Ways to Save

Hello People. I have been thinking/reading a lot of about finances, debt, saving, etc. Maybe it's because our economy is in the shitter and everyone is talking about. I have found some great blogs out there talking about finances. More importantly, I've found a lot written by women my age talking about these things! Here are a few that I found:

http://budgetingbabe.blogspot.com/
http://nicethingsbaddebt.blogspot.com/
http://qvisory.org/blog/tag/Money
http://www.suzeorman.com/
http://www.myopenwallet.net/
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/frugalista/

I've also learned of a few easy ways to make & save money: 1. ebates.com - Make an account on here and be sure to visit this site before you buy ANYTHING online. Then, you click the store you want to visit through the ebates.com. So, say you want to shop on the Gap.com. Go to ebates.com, then click Gap.com and buy. You will get cash back for buying through ebates. How Easy! I made an account today.

2. retailmenot.com - Before you buy ANYTHING online (and buy it through ebates), be sure to search for a coupon code for your store on this site. They always have one for most stores and you can get % off, free shipping, or $ off. Its great.

3. surveyspot.com - Get paid to take short surveys. Its only a couple of bucks per survey, but that is a few more bucks than you have now!

4. mint.com - A site that you dump all of your credit card, bank info into and it tracks how much you spend & where. It even shows you a pie chart of where you are spending your money. Its sort of scary when you see it all but shows you where everything is going. I realized I spend WAY too much money at the little gourmet grocery store across the street. It even keeps track of when your bills are due, paid, etc. Best of all, its free!

5. restaurant.com - Sign up for their newsletter and get discounts at restaurants in your area. You can also buy $25 gift cards for only $10! Easy way to save $ on your bill...

So that is it for now. If I find more sites, I will let you know!

I hate chocolate

I really don't like chocolate. I especially hate chocolate chips in chocolate chip cookies and mint chips in mint chocolate chip cookies. I think that chocolate tastes funny and it makes my mouth feel wierd. Maybe I am allergic.

If I had an ice cream shop, I would offer both flavors listed above WITHOUT chips. I would call the flavors 'Chipless Chocolate Chip ice cream' and 'Chipless Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream'.

I was inspired to blog this because I just had part of a chocolate chip cookie from Specialty's and picked all of the chips out.

Erik on the other hand, LOVES chocolate. If I never had to eat it again in my life, I wouldn't mind.

2 Annoying things

2 Things that Annoy me:

1. People who ride their bikes on the sidewalk. We have bike lanes. Use them.
2. Homeless people who eat fried chicken and throw the bones on the sidewalk. If I'm not paying attention, Evie will grab it and then I have to shove my hand down her throat to pull it out. One time a group of them even threw a bone towards her! Not a good idea.

Motley Crew

Hmmmm. 2 of the people in this picture need to get some sunglasses, asap.

This one is a tiny bit better....

Evie on the Rocks

Erik & Jaime took Evie to Pacifica last Friday. She was wandering around on the rocks and they let her off leash. She looks so noble!

Last 5 Miler

Today was my last team run before my half-marathon. I only had to run 5 miles today which is a gift after increasing mileage over the past month. I remember when I ran 4 miles for the first time back in February and it seemed like such a big feat. Slowly we moved to 6, 8, 10, 11 miles. Next Sunday is the big race!

We always dedicate our team runs to an 'honoree', someone who is battling a blood cancer. Today, I dedicated the team run to Stephanie Ruud. Stephanie is the wife of a co-worker who has leukemia. She has a 2 year old boy and is constantly having to be away from him while she goes to a hospital to receive treatment. She is being strong though & working through this. (check out her blog at beingruud.com)

Erik and I are driving 5 hours to Humboldt, CA (the pot capital of the US) next Saturday. We will go to the team pasta party. The race is on Sunday.

There will be a TON of TNT racers there from SF, Marin, Wine Country & Silicon Valley. It will be so great to see so many 'team members' out there cheering everyone on. It really is uplifting to have people you do not even know run past you & say 'Go Team'. I will also be thinking of Stephanie while I am reaching mile 13.

Quick Fire Challenge

Today, we had a team building event with our Clients which was a cooking day at a commercial kitchen in Oakland! Two fun things about this kitchen:1)the 1st season of Top Chef and 2)The owner trained the animators of Ratatouille. We had a fun time making appetizers, having a wine tasting, and making our meal. We made this great crab cakes and had a 'Quick Fire Challenge' of a cookie cook-off among the teams.

Our "Sugar Orgy on the Beach" cookie came in 2nd. Terry, the owner, was really nice and took our questions in stride. She loves what she does and it shows. I will post some pics when we get them. In the mean time, check out the site at www.pauldingandco.com or the Ratatouille video!

Evie: Shoes, Blue Feet, and a sprinkler

A few funny things and not so funny things about Evie.

1. She was home all day alone yesterday because both Erik and I were at work. Erik came home to feed her, walk her, and then left her alone for another hour to come to my kickball game. When she is home alone too long, she gets MAD. We arrived home to find a broken pen in the living room and 4 shoes. Which leads me to the blue feet....

2. Evie now has a blue foot b/c the pen exploded on her foot. Serves her right. I had to pick up splinters of plastic all around the living room.

3. As for the shoes, she started on the back of a heel but didnt do too much damage. She completely pulled off the bottom of another heel, and started gnawing on a toe of a flat shoe. Unreal! She has not pulled the shoe card since I first got her.

