Frugalista Find: Groupon

I just discovered an awesome website...Groupon!

It's basically a deal-a-day kind of website, with fantastic discounts (frequently 50% savings and up!) on a variety of products and services, anything from helicopter flying lessons to restaurants to spa treatments to yoga to whale watching to...well, you get the drift. AWESOME stuff.

Anywho, Groupon works out these deals with business owners, who agree to it because they know they're reaching thousands of new customers and creating BUZZ for their company. And there's the catch...the deal is only "ON" if enough people (predetermined as part of the deal) participate in the promo. Apparently your mom was right, there IS power in numbers.

Click HERE to see a quick video explaining how Groupon works.

Groupon is operating in numerous cities, including Boston, and was just launched in Providence.

Give it a gander, you might just find something good!

P.S.-On a completely unrelated note, I just saw a commercial for a new show on the National Geographic Channel called Expedition Great White in which a team of fisherman and scientists actually catch great white sharks with a HOOK and haul them out onto a specialized platform to tag them and take biological samples. (Holy cannoli.) I'm definitely going to have to check it out. Premieres June 6 @ 9pm ET (Additional article about the show HERE)

Lovely Lupine

Remember this lupine I had to liberate from the weeds last summer?

Lookie what it's doing this year!

Our buddy Mr. Robin, who has a nest in the nearby rhododendron, apparently wanted to get in on the photo shoot.

Notice the big nasty caterpillar he's snagged. (click to enlarge) Is it just me, or does he look proud?

South Africa Trip!

One of the many reasons for my recent absence from the blogosphere: a 2 week trip to South Africa!

Just like the Paris trip last November, this trip came together rather suddenly, after weeks of trying to put a trip to South America together and not making any progress. I was ready to give up on going on a trip in April and our travelmates had pretty much decided on a "default" vacation to the Caribbean...but Steven (who did not get to go on a trip last year because of his ACL surgery and therefore suffered from the worst case of wanderlust) was all "never say die" and proposed South Africa.

We had plane tickets 2 days later. And flew out of JFK 16 days after that.

Overall it was a great, but exhausting, trip. We spent the first week in and around Kruger National Park doing a "self-drive" safari (read: rent a car and drive around looking for animals) and the second week exploring the Cape Town/Western Cape area. My favorite parts were anything having to do with wild animals...from the game viewing in Kruger to coming face to face (or warm-human-i-have-a-soul eye to cold-soul-less-killing-machine eye) with GREAT WHITE SHARKS off of the South African coast.

I'll blog about the trip some more when we get all our pictures together (and maybe even a video clip or two!), but for now here are some safari shots courtesy of our travel buddies Tom and Robin...

*Rhinoceros crossing the road*

*Lion, as seen through our windshield (!!!!)*

*Spotted Hyena chowing on giraffe bones*

*African Elephant*

Aren't they amazing?

Some Recent Pics

*Yummy brunch at the beautiful Art Nouveau-inspired Loie Fuller in Providence*

*Spring has sprung*

*Skinny Cat, Fat Cat*

*the impatiens cuttings have sprouted roots*

*J.P. Licks-an integral part of our Meat CSA pickup routine*

*Windows open & fresh air blowing on that one beautiful Saturday*

I could definitely stand another one of those sunny, 75 degree weekends....

Random House Updates

Bathroom. New highly-recommended plumber, shower valve fixed, and we are tiling away. We only have a roughly 2'x2' patch of wall left to tile, then grouting, and then (gasp) painting! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! But no more pics until the big reveal...I'm going for maximum impact here, can you tell? :)

Yard. Steven and I took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather a couple weeks ago and started cleaning up the yard, which had been neglected last year, if not longer. We raked, put our new leaf blower/vacuum/mulcher to use (awesome tool), weeded, pruned the large burning bush, and poked around. I was absolutely thrilled to see some flowers coming up! So far it's daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and...drumroll....the peonies are starting to poke through!

Trees. We had a couple of arborists come out to look at the 3 mature Norway maple trees in the yard and suggest a maintenance plan for them. Most notably, they explained why the leaves were all munched up last summer: winter moths. Apparently, these little invaders have become a major problem in eastern MA over the last few years...they lay their eggs on the tree in the fall, and in the spring the little larvae eat the leaf buds and leaves, severely crippling the tree. The treatment plan consists of one application of horticultural oil in the early spring to smother the eggs, and a subsequent treatment with a bacteria that infects the caterpillars. From my point of view, these natural treatments are a must-do for us, as these 3 trees are a crucial part of our yard...without them, it's a turf field with no privacy and no shade. In addition to the moth intervention, the arborists suggested some structural pruning and deep root injection of fertilizer in the fall. Just add it to the list.

The Great Flood of 2010. This past Sunday, I went down to the basement to do some laundry and discovered a lake!!! (PANIC) Our sump pump was apparently stuck in the "off" position and we had at least 3" of water throughout the whole basement, as well as plenty of soaked debris (dirty laundry, a carpet, wood scraps, cardboard boxes, etc). Luckily, when Steven trudged over to the pump and triggered the float, that puppy started cranking. But our homeowner morale had taken a major hit...we have a water problem!? is our basement going to flood regularly? what about mold and mildew???? did we buy a lemon????

