I was tagged, now your justa tagged~ Sorry!

ok damit. I've been tagged I am it. I wasn't going to even play the darn game. I was standing in the middle of this playground. Some people call it a blogeshphere and I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Kelvin over at Moment in Time. He said tag I'm it, and laid down some rules to me. They are as follows:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post,the player than tags 4 or 5 people and post their names,then goes to their blogs and leaves a comment,letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you have posted your answer.

I'm not comfortable with this. Some of the people I tag might beat me up. That is just the risk I'll have to take. Hopefully the bully's in the playground will play nice. Here some things you might not know about me.

1.What was I doing 10 years ago?

I don't even know what I was doing a day ago and you want me to remember 10 years ago! Ok. It's fuzzy but here goes. I owned my very own large car(tractor trailer) and drove mostly in the northeast delivering general freight and groceries to the upstate New York region and all points in between up and down the coast. I didn't particularly enjoy my job but had no idea how to get out of it.

2.What are the 5 things on my to do list for today(not in any particular order).I didn't have a list.

• Take a nap catch up on some much needed sleep.
• Take car to Cole muffler in Fulton, Ny for repairs.
• Go to Gym.
• Take Indy(my dog out back to stretch his legs).
• Go Grocery shopping with Momma tonight.

3. Snacks I enjoy.

I enjoy the small Jelly beans I can buy at Wegmans, Low fat ice cream, fruits, chocolate chip cookies.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.

• Pay off all my friends and relatives bills then give them a one time gift of $50,000. When that is gone it's gone.
• Buy a log cabin.
• See if I could talk Momma into quitting her job.
• buy me a Mercedes Benz
• Wake up from my dream. Ha. Ha.

5. Three of my bad habits.

• I kid around to much sometimes.
• I sometimes am pessimistic.
• I'm too fast to anger.

6. Five places I have lived. (What? only 5)

• Rochester,NY
• Elmira, Ny
• Fort Bragg, Nc
• Fort Knox, Ky
• Heidelberg, Germany

7. Five jobs I have had.

• Busboy
• Army-Personnel clerk
• Factory worker
• Shoe salesman
• Truck driver

There that is over. Now its supposed to be time for me to tag 4 or 5 people. I'm not going to tag that many but I will tag 2 or 3.(See I don't follow rules. I don't play well with others)

Tag your it!!

Tom is my brother in law. He started his blog just trying to comment on my blog. One thing lead to another and now he is blogging. He has an awesome sense of humor and an interesting take on life. He sometimes has a little to much time between post for my taste but when he post, I always try to read it.

Forest is the first blogger to ever put me on his blogroll. That is a humbling experience knowing that some one thought enough of your content to want to let people know he reads it. Thanks again Forest.

Stan is a crazy bastard just like me. He has Bi-polar disorder like I do and stops by often now and leaves lengthy and thought provoking comments on this blog. You've got to check his blog out. Very interesting indeed.

There are many others that I could tag. I am just really hesitant to tag them as I don't really have a relationship with them and just wouldn't feel comfortable putting them on the spot. Tom if this bugs you (getting tagged) sorry about that. That will teach you for cheating on our contest (laughs out load and long).

43 Things Tags: family,friends,Having fun,interesting web sites.

HOT OFF THE PRESSES. CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT POST!!!!

Amanda and Jeff are with child. Jeff just called me. Woke me up from a nap he did. It is going to be a boy. My guess had been a girl. Now do you see why I only buy lotto tickets once in a while. Yep they were on the way back from the Doctor and called to tell us the news. Justa think. Baby pictures soon. Also, dirty diapers. Can you say Grandma? I can't wait to spoil him and then send him home to mom and dad. More to follow I'm sure.

Justa planning ahead.

Picture courtesy of saving advice.com via Google images

 

Those of you that have been with us here at Justakrusen

for a while, know that I was posting what Cindy and I were paying for groceries every time we went shopping at Save A Lot, or where ever else we may have gone to pick up things we couldn't get there.Well I stopped doing that because it just seemed redundant. I'm not thinking of doing it again unless someone really lets me know that they want me to in the comments.

