Shopping

So I decided to put my Christmas "bonus" to good use this year. Every year my boss gives us $400-500 to spend with a few conditions attached. It has to be paid by company cheque or put on the company credit card, which means dragging my boss out to pay at the till for whatever we want to buy, so make it something big, and limit it the number of seperate transactions.

Last year I bought a deep freeze and an iron. 2 things that I needed, and have been put to good use. Well less so the iron, but it is handy when required.

But this year...this year I decided to get stuff for us. WE got $440 and I think we put it to good use. We bought ourselves a Nintendo Wii, one of the hardest gifts to find this Christmas next to Guitar Hero, but since I work at Wal-mart I had an in. PLUS 20% off! And then we spend the remaining 200 bucks at amazon.ca. Such a wonderful site. So many great and wonderful things to buy. I got Mama Bean a bunch of books that she wanted, and I got me some books I've been wanting.

But the pièce de résistance is this...

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes!

Sticking with the theme

Awww, so great.

Christmas Shoes

Okay, so I'm a sap. This has been established. The first time I heard this song, I think I was at bible college sitting in my dorm room alone. And I cried.

I know most people have already heard the song, and maybe the video, but I wanted to share it with you. So I went on youtube, found the video and it made me cry. :) It's just that good.

Stupid People

So ths whole married thing rocks. Except for the rarely getting to see each other part. We both work Tues-Sat at our day jobs, and I work another 12-15 hours a week at Walmart changing tires and oil on my days off, while Mama Bean works another 20ish hours at Starbucks on her days off and after work on Tuesdays and Saturdays. It pretty much sucks. We come home after work and if it's a Saturday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, Mama Bean is most likely working the closing shift till 9:30, Wednesdays are worship practice till 10, Care group on Thursday's till 10, and more often than not, some family thing on Friday's. So we get to sleep, and wakeup together which, don't get me wrong, is friggin awesome, but seriously...

Christmas is coming. I'm thinking I might take the last 5 days of my vacation for the year and spend 3 or 4 of them working at Wal-mart. Kinda double dipping for the extra cash. We aren't so bad off, I mean we have a house with more than 25% paid off, 2 cars, one of which is paid off entirely, and more than enough stuff, but it's the student loans that kill us.

I was talking to the folks at Wal-mart the other day and the topic of me being married came up, and the reason I'm working a second job is to help with the loan payments. The first thing this girl says is how I'm screwed if we get divorced. Nothing positive, just and immediate, "man, you're screwed." Her reasoning being that I'm spending all this money paying off her student loans, and there's no way I'll get that back. Mama Bean will have her Doctor title, which I helped pay for, and I get half of the rest b/c you can't really split education.

What a negative attitude. I just couldn't believe it. At the time I just thought to myself, well it's a good thing I'm not planning on getting divorced. I dunno, it was just a shitty thing to say and it pissed me off. I guess partially b/c it's true, but that completly defeats the purpose. You can't live your married life thinking that one day you might get divorced so you better live it carefully so that when the time comes I get my proper share. That thought had never crossed my mind, and now that it has, I'm sure as hell not going to live that way. Seriously! ARGH! Stupid people and the stupid things they say!

You can always count on Opus

ARGH!

So just in time for Christmas, we're hit with a $900 in car repairs. Well, not just repairs, but tires and repairs.
$99 alignment
$60 balancing
$404 @ $102/tire
$120 @ $30/tire for balancing
$75 new rim
Add in 6% GST and tire tax, and who knows what else and it comes up to a rather sizeable bill.

Maybe we shouldn't buy that Wii we preordered as a Christmas present to ourselves. Maybe this will be our Christmas present...

Royal Bank

I love the Royal Bank.

Last month I messed up and paid my utility bill to the wrong company. I paid it to my old utilities company which account I have since cancelled. I call them up to ask for my money back and they tell me they didn't receive it. The bank tells me they sent it though.

So I call up Royal Bank and explain the situation. He treats it like it's no big deal and they'll get my money back in 5 business days. Like they do this all the time (which they probably do). I really hope their actions are as awesome as their words.

And just as I was about to go, he mentioned something about my savings accounts, and about this new, FREE, high interest one that I can switch to. How awesome is this?

So yeah, the Royal Bank is awesome.

Respect? What's that?

Seriously...I'm going to fucking lose it. Now I see why our IT consultant is the way he is. If you aren't firm, and know when to say no, you'll get walked all over.

We have this new guy in our office who transferred from our office from BC. He's not technically an employee, still just a consultant, but they are trying to get him on staff. This means that every time he wants something, he gets it. New, larger monitor? sure. Wireless keyboard and mouse? Of course. Now the guy he's sharing an office with, who used to be pretty decent (or so I thought) is being a little fucking prick and trying to bully me into getting him things. Just because this new guy has them, he figures he should as well. Fuck that. You don't need it. You just want it b/c you are a little man with a Napolean complex. The thing is that he doesn't even get it. He doesn't see that he's being a little bitch. I get no respect. I'll talk to the boss and what happens? Oh just order it. WHAT THE FUCK? All these little frivolous things come out of the bottom line, which means less money in my bonus.

I kind of understand where he is coming from, but I'm just sick of people asking for, and getting, shit they don't need.

No respect...