Maggie Never Sleeps

talking about the weather

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:02:28 GMT

I heard on friday that rain was expected over the weekend -- maybe enough rain to cause some flooding in nyc. There was a light drizzle during saturday afternoon. As the afternoon wore on, the wind picked up, higher and higher.

And things started crashing around outside, the lights started flickering. Kt called to say her power was out. We started hearing about things in new brunswick. When Tif left to go to circle, she directed our attention outside, where a tree was lying in the road.

By morning we had a second huge tree down, fallen into the front of our neighbor's house. Everything was blown every where. And the park was no more -- it was eaten by the river. We live at the top of a hill. At the bottom of that hill is a wide flat park that goes right out to the Raritan. When we went down to visit, we found water right to the bottom of the hill. Walking in the other direction, we found water all the way to the tops of the arches on the rt. 27 bridge.

The past two days have been nothing but sirens and chainsaws. And we're boiling all of our water. Didn't realize we were supposed to until yesterday afternoon, after lots of water was drunk. I think we'll be ok.

February Buddy the sequel

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:40:56 GMT

I was a little down and disjointed in that last post.

I want to talk about March. Set some March goals:

* New savings account with direct deposit: already in the works with ING. They have better interest rates than PNC and really crazy internet security. I'm going through some bank verification stuff, but I should be able to get a new direct deposit line up and running to it by next paycheck.

* Because of a balance transfer, I'm going to be able to close a high interest credit card. I'm moving the debt to a card with a 0% introductory interest rate. I'll have till August to payoff the remaining balance without adding any interest. This may be a little tricky, but by throwing any extra money I might run into at this balance, I should be able to get rid of it. I'm closing the original card and I'll be closing the new card as well. I want to consolidate all my cards down to just one and close off all the other remaining accounts. Less credit less room for debt.

* I'm working with Pat to better plan the food situation. Partly I need to keep some convenience foods in the house, for days when work is bad and I can't get myself to cook. I need to *not eat* these foods on good days -- those days I need to suck it up and plan better. I need to get back into making cheap freezable food in small portions (burritos, soup, chili). I need to do a bunch of comparing at local stores to figure out where we can get lower prices. I also need to learn to cook better with staple ingredients - rice, beans, lentils, pasta. The one nagging problem that I have is produce. I'm going a little crazy for want of veggies and fruit, particularly fruit. Fruit is expensive and it doesn't keep. Need to think more on this.

February Buddy

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:58:25 GMT

debt stuff

February was kindof a trying month -- for different reasons than January. I've been trying to organize my thoughts on it, which is why this entry is so far into March rather than in February.

The best point was the tax rebate. A large portion of it went towards paying off a debt. I came up with a plan to balance transfer the rest of that debt to a card with 0% interest. So that's working out.

On the other side, though, there were a number of struggles. Etrade decided to sell my savings account to Discover and that doesn't sit well with me. So my automatic movement of money from paycheck to savings is gone for the moment. I need to setup a new savings account at PNC, where my checking lives, but I haven't had the capital yet.

--
Part of the problem with months and money is that months go on forever. There's a lot of bills and a finite amount of time to pay them. In February my paycheck cycle was set to the exact worst points. My first paycheck happened very early and went entirely to bills and debt. My second paycheck was early in the month and needed to be saved for rent two weeks later. It's hard to just sit on that money for so long, buying nothing. I love the months where a paycheck comes right before rent is due, because it's in and gone, without any sitting time.

March is worked out a little differently. All of my debt payments and bills are due two days before a paycheck. Somehow they all got weirdly clustered around a particular wednesday. So they all have to be paid now, at the beginning of the month. It's fine, it just means no money for a while.

--
Another problem was with me. I did a lot of thinking about it. I can control the urge to buy pretty much anything, and I can cutoff all the old services we had down to gone or nothing. Netflix is down to one disc + instant, GameFly is gone, no cable, Microsoft Live paid for in one lump sum so it's cheaper.

My one weakness is food. When I'm stressed and anxious, I just want to eat comforting food, something to make me feel better. With a limited selection in the house, sometimes this means breaking down and buying something out in the world. Sometimes its just a soda at work to keep me awake and get me through the day.

A big part of the problem with food is planning. The food that we have in is usually difficult to bring from its pantry state to its edible state. We have lots of non-perishables: dried beans, lentils, rice, pasta, etc. The problem is the perishable part. Its hard to buy fruit and veg because of the expense and the perishing part.

I would really like to better plan the food we buy, build meals and then make purchases based on them. It's hard to do that at the moment.

--

Yeah, ok. This is a very disjointed post, sorry about that. I want to say something, but a lot of February was disheartening, so it's hard to figure out what to say.

It will hopefully help me do better in march.

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:40:58 GMT

There are too many holidays this week. Valentines, the Beet-off presidents, mardi gras.

