Site Visits

My recent post on the 12th Man Magazine and its comments about Billy G. got picked up by a Kentucky fan blog. That sent a few visitors my way. Sweet.

Pinching Pennies

As I have noted before, I enjoy saving money on groceries. Sales and coupons delight me. I make special trips to Smith's and Albertson's when they have specials (Lee's is my main grocery destination). Luckily, MacKenzie shares my coupon-cutting, grocery-ad perusing ways. This has helped us regularly meet our grocery budget goal. MacKenzie also agrees with my overall approach to fiscal matters. They say money is the number one culprit of marital misunderstanding. In that case, our long-term prospects are pretty good.

We have found a tool to aid our food shopping. A site called Pinching Your Pennies, apparently based right nearby in Hyde Park, UT, keeps track of weekly sales, as well as coupon codes for online shopping sites. This site, which appears to have localized info for every state, compiles shopping lists for each major grocery chain each week based on what's on sale as well as what coupons are out there. Deals are rated on a 1-5 scale based on how good they are. This has been a useful tool for us. You should look into it.

Hopeful thoughts on camping

I finally have my living room back. The last 24 or so hours, Craig and I have been having to crawl around a large tent sitting right in the middle of our not-so-large living room. It was there because we need to ensure we had all the parts, seal the seams so that it won't leak and let it dry overnight before next weekend. Since we don't have a yard (and even if we did, it was raining) we were left with the living room. It was a tad inconvenient during the day but we made the best of it by watching tv from inside the tent last night - that is still as much fun as it was when I was 8.

Anyway, back to next weekend. We have decided that we are going to work really hard not to be those people that live by really cool stuff but never go and visit it, thinking they will someday. So next weekend, we are heading off to Yellowstone. Craig has been there before with Chad but I never have and I am pretty excited about it. It's also our first camping trip so we are keeping it simple. We have to leave too late on Friday night to camp so the actually camping part will only be overnight but we should have enough time to see the main stuff. For those of you who know anything about Yellowstone, you might realize that we are going very early in the season. In fact, most of Yellowstone isn't even open until the next weekend. But this is the only available weekend we had for May and by June it gets all crowded and full of people and we don't like people. Well that isn't exactly true, we like people, just not when we are trying to get away and experience nature. So we are going anyway, even thought it might be raining, cold and overall miserable. Hopefully, our plan doesn't backfire. I have been checking the weather as we get closer and closer and I think we will be okay with the temperature but it is a little less certain that we won't spend the weekend in the rain. I wanted to write this post now though so that if it does turn out to be disastrous, I can at least remind myself that I knew of the dangers before hand and I can't blame Craig for "forcing" me to go camping.

There are three semi- good reasons why I am about to post what I am about to post:

1. Craig has been wanting me to post as the last 5 posts were by him. So I am posting, despite the fact that he might be upset that I am lowering the respectability level of this blog so drastically. While this concern is valid - too bad.

2. I want to prove that Rachel is not the only one who can put a video in her blog.

3. I had seen this video earlier but when I saw this on another blog today, it completely turned around what was the beginning of a plunge into a weird funky mood. So, as much as I feel bad for stealing a post idea, I felt I had to share the joy that was so generously shared with me. Besides, it has an average rating of 4.5 stars on Google video so I am not the only one to find it amusing.

Parting Shots at Billy G.

The closing article in the current edition of Texas A&M's 12th Man Magazine takes a few jabs at departed basketball coach Billy Gillespie. For instance:

• "Oh, and one more thing...please return that maroon blazer we gave you three years ago. You never looked quite comfortable in it."

• "To Gillespie, A&M was merely a stepping stone. It was never going to be a permanent - or even a long-term - destination. He's a nomad at heart, as evidenced by the fact that Kentucky represents his 11th job in the last two decades."

This suggests that we knew all along that he'd leave, which is clearly not the case.

• Gillespie is not likely to last long at Kentucky, either...Because of his lifestyle and his singular focus...Gillespie will have wandering eyes, once again."

This is in reference to his lack of a life outside of basketball. What was endearing a few weeks ago is now a flaw. The article goes on to talk about how the new coach is a family man who will make connections in the community and go to football games and maybe stay here long enough for his 2-year-old to graduate from high school in College Station. That strikes me as quite unlikely.

One more quote:

• "Quite frankly, he's (Turgeon) a more experienced head coach on the college level and an even better fit at A&M than Gillespie. That's not sour grapes. That's the truth."

That's quite a bold statement. Well the urge to say these things is understandable, it seems quite petty and unnecessary. Also, I'd wait to see what the new coach does before putting him on such a pedestal.