Tag Archives: Albert Lea Tribune

Another Reward Card? My Wallet is Full.

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Something About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf published January 27, 2014

My wallet is getting fatter. Unfortunately it isn’t getting fatter with money or even credit cards. It is getting fatter with all those rewards cards that we have to carry to get rewards when we visit a business.

Don’t get me wrong, reward people, I love my rewards cards. I must admit my life was a little simpler when I didn’t reap the rewards of my shopping.

It seems every business is jumping on the rewards-card bandwagon. There are Hy-Vee Gas cards, Panera rewards, Shopko rewards, Cherry Berry rewards, Pizza Ranch rewards, Pet-Co rewards, Office Max rewards; and those are only a few of the many.

There are times when I have to stop and remember where I am when checking out. Yes, I occasionally do forget where I am, in the I need that frenzy of shopping. I get to the register, dump my products onto the little conveyer belt that moves the items closer to the cashier and then I fumble in my purse to find the right card. Of course, while I am fumbling and digging through my billfold I almost and sometimes do, drop it on the floor.

The solution would be to be prepared by digging out my card before I get to the register but what fun would that be? It would not give those shoppers coming behind me the excuse to check their cellphone, talk to the person behind them or glare at me for holding up the line.

Things are made a little simpler when it comes to coupons; we don’t always have to have to the paper coupon anymore. We can store the coupon on our cellphone. Of course, that means that not only do we have to pull our rewards cards out, we have to hold our cellphone and get it to the place on our phone where we have the coupons. The people behind me always love that.

Some stores are making it easier if you are a prepared and organized person. I actually don’t know too many of those. If you are an organized person, you can go to the store’s website and put the store coupon on your rewards card. That does make it simpler.

Let’s add being a senior citizen to the mix. Senior citizens at many places get senior citizen discounts. Some are widely advertised where others are kept under wraps. You have to know what stores have senior citizen discounts and then you have to ask for them when you are at the checkout. You also have to know in many stores, what day they cater to senior citizens. There is also another little catch.

Some chains of stores don’t have the same senior citizen policy in every store. The days differ, and in one case I have found that the liquor store offers a senior citizens discount, but the actual other store connected doesn’t.

I am tired writing this. Being a smart consumer these days is tricky. One day I was shopping with my daughter. A sale of something that I needed didn’t start until two hours later. We were in the store at the wrong time and had to be home in another community before the sale started.

I was disappointed but accepting. My daughter pulls out her cellphone, finds the ad on the phone and calls and finds a clerk in the store. She asks if there is any way we could get the discount early since we couldn’t be there at 3 p.m.

The clerk said they would check and came back and said it was in the system already so they would honor the sale. We should show the clerk the ad and tell them they said it was fine to honor it early. We checked out, and I got the sale price. I would have never thought of that in my old age. Shopping used to be simpler.

That is my point. Life is getting challenging for those of us with an older brain. Shopping now is somewhat of a puzzle that we have to put together to get our perks and our prices. If you have the time — and senior citizens are supposed to have the time — then its fun.

Younger people pick up on this easier, but families with young children don’t have the time. Of course, they don’t have to search out senior citizen discounts, but with their lives on fast forward all of the time, keeping track of all the rewards if they want the perks can be mind-boggling.

I liked it when J.C. Penney cut its prices and did away with sales. Their prices were wonderful, and it was great shopping in the stores. Unfortunately, many consumers didn’t feel that way and J.C. Penney lost money. We are programmed to go for the deal.

I can’t wait to see what the stores think up for us in the future. I am researching the hidden senior citizen discounts in preparation for an article later on to aid seniors in finding their way through the discount maze.

But I should warn you, the last time I was in a maze, a corn maze, I needed to be rescued. If you don’t hear from me during my research you will know I am hopelessly lost under the pile of reward cards. Listen for my call for help and rescue me.

