Fat Penny

Capt Phil Undergoes Surgery

2010-01-31T19:46:00.001-05:00

My heart goes out to the Cornelia Marie family. I'm glad Jake & Josh can be there with him.

Last night Capt. Phil underwent surgery. Both of his sons, Josh and Jake were at his side. Josh flew in from St. Paul to join his brother. It may be some time before we know anything substantial about Phil’s condition.

Thank you to everyone who has sent good wishes and prayers for Phil, his family and the Cornelia Marie crew.

An old family friend of the F/V Cornelia Marie, Derek Ray flew to St. Paul to take on the role of relief skipper for the rest of the Opilio season.

GERMIES!!

2010-01-18T06:59:00.000-05:00

Created by Oatmeal

Yikers!!!

You can go to the website and take a short quiz to find out how many germs are on your cellphone.

jammycatz♥

2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

2010-01-17T11:34:00.001-05:00

I love this challenge -- right up my alley it is! I love going to the library. I feel like it's a store where you get books for free. And I never know what I'm going to end up walking out with. I usually check out all my favorite authors and then I just walk around the aisles and pick up books that either the color, design or title catch my eye.

So I'm definitely in on this challenge. There are different levels you can sign up for -- of course, I am going to go crazy and choose "Supersize Me", which is reading 100 books from the library this year. Yikers!!!! My list of books will be kept here in this post and I will just add to it as I go along.

Go to J.Kaye's Book Blog to sign up if you want to join me in this challenge.

MY 2010 LIBRARY BOOK LIST

1. Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell
2. Evidence by Jonathan Kellerman

jammycatz♥

Deckhand Jake from F/V Northwestern has father missing

2010-01-17T09:01:00.004-05:00

Deckhand Jake from F/V Northwestern has father missing

I just love all those guys on Deadliest Catch. I've watched this show from the beginning several, several years ago. In fact, they started Opilio crab fishing on January 15, 2010. My favorite boat is the Time Bandit and my favorite captain is Johnathan Hillstrand. I think he was a pirate in his previous life LOL. No, really I just like his personality.
I watched Jake Anderson from the first time he was on the Northwestern as a rookie. This last season, he lost his sister while he was on the boat. I was teary-eyed watching him receive the news and then transferring to another boat to make it home to his family as quickly as possible. Now this. I pray his father comes home safe. I can't imagine what has happened to him or how his family is dealing with the terrible time in their lives.
If you happen to be in this area, please keep an eye out.

Keith Anderson, 62, left his Anacortes home on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 to meet with an acquaintance, believed to live in the Arlington area. He has not returned home or contacted his family and friends.

It*s also possible that he may have gone to Sultan, WA. This is out of his character and they are very worried.

Mr. Anderson, a retired high school counselor , who is very compassionate and loved by staff and students, has a history of medical problems and didn*t take his medication with him.
He was last seen driving his white 1999 Ford Ranger pickup truck with a matching white canopy, license plate number B08111F.

Mr. Anderson is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, weighs 135 pounds,blue eyes, greying
brown hair and a grey beard.

Anyone who may have seen Mr. Anderson, or has info, is asked to please call Anacortes police at 360-293-4684, or your local police.

www.lostnmissing.com

(I copied the above from the LostNMissing blog.)

Posted using ShareThis

smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

2010-01-16T18:15:00.002-05:00

Just tonight I joined a website named Smile.ly. You get to try out products and let others know about your experience. This is a new one ~ I haven't heardany "buzz" on the net about it yet. So I'm just jumping out there and giving it a try. One thing I really like about it is there are easy links to post on a lot of social networks-Twitter and Facebook being two I noticed first. Even here on Blogger, it was easy to start this post with a link provided by the site.
At Smile.ly you do missions to earn smilies to make your status higher which gets you more missions. Missions involve trying out new products or services. FREE STUFF ALERT! Well, you know that gets my attention immediately. I like trying out new things and also being in the know before something is introduced to the public. I like it when companies are interested in my opinions. They should be because I am a consumer.
It sounds like fun with a chance to get free products to evaluate. It also seems low pressure with your participation depending on you. Hopefully, I get some neat "missions" thrown my way. I'll let you know. And if you sign up through my link-I get.....you guessed it, Smilies!

smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

jammycatz♥

DOOM

2010-01-16T14:20:00.001-05:00

clipped from icanhascheezburger.com

My Disclosure Policy

2010-01-16T09:31:00.001-05:00

This policy is valid from 16 January 2010

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact jammycatz@ymail.com.

