day 66- a bag of dough

who doesn't like pizza? as a child i thought getting pizza for dinner was the best thing in the world. all that cheese, the tangy sauce and the pepperoni all crisp on the top.

i would scrap away the cheese and eat the bread and crust first and then just enjoy the cheese for as long as i could stand to chew it...

that could be a while too.

pizza, unless you are pizza cook, is something best left to the professionals. i know i do. while i know all the basics of proper pizza cooking i do lack the time, counter space and of course the right size oven. you know... one that could cook a pizza.

making the dough is probably the hardest thing to do. they are quite a few recipes out there and even a change in the tap water can make your pizza come out different. new york pizza is the way it is from the bread flour, the way it is tossed and of course the tap water adds to the flavor. what we get is a crispy and thin crust. i did not like it before, but it is growing on me.

these bags of pizza dough you can buy in the store are choice. it takes the guess work out of making the dough so all you have to do is make your crust and then throw your toppings on top.

what a great idea.

i'll buy that for a buck80.

but i will probably make bread sticks instead. garlicky and buttery strips of dough baked all nice and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. it make more sense to me than making a pizza right now. my oven just will not cut it for a pizza. bread sticks on the other hand. sound damn good.

wrapping up
493.54 at the start
a buck80 spent
the kitty stands at a buck62

maximum spending tomorrow
3buck26cent

i can spend that much tomorrow

you can't stop me.

day 59- peanut butter and chocolate.. mmmmm

mmmm reese's peanut butter cups. i love these things.

usually i stay away from candy. it's just not my thing. i like the sweet stuff, but when it comes to getting my sweet on, i usually go for a cookie or something. during the "candy holidays" most of the candy just sits there and i never finish it, but a snack pack of reese's cups will get sucked down in no time.

they call this thing a snack pack. it's a much better value then picking up a two pack a la carte from the impulse/we can see you so don't shoplift area of your market, but i think the idea is to eat them one at a time...

over a period of time.

this is something i just don't know how to do. kind of like how a ben and jerry's pint is supposed to be just one portion. (really now how is that possible?) i ate six of the eight in one sitting. the lady had one. there is one more left. this one will probably just sit there and not be eaten by me.

years ago, when my uncle worked at hershey, we would get bags and bags of the smaller cups at christmas time. those were the good old days, though since i was just a little kid my candy intake was closely watched by the mom. i did not get to enjoy as much of them as my father did.

nowadays for my candy fix i much more prefer the vosges line of chocolate bars. while not anywhere near the buck64aday range, they are definitely worth shelling out the five or six bucks per bar. the oaxaca is all about hot peppers and chocolate an my personal favorite... mo's bacon bar. think chocolate bar, but instead of having toffee bits or some other specks of goodness inside, think bacon. real applewood smoked bacon. now that's some good stuff.

there should be bacon in everything.

i just wish the bacon bars were cheaper.

wrapping up

505.16 at the start

a buck72 spent

the kitty stands at 20cent

maximum spending tomorrow

a buck84

i can spend that much tomorrow

you can't stop me.

day 56- torrential downpours, late movies but fresh breath

have you seen the dark knight yet? wow. that was intense... and long. i always go see these comic book movies with a good friend from my youth. we always head out to the new comic book movie with the expectation that is is going to suck. five years ago, that was usually the case.

nowadays things are looking up. the movie companies really seem to care about making a comic book movie that is true to the comic, not just a movie to make money.

go figure.. now they make a bunch of cash. to bad they had not figured this out like ten years ago.. 20 years ago.

since the weather was once again forcast to be poor tonight i again did not schedule a movie on the roof. i am starting to wonder if we will ever be able to have another wednesday movie on the roof. there always seems to be few thunderstorms rolling in to wash out the fun.

instead of m.o.t.r. we finally headed out to see the dark knight down at battery park only to find out that the 10pm movie will have no air conditioning. the 10:50movie will however have the cool breezes. we switched to the cool breezes of the late movie.

one thing i did not know about the dark knight.

how long it was.

holy jesus. it was brilliant, but damn it was long.

getting out of a movie on a school night at almost 2am is beyond even my limits, but damn it was good.

heath ledger captured the essence of the joker in a way i had never imagined possible. the "real" joker from the comics is one of the most twisted characters ever created (even better when recreated by frank miller).

to see a movie and not see the actor playing the character is rare. the performance heath ledger gave went beyond any expectation i ever could have had. the whole movie did in fact.

but it was long.

not that i minded.. except for the fact that i had been up since 5am.

so go see the dark knight if you have not already.

just don't go see the late show.

today's purchase i guess now becomes more of a footnote.

to the point.

i smoke. i need to keep some breath spray around.
i got it for cheap. a buck84. it will keep my breath "seeming" fresh for at least 100-150 uses. if i manage to not lose it before it runs out it becomes quite the investment, but like chapstick, breathsprays tend to get lost in the shuffle.. the hustle.. the bustle.

i once had a tube of chapstick for 1 year. it was still good. still had some left.
a miracle that.

wrapping up.
510.68 at the start.
a buck84 spent
the kitty stands at 68cent.

maximum spending tomorrow

2buck32

i can spend that tomorrow

you can't stop me.

day 46- pocket energy.

ok.. this is the last back post from the lack of internets.. i hope to not have to many more of these over the next 320 days of the mission.

what happened?

