Much Ado About (Paying) Nothing

Because I write for several shopping blogs, I come across a lot of offers for free or inexpensive items. It's my job to choose several of these each week to highlight at one of these blogs.

Many of these offers come from the Facebook pages of shops, restaurants or other companies.

Usually I just write up the deal, link to the source and get on with things, but in the past couple of days I've read a few of the comments attached to the posts announcing some of these specials.

Yesterday, as I printed out my weekly coupon from the Dunkin' Philly Fan Zone, some of the comments on the page were blasting Dunkin' Donuts for offering a breakfast-sandwich coupon instead of one for iced coffee. On other posts for past coupons, people complained that other stores were offering better deals. Or they complain that these coupons are only good Monday through Thursday.

Today, I was posting a deal for teachers from Chipotle Mexican Grill and saw that many commenters complained because the restaurant hadn't offered a freebie for nurses, daycare providers, student teachers and homeschoolers.

What an entitlement mentality!

I'm a former teacher, so I don't expect Chipotle to give me free food tonight. And I'm happy for the low-priced breakfast sandwich coupon, but if I weren't a breakfast-sandwich fan, I just wouldn't print a Dunkin' Donuts coupon this week. Next week, after all, there will be another.

These stores issue coupons to get customers in the door and generate some goodwill in the community. I didn't see a whole lot of goodwill on the Facebook pages for either establishment regarding these offers, and that's a shame. It's people like those commenters on Facebook that will ruin things for everyone else, because the stores will eventually give up and stop giving out coupons and freebies.

Can't use the coupon this time? Don't qualify for the free offer this time? Oh well! Maybe next time you will. In the meantime, be grateful that the store still offers special deals and stop blasting them because each and every deal is not for you.

12/Year: April in Review

I have a nice camera, but if it weren't for my iPhone I wouldn't have ANY pictures at all most of the time!

I'm linking up with Barbara's 12 a Year.

Recommended reading.

 Evidence of an afternoon well-spent. We went to Tampa, Florida for a few days during Easter vacation. Fun in the sun!

Beautiful sunset over the Gulf.

Little Brother worked on his Science Fair report. For his project, we baked together!

The very first lilacs of the season.

Little Brother, at the dollar store:  "Look, Mom, a really big toothbrush!"

Kitchen equipment--needed to feed 125 people dinner for 5 days during Tech Week at the high school. The "play parents" make sure the kids have a good, hot dinner before those extra-long rehearsals. This year, I was the Dinner Mama.

The pool's open! (Yes, he knows it's only April. He'd open it on the first day of spring if he could.)

Polar Bear Plunge, April 23. The water was 55 degrees. The air was 50 degrees.
Fahrenheit.

Middle Sister got her hair done for prom. She looks great in curls!

 Middle Sister on her way to prom!

All packed up for the first night of Tech Week dinners. My garage looked like an episode of "Hoarders:  The Restaurant Edition."

Adrenalin Overload

Great band name, hm? It's been keeping me from sleeping these last couple of days.
I'm a mess right now, as a result.
A year ago today I could barely get off the couch as I recovered from endometriosis surgery. This week I have been coordinating and serving dinner for 130, 5 out of 7 nights, for the high-school musical's Tech Week. It's a tradition at school to get all the actors, crew, and musicians together for dinner an hour before rehearsal begins during that last week of rehearsals before opening night. It's fun. And it's exhausting.
I have had a lot of help; about 18 people volunteer each night to help set up, serve and clean up. But the vanload of paper supplies and other items is all mine, every night.
I'm surviving right now with the help of caffeine, Advil, and my heating pad. I have to say, the physical work is taking its toll, and I come home sore every single night--despite all the helpers. It's nothing like the pain I was in before the surgery; well, it's in the same place, but it's not as intense. (I'm not worried about the pain. I'm working muscles that haven't been worked too hard in quite a while, and I'm seriously out of shape.)
And then my inner cynic gets going. This is one of those jobs that needs to get done but nobody wants to do. It's work, but it's not terrible. People are thanking me up, down and sideways for doing this job, and after a while I start to wonder:  "Am I doing that good a job, or are they just happy that they don't have to be the one to do it?"
Does it really matter?
I just smile and say I couldn't do it without all the helpers, because that's true. It takes a village to serve 130 people dinner every night.
It's a pleasure, even with the pain and the fatigue. I've met a bunch of nice parents, gotten my fix of polite high-school students, staff and alumni, and tasted some amazing salads and cookies.
Tonight I will enjoy the night off and laugh with some friends--and, hopefully, get a good night's sleep.

12/year: really belated

This blog has been sorely neglected lately, so I decided to (belatedly) link up with Barbara's 12/year photo roundup! Most of the pictures were taken on my phone, but at least I've got a few pictures!

In March,

I received an "Honorary Doctorate" for reading to the pre-K when the school celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday.

I spun a science-fair-mishap into a delicious cookie/brownie combo!

