moneybrain

At work on Wednesday I visited camp to make sure everyone was okay. First day of canoeing and spirits were high. The campers are really nice this week and the new leaders are liking each other and working together as a team. The volunteers are spectacular. Two speak Mandarin, which we really need this week. Everything was good at the lake.

Back at my office I put my phone on forward, locked my door and got to work on the 2006 budget. I'm writing my own and also leading my team so that my co-workers can get theirs done with a minimum of fuss, then I have to check everyone else's to make sure they're accurate and completed to spec. We use spreadsheets, which makes it easy, but some of the accounts are very complicated with long series of changes that must be done just so and in the right order and if you're lucky they balance after about two hours of mind-bending fiddling for one page. It's worth it, and also required by law, so we do it. By six o'clock I was not finished, but I had not sat down for supper with my family since Sunday so I left a big pile of paper and eraser bits (is there a word for those? maybe I'll make one up) on my desk and came home.

Turns out daughter has reached the point of "I give up" with her new bicycle. Husband too. We got it for her as an early birthday present. It was a really good deal. We found out why. The brakes squeal when you touch them so you can be heard a block or two away. This is not okay, especially for an 11 year old almost twelve year old girl. Mortifying actually. We've had the bike into the shop and they fixed it temporarily then the squealing resumed. So I had already talked to the bike shop manager on the phone to agree that they will take the bike back and give us a credit toward a new bike, but husband is fed up with dealing with it, so daughter and I go to the store to make the exchange. Husband comes too. I think he likes to see me talk to service people. I am nice but I get what I want.

So we brought the bike in. Looked at what we could get in exchange plus oh, only $99 more or so. Ahem.

I told them how we appreciated their extensive efforts to fix the bike, and the time they were taking now to show us the other bikes, but what would make us happy was our money back. Okay, they said. So now husband will go to Costco and get daugher the same bike he has that works just fine, no squeaking, two wheels, moves when you pedal it. Daughter is already thinking about how to make her bike look non-identical to her dad's. As we left the bike shop, husband asked, "Do you want to go to Costco now?"


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

So back at home I finally turned off my left brain, hugged everyone, petted the dog and the cat and ate eggs, onions, tomatoes, bread and beer for supper at 8:30, fell asleep with my nose in the newspaper at 9 and went to bed. Gotta get up early and go play with the budget some more.

I am taking Friday off work. No stores, no numbers, no spreadsheets, only lakes with no paying customers, supper with the family maybe outside.

5 more workdays 'til vacation.

question: money mommy?

mompoet - dwindling