Paper Anniversary

They say the first year of marriage is the hardest. My husband and I managed to survive it and stay together. There were definitely ups and a lot more downs, but we made it. Normally a anniversary post would be filled with mushy saccharin sweet sentiments...but then it wouldn't be me!

The biggest "up" is that we decided in July to try to have a baby. So far things have been unsuccessful, but it's only 3 months, "they" say not to worry until a year passes. If you know me, you know I am impatient, and like immediate results! Luckily, I have relaxed a bit as stress is a major factor. Also, if you know me, you know how insanely opposite this whole baby thing is. For years and years I have been adamant in how I do not want kids, ever, period. I have cursed my uterus for years, wanting to do anything to end the monthly cycle of torture. And now, I want a baby. No reason. Nothing obvious changed. All that happened was there was a scare, and we realized, hey, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing! Weird, but very exciting.

In other aspects of my life, I am finally a school bus driver again! I am so thrilled, I got hired as a temp at the district I most wanted to be in! They are owned by the district which makes for a great working environment. There is almost no employee turnover, so just to have my foot in the door is awesome. I am hoping that a "full time" position opens up soon. I am still employed by the city transit bus company as well, which will work out nicely for days off and school vacations.

Anyways, back to the anniversary. My husband "kidnapped" me, not telling me where we were going or what we were doing. That actual works nicely, that way I can't come up with an excuse not to!

It turned out to be a perfect fall day. He took me to Ikea, which is one of my favorite stores, and we ate lunch there. I love the Swedish Meatballs! Ligonberry juice is yummy too. After lunch, we headed to the Franklin Park Zoo. We have been wanting to go there for a while now, but we just never got around to it.

It was great! I loved all the animals, but my favorite was the Jaguar. He was so beautiful! All the big cats were cool. I was disappointed that the giraffes weren't out, I'm not sure if they can't handle the cold. Some other birds were not out either, but the tradeoff of perfect cool temps was worth it!

After the zoo, we went to the Container Store to kill some time before dinner and found a perfect microwave stand, and it was on sale! We were able to customize it for the size we needed. The best part is that it freed up a huge section of counter in our very space-limited apartment kitchen.

Dinner was amazing, P.F. Changs. If you have never been there, you have to try the lettuce wraps! They are absolutely amazing! It's heaven wrapped in an iceberg lettuce leaf. I personally like the tofu variety, but I'm sure the chicken ones are excellent too.

It was a beautiful day!

For a gift, he gave me a Double Wrap leather Pandora bracelet with a Vespa and London Double Decker Bus charm.

BzzAgent Review: Curel Intensive Healing Cream

As you know, I am a member of BzzAgent, a site that gives you samples and points in return for your opinion. I was chosen to participate in the Curel Intensive Healing Cream campaign, so I received 6 or so travel size pots of cream to try for free and share with friends.

I had high-ish expectations of this cream as it comes from such a well known, quality brand Curel (yeah, I have no idea how to get the fancy little ` above the e, sorry!). The timing was perfect as fall was coming and my skin basically decides it wants to be like the Sahara desert; dry, dry, dry! So I was excited for this opportunity to try this cream.

According to my campaign homepage this cream:

Spreads easily, non-greasy and absorbs quickly

Provides immediate healing relief and revitalizes ceramide levels for long-lasting hydration

Clinically-proven to help chapping and chafing caused by dryness

Fragrance-free and hypo-allergenic

9 out of 10 dermatologists recommend using it

Pediatrician tested: suitable for children 6 months and older

Excellent for dry skin associated with diabetes — Curél^® is a proud partner of the American Diabetes Association

(source: BzzAgent.com)

I had mixed feelings about the results of using this cream nightly for a week. The cream does absorb fast and is not greasy, which is impressive for such a thick cream. It is definately fragrance free...it's actually a bit odd as it really smells like nothing. I would have preferred a very light fragrance myself, but I understand the hypoallergenic reasons. It does give an immediate effect of softer skin, however by morning, my hands are just as dry as they always are. I tried to remember to use the lotion again, but I am just not one of those lotion addicts. I forget. I think a "lotion addict" would experience good results with this lotion on their hands.

For an experiment, last night I put some of the cream on my very dry, disgusting elbows. Sorry in advance for the visual, but my elbows feel like a dried out crocodile skin! Yuck! I would have posted a pic, but how do you take a pic of your own elbow? It seems about as feasible as licking it! But anyways, it's around 1pm EST and they are still soft. So it seems on tough, scaly patches, this cream works very well, as I had expected. My hands are just difficult, plus I have a slight addition to alcohol based hand sanitizer, so that makes it even harder for lotions and creams to work.

Overall, it seems to be a good cream for tough scaly skin, but not for general dry hands. This is disappointing to me as my hands are a bigger issue for me, and I was hoping to find a solution. But not having scaly elbows is a plus. ;-)

My recommendation to you depends on what sort of dry skin you have. If you have basic dry hands, then I'd say pass. But if you have scaly, rough patches on your body, give it a shot! Even in one night I saw results, which was what I had expected from Curel.

