Tree Decorating 101 for those of you who have cats. WS and I don't put up a Christmas tree, mostly because we don't have room and partly because we would get way too much help from the cats. I don't think that the dogs would mistake the tree for a "watering" place, but you never know!
Ravenwood directed me to the Merry Mythmous quiz. I got 8 out of 10, but just like Ravenwood, they muffed one of the answers (so I should have gotten 9/10). Take the quiz and then go over to Ravenwoods and find out why one of the 'answers" they give is false.
Ravenwood directed me to the Merry Mythmous quiz. I got 8 out of 10, but just like Ravenwood, they muffed one of the answers (so I should have gotten 9/10). Take the quiz and then go over to Ravenwoods and find out why one of the 'answers" they give is false.
After cleaning up my blogrolls a couple of weeks ago, and getting rid of Rachel Lucas after she hadn't posted in a gajillion years, I find out she is back. I think she was just waiting for me to quit popping over to see if she had reappeared. Hmm, maybe I should check everyone that I wiped out for non-posting - they've probably come back out of their holes since I gave up on them!
PS - I guess I should mention that this guy gave me the tip.
I pass a couple of houses on the way to work (actually, I pass more than a couple, but 2 of them really stand out to me). The first house is one that I get a kick out of seeing. It one that burned 7-8 years ago. I hadn’t really noticed the house before then, although I did know that a family with kids stayed in it (there were always toys in the front yard – even though the yard was neatly kept). It seemed that it was keeping an upbeat attitude even though it had clearly fallen on tough times.
I never read about, or heard about, the fire – just one day while I was driving to work, I noticed that the doors and windows were knocked out and there were soot marks on the frames. Although most of the roof and the exterior of the house seemed to be more or less intact, the inside appeared pretty much gutted.
It’s almost winter - I can tell because we had the lowest temp of the season Wednesday morning at 11 degrees. Of course that was before we hit the single digits this morning! I won’t know exactly what the temp is until I see the thermometer – but I can promise you that it is on the chilly side out there!
* * * * *
I called the dentist office on Tuesday and told them about the billing differences. They are being mighty nice and putting off the additional $200 until the end of January. They said they had missed billing for parts of the procedure. To me, this is like paying $5 per pound for a roast at the grocery store, then having them send me a bill later claiming that they should have charged me $15 a pound but had labeled the roast incorrectly. However, they do have us over a barrel because WS still has to go in for his permanent crowns to be put in.
* * * * *
M
y feet have been toasty warm at work for the last couple of days. Amazing how I can order something on Thursday and get it the following Monday when it is for myself (of course it came UPS). Wish that would happen with other things I’ve ordered – but of course that would make my life too easy
Now I’m really worried! I called the mortgage company and explained my dilemma. First, yes our mortgage payment is going up because our escrow payment is going up by $9. NH law has changed recently and they are not allowed to keep any amount of overage in no longer. So, each December, after the second tax bill is paid, the escrow account should be at $0. Which means, they can’t figure overages to lower the payment amount (which is what happened to us last year).
The worrying part is that they claim to already have paid our December taxes (last Friday). According to the page of actually payments made with the return of the overage check (actual payments ran thru November) and the estimated December taxes at the previous level, we should not have had enough in escrow to pay it. I explained how I was worried that the escrow account was in the hole by several hundred dollars.
The service rep said that we still had a couple of hundred dollars in there (equal to one month’s worth of escrow payment). I asked her to recheck that because the paperwork that had been sent stated clearly that there wouldn’t be enough to pay the raised taxes. Nope, everything is fine (supposedly). I just can’t see how there can be any money left in there according to the figures they supplied.
Then I asked her to change the next tax due date from September to June. She explained that the date was just an estimate. I then explained to her how I had had to call them to get them to pay the taxes and that the taxes had been paid a couple of months late. She said she would insert a “note”. (Oh, I just love notes – they are rarely read – or at least not in time to do any good).
What they have figured for the escrow account next year will not cover the taxes. In June there will be a large underage and December, it will become bigger. Except that I plan on cashing the check they sent us and including that amount with the next house payment to go back into the escrow account. I will also split the extra that I usually pay on the principle with the escrow account. I’ll just have to do that a couple of times and the escrow account should stay in positive numbers.
Really, trying to do the right thing and making sure there is enough money to pay taxes should not be this difficult!
One reason I use UPS or FedEx instead of the United States Postal Service (USPS) for shipping packages is illustrated by an order I made a couple of weeks ago. On December 1, I received an email confirmation that the item had been shipped via Priority Mail, which is supposed to have a delivery time of approximately 3 days.
Saturday (the 11th), I emailed the company that had shipped the product and asked them where the package might be. The answer was, that they didn’t know but if I don’t receive it by Tuesday, contact them and they will send another one.
That is great, except won’t they be sending it USPS again? That makes me nervous! And if it gets here in 3 days, it will be here on Saturday (it wouldn’t actually ship until Wednesday). Beautiful! that leaves me 4 days to get it half way across the country. I’m sure UPS can get it there, but I hate leaving it so late.
I have never not gotten something when it was shipped UPS (or FedEx), but this is the second time that I haven’t received something via the USPS Priority Mail system. Is it any wonder that I distrust them?
Of course I am still waiting for two items to ship at all. Fortunately those are for WS, so I can wait longer for them, and if they are late, it isn’t as big a deal.
I wrote back in May, that my local bank had merged with a Maine-based bank. This means our mortgage also got transferred to this new bank. The banking has been fine, the mortgage has been nothing but troublesome.
At work, my desk sits against an outside wall constructed of cinder blocks. I also sit directly below the air flow of two heater/air conditioning vents (which don’t have shut off controls – I’ve checked).
So, during the summer I was freezing – I think they had the thermostat set at 65 degrees. I always had a heavy sweater on to keep warm. My hands just got so cold that they got stiff and didn’t type very well.
Now that it is winter, I think the temperature control is still set at 65 degrees. On top of that, it seems the heater in my part of the building doesn’t actually kick on until late morning (other parts of the building get warm or even hot while our area is cold).
I can feel waves of cold coming off the cider block wall. I can dress for the cold, and I do; long underwear below my slacks and a shirt underneath my winter sweater. I just can’t keep my feet or hands warm. My feet are almost always cold no matter where I am, so I am used to it, but this is worse than normal and it’s really distracting me.
My feet start out warm (or relatively so) when I get out of my truck in the morning. Within 15 minutes of sitting at my desk, me feet are so cold that the cold is radiating up my sock-and-long-underwear-covered calves. I fold one leg up under me to warm up the foot, then switch to warming up the other foot. And repeat that until the area warms up around (or later some days.
I have been looking for space heaters, but the local Walmart hasn’t had any the last 2 weeks I’m probably looking in the wrong section of the store). Thursday morning I had had enough. After 2 hours of freezing feet, I used work time to get on the internet, Google “foot warmers” and compare prices. I found a Holmes foot warmer for about 25 bucks (it pays to look at the manufacturer’s website; another place was selling the same thing for $36).
It’s not as nice as my Cozy Feet warmer that my parents got me for under the desk in my den – but it will be good enough for work. I even sprung for the 2nd-day-air shipping so I should have it for work on Tuesday. I am so looking forward to having warm feet!
Recent Comments