the jersey house has no internets. no phone in fact. we use our cells, and for the past few years i have been using my cell phone as a modem for dave's old clunker of a computer.

the idea of dial up internet via a cell phone is awesome. awesome until you get a new phone and a new service plan only to discover that the phone as modem is not available.

the phone: the instinct

the plan: simply everything

the info on the phone show that phone as a modem is an option.

me looking at the plan carefully after almost a month shows that it is not available to me.

my bust.

i thought simply everything meant ... well.. everything.

the whole shebam. not so. the phone's modem has been disabled.

i will however figure out a hack to make it work.

i always do.

i like this phone i can do lots of cool things with it. i have not been able to blog with it yet as i cannot hit the publish button on the browser, but opera mini will work it all out for me in a bit.

i hope.

ok. it does seem to work.. for now. just downloaded it, and while it it seemd to work, i will have to see how well it works.

ok .. it just crashed.. there in the time you read... sometimes failure only take a few seconds.

my intention with buying the instinct was to be able to blog from my phone. this way i could buck64aday from anywhere. it can be a bit stressful to blog everyday as the lady will tell you. i am a busy guy, but i am commited to the mission and everyday it will be. doing it from my phone would give me some more freedom and not be tied to the computer for 20 minutes a day.

i am dedicated to the mission, but it's a challenge.

hopefully sprint will get it's act together so i will actually be able to hit the publish button on the blogger screen and get the blog updated. until then i am taking newman's laptop out to new jersey and i will just suck off whatever wireless router i can find out there.

there are a couple. so long as i am in the front room i should be ok.

today's purchase? the cliff bar. mini energy/nutrition in a "tasty" form. is it tasty? well not really, but it does give you a bit of a boost when you are down. i am going to save it for later this week when i am moving rocks to build a new rock garden for the stugan's backyard..

or maybe i will take it out to the "hunting" area and use it as a snack while i sit in one of the many deer blinds in the woods to take pictures of the wildlife. no i am not going hunting, but there are lots of deer, coyote, raccoons and bears in the wilds of new jersey that i would like to get shots of.

camera shots. we will see what i can come up with.

at a buck61 the cliff bar will keep me from getting to hungry while i wait.

will me smoking cigarettes in boredom keep the animals away?

i'll have to see

wrapping up

526.74 at the start

a buck61 spent

the kitty stands at 57cent

maximum spending tomorrow

2buck21

i can spend that much tomorrow

you can't stop me.

day 44- bus snacks... my favorite.. besides corn chips.

so it's time for vacation part 2. one week of doing barely anything.

which is really not all that possible on my part.

i always seem to be doing something.

i am coming up with a vacation plan for myself though. nothing that regimented, but still i do aspire to some productivity.

the lady and i are headed out to the stugan out in budd lake new jersey. vasa park. here is where i will spend my second vacation.

my grandparents built a summer home out there 50 years ago. it's a swedish summer cottage. it's heaven on earth.

at least heaven in new jersey when you live in nyc.

the combos are for the trip out. we take the lakeland bus lines out there; then cab it from the bus stop to the house as we gots no car these days. a car is not a necessity, but it would come in handy. i need to get on that. combos are great. quite possibly my favorite driving/riding snack food.

pretzel and cheese.

cheese and pretzels.

in my mind there is nothing better than riding down the road with a bag of pizzeria combos and a 20 ounce soda by it's side. no crumbs no spills.

that's some clean snacking. and pretty cheap..

the combos have however dissapointed me a bit.

it seems their new thing is the cracker combo.

i am not a fan.

my brother grabbed me a bag of combos once while we were driving down to nc a few years back. we usually drive down from nyc through the night and pick up snacks on the way.

so we are in jersey.. he gets gas.. some snacks.. coffee... (combos good with coffee too.. black coffee) and some combos for me.

as i said it's night so it's dark.

i dig into above bag of combos.. at first i am not affected. i taste the cheese.. it's good. then i realize that i am eating cracker and not pretzel. i almost spit it out. holding my composure (and keeping up with the clean car snacking) i say, "wtf is this?" i look at the bag and see the pretzel has been replaced with cracker.

a travesty i say.

i might just need to head on over to hackettstown new jersey to talk with those mars people. m and m/mars is headquartered in hackettstown. although the house is in budd lake, my mailing address is hackettstown. maybe a piece of my mind is just what they need.

this bag of cheddar combos was pretty cheap. on sale at a buck93. the buck64 plus the kitty keep me calm and help me move into snack mode when highway 80 slows down as all the nyc to poconos people are pulling off at route ten.

it's nice how the rules of the game seem keep me going.

wrapping up
530.05 at the start
a buck93 spent.
the kitty stands at .29 cents

maximum spending tomorrow

a buck92

i can spend that tomorrow

you can't stop me

day 40- 40 days and nights of dim sum

it's day 40. for some reason today this feels like a milestone. i am not sure why, but it does. most of the checks are out there. the people are spending their free government cash and it seems like the news stories are cooling down on the whole subject.

sorry you late rebate receivers, you might be assed out. no local news interviews for you. if congress gets another rebate passed then you might get another chance, but with congress basically drawing to a close for their summer break and the election coming up i don't really see it happening. it might though.

it just might.

then again most of them will be the suffering from lame duck syndrome...
right when we the american people need them. need them to do something. anything.

in my book, people will remember what you did last month in congress more than what you did 2 years ago. it's time to take a stand for what's right, and what's right in my opinion is if they all cut their vacations short to show their support for the american people and the issues that are in front of us. not what is appealing for an election year.

