How to get a free Swagbuck!

Have you heard of Swagbucks? If not you are losing free money, gifts and other really cool stuff...all for free!
For those of you that have a swagbucks account, here's what you do. Log into your account and click on "Ways to earn" it's at the top left of the page.
Then click on "Special Offers"
Then you'll see a blue box on the right hand side of the page that says, "No obligation offers" click that and scroll down to the bottom of each page and click on 'Skip"
You don't need to fill in any information and after a few pages...for me it was 6 pages, I was given a swagcode for a free swagbuck.

For those of you who don't know about SwagBucks, it's really easy. You create an account at ..
http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=home

And then start using their search bar as your searching for things online. Every once in a while, (for me it't once a day) they will give you a swagbuck right into your account. These swagbucks then accumulate and you can get free stuff. For 45 swagbucks you can trade it in for $5.00 amazon.com gift certificate. It takes less than a month of using their search bar once or twice a day to accumulate that many swagbucks. It's like getting free money for doing the searching you would be doing anyway.

You can also down load their tool bar which has the search bar in it but I usually just go right to the site and use their search bar because I don't want to download anything else to my computer.

Try it and get free stuff.

UMC Hospital In Las Vegas

I don't know how many people ahve heard about this woman who went to the emergency room at UMC and didn't know she was pregnant. She waited in the E.R. for several hours complaining about severe abdominal pain and when the other patients saw how much pain she was in they were telling the staff they she could even go in before them. After several hours and not getting seen, she couldn't take the pain anymore and went to Valley Hospital's Emergency room where the same exact thing ahppened...so she went home thinking the pain would go away...2 hours later she delivered a dead baby at home and her husband called an ambulance. Now UMC is under investigation.

I know first hand how bad the staff in the Emergency room at UMC is. A few years ago I went to my personal Doctor with a 104 temp and bad coughing and just really bad pain throughout my entire body. He gave me paper work to take to the ER at UMC and said they would call a doctor that worked at my doctors office who was on call there at that time and get me seen right away. But when I got there and showed them the paper she told me that I needed to hold onto the paper until I was seen in the back by a doctor and the wait time was a few hours. My temp had gone up to 105F and she gave me 2 tylenol and when I told ehr I hadn't been able to keep anything down she said either take them or she would tell the nurse in the back I had refused the tylenol.

I took them and sure enough 10 minutes later I vomited them right back up. She just looked at me and said nothing. I had a plastic vomit container in my lap because I was in too much pain to keep walking to the bathroom, so she knew everytime I vomited which was every 15 mintes for the 8 hours I was in the waiting room. I had been sick for 2 weeks but it got to be so bad I finally went to the doctors office.

When I was finally called in the back to see an actual doctor, I gave her the paperwork my doctor had given me and she called the doctor and he was very upset I had waited for over 8 hours to get seen. He told her what tests he wanted ordered and when she went to do the paperwork I heard on eof the other doctors asking who the hell ordered all these tests...She told him that my doctor who sent me here did. He just shook his head.

I was put on an IV, chest x-rays were taken, blood was taken and I was put on oxygen and then given a breathing treatment and after 6 more hours in the back...I was told that I had Pnuemonia and The Flu and one of my lungs was half way filled with fluid and that's why I was having such a hard time breathing. If I had waited one more day I would have needed a chest tube.

I learned a lesson that day.....I will never again go to the ER at UMC unless I call an ambulance because their staff up front as asses. The actual medical professionals in the back treating you are nice and they do what they are suppossed to but the people up front who have no real medical training are the ones who determine who gets seen next.

As many people that go to the UMC ER, you would think they would have more than 45 beds, because at any given time there are 80 or more people in the waiting room.

Funny Horoscopes

I found these on TheOnion.com

Aries Mar 21 - Apr 19
Turns out it's not your relationship with your father that's been eating you up inside, but rather a three-foot long parasite lodged directly below your kidney.

Taurus Apr 20 - May 20
It takes a real man to admit when he's made a mistake. However, now that you're a woman, you can blame the sex-change operation on someone else.

Gemini May 21 - Jun 21
Due to its high incidence of hijinx, tomfoolery, and puns, you'll finally decide to stop answering doors during knock-knock jokes.

