Things I Bought, Things I Didn't, Concert Going, & Other Current Events

This will be yet another LONG post!  I thought I would kick thing off with one of my recent grocery shopping hauls!  I stopped in at my local ALDI and just wanted to find something for my lunch during that specific work day and I walked out with a slew of stuff!  Ironically, when I was thumbing thru my YouTube Feed later that day - BOTH No Egg Craig AND The Vegan Zombie had posted ALDI Videos with the same items!

Check this out!  Not only do they have a new Vegan Ranch they have a Vegan Harissa Ranch!  I tried the Ranch last night and it was pretty tasty.

It was thinner than most Ranch Dressings and was a bit heavy on the vinegar so it was like a Ranch Vinegarette but I still liked it!

This next photo is the actual haul!  I grabbed 2 dressings (they also sell a Vegan Cesar but I didn't buy that one), Potstickers, and Vegan Cream Cheese.  The 'patties' I found at my local ALDI were the Lentil (which were AWESOME), Asian, Thai, and BBQ Chicken.  I also grabbed some Guac, Vegan Moz Shreds (which I tried before), Frozen Cauliflower Rice, and Bread/Thins.

I only spent $35 on all that!  Now on to some of the things I have found interesting this week but did NOT purchase...

First up is this Cucuzza Squash.  It's the first time I have seen this in my area!  I have been thinking about it ever since so I might have to go back to see if they still have some.  I found this at my local Tops.  I haven't cooked with it YET but have heard you can cook it like any other squash.

Yesterday I stopped into Family Dollar to get some Unsweetened Ice Tea and noticed Love Beaty and Planet Shampoo and Conditioner.  I read the back of the bottle and found they were vegan - among other things!

I was pretty shocked that they were priced at $7 each at Family Dollar but all-in-all was THRILLED to see them there.  I have never seen or bought this line before and might try it at some point - just not now.

$7 Shampoo and Conditioners at Family Dollar.  I'm not sure if I have ever seen that before.  If it were $2 or even $3 - I would have JUMPED ON IT!  I guess I'm just CHEAP.  I guess I should say...THRIFTY, eh!?

So...I haven't done my Concert Recap YET from Fair Week so I guess now is as good of a time as any, right?

I really slacked on photos this year, it seems, but here is one that I did get from the Colt Ford Concert and Meet & Greet.

From left...my Dad, me, Colt Ford, my Mom, Patsy (who is a director), and Missy (who is one of the fair photographers).

Colt Ford was our Tuesday show.  On Wednesday we had Ben and Noel Haggard with opener Allie Colleen.  Both acts have music in their blood and are the 2nd generation of performers!

This is a photo of Allie Colleen.  Her father is Garth Brooks.  Her performance was AMAZING!  She has a great voice.  She had a wonderful connection with the audience.  And she is so sweet!  I spoke with her a couple of times when she first arrived and again before and after she went on stage.

Funny thing...I'm short...not quite 5'2"...Allie Colleen is quite tall and has a strong handshake.  Even the guys were saying how firm her handshake was!  You GO Girl!

She was a peach!  VERY talented!  I wish her all the BEST!

Noel and Ben Haggard are 2 of the sons of Merle Haggard.  They also performed.  I didn't catch much of their concert because I was handling a few other issues backstage and with the vendors but what I did hear was well received by the packed house.

Those two acts were on the stage Wednesday...then on Saturday...were these guys!  They are a tribute band.  Can you guess which band they are a tribute band of?

If you guessed Fleetwood Mac - you are correct!  They were AMAZING!  They were my favorite act of the week!  They were 'on point'...isn't that what the kids say, these days!?  Regardless, I am now a fan of theirs and hope to see them again someday!  They put on a wonderful show!

Those were the acts we had at our fair during fair week.

THIS week, a friend of mine and I were lucky enough to get some tickets to the Alabama Concert at the Crawford County Fair.  Here is a photo of the two of us.

We both worked full work days that day and drove after hours to the concert and then drove back.  It was TOTALLY worth it!  One of their members no longer tours due to him having Parkinson's but the other two members were really great and their band was terrific, too!  Memorable show, indeed!

Special THANKS to those who reminded me of the upcoming Vegan MoFo!  I signed up with seconds to spare!  That might be a little dramatic but I was cutting it close to the sign-up deadline!

Please let me know if you will be participating in this year's Vegan MoFo!

I've done it for YEARS but the last 2 years it was a bit hit and miss with my posting for it.  Hopefully, this year will be different and I will be more active with it again!

Like I said...another long post...and I haven't even gotten to the Mall Photos...YIKES!

So...here's the scoop on our local mall...it was booming up until the mid 90s and it's been dieing and slow and painful death ever since.

Right now they are in the process of ripping it apart.  The plans have changed many times and to be honest I can't keep up with how the end of the project is supposed to look.  I will have to wait and see just like everyone else, I suppose.

I mentioned in a previous post that they were going to be scrapping all of the plants and trees.  Yup!  They were pulling them out and throwing them away!  A co-worker and I (with permission) tried to grab some of them to see if we could grow them from snippets.

In the photo above, I always did like the sky lights.  It was the sole reason this greenery survived as long as it did because no one has been taking care of them in YEARS!  Next to NO water has been applied either.  Just sunlight.