a faltering economy, crazy gas prices, environmental issues and of course.. don't forget there are a few wars on.

they will be making their big push and those who are up for re-election will be out there strutting their stuff for us though. that will be entertaining.

a congressional peacock dance.

dancing around the easy issues. issues i think they leave for the end of the year. when we are all watching.

the possibility of a second stimulus, if it ever really gets out of the gates will be big in the news. obama is all for it. mccain, not so much. the extension of unemployment benefits that were extended last month will, i think really be chump change for those who are having a tough time finding work. with the slowdown in progress those jobs are not making themselves.

the dems might be able to pull a second cash stimulus out of their hat. after all it's an election year and no one wants to say no to the handing out of free cash around then. if the republicans want to keep any standing on the hill i think they might just have to buckle. it would just be a shame if it was used by any incumbent to hang on to his or her seat.

for those of you out there who would encourage this second stimulus, just remember. though we get this cash, and maybe in time to make an otherwise dismal christmas better, the cash in the end is not going to make things better.

oh.. and someone is going to get rich off it. these things are paid for with bonds and loans you know.

enough about that what about the buck64 for today?

today's purchase is a trivet/steamer stand. my mini steamer had some issues with the pot i was using as the water well. the steamer kept slipping down into the water.

now for a buck75 i will be able to keep that steamer level and not have it slip into the water, expand and get locked in till it dries and i can pry it out.. i think i am all equipped for the dim sum. now i just have to find some cheap stuff to steam up.

mr. asian grocer.

here i come

wrapping up.
536.21 at the start
a buck75 spent
the kitty stands at 6cent

i can spend that much tomorrow

you can't stop me.

day 39- making that home made popcorn better.

while i am all about the microwavable popcorn and its convenience, i do very much like to make popcorn the old fashioned way.

no, not with jiffy pop, but in the pot.. with some oil... and some garlic and curry. rosemary is good too. yeast is nice.. but not to much.

when you make it with oil it can be hard to get the butter in there without getting a greasy mess. this butter flavored popcorn salt will do just the trick. at a buck89 i should be able to perfectly season my popcorn without having to have a stack of napkins waiting next to me in the chair.

look out rosemary plant. i comin' in for a harvest.

as for the candlepin bowling? hmmm. i didn't do so good.

ball small. me like big ball. big ball go smash. smash many pins. small ball i throw hard. ball go fast. ball go straight. i hit two pins. other 7 pins laugh at me. they still laugh.

i never thought it would have been so difficult. i did poorly. my technique was terrible, my aim nonexistent, and my spin might actually do someone else bodily harm if i had continued to use it.

i got stomped by a 24 year old girl in a forever 21 sundress. the pins never laughed at her.

i might never play the little pins again.

time is short again. the holiday weekend means no rest, as i am sure you are aware. i'll be back on point tomorrow.

wrapping up
536.21 at the start
a buck89 spent
the kitty stands at 17cent

maximum spending tomorrow

a buck81

i can spend that much tomorrow

you can't stop me.

day 33- flossin with the swine

mmm pork sung. ever had it? love this stuff. when i go get some dim sum from dim sum go go down in china town, it is always there on the side. i pretty much eat it all up before the waiter brings the real meal.

granted if you are a bit timid around pork that has been cooked like 18 times and when dry kind of looks like meat cotton candy, then you might want to abstain, but for my money (which of course is not a lot) i will totally go for this stuff.

spend a buck49 at your asian grocer. mix it up with a bit of spicy sesame oil and you have a tasty snack or a nice condiment to your home steamed dumplings. i have also thought about using it as a pork chewing gum. if you put a lot in your mouth. you can chew it for hours.

there is nothing like a meat product that last forever out of the fridge after its been opened.

nothin'

we used the bamboo steamer i picked up last week in nc and made some tasty dumpling treats. of course we bought frozen and cooked it up, but it was damn good. if you and yours don't do the dim sum then i recomend it. it can be a very cheap meal., and with these hard times ahead we need some cheap meals i think. with the cost of oil rising, and the cost of food going up we are need of some cheap eats that won't make us feel like we are eating ramen noodles all the time.

can you believe the price of corn a year ago was over 100% less than it is today? corn is up to 7.50 a bushel. that means 56 lbs of corn used to cost about 3 or so bucks. (makes us wonder why we are all not growing corn in our back yards. three rows for a crop people)

consumer prices were up .4percent in may. that's a lot, but it you take out the cost of food and gas then its only a .1 percent increase.

this was written like it was positive news...

when you head to the electronics store to buy a tv, it will cost the same, but if you need to get to work and stay all nutritioned up then its going to cost you more. that's not good. not good at all. glad my tomatoes are coming in. i think i am going to need them.

still, up there in the news is the price of gas. it's going to be a big story for a long time, but how are they going to keep it fresh... keep it new?

well i read one story that does the job. i personally they should have saved it till later on in the year. when they are all tapped out.

apparently along with the economy going down, nevada's whoring industry is suffering. they are experiencing declines as much as 25percent. truckers make up a good chunk of the rural whorin and the rising cost of diesel is of course going to make truckers work harder for their money.

they are going to have to put in extra hours to make the same cash, but with this harder work it means that a stop over in nevada for a little t and a is harder to balance in the budget. not only do they lose "time money" with the stop over, they are going to have to of course shell out that hard earned cash for their "settin' the quilt to quiver" time.

