Thirteen Things Thursday

Inspired by a few bloggers that I follow, I am dubbing this "Thirteen Things Thursday" where I list 13 more or less random items.  Which is pretty much what I do anyways.

1.  I learn about the oddest things in the course of my job.  Today I learned there is a company called "Lice Knowing You" in the Seattle area.  They specialize in, as you might guess, lice removal. 

2.  My older dog, CBS, took a tumble down a flight of stairs around 4:00 a.m. this morning.  Since she was on her way out for a potty break, hitting the landing caused her bladder to release.  So I was up at 4:00 a.m. cleaning up pee and coaxing her outside just in case there was anything left.  Poor puppy. 

3.  This week I started a container of strawberries (so far I've whacked my head on it once in the first three days) and a cucumber bush.  Both are growing nicely but if we don't get some sun soon it will all be just pretty little leaves.  Case in point:  the butter lettuce is growing like crazy.  Salad is again on the dinner menu for tonight.

4.  I should have my Directv installed Sunday, just in time for the season premiere of True Blood.  Yay!!  The package I got not only has the typical movie channels (Turner Classic Movies, AMC, Lifetime Movie Network that kind of stuff) but Encore, the Movie Channel, and Fox Movie Channel and for three months I also get HBO, Showtime, Starz, and Cinemax for free.  I may never leave the house again.  And on top of all that, this satellite TV package is $40 less per month than what I paying at Comcast. 

5.  That should all help with my efforts to go to an all-cash budget.  I did get a LivingSocial deal recently for two movie tickets (Julie -- we need to go see a movie!) but otherwise with the satellite TV and Netflix I don't need to pay for a movie for ever.

6.  I am also switching my internet provider to DSL and getting a land line again for the first time in about a dozen years.  Bundled with Directv I'm saving $45 per month overall for TV and internet, plus I'll have a land line.  I probably won't keep the land line once the promo rate expires (it's six or twelve months, I forget) but in the meantime my mother will be happy that I'll have a phone I can actually hear ring.

7.  Recently I bought some Pringles as a snack after not having any for several years.  I just ate half a can for lunch and brought a new can back to the office to snack on.  They're like crack, man.

8.  Ever hear of Swagbucks?  You sign up and get points for searching the web with their toolbar instead of, say, Google.  There are other chances to get points by doing directed web searches (i.e., go to this website and tell us what you think the company's message is), playing games, watching videos, answering a daily poll, and a lot of other things.  You can redeem your swagbucks for actual stuff like a $5.00 Amazon gift card.  It's kind of like playing roulette (so fun when it pops up to tell you you've earned swagbucks!) and in the first week of doing this I have 393 swagbucks (I need 450 to get the Amazon gift card).  If you sign up, please tell them the CilleyGirl referred you (cilleygirl at gmail dot com). 

9.  The original Disapproving Rabbit Cinnamon passed away recently.  Goodbye Cinnamon, it was an honor to be disapproved by you.

10.  Best of luck this weekend to the Little Fruit Fly who is running the Seattle Rock 'n Roll Half.  Have fun and don't worry about muggers!  Oh, and a city block in downtown Seattle is about twice the length of a Portland city block.  So if someone tells you "it's just four blocks down", hop on a free Metro bus instead.  Trust me on this.  Best of luck to Tall Mom who is also running it this weekend. 

11.  And speaking of Tall Mom, she and Tricia were both chosen to be on Nuun's Hood to Coast team.  Yay for them!!  My boss has run HtC three times and he has some great stories about it.  Prepare to be both exhilirated and exhausted :)

12.  It's kitten season!  A kitten fostering blog I follow out of Tacoma is doing their annual Dog-a-Thon FUNdraiser for the Tacoma Humane Society.  However, all of the money raised by the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee goes to the cats.  In the first year they did this, their goal was to raise three squillion and they raised $23 squillion!  Last year the bar was raised to $40 squillion and they raised $48 squillion.  This year, the goal is $50 squillion and they are over 1/5th of the way there.  If you can give, please do so; my beautiful cat Sammi, who I lost to kidney disease three years ago this August, was adopted from Tacoma Humane.  We had 14 wonderful years together and I donated in her memory.  Even if you can just send good vibes to these adorable kitties -- look at the page, they are SO cute -- that would be great.

13.  I have to work again this weekend, so by July 1 I will have worked every day since June 14.  I keep thinking about the overtime.  I tend to skip meals during big appeal seasons and it does not help me to keep a positive attitude.  I didn't take a lunch at all yesterday and man oh man was I snarly.  Today I went home for lunch to let the pups out -- landlord is coming today to look at replacing the siding and hopefully rebuilding my rotting deck so I had to leave them in -- and it was nice to be able to get away and just not work for an hour.  I'm trying to watch everything left in my DVR before the satellite guy comes on Sunday so I haven't been going to bed early as I probably should.  Last night I watched the last three episodes of this season's Supernatural.  I liked this season better than the last and am interested to see what they do for the next (and likely the last) season. 

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl