Two things this week that have made me laugh so hard I nearly cried:
1)The video for Business Time featuring Jemaine of Flight of the Conchords. (“Two minutes in Heaven is better than one minute in Heaven.”) Their EP, “The Distant Future,” comes out on August 7.
2)David Bowie singing the Pug Nose Face song to Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) on Extras
An interesting take on getting your budget under control from Philip Brewer on Wise Bread. He maintains that it’s the recurring monthly expenses, not the isolated purchases, that bust your budget over the long term.
Most books and articles on personal finance exhort you to make cuts in the budget for ephemeral items first, because that’s the easiest place to find something you can cut right away. They’re wrong, though: Start with the recurring monthly expenses.
And, he points out, fancy coffee drinks are often used as an example of ephemeral items to cut. But if you are buying lattes frequently enough to impact your budget, then they really should be considered a recurring monthly expense as well.
I’m liking this DIY $10 Pot Rack that Myscha Theriault posted on Wise Bread. I’m thinking I’d want something a little softer than “industrial black” for the new kitchen, but basically the same idea.
A house that we wanted suddenly became available, so we found out last week that we’ll be moving at the beginning of August. We’re excited about the move–more space, a fenced in yard for the kids, a better school for the boy when he starts kindergarten in a couple years. The new place is only 6 or 7 blocks from where we live now, so we are staying in our same neighborhood, which is what we wanted.
We got a good start on the packing last weekend but there is still so much to do. It’s hard to get much done in the evenings after work, with dinner, baths, and bedtime routines, but we keep working on it a little at a time. We’ll have to make another big push this weekend and next to have everything ready in time.
Our son seems to be excited about the idea of moving, so I hope he maintains his enthusiasm. He has been telling me each day all the things that we should take with us. “Everything,” he says, but then specifically names his “trains,” “our chairs,” “the kitchen,” and “the doors–because we’ll need them.”
With my usual tendency in these situations toward anxiety, I worry that things won’t go smoothly. Our handyman is making some repairs on the new place and he assures us it will be ready for occupancy by August 1, even though it looks to me like a lot of work still remains and I never see him working on it. We’ve made an agreement with this same person to hire him and some of his buddies to help us move. While he has eventually come through in the past on jobs, he always gives me cause to wonder whether or not he’ll be true to his word. He said he’d help us move a washer and dryer last weekend and then was nowhere to be found all weekend. He showed up Sunday night at 8 pm asking if we were ready, after we had already given up on him and made other arrangements. I find that sort of thing very stressful. Though as my husband points out, he has a large cash incentive to show up and do the job as promised on moving day, so he’ll probably come through. I’m trying to keep my mind focused on how happy I’ll be once we are settled in the new place, and just take the process a step at a time. Somedays I do better than others.
While chatting with the boy before bed last night, he told me very sweetly that he loves me and I am “nice” and “really useful.” For those of you who are not parents of young children, that’s high praise from a boy who is enamored with Thomas the Tank Engine.
He’s a really useful engine, you know
All the other engines they’ll tell you so
He huffs and puffs and whistles
Rushing to and fro
He’s the really useful engine we adore
My usual means of keeping my caffeine addiction in check has been a financial one. I favor fancy coffee drinks–vanilla lattes, cappuccino, and the like. Since I allot myself a certain amount of “walking around” money each week, when the money is gone, no more Starbucks. This served me well, until last month, when a fancy new $1300 coffee maker, the Gaggia 90500 Titanium Super Automatic Espresso Machine, arrived in our office to supplement the standard drip coffee that had been provided gratis each day. Now, for the cost of the milk that I store in the office fridge, I can make a virtually unlimited supply of coffee-house quality espresso drinks with the push of a button. My coffee consumption has skyrocketed, the only restraint being that I won’t drink it after 1 pm each day. It definitely makes it easier to get through the morning, but I’m hating the crash that comes after the buzz wears off.
Back in May I wrote about our infant daughter’s abrupt expulsion from daycare caused by the mismanagement, lies, and greed of the owners. Two other parents, EhiPassika and cellwynd have also blogged about their experiences with Tiny Tots Playroom. I’d like to think that the word is out, but last night on a local parents listserv a mom wrote that she was considering the facility for her infant daughter and asked for feedback. I immediately sent her an accounting of our experience. The owners acted with such dishonesty, poor judgment, and lack of ethics that I would never entrust them with the safety of my child, and could never in good conscience recommend that other parents do so either.
I’m not surprised that Tiny Tots Playroom has space for new families. Either families who were “allowed” to stay are finding better care and leaving, as many said they intended to, or the owners figure the pressure is off and they can once again start cramming as many people as possible into the building, zoning and licensing laws be damned.