don't worry, the brothels are taking action. to bring john back into the the bosom of the ladies of the night they are offering incentives. gas cards for those trips to the special rooms that cost 300 bucks an up and of course a 25 dollar discount on those 200 bucks for 45 minutes. now only 175!

their prices are insane! (insert crazy eddie here)

as a child of the 80's i pretty much learned all i need to know about the world's oldest profession from from hbo. movies like cannonball run and porky's pretty much tell a kid what is goin' on.

from what i learned on hbo, it seemed like the story was missing something. they are offering gas prizes and cash discounts, but i thought that the real "deal" was the "two for one". didn't see any of that listed.

anyway, i'm not judging. people can do what they want to do, and nevada is usually the place to do it.

just bit of advice to those truckers out there.

keep your money in your pockets. times will get better, and please keep at least one hand on the wheel. your up high. we can't see a thing.

wrapping up
547.70 at the start
a buck49 spent
the kitty stands at a dirty tree cent.

maximum spending tomorrow

a buck97

i can spend that much tomorrow

you can't stop me.

day 32- starting my post vacation, holiday short week off right.

in the absence of a decent breakfast of a couple of big cups of coffee, i'll take a nutrament shake. tomorrow is going to be one of those days. it will be the first day back to work from vacation and i know its going to be a pain in my ass. a buck75 for breakfast ain't so bad, and these babies are basically a little meal in liquid form. i'll pick up some coffee when i get to work. i have a coupon for something free from that place.

the lady has boot camp tomorrow so she is getting up at 5 am.

i am doing the same. goin' in a bit early.

it seems the company/job i hate has taken it upon themselves to a bit of management rearrangement while i was gone. i have seen it done before and while it is not the worst thing in the world, there is always some back work to be done to make things go... go at all. this time i know at least i will not feel penalized for going on vacation. no one will be there to give me any flack.

ever have that happen to you?

you work all year and decide to take a week off. before you go you set it up, so "everything will be o.k". the day you get back, you are all refreshed and ready to work another long haul till the next vacation. for some reason there is this air of dissatisfaction towards you. people grumble about what happened while you were gone like it was your fault. so you end up right where you started from before you left.

stress level is back on high and hating your job is in the forefront of your mind.

is this just me? granted i sometime liken the maturity level of my peers to junior high schoolers; it might just be all they are capable of. i hope some of you out there have the same problems when you get back from the vacay. on my part, it's not to be mean, i just don't want to be the only one.

this year i took out some insurance on the vacation blues. i get friday off (it's july 4th after all) and then i work one week and i head out on vacation again. sure i will need to suck it up a bit for the rest of the year, but with any luck that might not be too long.

don't worry. they already know.

if your out there and reading, keep the above in mind. vacation is supposed to be your unwind time. don't make it hard when the vacationer comes back. it makes the vacation worthless. a distant memory without any shine. i have lost my vacation buzz in as little as one hour before.

that sucks.

tomorrow is going to be a decent day. i look forward to how decent it is going to be.

it's good to be back in the city. aside from the j train shuttle bus issues coming back from jfk it felt really good to be back. i love this city, it's vibrance and passion. we even have waterfalls on the rivers now. thanks nyc. thanks for always making yourself better.

the best part of coming back was seeing the lady. we got to spend a lazy afternoon at the penthouse and while we missed seeing the hold steady, i wouldn't have changed it for the world. i even got treated to my favorite kind of light show. 3 hours of thunderstorms rolling in one after the other. we just hung out watching lightning...

listening to thunder.


wrapping up
549.45 at the start
a buck75 spent
the kitty stands at 18cent

maximum spending tomorrow

a buck82

i can spend that tomorrow

you can't stop me

ps. just a heads up... you can now use www.buck64aday.com to get to the stories. spread the word. 333 days left to go.

it's just going to get better.

day 30- poolside snacks. kids sized.

i took my nephew to the pool today as it was not the 99 degrees that they forecasted. the old parkwood pool in durham is a whole lot smaller than i remember. i think the last time i was swimming there it was 1988 or something.

i thought it was bigger. i know i am bigger, but this place is just tiny. still michael was able to swim around and found some friends to play with. i think he even found himself a girlfriend at the pool.

while i was reading and baking in the hot, hot north carolina sun i could over hear this little girl asking him to be friends with her and if he wanted to go to her birthday party.

"its on july 4th, and it's a double 7 and 8 party since i did not have a seven party", she said.

he pretty much ignored her.

well not really, but he did not pay as much attention as she was looking for.

as we were leaving she ran up to him to give him a hug. her side was awkward and michael's.. well i would liken it to brushing off an overbearing aunt. yet, he did it very politely.

on the way home i asked him his girlfriend's name.

"i don't know," he says sippin' on his diet coke. "i don't have a girlfriend. i bet you have a girlfirend."

"darn right kid." i say.

"i bet you are all kissy-kissy.. big sloppy kisses like flicka gives." (flicka is the dog)

"i give you a few years guy."

