking with half.com.

The amazing thing is that I’ve already made one sale! Even tho my name is at the bottom of the list (because I have no experience and no reviews) still somehow I got a sale! I shipped the book off on Friday, and I’m hoping this person will leave me a glowing review. My first review!

In the meantime, just wanted to let anyone who may be reading this LJ know that if you have any need for used books or music, please visit me on half.com. I have discovered that you can actually find my seller profile by simply googling the user name:

goodstuffaloosa

Google that, and see what happens! I would greatly appreciate it if anyone would be so kind as to order a book from me, and then leave me a good reveiw when you get it. A few good reviews will really start to get this whole business up and running. Even if you don’t need anything right this moment, please keep that name in mind: goodstuffaloosa

I don’t really anticipate this to be a huge money maker, just a little extra spending cash. And of course, the great fun for me is perusing the book stores and yard sales, looking for items to sell. Generally I’m a gatherer, but in this way, I’m a hunter. I love to hunt for and find a good bargain! And I hope you will too!

Last week I started moving into my new office at work. Moving into a new office is *almost* as much fun as moving into a new house. Well, not really, not quite. But it is fun.

This weekend I went shopping at the big thrift store, looking for lamps for my office. I found one good lamp that takes a three-way bulb up to 150 watts, and a small desk lamp. I also found some “seasonal” decorations.

Yeah, yeah, I know I don’t really *need* a musical snowman (you lift open his belly and there is a little ice pond there with three skaters going around and around to the tune of Joy to the World), but I could not resist this guy. I think I like him so much because he reminds me of this Christmas wall decoration that has been in my family FOREVER. If it weren’t so freaking HOT outside, I would go into the garage and dig into the bin of Christmas decorations to find it. If I could post a picture of the snowman wall decoration I’m talking about right next to this picture of my new musical snowman, I think the comparison would probably be pretty amazing.

So it’s Christmas in July. Oops! It’s August. Okay. Christmas in August. Maybe in November I’ll do the side by side comparison. But it seems like quite a while til we get there. I say it seems that way, but in fact, it will probably be here before we know it.

You know me, I love using coupons. So here’s my latest coupon triumph:

The Crimson White, the university newspaper, had a coupon for a 99-cent grilled sandwich at the Crimson Cafe, a local restaurant on “The Strip” (the college hangout area just outside the campus). So I suggested to Russ we go, thinking to save a few dollars on a quick and easy dinner.

So tonight we go. And apparently the 99-cent sandwich ALSO includes french fries AND a drink. So, with tax, that’s $1.08 for me, and $1.08 for Russ. I said to the guy behind the counter, “Wait. I wanted an iced tea with that also.” He said, “No problem. It’s still $1.08.” The usual cost would be $6.49. That’s a five and a half dollar savings on EACH of our meals.

So…

For $2.16 we each had a grilled sandwich, fries/chips (I had fries, Russ had chips) and a drink. What a bargain, right?

But wait…there’s more!

This little restaurant also had a bakery case, with some pastries and bagels, and as we are getting up to go, the guy behind the counter says, “Hey, you want some bagels and stuff? Take them, it’s free. If you don’t take them, we’re just going to throw it all away, so take as much as you want.”

Now I’ve worked at Dunkin Donuts, so I know how it goes. You can’t continue to SELL old stuff, but it’s certainly not poisonous. Maybe not quite as fresh, but still good. But as I was filling a bag with four bagels, two muffins and some kind of pastry-thingy, none of it seemed stale at all!

So let’s recap: 2 sandwiches, 2 drinks, fries, chips, 4 bagels, 2 muffins and 1 pastry thingy for a grand total of…$2.16!!!!

I’d say we done good.

I challenge anyone to beat this story. Legally.

I’ve just been reading some fanfiction (not my own!) and I ran across this sentence: “I felt a rough but gentle hand on my shoulder.” Now…am I being picky or unreasonable when I ask…What in blazes does that MEAN???? Rough…but gentle???? Am I missing something? Am I dense? Is it wrong to stop and ask “How can a hand be rough AND gentle?” Or should I say “Rough BUT gentle?”

Geez…You know, I don’t WANT to be a Grammar Nazi, but sometimes…sometimes I just have no choice.

Tonight we used our rice cooker, and as I was browsing thru the little instruction booklet, I found this highly amusing sentence under “Hints for Steaming” (as apparently you can also steam veggies along with the rice.) This is what the booklet suggests:

1. The ingredients must be of superior excellence.

I kid you not. I wrote that word for word. Superior excellence. The funny part is that the rest of the instructions sound like they were written by someone who speaks English as a first language. I guess they just really wanted to stress how important it is to use ingredients of “superior excellence.”

I would like to write more, but I’ve been very little in my computer these last few days, as I’ve been nursing a sore back. We took an overnight trip to Huntsville this past weekend, just for the fun of it, and it was fun, but sleeping in a strange bed and sitting in the car for hours on end I guess was not so good for my back, which had already been hurting a little. But I took a day off work and I’ve really been babying it with heat and pain relievers, and I’m n the mend now. But back pain can definitely slow you down.

But before I go, one image, from Huntsville. In the distance, those are mountains. Honest to goodness MOUNTAINS. And the wispy stuff in front of the mountains is mist. So this is a picture of mist on the mountains. Pretty cool, huh? I liked Hunstville. It’s laid out pretty much in a grid pattern, with very little chance of getting lost. I like places that make sense.