Buy one Get one Free

Greetings from Washington, D.C. on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, where I should be outdoors, but instead am inside blogging.
Elsa was kind enough to let me sleep in until 7:36am this morning before putting her wet nose in my face. My bed is a platform style, so my head is directly at her eye/nose level. My last bed sat up much higher, so she couldn't nose me, but she did have a knack for half-jumping up on the bed, and a wet nose is a more gentle way to wake up.
We had a nice morning at the cemetery and then I had something of a first: using the grocery store circular and using coupons!
Now I know in theory that coupons are a good thing and get you stuff, but I never really paid much attention to them, chiefly because I wasn't the one doing the cooking, nor did I really need to think about watching my money. Well of course that has changed, and so the last couple of weeks I've actually started to pay attention to the ads in the food section of Wednesday's Washington Post. Imagine my excitement when I saw that Harris Teeter was having a buy one, get one free sale and Safeway was having Redskins weekend specials! Conveniently, both stores are only one block apart and both have parking. Highlights of Harris Teeter were the buy one get one free laundry detergent and coffee. Safeway sold me 2 jars of pasta sauce (already on sale for $4) and then threw in two free boxes of pasta. I then used an additional $10 in coupons.All told, I saved over $55 off list prices for things I purchased today, and I am now a confirmed coupon clipper!!!
Spent a couple days in Brussels this week. After running all over in Argentina last week I was in the mood to relax, and I never made it past the cafe on the corner down from the hotel. The evening was spent watching a DVD I checked out from the library (free too - see a theme here??) called The Kingdom with Jamie Fox and Jessica Garner. It started out as a political thriller, segwayed into an action/adventure and ended on a real bleak note that really made me take pause. I actually spent an hour watching the DVD extras and apparently they created a much tamer (tho not happier) ending because they thought audiences couldn't handle the ending as written. I agree!
Sat with some worksheets that my neighbor dogwalker Peter gave me to start thinking about career changes. He works as a career coach and is not cheap, but has agreed to cut me a deal on his hourly rate and work with me ala carte so that I get just the things I want, which are really help with a resume and trying to determine how to package my skills in sussinct language. And he's encouraging me to dream big and not settle for a "stepping stone" job, at least not right away. I've gleaned from my writings that what I really like about my job now is the travel and the freedom I get from not being bound to a desk. But there are quite a few negatives as well and there are all sorts of new career opportunities that would let me travel and not be stuck at a company with its morale in the crapper. I worked on a 747 this week (and will again the day after tomorrow) and we are now feeding business class passengers snack boxes; its totally embarassing when you consider that other airlines, like Continental, are still serving hot meals in coach.. for free!
So that about all the news I have this week. Just lounging on the chaise listening to my tunes thinking the house is starting to feel like home....