Giveaway: $10 Starbucks Gift Card!

Win A $10 Starbucks Gift Card!

I love entering giveaways and have won a few recently so I thought I would hold one and give a little something to my wonderful readers. All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment with your email address (So I can email you if you win). 

That's it!

I will pick a winner on 5/7/12 and send them an email. I will also announce the winner here on my blog. I will need the winner to respond to my email and send me their mailing address within 24 hours or I will pick another winner. 

Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by anyone but me. The giveaway is for my readers because I love them! This is only open to people in the U.S. Must be 18 years or older to win.

Update: This giveaway is now closed. 

This Seems Legit

I receive emails that I have determined to be scams all of the time. Some are easy to tell they are scams while others, like the one below are harder to tell they are scams. I mean, who wouldn't believe I just won Five Million Dollars? This totally seems legit to me *insert sarcastic tone of voice here*. I will however tell these scammers something that may help them in the future. If you are going to write to people who most likely have half a brain, you may want to learn better English so you don't sound like such an idiot.."brain cage" really? I feel sympathy for those who don't see emails like this one for the scams they are and end up losing money to these idiots. Here's the email I received today. I had to share it with you because I found it so ridiculous.


"hello I call CHRISTELLE VALBERG married born April 24, 1968 and I am a French national. You can contact him because I want to do something very important. This will seem a little suspect it true that you do not know me and you do not know. I have a cancer that is terminally ill, my doctor is telling me that my days are numbered because of my range of health. From what the Dr. I was justified, a bullet is currently installed in my brain cage, I have this disease for over 4 years. I made you to accept my award. I have the sum of $ 5,000,000 as a grant. Please accept this sum as it may well be very useful and it asks nothing in return. It is necessary to accept my offer if you directly answer my email: christellevalberg@yahoo.fr I feel very bad and I'm afraid, almost did not sleep at night and day. I can not die without having done all this grant money if I do not think it would be a copy gasto.Quiere my email address to write to my lame: God remains with you."


Oh yeah, that seems legit...

Do You Tip?

I was watching a show on tv a while back and it showed this server in a restaurant ranting about not getting an 18% tip on all the people who ate at the place she works. Now while I do understand that servers/wait staff don't make big bucks, they know what they are going to be making when they apply for or take the job, no one forces them to be a server and a tip is not mandatory of customers.

This lady said if you expect to get good service that they expect to get a good tip of at least 18% but in my opinion she is wrong. Good service is what they are paid to do, it's not mandatory for customers to give them a tip for a service that's already being paid for. That's their job!

Expecting a tip from everyone or bitching about a small tip is rude and ridiculous. If someone thinks their waitperson was nice/helpful enough to leave them any sort of tip, even a couple of bucks change, then that person should remember they didn't have to and be thankful for it.

Tips are for good service rendered. Not just because you brought out the food and never came back and did your job of asking if anyone needed a refill, something else or if I have to hound the other servers to get my check because you never come back to my table after bringing the food.

You pay for your food and anything extra should not be 'expected and bitched about if you don't get it'. If I felt like giving a tip, I will. If the service was bad and the server had a bad attitude, I'm not leaving a tip. You took that job knowing full well that you would be having to wait on customers and be friendly. I worked in a bakery/deli and never got a tip and I made sandwiches, donuts, sliced people's cold cuts and cheese and made party platters all day, but I did it with a smile because that's what I got paid to do.

Not everyone who works with the public gets a tip. The people in the bakery/deli who slice your cold cuts and cheese don't get tips, doctors who make sure you are alright don't get tips, the cashier at the grocery store doesn't get a tip.

And don't even get me started on those places that put out a tip jar right by the cash register and expect a tip like Starbucks, port of subs, subway and other fast food places that seem to be doing it. They get paid for doing their job and I expect to pay the price on the wall, next to what I am getting. I don't tip at those places.

The one thing I will say is if I order food and have it delivered, I usually tip the person who brings it to me. I do tip when going out to eat, although I really don't go out to eat all that often anymore. I just don't think the servers should be getting all ranty and indignant if they don't get the 18% tip they are looking for. If I throw a couple of bucks on the table after a meal, smile and be happy you got anything at all, because believe me if I hear a snarky remark about a small tip...you'll never get another tip from me.