"yeah..."he sighs. "whatever."

some things never change. when they do though, watch out.

the price of a soda and a snack at the pool has hardly changed. his teddy grahams and soda was a buck50. i think it would have been a dollar back when i was a kid. that's good for the kids and good for me.

i am keeping my head out of the news and the opinions to myself today. i am headed off to greensboro, nc to hang out with some good friends. i really enjoy going back to greensboro. things change there, but not the relationship i have with my friends. sure we are all older and they are married, we don't see each other that often but it always feels like going home again.

wrapping up

552.46 at the start

abuck50 spent

the kitty stands at 16cent

maximum spending tomorrow

a buck80

i can spend that tomorrow.

you can't stop me.

day 29-it's steamy down here

hmm.. that's a bad picture on the left. when i get back from vacation i will be able to make better pictures i suppose. i hope you can wait till then.

a bamboo steamer is something everyone should have. for some reason i don't, and this one is the perfect size. i picked up this little guy at the salvation army thrift store today. at 2buck42 i was really just able to squeeze by. it's brand new and in its original wrapping. a big plus is that the money goes somewhere other than someones corporate coffers. still the money i spend here today will be used by the salvation army to do their good works. i peeked into the back room when the door was open, and did not see the craps game going on. i always think of that whenever i go to the salvation army.

dice games, frank sinatra and marlon brando. my folks would show us some of the classics when we were kids. that one stuck.

with the economy going a bit sour i would think that a lot of people would be heading to their local thrift/second hand shops. while i don't get much of a chance to do it in nyc, i am always surprised at the stuff you can get at these places.

from cheesy coffee mugs to antique wooden tables, your local thrift place has lots of treasures. my buck64 would totally do well on them.

the lady and i love the dim sum, but i did not have a steamer to cook them up. now we can keep a bunch in the freezer and be able to make quick light meals which will be more appropriate for the hot summer months. doin' dim sum yourself is super cheap. you can by enough for 2 people for about 2 bucks, maybe three. this little guy will totally help boost my bucks in the coming tighter months.

just how tight is it going to get? i really don't know and to tell the truth, i don't think anyone else does either. usually a recession is officially defined after the fact. past recessions usually don't last that long. at least the ones we have seen in the past 2 decades. we bounce back and before long we are back to the good times.

still, its the top of the news.

all the time, and we have a lot of news out there. the family just got direct tv down here in durham and there is so much news to choose from. we as americans are so connected now. tv overload and the internet inundate us with up to the minute reports on the welfare of just about everything, and the news is mostly negative. if it weren't we would not pay attention.

just head on over to yahoo.. look at the first five news stories. probably on either controversial side or just bad news. the other two are little interesting fun bits. stuff that's kooky and fun.

folks, it's an election year and the issues are the economy and oil. that's gonna be what its about. that's what is in the news and that is what we are gonna care about.

oh, and health care. we always care about health care.

today the news was.. oil was up. libya was reducing production and someone from opec said we might see as high as 170bucks or more a barrel later this year. mccain wants to open up off shore exploration to make us more self sufficient.
okay.
great. in 20 years we will really start seeing some changes. someone should have thought of that years ago, but in america we say "not in my back yard." now we have to pay the piper. look at norway. they have been doing this for years. their offshore rigs are modern marvels (no really they were on a tv show called modern marvels.. they must be) and they have not wrecked their environment and those fjords still look as good as ever.

personally i feel that one of the most beautiful things in the world is a wind farm.

those things are free energy once built. free and clean. yet people protest them nonetheless.

for the next year people are going to complain about the economy and for years to come we are going to complain about the cost of energy. that's just the way its going to be. it's our own fault.

until cold fusion arrives. we need to suck it up, and say "yes please in my back yard."

wrapping up.
554.88 at the start
2buck42 spent
the kitty stands at 2cent

maximum spending tomorrow
a buck66

i can spend that much tomorrow

you can't stop me

day 25-tasty treat from sugar sweet sunshine

the polvo show last night was not what i had expected. usually when i band does a reunion they play all the hits(like when journey gets together).. you know make people happy, and while they did make people happy they played mostly album medleys(unlike journey). it just was not the same. they have been playing around for a month or so and i was hoping for something more. they did, i am sure, do what they thought was best, but if you came to the show and had not heard polvo beforeyou were left confused, and probably abandoned by your date who was there as a long time fan and had a good time.

the ladies did not have the best time, and for so much build up i can understand the disappointment. i did get to see a bunch of people i have not seen in a long time, including my old roommate from greensboro the tedder man. if polvo is coming your way and you are a fan then i say go to it, but leave your other at home. if they are not a fan they just would not understand.

today is preparation day for my trip down south. jen and i went to spitzer's for some brunch. they have some pretty good food and she loves to do the brunch thing. brunch is not really my thing, but i do like to go out and eat some good food, as a plus they have the rogue hot pepper beer. its really good. i like the spicy stuff and a spicy beer with my eggs benedict with pork trotter was damn good. the trotter was decadent, but a little unsettling. there was something about the texture. something about it... i just could not tell at the time.

a quick phone google search and there it was.

we should have realized.

trotter is pigs feet. don't get me wrong i did not hate it, but well... there was just something about the texture and the feel that made me uneasy. i'll go back to spitzer's brunch, but i am leaving the pigs feet to the bar.

time for the purchase... sugar sweet sunshine is on the way home over on rivington and essex. we stopped in there for a cupcake. the lady loves the pumpkin cupcake and they are only a buck50 each. in fact all the cupcakes are.

nyc has been inundated with cupcakes over the past 5 years. they seem to be everywhere you look. its a popular treat as it is portable, but for me i usually need more than one. one is just not enough. 4 is good for me, but a buck64 is not getting me 4.

