We went off the the clinic this morning. I had an appointment with my doctor at 8am. Man, that is too freaking early! My coffee had not chance of kicking in by that time.

Anyways, he checked me out. Had blood drawn, x-rays, heart checked, EKG and a tetanus short. All to make sure I am healthy enough for the operation this Friday. Weird huh? I get my appendix taken out, admittedly an emergency, and not a thought to if I would survive. Nurse told me, got to make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed before any operation. Besides, time to get all my medical workups done now for insurance purposes. Plus wife has to get in now. This is because my out of pocket deductible for my insurance company is now out of the way (just got to pay it is all).

Yesterday, I smoked my last little cigar! Yes, wife and I decided that we really should try to quit smoking for good. AGAIN! Wife I found out has a pack or two squirreled away! She did not smoke in the van today, and I told her to stop with inside here. I was outside checking out the tomato plants and she had a cigaretter. Well, I told her to let me have one drag. And she did! Hahahahhahaha…

This morning pretty darn cool here. Got some good rain overnight, the gardens loved that. A/C’s off so far, just windows open and fans going. Supposed to stay cool enough for rest of day, but if the sun comes out in full force, it will get warm.

That is it for now. Except to mention that Aunt Louise is having another good day today and she expects us to be there tomorrow morning or else.

So my wife and I are smokers. And we are seriously into the let’s quit the habit stage. Yesterday, discussed how to best go about it. For sure, we have each other to beat about the head if one backslides. And what do I get in the mail but a cigar catalog! Geesh…want to quit and here comes 60 odd pages of super cigars, from Macanudos to Gurkhas to cheapos. So I read it, and took my time at each page, each cigar picture and description, saying to myself “goodbye old friend”. Then upon the last page reached and read, I threw it into the trash.

Anyways, the game plan my wife wants is simple. Instead of smoking in the house, we will only smoke outside. Think she came up with that one to finally get the nice aroma of cigars away from her nose. For sure, smoking only outside does cut down on what we smoke, as when we were in Missouri, took over 2 days to work down one pack of cigarettes. So either we will be spending a tremendous amount of time outside, or we will cut down smoking to the point we can finally quit. Which will make all the grandkids happier than imps on sugar.

And of course, there is the cost now of cigarettes and cigars, what with the taxes raised by the federal government on top of state of Iowa increase. Around here, packs run from $4.00 to $7.00. This morning though, we went down into Missouri for a cigarette run, as they are a bit cheaper than here in Iowa. And I say a bit as the prices did go up quite a bit down there. We only bought half of what we usually purchased. Told wife, we will save a bunch if and when we quit.

Oh, want to save 5 cents a gallon of gas on your next fillup? Well, if you are in Iowa, you can print out a coupon to use at Kum & Go. Just go here and print out the coupon: KUM & GO

On the way back from Missouri, stopped in at Fareway to buy some groceries. Big savings on: Pepsi, 4 12 packs for $10, Maxwell House coffee at $5.99 (not those little 24 ouncers like folgers either), and a few other items we buy regularly were on sale. But wife would not let me buy some onion sets! They had some 1015′s (Texas sweet onion, named so because they plant them on October 15th down there). Told her, one set (about 25-39 onions) and I just plug them here and there in the gardens. Guess when we go back again, or somewhere else for tomato plants and other veggies, will sneak in one bunch to plant.

Free Image And Photo Editing Software!

Sweepstakes & Contests

Oh, and in closing, did enjoy two bottles of Dos Equis XX Cervez, a nice amber lager. Try some if you like beer and can get it where you live.

Microsoft Corp. released a new version of Internet Explorer today, adding features meant to speed up common Web surfing tasks and bringing the browser’s security measures in line with those of major competitors.

Internet Explorer 8, which marks Microsoft’s first major browser update since August 2006, takes a stab at fixing many of the small annoyances people encounter every day.

For one, IE 8 aims to reduce the need to copy something from one Web page and paste it into another — mapping a restaurant address, Googling a celebrity name, looking up an unknown word in Wikipedia or sharing a story by e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.

A list of those little actions, which Microsoft is calling Accelerators, can be brought up by highlighting the text on a page and clicking on a small blue icon that appears. People can add new Accelerators to reflect their own search, e-mail and other habits.

The new version of IE also adds a twist to the built-in toolbar search box.

Firefox already lets people switch easily among search providers and sites like Amazon.com, eBay and Wikipedia using a drop-down menu. Microsoft takes this feature a step further. Type a word into the box and a preview of suggested searches or results appears in a drop-down list. Toggle between different search providers by clicking small icons in that window, and the list refreshes.

I will be downloading this shortly and trying it out. From what I have seen, it will be a big improvement over IE7. 

Download IE8 at MS site: Internet Explorer 8: Home page

Be prepared for higher gas prices for your vehicles! Price of oil is trending more and more to higher prices per barrel. Oil prices hit new highs for the year today after a decision by the Federal Reserve to spend billions snapping up U.S. bonds sent the dollar tumbling.

 

Oil is priced in dollars and when the U.S. currency weakens, it essentially makes crude cheaper.

 

Benchmark crude for April delivery surged $3.12 to $51.26 a barrel in light trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices hit $52.25 earlier in the day, a price last seen on Dec. 1. Crude prices have touched new highs every day since OPEC ministers met in Vienna on Sunday.

House to vote on 90% tax against big AIG bonuses Knee jerk reaction by the democrats and the leftist Pelosi. Face it, they want to raise taxes and this is just one of many new taxes, some of which are sure to hurt the wallets of us retired people and ALL working people.

Did you watch George Bush when he gave his speech in Calgary, Canada the other day? Just a few points, which made him a better man than most give him credit for.

“He was not my first choice for president, but, when he won, I thought it was good for the United States of America,” Mr. Bush said.

“I want the President to succeed,” he added, “I love my country a lot more than I love politics.”

“I’m not going to spend my time criticizing him. There are plenty of critics in that arena.”

And this is hilarious: If I were former President Bush, I would be expecting a call from Chairman Limbaugh to help them “get their mind right” about the revised Republican 11^th Commandment: Thou shalt not say anything good about President Obama.

Hey, do you all like the new theme for Iowadawg’s Blawg? I finally got tired of the last theme and had to find something a bit more colorful, yet plain enough for my readers.

And you can advertise on this blog and 7 other blogs of mine. Plus the fees for advertising are quite inexpensive. Do check my advertising packages and the prices, and then do purchase advertising with me. See the link in the top bar above? Iowadawg’s Advertising Packages. Click on it now.

Started this morning at 11:30am watching the college basketball games for the March Madness. Some good games already with more on the way. So far, my bracket picks are on the money. Now watching Purdue battle Northern Iowa…and Purdue ahead.

——-

A man’s been drinking at a pub all night. When he stands up to leave, he falls flat on his face. He tries to stand one more time, but to no avail.

He figures he’ll crawl outside and get some fresh air and maybe that will sober him up. Once outside, he stands up and, sure enough, he falls flat on his face. Finally he decides to crawl the four blocks to his home.

When he arrives at the door, he stands up and falls flat on his face. He crawls through the door into his bedroom. When he reaches his bed, he tries one more time to stand up. This time, he manages to pull himself upright but he quickly falls right into bed.

The next morning he awakens to see his wife standing over him, shouting: “So, you’ve been out drinking again!”

“Why do you say that?” he asks.

“The pub called. You left your wheelchair there again.”
—————

 

In closing, I have two domains on the Namepros live domain auction to be held tomorrow evening. Check them out and feel free to prebid on them.

http://miturl.com/89 SkyBoxTickets.com

http://miturl.com/90 HighTechBuzz.com