This blog does not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, we will and do accept and keep free products, services, travel, event tickets, and other forms of compensation from companies and organizations.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The gist of it is: I love freebies and do sign up to get them - I like to share my freebie finds in pictures and on twitter. I do have links on my site that I have signed up to be an affiliate and may/may not receive a payment for them. The links I have up and the freebies I may post are not things I have just slopped together hoping to make a dime. They are things that I believe in, am participating in, have bought, or have signed up to receive. They are things that I want to share with you. I have fun on the internet and real life doing what I can with what I have. This includes living it up cheaply as possible. I am a self-confessed frugal gal who cuts corners on the things that don't matter so much so I can spend on those things that do. I don't cheat or steal and don't encourage anyone else to do so. I mean really what do you get out of that? I'd rather be able to sleep at night. My blog is a representation of how I do the things I do and a sharing of that information in the hopes that you also can benefit from it. I appreciate others who have done the same thing on the internet ~ I appreciate their sharing with me.

jammycatz♥

2010 Consumer Handbook

2010-01-12T06:16:00.001-05:00

Pre-Order the 2010 Consumer Action Handbook. This everyday guide to being a smart shopper is hot off the press and chock-full of helpful tips about preventing identity theft, understanding credit, filing a consumer complaint, and much more. In the 2009 edition, you'll find updated information about filing for bankruptcy, finding a lawyer, and planning a funeral, along with many other useful topics.

I have ordered this book every year for the past 5 years. It is chock full of information you can use. You are allowed to order 10 copies. I order them and give away to friends. Everyone is always happy to get one from me. And they do come and usually pretty quickly. Enjoy!!

jammycatz♥

All You @ Amazon - Free $10

2010-01-11T06:29:00.000-05:00

From now until January 31st, Amazon has a promotion for select magazine subscriptions. One of the really good ones (in a coupon user's mind anyway!) is 2 years of All You magazine for $34 and you get a $10 certificate to use on your next purchase at Amazon.

One year is $19.95, but you don't get the free $10. For anyone who doesn't know, All You is a magazine that is sold exclusively at Walmart. Other ways to get this magazine is through online magazine sellers like Amazon or through promotions sponsored by schools that children sell for prizes at certain times of the year.
The great thing about All You are the coupons included in each issue and also the magazine articles are great too. A lot of things in the magazine come from people just like you. If you haven't seen All You magazine, buy one to see what it's like at Walmart - you can find them with other magazines at the check out lanes.

jammycatz♥

Stop It At The Source! LOL

2010-01-09T07:18:00.000-05:00

SWAGBUCKS Codes Everyday Next Week

2010-01-06T06:38:00.000-05:00

Next week starting Monday and going through Friday, there will be a SwagBucks code every single day somewhere in the SwagBucks toolbar. If you haven't joined, now would be a great time. You get 3 SwagBucks to start you out and this is a good opportunity to get more right off the bat.
Click here to join or click on the banner in my sidebar or above. Join in on the fun of finding SwagCodes and earning prizes with them. Good Luck everyone!

jammycatz♥

156 Countries Sing Together for the Starbucks Love Project

2010-01-05T06:14:00.005-05:00

Free Phone Number

2010-01-04T18:39:00.002-05:00

If you are a freebie hunter, having a spare phone number is a necessity. You don't want to give out your home number and be bombarded with telemarketing calls. The site I've been using for the past couple of years is K7. You get a free 206- number complete with voicemail. You can also put a personalized message on the voicemail if you wish.
The sign up is super easy. All you need to do is put in your email and password. They will send you a confirmation email, you click the link in it and that's it - your new number is working.
You can have the voice messages emailed to you or listen to them on the site. The only requirement is after 30 days of inactivity, they will deactivate your number. But that's no problem either. Just sign up again. I've had several different numbers since I first started using this service.