4. Now onto the sprinkler. One of Evie's favorite things to do is run into the sprinklers in the park. These are the type of sprinklers that go 'sh, sh, sh, sh' in a circle to spray 360 degrees. She likes to get up in the sprinkler where the force is strongest and get it in her mouth. Well, she was on her 50 foot leash so I could still hold onto her while she got her water fix. Of course, the leash gets wrapped around the sprinkler base and I have to go in. I had to hold her by the collar, while I unwrap the leash. I had to keep walking in a circle b/c 1)she was walking in a circle to follow the sprinkler and 2)to stay out of the water stream. Im sure anyone who saw this thought it was funny.

Now we know, keep everything out of her way when she is home alone for awhile and take her off the leash to go in the sprinkler!

Yoga

Tonight, Erik and I went to yoga at Bend SF (bendsf.com) for "Restorative Yoga" It was yoga in a dark room light only by candlelight. There were only about 10 of us. We only did these relaxing poses where we laid down in different ways. This is totally different from any yoga I've ever done where you are doing 100 downward dog positions.

We went to Bend b/c we liked the instructor who taught the free yoga at Sports Basement one Sunday. Bend, is her studio.

I liked this yoga. Erik hated it. I'll be back. He will be finding another class. The funniest thing about the yoga was that we left the house at like 7:15, drove over there. We couldn't find the place because it was above another business. So finally we find the place, are clearly now about 5 mins late. You are NOT supposed to be late for yoga b/c you disrupt everyone. So we clamor up the steps and the instructor opens the door and whispers to us to please take our shoes off, leave our stuff in the hall. Of course, we start laughing when she goes back in. We are trying NOT to laugh because we don't want everyone to hear of us!

Evie eats....

We are finding out that Evie loves to eat a wide variety of food. Ok, I'll tell you what they are. All are human food.

1. Salmon
2. Tilapia
3. Halibut
4. Chicken
5. Cooked vegetables: peas, carrots, corn, leeks
6. Bread
7. Strawberry Jam
8. Peanut Butter
9. Ice Cream(but she can't have dairy)
10. Popcorn
11. Sweet potatos

She would actually probably like to come out to dinner with us b/c Im sure she would love sushi!!

Happy Earth Day

Today we all received free tomato plants at work in honor of Earth Day. Hopefully, I can keep it alive.

Try easy things to be 'green' like - stop buying bottled water, take shorter showers, and RECYCLE. Its not that hard, really!!

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin- I resisted reading this book for awhile while everyone told me how good it was. I figured it was another 'young girl in NYC/London who works in PR and is searching for the perfect man' book. It was the exact opposite. I couldn't put this book down. It was exciting & held my attention. There was something new in each chapter. Definitely Recommend. The book was so good, I am going to meet the author when she comes to SF!

Bitter Is the New Black by Jen Lancaster - The title of this book was just hilarious. This is the 1st book by this new author and it is her memoir. It is actually really funny to see what this girl goes through from spending a ton of money on shoes and living in a high end apt in Chicago to barely being able to pay the rent. She has 2 new books out called: Bright Lights, Big Ass and Such a Pretty Fat. I'm sure the next two will be just as good. Recommend

Shift This

Great news! Erik got a job. He is going to be a Help Desk Tech at the Academy of Art. He will get to do IT work which is what he wants to do. So, this is exciting!

Bad News...unfortunately, he has a weird shift of 3pm - Midnight from Friday - Tuesday. This means he has Wed & Thurs off. Which means we do not spend the weekend evenings together anymore. Which means he is home in the AM and I am home in the PM and we barely will see each other. When we first found out, we were both mad, upset, annoyed, wah wah. Now we are trying to think positive. So I am making like David Letterman and making a Top 10 list on why this job is a good thing.

1. Erik won't have to watch 'What Not To Wear' on Friday nights with me anymore
2. Evie won't be home alone all day
3. We both get 'alone' time
4. Date night during the week = cheaper meals
5. We don't have to argue over watching Idol, Housewives, Dancing with the Stars, etc
6. We can still go to free yoga on Sundays at 11 together
7. We have the mornings on the weekends to hang out

I'm still thinking of more....

This isn't so bad. At lease he is not leaving for the Marines or doing something crazy. Im sure if he was a med student, his schedule would be even worse. So, you know what, this is a good experience for Erik and he needs the job! Everything will be fine.....

Reality Show Winner Predictions

Here are my reality show winner predictions: (subject to change before the final 2 show)

Idol: David Cook

Bachelor: Noelle

Dancing With the Stars: Kristy Yamaguchi

Restaurant Review: Domo

Restaurant Review:
Domo
Laguna & Linden Sts.

My friend Amy & I went to this tiny sushi place in Hayes Valley tonight. I just heard about it and couldn't believe I hadn't heard about this place so close to our house. It seats maybe 20 people.

The fish was so fresh, it melted in my mouth. We had this amazing appetizer called 'Firecracker Balls' that were this spicy, yummy goodness.

This place is small & cozy. They didn't rush us out. The food & service was awesome. I can't wait to go back & totally recommend it to everyone!

My New Blog

Hey Everyone!

I've decided to start a blog....why not. I figured I can just come on here & give my opinion of all of the crazy things going on in the world, crazy things I see in SF, and everything going on my life!

Heather :-)