Layout:
Home > Archive: March, 2005

Archive for March, 2005

Public apology

March 31st, 2005 at 04:11 pm

There are witnesses....the puppy CAN open the fridge door!! ...she can also open the front door (how freaky is THAT!)...Here are the tricks: 1. she nudges the seal on the bottom of the fridge door with her nose....2. the front door lock is not 100% ok (thanks to my nephew, back in our nightmarish era when he was doing drugs and used to sneak into the house at night to see what he could steal!)...and if you push the bottom of the door at a certain point, the door "bounces" back and the lock clicks open (unless the key is in the lock and the bolt is turned, which we only do at night, this is an enclosed neighborhood!)...
so, public apologies to my sis are in order!!

Of course, knowing that the puppy is THAT smart means that she CAN learn, only she REFUSES to learn what we want to teach her!! (As per my cousin, it also means she is a direct descentant of velociraptors!!)

Fridge door open!

March 30th, 2005 at 04:27 pm

my sis keeps leaving the fridge door open in the mornings!!...she just takes something out and throws it "close" while turning away from it...I've talked to her about it...she swears it isn't true... Apart from the normal trouble this would cause, add the presence of our puppy, and you have a recipe for disaster...yesterday, she got a pack of sausages!!...today, again the door was open when I came down...my sister claims the puppy has learned to open the fridge door...(it's a small fridge, you have to pull on a handle that is about 3.5 feet from the floor to open it...my puppy is a maltese/cocker mix...she'll never be big enough to reach it!!)...I tell her, if this were true, every Sunday, when we go out to CREA, we would find the fridge raided (the puppy stays on her own for 6+ hours!!)...plus, I SAW her (my sis) the other day...plus, she really is one of those people who don't function well in the mornings...I mean, she comes back from dropping off my niece at school and she looks like she can barely keep her eyes open!!
What can I do?? (you'd think it would be easier to condition the puppy NOT to take things out of the fridge??)
the joys of house-sharing!!!

largest expense per day - week 13/2005

March 29th, 2005 at 04:31 pm

Monday - supermarket (excluding fruits and vegetables) - $49.26
Tuesday - veggies, fruits, cereal + soy sauce and special veggies for chao mein - $23.50
Wednesday- $0.55 lunch
Thursday- $10 cell phone card
Friday - $5.00 gas
Saturday - $15 swim lessons for DD
Sunday - $3.00 goodies at CREA

Holy week - actual expenses

March 28th, 2005 at 06:00 pm

went home at noon on Wednesday and just watched movies with DD...
Thursday: went to the beach - $12 ($4 were for sunblock!!)
Friday: stayed home, a friend of my sister's came to visit and she brought her 5 year old DD with her, so Ale had someone to play with!, made torrejas for CREA - $3.00
Saturday - went to the beach again - $5
Sunday - went to CREA - $1 / went to M's house and made pizza - $2.00
Total spent for the week: $23

had to pay in full at the movies!!

March 23rd, 2005 at 04:18 pm

Turns out there are "restrictions" for the use of the cards....they told us: you can only use them on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays...that's the reason we went yesterday...otherwise, I would have waited until TODAY, which is 1/2 off ticket day!!...what they DIDN'T tell us was that they are only valid for some movies (those marked "promotion"...of course, neither Robots nor Son of Mask were "promotion" movies, and, having made DD all excited about it, I just couldn't turn back!...) ... I know I should have said something to the manager, but, honestly, I have no way of proving the guys didn't tell us over the phone, so I'll talk to J. instead, when he comes back from holidays (his family owns the movie theater chain, and he's always asking for feedback!...and I just know I can ask HIM for 2 free tickets for Disney's upcoming Hephelump movie and he'll give them to me to make up for the bad experience!)

So, that's $8.00 I spent yesterday! (movies, soda and a bag of popcorn and a bag of M&M's which I "smuggled" into the theater! - they cost me about $1.00 at the supermarket, whereas I would have paid almost $4 on them if bought at the movies!)

We'll see how the rest of the week goes!

getting friends to fix things, and saving on gas!

March 22nd, 2005 at 04:14 pm

Well, my sis got a friend to come over and fix our light switches and also our shower...he "charged" her two breakfasts: one for himself and one for his son, plus babysitting of the little boy while he was fixing things...A great bargain, I'd say! (the boy is a sweetie and well mannered!)...
The mechanic my cousin got me for my car only charged me $15, and now my car works (he said he still has to fix the carburator, so that the car is 100% well, but, in the meantime - he can't come until after Holy Week - it drives fine, only I have to let it run a while in the mornings) ....still, it is saving me a lot of gas!!...I still have 1/4 tank left!! the way it was woking before, I'd be running on empty by now! woo-hoo!!...he says the gas savings will be even better once he finishes with the car! ...I have to remember to fill my tank before Friday, as a $0.04/gallon increase has already been announced... Frown At least, I think this increase will be offset by the car repairs!

income tax return!

March 21st, 2005 at 10:15 pm

I finished my income tax declaration and, according to me, the government owes me $274!!...I will submit it right after the holidays, so I should be getting my money in 2 months or so!...the $274 will go towards paying my Kismet (local dept store) acct...while it won't cover the whole amount I owe, it will make a significant difference...and this is one of the highest interest rate cards!!

