Wednesday March 28, 2007

Tonight …. last girls party before complicatedreamer gets married. Fondue supper and dessert. Grilled chicken and meatballs. Cheese Fondue. Veggies. Chocolate and caramel. Cheesecake. Fruit. Sleepover for those who want to stay.

Tomorrow …. drop off my car at the body shop for a little painting. The paint on the front bumper has been peeling and it looks “unapeeling” so it’s getting some improvement. My brother will pick me up sometime in the p.m. and we’ll head out for VA.

Friday …. shopping with my mom, SIL and sister. Supper at Carrabbas with the family (really drooling over this one).

Saturday …. Going to a cousin’s wedding. Conversations with family and friends.

Sunday …. ?? church somewhere, more food and fellowship.

Monday …. head back home. My sister is coming home with us for a week!!!!

Money and other non-essentials – Friday March 23, 2007

I’ve been listening online to Dave Ramsey afternoons when I have time. He is a say-it-like-it-is financial guru who speaks from experience. He was in real estate while still in high school, built up a large financial empire that crashed when things got tough in the early 80s. He went through bankruptcy and started all over.

He recently had a session on tipping that was very interesting. You can listen to the archive copy at this place . Another very interesting topic before Christmas was on anonymous giving. On his website there is a “stupid tax” place that people can put stories of bad decisions and what it cost them, such as the young couple that bought a $900 wedding ring on credit and ended up paying over $3,500 for it.

He now uses no credit cards and buys absolutely nothing on credit. Some of his “famous” sayings are:

Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else
Beans and rice, rice and beans
Teaching people to act their wage
If you ask how he’s doing, he responds, “better than I deserve.”
Average in America is broke. You don’t want to be average.

Anyway, it’s educational plus very entertaining!

Women who have to have best even if they can’t afford it: Princess Syndrome
Credit Cards: American Excess
Car Lease: Car Fleece
Cutting up credit cards: Plasectomy
Credit score: Credit Scar (because you can only have one if you borrow money)

Other quotes from him:

Looking good and being broke is the definition of being stupid.
If your self-esteem is based on what you drive, you’re what’s known as shallow.

It doesn’t take long to figure out he must be a choleric.  Any other listeners out there? If so, what do you think of his advice?

 

A Little 2-letter Word – Wednesday March 21, 2007

So a 2-letter word has a hundred completely different meanings. So what is this stuff about English being easy?

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meaning than any other two-letter word, and that is “UP.”   It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we waken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

Now this UP is really confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!  To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary.  In a desk size dictionary, the word up, takes UP almost 1/4th the page and definitions add UP to about thirty.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.   When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it doesn’t rain for a while, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so…. I’ll give UP and shut UP…..!

From crosswalk.com