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Home > Archive: April, 2013

Archive for April, 2013

The First Triumph of the Day

April 29th, 2013 at 04:04 pm

I'm hoping for a solid productive day, and it's started out fine. We've been having multiple problems with our ATT U-verse service. It's been out twice since we got home, and they have a hard time fixing it.

My husband is ready to cancel the whole thing, so I called U-verse this morning to see if they'd adjust our bill. They did--the whole month's bill. So while I'm still less than thrilled with the internet service, at least their customer service is ok.

Nice Weekend

April 28th, 2013 at 11:11 pm

I had a work tutorial on the new web portal Friday night. If you asked people to come in on Friday night, wouldn't you feed them? They didn't, but I was glad to help a colleague by offering to drive. He and his wife are always scraping their budget. They have two kids, both work as adjunct instructors, and their youngest had leukemia a couple years ago. They were also the happy recipients of more of DD's outgrown clothes. I cleaned my car thoroughly before we went out, and it was pure pleasure driving a clean car.

Saturday we went to a local grocer's anniversary celebration and all ate free burgers, cake, and samples while shopping for some good bargains. Then on to a furniture store where we're considering buying a TV stand. We have an old ugly armoire cabinet that we all hate. I'm on the verge of buying the new one, but not quite yet.


Dinner last night was with my university women, again they're all broke, but the place we always go had a loyalty card we've been using that miraculously scored us a $50 credit which we used to treat the brokest of them all and take a healthy deduction from our bill. I missed them while I was in England, and it was great to see them.




Dipping A Toe In

April 26th, 2013 at 07:40 pm

I went to a meeting with university colleagues today for a committee on which I normally serve. It's the first I've seen of many of them since I've been back. One of them is retiring the end of term, and she's been a stalwart worker, so I figured I'd better step in and pick up some slack. Since everyone else is busy with the end of the semester, I took on lots of the work. It really won't take more than half a day, but I have time and energy right now.

I bought a coffee and scone at the meeting, and afterwards zipped over to the charity shop to donate two more loads of stuff. I'm thrilled, really thrilled, to be getting rid of so much stuff. Long may it continue.

More meetings tonight, but looking forward to a warm sunny weekend!

Problem Ironed Out

April 25th, 2013 at 02:49 pm

Following the sage SA advice, but still chuckling about the ironing jokes, I've purchased a Rowenta iron on sale at Target. And yes, I saved 5 percent with my RedCard.

Yesterday was very productive. I went to the bank to deposit the flex spending checks, (w)Al green's for my husband's instant coffee fix earning Balance points along the way, Noodles for a free pasta lunch courtesy of a coupon received, then the charity shop to dump off donations, Target for the iron, then finally the grocery store. It seemed like one of those charmed days where you actually remember your shopping bags, your coupons, and get great deals.

Then DD's science project hit. Yuck. We spent four hours helping her paint, assemble, and label mini-amusement park rides demonstrating Newtonian laws. Other students had two weeks to complete this, but she was under a time crunch because of our holiday. Thankfully we all avoided shouting and slamming doors, but there were a few almost tears. And it's done.

A Pressing Problem

April 23rd, 2013 at 09:29 pm

I've had a very productive day purging, sorting, and cleaning. But now my iron has completely stopped heating although there is power still to it. It also is leaking water. I foresee a Target trip tonight.
Anyone have an iron(clad) recommendation?

Lots Happening

April 22nd, 2013 at 02:58 pm

I spent half the weekend on the road, driving to Minneapolis to pick up the dog at my brother's home. They've been dog sitting since DD and DH came to England. I spent some $ on gas (much cheaper in MN), a small lunch each way, and dinner with friends on Friday night. Yesterday DD and I were invited to a tea party, and I bought a cute rose planted in a tea cup for the hostess. I think that was our only spending.

The more expensive news is the dog's impending medical treatment. She jumped off something at my brother's and tore her ACL. We're headed to the vet in an hour to find out that news. Ugh.

So, I have ongoing tasks for the week that need prioritization. They include pulling together class materials for my summer classes, starting our delayed taxes, picking up around here, finding a cleaner, hiring a painter for the house exterior, and starting a massive dejunking. I guess I did start the dejunking yesterday by giving a friend a big bag of DD's outgrown clothes. But much more to come. And I need to sell some things on ebay.

Also to be done is the drawdown of all the food DH bought while I was gone. He buys far too much food and the freezer and cupboards are bursting. So menu planning must be done.

I'm giving myself a grocery budget of $50/week until we can get through this food, and an ebay target of $150. I want ten bags/boxes of stuff out of this house by the end of the week. I'm still working on capstone projects and have to show up at the university with my spending report sometime this week, but first, an hour of purging.


There's more England news on the horizon, but I'll wait until tomorrow to elaborate.

Endless Paper Work

April 17th, 2013 at 02:40 pm

I've spent much of the time since we've returned doing paper. You know what I mean? DD chipped a tooth while I was gone, so insurance papers had to be filed. Insurance didn't pay for it all, so flex spending had to be filed. Endless cycles of paper like that. But the happy news was that I'd completely forgot that I could file dependent care flex spending on DD's summer day camp, and I had money left over. Lovely! It's sort of like foraging in piles of paper, isn't it?

This morning's first paper foray involved the cancellation of DH's airmiles credit card. We've been very happy with his Chase card, so have cancelled the old airmiles card. They've credited his annual fee after they deducted for it, so this morning e-mails had to be sent to get Citi to send us a check. Then he had about 5000 miles rustling around that were due to expire, so I used them on four (!) magazines subscriptions--two for gifts.

I'm looking forward to a towering recycling bin tomorrow morning. Get this paper out!

Back in the USA

April 16th, 2013 at 02:08 pm

Well, I'll admit, I did come back kicking and screaming, but I'm back. Back to piles of mail, piles of laundry, a house that clearly my DH didn't clean for months, but we're safe and sound.

However, I suspect it will be quite a while before I "really" come back.

A friend asked me about highlights and low times, and except for one especially awful student and my DH throwing his back out last week, I can't think of a low point. I missed my family, but Skype was great. Don't tell anyone, but I really like the peace and serenity and cleanness of living alone. Especially in London. Always.

On to cleaning, buying Turbotax, and trying to stay off Facebook and quit looking at photos.