Seattle

Did a just-before-closing run to Costco on Saturday evening, and heard a snippet of A Prairie Home Companion on NPR en route. Here's a fun piece about my hometown.

Almost free money

I told my sister, who asked me about Swagbucks earlier today, not to sign up herself until I wrote this blog post - not that it's going to be a long one. :)
Like just about everyone else I know, we keep a pretty tight hold on our pennies around here. Any expenditure beyond the usual grocery-list cash is up for conversation. Spending a dollar on a redbox movie is not automatic.
Any opportunities to save on the purchases we're going to make anyway are always much appreciated. To that end, here are a couple of websites that are relatively new to me, latecomer that I am. The first is Gift Card Granny, which I learned about over at this post on Get Rich Slowly. I haven't purchased any discounted gift cards yet, but I have a feeling it will happen sooner or later. One of the places we shop a few times a year is Bed, Bath and Beyond, because they carry the CO2 charges for the most excellent Soda Stream Machine G's brother gave him for his birthday a few years ago. Since we're trying to wean ourselves off soda (but there's no way we'll give up fizz), CO2 canisters will always be on the list. Combine a discounted gift card with one of those ubiquitous BB&B coupons and fizzy water becomes even that much more economical than Diet Coke (yes, I know, drinking plain tap water would be even better, but come on...).
The second site, which I just signed up for today, is Swagbucks. I learned about it first over at The Non Consumer Advocate, and I agree with her assessment, it is a little gimmicky - but if doing what I do anyway  - searching the internet and reading a few different blogs - can land me the occasional Amazon gift card (or any of a number of other "prizes"), that'd be great! Even better (for me - and you, if you get friends to use your referral link) is that they give Swagbucks for making referrals. I'm putting the widget on my blog. We'll see!

It's beginning to feel a lot like summer

Happy June!
(So, it turns out NaBloPoMo still isn't my thing - but hey, 13 posts out of 31 days isn't SO bad. It's a whole lot more than I'd written for quite a while.)
Here in the land of Unseen Endings, we had a wonderful week in Washington, inspired by my nephew's baptism on May 22nd. I thought about writing something the whole time we were gone, and each day had its own memories and stories to share. Perhaps I'll get to those sometime THIS month.

Today, though, is for sharing the work that's already been done in our yard.
On Monday, a very rainy day here in Bozeman, G, the Munchkin and I headed to a family-owned nursery here in town, to take advantage of the end of their sale on bare root shrubs (25% off!). One of the fantastic things, besides the price, about said shrubs is, obviously, that their roots are bare. This means the hole one must dig is not-so-big. We got four new shrubs planted in about an hour and a half this morning, with plenty of time for wandering to talk to a neighbor, pull out some weeds, and come back in the house to nurse a hungry baby.
The plants we put in the ground are: a Rose Tree of China, an Annabelle hydrangea (I'll be messing with soil acidity a few years from now if I want blue flowers instead of white), a Wedgewood Lilac and a miniature Cranberry bush. A couple of them are just starting to bud out. Of course it will be a few years before they are mature enough to be impressive, but just knowing their promise makes me glad. And being outside under a mostly blue sky in ratty old cargo pants and a long sleeved t-shirt added to the giddiness. There are parts of this state that are severely under water, and there's more rain coming here, but for now it feels just a little like summer might finally be here to stay for a while.