The stock market is going down-down-down. I scrounged up some money, and I'm buying some mutual funds today. Buy low, sell high or at least that's what they teach you in business school.
I had all my savings in ING Direct (4.85%) and Emigrant Direct (5.05%). Well, I decided to switch to WAMU because they finally have an online savings account that pays a better interest rate than 0.25%. Their online savings pays 5%, and you don't have to wait that annoying lag time for the electronic transfer to go through. For now, I'm keeping both ING and Emigrant open with teeny tiny amounts in them.
Dinner's Ready is Sunday! We did Dinner's Ready/Kitchen 2 Kitchen/Dream Dinners/Dinners Done Right pretty consistently from Nov '04 to Dec '06 although Dinner's Ready soon became our favorite. Then Dinner's Ready changed the meal structure, and it seemed like you paid the same price for 1/3 less food. How devious they were! So then I tried to boycott this year, but then I realized that we're eating the same thing over and over + going out more. So Amy, Otto, Stephan & I are going to get our chef on this Sunday. I must admit that I've been missing it. It's a bit of a hit to our food budget, but if you look at total food costs (groceries + dining out), it's not too bad. We usually spend about $400-$450 a month on total food costs. Groceries are about $300, and dining out is about $100-$150 depending on if we have a Stanley & Seafort's trip in there. If we do Dinner's Ready, our grocery costs go down quite a bit AND so do our dining out costs. We make less impulsive trips to Red Robin, Applebee's and the like if we have decent meals that we can just pop into the oven.
My Blockbuster.com membership is stressing me out. I love the Total Access program, but the struggle is that it's too good of a program. I constantly have movies to watch, and then I choose to watch movies instead of exercising, reading for pleasure, or working on my CEBS assignments. How many movies have I been watching? About 18 a week. Yes, 18 friggin movies a week. I feel like Lucy eating the chocolates on the assembly line. I know, I could slow down the pace. But I'm a compulsive, Type A, OCD person that cannot seem to do anything but watch a movie if I have one in front of me. I will be canceling Blockbuster before the 27th. I can't take the pressure anymore!
Last night after I watched 3 movies, I took my Heelys out for a ride. Actually, it was more like my Heelys took ME for a ride. I have a nasty bruise now—my first Heely injury and, without a doubt, it won't be my last Heely injury. What possessed me to get these things? Oh, my "I'm almost turning 30" crisis. I picked the Heelys over the Acura NSX because I thought the Heelys would be less expensive than the car. But if you take into account medical bills, the Heelys will probably end up being more expensive in the long run. Heelys are indeed a deathwish.
I walked to the park last night, where I could practice in relative darkness. The thing with Heelys is that even if you walk on your toes, occasionally the wheels will still activate. So you start rolling suddenly when you're not expecting it. This can cause a variety of things to happen: you can jerk suddenly (I can only imagine what this looks like to someone watching), you can bite your tongue, your feet can roll away while your body is still just merely walking (resulting in falling on your butt)…I believe that's all I experienced in my one block walk.
I got to the park, and I practiced a bit. My definition of "practice" involves clutching a post for dear life as I try to balance. Whatever you do, don't point your toes in different directions! You'll start to roll in two different directions, and you will do the splits—whether you have the ability or not.
Amazingly injury free still, I attempt to walk home. It feels like I'm in driver's ed. I come to an intersection, and a car is coming in my direction. If I was walking in normal shoes, I could have crossed well before the car came anywhere close. But since I'm on my Heelys, I have no flipping idea what will happen (i.e., wheels activate, roll over a pebble, twist my ankle, fall down and get run over by the car). So I stand there forever, waiting for the car to pass just like when you're learning to drive and wait for there to not be a car within a mile radius before you do anything. After I cross the street, more cars are driving by. I keep doing the jerk thing as my wheels activate suddenly. I'm not sure if passerbys thought I was drunk, had a neurological condition, or was just plain schizophrenic. My Heely bruise occurred on the downhill to my house. Rolling…I'm doing okay…too fast…TOO FAST!....crash! My very patient husband bandaged me up.
I'm looking forward to the weekend! Going out with a movie with a friend tonight, a friend's coming over tomorrow, may go to game night tomorrow night & then Dinner's Ready on Sunday. In my free time, I'll have 9 movies to watch through Blockbuster, exercise & work on my homework. Oh, and I can practice on my Heelys if I'm interested in losing some skin. ;)
Take care, everyone, & have a great weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment