various halloween pics

This makeup was for a costume birthday party.  The face paint was for the trunk or treat, and the pics without makeup were from the school's costume parade.  

Fire and Ice Ball

It's that event that middle-upper class husbands dread.  It the means of raising many thousands of dollars for many larger charities.  And it's where the wealthy go to "get a good deal" on jewelry and sports memorabilia.


The Red Cross has a charity ball called The Fire and Ice Ball.

Here's the event info: Red Cross Ball

It was fun! We sat at a table with two other couples who had been sponsored that night (in other words, got in for free) -- one couple were injured soldiers and the lady in the other couple is a Red Cross volunteer. The other two couples at our table were there to actually donate money and/or bid since it was a charity ball. From what I could see, I believe that members of the armed forces, preferably injured, were placed at each table so that donors could rub elbows with the people whom they were indirectly benefiting.

Marine General James T. Conway was honored with a lifetime excellence award (40 years of service in the Marines!!), along with injured members of each branch of the military.  The Army recipient stood tall enough to reach Man's armpit, but that didn't stop him from performing some heroics and receiving a traumatic brain injury in Iraq.  The only honoree to struggle to contain his emotion was the Air Force guy.  You better believe that the Marine to receive the award was on his very best behavior with General Conway standing right behind him during his speech.  The poor guys barely spoke 10 words in acceptance. 

There were silent and live auctions on trips, jewelry, and sports memorabilia.  One man at our table, a former Soldier, commented on how good of a deal it was to have 4 signed baseballs (Ripkin, Ryan, Rose, and Aaron, whoever those guys are) at a starting bid of $800.  The most expensive sports item was a blueprint of a stadium signed by Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DeMaggio valued at $16,000.  Lots of bats, jersey's and helmets were on display next to necklaces whose value I just didn't understand.  $1200 value for what, exactly?  I've seen similar stuff on WalMart shelves for $5.  The most expensive non-sports item on the silent auction was made out of mink, something I thought East Coasters would have a raging fit over (valued at $5,000).  The weirdest thing I saw was a salad bowl valued at $450.  It looked like beaten silver with sort of glass tongs.  Seriously?  It seemed like a lot of the items up for bid didn't get sold for quite what they were valued at.  At the end of the live bidding there was a push for straight up donations.  A large screen showed the goal ($20,000) and displayed names of those who were contributing funds via little machines that looked like iPhones.  There was a gasp and applause as the goal was met within a very few minutes and then exceeded. 

The food was 5 star catering, for sure. Menu included a squash soup, poached pear salad (on a bed of greens with fresh made Dijon dressing; a lump of mild but tangy cheese was nestled in a hollow in the pear), halibut (perfectly poached with a delicious sauce), guinea fowl, delicate veggies of many kinds (didn't care for the carrots or potatoes), and tiny deserts you only see on the food network (brie cheesecake, chocolate pyramid bursting forth with a caramel center, and mango sorbet in a little inverted pastry hat; each offering was the size of a golf ball; Man was the happy recipient of the diabetic lady's untouched dessert).  Gourmet cupcakes with mile high icing were piled high and available before and after the meal.

A live band played Big Band type music and some Sinatra and Tom Jones. A lady singer whaled on a tambourine and shook her booty in time to her maracas.  She minced her way out to the dance floor and gracefully interpreted direction from the sound crew when her position in the hall started giving feedback from her microphone.  Single soldiers stared at her with their mouths hanging open and one plump but brave young man danced with her while she sang with a slightly alarmed expression on her face.  After that she took a drink break and didn't leave the stage again.  One of the weirder songs was a jazzed up Ding Dong the Witch is Dead. 

Gift bags afterward included brochures on how to donate even more money to the Red Cross and a little flashlight that plugs into the wall and lights up in a blackout or whenever energy flow is otherwise interrupted.  They also act as nightlights.  Tag was happy to get one of those for his room. 

We rode down and back with some nice Sergeants and had some good conversation. One of them was in full dress blues and wanted to stay very late because "it took me all week to put these blues together, I'm going to ride them 'til the wheels fall off." All those little medals and things are difficult to adjust to Army standards.  Man looked very good in formal greens, which is just the Army dress greens uniform with a normal white shirt and bow tie instead of the green shirt with black hanging tie. 

All in all, a good time and I was glad to take my shoes off at home.  I still have a couple of flowers pilfered from the centerpieces.  Their heavy heads (three rose and one crimson Gerbera daisy) bow over the edge of a plastic glass, classy meets mom un-chic.  A girlfriend of mine helped me do my hair since my awkward attempts netted me a headful of fuzz and a few bent bobby pins.  Best comment of the evening came from my 2 year old "Oooooh, mommy's a peen-cess!"

Kojo!

My new fav radio program:

The Kojo Nnamdi show!

(I just love his voice and he's either good at picking topics or he's got some great producers)

update

 Official Army determination: Husband, due to injury, is no longer fit to be an active duty soldier. Which means he'll seen be a disabled vet at the ripe old age of 30-something. (this is something we've known for months, but now it's chiseled in stone)
 What does this mean?