What I do want to talk about today

are some of the things that Cindy and I are doing to save money on our grocery shopping at the same time stocking up for a price hike on certain items. We have seen the price of some foods go up quite a bit in the last few months. I'm not going to go through the items that have increased you can tell when you look at your grocery bill. One of the things Cindy did the other day was go to the store and stock up on Bread making things as I mentioned the other day. She bought enough for us to go quite a while without buying bread at the store if we had to.

Something I did yesterday, which on the surface

sounds expensive but in the long run will save us money at the same time providing high quality meats with menu planning ability right at our fingertips. It happened like this. I got a knock at the door yesterday and it was a young guy standing there. He went right into his pitch about saving money on meat, they were in the neighbor hood and blah, blah, blah, I usally just tell these kind of salesmen "no thanks" and shut the door. For some reason I put my shirt on and waddled out to his pickup with him. On the back of the pickup was his partner and a freezer. They proceeded to bring out a case of meat. I'm going to make another long story really short. I bought a case of top line meat with about 13 weeks of meals in them for $199.00. These are top of the line meats. Momma and I had a Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon that was to die for. Just ask momma if you don't believe me.

My Bi-Polar disorder is cycling pretty fast right

now. I'm going into the depressive mode as I type this. During the day and early evening I seem to be up. Night time and early morning down. Time to adjust the meds Len. I'll talk to him in the next day or so as he always calls to check on me. I'm very lucky to have a counselor and a wife on board to help me through this. A lot of you going through similar experiences have no one, or you feel like you have no one. I know the feeling. How is your day going let us know in the comments.  I'm cutting it short here this morning. And as always. I'm justa saying!

43 Things Tags: Bi-Polar,Groceries,saving money

You've gotta justa be kidding me!!

 

The fine folks of Pennsylvania obviously are just about as dumb as us fine folks in New York have been for a couple of elections any way. That's right the majority of the people in Pennsylvania  have voted for Billary. They must have not read my post from a couple of days ago. Rush Limbaugh got his way. Billary won and this primary will probably run all the way to the convention now. Goody, Goody, we get to hear all kinds of more dirt. On both candidates. The longer the primary goes on for the Dumocrats the better it will be for the Repuglicans. It couldn't happen to nicer people. The Dumocrats just don't get it. I'm amazed that seemingly intelligent people could vote the way they do. I've even seen some Dumocrats stand on two legs and walk can you believe it?

Don't worry I'm not going to be ranting on the election the whole post.

I just had to get that off of my chest. Whew. Deep breathing....  Ah much better now. Where was I? Does anybody out there but me listen to Glen Beck on the radio. He is very funny but informative at the same time. If you listen to him I'm sure you agree. Well the other day Glen was telling us that some of the commodities futures would be climbing, in fact they already are climbing. The gas futures are why we are paying so much for gas right now. In fact they are the reason we are going to be paying $4.00 per gallon for gas by summer. wise bread has a post about this very subject from back in July 2007. It is well worth taking the time to read it.

Another one he warns about is Wheat.

Apparently for various reasons there will be a possible shortage of wheat. The same stuff that goes into making all of our breads. So guess what. Bread will be going up. Momma and I got ready for this possibility by storing up a little on bread making stuff and we are prepared if the price does rise real high. If not we still like to eat home made bread and it will not spoil as momma put it in containers. I don't remember the other commodity he mentioned besides these two, Gas and wheat. I'm sure there are more though. Now is the time to listen for those little hints and hidden news items to see what is happening that will be effecting us.Just for example if the price of fuel goes up another $0.50 cents per gal,which experts say is a certainty can your budget tolerate another $7.00 per fill up for gas. ($0.50 X 14 gals)This will push some people over the edge budget wise. Heck a lot of cars or trucks have bigger tanks than the 14 gal example I used just do the math.

Don't be tempted to put things on a credit card to get by.

