October 1, 2007
My water bill came in the mail last week with a surprisingly refreshing note: You can now pay your bill online by credit or debit card!
That’s wonderful!
I don’t think I have anything so advanced as an online billing interface, but at least I can log in online and pay via credit card for next-day posting instead of trying to remember to mail this single mail-only bill.
September 28, 2007
The girls are taking me out tonight to dinner, drinks and dancing tonight. I was excited but the weather’s all gloomy and gross, and all I want to do is go home to curl up with my brand new:
On an entirely different topic, I just got an email from Little Boss asking me not to do anymore OT until further notice. I’m almost sure that it’s a budgetary concern, and not a reflection of performance, but the pessimistic side of me can’t help but think it has to do with the increased goofing off that’s been going on lately. We’ve been collectively letting off steam a little TOO much in the past week, and it probably can’t have helped. I know one other person’s gotten the same request, and we’re equally paranoid about it.
September 27, 2007
We’re finally having my birthday lunch in the office today. I selected the cuisine and menu because we have a horrid habit of over-ordering and stuffing our mini-fridge to a fare-thee-well. We can’t do that now because mini-fridge has been smelling weird for the last three days and no one can figure out why. Most of the time I’m really embarrassed by non-friend celebrations of my birthday (meaning anything staged by my family or work cohorts) because I hate being the center of attention. But now that it’s nearly a week late, it doesn’t feel like it’s really my birthday anything, so I don’t mind as much. Yes, weird.
Whether it’s because of this last big conference that required a big clothing buy or just the all-expenses-paid sort of mentality that’s seeping into regular life, I’m fresh out of motivation. It may finally be wearing off now, but I’d better not get too complacent.
Cake does a really strange rendition of “I will survive.” Or is it just weird because I’ve never heard it before? Gloria Gaynor DID do it first, right?
Fabulously Broke tagged me for a “How we met” story, so I’ll have to get that post together. Soon.
Oh! And I finally faxed off the correction to my 403(b) to increase my contributions to $1000/month for the next three months. Since I have a thing about keeping as much of my income as retirement or planned goals savings instead of paying some ridiculously high amount of tax on untaxed income, this should help offset my total taxable income tax bill that’s to come by reducing my taxable income. It’s possible that I won’t be filing as Head of Household this year, so I’m preparing for a heavier tax burden. I hate that my tax status is so changeable without any appreciable alterations to my actual lifestyle.
What else? The check will be, supposedly, in the mail next week. This whole raise business has been abnormal and decidedly odd. Whatever, come here li’ raise!
September 24, 2007
I apologize, it’s been an age since I last blogged. Much has happened since you last tuned in: we survived the conference in San Diego, a marriage proposal was made during my absence and the birthday weekend was cold, rainy and full of comic books and sleeping in. Ok, not much has happened at all, really. We do, however, have the two final candidates for the bridesmaid dress! (courtesy of David’s Bridal).
Our first contestant is a lovely satin number. She takes after her mother, a ball gown, and has her father’s sense of flair with that beaded band across her middle. Please meet contestant number one!
Our second contestant is a daring charmeuse/chiffon. She’s got flair in the form of a cute tail, or as we in the business like to call it, a “back cascade.” The empire waist and chiffon halter are unified in our formfitting contestant number two!
Both dresses will require quite a bit of alteration, though I think the second one would be less complicated. I need to rustle up a personal seamstress whose services I can afford on a regular basis because I simply don’t have the expertise to tell what is and isn’t feasible. Opinions, anyone?
September 12, 2007
but the word on the raise is … weird.
The guy in charge, let’s call him Treasurer because that’s how I think of him, has decided that it would be best to just send me one half of the total raise before January 1st. The other half would be sent after January 1st. Leaving aside the obvious vagueness of the whole thing, that’s one quarter of my salary in a lump sum UNTAXED.
Holy tax implications! I’d better hie me to the Benefits Office and hike up my pre-tax contributions for the rest of this year. I have no idea how much that’ll really help, but any little bit at this point is probably good.
My foodie friends, I have two questions:
1. Chez Panisse of Berkeley, excellent or just good?
2. Is it good value for the money? This basically means that the experience and the dining are on par with the money they’re charging. I’m not impressed by being fed inch size servings laced with pretty colors if the taste and eventual satiety isn’t there, in other words.
The sister-in-law proposed it as a dinner option, prefacing it with “I don’t know if it fits your budget” so I automatically selected it as a lunch option instead.
Does anyone have input/insight on this restaurant?
September 5, 2007
My future father in law is having surgery right now at a university hospital. Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well without complications!
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