Cool Commemorative Half Dollar

My significant other found this 1989-S Proof half dollar in a roll that she picked up from the bank yesterday. I had never seen one before. It is legal tender and was only sold in sets from the US Mint. It was kind of dirty. I didn't even realize it is a Proof until I started cleaning the grunge off it. Pretty neat for a find in circulation, eh?

Four Ringie-Dingies

Ahhh. Probably my favorite types of treasure to find is a nice ring. Last year I found 45 of them, the year before I think 32. This weekend was cool and sunny out, so it was a good weekend to get the old metal detector back in action. Over the course of 3 hunts, I was blessed to find 4 nice rings. Aarghh! I started at a small lake beach nearby that produced 5 rings last year. This time I found the copper ring and a silver toe ring buried in the sand. I'm sure there are more there, I have to go back and check again. On Saturday, I went to a woodchip playground for about a half hour and found the green stone ring with diamonds. Alas, it is costume, but still gave my heart a little start when I found it! Lastly, the silver band was buried about 4 inches down on a softball field. It came up nice and shiny, in a big clod of dirt. Now that's a good treasure weekend! The piles of coins in the other picture were found while ring-hunting. It all adds up to a full treasure chest after a while.

Multiple Streams of Treasure

Well I found treasure this weekend through several means. It's all found, it just keeps flowing in as long as you believe it's out there. And yes, we are surrounded by it. OK, here's how the treasure you see here arrived in my treasure chest. The silver half dollar came through coin roll hunting. I got a few rolls of half dollars from the bank. Since they hardly circulate at all, there are some old ones in there if you look through them. I was lucky and found this 1968 half that is 40% silver. Worth a few dollars. Check my article 'How to Find Silver Coins in Circulation' for more info on coin roll hunting.

Next, moneywalking is another way to find treasure consistently. Just look around on your travels. On a trip to Walmart, I took a quick look in the Coinstar reject tray, and it was filled with coins! There were 3 Euro coins and 9 pennies. Treasure! I found a dollar bill on the ground earlier this week, but forgot to include it in the pic. So there's some nice treasure rolling in.

Next, I took my metal detector out to an area that is being cleared for development, and found this large military coat button. It's from the 20th century, but it's almost as big as the half dollar. That's a nice old relic. The rest of the coins were found with the detector in a schoolyard on the way home. Not bad!

Oh, and one more stream of treasure came via my 1st mate, who loves thrift store and yard sale shopping. She found this hand-painted tole can, a nice numbered and signed rustic print, and a pair of signed Tiffany crystal candlesticks for $10 total. Can't beat that with a stick!

There you go, 4 ways to find treasure. Aarghh!

Meow Like a Pirate Day is Coming

In the interests of all things pirate, my interests in pirating has crossed with my care of 4 cats in the house (plus visitors). So I want to remind all that Talk Like a Pirate Day, or in this case, Meow like a Pirate day is coming. Every year this special day falls on September 19. In 2009, that falls on Caturday.

Enter your favorite kitty dressed in his or her favorite pirate garb in this MLAPD contest:
The Cat's Meow, Catster.com's cats and kittens blog

Spanish Treasure and Silver

It has been very dry here but we got a nice overnight rain, so I wanted to get the metal detector out for a spin. I just bought a Garrett pro-pointer on my Florida trip, so wanted to try that out as well. I went to a local school and found 20 or so coins on the playground, then tried another schoolyard in an older part of the county. Started off slow, the ground was still quite dry below an inch. Dug a few pulltabs down 4-6" deep. This particular school has not given up a ring yet. I'm convinced that there is at least one at every school. Since this school is from the late 1950's I'm sure there are a few. Anyway, I like the pinpointer, it reaches a good 2" or so through the soil. Got a good repeatable signal at 6" and out popped a shiny silver dime, dated 1964. Ahhh, that was nice, its the first one this year, and boded well for the hunt. A few other coins started popping up. I have to go back there and work slowly when the ground is wet this Winter. After a bit, I got another strong signal at 2 to 3 inches, and out popped this big copper coin. It is a Spanish 10 centimos, dated 1878. Wow, Spanish treasure! That's the oldest coin I've found in this area. Great treasure day. Aarghh.

