To pay or not to pay?

I've fallen in love. My lover's name is Columbia Athletic club at Silver Lake. My lover has a beautiful three-lane lap pool, a eucalyptus scented steam room, a locker room with private shower stalls, granite counters, and complimentary toiletries (including q-tips!!). My lover also has a state of the art gym, juice bar, hot yoga classes, and a machine that dries my swimsuit for me.

My current boyfriend, the Lynnwood Rec Center, has an ugly locker room, group showers, and a sauna full of old Russian men.

My boyfriend is breaking up with me. He's remodeling and closing down for a year. I've been going out on blind dates with other health clubs, but no one captured my fancy until Columbia showed up. After going out on a few dates with Columbia, I finally learned his price. $94 per month. He knew he was out of my price range, but made me fall in love with him anyways! Now I'm stuck, powerfully in love, and needing to make a decision. Is a place you go five times a week worth paying $94 a month for?

I have to decide soon....

Time for a bonus quiz!!

Who can guess what the following item is? Winner gets a prize! Enter your guesses in the comments section.

The Ghosts of Facebook Past

I never wanted to join Facebook. I don't have a lot of free time for internet recreation, and I can easily email photos to most of the people I know. I find communicating online a little impersonal, I'd rather meet up with someone in person for drinks than click on my keyboard. I was finally persuaded by a few select persistant co-workers and friends to join. They always only had their interesing new photos on Facebook, or only checked messages on Facebook. Fricking Facebook! I caved in and opened my account, and I figured I'd force them to read my blog posts, and not do much else.
I was very surprised to find myself in the middle of an online, virtual high school reunion of sorts. People I had only given fleeting thoughts to over the years were suddenly right in front of me again, in a matter of speaking. I was bombarded with the bittersweet memories of minor league hockey obession, badly drawn comic strips, school plays, and bangs sprayed up three inches high.
Seeing these names and faces again made me think about all the time that had passed, almost twenty years! Everyone looks the same, yet not the same at all. Who were these ghosts that made me feel, so palpably, the passage of all that time? Looking at the personal photos of vacations, babies, team sports and more made me wonder how these people - people I would have sworn were soulmates of mine when I was fourteen - could have gone on to live lives I can't recognize at all today?
Does my life look as strange to them, as theirs do to me? Probably, since the only photo I've posted is of a velociraptor. Some things never change.

All that glitters

I bought $21 worth of glitter today. That may sound excessive for one's glitter needs, but this was really cool glitter.

I've also needed to buy the $35 bags of citric acid, the Costco-size sacks of baking soda and cornstarch, and the $30 worth of essential oils. Oh, and did I mention the bottles of almond, jojoba, and grapeseed oils? You see, I am brillitantly de-materializing Christmas this year, and making all my gifts by hand. It doesn't save time, as I've spent countless hours in the kitchen mixing stuff up, and it doesn't save money, as I've spent more than I care to add up on supplies. Why am I doing it? I might be crazy. But I have made some reallly good stuff:

Champagne and Strawberry Bathbombs:

Lavender and Vetevyr Bathbombs:

And my favorite - Chipolte Caramel Soap:

Is it better to not save any time or money and hand make gifts, or is it better to buy an impersonal piece of crap at the mall? I have no idea!

Treadmill or coat rack?

There's a game we like to play in my house. I call it treadmill or coat rack. Here's how you play: When you get home, you take off your coat. Then you decide where to put your coat. Do you hang it up in the coat closet? No way, no one wants to go all the way over there and deal with the whole hanger issue. Do you drape it over the dining room chair? No, you're not a caveman. Do you hang it up in an easily accessible location? Yes! That sounds great. You know what's easy? The arm of the treadmill. It's sturdy, it sticks out like an arm, and it's right here in front of my face. It's perfect! I could walk all the way over to the entry way and hang my coat on the coat rack - the only piece of furniture in the whole house designed for the sole purpose of hanging up outerwear - but the arm of the treadmill is a way better option for me.

Treadmill?

