September, 2009

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30
Sep 09

Free Starbucks Coffee!

What are you doing this weekend? Do you like Starbucks coffee? How would you like some for free? Here is how!

Starbucks wants you to “Take the Starbucks Via challenge”.
starbucksVia

Starbucks Via Ready Brew is a new instant version of Starbucks coffee. They want you to do a blind taste test of the traditional Starbucks coffee, and the new Starbucks Via Ready Brew, and see which one is better. Can you tell the difference?

It reminds me of “The Pepsi Challenge” from back in the day. Except, both the regular Starbucks coffee and the Starbucks Via Ready Brew are both made by Starbucks.

So, basically, it works like this:

*Go in to a Starbucks starting on Friday October 2, 2009, and ending on Monday, October 5, 2009.

* Tell them you want to take “The Starbucks Via Challenge”. From what I can tell, this means the barista should hand you not one, but two, mini cups of coffee. You taste both, and figure out which one tastes better to you. Let them know what you decide.

* Get handed a coupon for a FREE, tall, brewed coffee. You have to use the coupon “on your next visit”, and you have to bring in the actual coupon card they hand you when you go. Sounds good to me!

Go here to find a Starbucks near you. Somehow, I don’t think you are going to have any problem finding one!

I am going to try this out, and I will let you know how this goes.

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30
Sep 09

Taco Roco has “Taco Tuesdays”

Taco Roco is one of my favorite restaurants that serves Mexican food. Everything I’ve had there is consistently yummy. There is one near where I live, so I have been there quite a few times in the past. I recommend it!

Taco Roco is another place to go for “Cheap Eats”. Food that tastes good, for not too much money!

On Tuesdays, you will find signs like these:
SoftTacoSpecial

TacoTuesdays

PRICE:
Shawn and I went and got two steak tacos, each, and we split a soda. It cost us under ten bucks, and we even got free chips and salsa.

This is because we went on a Tuesday, after 3 in the afternoon. You can select from a few different choices of meat for your tacos, including steak and pork. (If you want fish tacos on Tuesday, it’s going to cost you two dollars, instead of one). I haven’t tried to see if Taco Tuesday can include veggie tacos, so I’ve no idea if they will do that. My best guess is they will, but if this is your plan, you may want to call ahead to check before you go to the restaurant.

Even when it is not Tuesday, the food here is not super expensive. But, Tuesdays are wonderful when you are short on money.

MORE INFO:
You can go to their official website and to find out if there is a location near you. Unfortunately, unless you live on the Central Coast of California, you won’t find a Taco Roco close to where you live. However, if you do happen to live here, you can order food from Taco Roco directly from the website, which is kind of nice.

FOOD:
They serve food you would expect from a Mexican food resturant. Tacos, Burritos, Tortas, Quesadillas, and Nachos. They also have combination orders which include a main item, along with rice and beans. There is a Kid’s menu, (Los Niños). Taco Roco has a couple of dessert items, and it even serves Breakfast, until 11:30 in the morning. There is even a Breakfast menu for the kids.

For more details about the exact menu items, you can go to their official website, and take a look. The prices don’t seem to be listed there, however. But, it does have some nice pictures of the food.

Even with all my food allergies, I can find a lot of things to eat at Taco Roco. My favorite is the fish tacos, which you can choose to get either breaded (fried), or grilled. They do serve some items with shrimp, so avoid those if you have shellfish allergies. I have problems with dairy foods, but so far, none of the food I have tried at Taco Roco has enough cheese on it to bother me. (Needless to say, I cannot try the Quesadillas).

Vegetarians can enjoy the veggie burrito, which is really good. (I eat it fairly often myself). Another option would be the Bean and Cheese burrito. (This is also available from the Kid’s Menu). You can also get some “Crispy Tacos” made with potato instead of meat. Or, you can also get a Quesadilla, and choose not to add meat, (which costs an extra dollar anyway.)

I’m not sure what Diabetics can eat here, because I am seeing a whole lot of carbs. Their two dessert items almost certainly have sugar in them. They do offer a “Fresca Salad”, but I’m not sure what is in it. If you plan on doing Taco Tuesday, I cannot see how you can do it without eating the carbs from the tortillas.

OTHER NICE THINGS:

* They often play Mexican music in the restaurant for diners to enjoy.

* You don’t have to dress up to eat here.

* Families are welcome. They also seem receptive to large groups.

* If you go to the official Taco Roco webpage, and click on “Kids”, you can download and print out a coloring page for your kids to do. They can color “Rocky” the parrot mascot of Taco Roco. Rocky reminds me of an old Disney cartoon, where Donald Duck, and a parrot, and some other cartoon bird were dressed up in sombreros and serapes. The link didn’t happen to be working as I was typing this blog, but it might be by the time you read this.

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29
Sep 09

In the Mail

The Universe continues to laugh at me. It’s sending me little reminders that yeah, I am, in fact, unemployed, almost on a daily basis now.

There is a magazine I get because of my job. It is called “focus magazine”, and it is put out by the California School Employees Association. Inside, you find the usual stuff : where to get discounts on things because you work at a school, blurbs on teachers who are retiring this school year, random little articles about somebody getting a scholarship, etc. Each magazine also focuses on one topic of interest to California School Employees.

The cover of the magazine I got in the mail today looks like this:
P9280001

Stop the cuts, indeed! To summarize, the article talks about how California schools have been holding back on hiring staff for years and years, keeping most schools just barely staffed. This, of course, means less teachers, but also less paras, less secretaries, and also less custodians.

Now, California has decided to cut away even more jobs in education. This means some schools are having to close their libraries, because they have fired all the library staff. One school had a secretary who had been there for years and years, and who was so good at her job that the parents adored her and appreciated her help on the first day of school every year. She got cut, and they hired two brand new secretaries in her place, instead of keeping the person who was doing a great job. There are schools that share their custodians with other schools, which means those school buildings are getting cleaned three days a week, instead of every day. Imagine what the bathrooms the students use must look like!
There was one little paragraph mentioning that California is even cutting jobs in Special Education. That’s what my job was in.

I’m beginning to hate the mailbox.

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28
Sep 09

Hometown Buffet Keeps It’s Word

I signed up for the Hometown Buffet eClub when I was first looking at their webpage. If I had to guess, it must have been sometime after midnight, on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Later today, when I woke up, I checked my email. There was an email from “Buffets, Inc.” that had arrived at 12:47 this same morning. It turned out to be from Hometown Buffet. This email was basically a confirmation email, telling me to click on a link inside it. There was also information I could read if I did not know how I got on this email list in the first place, but, to be honest, I didn’t read it.

Mere seconds after clicking on the link to confirm that yes, I did want to be part of the Hometown Buffet eClub, I got another email from “Buffets, Inc.” titled “Welcome to our eClub!” Inside, as promised was a coupon for me offering a “FREE buffet meal with purchase of one adult buffet meal”. Hometown buffet has kept it’s word about what you would get just because you joined it’s eClub!

Helpful Hints about this coupon:

* You are going to need to print the coupon out of your email so you can bring it into Hometown Buffet in order to use it.

* Mine will expire about two weeks from when they sent the email.

* The fine print at the bottom of the email says, in all caps, “Coupon not valid on Sundays”. They really, really, really don’t want people to come in on Sundays with this coupon, for some reason. However, you can use it on most Mondays through Saturdays with no problem.

* This coupon is not valid on holidays either, so, check your calendar before you drive down to Hometown Buffet with this coupon.

On the receipt Shawn and I got from Hometown Buffet when we visited the other day, there was a phone number I could call if I wanted to do their survey, and enter for a chance to win $1,000. I had time today, (imagine that!), to see what this was all about. It turned out to be quick and easy to do.

Important stuff about the survey:

* It’s a 1-800 phone number, which means it’s a free call

* You have to push “one” for English right away. (You can also take the survey in Spanish if you want to).

* The first thing they told me about was that in order to be entered into the chance to win $1,000, I had to be a legal U.S. resident, who was 18 years old, or older. It actually made me punch in what my age was. This was before the survey itself even started.

* There are two questions on this survey. It wants to know if you ate in the restaurant, or took their food “to go” (which I would never have thought about doing). Then, it wants you to rate your overall visit on a five point scale, according to how satisfied you were.

* At the end, it will ask you for your home phone number, so that they can contact you if you happen to be the lucky person who wins the $1,000 prize.

Again, wish me luck with that!

