I'm not making this stuff up.....

honest. Memorial Day weekend is a time for family gatherings, picnics, BBQ's and reminiscing. My family is very small. My daughter suggested we get together for two days this weekend....Sunday and Monday. I was to fix one of her favorite hot weather meals on Sunday and then BBQ ribs on Monday.

Saturday I more or less vegged. Did some little things around the house and just enjoyed the lovely weather. Sunday I fixed the meal she requested. Its a simple meal so I didn't have that much time invested. The meal was ready by 3 pm. I put it in the fridge to chill and waited for her and her family to get here. We have argued many times in the past about her waiting until the last minute (when everything is all done) to show up and I made up my mind I wasn't going to do that anymore. Life is too short to be arguing about something like that. So when she wasn't here by 4, I will admit I was a bit ticked but let it slide. 5 o'clock came and went. 6 o'clock. I decided that if she wasn't here within a half hour I would go ahead and eat alone.....but I was not going to call her and chew her out for being late once again. She called me at 6:30 with a "Hi, how are you feeling today?" I said, I'm ok. Then she said, "what are you doing". I said, I'm waiting for you to get here so we can have our meal. Dead Silence. I said "hello?". She said...."Mom, that's tomorrow." I said yes, I know you're coming tomorrow too....but you requested we have a meal together today. She said once again....that's Sunday. I said Yes. She said that's tomorrow. I said NO....Sunday is today. Dead Silence. Then.....she said OMG, I have lost a whole day somewhere. I thought today was Saturday. Bottom line here.....SHE FORGOT. Because of her closed head injury, she does have memory problems, which makes me have to keep my mouth shut....when I'd really like to tell her off and say.....that's what calendars are made for!!! Sticky Notes! Strings tied on fingers!!! Needless to say, I ate alone....it was too late to do anything together by then. I was not a happy camper. I had made enough food for 5 or 6 people to have generous helpings.

So the next day, I start the preparations for the ribs early in the day and she does show up early also. We have a very nice day together. The meal was good and we watched a movie afterward. The only bad part was that she had to leave fairly early as my granddaughter is still in school and had to get up early the next day. I did not throw it in her face about her forgetting me the day before.....even though I really wanted to. Am I bad?

Tuesday I notice I have a new bill from my cable company and am upset, although not surprised, to see that its been raised $6.37......just like that. My cable company raises our bills approximately three times a year and its usually $3 each time. With the way the economy is, I just couldn't believe that this huge company has the guts to raise their prices once again. I figure we got the double raise because they neglected to raise it since the first of the year.....they've been too busy transferring channels over to digital I guess. Now maybe $6 doesn't seem like a lot to some of you, but it won't stop there....they will raise it another $6 before the end of this year and next year it will be the same. My bill for simple cable and internet is absolutely ridiculous but at this time I don't have much of a choice.....this company has a monopoly here and has had for quite some time.

I've been trying to cut corners everywhere I can to make my dollar stretch further. Last month I called my phone company and cut long distance from my bill. I rarely call long distance and if I do, I use my cell phone, which is also the most basic you can get. Its a no-contract 300 minutes a month phone I have for emergencies. I can make long distance calls without paying anything extra as long as I don't exceed my minutes. I can still make long distance calls from my house phone but I will be charged 12 cents a minute if I do. This adjustment shaved off about $18 from my monthly phone bill. So you can imagine my disgust when the cable company comes along and ups my bill over $6 a month......just because they can.

I called my cable company and I admit I was really disgusted with them when I did. When I finally got through to a human, I asked for an explanation of my newest bill and also to confirm that my bill had been raised. I wanted to yell at her but restrained myself. After all, its not her fault. I asked if she could transfer me to billing since she didn't really handle that area and she said there would be OVER a 20 minute wait and did I still want to transfer or maybe call back later. I figure a whole lot of customers are calling and complaining about the price hike, although it shouldn't come as a surprise anymore. This is a very greedy company, I fear. I opted to call back later.

Three hours later I called back and waited for 18 minutes. I spoke with one of the nicest ladies and she helped me trim down my cable bill. I thought I had the lowest package but I did not. Now I can only get channels below 100 but those are the ones I look at the most and the ones that the grands look at the most too. She even threw in a promo for me giving me $10 a month off because its a new plan. She said it will last for a year. I was impressed because its going to save me $22 a month! I'm hoping that in that year's time, either this company will realize how ridiculous their prices are and lower them .... or another company or two will come into our area and they'll be forced to lower them due to competition or I can switch.

Speaking of saving money. I recently shopped online at my favorite store......Kohl's, and managed to get my granddaughter a bunch of summer clothes....2 bathing suits, sandals and tennis shoes....everything was on sale, most of it 50% off, plus free shipping to boot. I'm not getting paid to tell you this....I just plain love that store. Their line of clothing is well-made and if you wait for the sales....very reasonable. For clothing for me.....they are not so good....but for the grands, its absolutely perfect. I have three stores that as far as I'm concerned have exceptional clothing for kids. Hanna Andersson I buy from online and the clothes are really expensive so I watch for sales only. Kohl's and Old Navy are the stores I use to buy the girls' most of their clothes. Great stuff and great sales. Check em out. This is not an ad.....this is my opinion.

Also my vacuum cleaner quit working. Its a good name brand and it just doesn't want to suck up the dirt anymore. I checked and re-checked and I can't find a clog, but obviously there must be one. The machine is not that old either, but its out of warranty (of course). I have found out that it will cost more to take this one in for repair and cleaning than it would for me to buy a well-known brand vacuum that's on sale right now. So I bought the new one for $67. ..... $100 regularly. We live in such a throw-away society and I really wish it were different but as long as they make it cheaper to buy new than repair old, this is our fate. I remember my very first glimpse into the throw-away mentality was about 15 years ago. I had a problem with the keys sticking on my computer keyboard at work and our tech company came out, unplugged it, plugged in a new one and tossed the old one in the trash. I stood there with my mouth open, not believing my eyes. He calmly told me that no one fixes keyboards, they are routinely tossed. Well, I guess I've had my say about a bunch of different things today. LOL. Hope you all have some good stuff happen to you and remember to keep smilin'.