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Archive for August, 2007

Office Space....

August 29th, 2007 at 09:09 pm

Hubby has more time at home. New company has thoughtfully provided Hubby with a laptop and a way to access the company from home. So he works a lot more weekends and some evenings from home. I just didn't realize that he needed somewhere to do it. Somewhere safe. After watching the dogs racing around the tv table he was working on and nearly pulling the laptop off by the cords, I realized that he needed a safe and reasonably quiet place to work. I had been planning on redoing DS's old room into a bonafide guest room, but it seemed to be a logical choice for an office. DS has been out of the room for almost double digit years. And, I still have DD's room to leave as a bedroom, especially for little grandyounguns. The colors I picked out would still go for an office. I moved an unused, but terrific desk in there. A table and a lamp. A rocker for comfortable reading. A tray to hold all the stuff that comes out of guy's pockets and off their belts (they don't need to be laughing at women's purse contents). Yesterday, I made my first foray into the remodeling fund for a new light fixture. Something nice and masculine. We'll put it up on Friday. I will probably buy the paint then, too. Once finished, I hope to add bookcases for all the books boxed up. And to refinish the floors where I pulled up all the old carpet. Good thing. I found more mold in the closet carpet. Probably been there from Rita. Sheesh. Dried, but still nasty. Since we didn't have mold on the closet walls and the carpet hadn't been wet when we checked it like some of the other carpet areas were, we didn't think about it. Glad it is out of there now. This weekend, he changed out all the wall sockets that were still for two pronged plugs. He brought home the speakers he had taken to work and now can listen to tunes. I've even told him he could put his stuff up on the walls. All in all, he loves the room and spent a lot of this weekend working away in there. I still need to buy new blinds and to buy an office chair since the one he is using at the desk is too low. I guess I'll need to add cable in there during football and basketball seasons. I may be doing too well....he may never come out. I may never see him again....

What's in a Name....

August 27th, 2007 at 07:00 pm

The kids all wondered what we would like to be called as grandparents. So we set about trying to find names for ourselves. Considering we would have them for the rest of our lives, we wanted names we could live with. There are already a couple of Nanas, a Papa, a Grandma, and a Grandpa. In the more distant past, my family had on one side Mama "name" and Daddy "name" and on the other side formal Grandfather and Grandmother. Hubby had the Grandpa and Grandma names on his side, too. We ran through the options. Including the Cajun versions here. Clearly, we had some thinking to do. Mine was settled fairly easily. I have lived with a short name for a long time and opted for Grams. That was approved by all. Hubby, however, was stumped. I mused to DS that we needed a Grandparent names for dummies book. He responded by sending us websites. Some of the names are simply hilarious. Since the nursery is based on Winnie the Pooh, we ran the Poohpa name from the list by the kids. Flatly rejected by all of them. Also, Hubby decided that the name would be shortened to PooPoo somewhere along the line. DS tongue-in-cheek suggested another from the list--the Grand Dude. Which of course would end up shortened to the Grand DooDoo. Somewhere in all the names, we found Grampa. That was approved by the committee. So, we finally have names--Grams and Grampa. Whew! Glad THAT is settled.....
P.S. I'm so sorry, Ima, that I never answered your question. They've been told that the baby is a girl!

Disappearing Act....

August 24th, 2007 at 09:32 pm

I didn't realize how long it had been since I've been on the blogs. I need to really catch up on everybody!

I went out of town briefly for a baby shower and then a visit to DD after summer sessions ended. Then, we've spent a lot of time getting things done for hurricane season. I had the food supplies pretty much down, but files need to be readied and assorted things needed to be done. With Dean looming out there, we felt an urgency to get things ready to leave. Hubby is on the last convoys out this time, so I have to be ready to leave on my own. That also means separating some of the stuff so that we can get what we need out. My thoughts and prayers go out to those now in damaged areas and flooded towns. I have a friend from high school living in Ohio now, and I definitely need to write and find out if she and her family are okay.

The local bank took a fraud report on my compromised debit card and refunded my money in 24 hours. They even refunded the entire amount. And they watched my account for the one item that hadn't gone through yet. And refunded it the very next day when it did. Wow, I think I'll take more of my business to them. That's service and a comfort.

One of the dogs had a reaction to her vaccines this time. She is about eleven, so I didn't even think about that happening. She broke out into hives. What a miserable little puppy. We took her to the emergency clinic and they got her fixed up. Didn't know doggies could get benadryl. They didn't charge us for an office visit because it was a vaccine reaction, but we did pay for the two shots. That and the vaccines decimated the pet budget for the month. I might have to consider upping the amounts in that column. But happy puppies are worth it.

I used the money in my medical fund to go to the new eye doctor. I think I'm going to like him and his office. They accidently misplaced me between the initial info visit with the assistant and the visit with the doctor. They left me in the dilating area for about an hour. I just got ready to ask if I was missing in the system when the doctor himself discovered me and apologized like crazy. Seems I was misfiled. They were so upset, but I was okay. Things happen. He really seems to know his stuff. Afterwards, I called Hubby to come and meet with me down the street for a little dinner. Was the worst dinner we've had in a long time. That restaurant is now placed on the Never Go There Again list. There went a chunk of the eating out budget for the month. And for practically inedible food. Rats.