jen is still a bit unsettled from the trotter tasting.. the cupcake still stands.. alone and uneaten.


time for me to finish up the packing. traveling by plane is a pain these days. no pointy objects, no trusty zippo lighters, and no gels or liquids.

i will leave them all in a pile here at the pitt. pick them up when i get back.

just reminding you.. vacation does not stop the buck64aday.

wrapping up.
561.21 at the start
a buck50 spent
the kitty stands at 71cent

maximum spending tomorrow

2buck35

i can spend that tomorrow in durham, north carolina

you can't stop me.

day 21- altered by pabst only to be made by miller.

ballantine ale. ever had it? very once in a while i get an urge for it. at a buck75 its a winner. 22 ounces of one of the oldest beers in america, and when i say old i mean 1850 old.

the label says "the largest selling beer in america".

sure. maybe in 1942, but when you primarily find it in and around the olde english and the colt 45 section of your bodega's malt liquor selection it kind of means that you are stretching the truth. still i don't mind where i find it, though i wonder how frasier felt about picking up his father (martin crane) a six pack on the way home from work. moving the beast cans aside and knocking down a magnum to grab that last sixer of ballentines from the back of the case. thats not so smooth frasier

it apparently does not taste the way it used to. after 150 years of brewing, owner changes and a purchase by pabst (only to be out sourced to miller) it is apparently not the same. i never got a chance to ask my grandfather if he liked it back when he was younger. i wish i had.

it is kind of a shame how things in america seem to change over time. the budweiser of today is not the same as yesterday. i would like to taste the beer of yesterday. that would be nice. i think it would be a damn fine beer.

so i paired yesterday's purchase and today's purchase into a nice little package. today i drank the ballantines from the glass. it was good and much classier than drinking from a 22 ounce bottle. that would only be classy at a bowling alley or a BYOB party. movies on the roof had not yet started. drinking from a 22 or a 40 on the roof of pitt is all about class.
now that's classy.

i am a bit excited about tomorrow as it is time for the new sprint phone to come out and play with me. i got an email this afternoon inviting me to come purchase it a day early for 129bucks. that's not to shabby and it does give back some points to sprint from me. i am looking forward to my new fancy phone. its no iphone i know, but at least the instinct won't drop calls like its on some crazy cingular network or somehthin.

i am gonna try and see if i can work out a deal with sprint... see if i can get the phone for a buck64. that would be nice. after all i am a seven year customer and i am going to be (hopefully) blogging from it. that must be worth something right? probably not.

wrapping up.

567.68 at the start
a buck75 spent
the kitty stands at 37 cent

maximum spending tomorrow
2buck1cent
i can spend that tomorrow.
you can't stop me.

day 13-when its hot.. get some ice-e

it's been hot.. i mean jungle hot. the kind of hot where, if you turn your ac on when you get home from work and the room cools off, the bed is still cooking. we just had some storms roll in to cool things off, and the temps tomorrow will only be in the mid 80's. such a good thing.

when its hot what do you think about? you think about cold things.

imagine you are 7.. you are at the ice skating rink and you have just gotten your blade skillz. you make a couple of loops of the ice. (ice grinding under your skates as you turn) after the third turn you pick up speed for the straight away. get ready for that turn.. but oh no. . .

little girl in the way. you can't turn fast enough as she wobbles out onto the ice... arms swinging trying to get her balance.

bump. she hits the ice and your veering to the right to avoid.. headed right for the wall. only one thing to do. slide.

slide right into the corner which is always filled with the ice shavings from 70 people making turns right at that corner. the blades of their skates spitting out little bits of ice to land in.

you are covered in the stuff. its like snow.

that always brings a chill to me. its a lot better than criss cross applesauce.

though even better is eating ice. and eating ice that is flavored with real fruit juice is even more chilling.. chills me to the bone. there is even banana flavor, which i am sure is terrible.

at a buck61 it can't be beat..

to beat the summer heat.

thanks fla-vor-ice.

all this heat has got me quite worried about the power bills this summer. during the day we run 4 ac's in the house. one for each bedroom and one for the kitchen. usually i just suck it up and eat the bill. this year i just don't know.

con-ed's feed to us comes from a mix of gas, oil and nuclear. with oil up it might be a hard summer.

back when i lived in greensboro, north carolina i had a theory about ac. it was handed down to me by my old boss at first carolina delicatessen. he said (basically) "you can spend the entire summer sitting in front of a fan and just be grumpy all summer, or you can work an extra shift, cut back on a few beers and jack that ac up. pull that winter blanket over you in july and just be comfortable."

i looked at dean and said "can i have an extra shift?"

and so i went, pulling that warm blanket over me, never letting the summer heat doldrums get me.

now i am salary. the cash is stretched and extra hours are just free hours for the company. you may like you job and are willing to do that. not me.

don't really like my job, and really i am not going to be working any extra.

"no sir, i would prefer not to work extra. can you find someone else? i have... um plans or something."

sure i could have used my 600 bucks to pay the power bill, but then we would not be here reading this would we.

so instead i am going to have to suck it up a little bit. maybe a little less eating out. a few more bulk trips to the grocery store. i am a damn good cook and i am going to work on the cooking and feeding myself a bit more. this will (i hope) alleviate the inevitable crazy power bills.

people might say i should be a bit greener and not use the ac.

to them i say. "have you ever lived on the top floor of a building where your ceiling is the roof and your walls are the outer brick wall?"

you think it was hot out there in the city. come try my place without the ac.

that's hot.

jungle hot... the kind of hot that melts the paint. the kind of hot that makes your lady pass out within seconds of hitting the couch.

hot.

wrapping up.