Florida Treasure Hunting

OK, I promised I would come back with some news after my trip to Florida. On this trip, I was with family, doing the obligatory parks and such. It was fun....but tiring. And though I couldn't dedicate time to moneywalking, I was still able to come up with 7 coins over the course of the weekend. I've found that airports are a good place to look since people are lounging around while waiting, spending money at food and souvenir stores, and on carpeted surfaces a lot, which deadens the sound of a dropped coin. So that was OK, something new learned.

I was able to get out for a spin through some thrift stores also. I like the Florida stores. They have a different class of clothing, more Summer stuff of course. And since the population is older, a lot of people donate stuff when they are downsizing or moving. And there is some older stuff. There is always different stuff in thrift stores in other parts of the country, or in other countries. That makes thrift store treasure hunting a lot of fun. You just have to go in with the mindset that there will be something good in there, you just have to sift through until you find it.

So, here is a selection of some cool treasures found. The black candleholders are handpainted tin, old and really nice for $3 the pair. I have a collection of old pewter so at $1, the Reed and Barton candleholder was a steal. The old jewelry box I think was $1 also, and the McCoy vase was $2. Nice! In the other pics, the clay pitcher is new but goes with other colonial stuff I have, $3. Finally, the yellow planter is a 1941 Nelson McCoy piece, nice find. I had to leave a big McCoy vase, since I was traveling by plane. Picked up a couple other items too, a lot of neat treasure finds! My other half has a little antique booth and this gives us a legitimate reason to treasure hunt, and keeps the treasure moving on its journey to someone who will be thrilled to find it. So I feel we are just middlemen in these items' trip from treasured at one time, to hidden junk, to found treasure, and finally back to treasured. The treasure cycle continues. Aarghh!

What Motivates me to be a Treasure Hunter?

The pursuit of treasure can take many forms, as you see from title on top of my page. When I get tired of one, whether it be moneywalking, sweepstakes, metal detecting, or whatever, I just go on to the next one. I've found that I can get remotivated for treasure hunting by checking what other people are finding at Treasurenet.com. This is mostly a metal detecting site, but they have a little bit of everything. What's motivating about it is that the treasure hunters there post pictures of their finds, and the site is very active. That means that there is a lot of treasure being found on a daily basis. Some of it will blow you away. Either click on any of the pictures in the banner across the top, or go to Today's Finds. Amazing.

I haven't gotten the detector out since a beach trip in August, which was pretty good. One silver toe ring and about 225 coins. I was surprised when a half dollar came up from about 9" down. Not an old one, but still definitely treasure.

Here are a couple of other pieces I was able to score this Summer through sweepstaking. The bracelet was won in a department store giveaway. The minor league baseball championship ring is a replica that was given away in a sweepstakes in the local paper. Can't argue with that bling. The stories behind them are in an article I posted below on August 26, How to Win Local Sweepstakes and Giveaways. I just hadn't gotten the pictures posted.

I'm off to Florida this weekend, not sure what form of treasure hunting I'll be doing there, but I'll let you know in a few days.

Small Moneywalking pickups

I was away over the weekend but kept an eye out for treasure opportunities...Because treasure is everywhere, as I've often said. Sure enough, the first item I spotted was a sterling silver chain necklace in a parking lot. The clasp is broken, which is probably why it was laying there. Nice. I also came up with 2 dimes, one in a parking lot and one under a parking meter. It's something.

The Street Gives up a Chance at Stardom

...In the form of a Mega-Millions ticket I found on the sidewalk yesterday. If I hit the $252 Million jackpot on a ticket found money-walking, I'd have to be crowned King of the Scroungers, right? Oh, the waiting was agonizing! Ah, but it was not to be, not worth a sawbuck, a fin, or even one slim samoleon. So today, back I go to the office, and out for a walk at lunch, where I found a shiny penny under a parking meter. And so it goes...

Back from the Black!

Wow, its been a long time since I have been here, got offline for a couple of months, but now I have returned, just like General Black Jack Pershing. When he led the American Expeditionary Force to France in WW1, he said "Lafayette, we are here." That was a reference to the Marquis de LaFayette having provided French support to the US during the American Revolution. It helped that we were fighting the British...but I digress. Anyway, I've returned and will try to actually hang around this time. I may make a few changes to make this blog more sustainable, but we'll see how that works. It'll still follow the same general theme of sweepstaking, treasure and passive income.

