You attempt to one-up me. I thought we covered this: I am always right.
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Meanwhile, back at the ranch
I’m baaaack. No, not back to blogging, silly gooses, back to WORK. The week that never ended has now ended, and I’ve returned to the office on a Thursday, which I highly recommend. Returning on a Thursday means that a) you don’t have a case of The Mondays nor do you have to deal with Hump Day and b) tomorrow is already Friday. It’s like magic or something.
Last night we went to my MIL’s super swanky country club for dinner and I was able to observe The Other Half. Before I go further, let me say that when I was a child, we were members of our country club here and I was one of about a thousand bathing-suit clad children running around the pool with a Hawaiian punch and a Nutty Buddy all summer long. Now that we’re grown ups though, our disposable (ha!) income goes elsewhere. Plus BB doesn’t play golf, so there you go.
Anyway, back to The Other Half. Our dinner party was made up of my MIL, her 82 year-old friend Agnes, BB and me. As we sat down to dinner, I looked around to see if I knew anyone, and sure enough, I saw some girls I went to high school with. They were there with their husbands, their 2.5 perfect blonde children, and their babysitters.
Wait, WHAT?!
Who brings a babysitter to dinner? I can see if this were some super special occasion vacation type of thing, but this was a wear-your-khakis-with-your-sunglasses-on-your-head-while-your-kids-have-on-their-crocs kind of a dinner. The parents were about BB’s age, mid-30s, and the kids were probably four and six. And the parents just sat at the table, drank their wine and watched while the babysitter ran around the restaurant wrangling these children.
I know I’m no parent, and I know that I’m certainly not in a place to offer an opinion on anything kid-related, but I sure don’t remember having a babysitter come WITH US to dinner when we went out at night. Talk about disposable income…
In the car on the way home, I said something to my MIL about this and she said, “Oh Elizabeth, that’s the live-in nanny, honey.”
Right. My mistake.
Budget shortfall
Update: Just kidding. Apparently since I’m a federally-employed person, this stuff doesn’t apply to me. It does not, however, mean that I don’t totally feel awful for everyone else. It’s just that today, more so than usual, I LOVE MY JOB.
And the crisis has finally hit home: I found out this morning (first by news, and THEN by email from my employer) that my paycheck has been cut and at some point in time, I have to be furloughed. Is that a verb, really?
NC state employees were notified that we’ll be taking a 1/2% cut in pay. In a show of solidarity, the governor was kind enough to include herself in that pay cut, though I can’t imagine it makes much difference to her.
In our house, the pay cut means that we’ll be short a couple of drycleaning bills. I imagine that compared to other parts of the country, this is peanuts, but no one likes to wake up to the news that they have to pay for someone else’s overspending.
Yesterday BB and I spent a good 5 hours poring over bills and contracts and loans and we somehow managed to lower our monthly bills by a couple hundred dollars. It’s a good thing we did; we both got tuition statements last week and even though we’re short on income, schools are long on tuition increases.
Yes, in the grand scheme of life, we are more than thankful to have jobs, and we are grateful that adjustments in our income don’t directly affect our living situation. But we know – firsthand, now – that waiting around for the economy to right itself is a precarious place to stand. Let’s hope this is as bad as it gets.
Is it a vacation if you don’t leave your backyard?
I didn’t say much about it yesterday, but I’m on vacation with BB this week. After the wedding this past weekend, we decided to at first take a few more days at the beach. Then the Great Household Disasters of 2009 took place, so we decided to “vacation” at home. It’s been a thrill a minute, really:
Yesterday we pruned maple, cherry, dogwood and accidentally some crape myrtle trees. We weeded beds, trimmed hedges and I planted some of my summer herbs.
Today we’re doing incredibly fun and exciting things like picking up the drycleaning, cleaning out the gutters, 150 lbs. of laundry and perhaps calling our good friend Ross to borrow some tools we either don’t have or that are broken.
I know that in the grand scheme of things, all this “vacationing” is really a good idea, since we never have a weekend together and two people can get way more work done than one. But I’m telling you, Internet, all I want to do is stay in my pajamas all day, watch Entourage reruns and occasionally get up for more tea.
Instead, I’ll be doing all that aforementioned crap. Did I mention how excited I am about that?
In other news, there’s a rumor that the swine flu has hit NC. I don’t know much about the swine flu, but I swear I just don’t understand how someone gets a disease from a pig. Ew. Just ew.
Lowes, I’ll be seeing you shortly
Me: I don’t understand why we can’t just use the chainsaw to hack off these branches.
BB: Because we don’t have a chainsaw.
Me: Well then let’s use that pruner thing on the end of your weed eater.
BB: I don’t have a pruner thing.
Me: For crying out loud, what DO you have?
BB: Two hands and a wife who can’t stand yard work.
