I Can't Hold Back

I paid off my "small" student loan today. I still have the big one and other debt, but it's good to be rid of a monthly bill that has plagued me for 10 years!

Caught in the Game

Last night I watched the weather forecast for the week and as a result, I spent all day worrying about snow. It was raining when I left my house this morning, and the rain became snow around 11 AM. It was a wintry mix of the two for the rest of the day. Overall it wasn't bad, but since I wasn't at my house I kept thinking about my drive home.

I was determined to be on the road by 8 PM and actually made it to my car at 8:45. The usual 45 minute drive took about 10 minutes longer. I saw only one accident on my way, but it was a doozy. A car had spun around and was facing the wrong way and was smashed against the meridian. A fire truck, at least one ambulance and two police cars were on the scene.

I have a feeling I'm going to be housebound Tuesday. They were predicting lots of snow, but so far there is only an inch or so on the ground.

Eye of the Tiger

Cats are funny in their likes and dislikes. Aloysius's favorite food was cheese and Chamois's favorite was canned corn.

Nigel has an affinity for Italian food. He loves tomato sauce. Since onions are bad for cats, I have to be careful about giving him people food in general and tomato sauce in particular. I try not to give him anything other than a little milk (he likes cereal milk) and a tiny bit of tuna, but I give him some tomato-based foodstuffs on occasion because he likes it so much.

This picture is not an example of me indulging him but of him helping himself to crumbs left in a pizza box. He scratched his head on the lid a bit before climbing onto the lid and licking the liner in the bottom of the box. The whole thing was pretty amusing, and now I know better than to leave an empty pizza box within his reach.

The Search is Over

How can I convince you that what you see is real?

Every Christmas I look for little silver decorating balls to use on my sugar cookies and every year I fail to find them. Admittedly, I've never searched very hard, but I have checked Williams Sonoma, Target, multiple grocery stores, etc. I'm not sure if Sur la Table carries them since I'm there so infrequently. But, I'm happy to report that they've been located for me by my Tia at Mary's Sweet Shop in Lorain.

The dragees, which is their proper name, come in three sizes and shown is the middle size, which is #4. I might get some with a smaller diameter closer to Christmas, but I don't think I have use for larger ones. The multi-color ones are a bonus since I was only looking for the silver ones.

Picture This

I've decided that I need to add more pictures to this blog. At the beginning of the year, I was pretty good at posting a picture every week or so, but I've gotten out of the habit. Part of the reason is the short life of my camera battery, which prohibits spontaneous pictures since I have to charge one or both of the batteries before I can take any shots.

I bought a new battery a few weeks ago, but decided to return it once I saw how cheap digital cameras are nowadays. It seemed kind of silly to buy a battery for $40 when a camera with a display screen bigger than 1" x 1" is less than twice as much. Seriously, that's how big the display screen is on my camera. I'd take a picture of it and post it here if I could.

Taxes

I finally finished the last of my taxes today, which was my state return. Right before I signed off on it, I realized that I made the mistake of paying taxes on my state and local income tax refunds. It wasn't a huge change, but it must have increased my refund by a few dollars.

I have to go back and check my returns for the last few years to see if I've made this mistake in past years. I also need to figure out whether it's worth it to amend the old returns. I blame the online system. Or I guess I could blame it on the rain.

no foolin'

I ordered pizza online for the first time today. I wasn't at home and was ordering with someone who hates Giovanni's (blasphemy, I know!) so we picked Marco's Pizza. I was always suspicious of the whole thing, but when I called the store to see if they delivered to the house and to place an order if they did, the conversation went something like this.

Dee: Do you deliver to ___
Marco's employee: Yes.
Dee: I'd like to place a delivery order, then.
M's ee: Could you hold?

2nd Marco's employee: Can I get your phone number?
Dee: 440-___-____
2nd ee: Name?
Dee: Lee
2nd ee: What?
Dee: Lee
2nd ee: What?
Dee: Lee, L as in Larry
2nd ee: Larry?
Dee: No. You know what? I'll try ordering online.

And I did! And it worked! By the way, if you're thinking about ordering from Marco's you should totally get the cheesy bread.