Had three $25 Lemon Tree prepared foods Groupons expiring, so headed over there yesterday to stock up.  One of the things I bought was stuffed grape leaves; three small containers.  Which means….time to cook up something Greek!  But why is this cheap?  Because the ground products were purchased for very little from the clearance section and tossed into the freezer.  Whenever I see the vacuum-sealed lamb packages for $1.99, I grab all I can.  It’s also how I make gyro burgers.

I filled up my wonderful, marvelous, adorable rice cooker and hit the button.  This sucker chimes to let you know it’s starting, then chimes again (different song) when it’s finished.  It stays moist forever after it’s done (well, I know at least 5 hours!).

Then I took a pack of ground lamb and ground beef from the freezer and nuked ’em.  Tossed ’em in a bowl with two eggs and oatmeal.  Formed oddly-shaped meatballs which I fried.  In a frying pan I made a Bechamel sauce and added lemon juice during the last few minutes (okay, I lied…I didn’t have any lemon juice so I substituted lime).  The sauce had thickened by the time I took this picture (after dinner), but you just add small amounts of liquid (in my case I used milk) until it thins down.

Desperately need to get a new phone – my iPhone is a jail broke 3G, which means I’ve never been able to update or (certainly not!) restore to original factory settings and am unable to download most of the new APPs available. Been with Tmobile for at least five years and neither FirstBorn nor I have any contracts (we share a plan).

Any suggestions for a new carrier?  It must be iPhone compatible – that’s non-negotiable.  I will never go to AT&T due to horrible service when they were Cellular One (just like Horton, I never forget) and have almost as much animosity towards Sprint.  I had years of service from both, so it wasn’t just a flash in the pan moment with either.

I’ve read excellent things about Verizon; looks like their rates have come down.

Any suggestions (excluding “get an Android”) on customer service, dropped calls and/or spotty service in the Lisle/Downers Grove/Naperville and Lombard (IL)  areas would be greatly appreciated.  I’d prefer a call center where English is spoken and understood (I’ll understand if this excludes parts of the South.. kidding, but trying to inject some snark.)

This weekend was LIsle’s Depot Days – an annual celebration of who we are/were in DuPage (pronounced Du Paz, dontchaknow) County about 150 or years ago.  Little bit before my time…but only a little.

enjoy the pictures … and appreciate your indoor plumbing and halter tops all the more.

My internet went out last evening after working intermittently for several days.  SC kept insisting it was my Macs (heresy), while I insisted it was the new pieceofcrap modem and router he insisted on getting for the N band.  Guess who won?  Called the 877 customer service number to make sure it wasn’t our line having issues (for years, there were insulation issues in the underground lines which would cause outages).  Customer service in India wants customer number on back of phone bill.  I don’t know about you guys, but I haven’t gotten an actual paper bill in the mail for many, many years.  (In the past I’ve had the dummies tell me I could pull it up online – hello!  why am I calling about internet then?).  Tell the lackwit this and she asks for my phone number (she’s already gotten my name).  Give it to her with the 1- prefix.  She asks for my email, which I say I don’t want to give out because I don’t want any more junk emails.  She says she can’t help me if I don’t give her the information.  I say I’ve already given you my phone number 630…. to which she really snottily responds that I gave her a 1-630 number.  I ask for a supervisor.  I am disconnected.

Gave up on the ATT customer un-service center, and reattached and installed my old (standby unit purchased new at a garage sale) 2Wire modem/routerand now I’m back online.

Deal with the D-Link support people IN INDIA, who keep insisting that they want to troubleshoot the unit and have me reconnect it before they’ll do anything.  They sure don’t know the goddess.  I’m on hold for a supervisor.  Now I’ve gotten a supervisor whose first question was had I installed this modem before or was this the first time.  Swear to god that if I could pull people through phone lines and beat them to death with the receiver….i’d be sharing a cell with Peterson…

Sent eight emails for RMA – none received as yet.  Finally after using three separate email accounts, I get it and let the poor bastard off the hook.

So hang up and call ATT support – in this country – to complain about their crappy out-of-country support.  Actually, I told them if this continued, I’d switch to VOIP and T-Mobile cells for back up.  that oughta scare ’em.

AND THAT’S HOW THE GODDESS WILL BRING JOBS BACK TO THIS COUNTRY.  VOTE FOR ME.

Here’s a little something I’m making for dinner either tonight or tomorrow or lunch or whenever.  It’s a rainy, dreary day here in the Chicago area, with temperatures in the mid-60’s so far and I doubt it will get up much higher.  Course, if the sun comes out we’ll all be living in a giant steam bath…

During the last great stock up on EE products at Jewel with those $`1 store coupons, I threw in a few (don’t quote me) bags of dried beans.  Canned beans are down and dirty and fast, but are way more expensive and usually contain lots of sodium.  If you have the time, go with dried.  Here you see two pounds of Great Northern Beans and two cans of EE diced tomatoes with green chiles, one large onion, two little tubs of Knorr Homestyle Stock (free at Dominicks last year) and three junior pub burgers.  I was calling this White Chili when Rachel pointed out that it wasn’t white if it contained beef – librarians can be so picky!  So let’s call this Integrated Chili ’cause it’s black and white.  Hard to calculate the cost, but certainly less than a buck, and that’s cause of tax.

In case you haven’t noticed, the site has been undergoing some “remodeling” today – and as with all projects, not everything is going as planned.  Of course, some things look way better!  So ignore all the giant ads popping up – I am not currently an affiliate for Motel 6!  although i could be bought for cheap…and that huge bottle of POM is giving me nightmares.

Everything should be back to normal by tomorrow morning.  At least I have the ability again to post (which disappeared for a time).

While looking for the dancing lady image, I came across a couple of old posts/photos which I’m rerunning as a summer treat.  The first one was from late 2009, I believe and involved wiping out a Walgreens of all their clearance Cottonelle:

Read on-line about Wags clearancing the Cottenelles for a buck or less.  Snce I just happened to have a whole load of $1 coupons, why not? Took a drive and we’re set for a couple of years. Well, I hope we’re set, since we’re talking 168 packages. The asst mgr was so excited she wanted to print out a duplicate receipt to post on the wall, showing people how you can save shopping at Walgreens. Oh, how much did I spend? Less than $12 (high tax).

This second post was entitled “How Many Bottle of Tea fit in a Trunk?” and dates from August, 2010.

As well you might ask.  This was another strange deal…..Gold Peak Tea is a Coca Cola product, for which I had fifty cent coupons.  With a BOGO, it ended up costing me low tax, or two cents a bottle. Lost count after 190 bottles. People are starting to refer to my Beverage Basement.

Those were the Good Ole Days, when we would get freebies like this all the time – wait!  Didn’t we get FREE disposable razors, good n natural bars and Scope this week?  Guess it’s all in how you look at it…

In PITA’s school registration packet is the current School Attendance Calendar for 2012-13.   Notwithstanding the fact that they will revise this 18 times before the first day of school, the very fact that it’s now on the refrigerator makes me do the happy dance!

I was trying to find that dancing woman image, but nada.  just imagine it instead…