At Home Gel Nail Review and Ramblings

All my stocks are down today except DEO. Hmmmmm. They sell Bailey's Irish Cream, Guiness Beer, tequila, scotch, etc. Love me some DEO.

Okayl so it costs about $30 for gel nails at the salon. The polish looks good for about 2 weeks. In fact, the reason I took mine off was because my nails had grown out so much. But let me tell you, when I decided one evening at home to take off the gel nails.....Holy Moly. It is impossible to get off with nail polish remover. At that point, it was a challenge. I was not going to let that gel nail stuff get the best of me, but I did almost cry trying to get it off.

Yesterday, I'm at the drugstore and I see do-it-yourself gel nails for only $15. I'm thinking awesome. Half price and it'll last two weeks. Boy did I mess up.

If I had read the directions, I would have never purchased. You apply applicator solution, the gel nail polish,then clean the brush in brush cleaner, and repeat. This is only one hand. Now you do the same for the other hand.

I'm horrible at painting my nails, so after all of that, I have nail polish that will last two weeks and it looks horrible. Next time, back to the spa for a glass of wine, a massage chair, a hand massage and nice nails.

I need someone with a farm to adopt my daughter or maybe in a few years marry her. She has some affliction that makes her bring home animals and/or beg for more animals. Today, it was begging for German Shepherd puppies. If I lived on land, I would probably do it myself.

Well off to golf tonight. Lovely evening in Texas!!!!

Jump Starting a Car

So Hayley's car wouldn't start yesterday. I found jumper cables. Good. I got her hood open. Excellent. Uh oh. Took me a while to figure out how to open my hood. When I did....Wow. I have a beautiful engine. So anyway, I spend 15 minutes looking for my battery. NOTHING under my hood looks like a battery. Very strange, so I pull out the manual. 


Seriously, I don't have a battery under my hood. I have a battery terminal. My battery must be hidden somewhere else in my car. Anyway, got her car jumped, bought Hayley a new battery, and she is back in business.


So golf score has been going down since week one. I haven't practiced, but my chipping and putting was pretty decent last week which is unusual for me.

On another note, I planted a garden and I planted things and can't remember what they are. The only things really growing so far are tomatoes, bell peppers and blackberries. I have strawberries, but they just lay in the dirt and fall off. Think I'll pass on strawberries in the future and buy them at the store. So there is something unidentified. I thought it might be carrots, but I looked online and that's not it. Clueless. It kind of looks like cabbage up top, but I know I wouldn't buy cabbage.


Good news. I got a French manicure last weekend. It lasted 10 days. That is a personal best. Typically, I mess it up before I get to my car.

Been a While

Well the baby chickens went to live on a farm. http://www.cathys-critters.com/. There was an Easter festival with a petting zoo the week before Easter and our baby chickens were there for the kids to play with, and they had a little yellow buddy the same age. So glad the chickens found a home....besides my house.

So I dug a big hole in my backyard so I can build a flagstone patio. Not so sure rainy season is the best time of year to do it. Now I have a mud pit right outside my back door. I just got so gung ho about this project that I couldn't wait any longer to finish my prep work. Now, I just need to spend the money for the flagstone and crushed granite and have a long weekend with sun and nothing to do. I'm thinking I might need to hire some help since 3+ tons of stuff will be dumped in my driveway.

I probably shouldn't say this out loud, but my golf game has gotten better each week. I shaved off 4 strokes  from week one and another 4 last week. At this rate, I'll be on the LPGA soon....:)

Ramblings about baby chickens and stocks

 
Things I've learned about baby chickens in the past day. 

• To keep them for chirping, you must hold them together while cupping one hand beneath them and one hand over them. Unfortunately, this makes it hard to do anything else in life. The picture to the left is the not the proper cupping, so there was some chirping going on.
• Use a towel in your bottom hand, so you don't get chicken poo on you. Also not shown correctly in the pic.
• Keep the babies really warm to shut them up. A space heater set on 85 seems to do the trick.
• Give them food to shut them up.
• According to Hayley, they are more cuddly than her cat. She really loves them....for now anyway.

Stock rambling of the day:  I bought Exxon a couple of months ago. It is my WORST performing stock.  As a matter of fact, it is my only LOSING stock.

Really? Didn't you make $9.4 BILLION profit and I mean BILLION last quarter? And yes, a quarter is only 3 months. Okay, so Exxon sent me a tiny dividend, but still. I look at my account and see all green EXCEPT for XOM. What gives? 

