What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Still no Title bar, I see. Is it just me? Do you other Bloggers have a title bar? Did I do something wrong? Hmmmm.

I still don't have the laptop hooked up to the wireless router. My desktop has a USB port and a phone line but it needs to be connected it with an Ethernet cable. So, I am either up the proverbial creek without a paddle OR (please, please) they make some sort of an Ethernet to USB/Phone line adapter. I will have to make a tirp back across town to Office Depot to ask them. I noticed something funny when I shopped there on Friday. I usually cruise Office Depot looking for Clearance and sale items then pay for it with my $3.00 printer cartridge coupons. So, I am not exactly a "big spender". On Friday I was trying to find the 25¢ Crayola markers and three packs of PaperMate erasers. One sales guy asked if I needed help and I told whim what I was looking for. "No, we're out," he says. Okay, then. So, I head over and end up spending $700.00 on the laptop and the router. Suddenly, salesmen are flocking to me - "Do you need a printer?" "Do you need a laptop bag?" "You know, we might have some sale items in the back." And, wah-lah, suddenly I have stacks of markers and erasers appearing in my cart. I guess when you are forking out the big bucks, they treat you a little better. I still used a $3.00 coupon on my $708.00 purchase. I mean, I had to get a deal somewhow! It did come with a $200.00 rebate, so that will come in a few weeks.

Last week I did my first PTSA Teacher Appreciation/Hospitality gig. Tradition has sugary donuts in the lounges on the very first morhing of school. But, the first day of school is a super duper traffic headache causing ordeal, not to mention having to pick up and deliver donuts at that ungoldly horrific hour. (I am not a morning person, have I mentioned that?) So, I opted to do bagel baskets - dozens of bagels, cream cheese and an assortment of preserves. The teachers loved it and gobbled it all up. I bought the bagels and cream cheese at Aldi's and the preserves at the Dollar Tree. Now, if some of those teachers knew it came from there, they wouldn't have eaten it - but it was good quality food at a good price. $70.00 to feed 125 people - not bad. And, that inclued baskets, plates, knives and napkins.

Wednesday is a very big day in my life. The "Dancing With the Stars" announcements will be made. How sad is that I am a dork. I" I saw a comic in the paper this morning - the Mom was running to the windows all excited about her new washer and dryer coming. "This is the most exciting thing that has happened to me in a very long time" she says all enthusiastically. The teenaged son goes to his Dad and says, "You need to try harder." It doesn't take much to excite us wives and Mom's, eh?

Well, I am chatty this morning. Me and Kirstie Alley - a little chatty. Off to buy birthday gifts for the boy. Oh, it was so easy when little crappy $ Store things filled in between the more expensive iteems. Now everything he likes costs a minimum of $20.00 - books, PS2 games, DVD's, remote control vehicles. I suppose it is safe to assume that he days of Play-Doh and Lego's are behind me. *Sigh*

3 comments:

  1. You are so good to the teachers and kids at school!! I'm sure they appreciated all your efforts.

    My boys are far gone from the legos and playdoh as well...sighhh....But, I try to buy the PS2 games used and get them for around 5-10 each. When they first got their game, I started in September bidding on EBAY auctions and probably got about 20 games for 80 bucks or so (I wons several lots!) so they were thrilled at Christmas withe variety of games. They couldn't believe I spent all that money..LOL...ya me..spend a lot of money ;)

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  2. My ds doesn't care if his games are used(even for gifts),just so they aren't scratched. Check pawn shops. We have a local one that buffs all games and videos so it is like buying new at a fraction of $. I buy movies for 3-4 for current titles and games for 5-10 for newer versions.

    Welcome to tweendom!!!!

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  3. Yum Bagels! I didn't realize the dollar tree sold preserves and I have gone in there more times then I can count. Some things aren't worth it in there and some things are like with every store.

    That reminds me, there is this guy on the radio that people call in to ask him for financial advice, and there was this woman that had a lot of credit card debt she admitted later most of it was to spoil her Grandchildren (which I cannot imagine going into huge debt to give someone else presents but I don't have kids and especially grandchildren)

    He said something that stuck in my mind, he said that when you are getting out of debt you can go for christmas to the dollar tree and get them presents from there and they might not be 100 percent thrilled but that's a good enough present. And he complained that he gets his grandchildren things that are nice but then their uncle gets them something from the dollar tree and they are more thrilled with that. He also said he doesn't understand children lol.

    Congrats on the laptop! I am typing away on a laptop that is about 3 1/2 years old an HP and it works fine for me. I enjoy the thought of taking it anywhere and using wifi with it.

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