Two dumb things I will not do this week

Last week, I paid $14 for on-site hospital parking - that is just for a single appointment. It was silly. I got there on time but the specialist was running two hours behind schedule. This week I'll park on the street for free and take a chance that no harm comes from the extra three minutes the walk will probably cost me. I also will not take the youngest through the McDriveThru for McHappiness, no matter how zany the week gets.

Woman's work, mostly done

Metro supermarket has windshield wiper fluid on promotion today for $2.99. It's probably cheaper over at Food Basics, but I was already at Metro and I knew I was running low. I sprung the hood myself and topped up before leaving the parking lot of the store. It doesn't sound like much of a common sense revolution, at surface level, on a sunny winter's day.

Last time, I left it too long and had to stop at a full service station during a storm, in which I was also talked into a $50 set of winter wipers. While they are indeed fit for a princess, and I did need new ones, it's the sort of snap judgment call that can add up in the long term.

In other news, I just cut my bangs, which puts off the decision of what to swap out for a haircut until February. To cut and foil/camouflage the silvery grey now takes three hours.

In the undone column still sits an unwritten invoice for accepted and undisputed services provided by my company to a long standing client via subcontractor last month, which ideally should have been issued by me to the client early last week. It's straight commission for me on these services; my role is simply administrative in this case.

This client has a history of paying on time, within 30 days of receipt. On that note...

Update: Done. It takes 15 minutes to issue an invoice. I slap my own wrist, and carry on.

It gets better

The parent company had a banner year; I'm getting another bonus: $1000 (gross). I see a return trip to the yarn store in my near future, and a few music lessons for the eldest child.

Update, January 23:
Located next door, bi-weekly guitar lessons will start in February at a cost of $20 per hour.

Update, January 29:
$447 net.

In the delivery

The net bonus appeared in my account last night, with net amount: $3975. That would mean approximately $7000 in deductions have been taken from the source for income tax or other purposes. Wow. Fingers crossed for a payroll error.

Not an error. Sigh.

Focus on the positive

My first batch of restricted stock options from my current employer will vest in ten days. The work bonus program also pays out this week: only two more sleeps until then.

The temptation to immediately apply both to a cottage down payment is overwhelming, but... it is not the quickest path to owning the cottage/land outright! I've done the math.

The interest rate on my Line of Credit still hovers around 6%. I also need to do more homework on the actual costs of property ownership outside my home province, before I firmly commit to buy.

Tech stock is by nature a wild card, even on a good day; the analysts currently expect this one to increase in value by approximately 25% over the coming year.

Land value is not expected to significantly change during this period. I considered it.

I plan to hold the stock, and I will apply the bulk of the bonus to the credit line debt.

As for the rest of the bonus, I will be getting new eyeglasses (including progressive lenses and new frames), but I am not ready to fix my broken tail light quite yet.

Simply beautiful

There was some yarn leftover from the Christmas sock project. I have just made myself an infinity scarf from it. I saw one I liked in a magazine at the doctor's office earlier this week. I improvised a pattern for it, which turned out well. The Ostrich Plume Panel is taken from the Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches, Volume Two.

Knit on 6.5 mm needles with approximately 75 grams of Patons Decor (acrylic/wool blend) as follows:

Cast on 45 stitches = 3 x 2 + 3 X 13. Work 3 Ostrich Plume Panels (13 stitches each) on a background of stocking stitch. One panel: 1st row, knit. 2nd row, purl. 3rd row, k4tog, [yf, k1] 5 times, yf, k4tog. 4th row: purl. Repeat until desired length is achieved. The dimensions before sewing are approximately 12" X 42". Twist it once or twice, then sew the short ends together.

Blinded by the light

Another Christmas means another Sears gift card from my grandmother. This gift in itself is not news. Usually, I hoard them until the spring sales. This time, I played a hunch that the List of All Things Broken might contain something Sears carries in their online catalog.

I sometimes get dressed in my kitchen. When the poplar tree came down last month (at the request of our attached neighbour), privacy became an issue. I'll be picking up my new vertical blinds for the patio door from Carlingwood Mall next week. Happy New Year to me.