587.57 at the start
buck61 spent today
585.96 left to go

the kitty stands at 28cents

maximum spending tomorrow

a buck92

i can spend that much tomorrow

you can't stop me

day 12- no pocky for kitty

i know copping a superchunk record for a blog post is only going to up my google count, but really for a guy who grew up in durham, north carolina there really is no choice for me when it comes to this situation.

at a buck49 at the asian grocer on clinton street, pocky, is kind of the best snack for the buck. there are lots of flavors. some bad (at least to my taste) but most good. i really prefer the regular. just a thin biscuit stick coated in chocolate. enough plain biscuit for a handle makes for a great snack. its very portable, as the box has two packs, and keeps for a long time on the shelf.

if you have not tried it then i highly suggest it. great for the movie theater. goes great with popcorn, just stay away from the green tea ones. i hear they are a bit strange.

if you are just getting your check now or have been holding on to the cash, then steve jobs just might have given you a little more reason to throw your cash his way.

the new iPhones have been announced, and they are... well...

cheaper?

now everyone can have one. 8 gigs for $199, 16 gigs for a hundred more. i see these things all over the city and while they are kind of cool looking and the idea is great. who does not want a phone, a decent web computer and a mp3 player in a fancy package? i know i do, but the iphone is not really for me.

not that i could buy one. a buck64 a day would require a whole lot of kitty to get there and i am not sure if i want to be hooked up with at&t to do it and pay an extra ten bucks for the data service.

don't get me wrong, i love my ipod. i really do, but i also like my phone.

to be separate.

i also want my phone to do fancy things like check my email and text and send pictures. i have been thinking i am going to go with the sprint instinct. my sprint contract is up now and i have been hemming and hawing about changing up. do i go with the service i have had for the past 7 years and try to get the best deal.. or do i toss it all over to at&t for an iphone.

i always seem to remember when at&t was a small cell phone company who would sell there phones door to door. the service was only available on major highway corridors. that was 7 years ago, but i can't help shaking the stigma of it. plus no one knows what the web network speed will really be.

its a gamble.

this whole cell phone change has been on my mind for quite a while. sprint isn't the best company, but it's my company. i am used to getting screwed by them on a regular basis. we have a relationship. do i really want to get screwed by someone else? am i ready for that?

as my old phone is begining to crap out, i have to make a decision.. soon.

if i can get all my ipod movies onto the samsung its a no brainer. if not.. well i will have to think about it.

its still hot as tatooine up in here. the city is broiling and its making my brain short out.
on more day, the heat will break, and we will all bask in the warmth of a normal summer.
then i can eat my pocky without the chocolate dripping on my hand.

wrapping up

582.06 at the start
buck48 spent today
587.57 left to go

the kitty stands at a quarter.

maximum spending tomorrow

a buck89

i can spend that tomorrow.

you can't stop me.

day ten-soft serve

if you are from around here (as in nyc) then you know its just hot. really hot. we took to the country in the hopes of cooling off. usually budd lake is about ten degrees cooler than the city, but not so this time around. it was just as bad.

the worse part is that the vasa park pool was not open and would not be open till july 4th. there is nothing like cooling off in the vasa park pool on a hot summer's day. the water is so cold that you can only really hang out in the water for brief periods before hypothermia sets in.

no pool meant we had to find other ways to cool off.

the best we could do was lake muskenetcong at the hopactong state park, not ideal and really just a terrible experience. i was in the water for about 3 minutes. it was cold and felt refreshing but the crowd of people in the swimming area made me want to run back to the hot grass where my sweat and the breeze were my a.c.

i did learn a new term though today. "white baby momma"

laying on towel at hopactong park you can learn a lot. most of what i overheard though, i want to forget.

really, the small rental car provided the most cooling with its blasting a.c. and compact car fuel efficiency.

at the very least we got a quick thunderstorm that really cooled things down. spectacular to look at as well.

the "stugan" can be a little isolated. the tv pretty much only plays dvd's so there was not much news. i missed my opportunity to listen to the belmont stakes on the radio, but found i out my buck bet did not pan out at all. i chose 1-2-5.

1 did not finish
2 did not even run
5... well after the first two who the hell cares. there went my dreams of winning big at the ponies.

i might try, i might.

so i had been saving up for something special this weekend. all week putting something into the kitty and today it came to fruition.

you know what you want on a hot day. hell i would want it everyday. DQ. thats right. Dairy Queen. all that soft serve goodness in a cup or a cone. dipped or rolled. shaked or malted. hot and cold. salty and sweet.

Dairy Queen.

there are no dairy queens around me in nyc. there might be one i have not discovered and truth be told i have not done the google search for one around these parts. i do however know the one on state road 57 in hackettstown, new jersey. right there against the river. cold, creamy goodness.

i had a threeninetyeight to spend and i meant to squeeze out ever cent i could.

and 3buck95 gets you a large sunday. vanilla and hot fudge. really that was it. i was a little dissapointed that all my hard work did not merit me a peanut buster parfait. only a little.

it really hit the spot.

summer is here. bring on the ice cream.