OK, here are 2 new Sweepstaking articles I wrote that I want to share:

--How to Find Sweepstakes With the Best Chance of Winning - 5 Ways

--How to Win Local Sweepstakes and Giveaways

Good luck and let me know when you win something!
Twincapes

Addicting Sweeps Game

Chiquita Smoothie Sweepstakes - This is a sweepstakes for a tropical vacation to Jamaica. It is one entry per person, but once you are registered, you can get additional entries by playing an ADDICTIVE matching game. It is fun but hard to quit. There are backup prizes like blenders and smoothie mix. Have fun!

Weekend Gold and Silver

Found some nice treasure over the weekend. I had ordered a box of half dollars from the bank last week and they turned out pretty good. I found fifteen 40% silvers (1965-1969). That was a nice surprise, the coin roll hunting has been pretty slow of late.

On Sunday, stopped off at a school to wave the metal detector around for a few minutes while on a trip to Lowe's. The wood chips were pretty bleak, 2 dimes and 4 pennies. So I went across the baseball field for a few minutes. We have had so much rain lately, that the conductivity is good, and the digging is easy. I was lucky enough to dig out a nice little 10k ring from 2" deep! Woo-hoo! I knew it was gold as soon as I saw it, and it has a heart-shaped diamond that wouldn't quit sparkling in the sunlight. Unfortunately it is marked CZ after the 10k mark. Oh well, still a keeper and a nice addition to the collection. Aarghh!

Memorial Day Sweepstakes

Here are a few new Summer - oriented sweepstakes with some good prizes.

--McCormick Grill Mates - Daily entry until July 6. One grand prize of a grill, 120 daily prizes of a box of grilling spices.
--McDonald's McCafe Your Day - Daily entry till August 2, Ten winners each week receive a $1000 Visa Gift Card and a $50 McDonald's arch card.
--Land's End Barbados Getaway - Daily entry till May 31. One winner of a week in Barbados, including air. Wait for the plane to fly over the island for the entry form. Nice prize. Make sure you always read contest rules. In this case, retail value is $20,000, depending where you are flying from, which to me is kind of high. Taxes on that would be several thousand. In this case though, the rules say that they are throwing in $5,000 cash, so you could cover the taxes with that. Since it's structured that way, I'd say to go for it. Oh, and you can buy a swimsuit right on the website for your trip. Convenient!

Good luck!
Twincapes

Woodland Things, My Other New Baby

I decided to start a new blog that talks about my efforts at creating a Japanese-style woodland garden. I've been working on it for a few years, bit by bit using scrounged materials and inspiration I've found on the web. I've started trying to take some better nature photos and figured they would fit well there, so voila! its a new blog.
Woodland Things - Feel free to stop by.

Street Silver

I've always said that treasure is where you find it. And so it is. Yesterday I was passing through a bus stop and saw a chain link caught between the slats of a bench. I managed to pull it up with a pen and was rewarded with a broken silver heart chain bracelet. It's marked .925, which means 92.5% pure silver. Treasure!

I also was searching through a few rolls of half dollars that I picked up at the bank, and was rewarded with a 1993-S proof coin. Nice. The only way that could get there is that someone broke open a Proof set from the US Mint and spent it. I'm sure there's a story there. It hasn't been out in circulation long because its in almost perfect condition. Proofs are special coins that are struck on a polished blank so that the surface is like a mirror, with the head kept in a frosted finish. They are really pretty, but hard to photograph. If you ever find one, you'll know it.

Wednesday Winner!

Woo-hoo, I received an email yesterday afternoon that I won a re-usable eHow shopping bag from the eHow "Going Green" contest that they ran during April. 100 winners were selected from thoses that submitted green articles. I think that's win number 10 for the year, thats more than one every 2 weeks. Can't complain about that.

Are Sweepstakers Just Incredibly Lucky?

I was told recently that I am just so lucky, because I've been able to win many things through sweepstaking over the years. As a matter of fact, I've been told that quite a lot. But I'm not, I just work at something that most people think is out of their reach, that is, winning sweepstakes.

It's really quite a thrill to have the Fedex truck stop at your house and deliver a big envelope from a judging agency that you have to sign for. You never know what it could be! I've signed for trips, electronics, cash, and even had to sign for a T-shirt win once (why?). Or you come home from work and find a box waiting on the front step from Arrowhead Lake, Young America, MN or Melville NY. That's where some of the big sweepstakes judging agencies are located. It's like Christmas any day of the year.