Cancer Jun 22 - Jul 22
The stars, in their infinite wisdom, indicate that the cute blonde you've been pointing them out to couldn't be more bored if she tried.

Leo Jul 23 - Aug 22
You'll continue to grow as a human being this week, much to the relief of all those geneticists.

Virgo Aug 23 - Sep 22
Home is where the heart is. Specifically, beneath the floorboards of the common room.

Libra Sep 23 - Oct 23
Every day on Earth is like a beautiful gift from God, which is thoughtful and all, but you'd probably prefer something you can actually use.

Scorpio Oct 24 - Nov 21
Juggling three young children isn't easy for any mother, but then, that's why you start with tennis balls and bowling pins first.

Sagittarius Nov 22 - Dec 21
Nothing will be what it seems this week, especially breakfast sausages.

Capricorn Dec 22 - Jan 19
Take heart: There are people with bigger problems than yours, and acting like you care about them will get you laid.

Aquarius Jan 20 - Feb 18
You said you'd never forget all the little people who helped you along the way, but since becoming rich and famous you haven't thought about those midgets once.

Pisces Feb 19 - Mar 20
Were it officially sanctioned, judged by an impartial panel, and taking place somewhere other than your kitchen late at night,† you'd pretty much shatter all existing hot dog eating records.

What's the dumbest thing you've done this month?

I was gonna say what's the dumbest thing you've done last year, but then I'd have to much to write...lol

I ask because I did something today that was completely eye roll, hit yourself upside the head- stupid. I drove my car over to the CVS drug store just around the corner from me. It's actually just one long drive way over and through the hole in a large cement wall but I drove my car.

When I got home and put away all of the things I bought, I went to go get back in my car to go to starbucks with my guft card and get a free frappuccino and my car was gone!

I was frantic, I was sure someone had stolen it. I went inside about ready to call the police and report it stolen when I remembered that after I bought my stuff from CVS, I walked back home and left my car in the parking lot of CVS!

Sure enough when I walked outside and looked across the parking lot, there was my car right where I parked it. lol

I still don't know why I walked home.

Cancer scare.

My mom went through radiation for her throat cancer over ten years ago and she has been cancer free since then. Her mother, my granda had cancer is her ling, and breast and had a lumpectomy as well as half a lung removed and she recovered and was cancer free until she died in 1988. My family has been full of people who've had cancer and have died and my brother is sure he's going to get it one day because of all the cancer in the family.

I made up my mind along time ago that if I ever got any type of cancer I would not put myself though all those horrendous tests, or treatments. I've had enough surgeries and tests done on me, I'm done. I hate going to the doctor and I'm sure she hates me coming in because all we do is argue about what I will and won't do.

Anyway, my husbands doctor told him all the stomach problems he's been having for the past 2 years might be because of some sort of abdominal cancer and he is sending him for some tests. We go for the abdominal ultrasound on the 7th and to a Gastrointestinal specialist on the 18th. I'm sure that GI doc will have all sorts of nasty tests for hubby to take. But he's willing to go through them in order to find out what he has and he said he's willing to do any treatments to get rid of whatever it is too.

I swear, opposites attract because we have totally different views on this subject but all I can do is be there for him while he's going through all this. But I tell you, I won't have another surgery for any reason. It's just not happening and I've allready gone to a lawyer a few years ago and had a living will drawn up and put Hubby as my executor. He did the same with his and I'm his executor...just in case either of our families has a problem with anything.

The thing is while we have lived together for more than 20 years...we aren't legally married and in the state of nevada there's no common law marriage...which is ridiculous. So we had to get papers drawn up to make sure there were no problems.

Waxing

I got a flyer left on my car the other day when I went to the book store that said one of the little salons in the area are having a special on waxing, bikini as well as eyebrows.

Now I've tried plucking my eyebrows a few times and it hurt! Seriously. So Now they are au natural as is the rest of me. *giggle*

I looked online about bikini waxing and most of the sites said the first few times would hurt and afterwards it wouldn't hurt as much. I don't see how that's possible. Plus you have to lay down on a table with all your lil bits just out there for someone to see and apply hot wax too.

