Monday Evening With 'The Mole'

Many of my friends don't even own a television. We own three, each with either a VCR and/or a DVD player. Right now my 5 year old's TV is at our other house. It's the smallest TV of the 3 and that's the place where we only get one channel (CBC) and it's often fuzzy or in black and white. We mostly watch DVDs there.

Here in the city we almost always watch the TV in the bedroom, which has both a VCR and DVD in the TV and an additional VCR attached. I watch decorating shows, our DC watches childrens programming, Hubby watches sports, news, sports, every reality show ever made and sports.

I don't mind going to the occasional hockey or football game, but I tune out most of the sports on TV, especially when he watches the game, then the sports on 2 or 3 different channels (each one showing replays of the same goals) and some of the reality shows are just too out there for me.

But there are some I enjoy watching with Hubby. Foremost among them are The Amazing Race, Survivor and The Mole. The thing all 3 shows have in common is exotic locations (although once they get there, Survivor is static). But the contestants in the other 2 shows get to travel from country to country.

Monday night is The Mole and Hubby tapes it while I'm at work in the evening so we can watch it together after I get home. I love to travel and I'm detail-oriented but I couldn't imagine going on the show. For anyone who hasn't seen it, the show takes a number of people around the world, gives them tasks to do as a group and they earn money that goes into the pot. But one person is the Mole, a plant whose job is to prevent them from completing tasks, confuse them, get them lost, etc. The ultimate aim is to identify the Mole and there is a quiz at the end of each show. The person with the least number of correct answers is 'executed', leaves the show. The finale consists of 3 people, one of whom is the Mole. After the final quiz, the winner gets all the money in the pot.

They give the players journals to write in (although they sometimes take them away or give them to their opponents to read or whatever) but there are so many things you have to pay attention to while trying to complete the task that I can't imagine being successful at pinpointing the Mole. And the questions are really tough. Like: Was the Mole wearing a hat during such and such a task? Or: Where was the Mole sitting during dinner (from the host's viewpoint)?

Right now, there are 4 or 5 people left, including Nicole, whom I believe to be the Mole, and the pot is a little over $300,000.

So, how about it? Would you go on a show that meant you had to leave your work and family for a month or more, take part in physically challenging tasks and risk being sent home with nothing, all for the chance to win several hundred thousand dollars?

And what would you DO with hundreds of thousands of dollars? The dumbest answer I've heard came from a guy on a game show who said he wanted to buy a pirate ship!

After the Fast

Last night I said I'd be spending my day "updating my excel expense sheet, doing laundry and going through boxes". How did I do?

Well, it's amazing how much work I can do when I'm avoiding our financial situation. I did 4 loads of laundry and emptied 6 boxes. I got more books up on the shelves and actually folded the clean laundry and put it away (it often sits in the basket until half of it is too crumpled to be worn).

I didn't work straight through. I just worked a bit, then rested a bit, playing games on the computer. And then I did a little more, over and over again.

I finally decided I had to get going on entering what we've spent and to finish arranging the receipts in envelopes by month. So then I started looking for the little bag I've been keeping it all in (envelopes with receipts, loose receipts, bills, etc.) and guess what? That's right. I can't find the bag! I found a bunch more receipts that haven't been entered (I put a tick mark on them when I've done them and then they're supposed to go into the envelope for that month, so I can tell what's been entered) but no little yellow bag.

I'm not quite panicking yet but it's really bothering me. I'm sure I picked it up and put it away somewhere before Shabbat but my brain obviously wasn't "on" at the time so I don't remember where it was and it may have been somewhere really illogical.

I'm just going to call it quits for tonight and hope that something will come to me tomorrow, or that I'll just find it in the course of continuing to tidy things up. The fast went not too badly. I was hungry most of the day but I didn't end up with a migraine or fall asleep from low blood sugar or anything. We cooked up the remains of the BBQ chicken with onions and garlic and had it with salad when the fast ended.

I'm tired now though, so I'm going to go to bed a little early.

A Busy Fast Day

Sunday is a fast day. I don't mean it will go by quickly; I mean I can't eat or drink from roughly 3 AM to 10 PM. Believe me when I say it won't be going by quickly. This fast and the one 3 weeks from now are the toughest fasts of the year for me. Yom Kippur is not as bad, even though it's longer than this one.

I think it's because these two are during the hottest part of the summer, when it's harder to go without water and because they are fairly regular days in other respects. On Yom Kippur you spend the day praying with a million other people in shul. It keeps your mind and body occupied and everybody else around you is doing the same thing.

Sunday, on the other hand, I will be spending at home updating my excel expense sheet, doing laundry and going through boxes. Hubby is taking DC and our 3 year old granddaughter to an open house at the local fire hall (always fun) and then to his folks for a swim (because they've only been swimming 5 times in the past week, but they have new swim goggles to try out).

I didn't mention it on Friday, but I finally got my regular monthly Child Care Benefit cheque. It's for $56, so that's what I'll get every month for the next year. I still haven't received the retroactive cheque though and it was too late to call about it on Friday, so I'll have to wait until at least Monday for that. I really want to know what's happening because, judging from this year's payment, I should be getting somewhere around $600 (right about what I'd expected).

Well, I already had several pieces (okay, 5!) of cinnamon toast (the challah was really squished and the pieces were only about an inch high) with a big cup of decaf. I'm going to post this and go drink the protein drink I normally have for breakfast and then hit the hay. I'm not going to stay up right until 3 AM just so I can eat and drink up until the last possible second. The extra hour isn't going to kill me.

Tempted by the Sidewalk Sale

I had to stop at the mall today on the way home and they're having a sidewalk sale. In order to get to Safeway I had to run the gauntlet of all the tables and racks and I was very, very tempted.