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28
Sep 09

Hometown Buffet

It goes by many names. Hometown Buffet, Country Buffet, Old Country Buffet…. it’s all the same. Where I am at in California, it is called Hometown Buffet, but where I used to live in Illinois, it was called Old Country Buffet. I’ve no idea why the name is different in different locations, but it is. Same place, no matter which of it’s aliases it happens to be going by where you live.

They all pretty much look like this:
HometownBuffet

As far as I know, this chain of Buffet is only found in the good ol’ USA, land of obesity. If you live somewhere else, and there is one by you, let me know. What name does it call itself over there?

Hometown Buffet is the first in a series I’m going to call “Cheap Eats”, (places you can get decent food at without spending a lot of money). Buffets are great because you pay one price, and you can eat and drink whatever you want to, for as long as you want to, and the price does not change. I have a feeling Buffets are going to become more attractive to me in the near future.

MORE INFO:
Here is the official website for this chain of Buffets. It has catchy music that starts immediately when you get to the page. Go directly to the top right hand corner, and click the conveniently located button that says “Click To Stop”, before it makes you crazy.

There is a “Restaurant Locator” you can click to find the one nearest to where you live. It even tells you the hours it’s open, for each day of the week. Most of these buffets serve lunch and dinner, but some also serve breakfast on certain days.

PRICE:
Not too bad. Shawn and I went for lunch the other day, and it cost us a little under twenty bucks total. The price is somewhat higher for dinner, and I’ve no idea what it is for breakfast.

If you are age 60 or over, you can purchase a “Senior Club Card” for one dollar, and get a discount. (The website doesn’t say how much, except that it will be at least fifty cents).

You can go to their website and “Join the eClub”. This says it will give you one free buffet meal if you buy one buffet meal, just because you signed up. It also claims it will send you “updates and discounts” in your email, and mentions a “Birthday Coupon”. I signed up, and I will let you know how that goes.

The receipt from our meal says “Enter for a chance to win $1,000 dollars”, if you call their survey. Wish me luck!

This buffet chain also is kind enough to include coupons in local circulars that you get in the mail.

FOOD:
It’s good. This is not gourmet, of course, but it is good as far as buffet food goes. Overall, it tends to run on the lighter side of the seasoning spectrum, but it is not bland. There is a large salad bar, with lots of different vegetables to select, and another salad bar with things like potato salad and stuff. The other three large buffet tables have a variety of things on them to choose from. Expect comfort foods like mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. One of these tables will usually have somebody carving meat. They often choose a “theme”, (like Seafood, or Italian, etc.) so you might find slightly different choices depending on what night you are there. They also have a soft serve ice cream dispenser, and a dessert bar.

I have tons of food allergies, and I have no problems at all finding food I can eat at Hometown Buffet. If I can manage to do that, everybody else should have no problem working around their allergies. I’m more severe than nearly everyone I’ve ever met. I think diabetics would do just fine here, thanks to the wide variety of food choices available. Quite a few of the deserts are sugar free, which is nice.

I’m not really a vegetarian, but I like to eat that way fairly often. I really like the salad bar at this buffet. In addition to the salad bar, there usually is one or two cooked vegetable choices, such as carrots or corn, and they always have yummy mashed potatoes. Garlic bread is often on the menu, as is Macaroni and Cheese. Last time we went they had Grilled Cheese Sandwiches which Shawn said were pretty good. (I’m allergic to dairy, or I would have eaten one myself). If you happen to be vegan, I’m not sure if there is much you can eat here. You can go to their website and click “Menu” and then “Specific Diet Choices” for more information.

OTHER NICE THINGS:
You are not expected to dress up to eat here.

It is family friendly. Thursday night is “Family Night”, “Featuring several kid-friendly items such as chicken strips, pizza, macaroni and cheese, and banana splits for dessert.” In my experience, you might also find the mascot of the buffet, a human sized Bee, and there may or may not be balloons involved. So, if you have kids, bring them on Thursday nights. If you want to avoid children, don’t go on Thursday nights.

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28
Sep 09

Nice Timing!

The day after I got the “Letter of Doom” in the mail, (the one that informed me that my job was gone), I got mail from Anthem.
Anthem

Anthem is the name of the insurance company I had before I lost my job. Employees where I used to work were able to have some of their paycheck taken out in exchange for the ability to have health insurance. No job pretty much means no more health insurance. I am going to have to figure out what to do about that sometime soon.