That is the worst thing you can do. It will only make things worse. The only thing to do is to start thinking about cutting back on some things. Can you cut out some on eating out? Is there any way to combine some of your shopping trips.(This may take some planning) Maybe you could start selling some of your kids off.(oops did I say that out loud? only kidding) You see what I mean though. What area of your budget can you start cutting. Cindy and I have been in cutting mode lately. We haven't been to a movie out in months. We don't eat out as much.(We still haven't given up our Saturday breakfast trips). We have cut our grocery bill almost in half most weeks. We shop at Save a Lot in Fulton, Ny because of this we spend 40% less than you folks that shop at Wegmans or P&C do.Granted we don't get all the name brand things you can at the other stores, but what we do get is rather tasty and some of the things are the same brands as are at Danny Wegmans just packaged under a different name. If you don't believe me try it out for yourself. It is named SAVE A LOT for a reason. I'm sure there are more money saving things we can all do. Does anybody out there have any ideas? What are some things that you and your family do? I'm justa asking!!

43 Things Tags: dining out,driving,dumocrats,gas,groceries

Justa checking on the gas prices!

Picture courtesty of Auntyeviel via flicker

Have you noticed the way the gas prices have been creeping

up to that $4.00 per gal mark.The market has been telling us for months now that its coming this summer. Well guess what? It's spring, rushing into summer. After priming our pumps so to speak all winter the gas companies are all set to get those prices up to the $4.00 per gal mark. And guess what? That's right, we are letting them. Supply and demand folks.  We as consumers have to have the gas to get back and forth to work and our other "have to drive to" events in our lives.

The other Countries that we are competing with

for the World market on oil are still increasing their demands for oil. It is a win win kind of environment for the oil companies right now. The ole rich get richer syndrome if you will. I don't know if you've been keeping an eye on the prices and the fluctuations in the local market. Your's truly has! I'm writing this  post on Monday morning for posting on Wednesday, so the prices I have checked on are for  last Saturday.(Click on the Syracuse Gas Prices link on the Sidebar to the right to follow along if you'd like) That's the latest update as of this time Monday am.

The lowest price in the area as of Saturday

was at Sam's club on Rte 31 that came in at $3.42 a gal just $0.01  lower than Bj's right down the road. The next lowest prices we're in the $3.43 to $3.47's and up. The gouger of the week continues to be the Mobil station on the corner of Velasko Rd & Onondaga Blve at a whopping $3.73 per gal. Week in and week out they come in as the highest priced gas in the Greater Syracuse area. Can you say. Howdy neighbor. They don't care what people think of them obviously. I've never been over there, but they must have people buying gas from them. Just as a side note the Sunoco gas station on the corner of Taft and Morgan Roads came in at $3.28 per gal for their regular unleaded at one time when I checked on Sat.

So you see, its pretty tough to keep up with the prices. You'd almost have to have a phone tree set up with people calling in 2 or 3 times a day from various locations to keep up. That's not practical so what can I do, you ask? Good question I don't have all the answers. Do any of you out there have any ideas? What are you doing to combat the high fuel prices? We can't drive less can we? We still have to get to work, go to the gym, go to Grandma and Grandpas for dinner on Sunday.How can we drive less any ideas? I'm justa asking?

Maybe signing up for a site like Syracuse Gas Prices.com would help. I signed up on Monday. One of the ones I posted was on there. I posted 3 or 4 prices the one that bothers me not showing up is the Bj's one. It was only showing the lowest price of Saturday. But as of Tuesday at 2:55 pm the price was $3.52.9. quite a difference wouldn't you think. I'm wondering a little bit about who owns and runs the site mentioned above. Some research is needed. I'll get back to you if I can find out.

43 Things Tags: gas prices in and arround syracuse,ny,having fun

Justa wondering where your allegiances lie! Or why are you a Dumocrat!!

If your even thinking about voting for Barack

My wife is embarrassed to be an American Obama or Billary (self explanatory Clinton) I have to question your patriotism. That's right! Have you forgotten the War on Terror. Are we afraid to go out to Restaurants, or malls, or our church's? I'm not thinking so! It's not because we are talking about pulling out of Iraq. It's because of the Tightened noose on the terrorist organizations around the world . Come on people the war in Iraq was  probably most assuredly not a super idea. History will determine that. But If you can vote for some one that would say they are going to pull out the troops just to get elected with out knowing the ramifications of that move ahead of time. GIVE ME A BREAK!!! Think for yourself's don't let the nightly news dictate who the next president of the country is going to be.

