Jeremy Herndon Blog

Looks like we might need to look into finding a round rock carpet cleaner to come in and take care of the carpets in the house since our 11 year old male Pug has had problems with his bladder control these past couple of months. Poor guy isn’t doing so well and I knew he isn’t happy with the situation either. It really sucks to see him aging so quickly these past couple of years. We have had him a member of the family since he was 5 weeks old, the best dog we ever have had the pleasure of owning.

The carpets have needed a good cleaning for some time, but we seem to keep putting it off for one reason or another and I guess now we really need to get them professionally cleaned before Memorial Day since we will be having our annual Memorial Day Weekend bar-b-q with over 20 people attending. The wife would be very unhappy with me if they all were to come over and see the house in such disarray and I don’t think that I could do the job justice with the home carpet cleaner that we have owned for even longer than our dog.

For some reason the winter has gone by faster than ever, and it looks as if Easter is right around the corner. Yesterday my wife and I were grocery shopping, trying to use up all of the coupons that we had that were going to expire as of the end of the month and every where I looked I saw some kind of reference to Easter. There was a demonstrator there handing out samples of a particular brand of spiral ham. We did end up buying one of the hams, but it was only about two pounds worth. My wife said that she thought we would go ahead and have it for Easter, but when we got home and were unpacking all of our groceries it looked as if we did not buy very much meat so we might actually end up eating it sooner than planned.

As we were shopping I kept finding things that I thought we should buy and she kept saying “not today, not today, hurry up.” We were actually at the grocery store for two hours shopping, and spent around $400.00. All of the coupons we used saved us over $40, but I was still in shock that we spent as much money as we did. Of course we DID have two shopping carts full of food, so I suppose that I should not have been THAT shocked! But it did give me a greater understanding of just how much money we spend on groceries!

From time to time people tell me that the reason that the Irish celebrate St Patrick’s day is because St Patrick drove all of the snakes out/off of Ireland. One story tells that he had made a deal with the snakes that if they left Ireland he would give them poisonous venom as a reward. I was just reading an article that explains that the last Ice Age is what rid Ireland of snakes. So I wonder who is St Patrick REALLY and why is he supposed to be such a hero that his “day” is celebrated every year with green beer and parades and corned beef cabbage.

Easter Gift Baskets have already appeared on the store’s shelves, right beside the clearance Valentine’s Day candy. I noticed that last weekend when I dropped into Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. I was walking past the seasonal section and realized that it was the perfect time to score some discount Valentine’s candy to take home and share with the family.

One of the things that I’ve tried to do in regards to holidays like Easter is to reuse and recycle a lot of the “trimmings.” For example, the plastic grass, the plastic eggs, and the baskets themselves can be reused over the years. Just the thought of buying one of those cellophane-wrapped baskets that are intended to be thrown away a week later, filling up the landfills makes me cringe.

That is one of the things that I really admire about my mother, and about my wife; they are so creative and thrifty with their talents to be able to reuse and re-purpose items in such a way that it never looks like they are being “cheap.” In fact, some of the things that they re-purpose have turned into well-loved family heirlooms that will be in the family for-ever. For example, several years ago my wife took an empty plastic cool-whip tub and covered it with batting and fabric and turned it into a beautiful basket that was an Easter Basket one year, but now holds our remote controls in the living room.

I was reading an article on the Time.com website about how high-end high alcohol beers and becoming more popular. These beers are sometimes being brewed by smaller, less well known breweries than the mainstream breweries, and are intended to compete with wine rather than the “average” run of the mill beer. These beers often have more than twice the alcohol content than “regular” beer. One of these beers was developed by the makers of Samuel Adams Beer and has been named “Utopia” beer and sells for $140 per 24 ounce bottle. The article was talking about how these beers are “richer” and because of that people would not WANT to drink more, they would drink less.

Most of the people that I know would rather drink MORE beer, not less! I can’t imagine going to a barbecue picnic and only drinking one beer, it would not seem like a party to limit oneself to only one! After that one beer is gone and you’re thirsty again, then what would you drink? I guess this is the kind of beer one would order at a restaurant where you are only going to be there a short time.