lornagrl

Shopping in the depths of Brooklyn

Yesterday I wrote about my friend Cindy who had made a trip out here with some friends to see the new flea market in Coney Island only to arrive at a dirt patch.  I've been a little excited about this.  I love flea markets and it will be nice to have one in the area.  I hope someone is selling incense because it's kind of hard for me to get incense these days.  I never seem to be able to find the incense street vendors anymore (where did they all go?) and the store I go to in park slope doesn't sell the brand I like anymore. 

I walked over to the flea market today and there wasn't a lot of people out there yet.  I think it will probably pick up later in the summer.  I've thought about setting up a booth and sell some of my photography.  Maybe make some postcards.  But I want to see if this flea market will take off. 

I did go to the Lundy's grocery store a few times and I'm real excited about that.  They carry Nancy's cottage cheese, and the prices are surprisingly reasonable. They sell my favorite Fage yogurt for $1.99 a container (it's as high as $2.50 in other supermarkets.)   It's possible that the prices will go up later after they get some loyal customers.

I'll probably be shopping here from time to time.  I often get off at the Sheepshead Bay stop and walk to Brighton Beach in the summer time for excercise. 

Snakes have feelings too....

I met with some friends in Coney Island today.  It was kind of an unexpected meeting.  My friend Cindy was going to the flea market with some people but when they got there, there wasn't much going on.  There were only a few booths.  So I suggested (as a cheap attraction) the freak museum where you can see a two headed cow, a two headed turtle, and a replica of a two headed baby.  All for the bargain price of $3. 

For some reason they had a cage full of python snakes. I have no idea why this would be included in a freak museum because I'm always seeing people carrying python snakes on the Coney Island boardwalk.  We got to this attraction early, and I think they had just opened because there was a guy cleaning out the python cage...well it wasn't a cage exaclty it was a plexi-glass aquarium.  The hatch in the back was open, and I noticed that one of the albino pythons was slithering out, while another one was following right behind him.  

Hey, I think your snakes are making a break for it.

The guy went to the back of the aquarium, and slapped the second snake, REALLY HARD.  I gasped, because it was quite brutal and I was a little surprised that the snake didn't just bite him back.  He struggled with the albino python (who had pretty much made a clean escape) before putting it back in, and then closed the hatch but not before smacking the other snake one last time. 

I know snakes are not soft and cuddly and it's not what one thinks about when they think about animal cruelty but snakes have feelings too.  Also, the cage looked very small for the number of snakes that were in there. I am seriously thinking about calling the A.S.P.C.A.

NUTRO pet food recall.. is any cat food safe?

A few years back, when Ophelia was still a kitten, there had been a  pet food scandal . Both cat and dog food had been contaminated with a toxic chemical that caused kidney failure and death to many pets.  The contamination was primarily in wet food so I was quite relieved that I had recently stopped feeding her wet food.  She didn't seem to care for it anymore. She preferred the dry food instead. 

I always fed Ophelia Nutro cat food.  She seemed to like it and this company was on the "safe" list during the pet food scandal.  Now I have just learned that Nutro has instituted a voluntary recall of their cat food products.  According to the press release, some products contain high levels of zinc and not enough potassium.

Thankfully, I switched brands just a few months ago because she seemed to be getting bored with the Nutro flavors. I've started feeding her B.G. Grain which she seemd to love but I wonder when that is going to get recalled??
 

Anyone Seen Cassandra??

Another post is coming soon.  Sorry I've been a slacker. 

This weekend I found this hanging in a coffee shop. 

I'm looking for Cassandra. I don't know her last name. We met under the cherry trees at Brooklyn Botanical Garden on Wednesday, April 29. She was taking pictures. I had a handful of cherry blossoms. I should have asked for her number. She is beautiful. If you know her, tell her, if it's you, please write to me. PLEASE help me find her. Email me at lookingforcassandra@gmail.com. This is a real email!

Best of luck to you buddy!!

Lundy's (now a grocery store)

On Saturday I walked over to Sheepshead Bay and stopped by to see the old Lundy's Restaurant to see how the grocery store construction was progressing. It seems like on this grocery store forever and I've been kind of looking forward to it's completion.

I'm not sure how much shopping I will be doing here because it's not exactly close to my apartment, but I do like to walk around the Marina on the weekends and who knows?  Maybe I can pop in here for a real over-priced bottle of olive oil. 

I asked someone inside if the store was going to open soon.  The guy told me Tuesday (that's cinco de mayo)  Not sure if that actually happened since I probably won't be able to stop by and check until next weekend. 

BTW...You can read some interesting tid-bits about the Sheepshead Bay/Coney Island area here..

Conevenince is too expensive...

A few weeks ago I was determined to eradicate my debt, but I've changed my mind.  I've decided to make slightly above the minimum payments and save every cent that I possibly can. I know that Suze Orman has recently advised this, and she is being slammed for it.  But I think this is good advice for me right now.  For one thing the majority of my debt is on a very low APR.  This means that even if I make the minimum payment, I am still putting a dent into what I owe.  And I'm not going to make just the minimum payment. My plan is to round it up to the nearest 100.  So if the minimum payment is $140 I'll pay $200. 

Right now I have little to no savings.  That puts me in a very vulnerable position.  If something unexpected happens, say my cat gets sick and I have to rush her to the vet, I will most likely have to whip out the credit card.  It's important that I have a cash reserve for these emergencies, so I need to accumulate some cash and fast. 

So here is what I've been doing for the past few weeks and I've already set aside a little nest egg.

1) I've given up convenience.

I looked over my budget and saw that what I was spending most of my money on was convenience.  I had food delivered and had to pay extra for it plus a tip because it was convenient, I paid $1.50 to get cash from the A.T.M instead of my own bank which would have been free because it was convenient. I purchased a single pack of aspirin at the bodega instead of getting a  jumbo size bottle at the drugstore because it was convenient.  $1 here $1 there, it all adds up. Well convenience is too expensive. I need to be inconvenienced and save my money.  If this means that I have to walk a few extra blocks for the no fee A.T.M then so be it.   

2) I've stopped using my credit/debit card for purchases and started paying cash. 

This kind of goes with the convenience but it's psychological too.  If I'm handing cold hard cash for my purchase it tends to bite a little more and I'm more inclined to hold onto it.  Also that helps me with...

3) Only spend paper money and save my coins. 

This is the most painless way to save money and it's something I've been doing for years.  I have an old coffee can, or a an empty vase and each day, I fill it up with the change left in my pocket. The change quickly adds up.  Now I used to take it to the coin-star at the Duane Reade for convenience but they charge, I think ten cents on the dollar. Not anymore..it's going to TD Bank where I can get it counted for free. 

Not sure what I'm going to save up for at the moment.  Since June 15, 2007 I've been very short sighted.  But that is another post.