Review: Kashi Hummus Crisps Sea Salt and Olive Oil

I received a free bag of the Kashi Sea Salt and Olive Oil Hummus Crisps from BzzAgent, a site that sends you free products in return for you completing simple tasks that generate buzz about the product. One of the tasks is to blog about the product you receive, which is extremely easy to do as these crisps were AMAZING!

Serving Size 27 crisps

I was skeptical at first....I mean, I like hummus and all, but in a crisp? Not so sure. Luckily, I was wrong. These crisps are amazing. They are light and perfectly satisfy a salty snack craving. They are only 120 calories for 27 crisps, and 3 servings per bag, so if you accidentally eat the whole bag, it's no big deal. They also have 3g protein, 3g fiber, and 5g of whole grain per serving, so you can feel good about snacking on them. I love the Sea Salt and Olive Oil flavor, but they are very plain, so those of you who enjoy more flavor in your snacks, they have also have Carmelized Onion (which I have been told is also yumtastic) and Sundried Tomato, Basil, and Feta. Personally, I am not interested by these other flavors as I am kinda picky, but you may like them.

I finished the bag pretty quick, but then there was a tragic problem....I couldn't find the crisps in any of my local stores!! The horror!! Online they said there were none within 40 miles of me!! Fortunately, they are wrong, and just this week they started showing up in the stores. First place I found them was Shaws Supermarkets, but then today, they were sampling them at my local Walmart!! So I grabbed 4 bags...lol, yeah, they are that good!! They are $2.78 per bag at my local Walmart (prices vary depending on area) and there was a $1 off 1 coupon you can print which makes for a good deal on an awesome snack!

I highly recommend these crisps as a healthier alternative to traditional potato chips and other salty snacks.

How to Save Money and Get More from Comcast Easily

The other day I was randomly perusing the internet as I normally do. I stumbled up various posts on how to save money at Comcast. I know a lot of people hate Comcast, but they are our only choice, and honestly, we have never had a single complaint about the service, ever. The only complaint is cost. Holy crap. I guess it was close to $200 a month for our TV, phone, and cable. Yeah, that is not cool at all.

I am not confrontational. I don't want to threaten Comcast by saying I'm leaving as so many people online recommend to do. I hate phone calls period. I am just not that sort of person. So how else can I save money without confrontation? So online I went.

IMPORTANT NOTE: My methods will not work while you are still in your contract time with the reduced price. This plan is for when your contract expires and your bill suddenly jumps up to not just an arm and a leg, but to an arm, leg, first born child, and a kidney. 

We had the Digital Preferred package, 160 channels. I don't watch sports and neither does my husband except the occasional football game (Go Pats!), which is on network TV. I don't watch movie channels very often, I don't watch the majority of the channels we have. So why pay for them? With a few minutes of research, I found that we just needed the Digital Starter package (80 channels). I still get all the channels I watch regularly (minus Discovery Fit & Health, sadness) but that is a small sacrifice for the cost savings. I do use the HD DVR a lot. I cannot not have DVR as I go to bed early and all the good shows are on late! If I could live without that, it would make sense to drop all TV and do the Hulu for TV and Netflix for Movies like many people do. However, this plan was to get the most for the money.

The other thing with the TV was we hardly ever watch regular TV in the living room. My husband works all the time and I spend my time in the bedroom cause I have a serious case of laziness. So why pay for the fancy box that puts the guide on the TV and you can control with your iPhone? We had them change it into the tiny little box so we can get the digital channels with no frills.

We never ever use the house phone. Ever. I use it as the number to fill out forms I don't actually want to give my cell number to. Once again, why pay for something that we never use? The only reason we had it in the first place was it was cheaper than not having it! Silly bundles!

As for Internet. Don't touch my internet!!! We have perfect internet. Its the Performance speed level which is 20mbps. If we never have the faster internet, we will never know the difference as pages load plenty fast, Netflix streams great. Downloads are generally reasonable. Yay. All is well here.

Now, for the getting more your money aspect. I was reading a random post about how you can trade in your older equipment for the newer versions. Hey, if you are "renting" it anyways, why not? So out came our modem, DVR box, digital fancy box and into the car they went. At the Comcast office, we left with our same DVR box (and instructions to call in 2 days to set up an appointment for the X1 5 tuner (record 4 shows, watch a 5th rather than record 2, but watch one of them) DVR box of awesomeness which will cost a whole $2 more a month, but as we are saving so much, $2 is nothing), a new basic cable box, and a new Wifi enabled modem.

So to recap we:

• Downgraded from Digital Preferred to Digital Starter
• Exchanged a higher cost per month cable box to the basic one on the unused TV
• Cancelled our house phone completely
• Kept our amazing Internet
• Upgraded our DVR box from 2 tuners to 5 for $2 a month
• Got a much better wireless router/cable modem that makes our amazing internet even better

Overall we saved likely close to $40 a month while improving our services! We will see the exact savings when the first new bill comes in. 

