The Musings of the Absolutely Fabulous Ms. N.

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) has decided to run for President. He is a SU alum (College of Law 1968).

I have been waiting for this annoucement for months!

Labels: politics, SU

A UK church has decided to switch their usual Sunday hymns for some U2 songs. Now there is a church I would attend on a regular basis. Now what I want to know is ,will Bono be serving communion?

Labels: church, news, U2

Ms. GreyCats hooked me up with this cool site where you can swap your old books for with other people. So far I have sent two books and I am waiting to get one back. It's easy and free.

http://www.paperbackswap.com

Labels: books, free

Well I got another room in the house painted. Its the small hallway that joins the living room to the bathroom and the dining room. It's this really cool shade of green that is a nice complement to the silver sage that's in the dining room. Mr. K and I are still at a loss as to what to paint the living room. I have a feeling that we wont be getting to that room until this summer so we still have some time to think about the color. I did manage to get the wallpaper for the kitchen but I wont start on that until after we have our SuperBowl party in a couple of weeks. I have never wallpapered before so this should be interesting :)

Labels: decorating, home

A few weeks ago I signed up for a Blockbuster online account. I already have a Netflix account but I wanted to compare the two and take advantage of a free month from Blockbuster. I cant say that I see any difference between the two services. I like the fact that you can take a DVD back to a Blockbuster store for a free rental though I don't think that I am going to take advantage of that. I hate going into Blockbuster (that is why I gave up my membership ling ago).

So far I have rented a few old black and white films that I have wanted to see for a while. So far I have seen Some Like It Hot, Holiday and Mary Queen of Scots. I have been in a Cary Grant mood so I have a bunch of his stuff on both queues. Tonight I am watching Baby Doll while nursing my cold. I plan a weekend of moving watching and nose blowing.

Labels: frugal, movies, sickness

I have been sick these past few days so that explains the lack of posts. I still have been busy though here at home. I finished painting the dining room. I used the leftover Silver Sage that I bought from Restoration Hardware. I used it in the downstairs bathroom and still had over half of it leftover. It looks really nice in the dining room. My next room to tackle is the hallway that starts downstairs and heads to the second floor.

I also bought another DVD player for the living room. I was checking out some HTIBs (home theaters in a box) at BJS today and almost made a purchase. I decided against it and got a DVD player instead. This one has a component hook-up and I thought about getting the cables for it but I could not remember if my TV had the correct inputs for it. Turns out it did. I'll pick up the cables at a later date.

So if anyone out there reading this has any suggestions for some speakers,sub woofer and a receiver (I am leaning towards a Denon) drop me a line thru the comments. Please be price conscious since I am on a budget :)

I opened up a on-line savings account thru HSBC. I am going to make monthly contributions until I get my $3000 so I can open up a Vanguard IRA. I keep saying that I am going to open on up and then something always happens and I don't. No more excuses now.

Also I am contemplating getting some X10 remotes to remotely control some of the lights around the house. Eventually I want to set up a server to do this for me. Mr. K knows I cannot sleep if I think there is a rogue light on at night. He is getting some timers for some of the lights as I write. He's a good man.

Right now I am working on finalizing the color for the dining room. I am eventually going to put in a new light in there too. But only after I switch the doorknob on the bathroom door and get a new light in the bathroom. I think I am going to get one from Restoration hardware unless I can find a cheaper version at Lowes.

Here is a cool recipe for Dr. Pepper flank steak. I googled for it after I saw that Super Suppers was going to offer it next month.

Labels: energy, frugal, home, saving

GreyCats posted her resolutions so I thought that I would post mine.

Save enough to open my Roth IRA
Have all of the rooms in the new house painted
Get some dining furniture
Not let a co-worker drive me nuts
Add to my emergency fund

I think that is it.

Labels: resolutions

Our fridge is about to go. Luckily we saw it coming and ordered a basic white fridge from Home Depot. We got a gift card from Mr. K's parents and got it for just around $500. There is a rebate for the delivery that we need to send in. So far we have spent over $1000 on appliances. We eventually need to replace the washer but I am using that sucker until it falls apart.

I also came across an almost exact replica of the wallpaper that Barefoot Contessa has in her tv kitchen. In her instance it's painted walls that look like wallpaper. I found it at Target.com. I can't wait to order it :) I also plan on starting to paint the dining room soon. This weekend we have to drylock our basement to prevent further flooding. Oh joy.

Labels: home

Today was a pretty nice day. I went out to breafast with Mr. K, then we put away the rest of the Xmas decorations. We went out to our local BJs and also bought a new fridge at Home Depot. Now Mr. K is out with the kids and his cousin at a friends house to watch the football game. I went out to Target and used a gift card I got from a co-worker and bought some curtain rods. I got some nice ones for under $20 a piece. I hung them up and added curtains. Now I am watching tv with some candles and my cats. Ahh the sweet life.

Labels: frugal, home

As many of you know I am cheap with the heat. I installed (ok Mr. K installed) a programable thermometer for the new home. I have set it up so that it turns on at 5:30 in the AM just as Mr. K is getting up in the morning (and convienently the house is nice and warm when I get up at 6). We have been having a warm spell lately so I have been making sure that there has been no unnecessary heat usuage. My cats do not approve. Apparently it is too cold for them in the house and they have taken to laying in front of the heat registers and using all the heat up. There have been a few times when I have been looking for them and have found them splayed out in front the the heat vents. Dude likes the one in the living room and Leo is partial to the one in our bedroom. What the heck? They have fur!!!!! If the humans can keep themselves warm then the cats should be content. They have turned into furry little heat hogs. Stop stealing the heat cats!!! We (occasionally) need some too.

Labels: cats, energy, frugal, home

One of the things that I want to do now that I am a homeowner is to watch our energy consumption. As the "electron nazi" I cannot sleep at night knowing that there may be a lamp or a tv on that is sucking energy. I do (or make Mr. K do) a nightly patrol of the house before going to bed making sure everything that needs to be off is turned off. I need to train the cats to either turn off all the unnecessary lights or come and tell their mom if there is a light left on. I am investigating using compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). I bought some at Ikea a couple of years ago that I don't really care for. Turns out that these bulbs are actually quite shitty. I think I am going to start with the lamps in the living room and see how I like them. Here is a site that is recommended.

Labels: energy, frugal, home

Well, we are all settled in. I turned in the keys to the old apt on Sun and now there is no turning back :) Still plenty of boxes to unpack but so far so good. Now if Mr. K can teach his children to not yell at 6:45 in the morning and h0w to lock the door things would be perfect. I have the day off today (due to Ford's death) so I am going to go back to bed and run some errands later.

Labels: home