A Scribbler & A Shutterbug

Most of you know that I’ve owned my own business for the last 10 years … or rather that it’s owned me.  Talk about having a tiger by the tail!  I’ve never felt that I was really in charge, but more like the business was happening “to” me rather than “through” me.  Because I’m not the world’s greatest accountant and over the years I’ve made quite a mess of the books, no matter what accounting system I’ve tried, I’ve got a good bit of debt and a lot of resentment towards this animal that was supposed to “let me be my own boss.”  Ha!

I’m filling out an application for Hobby Lobby – they are hiring, and it looks like a good job opportunity.  Full time employees can make about $10 an hour, have benefits, etc.  Since turning over the joint checkbook to my husband, he’s done wonderful things with our debt, getting things paid on time and getting things paid down, if not completely paid off just yet.  My proposal to him earlier today was that I try to secure a job with Hobby Lobby (or some similar business, although Hobby Lobby is quite enticing since they are closed on Sundays) …. I would then give him my HL paychecks and he would use them to pay off my business debt.  I know that sounds a little medieval with me handing over the checks – but the fact is, since handing the home finances over to him, I’ve not had to do without anything that I really needed or wanted.  He is a very gracious and generous “accountant” and so I don’t fear that he would handle this arrangement poorly.  It would be quite the relief to me to have a steady paycheck to chisel away at the debt, rather than continuing to grow the Montana-sized ulcer I have worrying about where the next blind job is coming from in order to make my minimum monthly payments.

While I have no illusions that this would be an “easy” job (what retail job is?), I think it would be fun from the standpoint that I love creative endeavors and I enjoy dealing with the public.  A few years ago I worked Christmas help at the local Hallmark shop and I really enjoyed it.  It was frantic and crazy, but a lot of fun to help people find the perfect gift, to wish them a good day, etc.  I’m hoping to (a) get the job, (b) get evening shifts, so (c) Jami and I can do lessons during the day and then I’ll go to work when her daddy gets home.  I don’t mind working until close, so hopefully that will go in my favor?  We’ll see!

I’ll keep you posted.

I do so enjoy Charles Krauthammer’s writing … here’s his column on the occasion of 25 years in the business.  I think you may enjoy it.

Just yesterday we invited some family friends to our New Year’s Eve get-together.  They said that they would love to do that, as long as their other two grown kids weren’t expecting them to do something.  I’d been planning to get an informal invite pulled together for the rest of our friends who celebrated with us last year.  Imagine my surprise when one of the other families that came to our house (and stayed until 3:00 a.m.!) sent out an invite today for their own New Year’s Party … and invited most of the people who were at ours last year.  I’m certain that it was NOT intentional, but it’s just frustrating and awkward.  We’d still like to do our small, intimate celebration where we play board games, eat lots of yummy snack foods, and possibly shoot off a few fireworks — weather permitting.  Their party is being thrown by three families (themselves, their parents, and their siblings) at a civic center gymnasium … loud, noisy, basketball games, lots of running and screaming in a location that echoes like crazy.  As I said, I’m sure that they didn’t plan it to “steal” away our fun, but I can’t help but be disappointed.

Thanks for letting me vent.  😦

This crazy flip floppy weather is about to do me in.  My throat’s tight and my nose feels all dried out and drippy at the same time.    I don’t have time for this!  Christmas is around the corner and my house is not decorated yet! 

My Xanga buddy, Follow Freedom, posted this on his blog earlier.  It’s simply lovely and worth checking out, if you follow the tradition of Advent or would like to begin doing so.  Enjoy and be blessed!

we had a great day yesterday!  We drove up to Spring to my cousin’s house where we ate like piggies, enjoyed each other’s company and watched the tu vs. Texas A&M game.  I’m not a big football fan, much preferring a good hockey game, but I enjoyed watching the game with all my Aggie cousins.  From what I understand, it was still a respectable showing by the Aggies even though the final score was Longhorns 49/Aggies 39.  Eighteen of the Aggies playing last night were FRESHMAN, which essentially means there were a bunch of kids six months out of high school, giving the No. 3 team in the country a fairly tough run for their money.  Not too shabby, I’d say.  The scoring was back and forth, so the suspense factor was decent and you can’t help but think it’s going to be a team to watch next year.  No one likes to see a team get pummeled to death (least ways no one with a heart) and so it was a good game.

I made a carrot cake from scratch — it was supposed to be a “surprise” birthday cake for my guy (whose birthday is December 4), but I wasn’t thinking and set it out with the other desserts.  One of my cousins didn’t know that I’d planned for us all to sing “Happy Birthday” to my guy and cut a big slice out of it for her husband before anyone else started getting dessert.  Guess that was partially my fault for not keeping it wrapped up until the right time!  It was a really good cake though, and I think I will definitely be making it again.  It had grated carrots, pineapple, coconut, chopped walnuts, and golden raisins in it.  Super yummy!