The hurricane preparations have helped to demolish the budget for the month. I was in the red last month and this month is going in the same direction. But I am reassured by the fact that around October, I'll have a supply of food to eat up. We've been eating all the stuff out of the fridge and freezer, and I dumped the ice cream I bought. No one was eating much of it, and that is not something that you need in your freezer at this time of year. I don't know what possessed me to buy it a couple of weeks ago. I lost my mind for a moment.

Where does all the paper junk come from? I have been shredding up some boxes of stuff found in the garage. I thought most of that old stuff had been destroyed before Rita. I have almost five bags of confetti now. Good grief. Nothing like thinking all your past might be spread all over the county after a storm to get the ole shredder fired up.

Glad to be back and I'll have a ton of reading to catch up on. Welcome to all new bloggers and howdy to those I've missed reading. Pretty soon is my first year blogversary. I can't believe how much I've learned from all of you in such a short time. And made some new friends. Hope all are well....

It Happened to Me, TOO!

August 8th, 2007 at 11:01 pm

I just got a fraud alert about my debit card. Someone has counterfeited my card in another state. The charges add up to almost 500 dollars so far. But the company that watches those things for our bank alerted and caught it. My card is now frozen. I have to file something with my bank tomorrow. Wow, I think I will do what so many have said and quit using the debit card and go back to a credit card or cash purchases. This way the money won't leave my account. I hate that we have to live this way. I had just gotten used to using these new types of payments since everyone laughed that I still lived in the dark ages. But we didn't have to deal with this stuff then. I am going to pay off and free up one credit card for all monthly purchases and then use it and pay it off out of my budget every month. Perhaps one that has rewards. No more using the debit cards. This is sure a wake up call....

Antsy....

August 2nd, 2007 at 07:00 pm

I got tired of things in the pantry closet falling off the shelves and onto my toes. I decided that a little redo was in order. I had a couple of things to add in there and didn't have any where for them to go. So I started reorganizing things to accommodate them and stop the avalanches. What I had was ants. Not the itty bitty things that show up randomly around the house, but some big, black things. I assume they were run in by the monsoons we've been having. There is an access door in the bottom section of the pantry that the termite people use to inspect the bathroom plumbing in that area, so I am assuming that's where they were coming from. The pantry itself is in a hall with a bathroom behind it. The rest of the house is on a slab. Not that there couldn't be accesses from cracks. So a little do-over turned into ant tracking. I only had to discard a couple of items, the rest was okay. But I realized I need another storage strategy. I might have to store more in sealed containers. It would make things easier to stack. Probably need to invest in something. In addition, I found a couple of items on my to-buy list that I didn't realize I had stocked. I do have a master list for hurricane supplies, but the other baking/cooking supplies don't have a list. I need to rethink that or I'll waste money on things going bad or on things that have multiples in the closet. At least I have a central place now. That was step one. Seems I haven't completed the task. I probably wouldn't have done as massive a redo if I hadn't found ants. Guess I should thank the little critters.....

It's Mom's Fault.......Really!

August 1st, 2007 at 07:07 pm

I absolutely adore my mom, so this is a tongue in cheek sort of thing. I have been antsy about attending DIL's baby shower because I have a hard time with larger groups of people. The kids' college friends have always been great to me, and I have been invited many times to hang around and have enjoyed listening to them all talk and stuff. But this was going to be a bigger crowd. I know that it is all about the baby and mom to be; but for some reason, I was going through a time of anxiety. Guess it has a lot to do with hurricane season getting ready to amp up and the rest of the preparations I need to make. And the fact that Hubby's project had gone south. He hasn't had a failure in 20 years. It has been tough on him, and I've been worried about him.

I was talking with Mom on the phone about the gift she wanted to send. She knew I was struggling a bit about getting ready to travel to the party, so she suggested that I get out and buy something new and summerlike to wear. I had mentioned that many of my clothes definitely need to be retired because they are getting rather worn out. She had a good point. She doesn't advocate spending a lot of money, though. She is frugal and really doesn't like spending a lot of time shopping for clothes for herself. I resisted for a couple of days. I wondered why. I guess it is because I knew I might unleash the clothing buying monster. But then I got out to run some errands and ended up at a couple of my favorite stores. I haven't had much luck yet at thrift stores, and I decided to look at sales and bargains. Boy, did I hit the jackpot. For some reason, one store had plenty of things, most of which were under ten dollars and a bunch under seven dollars. I think I tried on everything in the section. I even got a great couple of jackets for fall for less than ten dollars apiece. I did end up buying a couple of things full price, but I have some gift money to use. And I have some money in the clothing budget that I rarely use. I ended up with a lot of great deals, and except for some underwear, I won't need to buy anything else for another year at least. It was actually quite freeing to know that the budget money was there. The bad thing is that I found out that the clothing buying monster is still hanging around. I overspent a bit and will make it up in the clothing budget for the next couple of months. I haven't been stockpiling that money, I've been putting practically the whole amount each month into the $20 challenge. So I might have to actually keep a little fund for future mad escapades that have a purpose. So, it was Mom's idea and a good one. But I did go a little crazy. She obviously didn't advocate me spending a bunch of money. She was being a very supportive mom. And I love her for that. I now have a bunch of new things that fit and that I will wear. Most will work great for fall and winter. All went with things I already own. So thanks, Mom, I appreciate your suggestion. It will help me out in many ways. It's my fault that I haven't disciplined myself yet in the buying clothes sprees. That is something I am going to work on for the future. Meanwhile, after all the effort and expense, if we do have to evacuate again, the clothes are going with me.....