Now I'm not into pain and if it really hurts and I start screaming...*giggle*...I wonder if they have a large muscled man in the back that will come out and knock you out...*I don't need a black eye along with my hurt patootie*...or if she would just tell you to suck it up and keep pulling wax from you...

In the end I decided to just throw the flyer away and stay away from any hot wax.

Dreams

So I've always had some really crazy dreams, most of my life I've had nightmares and night terrors. So when I have a funny dream I have to share it because it doesn't happen all too often.

My dream last night...

I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup and this little hairless rat ran out from under the sink. He was wearing this little red and white sweater that had writing on it. It said, "I belong to dale Ernhart Jr. Please return me if you find me." And there was a phone number.

So I called the phone number and sure enough Dale Earnhart Jr was frantic that his little rattie had gotten loose again and said he would be right over. He asked me if the rat was alright and I told him that he was sitting in my arms eating a dog biscuit. There was a long silence and he asked me if the rat had bitten me when i tried to pick him up. I said no he came right over to me.

He said he would be right over.

I hear a knock on the door and he was standing there with three large pepperoni pizzas and a check for $100.00.

He looked amazed that the rat was letting me hold him and said that he doesn't usually take to strangers. The rat started kissing (licking) his face as soon as he got him and then I woke up.

lol

I think I want another rat...

The "I can see all of you" X-ray at the airlines

Have you heard about this x-ray machine? It's also called the "Whole Body Imaging" scan. Have you seen this? No? Well here ya go..

http://privacycoalition.org/stopwholebodyimaging/

This is a virtual strip search and more and more aairlnes are proposing to have them. Here in Las Vegas they are used on internation flights and I heard that other airlines are going to be getting them next year.

I plan on signing this petition to stop these virtual strip search x-rays because it really seems like an invasion of privacy to me. I can only guess at the things the people who would be looking at these screenings would be saying to one another or to their family members after work. And what happens to the imprint after you go on your merry way onboard the airline? Is it stored in a data base for others to look at and laugh?

I will never, ever fly on a plane again regardless of the use of this machine. With so many problems popping up with the airlines, I think people should boycott the airlines until they get their shit together.

I just wanna know...

What's up with the Im, chat, texting or emails instead of an actual phone call or handwritten letter?

You know what made me think of this? I used to write letters all the time, and then we got a computer and now I write letters jsut to the people who don't have a computer. I still call my mother almost everyday and I call my brothers. My sister called me the other night and we talked...not texted.

I don't have a cell phone and I don't need one, I don't want to be texting with my family instead of actually talking to them. I used to put my Im on when I was on the computer but I got so irritated with it that I don't turn it on anymore.

I want people to have courtesy when someone is chatting with them in IM and if they want me to converse with them, do the same for me. Otherwise it's just annoying. I used to love talking to some people on yahoo Im, others, I just sent an IM now and then, cause I am not gonna converse to LOL HAHA LOL LOL :) HAHA LOL LMAO. I'm not asking for a super IQ chat here, most people know me to be a tad goofy and sometimes there is a thought inspiring chat, but I'm not a difficult person to talk to. I only ask for people not to be idiots. Is that too much to ask?

When was the last time someone under the age of 18 wrote a handwritten letter because they wanted to? Not many I'm guessing.

Fire Safe Cigarettes

My husband got to talking about how the cigarettes have changes since they became Fire safe. I don't smoke, never have so I didn't notice anything different with them. Well, except for the cussing all the time from hubby because his cigarette goes out after less than a minute if he doesn't inhale on it.

That's the big thing on these cigarettes, you either inhale alot...alot more than some people were doing before they became fire safe, or your cigarette goes out and you have to relight it.

I was doing some research online about these cigarettes and found out that in order to make them fire safe, they had to use chemicals that have harmful proven side effects.

People are coughing more, getting headahes, light headed and sick to their stomaches just to name a few.

I don't think most people know that there are chemincals used in these new fire safe cigarettes than are more harmful now. Even the glue they use to seal the cigarette was changed and now has more chemicals in it to make the cigarette fire safe.

How crazy is that?

