Just My Rambling

This year has been a financially straining year for our family. So lately I have been thinking of ways to lessen our financial burden. The first thing that I did was to start checking some websites for used things instead of buying new stuff all the time. Seriously it is amazing that you can find all sorts of things people are selling on these websites. In fact, I can even buy healthcare carts or antique butter churn if I want to. I guess the saying of one man’s trash is another man’s treasure is very true. Besides shopping for used stuff, I have also started to use coupons. Hopefully I will be able to drastically reduce our budget for the next year.

Gosh, it has been so long since I blogged that I even lost the password to my blog! Luckily I had it written down in a safe place otherwise I might not be able to blog. It is December already and school is in its home stretch for the year already. These past couple of weeks have been really crazy filled with birthday parties and concerts. In fact C has a Christmas concert tonight and a piano recital this weekend. I am looking forward to the concert tonight. They even have a band complete with Epiphone Dot, bass and keyboards. Hopefully it will turn out to be a good show.

Recently I lost a lot of data because my laptop went out of commission. Since my laptop had been acting wacky for a while, I expected it to crash soon. When the external hard drives went on sale at the office supply store, I bought a couple of them to back up the important data on the laptop. I did manage to back up some of my data but not all of it because my laptop crashed earlier than I expected. I think I will need to make sure that I back up my data periodically because you never know when something is going to happen to the laptop. Lesson learned!

Can you believe that it’s only 2 more months till Christmas vacations? It is always amazing how fast time flies especially after school starts. Right now I am in a slight panic mode because I have not plan our annual year end vacation yet. This year we will be going on vacation with family, so I am thinking that we should check out vacation rental homes instead of hotels. That will save us some money since we have a pretty big group of people. I guess I better buck up and start researching. Hopefully I will be able to find some great deals.

My laptop is out of commission. Apparently the hard disk is fried. Sigh…. At least I did back up most of the data before it was all gone in a flash. So now I have to decide whether to get a new laptop or just get one of the tablets instead. I am currently blogging from the iPad2 just to test the ease of blogging from it. Next week I am going to test out my friend’s new black berry tablet just for fun. After testing all the different gadgets, hopefully I will be able to decide which gadget works well for me and get it on my Christmas list.

Finances have been pretty tight lately because we are planning to replace our really old car soon. So I have been thinking more about getting a job just to help out. Frankly I am not too sure what kind of job I am qualified anymore. Being out of the computer technical field for more than 10 years definitely takes me out of the loop for Technical Trainer Jobs. Maybe I should start out looking for an administrative job first, then slowly work my way back into the technical field.

Is it just me or does anyone else feels that the older you get, the faster the days seem to zoom by. Maybe it is because when we get older, we have so many things on our plate that we are running from one activity to the next while time just passes by. It seems like 2011 just started but we are actually heading into the home stretch now. Only 2 1/2 months before the end of the year and I know that the following months will be a total whirlwind with all the holidays and birthdays. Speaking of the holidays, the weather channel is predicting a very chilly winter for us. Maybe it is time to add the CozyWinters.com heated vest to my Christmas wishlist. If the winter this year is anything like last year, it will be a very long winter.

Before I had a kid, my car was always sparking clean, inside and out. Nowadays, however that is such a rare scene. Even though I do not allow my kid to eat in the car, sometimes due to unforeseen circumstances, she will have some snack in the car. Sometimes I wonder how much of the snack ends up in her tummy because I will always find bits and pieces of snack everywhere the next day. Luckily I have one of those catch all floor mats which is so handy because it catches not only those falling snacks, it also does a great job in containing those muddy little feet. Now I am off to vacuum the rest of the car before the ants make an appearance.

This week I finally joined the gym again. I have been procrastinating for a long time but when a great deal came up on a discount website for the gym near me, I grabbed it. So now officially I have a gym card with me and I am determined to use it. Last Friday, I actually went to the pool and did 20 laps! I was super tired but it was a good kind of tired. Next week I am planning to be at the pool 3 times for the week. I am crossing my fingers that I will really be committed this time because I really do need to lose weight before the holiday season comes around soon. If I keep to my commitment, then I do not have to think about weight loss pills as alternative. Gym, here I come!

Every year it is always amazing to see how early all the holiday decorations come up on sale at the store. Years ago, Christmas decorations do not come out till after Halloween and halloween props do not make an appearance till beginning of October. This year, as soon as school started, all Halloween, Christmas, winter props are all out on sale already! I guess the shops want us to have more time to sell their stuff and make a bigger profit. I guess I should start shopping early to help them.