Money

Well, apparently I have made the cardinal sin. I/my kids have misplaced a DVD that we borrowed from the library. I've been looking around for DAYS. I was getting some late charges on the DVD and I thought I better say it's missing. Because at this point, it is missing. I've looked under, over and in various items where it shouldn't be and sure enough, it isn't in those places.

But short story...after I said it was lost, they told me it would cost about $35 in fines. $19.99 for the DVD, $8 for the processing fee and a bunch of late charges. I figured that I wouldn't go to the library for a little bit and just pay the charge at a later time.

Oh no. The library takes their books seriously. I got a letter in the mail today that I have to pay within 21 days or a collection agency will come after me. Holy crap! When did the libraries get crazy with collection agencies?! I have an image of people with bats coming after me.

Oh well, those kidlets better find it or there's going to be hell to pay.

Baby Shower

We currently have someone that is on mat leave. But this woman is incredible in terms of setting up parties, etc., for other people at the office. As mentioned, she's gone and I'm doing it now. And it's more by default. No one wants to get it together but then people will complain when it's not done.

I just do it now and just hope everybody shuts up. I'm no where near as good as this other woman who did the planning. But isn't work more important? At least, that's what I stress.

Anyways, I'm planning two events right now. One is for a goodbye. And one is for a baby shower. I don't even bother guessing at what mom's want now. I just ask because you never know what types of unique baby gifts are wanted by the parents. And good thing I asked because I would have never picked the items/stores that this woman picked. But it's a shower for her...so whatever goes.

I'm hoping that someone else will step up for the next event. At least the other woman seemed to actually enjoy it. I don't mind, but I don't think I enjoy it as much. Maybe it's because I deal with so many whiners.

Cleaner

I just ran out of noxema. That's been my current acne treatment. I use it on and off but it seems to do the trick. However, I've run out and each time I go to the store, I forget to buy it. Little ugly things are popping up on my face again.

I've also noticed some major crow's feet around my eyes!! I try to tell myself it's because of all the smiling and laughing I do. I should be proud of those lines. But wow, they're starting to be noticeable.

I guess it's all downhill from here for me. Acne, crow's feet, cellulite and stretch marks. I'm SEXY. LOL!

Pictures

I've been doing a bit of research on digital cameras. I currently have one...but I'm thinking of taking the leap into SLR ones. I need one that has a fast drive. Only because I tend to take series of pictures. However, research, research. Everything costs money.

My dad got wind of me doing this type of research and he told me to talk to him before buying. You have to understand, this man gets great discounts. Sometimes, I think people pay him to buy the item. But he's so good that when he bought his camera from London Drugs, they actually gave him a further $400 discount off the camera and sold him two camera bags specifically for that camera for $20 each when they retail for $60. It's London Drugs!!! Isn't what they say in the flyer what you pay?!

Anyways, maybe the camera will be my extra big Christmas present to myself.

Blogging

Well, it's been a wee while since i've blogged. It's just been a little crazy here. Everyone was sick. My last one is still recovering from croup. But the kids go to school and pick up everything that's gross and pass it to everybody else. We also have people at work who are deathly ill and decide that it's ok to come to work. So we get sick from them and pass it back to our kids. Yes, something about our immune system getting stronger. But, really, all at once?

I was quite sick where I finally succumbed to taking the night time cold medication. I really hate that stuff because it works so well. I'm always worried that something is going to happen where I can't hear what's going on and I just don't get up. Crazy, I know. I also hate taking this stuff because I find it takes a while to get through my system.

The one night I did take it, I ended up sleeping for about 10 hours (however, I still woke up twice as my kids were loud enough that I did wake up in between...twice). So it's not the best sleep. Anyways, I got up for breakfast and I was so tired after breakfast that I went back to sleep again! I'm sure it was the drugs.

Anyways, back to the grind tomorrow. It is Monday. Yay??

Eyes

I've worn contact lenses since high school. It's been great as it's given me the freedom to do what I do and not break my glasses. However, I've thought on and off about surgery. But I'm not so sure. I hate the idea of it. And sometimes, it doesn't work well. I had someone in our office go through it...and after a while, she said if she knew the trouble she'd have, she wouldn't have gone through it. And if you know me, you know I'm totally squeemish when it comes to anything with the eyes. I just about lost it when I heard that certain INuit tribes will lick the eyeballs of people if there's something stuck in there. Hey, it works, but GROSS.

So, for now, it's just those little things that go in my eyes,

Equipment

With the work that I do, I use a laptop. It's actually very handy and it's great that I can tote it around. But I think it's time to add some juice to my baby! I need some more laptop memory. It's getting a little slow to load up and do the work that I need. It's frustrating.

Or it coud be that I have so much crap on there that I need a day to take out all the junk. Let's hope it's the memory issue because I REALLY don't want to clean out my system. It would take too long.

Rates

I watch a ton of US shows. It's actually quite ridiculous that anybody actually eats or has clean clothes in this house. By watching so much US shows, I get a ton of those US commercials. That includes the long and exhaustive US election campaign ones. But I also see a lot of commercials for cheap auto insurance. Seems like a neat idea. But if they tried that here, I think I'd be utterly confused. How can the same insurance from one company be the same but cost so much less?