If your a Dumocrat I'm embarrassed for you

. You think it's ok to take a human life. Abortion! What if you had been aborted. What if the Pope had been aborted. Come on America think about it. If God didn't want that life he wouldn't have created it. Give me a break. Stop your whinnying about the Gas prices. Cut back on your eating out, your cigarettes, heck yeah give up your beer if you have to, but stop your WHINNING! pretty please( there was that politically correct enough for you?) If we stop using so much gas the prices will come down. Demand will drop so will the prices. Supply and demand. It's what drives any Economy. Please stop waiting for our Government to do something. It is up to us the people. Each and every one of us can make a difference right where we live, work and play. By the way if you vote Democratic,open up your check books there goes the taxes. Check out The Syracuse Gas Prices.com site on the sidebar on the right. Join that. Give the prices for gas stations you drive by every day. Let's work together to beat the oil companies. They have a head start on us,

I don't know where this hair up my fanny came from.

It's just in my mind and I wanted to share it with you. There is more ranting I could do about the Dumocrats if I wanted to. But why beat a dead horse. Fortunately the good, the bad and the ugly is coming out on both candidates. That's another thing you guys do, you eat your young. Barrack Obama could have made a good President, maybe he will some day. He's just to inexperienced. You can't be all things to all people. And really Hillary Clinton could care a less about her country. She's more interested in staying in power because with out a position of power she is just another old bag of wind.Remember the promise of more jobs for upstate New York she was going to work for? We're still waiting Billary! If you must vote for one of these two people so be it. Don't vote for them because your union says to, or your friends, or relatives, you get the point. Know the facts study every thing you can, than make an informed opinion.

 

 

 

Repuglicans have their issues also.

John Mccain isn't going to be strong economically. He has admitted that.Also, he hasn't meet an old crony from either party,that he won't jump on the band wagon with. But the one thing he is going to do is protect our country. That's a pretty good place to start. I am technically a registered Republican but my bent now is more toward being an Independent.You all know the story on how to tell if a politician is lying, "his or her, lips are moving!" I just think we should all weigh the facts and choose who we feel will best lead our country for the next four years.Hopefully we can all agree to disagree in a reasonable way. I'm still not sure 100% who I'm going to vote for this year for President. I might not make my final decision until I'm in that booth. For anyone to know beyond a shadow of a doubt who they're going to vote for now. Tells me that they aren't making an entirely informed decision, if you know what I mean. All the facts aren't out yet. Good luck and may God continue to bless the United State of America. I'm justa saying!!

43 Things Tags: another rant,Dumocrats,gas prices,Pouting,seizing the day,whinning.

I was justa thinking!

I'm writing this post on Sunday Morning

at 04:27 am. This is for Monday.  We'll why are you typing this on Sunday instead of on Monday morning  you ask? Just to get a head a little bit. Sometimes my mind gets so cluttered with things that I like to just get it on paper so I can let it go.

Here are some of the things on my mind as Sunday comes rushing in. In no particular order:

• It really hurts when a friend is down and you feel like there is nothing you can do. You realize that although you may have given them advise that is valuable it is ultimately up to them to make the move for change. They have to want to change, and make that first move to change.

 

• Momma and I are really looking forward to Jeff and Amanda coming over for dinner tonight (Sunday) They are so busy in their lives right now. It is going to be nice to help them stop and smell the roses. I envy those families that make it a point to get together for meals. especially like my Sister Donna and husband Steve's family. Every Sunday they get together at one of the kids for Dinner. The whole immediate family. That is way cool.

 

• My Yankees aren't doing so hot again. It is early in the season but they just seem to be digging themselves a big hole. I haven't paid enough attention yet to know what the problem has been. Does any one know what they're major malfunction is?

 

• I used to dread Sundays. That's right I dreaded them because it would create an environment for Momma and I to go our own separate ways on Sunday's at 11:00 am. I thank God that Cindy stayed the course and on most Sundays went to church even though I was being stubborn and stayed at home. It is because of her faith and prayers and the prayers of others that I am again attending the church of my choice on Sundays. The Community Wesleyan Church in Baldwinsville, Ny. is that church.