Now people who used to light a cigarette and for the most part just hold it in the hand and take the occasional puff...are having to take a puff every minute in order to keep it from going out...Does that sound like it's safer for people as well as being fire safe? I think not.

Great gifts..

This year I got great gifts but the best was having my entire family over for christmas dinner. That and the fact that everyone got along..lol

This year I received gift cards to:
Starbucks
Borders Books
Visa gift card
iTunes
and bath stuff, scarf and I bought myself a bunch of books with the points I turned into amazon.com gifts cards from the survey websites I have been taking surveys from all year.

My daughter got a huge surprise this morning when a neighbor came over with a brand new 10 speed bicycle for her. The neighbor had bought it because she thought she was going to lose her driverse licrense when she got a ticket, but when she went to court she got her license back and didn't need the bike. So she just gave it to my daughter. How nice was that?

Good news

So I just hear that airline passengers now have new rights. There are new rules regarding how long the airlines can keep people on the tarmack. After 2 hours food and water have to be offered now and after 3 hours they have to take the plane back to the gate and let everyone off. I think this is so much better than what had been happening. Some people have been stuck in planes for 18 hours or more with no food, no water and restrooms that didn't work. That had to stop.

Bunny

My husband found a bunny in the alley this morning. Now I need to find her a good home. I would keep her but my daughter is allergic.

Interview!

I was recently interviewed by Sabah Karimi on The AC Weekly about my articles on Associated Content. http://theacweekly.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/meet-ac-rockstar-mary-kirkland/

I really enjoyed the interview and if you want to read my articles..... http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/37985/mary_kirkland.html

You can always get to them by clicking on the links on the right hand side of this page as well.

Wrapping presents

I was wrapping a few presents today and sure enough tore through the paper a few times because the box I was trying to wrap had some small edges sticking out and it kept poking through the paper. I ended up putting the whole thing into another box and wrapping that.

Sometimes I really dislike wrapping stuff and want to just through it all in gift bags and be done with it. The thing is gift bags, at least to me don't give the same feeling as a wrapped present. I don't know if it's just me or maybe others feel the same way.

I've found some interesting ways of wrapping odd ball shaped presents though. I once had a small oblong round plastic tube shaped present to wrap and decided to to the 'tootsie roll' wrap on it. Put it in the middle of the paper and wrap the ends with ribbon so it looks like a piece of candy.

worked well enough.

The wall tree

Years ago when my daughter was really little, we didn't have enough money to buy a real christmas tree that year for christmas and we didn't know what we were gonna do. So my inventive hubby went to the dollar store and bought some cheap garland.

I had no idea what he was gonna do with it, but as you can see...we had our christmas tree. I had a few ornaments and some lights that we also put on our wall tree and we were so proud of it, we showed it to everyone that year.

Ken (my hubby) even made the star that's on top of the tree. He cut it out of cardboard and painted it.

This is one of my favorite christmas tree's we've ever had.

Christmas Pets

Well it's almost Christmas now, so I thought I would share a couple of of pets pictures.

The first two pictures are of my dwarf hamster, Chance and of my rat Romi.
Chance is eating pumpkin pie by the pine cones me and my daughter painted, while Romi is sitting in front of the snowman I made. She was sniffing around which is why her neck looks like she is bending down to see what's beneath her, because she was.

The pics of my pets were taken a few years ago and even though they have all passed away, they live on in my heart and in these pictures.

Adam Lambert

I was just listening to the radio and heard a new song and after listening to it I was like, Hey I like that....who the heck is it?
I googled some of the lyrics from the song and I could not believe who's name came up. So I looked it up on Youtube and found this ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcZiwNnxSSc&feature=related
Just copy and paste.

It's a new song called For Your Entertainment by Adam Lambert and I love it!
I was watching the video and realized it might be about some S&M...bondage and things like that...which just makes it all the more intriguing if you ask me. If you haven't heard the song....find it...seriously I loved it as soon as I heard it and I didn't even know who was singing it!

It doesn't hurt that Adam Lambert is hot as hell, right? Yeah I know he likes guys, but hey I can still look. lol

What's happened to customer service?