I also did a cracker and cheese tray – with a bit of a twist – a lady in our area sells homemade jams and jellies at the county fair and she has a Raspberry Chipotle jelly that is just to die for.  I spread a generous layer of the jelly over a softened block of cream cheese and served it with Ritz, Club, and Wheat Thin crackers.  It was delicious and everyone really enjoyed it.

Today we ran errands – we didn’t do any “Black Friday” shopping to speak of.  AJ dropped his Jeep off to have some work done on it.  Not quite two years ago he had to have the rear axle replaced and apparently the one the shop put on there was damaged (it was a used part) … he kept meaning to take it back, but the repair was done in another town when he was attending a teachers’ in-service training and well, you know how that goes.  Because the replacement axle was not right, his tires were wearing a lot faster than they should have for the amount of driving he does.  When he went in to our local auto place (part of the chain that did the work in the other town), the manager of the local place didn’t charge him for this most recent tire because he knew they should not be wearing like that.  He also got on the phone with the other place to find out what happened.  Well, the gist of it has now become a his word against their word kind of thing because so much time has passed.  My guy was pretty peeved because he has been a good customer over the years and because the original “repair” was almost $2,000.  Our local shop, who in truth is not responsible for any of this, wanted to do something to resolve the problem.  So they worked out a deal – my husband will pay $600 toward another ACCEPTABLE axle, and the local shop will cover the remaining expense and provide the labor to make it good. 

After we dropped the Jeep off, we grabbed breakfast at IHOP and stopped in Best Buy to order Jami’s Christmas gift.  She has no idea what she is getting and I am going to have to be READY to catch the expression on her face when she opens her gift.  She’s been saving her money toward a laptop computer — AJ told her that he would match whatever she saved up.  Well, we initially were looking at laptops in the $400 – $500 range.  But the fact is, PC’s are a pain in the backside and I have never owned one that I didn’t end up hating the stupid thing and cursing it (in the mildest manner, of course …)  I’ve had my Mac for three years and still LOVE it.  So we decided to get her a Macbook.  The entry level one that we were looking at was sold out, but the next step up was only $200 more, so it wasn’t too bad of a price increase and worth the investment in my opinion, if for no other reason than we won’t be suffering the guaranteed headaches that a Windows-based product is bound to have.  I also feel like I can protect her more fully from the garbage “out there” because Mac has such great parental controls on their machines.  There will be some serious “rules” that go with having such a great piece of equipment, though.  She won’t be hauling the thing around just anywhere she likes – she will definitely have to get clearance from us before taking it for sleepovers or whatever.  $1200 on a computer for a 14 year old is a pretty pricey investment, and so I don’t think we are being unreasonable by laying down some ground rules.  The thing that gives me peace of mind about the purchase is Best Buy’s 18 months same as cash on purchases over $400.  We’ve used this on a couple of purchases and since AJ’s been paying our bills, he is very good at getting things paid off before the interest kicks in.  We purchased my washing machine Memorial Day (@ $900) and have until December 2010 to pay it off, but he’s already paid about 1/2 of it down.  And he will be collecting the $200 that Jami had saved toward the “cheaper” computer to put toward the Mac.  So it’s all good.

Then we hit the paperback bookstore and Hastings to see what we could get for books that we didn’t need cluttering up our shelves any longer.  We ended up with a $17 credit at the paperback bookstore, and then my guy got a $14 gift card to Hastings for books he sold back.  I got a $17 gift card, and I also managed to get a $10 gift card for my sister for some books that she didn’t want any longer.  So that was a good deal all the way around.

He’s off to Galveston to do some work on his dad’s house and Jami is visiting her grandmother until tomorrow.  So I guess I’d better get busy and do something else productive, too!  Have a wonderful weekend, y’all!

My Xanga friend, Old Hat, posted an entry called “Paying Jobs” recently.  Here’s my list of “paying jobs” that I’ve held over the years:

After graduating from college in ’86, I had an incredibly useful degree – a B.A. in English with an emphasis in technical writing.  My minor was in History … it’s funny when I look back at it, because the degree doesn’t seem all that useful, but it actually meshed rather well with the work that I did over the years (as you will see).

“So how’s that Hopey Changey thing workin’ out for ya?”

I am trying to remember something I wrote several years ago.  For a long time, it was the little header under my Xanga title “Chisel and Stone” … then I changed it to the bit about the Rosetta Stone and apparently I did not save my original phrase.  A friend and I were discussing quotes and how beautifully turned the English language can be by a true wordsmith.  I had written this little one sentence bit about the moon one evening when I walked outside … comparing it to a thin Mercury dime, and the bare branches of the pecan tree to black lace against a navy velvet sky, and I really liked the way I phrased it … for the life of me, I can’t remember exactly how I worded it and I can’t find it anywhere on my computer.