jammycatz♥

Sweet Anticipation - Awaiting The Arrival of Under The Dome

2010-01-03T19:48:00.003-05:00

I just ordered Under The Dome by Stephen King this weekend from Amazon. I can't wait to receive it. It should be here Tuesday at the latest -- I signed up again for the Amazon Prime And even though, I had that trial, Amazon is being generous and letting anyone test out Amazon Prime right now. I don't know how long this is supposed to last, but it's FREE. So -- the shipping was free (it would have been anyway because of the $25 Super Saver shipping). But the other great thing about Prime is you get free 2 day shipping.
Anyway, back to the book. I can't wait - it's one of King's big chunker books which I love. When I finally get my head back out of one of them (others include The Stand & Insomnia) it's like coming back to a completely different world. I'll let ya know how the experience was in a later post :-)

jammycatz♥

Facebook $4.99 Monthy Charge

2010-01-03T07:21:00.000-05:00

Beware of clicking any links regarding a protest against Facebook charging you $4.99 per month starting June 2010. This is a hoax and if you do click a link to join the group against this, your computer could be hijacked and malware installed.
To get the full scoop on this story, go to Snopes.

jammycatz♥

First SwagBuck of 2010

2010-01-02T10:57:00.005-05:00

If you have the SwagBucks toolbar, TSG gives you the code for the first SwagBuck of 2010.**Go to SwagBucks - click on ways to earn - special offers - skip thru the offers to the end**

jammycatz♥

Online Life List - SuperViva's Got You Covered

2010-01-02T09:54:00.002-05:00

OK ~ Let's do this one again:
I chose........ SUPERVIVA to keep my goals for this year - to keep a life list of goals and accomplishments really. I was having problems getting into the site on New Year's Day. Susie from the site posted a comment that they were working on the problem. So I went there this morning and the site popped right up, so I guess the problem is resolved.
~Kudos to the site owners~
Out of all the sites I listed in my previous post, SuperViva looks like the most user friendly and fun. There are so many things to do with your list and SuperViva makes it really easy. I am sure I haven't discovered everything on the site yet, but a here are a few things you can do: print your list out, put goals on the backburner, post private notes about your goal, discussion with other people who have similar or same goals, get inspiration & share accomplishments. Just to name a few.
I like it that while surfing through other people's goals, adding a goal is just two clicks away. Goals can be public or private-it's all up to you how you want to organize your goals. Click on a goal to see "Goal Buds", people who are also trying to accomplish the goal. All over the site, every page you go to are other people's goals you can easily add to your list.
Oh and I love the little dog mascot of the site -- cute. Enough raving, just go check it out.
jammycatz♥

I Really Might Need That Someday!

2010-01-02T06:48:00.003-05:00

You suffer from I Might Need It Someday.

We all know what physical clutter is, but why would it block us from our dreams? Well, think about it. If we are surrounded by too much stuff, what do we see? The stuff. And because we are such visual people, what do we focus on? The stuff.

Our possessions influence our decisions. We can't decide to move forward and fulfill our dreams because we're too bus looking at each possession and coming up with a reason we might possibly need to in the future.

This came from a small quiz I took on the Someday Syndrome site. Ohhhhh, unfortunately it has hit the nail on the head with me! I do have to much stuff and feel immobile in getting rid of or organizing it. The site is written by Alex Fayle and offers coaching services and an ebook. I subscribed to the semi-monthly Someday News and have received one email so far. I liked the email. It's right to the point and I felt like saying, "Yeah, I know what you mean" when reading it. If you procrastinate, like me this site would definitely be of interest to you.

jammycatz♥

2010 Goals Posted

2010-01-01T11:25:00.009-05:00

Out of my earlier post about online goal lists, I chose SuperViva. After finally getting the site to come up, I made a goal list. Now today -- again, I can't get the site to come up. I think the reason is the site is busy and can't handle any more people on it. Since I can't rely on that and don't want to be unable to access the list when I want, I went through my other choices and chose Lists of Bests. I made a list of 46 (hope to add more). When I went to my email account to confirm my email address, it was for 43 Things and took me to that page. OK I thinks. These sites are connected - yes they are, but my list I had made didn't show up on 43 Things. I don't know if I didn't do something or what, but that's my experience. I went ahead and put my list on 43 Things too in the 2010 Resolutions tab. Next year it will show what I accomplished in 2010. I can go in and check things off and even write about them. On the Lists of Bests site, it is more of just checking things off and it automatically keeps a percentage of how much you've accomplished. On Lists of Bests, you can also decide to work on a list someone else posted, which I think is kinda neat. The reason why is because there are a lot of lists on movies or books you can adopt. I adopted "Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments" and "Bravo's 30 Even Scarier Movie Moments". I love horror movies!
And speaking of movies (and books), I am a member over at Listal, where you can make lists of movies, books, games, tv shows and dvds. I have a list made up for books I read in 2010 and also one for movies I watch in 2010. It will be really interesting to see how many are on each list this time next year. The real neat thing about Listal is you can make up your personal page with different themes and add YouTube videos, pictures and there are different sections you can write in. You can remove and add modules to individualize your page. You can friend people and write comments on their pages. Kind of like a MySpace for lists. :-)
If one of your New Year's Goals is to lose weight, eat healthier or exercise more, then SparkPeople is a good site for you. ~~Lots~~ Tons of information, recipes, motivation, exercise vids, community, etc. await you on the site. You get a personal Spark Page too where you can blog to your heart's content and Message Boards for almost any topic or interest.This site is just too humongous for me to even try to explain here on this blog. I invite you to surf on over and try it out. It's great! And they even have a book out (I just ordered mine today!).