588.58 at the start
3.95 spent
583.63 left to go

the kitty stands at .03

i can spend that tomorrow

you can't stop me.

day six- it's peppery!

the government says no recession yet. it seems the GDP was growing at a rate of .9percent for the first quarter. apparently thats is stronger than they expected.

non durable goods purchases are up (they last less than three years) and we want to stuff ourselves with more food and beverages.

gas is killing car sales and we don't want to buy commercial airplanes.

i for one am not interested in buying a commercial airplane. and my 600 bucks might as well be a million, as it would not get me any closer.

apparently we american's aren't into buying products that will last more than three years as those darn durable products are down.

does this mean we are buying crap?

i know i am. im out there every day. buying goods that won't last me more than three years. hell some food won't even last a few minutes.

still the GDP is up. we are growing.

you can do a little fun experiment at home with this one.

say your living room is ten feet wide. now start at one wall and get ready to move across the room. now get on your tip toes. ok never mind.. lay on the floor. take off your shoes and make sure your big toe is touching the floor at the corner. only your big toe should cover no more tha 1.08 inches of the floor.

get out your tape measure.

thats how much you are moving if you are the GDP.

america is really moving. i mean the continent. the continent of america is moving faster than our economy! we are screwed!

but non durable goods are up 2.8 percent and we can keep this growth happening. just keep buying stuff you have to replace. why buy the ten cent screw when you can buy the 5 cent one. sure you might have to replace that screw in a year or so with another one, but hell your saving money now right?

this is how nyc contracting is done. and maybe how america does it, but i am not a fan.

in nyc we had a little crane incident last week. people died. mayhem in the streets. buildings destroyed. it was bad.

seems the crane company set up a "refurbished" crane for the site. that's right. they used "fixed" parts to put it up. it went up and up. then it went down and killed people.

owner of said crane company is said to be a nice guy and he likes to hang out on his 50 something foot boat down in the virgin islands.

yeah.. nice guy.

enough on that.. just some food for thought. whatever happened to things that last. i walk through the chrysler building everyday on my way to work. finished in 1930 and when you walk around inside you know its gonna last forever.

ok really that is enough.


the reality of spending a buck64aday has been setting in, and it really means for me that i am spending more money than before.

example

today's purchase?

a bottle of good-o ginger beer. made up in the bronx yo!

i love this stuff. its peppery and can light a fire in your mouth.

by itself its great, but throw in some rum (preferably the dark kind) then you have got a "dark and stormy", a mighty fine island drink.

problem is, i did not have any rum so off i go to the liquor store to spend some of my hard earned cash on some dominican rum.

the ginger beer cost me a buck45

the rum? 11.50.

i see a lot of my buck64 purchases in the future having complimentary purchases.

now thats stimulating the economy. a trivial purchase needs a complimentary purchase.

if 132 million people did the same.. well we could have a good year.

well i know it will be for me.

592.29 at the start
a buck45 spent
590.84 to go.

the kitty stands at 68cents

i can spend that tomorrow

you can't stop me

and if your coming by to see tommy boy tomorrow night at movies on the roof...

dark and stormys are on me.. while supplies last.

after all i only had a buck64 to spend.

day two- the proof is in the pudding

fridays when i am heading out to the jersey house can be a bit hectic.

wake up early (or not so much)rush around the house trying desperately to not forget anything for the trip and then run off to work. all the while getting in a shower, watering the plants for the weekend and drinking enough coffee to stay alert.

suffice to say, i was late for work and it being a warm friday work was pretty slow, which usally means more work for me. i was however able to get my atm card back which was fun as all the same people were there and were wondering how the blog was.

it was a bit difficult to figure out what to buy today as the goal is to buy things (in as much as possible) that i would not normally purchase, further helping to stimulate the economy. i was kind of rushed with work stuff and the hussle to port authority to catch the bus out to budd lake so i could not really find time to shop.

when we arrived in budd lake, new jersey we made a quick stop over at the krasdale on 46 and wolfe road for a couple of forgotten supplies. i was thinking of getting an air freshener for my satchel. it's old and i think beginning to smell. i need a new one, but i have had it ever since i moved to new york so i am pretty attatched to it. this idea was nixed by jen as she thought it would make my bag and my person smell awful.

the krasdale is a convenience store trying to be a grocery store but without any fresh produce or meat. nothing was looking good or interesting.

then finally out of the gloom...

my-t-fine pudding and pie filling came into view with its logo and label that i think have not been changed since the 50's as well as a price that could not be beat.. a $1.49. there was a little bit of dust on it and we had to check to see if it was fresh. there was no expiration date listed, but the upc symbol said to me it was not from the 50's. no food tax was charged so that adds another 15 cents to the kitty.

i don't normally make pudding, therefore i don't normally eat pudding.
but i have been thinking about showing revenge of the nerds this week for movies on the roof so i thought it was a good choice. i think they might appreciate a pudding pie. or at least 7 people might.

all i have to do is add milk and we are good to go.

plus buy revenge of the nerds.

see?

here i am further stimulating the economy all from a purchase of 1.49.

on the side, this post has been very frustrating. writing it on a laptop with controls i am not used to has been turning me into an angry monster. there was some more i wanted to say. i have been doing some news reading on how the rebates are helping the economy. i will get into that tomorrow. on a desktop.

but moving forward..

598.71 at the start
buck49 spent
597.22 left to go.

the kitty stands at fiddy cent

maximum spending tomorrow

2bucks14

i can spend that extra tomorrow

you can't stop me.