But like anything else, it takes work. There are many, many prizes awarded in sweepstakes each year and someone has to win. I research prize structures, closing dates, and entry limits and pick those that are the most winnable. If they are one -entry per person, I enter them also, because I have the same odds of winning as everyone else.

All sweepstakes are longshots, but not as long as the lottery by far. Sweeps are definitely winnable. I keep a binder with all my winning notices in it to keep me going when dry spells come along. Actually, I am on my second binder now, I filled the first one. The prize list includes a truck (won online), a trip to Cancun, a cruise to the Bahamas, VIP trip to the X games in LA, VIP trip to Champions on Ice in Las Vegas, and a couple of smaller trips. Let me tell you that a VIP pass is definitely the way to travel. You are backstage, mingling with the athletes, open bars, free food and transportation, it's fantastic. Something you'd probably never experience except for sweepstaking. Here are 2 articles on the subject to help you get started.

How to Find Winnable Online Sweepstakes - 5 Easy Ways

How to Win Mail in Sweepstakes

So far 2009's been on the slow side, but you never know when the big win is about to arrive. Keep the faith and keep entering.

Twincapes

1000 Coins

Well, I found my 1000th coin of 2009 yesterday and it was a 1964 Canadian penny, oddly enough. I have slowed down a bit this year from last year when I found 4100 coins. I guess i am on pace for about 3000, which is what I found in 2007. So far this year I have found 2 nice gold rings and 2 silver. 34 of the coins were found when just walking around, the rest came via metal detector. That adds up to around $70 so far. It's fun, you never know when a nice piece of jewelry or a ring will pop out of the ground. And the coins add up. I am convinced that there is more money lost or sitting in drawers than is in circulation. Make money by picking up what has been dropped. An interesting concept.

New Sweepstakes for May

Here are some new sweepstakes that offer a good chance to win.

LeCreuset - 100 prizes of a $100 cooking pan. Enter daily until August 4.

The Amazing Avocado - Win a trip to Acapulco or 10 first prizes of $100 worth of avocados or 15 second prizes of an avocado slicer. Daily entry until June 1. Maybe nobody will enter due to the flu, who knows?

New Sweepstakes

2 Sweepstakes wins here so far this week! I won a $10 gift card in the Century 21 online sweeps and a $50 gift card in the cash for cat care sweeps below. With 4 cats, that is a great prize! This is a photo of Zippy, he's about 7 months old. He is a Turkish Van and is very playful.

OK, here's a good sweepstakes. If you are a cat lover, you can win one of 150 gift cards in this sweepstakes and instant win game.

Cashforcatcare.com - Daily entry for sweepstakes and instant win game until July 31. 100 Grand prizes of $100 Gift card, 50 first prizes of $50 Gift card.

Sweepstakes Tip - Check the coupon inserts in your Sunday paper, there are always national sweepstakes advertised in there.

This week's Sweepstakes

It's rainy and bloomin gloomy here! But that means the flowers will be blooming by the weekend when it's supposed to be warm and sunny. Happy Spring...OK on to this week's sweepstakes:

-Pot Of Gold - Enter up to 5x a day till April 30 for $100 instant win or a chance at $50,000.

-Rachel Ray Green Spring Cleaning - Enter daily till April 29. Ten winners of $100 green cleaning package.

-Sweepstakes Tip - Check your favorite magazines at the beginning of each month to see if they have new giveaways.

Twincapes

New Weekly Sweepstakes

I've been away for a few days but am back with some sweepstakes that offer good odds to win.

Family Dollar - Open until April 30, daily entry. 20 prizes of free diapers for a year.

Betty Crocker - Open until April 30, daily entry. 1 Grand Prize of a Big barrel grill. Daily prizes of a $65 table top grill and grilling utensils. (Enter via the alternate entry box above where you type in your name).

Good Housekeeping - Good Deals and Smart Steals. Open until April 30, 1 entry per household. 30 winners of this book on frugal living.

Sweepstakes Tip - Bookmark daily entries in a folder named Sweepstakes so you can easily submit all your entries from one place each day. Good luck and happy sweeping!

Twincapes

Received a Sweepstakes Win today

Part of the fun of doing sweepstakes is that you never know when a win will show up at your door. You fill out your entries, visualize your prize, then send the entries out into the universe and hope for the best. Today the big brown truck stopped by with a $50 Gift card I won about a month ago from a Tropicana-Purina sweepstakes. Yay! That's a couple tanks of gas (last year it was one tank)!

