braggin' rights ...

ok, real quick ...

both of the boys went to military camp this year, and they not only loved it, but they also WON AWARDS ... THAT'S RIGHT - the eldest received an award for his rappelling ability (43 foot wall, mind you) and the younger received an award for holding his push-up formation the longest. how long, you ask? 25 minutes!

MISSOURI SALES TAX HOLIDAY AUGUST 7-9

well, it's that time of year again ... where some counties/municipalities participate in the sales tax holiday, and where others, well, simply don't.

so here is what you need to know (that is, if you care) ...

cities that will not participate in this "holiday" are:

Alton
Ash Grove
Ashland
Aurora
Ballwin
Battlefield
Bellerive Acres
Berkeley
Beverly Hills
Black Jack
Blackwater
Bland
Bloomfield
Bolivar
Boonville
Branson
Brentwood
Bridgeton
Byrnes Mill
Cabool
California
Camdenton
Cameron
Canton
Cape Girardeau
Carl Junction
Carthage
Cassville
Centertown
Chamois
Charlack
Chillicothe
Claycomo
Clayton
Clinton
Collins
Columbia
Cool Valley
Crystal City
Des Peres
Desloge
DeSoto
Doniphan
Edmundson
Eldon
Eldorado Springs
Ellisville
Ellsinore
Elsberry
Everton
Fair Grove
Farmington
Fayette
Fenton
Ferguson
Festus
Flint Hill
Freeman
Fremont Hills
Frontenac
Fulton
Garden City
Gerald
Glasgow
Granby
Grandin
Grant City
Green City
Greendale
Half Way
Hartville
Hawk Point
Hayti
Higginsville
Hollister
Holts Summit
Houston
Ironton
Jane
Jefferson City
Joplin
Kennett
Kingdom City
Kirkwood
Koshkonong
Ladue
Laurie
Leadington
Liberal
Licking
Loma Linda
Malden
Manchester
Maplewood
Marble Hill
Marceline
Marlborough Village
Marshfield
Marthasville
Merriam Woods Village
Meta
Moberly
Montgomery
Moscow Mills
Mount Vernon
Mountain Grove
Mountain View
Naylor
Neosho
New Haven
New Madrid
New Melle
Nixa
Noel
Norborne
North Kansas City
Northwoods
Oak Grove
Oakland
Osage Beach
Overland
Owensville
Ozark
Palmyra
Paris
Pattonsburg
Peculiar
Pevely
Platte City
Platte Woods
Poplar Bluff
Purdy
Qulin
Reeds Spring
Richmond
Richmond Heights
Riverside
Rock Hill
Rockaway Beach
Savannah
Sedalia
Seligman
Shelbina
Shrewsbury
Skidmore
Smithton
Smithville
Springfield
St Ann
St Elizabeth
St Mary
St Peters
Ste Genevieve
Stockton
Sugar Creek
Taos
Thayer
Town & Country
Trenton
Twin Oaks
University City
Urich
Vandalia
Velda
Walnut Grove
Warson Wood
Washburn
Waynesville
Webster Grove
West Plains
Willard
Willow Springs

so, i'm thinking that the only mall available with no taxes whatsoever would be chesterfield mall, and the mills mall, and maybe even the outlet mall in warrenton (but i'm not 100% on that one) ... right?

west county i believe is in des peres, the galleria i think is in richmond heights, northwest plaza is in st. ann, the mall in st. peters is out ... if you can think of any other ones, please let me know.

and the rules for this holiday are as follows:

Back to School Sales Tax Holiday - Information for Consumers
Section 144.049, RSMo, establishes a sales tax holiday effective during a three-day period beginning at 12:01 a.m. on the first Friday in August and ending at midnight on the Sunday following. Certain back-to-school purchases, such as clothing, school supplies, computers, and other items as defined by the statute, are exempt from sales tax for this time period only.

The sales tax holiday applies to state and local sales taxes when a local jurisdiction chooses to participate in the holiday. However, local jurisdictions can choose to not participate in the holiday if they enact an ordinance to not participate and notify the department 45 days prior to the sales tax holiday. If the jurisdiction had previously enacted an ordinance to not participate in the holiday and later decided to participate, it must enact a new ordinance to participate and notify the department 45 days prior to the sales tax holiday.


If one or all of your local taxing jurisdictions are not participating in the sales tax holiday, the state's portion of the tax rate (4.225%) will remain exempt for the sale of qualifying sales tax holiday items.


The sales tax exemption is limited to:
Clothing – any article having a taxable value of $100 or less
School supplies – not to exceed $50 per purchase
Computer software – taxable value of $350 or less
Personal computers – not to exceed $3,500
Computer peripheral devices – not to exceed $3,500
Qualifying Items
Section 144.049, RSMo, defines items exempt during the sales tax holiday as:

“Clothing” - any article of wearing apparel, including footwear, intended to be worn on or about the human body. The term shall include but not be limited to cloth and other material used to make school uniforms or other school clothing. Items normally sold in pairs shall not be separated to qualify for the exemption. The term shall not include watches, watchbands, jewelry, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, scarves, ties, headbands, or belt buckles.

“School supplies” - any item normally used by students in a standard classroom for educational purposes, including but not limited to, textbooks, notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, handheld calculators, chalk, maps, and globes. The term shall not include watches, radios, CD players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable or desktop telephones, copiers or other office equipment, furniture, or fixtures. School supplies shall also include computer software having a taxable value of three hundred fifty dollars or less.

