Scribble and Scrambles ~ Thought for Monday

Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult.

Hypocrites

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Groceries and Other Internet Experiments.

Note to the one reader who knows who she is. Yes. Or else. Two days have passed and my muscles hurt. I'll be asking you. Prepare.

Now. Back to the story of my grocery goodies.

So far my journey into $500.00 worth of groceries was problem free and chugging right along. But I was running out of options and had to dig into the fine print. (All of the offers had fine print.) I clicked on several, read the details and backed out.

Finally, I clicked on a face cream trial but repetitive-clicking-exhaustion had rendered me momentarily (yes, opening myself up to nasty comments here) clueless and I didn't read all the details. This one was the only negative experience. Because I didn't read the fine print very well I ended up missing the deadline for the inexpensive trial and had to buy the face cream. I got the second shipment canceled before having to buy a second one but the one I purchased was pricey....$78....pricey. The face cream is great, actually. But really, not $78 great. And the really, really frustrating thing was that the company didn't click clear me as participating so when it came down the final week before my completion deadline I had to find one more offer to participate in. This one cleared me right away and I ended up getting some great bargains through them so I ended up being okay. But. If you participate with any of these, learn from me...read the fine print.

With all eight of my offers completed, my gift card quest reached the next level. I filled out paperwork, mailed it in and waited. And waited. And waited. All the time I waited I wondered if I had purchased the equivalent of a bumper sticker or T-Shirt emblazoned with a bright orange "SUCKER."

Would I actually get my card? And if I did, would it work?

I did and it does.

Free lunches usually have strings but if you can work within the strings, that free lunch can be a tasty, tasty little meal (or many).

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Jingle -- uh Groceries in My Pocket

Note to someone specific, if you are not that person you may check out for just a moment, I did my Wednesday workout, did you? And since I won't see you today, you have one more day of grace. Use it wisely and I'll ask you about your workouts on Friday....

Okay. Back to the regularly scheduled post.

I posted a link to Freebies VIP last week. And mentioned my awesome deal and said I'd share about it later. So. Looks like later. Here goes.

In early November, shortly after I realized that legitimate freebies were something I could find on the internet I checked out the Freebie VIP offers and one in particular jumped out at me. It was for a $500.00 gift card to various grocery stores. One of which was Whole Foods. I was understandably skeptical but decided to trust that what was said was true. In order to get the card I had to participate in several offers via other companies. Eight of them to be exact. I had seen other listings that mentioned participation was required and had read about another blogger who'd gotten some real satisfaction through one of the companies that was participating.

I went through all the options and there were many. Several seemed safe. Two no-brainers were Netflix and Blockbuster at home. I clicked and joined both intending to keep one and lose the other after the low-cost or free trial. I had been toying with Netflix for months so that was an easy choice. Another easy choice was a birthstone ring for a total of $7.00 and Silkies for about the same. I joined both, got my goods and canceled upon meeting the requirements. So far I was pretty pleased.

I joined two different on-line savings groups. One offered a free $25.00 card and the second offered two $25.00 gift cards. So I stayed with them both for the free trial and one month paid membership to get the additional freebies. If I was a big on-line shopper they might have been really beneficial but I'm not so I can't say much about the benefits there. I also joined a free music site that offered free songs. I downloaded the songs and canceled before the monthly charge kicked in. The only issue with any of the above was that the songs didn't download onto the I-Pod like they were supposed to. Each of the things I had signed up for were very easy when it came time to cancel and well worth trying out and cost very little.

Now comes the oops.

And maybe I'll leave you hanging. I'll share my oops tomorrow.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Scenes from a Bloomin Walk

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thankful For Grocery Stores, Modern Medicine and Multiple Rooms

Wow. We've been enjoying documentaries and creative reality television via Netflix for the past few months.

Lately, Frontier House has caught our attention.

Watching this particular five-month experiment/project has been eye-opening.

Lord of the Flies, the tale of young, civilized boys finding themselves on an island embracing animalistic survival-of-the-fittest mentality and becoming something altogether different than civilized, fits the experiment results in Frontier House pretty well. One family resorted to "trading" with modern families a walking distance away (with the teen girls watching MTV while the trading was in process), then making moonshine to supplement their income. Another family is on the verge of divorce and man oh man the dialogue/interaction between two bitter adults is an ugly thing to watch.

That said, I am thankful that I live in modern times. The lack of cleanliness, the hard, constant, physical labor, the close quarters would be a challenge I don't know that I could survive let alone thrive in. Fascinating place to visit via television, wouldn't want to go there.

Scribble and Scrambles ~ What's Cooking Clara?

This little lady is too cute.

If you want cooking lessons from someone with a little history under their belt (or bloomers) check this out.

Serials and Scenarios ~ Stretch Marks ~ Reviewed

Stretch Marks: A Novel
Kimberly Stuart
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (September 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0781448921


From the Back Cover:

Mia is a granola-eating, sensible shoe–wearing, carbon footprint–conscious twenty-something living in a multicultural neighborhood in Chicago. Her mother, Babs, is a stiletto-wearing Zsa Zsa Gabor type who works as an activities hostess on a Caribbean cruise line … and if you guessed there’s some tension there, you’d be right. Factor in an unexpected pregnancy and Mia’s idealistic boyfriend—Lars is such a visionary he doesn’t believe in the institution of marriage—and the mother-daughter relationship is, well, stretched very thin. As is Mia’s sanity when Babs shows up to … help.

My Review:

With a healthy dose of wit and a touch of whimsy Kimberly Stuart takes on the challenge of a prickly yoga enthusiast who inadvertently ends up pregnant by her tree-hugging, commitment/job-phobe live-in. This alone is enough to challenge Christian fiction readers. But that's not all this novel is about. Toss in the estranged mother who is opposite in all ways and pushy about it. Add a touching teen Juno situation and a will-they, won't-they romantic scenario and, well, you get the general idea, lots of drama and opportunity for change.

This out-of-wedlock pregnancy from a live-in arrangement is a plot enthusiastically brought to you by David C. Cook who seem to have heard the cry of those who are looking for realistic fiction with a bit of heavenly hope tossed in. I applaud the decisions being made at David C. Cook. Not only are the recent novels edgy, but they are well-written.

The scenario of Mia and her unraveling life leaves a lot of opportunity for Mia to come to terms with reality. She is forced to look at the world a little differently since she is carrying a child. The Christian elements in this novel are light. You won't find verses at the beginning of each chapter. Sensitive readers may find a bit to squirm about as Mia and company aren't exactly embracing a Christian walk. There was maybe a bit too much story which hindered some development of a couple of relationships and some timing issues popped up now and again.