I was being nice one time when I went to Port of subs and left $2 in the tip jar after the ladies made our two sandwiches. They had been nice and I was feeling generous and so when she gave me my change, I put it in the tip jar and on my way out I heard her say to the other lady, "Two bucks? Can you believe this shit?"

There was no one else in the store at the time and she didn't even have the common courtesy to wait until we were completely out the door before she took the money out and said that. so whenever we wanted sandwiches again from port of subs, I made sure to go on days I knew they were working and got them then. I never gave another tip. Oh and yeah, I called the 1-800 number and complained about them too. It pissed me off just that much. I wasn't worried about retribution since you watch them through the glass making the sandwiches..they couldn't spit in my food in the back like I'm sure they would have given the chance.

Yeah I'm pessimistic/negative and irritated with the whole tip thing. It's probably a good thing I don't go out much..because I'm not a good tipper.

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger...

I would love to know who thought that up. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Is that really true for all of us? I'm not so sure. Sometimes the things we go through when we were younger shape they way we are later on in life, for the good or the worst. But sometimes the things that happen in life don't make you stronger, they just leave you feeling exhausted, frail and broken. 

A good friend of mine passed away last week and it's left me shaken. He was only 55 years old and so I never thought anything would happen to him, not for a long time anyway. This coming June 23rd will have been one year since my mom passed away. You just never know what little gem life is going to throw at you next and while I used to just take each day as it came, right now I seem to be in "Oh no" mode. That is, I'm thinking, "Oh No"..what's going to happen next. Oh no, why is my phone ringing, is it going to be bad news? Oh no, who's at my door...ect.

I really need to get out of this frame of mind, but I'm not sure how to right now. But I guess that's what life is..cycles of time where the water is calm and everything is moving smoothly with the occasional wave, storm or shark floating along the surface ready to bite you in the ass if you get too close.

Operation Smile

Operation Smile: This April Like Operation Smile on Facebook and SwimWays will donate $2 per Like http://on.fb.me/IKxw0E #OperationSmiley360

About Operation Smile:

Operation Smile is an international children's medical charity that heals children's smiles, forever changing their lives.

Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft — often unable to eat, speak, socialize or smile. In some places these children are shunned and rejected. And in too many cases, their parents can't afford to give them the surgeries they need to live a normal life.

Since 1982, Operation Smile — through the help of dedicated medical volunteers — has provided more than 2 million patient evaluations and over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.

With your help, how many lives can we change tomorrow?

*I may receive compensation as a result of this blog post from Smiley 360 in the form of free samples and/or points*

Articles Published, Movies Watched and Books Read..

I write when I have the time and find an idea for an article. Well, this month I had the time to write uninterrupted because Ken was in California dog/house sitting for his sister and my daughter was out with her friends or her boyfriend. So I had the house all to myself. I was able to get in a few movies including the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street, which was less than satisfying. I really like the original much better. I also watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Hostel 3, both of which I really enjoyed.

I read a couple of books including a new one by Shelley Munro called Cat Burglar in Training, which I really loved. This book is Previously published as The Shadow *that I wrote a review for*, and is newly refreshed by the author, It's a great story and I like the changes that were done. Shelley was nice enough to send it to me after I won an ecopy on a blog contest and when I finally had a few minutes to myself I knew it would be one of the books I read. I love Shelley's writing, her books are always so good and she is such a sweet person. Shelley has a blog Taste of Kiwi, that she regularly updates and chats with commenter's. If you haven't read a book by Shelley Munro yet, I highly recommend her, all of her books have been keeper's.

I also read Wild Cat By Jennifer Ashley, this is part of a series that I am really enjoying and am looking forward to the next book coming out which the author said on fb should be next year. I'm very much looking forward to that. If you like Shifter romances, I recommend this book.

I still have a few other books to get to, I just haven't had the time yet.

I did however find the time to write two more articles.

What Causes Weight Loss In Pet Rats

How To Keep Your Rat From Tipping The Scale.

Good Bye Tk

I found out earlier today that a good friend of mine passed away from a heart attack. Although we never met in person, we'd know each other through several yahoo groups and fb for many years. I was so shocked and saddened to hear of his passing, I'm still so sad about this.

