Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Another One Bites the Dust

And Blogger lets me in for the first time in days on Internet Explorer, proving yet again that it's totally unpredictable.

I'm very frustrated by something else at the moment. We've been trying very hard to find an appropriate piece of land for a price that we can afford. (Yes, that rules out those million dollar properties, darn it.) The property I looked at just after Canada Day really had a lot of potential and I've been looking into several aspects of it. I just got 2 batches of information and was pursuing something else when I discovered that the property has been sold!

I'm just so tired of this happening every time I find something and start doing all the grunt work. Am I asking for so much? Now I'm back to square one, looking for more possibilities, but I'm just feeling really discouraged.

Wednesday and Posting Works

Okay, I'm opening this in Firefox again on a different computer and it works. I guess I'm going to have to try putting Firefox on my laptop (I normally use Internet Explorer) and see if it works consistently. Right now I have a sample of 2 attempts, 2 successes. Interesting, but not statistically significant.

Today is Wednesday and I just got paid. I've been working a bunch of extra hours because my co-worker has been taking vacation so why don't I have very much money? I got my vacation pay for the year on my last cheque and didn't transfer it right away into ING (bad girl). I wanted to do that today, but that will only leave me with just under $600 and all my bill payments and end of month/beginning of month expenses that come out automatically total more than that! Plus, it might be nice to be able to buy groceries and gas for the next two weeks and I'm planning to go to the house for the BC Day long weekend just prior to when I get paid again. Translation? I've been spending my vacation pay and I'm not going to be able to fix it until after the next payday (which will also be for more hours than normal). What I really should do at that point is to transfer the money as fast as I can, because what's sitting in ING can't be frittered away.

I'm actually going to pay the bills from my laptop later (because I then save a print screen of the confirmations) but here's a list of what I'm planning to pay today (although not the exact amounts because I don't have them with me).

MasterCard $90, my usual every 2 weeks payment
Shaw internet ~$45
Bell cell ~$90
H2O ~$40
IKEA ~$45, the full balance owing from my trip there a couple of weeks ago

In other words, just over $300 worth of payments. And I want to get to my credit union so I can deposit my BC Benefit and another small cheque into my rural credit union account to cover my monthly service charge and the electric bill that will be coming out shortly. I think that's pretty good for today.

EDIT: Okay, I didn't get to the credit union (truthfully, I forgot all about it) but I did pay a total of $334.91 on those 5 bills and the 2 cheques to be deposited are sitting in my purse. I've been looking at my MasterCard statements and I see that sometimes (more often than I had realized) I only pay once, which really just takes care of the interest. I've made reducing my MasterCard debt by at least $100/month one of my mini goals now and I'll be keeping a closer eye on it. I actually want to get that card down below $5,000 before the end of the year. That would mean I'd have to pay off a little less than $900 in 6 months time ($150/month). We'll see how that goes.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

A Dog's Breakfast of Info

Oh, look! Blogger has graciously permitted me to post today. (I'm also trying to access it via Firefox, rather than IE. No idea if that helps.)

Things are very busy. Work is busy because we're in the process of changing Executive Directors. Things are busy with the kids because it's summer and every week is a little different in terms of who's in camp, who's away for a few days, etc. So far it's been working fairly well the 2 days per week that Dear Child goes to her sister-in-law's at 7 AM.

She's making more noises about wanting to go to camp herself though, and I'm gradually looking into it for one of the weeks that her niece is also going to be in (a different) camp. Drop off times are a bit flexible and they finish at totally different times, so the fact that it would mean 2 different locations doesn't look like a big problem.

Of course, it's also $120 for the week. That's quite a lot, but perhaps I can get a partial campership.

I've discovered that Hubby's extended medical plan has improved and I should be able to get more money back from my eye exam and new glasses than I originally thought! That's a good thing.

I was kind of planning on going to the house this weekend, but I'm probably going to stay in town for a totally shallow, pop culture reason. I think we're going to take Dear Child to meet Dog Chapman on Sunday morning. Yes, because every young Yiddishe, chassidishe maidele [Jewish, orthodox maiden] needs to meet a long-haired crew of tattooed bounty hunters once in her life (if only to be able to say to people who question our lifestyle that she's seen ones that are much more extreme, lehavdil [to make a distinction, especially between the religious and the secular] and yet are held up to public admiration, as opposed to the religious who are just considered to be odd or old-fashioned).