Just a couple points to remember....be nice. You may hate Comcast, but I have to say, they have been excellent to us for this change. The office staff was happy to follow our requests. We had some technical difficulties with setting up the new modem and cable box and both phone tech support guys were very nice (and spoke English!!). You get a lot further than being a screaming jerk. Also, keep your account in good standing. It just makes things easier and they are more willing to help you out!

10 years flew by....

Now and Then

I went to my 10 year high school reunion on Saturday evening. It was a nice simple occasion at a local Concord restaurant (The Red Blazer). Overall it was a good experience, I wish there had been some real food rather than appetizers I don't care for...but I guess there is a serious problem with how the school board handles the class's money, so I am happy there was food at all.

It was so nice to catch up with some friends I only ever talk to on Facebook. Face to face time is so much better lol.

I am fairly satisfied with where I am in life. I am happily married, we are planning to have a baby, I love my job, my husband is the main provider. It's perfect. I definitely did not see myself becoming a career bus driver after graduating....as it says in my yearbook I was interested in attending college to become a teacher. The most important thing is that I love what I do.

Attendees of the Reunion (not my pic, Stolen from Kate W's Facebook)

If I could go back and do high school again, I would have taken the Auto vocational program and upon graduating went to the Heavy Construction Academy and gone into construction. Oh well, hindsight is always 20/20 and if I didn't take the path I did, then I wouldn't necessarily be in this situation. As I said before, life is pretty decent right now.

I now understand how Jeremy Clarkson feels...

And I want to be him  even more. I got to drive my dream car yesterday. Well, one of them; the Fiat 500 Abarth. It is a 160hp/170lb ft torque turbocharged  4 cylinder engine and 5 speed manual.. That may not sound that great, but you have to remember that this is a very small car. So that is a lot of power.

Boy, do you feel the power. It is definately one of the fastest cars I have ever driven, and by far the most fun, because not only does it have a boatload of power, but it handles awesome too! It has a improved suspension over the "regular" 500. Unfortunately I was unable to really get on it in some corners due to traffic and the crappy area we got to test it in.

What I couldn't get over was the amazing sound from the exhaust. It was deep and throaty, not fart can-ish at all. A true Euro tuner. Obviously, I kept the car in Sport mode (improves throttle response, adjusts  the tightness of the steering) and you just touch the throttle and the car emits amazing sounds out of the exhaust. However, while idling at a light, it is nice and quiet. I didn't find the noise to be too much at highway speeds either. It was a perfect balance.

As far as the interior, I loved the boost gauge. The shifter had a nice feel to it, definately a higher quality than the plastic of the standard 500. It was quiet, and the race inspired seats were very comfortable. Other than that, it is the same as the standard 500.

I do know when the time comes for me to trade in my current Fiat 500, I will be seriously considering the Abarth as it's replacement. In the meantime, I am thinking a Mopar Cold Air Intake and Mopar performance exhaust will be a nice addition to my Fiat.

Been a tough week

It's only Wednesday, but it has been a tough week already.

On Monday morning, I went out to my car to go to work and found my radio faceplate had been stolen. They had ripped the bezel off the dash, which was completely unnecessary, as the faceplate just comes off. Luckily the damage was minimal. I did use the opportunity to change the bulb that has been out for a couple years. To prevent further damage, I removed the radio in it's entirety. Today, I did read an article that a Scumersworth, I mean Somersworth, man was arrested for a string of theft. I am hoping they recover my radio faceplate.

Monday evening I notice my cat is really not feeling well. She was not being herself and wouldn't even touch her favorite food. I know its time. She has been struggling with what the vet thinks is intestinal cancer for over a year and a half. When she first came to my apartment from my parents, she was only given a month or so to live, so the fact she is still alive this long was a miracle. We were able to provide her a comfortable, happy place to spend her last year.

Tuesday I had to bring my car in for service which was uneventful. But then I had to take my cat to the vet for her final visit. Definitely not on my list of things I enjoy doing. I miss her so much already, it is weird her not being there. I am surprised at how much I used to check on her, as I go to now, and shes not there. :-( It is so hard to lose a pet, they are a member of the family. She was a member of my family for 16 years. Its not easy to say goodbye. She is now with her surrogate mom cat, Tiger, and feeling no pain.

As if that wasn't hard enough, I was dreading having to get up early to go to work Wednesday to do a shift I really don't like as I have to do the same loop 4 times in a row. I almost called out as I felt like crap last night, but I didn't. I figured staying busy and away from the apartment was a good plan. So I got up, got dressed, went to work. I checked to see what bus I was assigned, only to see my name not on the list. WTF? So I looked at the schedule $#!% I am doing the shift tomorrow, not today. Epic fail.

As my week has had such an awesome (not) start, just wondering how much better it can get...