Georgia On My Mind

We'll soon be spending a few days in Georgia for some R&R. One of the participants in that trip wrote of her excitement and said she'd sing the excellent song Georgia On My Mind if she knew the words. I love both popular versions of the song, recorded by Willie Nelson and Ray Charles, and decided to track down its lyrics in hopes that she actually would decide to sing it.

Following Up Cheap Starbucks

I recently did some maintenance on this blog and, while looking at the headlines from my last three
months of posts, saw the post about a month back about cheap Starbucks.

I love Starbucks, but it had been something I'd completely cut out as part of cutting expenses while
preparing for a potential job-loss. In part because I read that article, I began contemplating how I
could enjoy Starbucks more often without breaking the bank. My boss has Starbucks a couple times
daily, so I believed there must be a much cheaper way to regularly enjoy Starbucks.

I'd heard that there were discounts available by taking one's own cup to Starbucks, and that they had a customer
loyalty program, so I set out to learn about, and take advantage of, both.

The biggest obstacle I faced was that my favorite drink from Starbucks had been a vanilla
latte. The largest of those costs on the order of $5, and I'm completely unwilling to often spend
$5 for coffee. Since I knew that the latte is about as much milk as it is anything, I believed the
key to saving would be to find something I liked as much as the vanilla latte.

As part of their customer loyalty program, I discovered that milk and syrup options are free
additions to coffee. After a few days of trial and error, I've found that I can get a tall coffee
with cold, whole milk and vanilla syrup for $1.57 for the first cup, and little if any money for
subsequent cups that day. And, best of all, I can tell no difference at all between this concoction and the
vanilla latte. Over the past couple weeks, I've had nearly a dozen cups of coffee for the
cost of three vanilla lattes.

To find out more about the loyalty program, check out starbucks.com. Happy drinking.

A Different View of Being Laid Off

Saw this article and wanted to share it with my readers. I couldn't do the article any justice with an introduction, so didn't try. Enjoy.

This, I Must Try

It seems a bit odd to write this blog entry before nine o'clock in the morning, but if I don't do it now I'll probably forget. As kids, my siblings and I enjoyed pizzas our parents made at home. Don't know whether it was the challenge of the task, the fact that pizza delivery wasn't available or even invented at the time, or financial motivation which lead to the happenings, but they were surely memorable. On many occasions, my sister and I have reminisced about the fantastic pies created in our little kitchen on Lowell Road in Gastonia, with what seemed like limitless toppings. We've tried to duplicate them as adults, but our remembered pizzas have yet to be equaled by our creations.

 

I'd just about given up hope, but this morning saw this article containing what seems like real possibility. I love thin, but not crunchy, pizza crust, and that should be attainable via the resources in the article above. I now need to attain excellent, very spicy pepperoni, a good pizza sauce, and there's some spice used by pizza restaurants that I can't put my finger on. Perhaps all is covered in the book mentioned by the author. If you've any tips to add, I'm listening, and will take copious notes. Also, samples are always welcome!

Starbucks on a budget?

Googled cheap starbucks this morning and found this interesting article.

An Appealing Outlook on the Market

Found this article in today's Wal Street Journal and thought it worth sharing.

Best Kept Secret Online

Just thought I'd toss out a quick post about my most recent great find on the web. Marc Mulcahy, owner of Levelstar and inventor of the Icon, recently suggested Last.fm on a list he runs, and I took the leap. The site, affiliated somehow with CBS and other music companies, allows its users to build libraries of their favorite artists, then builds and streams playlists based on its users' collective tastes. For instance, I added Crosby, Stills and Nash to my library, and it told me that other users who like CSN also like The Hollies, The Birds, Blind Faith, and others. I added Blind Faith to my Library, and it said that others who like CSN and Blind Faith like Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Traffic, and others. I've found Last.fm an excellent way to discover other tunes by artists I like, other artists I didn't know I'd like, and ultimately a free, excellent substitute for my recently cancelled subscription to XM Radio following their merger with Sirius and the subsequent decimation of their on-air talent and formats. Happy listening!