For anyone trying to pick their jaw up off the floor about now, let me say that I would take her to the circus too, without worrying that she might yearn to dress like the tightrope walker or run away to join up. I doubt this will encourage her to beg for a tattoo or to dress like Dog's wife, Beth. If anything, probably the opposite. And no, this isn't the pricey show at the Red Robinson Theatre. That's on Shabbos, when (obviously) we wouldn't consider going. Hubby found out that he's at some other event on Sunday, a car show or something (which I can't find online right now) and which is either free or cheap, I believe. Plus, if I'm right and it's a car show, Hubby would want to go to it regardless. Kind of like me and Home Shows. I try to go every year, no matter what.

What else is going on? Well, I looked at that other property on my last trip and it has potential. There's some things that need to be looked into and that's in process. We'll see what happens.

Problems Posting Again, Bear With Me

Friday, July 10, 2009

Post Fast

I'm not sure why I'm posting tonight. I feel very restless and can't concentrate. I'm busy at work and I'm the only one there, so I generally feel like I'm not getting anything done. Everything is just bothering me and I'm very distractible. Lucky I paid all those bills right away. In the mood I'm in right now I would never get around to it.

Part of it today is that it was a fast day, from around 2:40 am to 10:00 pm. I was up around 2 am and had my protein drink before the fast started. And I ate as soon as the fast was over. But my brain still feels kind of scrambled.

Maybe a good night's sleep will take care of things. I hope so.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Yet Another Payday Wednesday

I got paid today. What did I do with it? And what else did I accomplish?

Well, Dear Child had to be up and in the van at 6:45 am this morning so her brother-in-law could drop her off at her sister-in-law's house on his way to work. She spent the day there both yesterday and today, playing with her niece who is also 6.

I didn't have to leave until 8 am, so I paid a whole raft of bills before I even went to work. I paid the water bill, MasterCard (the $90 I pay each payday plus $20 to cover the $20 in new charges that I'd put on it), my cable internet, a majority of my cell bill (the balance I have to ask about because I don't understand the charges) and my garbage bill for my rural home. Yes, it didn't have to be paid until August, but I paid it now.

I felt good! Then I drove Eldest Daughter to work, took her 4 year old to summer camp and went to work. At 1 pm I picked my granddaughter up from camp and drove her home. A friend of Eldest Daughter was here looking after Boo Boo (the 2 year old), so I dropped the older girl off and went back to work. I was so busy that I worked late!

Monday, July 6, 2009

I'm Back and I Can See!

Dear Child, Dog and I had a great time at our rural home for 5 whole days!

Dear Child went swimming with her friends at an outdoor pool, where they do Swim Club a couple of times per week.

We had a Canada Day picnic at a local event and stayed until 9:30 pm because DC was enjoying herself so much.

We went to the beach and had a picnic dinner there, and made a sand castle.

We went back to the beach Friday, played in the sand, waded in the lake up to her waist (my hips) and shared a large popsicle. Then we came home and made pizzas for Shabbos dinner.

We took long walks around our little unincorporated place with Dog, exploring streets we've never been down before. I think we hit pretty much every street in town.

We found a new (local) video store and rented movies. DC had her friend from next door over to watch a couple of them.

DC also played with her friends whenever they were home, doing art on the computer, playing board games and running through the sprinkler.

My old school friend came out from town, had lunch and played 2 games of Scrabble with us.

We looked at the second piece of property I'm interested in with my realtor and I'm still interested in it! To date, there have only been 2 other properties that passed the visit to the site test and they were both significantly more money than this one. There's some stuff to research and all but the listing realtor isn't terribly interested in the property so it's not like it's likely to sell tomorrow. Heck, I've been pushing for info on it and to be able to see it for the past 3 months (since the week it came on the market) and she finally faxed the info on the weekend. We'll see.

Oh yeah, and I completed several hours more of backbreaking work in the garden. At least it looks fairly decent now. My grapevine is alive and has 3 leaves. The rosemary plants died, but the lavender is fine. Two of the three are budding. The peppermint is hanging on but the apple mint is spreading all over the place (it's in the front and I pulled some out from the back end of the far side of the house). The lilac is also healthy, although it doesn't look like it flowered.

And my biggest news? I picked up my new glasses today! They look nice, I can see and I'm happy with them.