Our life, our way

So as of last week, its official. Brian and I are headed on another cruise! This time we are taking my mom. She’s pretty excited. I think she wishes she had some of her friends that would go with her but she is excited nonetheless.

Back in college, she told me she want to go on a cruise. I had researched it a bit and realized that she better do it soon before they started requiring passports. It seemed to cost a fortune to me back in the day and we never made it.

Now that I know the truth about cruising and vacationing on a ship, it truly is my vacation of choice. Too bad, I can’t get everywhere by ship.  There is just something relaxing about knowing that no one is gonna call you. I miss the internet a bit but it forces me to not rely on my computer to be my source of entertainment. We get to spend quality time together. We chat and talk.

And its comforting to know that I can enjoy a cheap cruise line like Carnival for a quick get away.   I plan on trying the other lines like Celebrity and Holland or Princess one day, but for now, in our current financial situation, its nice to know Carnival is there.

For the price of what we paid for airline tickets to Seattle for two last year, we booked a 4-day cruise for 3. We selected the Carnival Fascination again because we’ve been on it before. Our hope is that a familiar ship and port will help us make Mom’s first experience 100% relaxing.

I don’t foresee her doing too much at port. We might see if we can get some shopping in. I think bingo and the casino will be big.

Bahamas here we come!

Okay, so I was a bad blogger in Jan. It’s okay. I’m a bad blogger in general!

With the new year, we feel like maybe we aren’t doomed just having friends that live far away. We’ve been making new friends along the way but it wasn’t until recently do we feel like it might be real.

I’ve always had good co-workers and many acquaintance type friends. We see at parties, sometime hang out. But I miss the days of having my buddy Sonya just stop by the apartment after classes. The times where someone calls you up at 8pm and asks if you want to grab a movie.

I miss all my good friends over the years even if we don’t get to talk much.  I look forward to all the new memories I will make with new and old friends.

I have a lot to think about. A lot has happened this year, both good and bad. Just as anyone else, I wish the bad things didn’t happen.  For years now my friends from various stages in my life have also moved around the country as I have all of my childhood. So it makes it very difficult to see folks.  This year was special and unique.

I got to go on vacation twice with Lauren and Mike. Sonya has been here to visit on several occasions. I even got to spend time with folks back home in Biloxi. The “harem” as Brian likes to call them. It makes me remember how much I miss my friends. For a while there I almost forgot what it was like. I’ve made friends everywhere but not the kind of friends from before. Not the kind, you tell anything to. Not the kind, you call up randomly just to chat. My new friends, it seems like everything has to be planned. What happened to, picking up the phone when you are bored and head out to catch a movie?

But the year was filled with lots of bad news. Seemed like everywhere I turned I heard the word divorce. That is very sad to me whether the couple had kids or not. Unfortunately, many are not finalized because its never quick when it has kids involved.

We’ve gotten to spend good quality time with Brian’s Dad. I think he really enjoyed Seattle/Alaska. I wish we could do more for him to get him away from the drama that fills his life. I don’t think the stress is good for him at all. I saw him at Christmas and he looked tired and run down. It is wonderful that he is helping care for his grandkids but it takes such a toll on him. He should be relaxing and “enjoying” the kids not having to care for their day to day needs.  Hopefully things will lighten up for him.

We haven’t gotten to take mom anywhere this year and for that I feel really bad. She deserves it.  My goal is to get that taken care of the first half of 2012.

We’ve moved to a new house in 2011. It was a difficult decision. In a bad economy, how can you dive in and decide to buy a second home just to have two mortgages? But we did our math carefully based on our spending habits in the past 2 years living together and sharing finances and we did it! I am very glad we did. I love the new house. Don’t get me wrong, I still love my old house too. These first 4 months have been tight because of move in expenses (little fixes here and there) and the holidays. But we budgeted well and we didn’t incur additional debt! Now we just need to stick to our normal behavior in 2012 that we did in 2011 and we’ll still be able to take our vacations, buy our toys, pay down old debt and keep up with the mortgage. For that I feel really lucky.

