Insomnimusing: Allons-y!

Sometime back in October or so, I started getting emails from Accuweather warning me that this was going to be a winter to make history. The gist of it: brutal cold and snow measured in feet. Usually, the warnings say one or the other - brutal cold and not much snow, or tons of snow but not as cold. Anyway, I never look forward to winter, but this ominous forecast I was definitely not wishing to see come true. Then at the tail-end of October, we got a sudden burst of snow. We knew it wouldn't stick around, but it hinted at an early beginning. Then ... nothing. Well, nothing as far as "winter" was concerned. We had rain and wind some days; we had sun and warmth some days. In fact, it was quite as "autumnal" as weather could get for the midwest. And it kept going, and going, and going. Christmas came and went with the background of a dead and brown landscape. The temperature hovered around 40 degrees most days, and the rain continued a couple of times a week. Then...

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark . All opinions are 100% mine.   For several weeks, every time I'm in my car, I've been hearing radio commercials from various pharmacies saying, "We still take Express Scripts." I've wondered what this was all about. Now I know.   It seems that Walgreens' contract with Express Scripts expired at the end of last year, and Walgreens and Express Script  attempted to negotiate a new contract, but the negotiations were unsuccessful. As of Dec. 31, the contract expired, and, therefore, Walgreens is now excluded from Express Scripts' provider network. All Walgreens pharmacies and Duane Reade pharmacies in the New York City area are affected.   Having read Walgreens side of the story, I've seen that they negotiated in good faith with a genuine effort and desire to help their customers be able to have the lowest  health care...

I'm a big fan of loyalty and points programs. I don't go out of my way to earn big numbers most of the time, knowing that my points will just keep adding up until I can use them for something. My latest favorite is the Delicious Rewards program from Lean Cuisine. This is not a promoted or paid post. I don't even get referrals. I'm just loving it and want to share! I just discovered Lean Cuisine last year. Of course, I'd heard of it, but I never really thought it could be any good, because... well, you know how those frozen meals in a box are. And this was "diet food." How good could it be? Boy, was I surprised! This food's actually good! I mean REALLY GOOD. What started out as a what-the-heck-I'll-give-it-a-shot-it's-on-sale purchase has turned into my every-single-day-at-work-lunch-time-staple. So, since I was eating all these meals, I decided to start collecting those codes on the boxes. And then I got my boyfriend started eating them. (He...

I've reached the end of my vacation week, although I still have a weekend ahead. I imagine I'll be able to return to work at least marginally recharged, having spent a considerable portion of my break sleeping. I also managed to get many, many loads of laundry done, in addition to some other things that needed doing. I don't really look forward to returning to work, but at least the nightmare end-of-the-year scramble is over. I won't have to spend my work days doing my own work while trying to do the jobs of two or three other people at the same time. Honestly, after the previous eight weeks, I deserved this time off. I was also able to watch a midweek Manchester United match, which was a loss, but still, it's rare that I get to see a match in the middle of the week because I'm always working. I was also able to go to one of my daughter's basketball games (she's a cheerleader), which I don't ever get to do during the week because they start too early...

After eight weeks of severe overwork and abuse in office, I'm doing something this week that I've never done before in the last 12 years - I'm taking the whole week off. It's not costing me much vacation time, as I have almost two days of comp time built up from the past two months and yesterday was a paid holiday. It seemed the perfect opportunity. Yesterday didn't really count much. I stopped in to the empty office for two hours to gather my material for my entries into the annual AP contest. This is the first year I've bothered to enter. I'm not much into seeking awards for my work, so I've never bothered before. Today, I turned off the alarm after the girls left for school and turned off the ringer on my phone so I could sleep undisturbed until I woke up on my own. That was an especially nice treat. I slept until noon. I'll be filling the day catching up on some household work until this afternoon, when Munch and I will go into Sidney to see Gin...