These are the places I'm using to keep track in 2010. Please do check them out, if you are looking for some great websites to make and keep lists. I've heard it said again and again that goals written down are more likely to happen than goals you are keeping in thought only.
I wish everyone a fantastic year in 2010! I hope all your dreams and goals come true.

P.S. Please feel free to also friend me if you happen to sign up ~ one of my goals this year is to make some great online friends. I invite you to help me in being able to say on this day in 2011 that it really and truly happened!

Love & Magic In 2010,

jammycatz♥

Never a Year Like 2009

2010-01-01T10:42:00.001-05:00

clipped from www.youtube.com

Happy New Year 2010!

2010-01-01T08:33:00.001-05:00

Just had to start the New Year off with a LOL kitteh. I hope all your New Year's Goals come true this year.

clipped from icanhascheezburger.com

Goal Lists Online

2009-12-21T06:34:00.006-05:00

There are plenty of places online to keep your New Year's Goals list or for that matter a life list. A life list contains things you would like to do in your lifetime and lets you cross off those things when you accomplish them. It's an easy way to look back to see what you've done. Here are a few I came across in the search for a place to put my online list:

listography (life in lists) Create your personal database of lists: autobiographical lists, to-do lists, catalogues, wishlists, top tens, and more. Try our list topic generator for inspiration.

My Life List™, a goal achievement website that uses a proven methodology and the power of social networking to help you achieve your goals and inspire others

Lists of Bests is a place where you can…

Create a list of your favorite products, places, people, goals, food, etc
Mark off your progress on an existing list
Compare your progress on a list with someone else

Joe's Goals
A simple tool I built to help me keep track of my goals. Now you can use it too. - Joe

Ta-da List is the web's easiest to-do list tool. Make lists for yourself or share them with others. It couldn't be simpler.

Your 100 Things
One of the best ways to achieve your own goals is to create public accountability and support by sharing them with a wide audience.

SuperViva

Why Make a Life List?

Because life is too short to twitter away...er, fritter away. A life list focuses you on what's important. And SuperViva hopes to inspire you with thousands of ideas and make it fun to build your life list.

12 days until the New Year.....

jammycatz♥
**Just wanted to add on to this list -- Ronny left a comment about what he uses for goal-keeping. Check it out here.**

New Year's Goals 2010

2009-12-20T15:01:00.002-05:00

2010 is almost here. Looking back, it seems like the past year has flown. But I know that it truly didn't. 2009 held a lot of trying times for me and I can remember some days and nights that seemed to move at the pace of a slug. But fortunately, it's over.
I'm dreaming.......
of a wonderful year in 2010. And I am anxious to make 2010 turn out that way. I don't think I pushed myself in the past year. I slipped back into horrible money-wasting habits and procrastinated to an extreme. Back to my creative frugal ways! Recently, all I have been doing is preparing and researching things for the coming year.
There are some big things I want to change/do better. Christmas presents this year are geared around some of these choices. The single biggest thing I want to do will have the biggest impact on my life. That goal is to change my eating habits. I've talked to people I work with about starting "a diet" at the beginning of the year. In fact one of the people started "a diet" around Thanksgiving (I know!!! CRAZY!!) But that isn't what I truly want to do. I don't want to start dieting. Yes, I do want to lose weight, but I want to make better food choices to get a mind/body/food connection going. I want the whole kit & caboodle - a style of eating, a style of better life because of it. The weight thing will be secondary.