And the olympics as well. Not really a holiday, but still a special event.

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:14:43 GMT

We now own 5 crock pots. Three of them are connected buffet style in a single unit. One of them is a jumbo model that's two-and-a-half times the size of a normal one. Then there's the normal one.

I need to have a soup party.

I also need more vegetarian crock pot recipes. Yeeeeeeeessssssss.

1,2,3 Go! (Birthday Edition)

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:51:53 GMT

More positives:

* I had a really bad week, between work and money, and then some stuff happened with my birthday plans, related to work and money. I had planned to make brunch for my family because I like planning and making more elaborate meals and I didn't really want to go to a restaurant like normal. There was a big rough patch in there, where it all was falling apart, and my family came together to really save the day. Particularly Pat. He was amazing.

* So brunch did happen and the food was awesome and delicious. It was simpler than I had originally planned - instead of elaborate dishes that required ingredients, almost everything came from stuff we already had in the house. And it was tasty, which is really the important point.

* Got to watch some awesome bad movies after brunch. Went to see Legion in theaters. Wow, the crazy. As I posted elsewhere, Angels and guns are as bad as werewolves and vampires with guns. Then we came home and watched Prophecy, which is an awesome movie all around, followed by Constantine, which is a bad, bad movies with some awesome bits.

* I got some awesome presents. My sisters got me a cookie press, which I was actually really wanting over the holidays. So neat. My parents bought me this crazy, but awesome, three pot crock pot. That's literally what it is -- three crock pots, lined up in a rack each with their own temp control. So now I can have a pot of gluten and tofu, pat can have a pot of meat and tofu, and tif can have a pot of meat and gluten. Its a win for everyone.

* I also got a box of hair dye as a present. Hoo-ray my hair is black again. Really, what I need is a haircut, but I'll settle for shiny black locks for the moment.

* Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, it was really nice to hear from you all. Some people just came out of the woodwork, I haven't heard from them in so long.

----

* On an unrelated side-note: Are you having a con, meeting, event, or party in the future? Do you need someone to do promotion work? Pat has been doing amazing work for Wicked Faire promotions and he could be doing it for you too! Send him an email!

1,2,3 Go!

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:01:45 GMT

Ok, Happy Post, Go!

* I have a job and it pays enough that we don't starve, freeze, melt, explode, or disintegrate.

* Everyone in my family is healthier than not.

* I'm learning to cook using whatever is already in my house, without buying any additional ingredients. This may not seem all that great, but! I am not a very good cook to begin with, so I generally follow recipes. Lots of recipes call for ingredients that I don't necessarily have - but I'm learning how to just put stuff together and eat it.

* The cats are all darlings. Happy, healthy, silly, and constantly all over me for attention.

* We signed another year-long lease. I really like living in this house and in this town, so that's good. Also it's awesome to know that you don't have to hunt for a new apt, pack up all your shit, move your shit, and then unpack it all -- anytime in the near future.

(Speaking of which: I know that there are people I know who are moving. Please drop me a line if you need help. I will try, work schedule permitting, to help in some way.)

* The rent did not go up. I was really dreading some increase in the rent, but our landlord didn't bring it up at all. Hoo-ray.

What a Birthday Present

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:44:38 GMT

(Apologies to elmo_iscariot for stealing his title line, I couldn't resist.)

The Democrats are idiots. Went and got my hopes up that they might actually *do* something, rather than just fighting each other and wasting time.

Anyways.

Wanted to type out some words in a happier mood than my last post. It's been a bit tricky. Things are tough lately. Money is tight, work is stressful and frustrating, social life is non-existant.

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post, I appreciated the responses. A big part of my sadness at that time was that I have very little social contact outside of work -- and social contact at work is strange.

Thank you also to my sisters who lent me a space heater. Being warm at home is easier now and it freaks the cats out in awesomely comical ways.

Hmm...this post isn't really working out. I wanted to post a general life update from a happier or at least more balanced perspective, but whenever I type out specifics it just seems like whining. I think I'll stop now.

question

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:52:43 GMT

I know many people who are moving or emptying out their lives right now, so this is probably not too much of a shot in the dark...

Anyone have a small desk or table that they'd like to get rid of?

bundt magic

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:40:14 GMT

People at work really liked my cakes. The cardamom & vanilla was particularly well-received, but all of them got independent compliments.

Baby Got Bundt

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:58:39 GMT

interesting

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:22:22 GMT

Who Is a Jew? Court Ruling in Britain Raises Question

"...In an explosive decision, the court concluded that basing school admissions on a classic test of Judaism — whether one’s mother is Jewish — was by definition discriminatory. Whether the rationale was “benign or malignant, theological or supremacist,” the court wrote, “makes it no less and no more unlawful.”