I thought if I was going to pay $4 for a gallon of gas that at least I'd own some Exxon and laugh my way to the bank with my share of the profits, but NOOOOOOO that has not happened. I'm giving XOM a couple of more months....maybe.

Serious Black and Boo to Choctaw

Apparently I don't watch enough Harry Potter, but that's another story. So one of my neighbors has a rooster. It's not too loud, but it just cracks me up when I'm sitting outside at noon and I hear him crowing. Me and Zena have walked the neighborhood to find this invisible rooster, but we can't locate him. I believe it is the house two doors down.

So the people who sell animals at McKinney Trade Days should be shot. According to my daughter, we now own a rooster too. He's a little black chic named Serious Black. I haven't seen him yet -- only this photo. He is still living with his sister at Hayley's friend's house until he gets a little older. 

Oh, and Hayley seems to think she should get kudos because she called the City of Frisco and got confirmation that it is okay to own a chicken or rooster in city limits. However, she forgot to get the okay from her mother. And what a manipulator, Hayley said that if I didn't let her bring home Serious Black, she would feed him to her friend's snake. Sigh.


Yes, I have a big yard, but we also have a cat and a Rottweiler. I told Hayley that poor Lucy (my parakeet) is buried in the backyard...how long until Serious Black is next to him? Maybe Serious Black will continue to stay at Hayley's friend's house and she can go visit. Hayley wants to introduce Serious Black to Billie Jean (the cat). Really? I told her I'm not cleaning up any dead roosters.

So George Thorogood was great in concert. He may be in his 60s, but he looks and acts 40ish. So I was one of the youngest people at the concert....except for the one younger guy next to me that very obviously forgot to wear his deodorant.

So Choctaw is okay EXCEPT for the bimbo working the bar that had $1.50 beer for St. Patty's Day. She filled the cups up half way and couldn't understand why people were griping at her about it. She said every person griped....well no kidding. It's out of a keg. It's cheap beer. Just fill up the cup or just tell the truth "You can buy 1/2 of a cheap beer for $1.50". There is no TRUTH in advertising. So I say BOO to Choctaw for being that cheap.

I drink alone

Going to see George Thorogood this weekend. He's older than me and still kicking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8VlcbndXdM

I played golf last night. What a great night for it. My golf game was not pretty,but I hit the ball well, so at least my game looked better than it actually panned out on the scorecard.

So my golf shoes are getting worn out. I've always prided myself on having cute golf shoes and I've slacked off. I really think new shoes will help my game. Hard to concentrate when I look down and see my old shoes. So I'm officially on the hunt for new golf shoes.

Recently the kids called me out on dressing like a homeless person and said I need new clothes and to start dressing better. Yes, I bought one pair of heels, so I figure that is a start, but then I bought a new pair of flip flops and now I want new golf shoes. I'm pretty sure this is not what they meant when they said I needed to dress better.

Oh and I'm somewhat frugal. Well, I would never pay $20 for flip flops UNLESS, I just went to an outlet mall and saw some for $50, and then went to Winstar and found flip flops for $287. When I got home, the $20 flip flops seemed like a great deal!

Golf again and I found unclaimed property

So Thursday I start the ladies golf league again. I haven't hit a ball in weeks. I swung a lob wedge at the dog toy on my lunch break, so I'm sure I'm totally prepared now. My next plan of action is to by some whiffle balls so I can practice in the backyard. I  might need to get some tanning lotion for my legs too so that I don't reflect the sunlight in anyone's eyes.


Well not sure why I did this, but for some strange reason I decided someone just might owe me money. I went to the unclaimed property website and found my name. My heart was pounding. Maybe I could pay off my house and retire early, maybe enough for a new car......


Sallie Mac owes me money for the first house I ever owned down in Austin. Unfortunately, Sallie Mac only owes me .45 cents. No sense/cents trying to get it since the paperwork and postage would put me in the negative.....and with my luck I'd have to get my ex-husband's signature on the paperwork and split the money with him. 


Oh and while on the subject of that first house. Bought it for $24K in 1989. It is now tax appraised at $215K. Wish I still had it. It was built in 1940 and is only 900 sq. ft, but it is on 1/4 acre with 100+ oak trees. Hindsight is 20/20. 

Funny but when I bought my first house, my house payment was less than my 1-bedroom apartment. Ironic that my new/old house is almost half the price as the rent on my 2-bedroom apartment I had last year. I did hear on Squawkbox this morning that rents are higher than owning right now. They were even telling people how to use IRA money to purchase real estate, but I didn't pay attention....maybe I should have.