“Personal computers” - a laptop, desktop, or tower computer system which consists of a central processing unit, random access memory, a storage drive, a display monitor, and a keyboard and devices designed for use in conjunction with a personal computer, such as a disk drive, memory module, compact disk drive, daughterboard, digitalizer, microphone, modem, motherboard, mouse, multimedia speaker, printer, scanner, single-user hardware, single-user operating system, soundcard, or video card.

17% off at Walgreens!

now through march 20, walgreens is offering an extra 17% off all online purchases. in case the link that i have supplied doesn't work, the coupon code is CLOVER (clever, i know).

an odd percentage, i know ...

FREE QUIZNOS SUB !

Quizinos is giving away a free small sub to the first 1 million people who go this website:

www.millionsubs.com

You have to give them your name, email address, zip code and birthday. They email you the screen to print the coupon.

Enjoy.

i didn't know it had raisins in it ...

there were complimentary bagels at work today.

although i like my new job, i think that they are secretly trying to fatten me up (they've done this bagel thing before ... and i had TWO!)

anyway, i went back, expecting to get the same cinnamon crusted bagel with the honey wheat reduced fat cream cheese spread as before. well, THIS time, i touched one just as i noticed that it had raisins in it. and other people were in the kitchen area. so i was obligated to take it.

so i buttered it (with butter-like spread) and took it back to my office - expecting to be able to just take out the raisins. how many could there be?

well, to put it nicely, there were a whole crapload of raisins. had the owner bought these from the grocery store, perhaps there would have been fewer. but these were CLEARLY bread company bagels. chock full of raisins. not just the brown ones you can buy at the store, but also the "golden" ones that my mother searched forever to find (not at the grocery store or sams -- i think she found them online). and when i say chock-full, i mean CHOCK-FULL. it was like a raisin lovers dream.

now, i'm in my office, trying to pick out the damned things and just ended up having to throw it away. i would pick a piece, and even though it was a small piece, there was still a raisin in it. there was nothing i could do about it. they were EVERYWHERE (that's right, CHOCK-FULL-O-RAISINS).

and, i guess the universe was trying to tell me to "step away from the bagel".

the moral of the story is -- wait for everyone to leave the "kitchen area" before feeling around on the bagels.

you know you got that problem ...

so, i enjoy shopping.

i enjoy shopping, A LOT.

WAY more than i probably should.

and more than anything, i really like getting a DEAL.

about a month ago, a really good friend of mine, i'll call her "emily" (not her real name), was on the telephone with me. emily had never voiced an opinion (to my recollection) about me shopping. and of course, i was going shopping while she was on the phone. anyway, when she heard where i was going, she said, and i QUOTE

"should you be going there? you know you got that problem ..."

and although that was the FUNNIEST thing i had heard in a long time -- it did give me pause.

DO i shop too much?

m a y b e ...

i have asked myself that question time and time again.

my most current "main" haunts are sams and costco, target, and the occasional marshalls/tj maxx - bypassing department stores and malls altogether ...

doesn't that count for something?

i just don't know.

for example, i was recently at target (my new job is right around the corner from target -- i can get there in like 2 minutes flat -- that's what i said), and they had %30 off of their clearance items for kids. how could i NOT buy kids stuff -- i mean, i DO have kids.

an aside ...

there was a time when i didn't have a little girl, and actually considered buying little girl clothing "just in case". but now, i HAVE a little girl -- WHEEEEE! so, i actuality, had i BOUGHT those items, she could have worn. but i didn't.

isn't that what's important?

i almost left out home depot and lowes. i lean more towards the depot, but lowes does have it's moments ... but i'm renovating my house ...

can you BLAME me?

and then there's the internet -- it makes comparision shopping SO MUCH EASIER AND BETTER ... and with e-mail alerts and free shipping, what could be better? WHAT? please tell me, because i don't believe that there IS anything better.

is this really a problem?

so, if most of the stuff that i buy is on sale, or discounted, or something for somebody else, or something like food -- then i can't possibly be a shopaholic (such a dirty, bad word)

look, if loving shopping is wrong,

well, i don't want to be right.

happy belated inauguration day!

and how about that new president of ours?

honestly, i was on pins and needles just waiting for him to be sworn in so it would be a reality. and so, now that he's REALLY TRULY in office, i can breathe a sigh of relief, and go back to living my usual high-stress, worried-about-things-that-i-can't-control, rushed and hurried LIFE.

one of my friends really hates that obama has such a large following. he actually would LOVE to see him fail miserably.

the thing is, that our country is in SUCH a bad state, there's really little obama can do to screw things up even worse.

so, since we're at the bottom, the only place to go is up.

so happily, i'm not too worried about things going wrong in his administration -- i'm sure things WILL go wrong, that's how life is, but, nothing that he can't handle.

and aren't the girls BEAUTIFUL?

and i REALLY like that michelle is built like a real girl. she's a big girl. not a stick, or an almost boy, or "barbie". and she's not fat. i think she's built like the typical american woman, and i think that's a great thing for little girls to see.

yes, i had a happy inauguration day.

and i LOVED the president/first lady first dance.

i like that he seems to keep michelle on his mind. it was a wonderful thing when he said how beautiful that she was.

yep. all is well.

disco fever ...

so i've got a new job, which is pretty cool.

but what's even MORE cool you ask?

well, for the past week, the building has been piping DISCO music through the speakers. that's right, good old-fashioned 70's music.

*sigh*

i LOVE this place!

i'm sure it won't last, but i'm REALLY appreciating hearing songs that i grew up with.

and here's a little secret ... sometimes, when no one is looking, i sing and dance in my office. yep, that's what i said - i sing AND dance. i'm not singing loudly, or dancing wildly - but i AM enjoying myself.

yep - i'm working, singing and dancing.

don't hate.