What's everyone up to right now?

[Angrboda]

I bought the first of the year's Christmas presents today. Yay. It has begun. I got a flaming pink winter vest they had at Target for one of my sisters.

[Angrboda]

Housework. One hour on, one hour off. I'm having a new TV and stand delivered on the 28th and need to completely rearrange the furniture before then.

[Angrboda]

Listening to music and reading the morning news. I've got basically $50 in cash to last the rest of the month if I don't dip into the $800 I've set aside for paying down credit card balances. And despite my decision to try to buy less food and eat more of what I've got on hand, I've spent half my food stamps for the month in less than a week. I'll need to buy groceries for whatever I decide to cook to bring to my sister's for Thanksgiving, but I need to stop indulging. Didn't get any of the furniture rearranged yesterday, spending it boxing up stuff to store in the bedroom closet. I've got 10 days before my TV is delivered and I hope to have the apartment ready by then. I've broken down the process into 6-7 steps, each taking up to a day, but I likely will get little done on the weekend. So, it's going to be tight, but I don't need to unbox the TV and stand right away. But it's taking all my time and I have gotten a late start on Christmas shopping this year. The only thing that I've picked out or bought is a winter vest I found at Target yesterday and grabbed. I've got big boxes in the bedroom reserved for accumulating gifts, so they won't get in the way. It's going to be a busy end of year.

[Angrboda]

Got one person's Christmas presents ordered, only two to go. I'm trying to scale back this year, and limit it to $100 per family member, but I always go over. I'm going to be more aggressive about that this year, but my sister sent me a wishlist with two fairly expensive things on it, and both had aggressive discounts on them at the moment, thanks in part to my having a Best Buy credit card. It's $150 total, but it solves one problem well.

[arewethereyet]

Finishing up work for the week. Payroll is done and all subsequent reports and payments are complete.

Have to get the grooming table set up for the lady to come clip nails.

This afternoon it's off for an eye exam. I hate picking out frames and am taking an old pair with me. If I don't find something I like, I will just get them to put new lenses in that frame.

Excitement all around.

[Angrboda]

Got another person's gift ordered. Only one to go. And here I was having anxiety about having started shopping so late.

[Angrboda]

Donating plasma. I started reading the book that Jehanne suggested on the bus here, but I don't want to read for 5 hours straight. This way I keep my interest level high. So I'm farting around online, but I'm up-to-date on the forums I visit. What to do? What to do?

[arewethereyet]

Went to shop for glasses after my eye exam. The plan was to get a new pair and to get new lenses for frames I like but had scratched one of the lenses quite badly. Insurance benefits were factored. Then the BOGO offer (which one of the guys said I couldn't use for just lenses). Hidden behind a door manager or wizard of Oz said I could do that. Price was unbelievable. Said no thanks and came home. Called customer service and listed to crap music for a while only to be told it sucks to be me.

Called an optician behind them and asked if I could just bring in frames and get lenses. Was told yes. Ended up with full pair of glasses and new lenses for the old frames for about $250.00 less than the other place wanted. Should be here in a couple weeks.

It sometimes pays to shop around a bit. I can surely use that $250.00 on other things.

[Jackalope]

Waiting while the technicians install a second fiber line into our house (for redundancy). Fiber internet is so cheap in Mexico that I literally pay less for two fiber connections than what I pay in the US for 100 megabit DSL. I can't even get fiber at my home in the USA and here I have at least two providers for fiber. They don't even provision DSL in my city any longer.

[Angrboda]

I can't get fiber. My choices are cumcast or 1.5 Mbit DSL.