A high end dress store that sells mostly wedding and special occasion ware had a few racks out and one skirt caught my eye. It was a filmy, iridescent dark blue skirt that was cut shorter in the front (a little below knee length) and floor length behind. It had lace and sequins appliqued on it and it was just gorgeous. Regular price? A hair under $400! I think it was marked down the first time to $150, but it had been marked down a second time to $59.99.

I wanted it. It was marked as being a little smaller than I normally take, but it didn't look like it was really that small. I almost picked it up and tried it on. But if I had and it had fit me, I would have had to buy it and I don't have any money right now. (In fact I'm in overdraft because I didn't transfer money out of my ING vacation pay fund to cover the 3 days of vacation I took last pay period.)

I had my credit card on me, but I've promised myself I won't use it unless it's necessary (like the time I had to charge $3 for parking at a government building because I don't carry cash and they didn't take Interac). I wanted the skirt but I couldn't convince myself that it was necessary even though I know it won't still be there on Wednesday when I get paid.

So, then I went by the book store and bought a book from one of the remainder tables. But that's okay. I paid $5.66 for a hard cover book that will give me something interesting to read on Shabbos (when I can't watch TV or be on the computer). Speaking of which, I'm off to prepare the dinner I tried to start last week by mistake.

We're having salmon with mayonnaise, dill and parmesan cheese, potatoes and green peas with butter. Challah buns and white grape juice. No wine this week because I can't afford to spend $15 or more. Tomorrow we have BBQ chicken and homemade potato salad.

Shabbat Shalom!

Another Tax Refund Arrives

I got home from work today and found more money from Canada Revenue Agency! True, it was only $17.69, but it means that I'm one step closer to getting my retroactive Child Care Benefit and BC Benefit payments. Now that they can confirm our total family income for 2006, they can figure out how much was due to me last year. That amount will come as a lump sum. In addition, they already know our family income for 2007, so I should start getting this year's benefit payments this month!

What will I do with my lump sum payment? Well, it depends on how big it is. Based on what I've received in past years I'm sort of expecting it to be somewhere between $500 and $700. If I'm in the right ballpark I'll be able to put away enough money to pay the next Home Depot payment plan to come due in January and put the rest towards my property tax and garbage collection and maybe have some left over. If it's less, the property tax and garbage come first, and the balance could either go towards Home Depot or school clothes for our DC.

What will I do with the monthly benefit? I'd like to say it's going to go to savings but, if I'm honest, I'll have to say it will be absorbed into our current budget to reduce the deficit we've been running . And what about the $17.69? I think I'm going to deposit it into my Credit Union account, which is the account I use for the bills for the rural house. That amount will cover almost 2 months worth of bank charges on the account.

I Can't Pay My Bell Cell Bill

I just can't do it.

I hear someone muttering about how excited I was about my free BlackBerry, my great data plan, getting away from Fido and its horrible customer service, etc. etc. I've only had this phone for under a month so how could it be so impossible to pay my bill?

It's simple. I can't access it.

I was signed up for an e-bill when I got the phone and I received an email a few days ago saying that my first bill was ready. I've been trying to access it ever since. I went to the Bell site and registered but I couldn't link the account to my user name.

You see, in order to link an account you have to input data off your paper bill. I. Have. No. Paper. Bill. I tried to email Bell about this problem but my email wouldn't go because I didn't fill in my account number. Guess why? Right. The account number is found on your paper bill.

I couldn't phone Bell then because they have ordinary business-type hours (why are they not 24/7?) but I called them the next morning and sat on hold for 10 minutes. When I got a live person, she verified my identity, then gave me my account number. I went back online last night and started the linking process again. I got as far as entering my cell phone number and hitting enter before I got a message saying they were having technical difficulties and to try again later.

Tonight I tried again. This time the stumbling block is the question that asks what day your statement is generated. Hey, the info is right there on your bill.... I tried the date the email saying the bill was ready came. I tried the date I signed the contract. Then I tried the day after that and got a message saying "Your account has been locked due to several unsuccessful registration attempts. Please try again in 24 hours."

Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow? Sitting on hold waiting to see if customer service can tell me what date to enter!

I wonder if I'll be able to access my bill before the due date for paying it has come and gone, but I can't tell because, of course, I don't know when it's due!

I still love my phone, but my goodness, they need to get their act together otherwise.

Will I Ever Catch Up?

Probably not. I keep trying to get current on entering my receipts but I can only do it when I don't have kids bopping around and I tend to put it off for all kinds of reasons. It's too late. I'm too tired. I have to get up early in the morning. It'll take too long.

I've been at it since I came home and I'm literally falling asleep here as I type. I wish I could say I'm all caught up now but that's not the case. Worse, it puts me behind in writing here on the blog and I feel compelled to try to stay up and complete some kind of semi-coherent post. That's hard to do when I pause for a moment and a game board just somehow appears in my mind and I start playing this game I've never seen before. Do you think maybe I fell asleep? Uh huh. And I woke up a minute or so later. The problem is, next time I may not wake up until morning.

One of the reasons I fall asleep when I try to do this sort of thing is that it's a form of resistance that's going on in my brain. The other reason is that I'm really tired. But resistance is significant. It means I'm doing something that is really out of my comfort zone and my brain will try anything to get me to stop. Why does it seem to be so threatening just to try to get a handle on how much I'm really spending and what I'm spending it on?

Perhaps I want to think I'm in control of my spending and that we're managing well, even though it's clear we've been spending more than we've made recently. Perhaps I don't want to see the changes I need to make.

Whatever it is, I can fight and win through. But a good night's sleep couldn't hurt.