Irony: Brand new health insurance card from the health insurance I get through my job arrives in the mail the day after I get a letter in the mail informing me I no longer have a job.

The universe is laughing at me.

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27
Sep 09

How To File For Unemployment

Consider this to be “Part One”.

I live in California. For me, the first step was to go to California EDD. This is the California Government Employment Development Department. Note the little picture of Ah-nold, “The Gov-enator”. Wave hello. Perhaps he’s part of what got you here in the first place.

Irony: In my former job as a paraeducator for Special Education, “ED” meant “Emotionally Disturbed”. So, I read “California EDD” as “California Emotionally Disturbed and… something.” I decided the other D was for Depressed. It’s not correct, but it feels oh so right.

If you are reading this blog and you do not live in California, you will need to find the website for the Unemployment assistance for your state. I suggest doing a google search and typing in : “file unemployment Illinois”. Substitute “Illinois” with whatever state you live in. I tested this out with about six random states, and it worked each time. Look for the government site for unemployment assistance, and click that one. There will be a lot of links popping up for you to sift through, but the governmental site should be somewhere near the top.

Oddly enough, each state I looked at is calling it something slightly different, and none of them actually have the word “Unemployment” as the first word. Texas calls it the “Texas Workforce Commission”, which makes me think of a chain gang, breaking rocks somewhere.

Anyway, getting back to filing for Unemployment assistance in California…

Step Two: Look at the first large box, that says “Information About”. Inside that box is a series of links. Look for the phrase “File a claim for:”, and click on the underlined link beneath it that says “Unemployment”. This brings you to a page titled “Overview – Unemployment Insurance”. When I first saw this, I figured I was somehow on the wrong page, and had gotten to some page about health insurance when you are unemployed. Nope. This is the right page.

Step Three: The last link in the first box on the page says the words “Apply Online”, and those words are underlined. Click this. This is where the online application starts, after a few confirmation screens where it tells you some helpful hints. You will come across a page called “Instructions For Unemployment Insurance Applications”. This is where they describe how they figure out the amount you might get paid. There will also be a giant list of stuff you will need to fill out the actual application. Go gather the stuff, and then click again.

Step Four: Towards the bottom of this page they recommend you sign up for California’s Job Search (CalJOBS). You have to register at that site within twenty one days of your application. Just do it now. It leads to a site where you can find jobs, and post a resume.

Step Five: After a little more of what I call “helpful information” you will get to the actual application that you went here to fill out in the first place. Fill it out. It’s pretty simple.

Step Six: Wait for ten days. They will mail you “UI Claim Materials”. If they don’t mail it to you in ten days (I would assume they mean “Business Days”) you need to give them a call. Write down the phone number, or bookmark the page, or something, just in case your state is tardy.

I thought I would be done filing for Unemployment after this, but no, it turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg. Therefore, consider this blog post to be “Part One”, and look for “Part Two” whenever I find out more about all this.

One more thing:
There is something chilling about getting done with filing for unemployment, and being “officially unemployed”. I decided to have my husband “help” (*cough* fill out for me *cough*) the unemployment forms, while I played World of Warcraft, and answered the questions he had about the questions on the form while running around a virtual Brewfest. Filling out the form asking the government to help you with money now that you have no job is scary! So, do whatever it takes to make it easier for you!

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26
Sep 09

Suddenly Jobless

I have become a statistic.

I lost my job this week. I used to be working full time, and I used to have health benefits, paid vacation days, and paid sick days. I used to be a Paraeducator for Special Education for a public elementary school in the town I live in. Thursday, September 24, I got a letter in the mail that said that my last day of work would be Friday, September 25. No reason was given. I went from holding a full time job in the field my college degree is in, to being completely unemployed just that quickly, with absolutely no warning that this was going to happen to me.

It is from this experience that the blog, “Between Gigs”, was born. It is abundantly clear that I am not the only person who lost a job. I’m not the only one out there who has been forced to find a way to survive while unemployed. It is here I will share all the useful information I find about filing for unemployment, inexpensive food, job searching, and where to find free stuff. My hope is to make things that much easier for the next person who ends up the same place I am, suddenly jobless.

Expect frequent updates! After all, I have nothing but free time now.