The case rested on whether the school’s test of Jewishness was based on religion, which would be legal, or on race or ethnicity, which would not. The court ruled that it was an ethnic test because it concerned the status of M’s mother rather than whether M considered himself Jewish and practiced Judaism.

“The requirement that if a pupil is to qualify for admission his mother must be Jewish, whether by descent or conversion, is a test of ethnicity which contravenes the Race Relations Act,” the court said. It added that while it was fair that Jewish schools should give preference to Jewish children, the admissions criteria must depend not on family ties, but “on faith, however defined.

The same reasoning would apply to a Christian school that “refused to admit a child on the ground that, albeit practicing Christians, the child’s family were of Jewish origin,” the court said.”

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:37:45 GMT

Two cakes for GoG Samhain, check.

Now it's Pat's job to cut them and frost them. They smell awesome.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:36:33 GMT

Damn you Chris Christie! Now I have to move out of this state. Ugh.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:49:13 GMT

ugh.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:17:09 GMT

You need to see today's XKCD.

(There's a high rez version too.)

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:12:57 GMT

I think it's comical that my phone's GPS selected Matawan as my location for that post. I was not.

It will show me the correct maps, but clicking on most addresses will end you up in Illinois or Georgia or Virginia. Just those states for some odd reason.

And, more a Google Maps problem than anything else, it insists a house on a residential street is a Taco Bell (tbell).

---

I'm a bit into maps. When I'm bored or stressed at work, I'll bring up Google Maps and pick an area of the world and just follow the lines. My sisters love to make fun of me when we go on trips because I'll sit and look at maps for hours on long car rides, or in the hotel room.

I just like to imagine going places. I like to follow the lines and picture driving along.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:59:55 GMT

In grad school i had a measurement of frustration: the cave/goat level. This reflected how much i wanted to give up and go live in a cave with just a goat for my companion.

Today, i've reached a cave/goat level not seen since grad school.

Another car bit the dust today. That's someone else's story to tell. My car needs a headlight and some oxygen thingee that makes the check engine light come on. Many dollars are needed for this but not particularly available. But its drivable for the moment; this is different than the state of your other car.

I'm incredibly out of sorts right now.

Everytime we pull ourselves out of a horrible sinkhole just a little bit something else explodes. We're not living hand to mouth, we're living emergency to emergency.

Blegh. I'm sure it will all work out and i'm sure i'll feel silly about this post in the morning.

But right now it sucks royally.

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:00:37 GMT

The internets are so quiet...is Sunday happening twice this week?

ether

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:58:01 GMT

kitties and puppies in NYC

this is a silly question but...

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:07:54 GMT

Anybody got a google wave invite?

ouch

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:49:13 GMT

I'm hurting a bit.

My cold made me clumsier than usual, and I slammed my naked foot into a chair leg yesterday, right before work. Part of toe is black with bruises now, but doesn't seem to be broken. This is the same foot/leg that I smashed into a a hard sharp plastic container last week when I tripped over something. That left bruises over the whole wide area of my knee and a weird knob of something that seems to have diminished over time.

So now my leg is kinda frightening with bruises. And my right knee, toe, and hip all ache when I walk too much.

Added onto that the lack of voice and the cough that makes other people give me a scared-rabbit-look and I am one walking nightmare of a person.

And yet still strangely cheerful, barring some stupidity at that place where I spend the vast majority of my time and energy.

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:12:59 GMT

NO VOICE! Ok, well, a little tiny squeaky bit -- but it really really hurts to use it.

And again I'm strangely cheerful. I'd prolly be humming if it too didn't hurt so much (I just tried it, bad experiment).

Have a lap kitty and a very close sleeping kitty right now. Pretty much there are always two kitties with me whenever I'm home. They rotate. Pretty-close-sleeping-kitty is vaguely annoyed and wants to knock standing-in-my-lap kitty out of my lap. This is the normal way of things. Too many lap kitties and not enough laps.

See! See! I'm in some horrendous good mood here. I need to be sick more often.

sleep-not-sleep

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:20:51 GMT

Dreamed that my throat was on fire, literal flames and such coming out of my voice box. Dreamed that it hurt a lot, a lot lot. Hurt so much that it woke me up. That's when I started yelling, cause it hurt that much awake too.

Voice came out as a croak and squeak mixture. Throat felt all swollen and strange, prolly made stranger by the cough medicine I took earlier. Pat got me some pain meds and somehow back to sleep happened.

'Bout six there was some noise from another alarm. Woke me up. Then the coughing started. Couldn't sleep anymore.

So I'm sitting here in the pre-dawn light, with a small orange cat fast asleep on my lap. And I'm pretty amused about the whole thing.

Sometimes being sick makes me cheerful. I'm a pretty strange human being.

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:06:17 GMT

and now it is real