I see lots of folks that make equal to or more than us and they aren’t able to do the things we do.  They probably have more cost in their life. Hopefully the economy gets better, and everyone will start to be able to breathe a little nicer as finances let up.  I can’t wait until our credit card debt is 100% gone along with student loans.  Another 2 years for credit card debt and car loans. I wish it wasn’t that long but I think the house was worth the delay and I refuse to give up vacations. After all we take pretty cheap vacations and the life moments and memories we have together are priceless. Who cares if people call me cheap. I’d rather take 3 cheap vacations than one super expensive one. Alaska was pricey but Alaska cruises are never cheap and we wanted to make sure Dad had a great time.  Balcony was nice but the price premium was still not worth it. Maybe later in life, but for now, I’m going bad to my cheap interior rooms.

Those were the highlights of the year. There is still so many more things worth mentioning but I better hop in the shower so that I can enjoy my last day of 2011 with my nephew, Tai.  Happy New Year everyone!

So, I consider myself to be a nice person. I do.

But if I consider myself a nice person then you are wondering why I am asking this question.  “Nice” has different levels.

Lately at work, I’ve been trying to re-evaluate what it is to be nice.  I can work with pretty much anyone. If you have met some of the folks I’ve worked with before you would agree with me. LOL.

But being cordial and working with someone is kind of where I would like to draw the line. I don’t feel that I need to talk about vacation with you, talk about my marriage, talk about having kids, or anything else that is about my personal life. If we don’t like each other…if we only talk because of work, then I will smile and say hi to you in the hall, but I probably won’t ask “How are you?” Let alone any of those other things.

So why does it seem that people define “being nice” to co-workers to include this small talk? You don’t care, I don’t care, so lets not bother. Right?

And if you are someone I do talk to about any of those personal topics, then I consider you to be more than a co-worker. Maybe not a good friend I will grab a drink after work with, but I would help you if you needed it. So if you are going to be more than a co-worker then don’t stab me in the back.

And if I stop entertaining all these people and there need for information (or acting like they want to know) then am I not nice anymore?

So having mom live with us has been quite a learning experience for me (Kim). Phong and I handled the paperwork and finances for our parents for all of our childhood. When mom and I parted ways with Phong in MI since he wanted college there and we wanted warm weather, I’ve been the primary paperwork/finance handler for mom.

I just had to make sure I knew where all the money was and that bills got paid. Not so bad especially since most of the time it was not my money I had to dish out.

Since she moved in in 2005, healthcare has been the new task on the list.  Finding a physcian she liked. Getting her set up on Medicare. It’s stuff I never thought about as I planned for my future. I knew I wanted to have a house paid off, money set aside, retirement funds to live off of. But what about health insurance?

Because, quite frankly, medicare sucks!

I love that her insurance only covers problem specific diagnosis and not health prevention other than the big stuff like mamograms, etc.

The newest thing is lack of dental care. The only thing her insurance covers is extraction. Really? Nothing to preserve the teeth. No dentures, nothing. How many old people are walking around with not dentures?

So I have to think about this, how will I insure I can afford the crazy health insurance premiums or set myself up to retain an employer plan. I guess this is why so many folks in the University system are quite content with just doing their time and retiring.  So I guess Brian or I better retire with someone that has after retirement costs for employee and spouse to help off set what Medicare won’t pay…if it will still be around. That or have lots of kids and hopes one becomes rich and can care for us (or at least me) in our old age.

So this weekend, I was out and about doing groceries among other things and noticed it was 2pm. Since Brian has been working hard at home on the trailer, I figured I will bring him a treat from Sonic, since its happy hour.

So I pull in and place my order, two slushies. I couldn’t understand the girl when she said the total but no biggie.  I sit and wait. I’m thinking, “man, they must be busy.”