An Old Column About Coffee Cups

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I had to pull out this old column that I wrote many years ago about Coffee Cups. Coffee Cups are still special to me all these years later. I hope my writing has improved but beyond that I know my love of coffee and coffee mugs will never leave me. They are a legacy to those who have given them to me. They are a warning to those who read whatever cup I am using that day as to my mood. Coffee Cups also keep me reminded through the day to always be thankful. If I keep an encouraging message in front of me for the day or a picture of a loved one on a coffee cup my day seems be full of spirit and joy. Here is my old column IMG_1250 IMG_1251

SOMETHINGABOUT NOTHING

By Julie Seedorf © March 2007

 

My in-house critic thinks my columns are too frivolous. This critic thinks I should take more of a stand on issues instead of writing about fluffy things. I gave this friendly criticism quite some thought this week. Should I become tougher and more opinionated? Those who know me probably feel I state my opinions much too often. I debated about throwing out the fluff and becoming a tough columnist.

 

Do I want to become a serious columnist that writes about serious issues? Do I want to debate and disagree with politicians, landowners, authority and the list could go on? I do read quite a few columns and most of them are various serious columns about very serious issues. I thought long and hard about changing the tone of my column. I have made my decision.

 

This week we will discuss coffee cups! That is a very serious issue to me. As you already know from previous columns, I value my coffee in the morning. What I did not tell you is that I value my coffee cups. My mood in the morning sets the tone for the coffee cup that I use. For instance, my coffee cup this morning was given to me by a friend 20 years ago. Yes I still have it! It is an angel sitting on the moon and looking at the stars and it says, “You brighten God’s world! Let your little light shine.”  This morning I needed inspiration and I needed to feel that I mattered to someone today.

 

My coffee cups change during the day depending on how I feel. One day I made the comment to a friend “It’s been one of those days!” A few days later I received a coffee cup from her that says, “It’s been one of those days.” Along with that sentence is a blonde women lying on the ground just frazzled at 5:00 o’clock after a long day of work. Another cup tells me to “Have a day filled with rainbows.” One of my favorites says, “Exceptional Beauty, a fine mind and natural talent made me what I am today.” The picture on the cup looks somewhat like a very, very old red hat lady in black. Some days that picture fits me very well.

 

These cups can change my mood. They can pick me up. They can remind me of the important things in life. These cups can put a smile on my face in the middle of a chaotic day.

 

My cups remind me of friends. I received a rainbow cup from a friend that was dying of cancer. It came out of her cupboard and she knew my love of rainbows. It was her remembrance to me. I still have it and use it 25 years later. I remember my friend every time I use my cup. My friends have given me some awesome coffee cups.

 

To my in-house critic a coffee cup is just a coffee cup. He should read his coffee cups! I thought I was alone in my strange coffee cup world and then my sister-in-law had coffee at my house. She had to choose her own cup because as she stated “I’m not sure how I feel today so I need to choose a cup that fits my mood.” A co-worker bought special cups for work. As she was drinking her first cup of coffee in her new cup she stated “My coffee tastes so much better in this cute cup.”

 

I am taking a stand! Read this Mr. In-house critic. Coffee cups make a difference!  The wrong saying on a coffee cup can make or break your day. If you are having a bad day it must be because of that Styrofoam cup!!!  Restaurants should forget the blah cups and give us pizzazz in our coffee cups. Forget the matching set. Go for glow, go for inspiration, go for smiles. A restaurant with great coffee cups and great coffee would have my business forever.

 

I hope this column was serious enough for my in-house critic.

 

I Cook Like Lucy Ricardo!

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Column: Something About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf Published in the Albert Lea Tribune, January 20, 2014

I am hooked. I am hooked on cooking shows. My son made me watch “Chopped” on the Food Channel, and now I watch “Chopped” and any other cooking show that I can find while my eyes are still open as I lounge on my couch. HGTV does not have exclusive rights to my eyes anymore.

The problem with watching these cooking shows is that at times I think I can do some of the crazy things that they do, such as coming up with my own recipes from weird ingredients.

