Weekend!
Last week at work was one of those weeks where your bosses tell you that they’re going to be giving you a project as soon as they get the green light… and this week was one of those weeks where you got three separate and distinct green lights.
I hope to have two of these projects finished by next week Friday and the third done by the middle of October. So it’s not *THAT* bad of a thing. It’s just when the bosses all give you the green light that you’ve been freaking waiting for at the same freaking time? Ugh. That’ll make you buy a Powerball ticket.
I didn’t win, for the record.
In any case, once Friday night rolls around, I will be ready to dig into the busiest weekend for a while. Celebrating the Autumn birthdays/anniversaries/promotions/so forth with the couple friends, Saturday will be spent getting the oil changed in the morning, the groceries in the afternoon, and a Scottish Tattoo in the evening (the military kind). Sunday will be a day devoted to asking “what happened to the weekend?”
So… what’s on your docket?
High School football tonight.
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Saturday.
Not sure about Sunday.Report
Fledermaus and Kiddo are visiting family in California, so I’m home on me own for a bit. I’ll be missing them in a day or so, but last night I went to bed early just because I felt like it, and it was quiet and lovely.
Normally I would take this as an opportunity to make beer, which is take-over-the-kitchen stuff inconvenient to those who want some lunch right now. But I’ve lent all my gear of that nature to a friend who’s busy till after the weekend, so that will have to wait.
Some friends are having a going away party Saturday. Sunday, I’ll probably be back to volunteering a the community bike shop, after too long away.
Also, I didn’t post last week, but that weekend was apple days at Mr. T’s mom’s place. The new apple crusher works great, except it turns out a garburetor designed to run for a few minutes a day doesn’t necessarily like being run for extended periods, which leads to considerable heat, many blowings of its internal breaker, and enforced pauses while waiting for it to cool down. For next year I must figure out some kind of cooling system for it. Now there’s about 25 L of pear and 40 L of apple cider brewing.Report
Not much tonight, other than spending this afternoon dreaming about the pot roast I put in the slow-cooker before I walked out the door this morning. Nothing like having dinner waiting for you on a Friday afternoon.
Saturday we are hosting a cookout at the park. Nothing fancy, hot dogs and starchy side dishes. Saturday night is UFC. Really looking forward to the fights on this card.
Sunday is chores and a birthday party for one of the nephews.Report
I sadly did not win either, despite plopping down two dollars so I could dream of a yacht. (For the record: I would not buy one, even if I were to have won. Chartered one occasionally, perhaps. With a crew and a 5-star chef…….)
It’s funny, the few times I buy a ticket — maybe twice a year — my biggest concern with winning isn’t so much “What would I buy” but “How would I handle this money so it’d be there the rest of my life? And my kid’s life? And my nephews and nieces and cousins, how much would I need to make sure they could all swing college? And oh god, what happens when people find out and want to borrow?”
I’m sure the giant house and instant retirement would mitigate those worries to an extent, but still….:)Report
We love playing the ‘what-if’ game whenever the Powerball gets up around $100 million. I read an article once that outlined a guy who took care of his whole family with his winnings. It was interesting because due to tax law you can’t just gift someone a huge lump sum, but you can pay off all their debts. So he paid off everyone’s debts and then gifted them sums that were $5 less than the tax cap. He also set up college funds for all his nieces and nephews. Good dude.
I think we would do something similar but I have always dreamed of forcing my siblings and my mom to move closer to our side of town. With enough winnings I think I could probably bribe them to pack up the moving vans.Report
I tend to only play Powerball/Mega Millions when they get up over 100. (If I am having a bad week, I might play at 90ish, but not below that.)
This allows my daydreams to be positively fantastic.
I mean, let’s say that you win 5 million. Odds are, you’ll take the lump rather than annuity and then you’ve got 2 million rather than 5. After taxes, you’ve got, what? 1.5 million?
So now you’ve got 1.5 million. Pay off the house and now you’ve got anywhere between 1.4 million and 1.2 million, probably. Nieces and Nephews with a 50k college fund each gets you down to 1 million.
And now you’ve finally got the amount in your retirement that you should have had.
Maybe we’ll let you have a vacation. But after that, all of this is going into retirement. And you’re still going to work on Monday. You need the health coverage, at the very least.
WHICH IS THE MOST BORING DAYDREAM EVER.Report
Why play lotto? Play stocks instead. Better ROI.Report
Oh thank god I’m not the only one.
“What’s the point in playing if all I can do is pay off debts and save for retirement? BORING”.
I mean, don’t get me wrong — I wouldn’t turn up my nose at it. It’s just, if I’m gonna pay a dollar or two to gamble, I want to be able to help some people — and live off the interest at a yearly comfortable sum that is greater than my current salary. Forever.
I guess that’s about as practical as you can get, with a lottery. Where you look at a lump sum and don’t see “Millions” you see “Let’s see invested, low risk, call it 1 or 1.5% because if we do better we’ll just roll that over, so that’s how much income a year?”Report
Or buy lottery tickets in Canada, where lotto winnings are not taxable, and they don’t to the bogus annuity thing. If you win 5 million, you get million non-taxable dollars immediately, just as soon as you find a bank machine that accepts giant plywood cheques.Report
This is the last weekend where we will be paying rent+mortgage, so we have to get everything out of the other. That means I have to tear down my computer setup (three desktops, three monitors, two file servers, two printers, a corner desk, and a printer desk) which will take quite some time.
Other than that, unpacking. This time around, we have no excuse to leave things boxed. I didn’t realize how convenient that excuse was.Report
I am so worn down. Many personal dramas which need not be discussed here and which are as fine as such things can be. (Jay and I? WE are good. The rest of the people in our lives? Well, some of them need and deserve comforting and some of them need and deserve cluesticks. For one or two, it is more some of both.)
Actual plans:
I worked a halfday today. We have dinner/hang out plans with some very close friends tonight.
I work a two-thirds-day tomorrow, then a friend is picking me up from work to have dinner and attend a play another friend is in.
Sunday I plan to actually treat my body and soul like they are in the sorry sorry shape they are in, other than, you know, doing all the chores. I am going to be a terrible wife, though, and make Jay run all the errands.Report
My life and house are in total disarray, as I am living in a construction zone again. Stuff in piles and boxes, dust everywhere. No time for MD Listening Club tonight (though, if anyone else is interested, I am happy to set it up and put up a placeholder open post, for others to use).
We may, time and weather permitting, go swimming at a friend’s on Sunday.Report