Happy late Groundhogs day

I have just been feeling overwhelmed lately so haven't been on here much. I went through my myspace page and deleted over half of the friends. I only kept people I actually know or that I really talk to. I have also been removing myself from mailing lists. I don't know how over the years I have gotten on some many but its very daunting to open your email and it say 400 or 500 new messages every day.

Groundhogs day was absolutely beautiful day so I am sure the groundhog saw his shadow :(. It was the sunniest and warmest day I remember in quite a while. Friday night I went to a birthday dinner for my cousin S' daughter J. She was 14. I was amazed at how she and her friend looked. She always seems like a distracted artsy girl at my house but she had heavy black eyeliner on, tight shirt and baggy pants and let's not forget she had written on her arm "pain = beauty". Her friend had a lip piercing. I guess thats the way it goes these days, makes me very glad I don't have little kids. I brought the other daughter T home. We have kept her all weekend now.

On the savings note, I did bring my lunch to work 3 days last week. I am fixing a ham I bought on sale also for dinner tonight so will take some ham sandwiches at least 2 days this week and will fix some pinto beans with ham in them also. I have been shopping at foodlion the last couple days. They have Pepsi products on sale 4- 12 packs for $11, in the part of NC Dr Pepper is a Pepsi product. Foodlion has a couple for $2 off a 12 pack of Dr Pepper so that makes each 12 pack .75. M likes it so I am stocking up on that and diet to take to family functions since almost all of them drink diet Dr Pepper. Also Breyers is on sale b1g1 which if you only buy one makes it 2.60. Foodlion also has a coupon for $2 off breyers so for .60 you get a half gallon ice cream. We love ice cream so I have bought several, if I owned a deep freeze I would have bought more.

You can only get the print pop up once so when it comes up and ask how many copies you want thats when you have to put it. I think I put 10 of each.

$2 off Breyers

$2 off Dr Pepper



My sink drain has been stopped up and I have bought a ton of drain cleaners to no avail. I finally had to take the pipes apart and I don't really want to know what it was that I removed but the drain works now, it was majorly yucky. Last night I seriously hated being a single woman. I would have pawned that job off in a heartbeat. It made me wonder if I would be able to homestead. I figure its going to be at least 3-5 years before I can afford a place and there are so many things I don't know about farming and raising animals that I need to learn in the meantime but I wonder if newbie 40 something single woman can manage on her own. I am still going to aim for it and give it a go though. I thought I might take a few classes at the community college on stuff that I thought might help me.


Happy Groundhog Day! (some tidbits from my email)

* Woodchuck and groundhog are common terms for the same animal, the rodent with the scientific name of Marmota monax. Most closely related to squirrels, woodchucks actually can climb trees and also swim.

* Celestially speaking, Groundhog Day on Feb. 2 is a cross- quarter day, about halfway between the winter solstice in December and the vernal equinox in March, and is celebrated in some cultures as the mid point of winter. It's not far from the time many groundhogs end their hibernation anyway, around the second week of February.

* The groundhog's internal clock is believed to be affected by annual changes in the amount of daylight. Hormonal responses to cyclic changes in production of melatonin, a sleep-related hormone, are thought by some to be the signal to wake up.

* According to legend, if famous Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.

Source: http://www.news.cornell.edu/
and http://www.groundhog.org