Or coat rack?

I fall firmly on the side of team coat rack. I bought the coat rack to hang coats on, and damnit, that's what I use it for. It drives me CRAZY when Hubby leaves his coats hanging on the treadmill arm. I either knock his coat to the ground and let it lay on the floor, forcing him to go through the effort of re-hanging his coat up on the treadmill arm, or I huffily grab his coat and stomp over to the coat rack, exaggerating the effort it takes to hang up a coat.
Neither option results in any change. Hubby still hangs his coat on the treadmill arm. I keep knocking it to the floor. It keeps things feisty, I guess.

Costco has let me down

I love Costco. I mean I LOVE Costco. I shop at Costco at least once or twice a week. Toilet paper, chicken breasts, movies, books, cheese, the list goes on and on. And living in Lynnwood means that I also get to shop at the Costco Business Center, which has restaurant and convienence store supplies. Kitchen utensils, vending machine candy, baking supplies and more. I'm happy just thinking about it.
So when it came to booking our upcoming trip to Las Vegas to see family for the holidays, where else would I turn but costco.com travel? Back in September, I booked RT airfare for four, four nights at a beautiful hotel, plus a rental car. Total cost $1200. You can't beat that, and I was thrilled.
But then last week a lady from US Airways calls to tell me that the flights have changed from non-stops to big layover stops in Phoenix. Our two and half hour flights were now seven hours! US Airways would not put us on another airline, and would only offer to refund the money. Since I wasn't about to spend two days of our four day trip on an airplane, I got the refund. I've tried to re-book another package deal through every other travel outlet I can find online, but it's so late in the year now, no one comes close to matching the deal we had before.
Needless to say, I'm pretty pissed off at the whole thing. I've written a letter to the Costco CEO and the Costco Travel CEO detailing my woes.

Here's the text of the letter I sent:

CEO, Costco Travel
P.O. Box 34404
Seattle, WA 98124-9775

Dear Sir/Madam:

In September of this year, I booked a vacation package with your online travel service from Seattle to Las Vegas, 12/12/09-12/16/09, for myself, my husband, and our two children. We were going to Las Vegas for our big holiday season family get together. We had non-stop flights, hotel, and rental car all set. We got a great deal, and have been excidely looking forward to the first family vacation we’ve taken in the last three years.
Last week a representative from US Airways called to tell me that my non-stop flights had been changed to seven hour, layover in Phoenix flights. I was told that US Airways was no longer running non-stop flights between Seattle and Las Vegas. The flight changes were terrible options. Our vacation was only four and half days as it was, and now we were told that a large percentage of it was going to be spent either on an airplane or in the Phoenix airport. As awful as long flights and layovers are by yourself, such a schedule with young kids is a nightmare. This change in our flight was an unacceptable change, in my opinion, as we had paid for non-stop flights, and for total flight times to change from two and a half hours to seven hours is not a reasonable alternative.
US Airways could not or would not transfer us to a different airline's non-stop flights, and would only offer to refund our money if we didn't want the flight changes. Since the flight options were so awful, I chose to refund the package and hoped that I could re-book with someone else. All week I've been searching online everywhere I can think of, and have found no options that are within the same price range, probably because my original booking was in September, and now our desired travel dates are only a few weeks away.
We have opted to stay home and not travel to see our family this holiday season. The decision is a sad one, as getting the grandparents together with our children was a very special occasion, but booking a travel package now, at this late date, is well out of our price range.
I wanted to tell you of our very disappointing experience booking travel with your online contract company. While they were certainly friendly enough to deal with, and offered their apologies, and also knowing that travel must always be booked with a grain of salt, had I known then what I know now, I wish I had booked the vacation with someone else. Not having this holiday season time with family this year is a heartbreaking prospect for us all.
I hope your other customers have better luck this holiday season than us.

Sincerely yours,

Leigh Beckley

cc: Jim Sinegal, CEO, Costco

Will my letter net any results? I'll have to wait and see.....