I feel like there should be more coming soon.

Weekend Sweepstakes

Here are some good sweepstakes for this week.
Luxaholics - This is a great prize collection. Each one is one entry per person/family/household.
Loralie.com - offers the last chance to win a prom dress before Prom season in May. 1 entry, and you can pick what color and style you want. Hurry!
Kellogg's - is giving away 499 $10 Itunes gift cards. This is winnable! But it is only open until April12. It's a daily entry. Go to Music Giveaway link on the bottom of the storefront. Give it a try and tell me when you win.
CastrolGTX - Oh you can still race Ashley Force in the sweepstakes I won below. It's a daily entry till April 30.

Good luck to all! Let's prove to people that sweepstakes can be won!
Twincapes

Sweepstakes win and Treasure

Yay! It looks and finally feels like Spring has finally arrived. March acted like it didn't want to end. I received the T-shirt in the mail yesterday that I won in the Castrol sweepstakes a few weeks back. After piddling around the house for a while and finishing up a metal detector article, I took the detector out to a local schoolyard that has been pretty good to me. Was able to dig about $4.00 in change, always good. To top the day, I received a nice low round tone as I was making my way back to the car and out popped this beautiful 14K gold ring from about 2" down! Woo hoo! It's got Madonna on both sides and a pretty blue stone. Nice treasure. Aarghh!
How to Use a Metal Detector at the Beach
Twincapes

Small Sweepstakes win

Hey! I won a 2 oz. Vitamin D sample on my first try at the Wellesse sweepstakes. Go to www.Wellesse.com to give it a try. This is a daily that goes through April 30. I can always use vitamins. Give it a try, you can win a one-year supply of vitamin D.

I also found a couple of pennies laying in the street, they go into the treasure chest as well. On to the weekend!

Twincapes

Weekly Sweepstakes

Here are this week's sweepstakes to enter:

Madberries.com - Daily Entry -A lot of great prizes.
WomansDay - Daily. Good prizes here as well. Check if airfare is included, it is on some, not on others.
PaceFoods - Daily. Win a jar of Salsa. Lots of winners here.

Check the ads that pop up down below too, sometimes there are some good sweeps, no coercion to click on anything unless it interests you. :-)

Good luck and remember to follow my tips for winning online sweepstakes -

How to Find Winnable Online Sweepstakes - 5 Easy Ways

How to Get Organized to Win Online Sweepstakes


Good luck, I'll post new ones each weekend.
It's all Treasure.
Twincapes

More Treasure, this time Silver!

I wrote a new article on EHow about coin roll hunting. I can't believe what people have posted recently on Treasurenet.com that they've found doing CRH. Barber coins, Indian head pennies. crazy. I did find a 1967 silver half yesterday and a 1977 proof half today, the proof unfortunately had a bad scratch across the front, so I threw it back. How to Find Silver Coins in Circulation . This is another very fun form of treasure hunting. The pic below is a pile of silver I found in 2008, the story has a Walking livberty half and Proof half I also found. It's fun. Aarghh!

Finding Rare Coins in Circulation

Here's a different twist on Treasure hunting. I just published an article on eHow about finding rare coins in circulation How to Find Rare Coins in Circulation . Interesting research, even I didn't know about what some of these recent coins are worth. Hundreds or thousands of dollars. Of course, the catch is that they are rare, thus hard to find. But the new ones should be easier to come across. I'll have to give it more of a try. Here is a pile of silver I found in circulation last year, so yes it can be done.

Aarghh

More Treasure This Weekend

It was pretty nice out this weekend, I was able to get out a couple of times with the metal detector. I dug about $4.00 in treasure and a big military coin. Also a couple of earrings and a pendant. No gold or silver but still good. After finding 8 rings in January and February, I expected that to slow down and it did. I have to start visualizing rings again and and see if they come back.