William Watts or Tk as he was known to us was one of the nicest people I've even had the privilege of knowing. I met him during a time in my life when I had all but given up on there being people like he and his wife out there to meet. He renewed my faith in humanity and made me see there were still people in the world that would help another for no other reason than they wanted to.

I've received many holiday cards from he and his wife and sent many in return. He was proud of Canada where he lived and sent me Maple Leaf cookies to try because he wanted me to experience something he loved. I sent him something from Vegas so he would always have a little part of where I lived with him.

When I found out he loved spongebob square pants, I sent him a few spongebob stickers that he took pictures of after he put them on his riding mower.

I'll never get to meet Tk in person but we talked like we had lived next door to one another for years. He was like a member of my family and after my mom died last year I made it a point to let him know how much he meant to me. I told him since my mom passed away so suddenly, I wanted the people I loved to know how much they meant to me and how much I cared for him because we never know when we'll go to sleep and not wake up.

I'm so happy that I wrote that letter to him and let him know how much he had influenced my life for the better. Don't waste time never telling those you love how much they mean to you, because they can be taken away at any minute and then you'll never have the chance to.

Be happy and free, Tk. You'll be missed my friend.

A Maintenance Man's Wife

Being the wife of a maintenance man has been interesting to say the least. Not only can Ken do simple handy man type things he is also certified in AC, Pool maintenance and Plumbing. He can fix pretty much anything where he works at. Over the last 22 years I've heard so many stories and seen so many funny things because of the type of work he does that I thought it would be fun to share a few of these stories.

A few years ago a lady asked the manager if she could have a pole *stripper pole* installed in her living room. The manager approved it and Ken installed it. He had to drill through the floor and the ceiling to install it. I found that way too funny. I really didn't think an apartment manager would approve something like that being done to an apartment but he might have had the hots for the lady and probably tried sneaking looks in her window for all I know. LOL

Ken also worked at a Hotel/Lodge that I won't name but it's here in Las Vegas and it's really nice. :P He and one of his workers came back to our place after work and was telling me about what they found in one of the rooms after the couple left. Now the couple had stayed for three days and didn't want anyone in their room for anything. Ken told me that he and another maintenance person were called to do some maintenance on the room and when they got there they had to take some hardware off the ceiling, walls, and bed.

There were heavy metal hooks, chains and boards screwed right in the walls of the room. He said it looked just like a BDSM Dungeon and all the workers were talking about it. Even the front desk people wanted to go take pictures before it was taken down. There was an X frame screwed to one wall with heavy chains screwed to it.

My first thought was...why didn't they take their equipment with them? lol

At one of the apartments we lived at where Ken worked maintenance I was called and told to get my daughter who was just a baby at the time and quickly come down stairs. So I did and I and other workers families were ushered to other other side of the street. When I asked what was going on I was told there was a bomb scare and they were only telling the people who worked there and their families until the police told them for sure.

The police/Swat came and finally after an hour were able to get the guy out of the apartment and he didn't have any bombs but he had a hell of a lot of guns. The guy was arrested and Ken and another maintenance man were told to repair the broken window and door and lock the place up. When he came home that night he told me the entire inside of that apartment was painted in camouflage paint. When the guy didn't come back after 30 days and no one came to pay his rent, all of his belongings were bagged up and put in storage for a month before trashed. When they started bagging stuff up they found pipes for making bombs, nails and three more guns so they had to stop and call the police back. The police came took the guns and pipes and I never heard what happened to the guy.

Oh and the best story I saved for last. Years ago Ken hurt himself on the job and broke both his ankles. The guy that came and took over his maintenance duties until he healed came over to our apartment all the time to ask how to do certain things and ken trained him is what he needed to know..about three months after the guy got hired we see his mug shot on the news one night. The story said he killed one guy and then killed his room mate, wrapped the guy in plastic and duct tape and hid the body under his bed for 6 weeks. When the police went in to investigate the disappearance of the room mate they found the body wrapped in plastic under the bed and the guy confessed to killing him.

That guy who killed those two people had been in my apartment, ate at my table, talked with ken all the time and we never suspected a thing until seeing his face on tv that night. How creepy is that?

Being a maintenance man's wife has been interesting alright.