24 Hour Fatness

Revised 9/30/2010

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Original entry below:

So, the Lynnwood rec center where I've been swimming every morning is closing in a few weeks for renovations. They'll be closed for a year and a half! Where am I going to swim now?

I've ruled out the Mountlake Terrace pool, as the pool is nice, but opens too late (7:00am) and it's kind of pricey ($3.50 a pop). I also ruled out the YMCA and IMA (both too far away). I've looked at private fitness clubs (L.A. Fitness is too far away, Bally's has no pool), and the only one in the area with a pool is 24 Hour Fitness.

I got a free seven day pass and tested it out last week. The club is so-so nice, not great, but not terrible. The locker room fixtures are rickety, but they have a steam room, sauna, and jacuzzi. The lap pool is narrow, cold, and filled with saline water, not chlorine water, so it feels less clean (this might not actually be true, I have no idea of the actual differences between chlorine and saline pools).

Probably the worst part is that the pool area is filled with old bear-men, milling about in their speedos, and doing anything but exercising. The last thing you want to see when you are turning your head to breathe during the crawl stroke, is super hairy back man, in the next lane over, floating randomly with his kickboard.

In fact, a lot of people at 24 Hour Fitness don't look all that fit.

Here's an example of a typical 24 Hour Fitness pool-dweller:







Costco offers a two-year 24 Hour Fitness membership for $299. That works out to only $12.50 per month. It's so cheap, I'm still considering it, ape-men and all.



In other news, here's my new Martha Stewart sheets on my bed.

I am the greatest bargain shopper ever.

I hit Macy's this morning at 8:00am with my $10 off your $25 purchase coupons. I knew from the ad that Hello Kitty hoodies were on sale for 9.99, so I started in the girl's department. There were many exciting sale racks that required a great deal of study. The best racks of all were the racks marked half off, plus an additional 50% off. After examining every article of clothing and scanning them at the price scanner, I narrowed down the items I wanted. I did the math to maximize my coupon deals, and rang up my first purchase:
Hello Kitty Hoodie
Long sleeve Greendog t-shirt
Another long sleeve Greendog t-shirt
Greendog pink cardigan
Greendog black cardigan
Hello Kitty Halloween t-shirt that I'll save for next Halloween
Another Hello Kitty Halloween shirt
Total original cost for all: $113.81, What I paid (tax included): 21.82

The girls department was filled with scottie dog merchandise! Scottie jammies, scottie bathrobes, scottie tights, and scottie dresses. And all of it was on sale. This was a real test of my willpower, as L. doesn't need much in the way of clothes, plus I shouldn't be spending the money. I talked myself out of most of the stuff; she doesn't need more pajamas, and I just bought her a robe at Ross this weekend. The dresses are adorable, but not terribly practical, so they wouldn't be worn a whole lot. But then I saw a scottie dog item that I couldn't say no to - a coat.
Original price: $55.00, my final cost with tax: $19.16

You can see why I had to buy it. Plus when L. saw it she loved it and had to model:

The next thing that caught my eye was an X-Mas sweater for C. I'd already got L. an X-mas dress, so it only seemed fair that C. had something, too. Also they had super cute sweaters part of the one day sale for $14.99, origianlly $38.00. I added to the purchase a cool thermal sleeved shirt with a space invaders design, and another Hello Kitty hoodie for L. from the clearance rack.

Total original cost for all three: $82.00, my cost with tax: $21.33

Next on the list were the sheets I wanted. These are sheets I've been cruising at Macy's all season long. Martha Stewart flannel sheets with a scottie dog print. But at $120.00 retail, too pricey for me. I was so excited to see these sheets in the one day sale at for 60% off. Plus my coupon savings!

Original cost: $120.00, my cost with tax: $41.60


Since I made such good time with my other shopping, I decided to take a spin through the ladies deparment on my way out. I also wanted to look at tights. I found an awesome clearance rack and picked up two sweaters, one marked down to $5.75, the other only $6.12. They also had a table full of clearance hosiery, everything on it was $2.99.