2009 Sweepstakes update

Well, I thought it was time to give a little further info on one of my other treasure-gathering hobbies and that is sweepstaking. So far in 2009 I've gotten 7 sweepstakes wins:

2- $5 coupon for Pace salsas --Online instant win
2- $15 in Kraft/Nabisco coupons --Online instant win
1- $195 pair of Cinzia sunglasses --online blog win
1- $10 Castrol t-shirt -- online instant win
1- $50 Gas card --mail-in Purina

I also wrote 2 more sweeps-related articles on eHow, that makes a total of 5 so far. Hoping sweeps wins pick up soon, last big win was $1200 last Summer from Colgate.
How to Win Mail in Sweepstakes
How to Get Organized to Win Mail in Sweepstakes

Although I've won a lot online over the years, including a pick-up truck and a trip to Cancun, I think the mail-ins will pay off more as postage continues to increase. Time will tell.

Twincapes

Treasure Hunting again

We finally hit the 60s yesterday. I expect the last mounds of snow to melt today as it will be even warmer. I was able to get the metal detector out and scrounge up some treasure from the depths of a couple of local schoolyards. I know there are 20 quarters, total over $8.00. Thats pretty good, all hunts don't turn out that prosperous. Got a few nice pieces of treasue as well for the treasure chest: a .925 silver chain bracelet, a French 10 Francs and a little marcasite heart pendant. Aarghh.

Soccer season is coming

Wow, almost March already. Although we still have a few weeks left, the Winter in Virginia has been mild overall. Everything went north of us this year or didnt make it over the Appalachian mountains. Soon it will be nice enough to go on some treasure-hunting expeditions. I will be posting those results here before long. Oh, and it's almost time for Spring sports. There is a new Women's Professional Soccer league that will start at the end of March. Thats should be interesting, it's the first time they've played since the WUSA's demise in 2003. Doesn't seem that long ago.

How to Find Information on the Women's Professional Soccer League

Sweepstakes Articles

OK hey. I have written three sweepstakes articles that I want to share. The links are below. Yes anyone can win, it just takes persistence and patience. And for mail-ins, postage. They call that the 3 P's. So far in 2009, it's been a bit slow, but I've won two jars of salsa from Pace.com, six $4 coupons from Nabisco, and a $195 pair of Cinzia sunglasses from shopaholic.com. Just keep at it, and the prizes will come in.

How to find Winnable online Sweepstakes - 5 Easy Ways

How to Read Sweepstakes Rules to Increase Your Chances of Winning

How to Get Organized to Win Online Sweepstakes

The Animal Rescue Site

I am a cat lover. We have 4 at home, our oldest cat, Owl, recently passed over. He was 19. Oh, I was sad to see that President Clinton's cat, Socks left us this week also. He was also 19. Thats a pretty good old age.

I usually start my internet day by clicking on the Animal Rescue Site. The Animal Rescue Site They have a neat animal hero story each day, and when you click on the site, you help feed rescued animals through sponsor donations. All it costs you is the time to visit and click each day. This is a worthy cause.

Foreign coins from 2008

Here are the foreign coins I found last year, some dug up, some found laying about. Many different countries, you just never know what's out there.

The New Successful Coin Hunting

Save Money on Books

I finally posted a Frugal article on EHow tonight. Yay!
How to - 10 Tips to Save Money on Books

I never, OK, seldom pay retail for books, my kids will back me up, they are not allowed to go to Borders without a coupon! Crazy Pirate!

EHow

G'day all. I just posted my 10th article on Ehow. I've been a member for a week now. Not making much, still learning how the system works. I plan to work on getting affiliate programs set up soon. Hoping for the best! At this point I'm going on hope, I see that it does work for people, so all I can do is hope it works for me as well. So just keep priming the pump and see what happens. Aarghh.

How to Carpool to Washington DC from Virginia by Slugging

Metal detecting Monday

I went out yesterday for an hour or so. About 38 degrees, but I was pretty bundled up. Searched a local school field and found 33 coins worth $2.27. OK not bad. 79 cents of it was a spill about an inch or 2 deep. I found 2 quarters, 2 dimes, a nickel and 4 pennies within about 8" of each other.

So far in 2009, I've found 286 coins worth about $20. Last year I was way ahead of that by now, but we had no Winter last year. This year the ground actually froze for a few weeks. But my favorite treasure is finding rings, and I've found 7 so far this year, that's way ahead of my pace the last 2 years when I found 32 and 45 rings, respectively. Aargh.

Starting Off

I live this frugal pirate lifestyle, and have for some time. For whatever reason, I'm now doin a bit o' bloggin, so if you care to follow along, just jump in the stream and we'll see where it takes us.