Just got paid but I am almost out of money. The biweekly pay periods have precessed so that the second check of the month came in after the last day of the AMEX billing cycle, and because I ill-advisedly transferred what looked like an unexpected cache of savings over to Vanguard, I’d used up my budget before a new infusion of cash hit the checking account. Of course, the bill isn’t due to American Express until January 9; but I’m afraid I can’t take advantage of the after-Christmas sales. Ohhh well . . . it won’t kill me to wear jeans for another year.
M’hijito is coming over here after he visits his father’s tribe, presumably later in the day. At Costco I found a magnificent standing rib roast-bone in, no less! – plus some wonderful tiny French green beans and a bag of fingerling potatoes. The roast is only about 4 1/2 pounds, just enough for the two of us without a lot of waste, which kept the price in the near-affordable range. And at AJ’s I discovered that two scrumptious pecan tarts cost less than one pecan pie and probably deliver more calories. One of them is as much as he and I will eat for dessert, but I grabbed two so I could jack up my blood sugar for breakfast. Yum!
He remarked that he wanted a KitchenAid stand mixer. Well, what should I have gathering dust in the closet but the very thing, complete with fistfuls of bells and whistles! I haven’t used the thing more than a half-dozen times, since you need a crane to lift it onto the kitchen counter. I’ve used the grinder attachment once; forthwith realized grinding meat in the food processor is a lot easier and less messy. So he’s getting that thing and all its accoutrements. He and his chefly pals will get a lot more use out of it than I have.
I also got him a Roomba Dirt Dog. It’s iRobot’s idea of a shop vac-except it’s not a vacuum; it’s actually a mechanized broom. With no vacuum inside, it has more space for dirt and no filter to block incoming chunks of debris. It works every bit as well as Roomba on the tile, and so it’s just the thing for our fully tile-floored houses. And it was only $110, as opposed to $300 for the latest iteration of Roomba.
The Roomba he gave me several years ago, while he was living in the City and earning (comparatively) a ton of money, is beginning to give up the ghost. Apparently something inside is overheating and shutting it down. The one he bought for himself at the time died forthwith – they’re touchy little fellows-and he was very disappointed. From what I can tell from the online user reviews, though, Dirt Dawg is made of sterner stuff, so I have some hope that it’ll run for a while.
And that’s about it. Christmas 2007 will be a modest affair. I’m busted, disgusted, and can’t be trusted! Laying aside $250 a month to pay down the renovation loan within two years leaves me flat broke. The income from the two courses I’m taking on this semester also will go straight toward the loan. So . . . all I want for Christmas is a merit increase next spring!