I made a post about my thoughts concerning the price of Long Distance Phone Service and how I’m trying to reduce my monthly expenditures. I switched to a cheaper unlimited long distance service in February, but find myself re-evaluating my bills again.

Right now I pay per month:
Digital Cable and Cable Internet: $111
Verizon Local Service: $60 (still haven’t been able to get this reduced)
AT&T Long Distance: $40
Total of: $210/month

However Comcast (my cable provider) has a deal where you can get Digital Cable, Cable Internet, and Phone for $99/month. I haven’t investigated their phone service yet, which I will do this week, but I imagine it’s a VoIP service with unlimited long distance and local service (if it’s not, I’ve no clue what they would even be trying to do in the phone business). This would save me over $100/month. And I could deal with crappy VoIP service (considering my father and I both have cellphones in case of emergencies) in order to save that much money each month. Though so far I haven’t heard any complaints.

It may sound somewhat ignorant, but I do not, and will not loan money to my friends. I’ve several past experiences that have contributed to this, and have had recent discovery among people I know who have also either loaned money to, or given something to someone in exchange for a promise of “cash” that was never received. I find people who mooch like this positively disgusting, by the way.

If you’re tight on money, fine. But if you owe someone $50, and just spent $70 on a trip somewhere, then I have absolutely no sympathy for you. The same goes for people who spend hundreds of dollars in phone bills or clothing/furniture, new piercings, and then will complain about how poor they are. This is not intelligent money management, and I have no sympathy for you either.

The Simple Dollar recently posted an article on why he does not loan friends money either, and provides 6 points of advice when considering the option of doing so.

He makes one very valid point that I also follow, if you do lend a friend money, do it as a gift, because there’s a good chance you won’t get it back. I’m not saying I’d never give money to a friend in need, but expecting to have it returned will just lead to heartache.

Up at 4am again due to coughing. Though sometime around 4:30 my father and I heard the most eerie screeching sound from outside. Most likely a wild rabbit being attacked by a hawk or fox. It lasted a good 10 seconds, and sounded like it moved a good 100 feet from where it originated before it stopped.

I went out this morning just as daylight hit to see if I could see anything, but didn’t. I don’t know exactly where the sound was coming from anyway.

I think one of the worst sounds to hear is a rabbit screaming. When we kill rabbits a few times a year, we’re careful to make it as painless as possible, not only for the rabbit but to also avoid making them scream. It’s a disturbing sound, almost like you instantly feel like you’re going to hell.

I love cheese balls, and this recipe came from a friend of my mothers. I’ve made it several times over the years and have never tasted another cheese ball like it. This recipe is fairly moist, compared to a lot of the hardened commercial logs you’ll see.

Ingredients:
8 oz. Wisepride Cheese
8 oz. Philly Cream Cheese
1/2 tsp Worchestersture Sauce
1/2 tsp Chopped Parsley
1-2 tbsp sherry to moisten
Dash of onion salt
Dash of garlic powder
Pegans or other nuts (usually 1 bag per ball will do, I don’t like too many nuts on mine)

Prepare:
Mix all ingredients together except the nuts. Roll into a ball with your hands and then roll that into the nuts. The mixture will be fairly moist, so if you prefer it to be easier to handle, you may want to stick it in the fridge for a bit first. I personally like it moist and mushy while I roll it into the pecans.

Another salt and sun treatment
Scrubbed bathtub with baking soda and vinegar
Scrubbed toilet and sink with lemon spray, soy bowl cleaner, and organic toilet brush made from coconut fibers
Boiled devilled eggs
Set up Grove shop on Zazzle (still need to create some custom images)
Dishes
Make my famous devilled eggs
Work on the MUD
Vaccuum and straighten up living room

The cough is subsiding and being replaced with general stuffyness. I sound ridiculous, but I can function (and apparently clean), just not smell a damn thing.

A shipment of 30 more chickens came in for us today. We get them in the spring so that they are suitable for laying eggs regularly come the holiday season (our busy season). And then we’ll auction off the older chickens at the livestock auction.

I’ve also signed up for an electric orange checking account with ING to go along with the awesome savings I’ve had since August. I plan to start using this starting in June, and getting rid of all but my BB&T checking account. This is just another step in the ladder to my own financial freedom since I left my husband. Next month I qualify for my jobs 401k and I will be starting my Roth IRA with either ING or T.Rowe Price.

I have a cookout with all my highschool friends tomorrow, as well as time spent at the Grove.

And I should have my laptop next week.

Lotsa small updates.

We were at the house here, and it must have been winter because there was snow on the ground.

There was what looked like a large gray wolf outside that kept going after our chickens. It kept leaping over the fence in the back yard, running after loose chickens and charging the cages, trying to rip them apart.

For some reason I grabbed the .22 first, because we always keep it by the back door, and started firing a few rounds at it. But that didn’t seem to deter it at all. It started coming after me, snarling and growling at the back door. It kept trying to push its way through the doggie door, and I kept trying to push it back out. I’d fire a few more shots at it, but it still kept coming.

It eventually pushed its way inside and Bastian attacked it, but it was so big. My dad shot at it and wounded it and it ran off. But then we saw a large black pittbull in the distance that was apparently running with it, and it decided to come after us too. They eventually both made it inside the house, and no manner of bullets was stopping them.

Somehow the owners showed up and pulled both dogs back, but by this time we realized they were using the dogs to “kidnap” people in their own homes. They held us hostage, and I was out of bullets, as was my father. For some reason they let us keep our guns because they knew we were out of ammunition (or in my case, they somehow switched out my bullets so I couldn’t use it).

There was about 3 of them, and we were waiting around for hours. My father was exhausted, and I was scared for him and Bastian. I told them I was getting my fathers medicine out of his room, because I know the old 12-gauge shotgun was in there, and earlier I had stuffed some of the shells for it in my pocket.

I was able to slip into his room, but unable to find it. I came back out and sat next to my father to tend to his leg, and whispered to him to find out where it was. It was buried underneath a pile of clothes, he said. So I slipped back in and found it, then loaded it. I only had a single shot, and needed to reload fast. But hopefully they wouldn’t be able to tell I switched out my empty .22 for a loaded shotgun.

I came back out and kept it at my side mostly, waiting for the opportunity where I could shoot one and quickly reload to get the others. Finally my old co-worker from Terminix called, and while they were listening to the answering machine message, I was able to get in a good shot, and took out the woman (their leader). I reloaded quickly enough to take out the second guy, and Bastian attacked the third.

For some reason the dogs were gone at this point.

And then I woke up and got on here to type it out before I forgot. Time to go back to sleep!

I picked up a canister of Dead Sea Salt for the little patch on my knee, and because Dead Sea Salt and Sunlight are the two highest recommended natural treatments for this little condition I’ve come across.

Little did I realize that it was putting salt in an open sore. But after several dips into the salty water, the pain became more tolerable. The skin already feels much softer and less agitated. So I will try this for a few more weeks.

The instructions said I should put 2lb of salt into a bathtub and soak for 20 minutes, and to do this 3 times a week. No way. Too expensive. Not to mention mine is a minor case, and I feel sorry for anyone else that has this in various places.

I’m amused that the June issue of Playboy has arrived under my ex-husbands name.

Mistake?

Did he renew a subscription without updating his address?

Surprisingly there is not as much nudity as I would have thought. I may read the articles for my own amusement.