Just to catch up on some stuff before I start talking about travel starting on Monday:

Went to a hipster restaurant last night in downtown LA from a Top Chef winner, and in an amazing twist of fate, all wine was 50% off…..lets just say they lost money on the deal……

Nathen wrapped up all of his change in wrappers and made me deposit it into his bank account yesterday….besides the counting, dexterity, blah blah blah and all that parenting crap….he is SAVING….he finds coins and puts them in his bottle, and “steals” coins from my desk (is it really stealing when he TELLS me he is stealing them?) and then he wraps them up for the bank….he learned about TD Bank in NY, who have coin counters but do NOT charge a fee, sadly we don’t have those here, we just have Coinstar which charge 6% I believe, OR give gift cards with no fee, so they aren’t bad, but he truly digs watching his bank account grow——over $930 so far, and I am proud of him….he earns his money, $5 a week, by taking in the papers, taking in the trash cans, making his bed (well, he would have to do that anyway), and watering the potted plants out back…..

Now, I have some great appliances in my house…happily purchased at the Sears Outlet, that Jay and Wendy Baxter turned me on to. My stove was like $3700 and had a small ding in the back, so it was there for $1300…it’s crazy…..I also have a great fridge with a great water-filtration system, so as my pal pointed out to me, what the HELL am I doing with bottled water delivery every 3 weeks? I will tell you what, I thought it was a big huge nightmare to cancel it. I know how something that actually took me 4 seconds to do seemed like a big issue, “wheres the bill, do i need an account number, what the hell is the phone number of the water service anyway”….I looked up the number, gave them my address, they are picking up the cooler next week, I save $25 a month, and I am drinking the same filtered water out of my fridge which i just purchased a new filter for……done done done…….

When “sex and the city” started way back in 1998, the ratings situation was not as complex as it is now. Tivo lifts, cable ratings etc, were all not as slick as they are now. What they did know was that 5 million people or so signed up for HBO when we premiered, and then about 5 million would cancel when the season was over. I understand people are having some hard times financially, and this one is a no-brainer. Find the service you need and can afford and have THAT, call the cable or satellite company and get what YOU want…..if anyone is over 40, wrapping your mind around that we now as a matter of ‘normalcy’ pay over $100/month to watch TELEVISION is absolutely insane——(believe me, I am thankful for it, I guess it is how I get paid)—-but I get paid enough, and there is no need for others to suffer just because they haven’t noticed that their TV bills are completely as out of control as everything else in our lives is——(FYI, I didn’t HAVE HBO until the 3rd season of “sex”, and that wasn’t smart, I actually WAS cheap, I should have been watching my friggin show).

That’s all I got for the weekend…..off to tennis with the boy and then of course the 50% sale at Party City tomorrow for Halloween crap (not too scary, Nathen is prone to the nightmare)

Please keep passing it around, you all have been awesome in spreading this for us….and stay tuned on Monday for some travel stuff and adventure stuff……