My concern would be that I would go for the cheapest option, and heaven forbid, if something were to happen, I'd lose out big time because I didn't see a certain clause.

I think I'll stick with my one insurance stop. For those that are smart enough to figure out everything else, good on you.

Supplies

I have no idea where the heck our office supplies go. I swear, every week our program support folks fill in the orders and buy essentials. But within a couple of days, it's gone. i.e. I needed an eraser BADLY. But there were none. Zippo. Another hot item around the office are pens. Like, REALLY hot. I should have my own little black market to sell pens at work. I'd make a killing.

And honestly folks, out of pure courtesy for others, if you take the last item, order some more so that others don't go looking for supplies only to be frustrated that there is nothing there.

I think that our admin folks can stop buying staples though. I think we have enough until the next millenium...can we trade them in for some erasers though?!

Money

Well, we ended up deciding not to buy a new car. We were all gung ho. But after conversations, my husband and I both agreed that our cars still work, and yes, we wish we had more space in the cars, but that's the least of our worries. We should save our money for housing projects we have been hoping to work on.

That includes our basement. If we had all the money in the world, theater seating with a projector would be great. Friday nights, popcorn while watching a movie while in your own home. Works for me.

But no, at this time, just saving up some money to finish up the place. It's a good idea especially if we decide to sell this house at some point. It'll bring in a bit more money.

Knock on wood that our cars last a little longer!

YouTube

For those that liked Toy Story 2 and The Dark Knight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QFWBFIEuig&eurl=http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo

Frozen

Well, that's my youngest kid's mouth. It's frozen all right. That's because she got distracted at the playground and fell off and split in her inner lip. Actually, she split it so deep that you can see the wound on the outside too.

So off to emergency we go to get some stiches. Of course, it's stinking busy. But the emergency folks told of us of a medical clinic that actually does sutures and that it would only be an hour wait rather than 5 at the emergency room. Fine by me. I'm going to disgree for just a moment though. There are times that you pony up the $54 to take an ambulance to the hospital. There was a guy that came in after us and his neighbour brought him into the hospital. We heard bits and pieces...but basically, this guy fell of a ladder and landed on his back. You don't get your neighbour to drive you...frick, that is full on, call 911 moment!!! Common sense folks.

Anyways, off we go to the clinic. And my youngest is doing really well...basically happy and smiling now. But my husband and I are grossed out because she kept pushing on the cut and kept opening it up. Bleah. We were told by the doctor that she definitely needed a stitch or two. But in order to do so, she needed to have a needle to freeze the area in order to be sewed up. I'm thinking there is going to be some screaming. My husband was sweet enough to tell me to leave. He's had stitches before so he knew what to expect. When my kids scream in pain, it's something that I don't deal with well.

So, I leave for 5 minutes and come back so I don't have to hear the screams. And everybody tells me that she was really good. A small whimper and that's it. She gets her stitch and she thinks it's odd and looks like she might freak, but she doesn't. Brave little kid. The doctors even thanked us and they said they were also suprised. They were expecting a fight and lots of screaming too.

Brave and happy as a clam that little kid of mine. I don't think I'd do so well.

Shiny things

My next door co-worker FINALLY got married. She's been waiting for over 7 years and we were starting to worry that it wouldn't happen for her. But she finally came in with a ring that matched the 7 years that she waited. Seriously, this piece of jewelry was kick ass BIG. I think the diamond is the size of my eye. But the thing is, not only does it have a BIG ass stone, it has like a million rectangular cut diamonds all around. And her wedding ring will have even more. How do you walk around the street with that thing on?

However, that's her problem. But it's a good problem. It's nice to see that all that waiting was well worth it. I think the office was ready to lynch the guy if he didn't propose soon.

Insurance

I think my term life insurance is coming up. Actually, I find that quite scary because that's a 10 year one. And that means, almost 10 years has gone by. However, I do have a fixed term life insurance too. That one, I don't have to worry about a change in rates. It'll be interesting to see how much the other one is though.

I never thought I'd be a hard core insurance person, but it turns out that I am. It is always the what if. Like the other day, it was pissing rain, it's dark and I'm on the highway. I was in the slow lane and going, but not very fast because it was difficult to see and I really didn't want to get into an accident. However, some doofus decided that he didn't want to shoulder check and was millimetres of hitting my car and rolling it over. This guy got a nice long honk from me and when I passed him, I fingered him like there was no tomorrow. I think I buy life insurance to insure me from idiots out there.

Huh?

Kids baffle me. Sometimes when I think they'll do something, they never do what I think.

I went to my eldest kid's daycare to pick her up. She wasn't there yet as they had gone bowling. Cool. So, I went in to talk to one of the teachers and I noticed that there were 2 boys in there with her. But, they were cleaning. One was mopping and one was vacuuming. Then I started to get those little red flags going off in my head...is this child labour? Are they doing to do this to my kid?

The teacher explained to me that these 2 boys didn't want to go bowling. They actually wanted to stay at the daycare and they were going to clean. Right. What the hell is wrong with this situation? How about everything?

And the boys truly did seem content. Good on them for being proud of their work and wanting to do a good job. But they'd rather clean than go bowling?! What the...?