 

• We have penciled in a date for dinner with Norm & Sandy our friends that moved out of the park years ago.So our social calendar is full for dinner on May 17, 2008. Bill O'rielly if you are reading this I won't be able to do the interview for that day. You'll have to pick another day and time. :)

 

• I enjoyed lunch out with my Buddy Shawn on Friday. We went to Doug's fish fry on the corner of 31 & 57. If you like fish you have to try them out if you've never done it. Can you say Delicious? (I hope you can say it better than I spelled it, thank you again spell check) 

 

• My number one commenter is missing in action again. He actually really does have a life outside blogging. Must be nice.:) He has been busy again with family obligations. He just finished up the bathroom off the master bedroom. And went right from that project into a rehab assignment on a house with his wife, Daughter Natalie and boyfriend Cory. I don't think they have any quit in them. Relax guys, take a chill pill.

 

• Another thought that just slid into my mind. Is that I'm glad for the friends and family that are always there when the going gets tough. That when the chips are down, when life gets really busy, family no matter what takes care of family.And really, really good friends are always there when you call That is a pretty neat place to be isn't  it guys?

That's just some of the random stuff that was rumbling through my

head this morning . It's 5:02 am. time to walk, ok limp back into bed and cuddle with Momma again. Man life don't get any better that this does it? I'm justa saying!

43 Things Tags: family,friends,having fun,Ny Yankees,Pizza hut

I'm justa bearly able to do this post!

Photo courtesy of Cubicle nation

I'm really stretching it with the Metaphors aren't I?

Maybe that's why The Lime Green Drama Queen calls me "Chief Dead Horse beater." It's one of the things I do. I think it's  to amuse myself more that anything. So that is pretty pathetic isn't it? My wife's eyes go up into her head when I start one of my shticks that she has seen a million times already.

Speaking of Shticks I didn't use one of my favorite ones

when we went out to eat two nights ago to celebrate (more on that later)I suppose I have to tell you what it is I always do. I'm proud of myself I haven't done it in quite a while but hey, like the lottery "You never know". Here it is. When the waitress brings the check back, I look to see if she wrote Thank you. If yes than hopefully she writes in her name. Lets say its Jane. So stay with me here. I call her over  to the table and tell her I have a problem with the bill. Pointing at the bill I say. "I have a problem with the bill." she looking where I'm pointing acts a little concerned thinking she made a math error.(The only error she made was getting me for a customer)So any way. I then say,"This isn't my bill, It belongs to Jane." :) get it? Thank you Jane. now isn't that bad. I know, I know, I just can't help my self.

Now as to the reason for our celebration

Drum roll please... Momma and I are days away from paying off our credit cards in full. It has been 15 years since we are going to  be able to say. " No credit card bills at all" As soon as the check from my 401k account clears the bank we will write the final check for a credit card bill. One that we aren't paying in full at the end of each month that we use it anyway. The only reason we have had the balance all these years is because of the truck I owned. Momma to hold it together when the truck just wasn't bringing in any more money than what the truck needed to operate, from time to time had to use the credit card to pay the bills of the truck or household needs that I wasn't providing for.

We went to a steak house  that we hadn't been to before

I can't recall the name right now. As it is now 1:52 in the morning that I'm writing this, the restaurant will have to remain nameless as I'm not waking up Momma to ask her the name. Momma and I both got what we wanted to eat. We shared a Bloomin Onion and Cindy had to get a doggie bag for her meal.(Can you say,"There's her lunch for tomorrow?') As for me. Well I just pigged out and this picture is pretty much how I felt after the meal. It was good though. We spent over half a weeks groceries on the meal but hey we were celebrating. The amount of the credit card's we were paying off were over $3,300 dollars so we felt pretty awesome. Now we have to continue to build up our emergency fund to 6 months worth of expenses. Hopefully Murphy will stay a way for a while. We have almost $4,000 back in our savings after canceling out our home buying adventure.

Now as to the title of the post. I'm pretty tired doing this post as it's 2:00 am Friday morning and this is my 2nd post since I woke up a while ago. So I'm going to shut it down go back in a cuddle with Momma. Hopefully I can sleep until 5:15. We shall see.

 

43 Things Tags: dining out,drama queen,groceries,seizing the day