It seems to me that in the past 20 years or so that customer service has suffered a huge crack in it's definition. I remember when people would tell you, the customer is always right. Now it seems the customer doesn't matter all that matters is the bottom line.

Make a buck, then make another and don't worry if your product isn't as good as it used to be or isn't as good as it could be or is just plain crap. Sell, sell, sell.

I've had several run ins with terrible customer service in the past few months and it just makes me so mad when it happens.

2 months ago I went to KFC and had my family with me. I went through the drive through and asked for three 5 dollar box meals with original recipe chicken. I could not believe it when they told me they didn't have ANY original recipe all they had was grilled chicken.

Ok, maybe it can happen once, they can run out of chicken...I can deal with that. So we said sure grilled chicken is fine, three 5 dollar boxes with the grilled chicken. THEN, he says, it'll be 10-15 minutes because they have to make some chicken......*pause*

*Hear crickets chirping*

Uh, so you don't have any chicken at all?
That's right, we have to make some, you gonna wait?
I said no, were going to Burger King.... and we left.

Every single time we have gone into KFC they have a sh*t load of chicken ready in those plastic bins and this time they had no chicken and couldn't make any original recipe? I don't think so.

So I wrote to the main office, sent them an email and 2 weeks later I got an apology and a $5 gift coupon.

*I think you know what's going to happen next don't you?*

wait for it....

...

Yeah, I went back to KFC and since there's only one KFC close to my home I went to the same one.....

I walked inside this time so I could face them instead of the drive through...
I asked for the 8 piece meal...Oh and did you know they raised their prices... an 8 piece meal with 2 large sides and 4 biscuits is now $17.99....it's outrageous.

So I order an 8 piece meal and ask for mashed potatoes and cole slaw...she tells me that the cash register won't let her give me another side..I can only have one....Erm, but the sign right up there says I get 2 large sides with this meal...

She tells me I know but the register only says it comes with one...
I ask to speak to the manager. She comes over and tells me that she will have to ring up and extra side and then delete so it will be on the receipt but I won't ahve to pay for it. I'm thinking they are trying to mess with me, I mean just give me what it says I get on the damn sign. But I said, yeah ok, as long as I don't charged for it whatever.

She gives me a total of $20.05...I hand her a $20 dollar bill and the $5 coupon. She reads the coupon and looks at me in a huff and tells me that she can't ring it up and give me change because the coupon says no change back.

Now....I'm no genius but even I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So I calmly asked her if she could take the $5 off the total before she rings it up and then take that toal out of the $20 dollar bill I gave her.

*crickets chirping and the air blowing through her head can be heard for a few seconds*

Then she figures out what I'm saying and she takes $5 off my order and figures out my change.

While she is doing this, I walk over about three feet to where I see the other woman putting together my chicken in the bucket and ask her is she can substitute the wings for breast pieces.
She looks at me like I just bit the head off a pigeon or something and looks back at the bucket and starts rummaging around in the bucket for the wings...She actually held up a wing and a breast peice and said, So you don't want the wing but you do want the breast?

I said yes. She had to think about it, like she didn't understand, then put the wing back and put another breast piece in the bucket.....She started counting all the chicken in the bucket and I finally got all my chicken...

By then the manager was ready with my change. Seriously.

Shifter

I just ordered this book...well I should say I got enough points from Zoompanel surveys to get this book for free!

I've been doing surveys for Zoompanel for years and when I get enough points I usually get an amazon.com gift certificate so I can get a book, or I get some other thing that I see they have that I like.

So far from them I've gotten..
Cd's
DVD's
Books
One of those fuzz ball removers that you use like a shaver on your sweaters..Love that thing.
and of course gift cards. I use to love the Starbucks gift cards but they don't have those anymore.

So this time for 1000 points I ordered this book and it's one that I've been wanting to read. My gawd this looks good.

This book contains:
- Mad Dog Love by Angela Knight -
-A Jaguar's Kiss by Lora Leigh -
-Shifter's Lady by Alyssa Day -
-Sea Crossing by Virginia Kantra-

I've read other novels by all of these authors except for Virginia Kantra and this story sounds very good. I may have found another author to read to go along with the hundreds of other great authors out there.