Eating food from the cafeteria at work that is bland, fat-laden and not nutritious is so easy for me (and others). It's convenience is the big draw, not the taste for sure. Preparation will have to become an important habit in my plan. Also I haven't chosen any one way of eating, but the raw food movement looks very attractive. I have checked out several books from the library and have been learning a lot about this way of eating. There are lots of positives about it-feeling more energized and dropping pounds to name just two. Two things I want in my life.
Going 100% raw is something I'm not sure I am capable of or even want to do. Fortunately, raw foodism can be an extreme, structured way to live but this way of life can also be an individualized experience designed by you. There are people who eat raw food anywhere from 50% to 100%. I think I am also afraid of some of the foods and what they will taste like. Concerns I am sure others before me have had. No matter, I do want to try some raw food dishes and see what I like or don't. My new way of eating will include more real fruits and vegetables anyway even if I don't become a raw foodie. And no more boring iceberg lettuce -- enough already!!!
The Christmas gifts I am most excited about receiving are a 9 tray Excalibur dehydrator and a Waring juicer. I have read about so many things I can do with the Excalibur dehydrator and am mega-excited to try out things. Both will take experimentation, the juicer probably the most. I can't wait to trade off morning coffee to fresh juice. I will know exactly what is in it! I do expect to really like some recipes and to not others. I have found lots of juice recipes on the internet and in the books from the library. Lots of them seem to include beets.....something that makes me queasy thinking about, even though I've only taken a bite of pickled beets once (when I was a child many moons ago). But, eating new foods is a goal and I can't not try something just because I "think" I won't like it.

I am calling these things goals instead of resolutions because I think goals mean something you are working towards and resolutions just sounds like I'm digging in my heels and being stubborn that I am going to do this no matter how painful and unpleasant or how not fun it is. The word goals sounds like finding a creative, fun way to do something and I can stretch myself finding different ways to get there.
Keeping that in mind, here are some of my 2010 Goals:

+ a bigger better backyard gardening experience

+ blogging more - more sharing, more creating

+ focus on health (right now I have high cholesterol) my diet and exercise will support this

+ purging things I don't need or use from my home & my life

+ get back to my old frugal self :-)

These are just some of my goals. What are yours? Do you make up a New Year's list at the beginning of the year? Do you generally have success with your goals throughout the year? Let me know in your comments!

jammycatz♥

What Does Frugal Mean to You?

2009-08-09T09:36:00.005-04:00

Being frugal has always been a way of life with me. I have always all my life cut corners on the things that I don't care about so much to be able to afford things that I really want. Through the years the "really want" things have varied from books to electronics. The "I don't care" things have included such things as eating store brand vs name brand and buying clothes at Goodwill instead of department stores. Don't get me wrong, I do have weaknesses for certain brands such as Nike tennis shoes. But there are ways around those things too like using coupons and buying from Ebay for instance. Some things are just worth splurging on if they last a long time or you get many uses out of them. You just gotta gauge what the worth is vs the price. Sometimes those things don't matter as much as how you feel. If I love a certain pair of Nike tennis shoes that fit well or if buying an expensive piece of fruit is good for my body as well as tasty, they are worth it in the end.
Being frugal to me is not long-suffering or great denial. It is creative comfort. Everyone wants to live comfortably - it's just how much does that comfort have to cost you that is the question. Some people want to have enough money to feel secure and some people just want to have more money and more possessions than others. I'm definitely in the former category. I don't believe the one with the most toys dies happy. I believe happy is a matter of being content with what you have and having more of what you need than what you want. In the conversation of Want vs Need: you need food & water and air to breathe if you get down to the nitty gritty. Everything else is just window dressing. Some dress windows themselves and some have others do it for them. I'm not a master at being frugal by no means, but I enjoy it. Buying something at a lower price that has a slight imperfection and creatively making it work for me instead of paying twice the price for perfect makes me feel smart. Having that money to put towards something I want instead of getting the want with a credit card makes me feel able to enjoy that want even more. So, the want is not hurting my security of having my needs taken care of.
That's what frugal means to me. More people are getting into watching their money because of the recession. I say that's a good thing. More people are beginning to care about the earth which goes along with being frugal. I say another good thing. But it's not an easy road to either and I don't think anyone can be perfect. We are human. A little effort here, a little more effort there and it's surprising what you can do.
My way of being frugal - I do what I can when I can. It's an ongoing struggle to make good choices that serve me and to see what results I get out of it. Especially when "Buy, Buy, Buy" is being shoved down my throat in every media source that can get to my eyes or ears. Not every frugal tip or way of doing things is going to work for me. It's the trial and error I go through. I always try to throw in fun and silliness too cos my cup is half full.................

and that's just the way I roll.

jammycatz♥