She comes out with my order and asks me for the total. But the total was full price. I ask her about Happy Hour. She said, let her check. 10 minutes later she returns to tell me the cash registers aren’t allowing discounts and that I can pick a free item. I don’t want anything else. I was just thirsty. She asked if I would take a coupon. Now its just about principle.

“No, I want these two drinks and I want to pay the advertised price.”

She leaves and returns 10 minutes later with a new ticket for half the price. Total $2.17. I hand her $3.00. She hands me 3 quarters and says, “that’s about right, right?”

*sigh* I didn’t even say anything. I just looked at her. She handed me some more change. I didn’t even bother counting..

These are our final projects from our Cake Decorating class.

I had to buy a new IPad case and camera kit so all things being equal between the product at the apple store and Best Buy, I decided to give my support to Best Buy for supporting local boy scouts.  I had recently bought a Camp Card from a co-worker that has a son in the boy scouts.  With my purchase, I will make back $7 of the $10 from my purchase. So I  swing by Best Buy on my way home from work.

Upon arrival, I was greeted at the front. I am off to the IPad Accessory section. While there, several associates came to ask me if I needed help. I smile each time and say, “No,I’m am fine. thank you.” They kept hovering. As far as I remember, employees don’t get commission so that was weird to me. I hate hovering when I don’t need help (big reason why some stores are on my “do not shop” list).

It didn’t take too long and I settled on my two items. As I walk to the front register, I had a moment of hesitation because I wasn’t sure if the cashier would know how to honor the discount. So often if the discount can not be scanned and is not widely distributed, cashiers fail to be able to handle it. Fortunately the cashier went to customer service to ask about the card and came back promptly to finish up my order. He wasn’t going to give me back my card but at least he didn’t put up a fight when I asked for it back. I thought all was good.

Walking out to my car, I look at my receipt and notice that the cashier took 5% off of each item for a total of 3.50 off of my original $70 purchase. I turn around and walk back in. I stop at the greeter and explain my issue. He looks at my receipt and tells me that I did get 10% off. 5% plus 5% is 10%. I try to explain how that does not add up and he continues to disagree. He tells me to go to Customer Service and they will explain to me how it works. *sigh*

Arriving at the customer service counter I stand and wait as the employees talk amongst themselves. After they finish the young lady comes to ask how she can help. I explain to her my situation and she says, “You did get 10%, 5% plus 5%.” I proceed to explain that none of that adds up. Frustrated, she asked me to wait and goes to ask someone else that appears to be the manager at the time or at least senior to her. I can hear him explaining to her that 5% plus 5% was not 10% off an order. She comes back and says “since he didn’t know and started, we will give you the rest of the discount.” Confused, I watched to see if she would elaborate. Since she didn’t I proceed to ask, if there was an issue with the card. She then proceeds to tell me that the card should not apply to anything that is “price protected.” I wanted to ask for clarification so that I can pass the message along to the folks that sold me the card. That way other shoppers can be aware. She proceeds, “Good thing you didn’t buy an IPad. Since it was just an accessory, we can do it but just this time because you had already paid.”

The issue was fixed but the disappointment is that

1) Three employees (two of which handle money) can’t do basic math. 5% off of two items each is not 10% off total. I guess if I walked up with 10 items, they would have taken 1% off of each??
2) Whoever did the arrangement with the Camp Card should have specified that exclusions apply. Other business did and they were printed on card.  A communication failure has occurred. It  could have been as simple as, “exclusions apply, see store.” I completely understand that certain items will be excluded. Most discounts have that clause.

For our class before Easter we made cupcakes. We tried to keep it colorful. I think Brian succeeded with his vibrant colors on every cupcake.

Last night we had our second class of cake decorating . See our creations below!

Not to downplay the wonderful creations of professionals but we have definitely found that this is not as hard as we were expecting.  We were slightly unprepared for class. It would have gone smoother if we had our icing already colored and bagged. We ended up only using 3 colors that we could share to speed up the process. Not too bad if I say so myself. Technique for week 2 was called deminsional decorating. Next week will be flowers. I can’t wait!!!!