Holy week plans!

March 21st, 2005 at 10:11 pm

Yet another advantage to the new cellphone company: they have alliances with a chain of movie theaters, so for each $10 in cards that you buy, afterwards, just by presenting the cards at the movie theather, you get a 2X1 offer (so I can take DD to the movies and only pay for my ticket!) and you can also redeem them for goodies (popcorn and soda!)...so, that'll be one thing, DD wants to go see Robots...instead of $10 that our trip to the movies usually costs, I can do it for about $5.00!
On Thursday, my cousin and I want to go to the beach...that'll cost about $20 ($10 each, including gas and food)...
Then, either on Friday or Saturday we (DD and I) will go to my best friend's house, to cook a pizza for the 4 of us (best friend + DS)...my cousin got me a crust directly from the factory, at $0.40. We have to add the sauce and the cheese!
And, basically, that will be it, as I only have Wednesday afternoon (movies) and then Thu (beach) , Fri (M's house)and the weekend (Saturday to rest and Sunday going to CREA, as usual!)

It will be an expensive week (around $30 more than our "usual" weeks, but, we get to do this sort of thing only about 3 or 4 times a year! - how sad is that?!)

largest expense per day - week 11/2005

March 16th, 2005 at 10:25 pm

Monday - supermarket $53.24
Tuesday - $40.00 nanny's pay
Wednesday - $2.15 -lunch
Thursday - $1.15 - lunch
Friday - $0.25 - soda for lunch
Saturday - $5.00 - various (went downtown, bought 1 electric toothbrush for me, 1 electric toothbrush for DD, 2 sodas, 1 pair of sunglasses, paid for parking)
Sunday - $5.00 - lunch and goodies at CREA ( we had to arrive at 10:30 and left at 7:15pm...)

update!

March 15th, 2005 at 10:18 pm

first off, thanks to all for your kind messages.
We are adjusting.
As I wrote, money-wise Mom's passing means that the money she was getting will come to us (the deal was arranged in such a way that we do not have to receive inheritance or anything, so there won't be any delays in the payments she was receiving), so that will help in two ways: 1. the obvious, we'll be able to use it to pay debts and 2. we will not have to figure out what to do (how to get more money) to support Mom after Jan 2006, which is when the payments will stop.
I really have to thank God that Mom did not have to suffer financially again (Dad was already worried about the money issue, Mom lived in the "now" and it was from her that we got the "spend it while you have it" attitude...she had already lived through phases of not being able to buy everything she wanted, and it was very hard on her...)
I know this sounds hard, and I apologize if anyone feels offended...it was certainly not my intention. But, this is a new framework for me, and i feel that I need to state it...maybe to make it more "real"...
In 2-3 months I will finally be up-do-date with all my creditors (even without selling the apartment, which is still in the works), and I won't have to choose which bills to pay...in the remaining 9-10 months, I will be able to reduce my debt, so that, hopefully, by the time the payments stop, I will be able to handle debt reduction on my own...Life will be a lot easier, although I plan continue living just as if nothing had happened, the extra stress of choosing which bills to pay and of fielding creditor calls will be gone...

Mom passed away

March 11th, 2005 at 11:46 pm

it still seems sort of unreal...I'm an orphan now!...I guess what they say is true: couples that have stayed together for so long cannot bear to live apart, so once one of the partners goes, the other one soon follows...
we couldn't even have a wake for mom, because, since the last "event" had been so recent (68 days), we hadn't paid enough money to cover for it, and would have had to pay $800 to have a wake...it just seems so wrong... Frown
We had to pay $4oo+ as it was...luckily, the company I work for offers aid for these cases, and I got $400, so what we had to pay was really not much...
Another cause for grief was that the cementary wanted to charge $170 for a plaque...for dad's we paid $60!!...less than 3 months before!!!...leeches!...my unit will pay for it... my boss was just appalled!

It never rains...

March 7th, 2005 at 08:31 pm

Mom had to be admitted to the hospital last week. It shows how broke we are that we put her in a public hospital...so awful...visiting hours are 12-2 and 5-7 only....this is the worst news of the week, of course, but, to top it off, my car wouldn't start this morning...the battery is new, and the lights, blinker, windshield wipers, alarm and horn were working, so it might be the starter...or some other bug in the electrical system....I have friends that are mechanics, but none is a specialist in electrical systems, so I'd rather not risk frying in my car...I have to get a pro!...
the hotel did not want our tamales...
AND, the lesser of all evils plaguing me, our shower broke (we can use the children's bathroom), and the light in the children's bathroom went off (the lightbulb "died", but then, it is STUCK in there...we can't remove it to install a new one!...)
I want a new life!

largest expense per day - week 9/2005

March 1st, 2005 at 06:03 pm

Monday - supermarket - $71.92
Tuesday - lunch - $2.35
Wednesday - Ale's psychologis - $60
Thursday - Ale's preschool - $60
Friday - gas for Mom's ambulance ride to the hospital - $15
Saturday - lunch - $4.94
Sunday - lunch - $6.94