Original price for 5 pairs of tights plus two sweaters: $171.60, my cost with tax: $18.42!!

And that's why I love Macy's.

One Day Sale at Macy's!!

One day sale at Macy’s!!

Tomorrow is the start of a very special one day sale at Macy’s. Actually the sale goes for two days, so I’m not sure why they call it a one day sale. Back when Macy’s was called the Bon Marche, it seemed every week the radio and TV played the Bon’s one-day sale jingle. You may remember the reggae beat of the Day-O song with the lyrics, “Day-O, One Day-ay-ay-O, Wednesday only at the Bon Marche” I guess when they turned into Macys no one could think of a way to make that song fit with the name Macy’s. Which I guess is good since that stupid song is still in my head, years later.
Anyways, what’s so great about a one day sale at Macy’s? Sometimes nothing, but this sale came with a coupon in the mail for $10 off your $25 purchase. This means that if you have a sweater to buy that was $50, and is on sale half price for the one day sale, and you use your coupon, your sweater is only $15!! You just can’t beat a deal like that. The best way to maximize your savings is to have multiple coupons. You get sent one in the mail, but more can always be had in the newspaper. Today I scoured the cafeteria and several waiting rooms at work, and came up with five more coupons, so I have six total. I might not need to use all six, but it’s always best to shop prepared (You can also print coupons from macys.com, but I’ve had issues with those scanning at the register). When using multiple coupons, you must be careful to ring up all your purchases at different registers. You aren’t supposed to have more than one coupon, but I say if they are published in the newspaper, then they are fair game. Some emplolyees don’t care if you are scamming the coupon system, but some people are assholes and act as if that extra ten bucks comes out of their pay. The multiple coupon trick is harder to do when you are buying many items from one department, like kids clothes. Just add up your first $25 worth of stuff, and then take any other purchases to a different department. Ladies dresses is never very busy, and you can always tell the cashier that the register at kids was too crowded, which is often true. After dresses, I go to bedding, then luggage, then housewares. Even though most cashiers are nice and won’t care if you are using multiple coupons, its always best to act suave and rule-abiding.
I have plans to buy some hello kitty hoodies for L. for X-mas, some Martha Stewart sheets, and maybe X-mas ornaments. That’s only three coupons worth, but like I said it’s best to be prepared. I’ll be at Macy’s at 8:00am tomorrow morning, and will post all my bargains later that day.

Chinese take out boxes

I decided that I wanted to package my homemade bath bombs that I'm making this year for Christmas gifts in Chinese take out boxes. They are the perfect size and super cute. But where to buy them? I found several places online that sell take-out containers, but the prices (about $10 for 25 boxes) plus shipping (about $10) made them not such a great bargain. I looked at lots of regular stores like Michaels, Target, Fred Meyer and others and all of them carried individual take out style boxes (mostly christmas themed) that cost at least $1 each. Totally unaffordable for several gifts. Also I wanted plain boxes, not X-mas themed ones. I decided to check around at restaurant supply stores in the Lynnwood area. One place that I googled specialized in Chinese restaurant supplies, but did not carry take out containers, and looked pretty blank when I asked them if they carried them. I also called Seattle Restaurant Supply in Shoreline, which also did not carry the take-out containers. I asked the guy on the phone if he knew anywhere to try that might carry them, and he suggested a store called Cash & Carry. I've seen Cash & Carry stores around the area before, but it never really knew what they were, and I always assumed that they were discount stores that carried strange unwanted grocery items, like stuff that comes from semi trucks that crash on the highway and dent all the cans they are carrying, you know, that kind of stuff. Well, it turns out they are a restaurant supply store and carry a bunch of bulk items. Kind of like the Costco business center, but with a little different selection. Not only did they carry the exact Chinese take-out carriers I wanted, a sleeve of 50 was only $3.49!! I was so excited I bought 100 of them, not that I know what I'll use them all for, but who cares, they are soooo cute, and super cheap. Cash & Carry has become one of my favorite stores.