About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
I always have about 200 drafts saved here, dating as far back as 2006, and hit an all time high at 237 drafts last week. I realized that I never go back more than ten posts to pick up the thread and finish up a half written snippet so I’m resolved to spend ten minutes a day, or 50 minutes at once, deleting them.
They’re a bit of a time capsule, though, so I saved a few bits.
Sipping the workaholism martini
“You’re like a 1950s American dad. All you do is work to take care of your family; all you worry about is how to support them.”
No fewer than three people who don’t know each other, who may or may not know I blog about money a lot, who only know me from various points in my life have said the above to me over the past couple of years. Passing judgment, perhaps? Maybe. But that doesn’t make it untrue, either.
In any case, I don’t really take it that way. All I know is that it’s not nearly as fun as it sounds, what with the current love for all things Mad Men. It just seems like life should be a lot more glamorous if that were the case. I kid, I kid. Life would not be better if I were making oodles, smoking cigars and drinking real martinis at the three-martini lunch. (…..)
Micro-income: Achievement. I’m participating in a chronic pain study and getting rewarded with points. Combined with my regular earnings, I cashed out a $10 Paypal reward this month.
Small win: Late addition because I couldn’t think of one for a while. I saved $40 on Seamus’s pain medication because he and I were prescribed the same meds, so I shared mine with him instead of getting a new bottle of pills from the vet.
I tackled the question of whether our investments were optimized for taxes but decided in the end that maximizing our income is more important than worrying over a tax haircut. Mr Tako’s approach is similar.
This Gail Simone thread is why I don’t trust people until they’ve proven themselves to be trustworthy, and won’t tell JB “never fight/hit” but rather “don’t hit people unless they start it with you”. Horrible racists look just like anyone else. I also don’t disapprove of what she did. Those kids were all awful and that kid that caught the jump rope was choosing to bully smaller, younger kids. If the bullied little kid fights back, you deserve every welt. I have never understood the “turn the other cheek” thing because I was a tiny target for many bullies and darned if I was willing to let them get in another shot if I had any say about it. I mean, I do wish she’d been able to beat the crap out of the high schoolers who did hurt her and Dana but this kid was vile too.
I’m an introvert, through and through. I’ve preferred to work from my home office, sofa, bed, a dark corner, over going into the office since 2006 and pretty much nothing has shaken my core love of being alone for 8-10 hours a day to work my work thing, dog at my feet.
On the other hand, I adore my little family so I always look forward to seeing them at the end of each work day. In those hours that I’d normally keep working or cut bait and relax … well, no, bury myself in a book because I don’t relax well, my evenings have been wholly subsumed with family time and I’ve been happy with that.
It’s limiting, of course. There’s no such thing as a late night date, or even an early night date, when you’ve got a ravenous wee beastie to feed before meltdown. Spending time with friends is almost entirely relegated to the weekends, as well, though I can’t in good conscience pretend that I was ever a fan of meeting up socially on a school night.
I’m a creature of habit, so all in all, it’s been a good balance of alone time to family and friends time.
Of course, whenever I settle happily into my routine, something comes along to shake it up. Like, for example, PiC deciding to take JB on a trip without me earlier this year.
1. Food and lodgings, $100
2. Gas, $114
3. Trolley: $40
4. Gifts and stuff for us, $125
5. Badges, $572
6. Dogsitting, $250
7. Stupid tax, $10
Total: $1,261
1. We lodged with friends and they never let us pay for that. This year we weren’t able to pay for a meal out because of our timing but I have a thank you gift in mind if I can find it.
4. $125 of this was gifts, $50 was $100 worth of gift cards to the Out of Stock Clothing store. We’ll stack these with a $10 off coupon they may eventually send to us and probably use it to buy gifts.
5. Four days plus Preview for two adults. JB attends free up to age 12.
6. A dear friend dogsat for us because of some logistical complications. She protested that this was way too much but she treated Seamus and Sera to a doggy spa like experience for several days when I was most worried about Seamus post-op so I don’t agree with her. We did agree to disagree and that she could consider this a deposit for caring for them again in the future.
Small win: I continue clearing away the jungle that is our yard. I filled a 96-gallon green waste bin all by myself!
*flexing muscles* Just kidding, I destroyed my forearms filling that bin in a day and I have many many regrets.
What were your small wins this week?
***
The goodness of Mr. Rogers. Where did this kindness go? (A friend blew my mind, recently, suggesting that Lin-Manuel Miranda is our generation’s Mr. Rogers.)
The wolf population in Wisconsin could be stabilizing. This should happen naturally without human intervention so once again, I don’t understand the need for trophy hunting. Hunting for food, yes. Trophies? Not even a little.
I’d never heard of spite buildings before but … This makes sense.
I knew very little about Wilt Chamberlain aside from the occasional pop culture reference but this look back at his history made me nod with approval: For example, Wilt’s rookie season in 1960, he threatened to retire. (In exchange for more money, he didn’t.) And after the Philadelphia Warriors were moved to San Francisco in 1962, Wilt again threatened to retire. (In exchange for more money, he didn’t.) Eventually, in 1965, the Warriors’ new owner, Franklin Mieuli, wanted so badly to cut ties that he traded Wilt back to Philadelphia, where a new ownership group had purchased the franchise in Syracuse, moved it to Philly, and dressed it up with a new moniker, the 76ers. Wilt threatened to retire, and because of a man named Ike Richman, in exchange for more money, he didn’t.
Short of breaking a window, our house is pretty secure.
I know this because I pulled the door shut behind me, locking it, and then realized that what I had in my hand was a wad of tissues, not my keys. !$(#*$&)#!
It was one of those crappy confluences: I had 30 minutes to go pick up JB before daycare closed. PiC had JUST managed to get to the gym for a rare 30 minute session, and now I was sitting outside the house asking the dogs to unlock the door for me.
Really.
Rather than ask PiC to leave the gym, first, I desperately tried to teach Sera to be a velociraptor. “Just jump up and hit the lock, Sera, you can do it!” She was so confused. Both dogs were both so confused, they started barking at me. Long story short: It did not work at all.
The front door was securely locked. All the doors and windows are double paned and securely locked, we don’t leave anything open anymore, and there are extra bars along each window and door’s slide path to block them from being opened even if someone managed to pick the lock. Unless I was willing to break an expensive-to-replace-and-install-window (HECK NO), those were not feasible entry points. (more…)
I always have about 200 drafts saved here, dating as far back as 2006, and hit an all time high at 237 drafts last week. I realized that I never go back more than ten posts to pick up the thread and finish up a half written snippet so I’m resolved to spend ten minutes a day, or 50 minutes at once, deleting them.
I’m an introvert, through and through. I’ve preferred to work from my home office, sofa, bed, a dark corner, over going into the office since 2006 and pretty much nothing has shaken my core love of being alone for 8-10 hours a day to work my work thing, dog at my feet.
Our travel cost breakdown
Short of breaking a window, our house is pretty secure.