Fast forward to Monday. Turns out we needed to put it into perspective. Two of my bosses stayed home to deal with their flooded basements, and one of Steven's coworkers had spent hours sweeping water towards the 2 sump pumps in his fieldstone basement. Not to mention the serious flooding throughout the city...T stations flooded, train tracks flooded, cars half submerged, retaining walls collapsing, closed roads, rivers overflowing, etc etc. Turns out, our 110 year old basement did pretty well in an extreme weather situation. In fact, it's relatively dry right now, with some pooled water in low spots. (hello, WetVac.)

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the roof did OK, too. Of course it leaked, but a single bucket kept it in check. New roof in a couple weeks!

Something around here has gotten a bit too leggy...

and it's not me. (ha! I crack myself up.)

The impatiens from my grandmother before I gave it a haircut this weekend:

And post-massacre:

It's extremely difficult for me to believe that anything can survive this kind of treatment, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed...hopefully it will come back nice and full, and all of its little babies will sprout roots so I can plant them, too.

(Isn't it nice to always have a supervisor?)

We have Create TV!

The other day, I sent Steven an email with the following subject line:

I'm so happy, I could weep.

The cause of my excitement? I discovered that we DO have the Create TV channel as part of our cable service. I used to watch this channel all the time when we had free digital TV in Salem, but couldn't find it when we moved. Now I'm catching up on all my favorite travel, cooking, gardening, and home improvement shows, such as:

*Cultivating Life is a great (Rhode Island based--woot, woot!) show that focuses on outdoor living, gardening, cooking and entertaining*

*EQUITREKKING. Traveling the world on horseback...need I say more?*

*Everyday Food. Part of the Martha Stewart empire, this show shares simple and fresh recipes for everyday cooking.*

I can't get enough!

Blog Crush

I came across the A Country Farmhouse blog this past week and fell in love. Talk about living the dream! The blog is all about a couple who bought a horribly wood-paneled and crooked farmhouse somewhere in the pacific northwest, in the BEAUTIFUL countryside, and then renovated it into a lovely, light and bright, cozy home. And when the author, Trina, is not writing about the home renovation, she's detailing a charming life full of fresh flowers, mountain views, and elk migrating through her yard.

Here are some of my favorite images from this inspiring blog:

(her adorable dog taking a swim in the lake)

(her kitchen BEFORE)

(her kitchen AFTER)

(bathroom BEFORE)

(bathroom AFTER)

(I felt so encouraged when I saw this pic of her husband installing the same floor tile we just purchased! Silly of me, but I felt like it was a good sign!)

(sigh)

(The reality of this woman's "outdoor dining" stuns me. This is her front porch.)

(rustic, yet light & airy. love it.)

So I don't have a mountain view and I don't live in the country. So what? Fresh flowers, natural light, beautiful home? It's doable, right?

On The Inside Looking Out

Today's stunningly beautiful evening sky, looking out our bedroom window:

Lovely...

The Circle of Life :(

The darling baby squirrels only made it through 1 more day. On Monday, when I came home from work, they were still bumbling all over the place, oblivious to pedestrians, cars, cats, the works. While that was cute during the day, it unfortunately did not fly at night.

After hearing some alarming squeaking around 10pm, I grabbed my flashlight and went outside to see if I could figure out what was up. Both had been nabbed--one by a big nasty looking possum & the other by a skunk. (Jerks.)

Okay, I know that possums and skunks need to eat, too. And there is certainly no shortage of squirrels. But it still sucks.

Be Still My Heart

I'm in love. The object(s) of my affection? Two adorable, thoroughly confused, baby squirrels. I happened upon one of them on Friday evening, and again this morning, but this time with a sibling. Let me just say, that at first, the word RABIES was definitely flashing in my mind. Most startling was that they don't take off running when we're near them--in fact, these little guys have actually approached me & Steven several times. Additionally, they're clumsy. God, they're clumsy. But after watching them out the window for a few hours now, I've decided that they're basically the squirrel equivalent of kittens, when they just get old enough to start playing & tumbling & falling all over the place. They even pile up on eachother when sleeping, which happens every half hour or so. In other words, these guys are young, inexperienced, and extremely vulnerable. So far they've managed to fly under the radar of both the neighborhood cats & the neighborhood children. But considering the way they just chill in low branches (we're talking about 5 feet off the ground), don't run away when startled, and lie around in a pile of mulch next to our side fence, I have to say I'm concerned that survival of the fittest is not going to work out favorably for these two.

And to combat that, Steven and I are giving them a little help. First, I put out water for them. And we gave them some peanuts (not interested). I offered them some banana, but that also failed to excite them. Then Steven noticed them picking up some old dried up cherries from the cherry trees they're cavorting in, and he came up with THE prize: Craisins. He tossed them a few, and they immediately went nuts, frantically foraging for them, wrestling eachother for them, and downright pigging out.

Noshing on some Craisins:
Wrestling over Craisins:
Washing it down with some water:
Relaxing by the fence:
Aren't they adorable? Hopefully they'll be okay these next few days/weeks, while they grow and perfect their tree climbing skills. We'll be keeping an eye on them, for sure.