Let's pretend, for a moment, that there are only two ways this whole thing could turn out (even though I giggle at how utterly ridiculous such an assumption would be):
1) We get a percentage we can live with, so we accept it, sign on the dotted line, and get some orders cut for separation from the Army.  This will take anywhere from 2-5 months, depending on how long it takes to cut orders.
2) We don't get a percentage we like, so we appeal.  Then we get out of here in a year or so.

Now, there are a lot of complicating factors going into this decision and subsequent decisions.  Where we move and when is largely determined by how good of a job Man can get, taking into consideration my desire to attend school. 

More news as it becomes available.

72 hour kits

Growing up, we were told that a great way to rotate your 72 hour kit food was to eat it over General Conference weekend.  I don't know that we really want to though, given that it's all Beanie Weenie, beef stew, and canned ravioli (whatever had a pop-top for convenience) and more granola bars than I'd eat on a normal day.  But, we could break out the wing stove and give it a whirl. 

The wing stove lays very flat, measuring about 1/2" thick when folded.  It is very easy to set up.  The sterno was most surprising.  Tag touched a match to it and nothing happened.  The only thing that changed was the heat distortion observable in its shadow.  We tried putting an unlit match over it to see if it really was heating (since we didn't believe our own eyes) and it burst into flame.  Alrighty, then.

Into the oven it went, and we placed a mess kit pot of Beanie Weenie over it:

Within 3-5 mins, it was boiling.  That is some very hot fuel.  

I think the only things I need to replace this soon are the granola bars.  The slim jims were a little gross so I think I'll replace those, too. 

Coupons

I don't like couponing.  I never did it before I was married, havn't really done it after I had kids, and didn't understand doubling or Coupon Games or what the heck ever it is housewives crow about when their receipts end up at near a zero balance despite being about three feet long. 


I started to look into it in Kansas but it looked very complicated.  How do you organize that many pieces of paper with such a diversity of information on them?  How do you scour stores for sales like they say you should?  What if you never find a sale for the coupon you've clipped before it expires?  What on earth is doubling, how do you know where to double, and how often are coupons doubled?   I've even read about people hauling in tons of loot from playing CVS.  It looks like a hobby as well as a necessity in these troubled times.  One days says that she already saved over $700 this year and the year ain't over yet.


What what does it get you?  CVS lady has tons of deodorant and toothpaste in whatever brand happened to work with her game, in addition to other items of a drug store nature.  Other coupon deals involve junk food and other name brand items that I just don't often buy.  Aldi usually covers my itch for a good deal especially when I compare those prices with mainstream grocery stores out here.  You never realize how awesome the Commissary is until you stop by Giant just for one little thing and flee in a panic at $5 cereal or $2 bananas. 


As you all know, I've signed up with this menu planning place called E-mealz.  One of the money saving tips they have is to go to a website that sells coupons (just google "buy coupons") so you don't have to go to the expense of buying newspapers.  In my coupon readings I found one tip that said you should buy 2 Sunday newspapers per person in your family.  Is it worth buying coupons rather than buying Sunday newspapers?  Let's take a look.


My local newspaper is the Baltimore Sun.  There is no option to receive only the Sunday paper, so I'd have to subscribe to Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun at $1.50 a week.  I don't really read the newspaper as all the comics and newsfeeds I want already hit my Google Reader.  I would literally be buying this for the coupons and to maybe mulch my garden (if I had a garden).  2 papers per person in my family of 6 would amount to $18 per week. 


I just got an order from TheCouponClippers.com .  I browsed their coupon selections and picked precisely that which I wished to purchase, carefully selected for the best deals I could find on items that aren't typically available at my go-to cheap zones and for name brands I prefer.  Examples include Bandaid brand products (Neosporin which we go through in quantity, Cortaid, and the bandaids themselves), and Ziploc brand for the bags. Also, you've heard it before but I'll say it again, it isn't a deal if you never would have bought it in the first place!  I went through this big "I cook from SCRATCH!!" phase where I scoffed at coupons because they were never for the basic items I bought like flour and milk.  But life is so busy now that I have no delusions about food preparation.  There are frozen pizzas and make ahead meals and on Saturday I make pancakes for breakfast which ends up being the most time consuming meal I make all week. 


So, between my carefully selected coupons, shipping and admin fees, I spent $7.  I will use each one of these lovely little coupons.  Total savings if I use these coupons amounts to $53.75 including the deduction for the coupon purchase. 


(full disclosure: the only time I buy Nutella is when I find a great coupon which I use on the smallest jar because I have no restraint around that stuff.  So I got one Nutella coupon, which doesn't technically qualify as something I'd normally buy.)

Bonus:  I didn't have to go through 18 newspapers to get the coupons I wanted, only a very tiny tree was sacrificed for my small stack of coupons, I don't have to deal with recycling a stack of newspapers, and I can buy whenever I want in whatever quantity I choose.  I can see myself doing this once every month or two, which is a far cry cheaper than $18 per week or $81 per month, or even 6.75 per month for one subscription which may or may not have one coupon I want.  

I really enjoy adding another smooth move to my money saving efforts.  If I find myself buying a frozen pizza, I may as well knock a dollar off that bad boy, eh?