Hijacking someone's Blog is Wrong

I feel bad about hijacking my sister's blog. I did it to encourage her to get back in the habit of blogging. Then we have the whole kettle black pot thing to go through. It was misguided to allow the public to assume that she is 45 years old.

So, I am sorry Sabrina. It was wrong of me to get into your account and post a blog about how you don't blog when I have also been lax. You see, my sweet wife has taken to blogging like a toddler to cheerios. She can do more stuff than I can, fancy stuff like advertising and backgrounds and whatnot. Her new blog is Mississippi Momma. It is really good. Tiki Travelers has fallen to my responsibility.

So in the spirit of doing a blog that is worthy of your time to read, I will tell you what we did to save money this past week. First off, it is cold cold cold! I like to say it is colder than a witches bosom in a brass brassier. We went shopping for the insulation cones to protect the outdoor faucets. None were to be found, so we improvised. 3 old towels and some duct tape sealed the deal. The boys wrapped up the faucets and secured them for the winter, so we won't have to call the plumber for that fix this spring and no leaking water in between.

The big money saver this week was the rejection of the landline telephone. I called AT&T (dreading it by the way) cause they always want to argue with you about spending your money. We don't ever use our home phone, so we decided to cut it off. AT&T was real nice about it and helpful. She then told me about the new fiber optic cable in our neighborhood and ended up getting me to switch from Directv to AT&T for television. We are going to end up with the same level of TV service, double our internet speed, put DVRs on all of our TVs and save $70 a month. And that $70 is going on the mortgage (baby step 6 as it were).

So, I hope you enjoyed my return to blogging. Next up will be the construction of my new grill I got for Christmas. We are cranking up the fire place on Saturday and building the grill and smoker inside the house. Here's hoping it will fit going back through the door when I am finished!

Made $200 Today and Lost Weight Too

Andy and I made $200 today. OK, we didn't really make it, we worked on his truck and didn't have to pay our mechanic. His battery died. We replaced the battery last night. Today, the truck still didn't work like it was suppose to. So we tested the alternator, and sure enough, it was bad. Autozone sells a new one for $100. Our mechanic (who is on a first name basis with us) wanted $323. With 4 older sons, we have a fleet of experienced previously titled vehicles and visit our mechanic at least once a week. We got our picture on the wall as customer of the month last December.

We decided that we could replace the alternator for the difference $223. And we were right. One trick with the pulley on the belt, and two bolts later, we had the part out and replaced. Fortunately on that big F-150 truck, there is plenty of room to work on the engine.

I have a new weight loss plan. I went to the dermatologist today for my annual checkup. He took off one mole for a biopsy. Just watching the pounds melt away! We are going to trim our nails and get a hair cut before the next weigh in. How much does an appendix weight?