We had much better luck with our second attempt at the science fair cookie recipe! Read all about it--the cookies were terrific!

It snowed--the most snow we got all year.

Little Brother is a Boy Scout now, so he got to help with the Easter Vigil fire. Here's the "before"...

...and the "during." You can't see Father; he's on the other side of the flames. 

Alleluia! Easter sunrise.

21st-Century Conclave

Yesterday's "white smoke rising" moment really brought home just how connected the world is. The Papal Chimney Watch was in full swing in the early afternoon, and I was in the car listening to commentary on satellite radio's The Catholic Channel. My husband was with me, commenting that he felt sorry for the radio personalities, who had to just keep talking until they had certain information.

We got home just as the announcers stated that the marching band was entering St. Peter's Square. I refused to get out of the car until I'd started up the satellite-radio app on my iPhone. I didn't want to miss a moment.

I was frustrated to discover that there was a 5-minute delay between the radio broadcast and the online version, but I set my phone next to me on the desk and listened as I headed to YouTube on my computer for the Vatican TV live feed. I started Twitter on the iPad.

I didn't even bother with the regular TV. For the last conclave, that's all I had. But this was amazing--using various media to receive information in real time (or as close as an online app for satellite radio could get.)

Then I watched the clock. It was getting close to 3, dismissal time for Little Brother's school. I was sure that they'd be watching in class, and didn't want him to miss "the Big Reveal" while he was on the school bus.

Pope Francis reached the balcony at about 3:15. We barely had time to digest the news and try to find out a little more about him when Little Brother exploded through the front door, yelling, "We have a new pope, and his name is Francis!"

"How did you know? They didn't announce his name until after you were on the bus!"

"Somebody on the bus has an iPhone and we were all watching it on the 3G."

This is probably the best use of an iPhone on a school bus EVER.

Be an Angel

A few weeks ago, I read with sadness that Aquinas and More would be closing. I've had a long association with them and especially enjoyed being part of their Tiber River Book Review program as well as writing occasional articles for the site.

Here's one piece I wrote last year about preparing your child for first Reconciliation.

Aquinas and More stands out, in my view, for its staunch no-China policy. This means that inventory selection is carefully guided by the source of the item.

Today, Aquinas and More owner Ian Rutherford announced an unconventional fund-raising effort that would keep the store's online presence available to its customer base across the country. If you can lend a hand to a retailer that's committed to bringing authentic, orthodox Catholic religious goods to its customers, won't you consider donating?

No donations will be processed until the fund-raising goal is met, and there are rewards for donating that are pretty sweet. You've got 14 days to help out.

Be an angel and help Aquinas and More continue its mission.

Murphy's Law Morning

I have been awake for less than 5 hours today. And already, the following "glitches" have taken place:

• Little Brother was most ungracious (not to mention greedy) upon finding out that the Tooth Fairy had left her usual $1 instead of the $5 that some of his classmates get.
• TheDad informed me that his car HAD to go to the mechanic TODAY because some "your car will explode if you don't go to the mechanic" indicator light had lit up on his dashboard.
• That meant that I had to commandeer Middle Sister's car and take her to school and force her to (indignity of indignities) ride the bus home today.
• Little Brother came thisclose to missing HIS bus because he hadn't packed his schoolbag last night, like I'd asked him to.
• Middle Sister had a pretty empty gas tank.
• I had to follow TheDad to the car dealership and then he had to take me back home. ALL of this was before I even got a cup of coffee, not to mention breakfast.
• I thought maybe there would be a diner run on the way back from Hyundai City, but no...(and poor Hubs is first of all not a mind-reader and second of all WAY too busy at work right now so I know there was no time for a diner run. But a girl can dream. Especially when she needs coffee.)
• Middle Sister started sending me angry texts because the discombobulation of HER morning meant that she'd forgotten some important papers on the coffee table.
• A piece of the splashguard of my stand mixer detached itself when I was making cookies for Big Brother, who's coming home for dinner tonight.
• Little Brother's coach emailed the date and time of the CYO basketball playoff game:  smack in the middle of a Tech Week rehearsal for Annie Jr. (I'm dealing with that by praying for snow.)
• I found a broken zipper pull in the dryer's lint filter. Inspecting the laundry, I discovered that it had come off the Notre Dame hoodie that I JUST got for Christmas.

None of this is "big stuff" but it's the little stuff that really gets to me.

I could really use a reboot here, especially since in just a couple of hours, I have a Secular Franciscans meeting and there will be guests, so I am WAY outside my comfort zone on this one (introvert problems). It's not that the guests aren't welcome--I'm glad they'll be there. But I find it tough enough to conduct a meeting when it's "just us," never mind up to 10 extra people, some of whom are strangers.

And I have to make sure I'm out of that meeting on time to pick up Little Brother and his friend at Chess Club after school.

At the moment, I'm kind of afraid to touch anything or go anywhere! I could really use a double dose of Grace and Dignity right about now.