In this next photo, you can see many of the plants are dead but some are still trying to survive!  I hope our experiment works and we can save the ones we took!

In the background you can see The Bon Ton.  It's closing this week.  It's one of the very few clothing store in our small area.  It's a shame to see so many businesses go under here.  To the right you can see plastic and light...that goes to the outside.  They ripped off the front of the mall and are making it into a strip/plaza type thing.

In this photo, you can see what I am referring to even better.  All of that plastic tarp is 'outside'.  They used to be stores.  They are no longer.

Up front, you can see more plants.  There used to be fountains there, too, but they have been empty for YEARS.  All of that will be removed.  Since they have made the decision to remodel and rework this dead mall...we have seen a Dunham's Sports and Ollie's Bargain Outlet move in.  I've heard the next thing to open will be a Shoe Show but I haven't see the sign yet.  The only other stores remaining are a Label Shopper, Lee Nails, and a pizza place...all of which have had to move.

I'm Back & Will Be Catching Up for a LONG Time!

I didn't fall off the face of the Earth, really.  I am back and I want to thank everyone for all the notes in the meantime.  Life has gotten in the way - yet again!  It will take me a VERY long time to get back into the swing of things are caught up so for the foreseeable future I'm sure to have a lot of mishmashy type posts.  Hope you don't mind!

One of the main reasons I have been avoiding a blog post is because we lost our dear Paco to his immune issues back in Early May.  He was just shy of his 7th birthday.  It all happened so fast and I'm not sure if I can fully explain everything that happened within the 12 hours of it actually happening.  Plus it was very graphic when it did happen because he was dealing with clotting issues.  Not only was he dealing with his ITP but he also had IHMA.  Up to this point he had dealt with 1 immune disease but that dreadful night he developed a 2nd one.  In addition, he was developing Cushing's again.  Because he was on a high dosage of long-term steroids he was losing muscle mass, too.  Since he was diagnosed at about 2 and a half we knew something like clotting could be in his future but NOTHING prepared us for what actually took place.

Eventho, I haven't been able to take down his pen area YET I was able to 'keep busy' and that seemed to help a little bit.  I know it sounds weird but I have to keep busy to deal with certain things.  It's not that I'm running away from my problems - it just helps me to focus on multiple things to help me heal in the meantime.   

I'm not sure if I blogged about this before my hiatus or not but back in March, I traveled to the Capitol Building.  It was my first time there.  It was a rainy day but I'm glad that I was part of it.  It was a Rally for Fair Districts and to stop Gerrymandering which is a HUGE problem in our state.  Over the past several months it's been a whirlwind and eventho we didn't get the results we had hoped we are still fighting for VOTING RIGHTS!

The county I live in doesn't have a large Refugee population but we neighbor a city that does.  Back in January and February our League of Women Voters invited the director of the Multicultural Resources Center to do a Refugee 101.  We wanted to do this because there is a lot of misinformation and incorrect assumption about how Refugees come to America and integrate into life in a new country.  The feedback was positive and a group of citizens decided to start hikes for Refugees locally since we are smack dab in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest and have other natural beauties in our area.  So...the middle of May we hosted our first of 2 hikes.  The first one was for Refugee Kids.  Ukraine, Syria, Somalia, Eritrea (a country bordering Somalia), and Nepal were the countries they fleed from.

A little over a month later we hosted another hike.  This time for a group of Senior Citizen Refugees.  Some of the participants were part of a sign language group, too.  Within this group were mostly people from Bhutan and Pakistan.

In the beginning of the Summer another outing we had was to Erie, PA, where we went to a Food Truck Festival in hopes to have one locally some day.  I was thrilled that there were vegan options!

Another thing that has been on my mind is a local tragedy.  K9 Choper - our local K9 Officer - passed away from his injuries during a training day.

During the end of June I was a committee member for the annual car and craft show at our fairgrounds and I was pleased to see more vendors that offered vegan friendly products.  One of them being these Vegan Lip Balms.

Of course we have been busy with work, too, an have had many live remotes lately including a few at local businesses and during fair week.  More on fair week in a future post but here is a neat snapshot from Employee Appreciation Day at a local business.

Another thing that has been keeping us busy has been trading in our vehicles on new ones!  Here is the new Fiat I traded my old one in for.  I LOVE it!

A few months ago I became a Zonta Member, too!  It's been fun so far and I'm looking forward to getting involved with more of the service and advocacy end of things.  Each summer they have a Summer Surprise and members don't know what it is until they get there.  This year we went to the Lucy-Desi Museum.  We had dinner in The Tropicana that they set up to look like the real TV set.  There were also recreations of the sets from I LOVE LUCY, too!  Since I'm in radio I found this tidbit extra interesting!

In other news...our local mall is going thru a major redesign and revamp.  They are turning it from a shopping mall to a strip/plaza type thing.  A co-worker has gotten me into indoor plants more the last year or more and she was upset when I told her that the indoor plants at the mall were going to be trashed.  We asked the project manager if we could take some and he said YES so we are trying to save some of them.  More on that in upcoming posts, too!

And before blogger gives up on me I think I will end this post right here.  But I will be regularly blogging again so please check back.  I really didn't scratch the surface of the stuff I have to share with you and I know I will be adding more to the list very soon!  Thanks again for staying with me the last couple months!  I appreciate you all!