I identify most with the sloppy cooks that have ingredients flying all over. I remember watching “I Love Lucy” when I was younger and laughing at her kitchen antics especially with flour. In my old age I think I am the “Lucy” of my household. The past week was a perfect example of my Luciness.

My family loves hot chocolate. For some strange reason I decided that for our Christmas this past month I was going to gift the kids and my son in law with homemade marshmallows. I bought the ingredients and set them out on my kitchen counter to start creating my fluffy creations.

I love my big stand mixer. Am I challenged by it? Absolutely! You should see how my potatoes whip around the room when I have the spin cycle on high. I put the gelatin and water in my mixer and mixed them up.

I needed to boil my other ingredients. The first oops was dropping the open bottle of corn syrup on my kitchen floor. It flew out of my hands. I had to grab my cats and give them a time out in the bathroom before I could clean up the corn syrup or they would have been sticky icky. With that out of the way I wiped up the corn syrup, but of course my slippers wanted to stick to the floor so I had to scrub that part of the floor.

I melted my corn syrup, water and sugar on the stove and kept stirring with a spoon. I propped the spoon on the stove to get my thermometer to measure the heat. I didn’t have a clip-on one so I used a different one. As I put the thermometer in the liquid, my spoon knocked out onto the floor.

As I picked up the spoon my thermometer fell out of the pan and rolled against the flame. You guessed it, it cracked. As all of this was happening I thought perhaps it was a sign from up above that I wasn’t supposed to do this. But I persevered and got the ingredients into the mixer and mixed. There were no problems this time with the mixture.

The recipe called for lining the pan with cornstarch and powdered sugar. I love using my hands to sprinkle this. As I was reaching for something else the powdered sugar bag fell onto the floor and sprinkled powdered sugar all over the wood floor. At that point I hollered to my husband, “Don’t come in here.” I knew he was planning on doing this because he was hearing the plops and I knew he would be appalled as he is a neat cook. This time I swept the floor and then scrubbed it because the crevices were filled with white. I must admit I looked like Lucy covered in flour but the difference was the powdered sugar. If you lick it off your face it tastes better than flour.

I am happy to say my marshmallows were a hit with my family.

Fast forward to the next week where salad was my contribution to the meal at a Bible study. I decided to try a new recipe that I could substitute mayonnaise for a gluten-free kind. I haven’t mentioned that I am having trouble with arthritis in my right hand and holding something tightly or slicing with a knife is hard. Since my better half was not here to help me I pulled out the knives and started chopping away at the cabbage. This time I had not yet given my cat’s time out. They were very interested in what I was doing at the table and tried climbing on the stools to see. Some of the cabbage flew on the floor as I quickly tried to drop the knife and grab the cats to put them in a bathroom time out. I didn’t want to have sliced or diced cats. I left the fallen cabbage on the floor as I knew I would make more of a mess while creating, and I could clean it up later. My theory is to clean it up once.

It was time to julienne the carrots. Remember that I watch all the cooking shows so I think I am a chef too. I positioned my carrots and started chopping. It was going well until I got a little to close to the tip of my thumb which shouldn’t have been there and I tried julienning my thumb. The color red would have added some color to the salad but I didn’t think the others would be fooled if I said it was strawberry juice since there were no strawberries in the salad. I bandaged myself up, finished the salad. adding a couple of ingredients that were not in the recipe. That was in honor of The Food Channel cooks. I looked at the floor and thought I must live in a garden as it was so green.

After I cleaned everything up I thought about my messiness. I had such a good time making the marshmallows and the coleslaw. They both turned out great and so I forgave myself for my messiness. After all, I made sure everything was sanitary as I was doing it. It was the aftermath that didn’t look so good. but I am a creative person and I felt that creativity while I was cooking. I realized I can’t create in any orderly place. I thrive in the chaos of messy. It makes me happy because out of chaos many times comes a creative product.

The moral of this story is: Try something new, be yourself and let it be OK to do things the way that works for you. Your creative messiness might be the gateway to happiness for you or someone else.i love lucy photo: i love lucy ilovelucy.gif“>”>