Yesterday while I was carting my 20-something-carless-daughter around from home to work and work to other work and other work to home, we had ample opportunity to catch up. I hadn't seen much of her when I was on the road, so we had some catching up to do.
What I didn't realize was that she had come up with an entirely new language while I was away. Something her and her friends all understand, but leaves the rest of us scratching our heads, puzzling over her Facebook messages.
So there she was animatedly chatting away when she casually drops the phrase "Mackin' on my Koolaid" into the conversation.
Wha???
"Oh, yeah, our Slingo? We make up words all the time."
Wha??? Slingo?
So, here to decipher for you, lest your teenager come down with the same malady, is my interpretation:
Slingo - Slang + Lingo
Mackin' - Smoochin' or lovin'
Koolaid - Your sweetie or object of desire
Therefore, "Mackin' on yer Koolaid" means smooching with your sweetie.
What can I say? It all makes sense now. Tonight after work, she's going to get dolled up and go hang with her Koolaid.
They're not dating tho, so there'll be no mackin'.
Cheers -
Victoria
Friday, June 4, 2010
Why God Doesn't Want Me To Do The Checkbook Today
We are 3 months behind in entering stuff in our checkbook software program, Microsoft Money. Recently, I spent exactly 3 months working from CO. Coincidence? I think not.
Fortunately, all of our bills are on “auto-pay,” so we don’t have to sit down and pay our bills every week. They just pay themselves, as long as there is cash in the bank. We have automatic paycheck deposits, too.
Cool, eh?
But over the course of 3 months, there is a lot of paperwork piling up that still needs to be dealt with.
Like all those miscellaneous purchases that occur every week. Gas. Food. Groceries. Hair dye. Bikini Wax. You know, the essentials.
Over three months time, those purchases add up. Takes a lot of wax to keep PB’s back hairless, ya know? Just kidding. He doesn’t wax his back. Yet.
Do you know how much inertia you need to overcome to even consider tackling the checkbook after three months of ignoring it?
More energy than I usually have for an entire day of tasks.
More energy than I have had the last three weeks I’ve been home from CO.
But today I was in a cleaning/fixing mood (something that happens so rarely, I really need to take advantage of it when it flits through) and I finally convinced myself it would be OK to take a very small quick peek at it.
First I had to organize all of the bill statements. Alphabetically and by date, since I have multiple months from every utility and bill company.
Then I had to log into the money program on the home PC. I had not accessed it from my login since Papp Bear last messed with (or, as he refers to, “re-deranged”) things on the PC, so of course the shortcut link to the program did not work.
So I Skyped (is that a real verb? How about, IM’d?) PB a message asking how to access the program.
And waited.
And waited.
Then I texted PB a message. He texted back: “Skype”
Yeah, duh, already did that! You didn’t respond!
So (via Skype IM) he walked me through how to access the program, and I took my pile of utility bills in a big ‘ol stack and set them in front of my keyboard and was going to begin, when I remembered I also have to have USBank up, to look at the transactions as they hit the bank, to verify them against what my software program says it is going to enter for me.
So I opened up an internet browser window.
Then remembered our internet was broken.
So I called Frontier. Got through immediately – wow!
The Helpline person told me to unplug the modem. We had already rebooted it and left it sitting for several minutes, so I didn’t see how this would help. But sure enough, after plugging it back in, the darn DSL light lit up and so did the internet light, and I had internet access for oh, about, 2 minutes, just long enough to hang up the phone with that rep.
So I called right back – and got a recorded message that the wait time would now be 10 minutes.
It was 13 minutes.
And they couldn’t help me. They have to send out a tech. Some time between now and 24 hours from now.
At which time I will no longer have the energy or desire to do the checkbook anymore.
God must not want me to do the checkbook today.
Thanks, God. I owe ya one.
Fortunately, all of our bills are on “auto-pay,” so we don’t have to sit down and pay our bills every week. They just pay themselves, as long as there is cash in the bank. We have automatic paycheck deposits, too.
Cool, eh?
But over the course of 3 months, there is a lot of paperwork piling up that still needs to be dealt with.
Like all those miscellaneous purchases that occur every week. Gas. Food. Groceries. Hair dye. Bikini Wax. You know, the essentials.
Over three months time, those purchases add up. Takes a lot of wax to keep PB’s back hairless, ya know? Just kidding. He doesn’t wax his back. Yet.
Do you know how much inertia you need to overcome to even consider tackling the checkbook after three months of ignoring it?
More energy than I usually have for an entire day of tasks.
More energy than I have had the last three weeks I’ve been home from CO.
But today I was in a cleaning/fixing mood (something that happens so rarely, I really need to take advantage of it when it flits through) and I finally convinced myself it would be OK to take a very small quick peek at it.
First I had to organize all of the bill statements. Alphabetically and by date, since I have multiple months from every utility and bill company.
Then I had to log into the money program on the home PC. I had not accessed it from my login since Papp Bear last messed with (or, as he refers to, “re-deranged”) things on the PC, so of course the shortcut link to the program did not work.
So I Skyped (is that a real verb? How about, IM’d?) PB a message asking how to access the program.
And waited.
And waited.
Then I texted PB a message. He texted back: “Skype”
Yeah, duh, already did that! You didn’t respond!
So (via Skype IM) he walked me through how to access the program, and I took my pile of utility bills in a big ‘ol stack and set them in front of my keyboard and was going to begin, when I remembered I also have to have USBank up, to look at the transactions as they hit the bank, to verify them against what my software program says it is going to enter for me.
So I opened up an internet browser window.
Then remembered our internet was broken.
So I called Frontier. Got through immediately – wow!
The Helpline person told me to unplug the modem. We had already rebooted it and left it sitting for several minutes, so I didn’t see how this would help. But sure enough, after plugging it back in, the darn DSL light lit up and so did the internet light, and I had internet access for oh, about, 2 minutes, just long enough to hang up the phone with that rep.
So I called right back – and got a recorded message that the wait time would now be 10 minutes.
It was 13 minutes.
And they couldn’t help me. They have to send out a tech. Some time between now and 24 hours from now.
At which time I will no longer have the energy or desire to do the checkbook anymore.
God must not want me to do the checkbook today.
Thanks, God. I owe ya one.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Things that made me smile today
I admit, I was kinda cranky today. It all started with the financial drama of my almost-out-of-the-house-20-year-old-child. And assorted other child-related messes, physical and mental and emotional.
Added to that stress was work stress - internet was broken (thank goodness for my Mifi card!), my server connection to a client site broke, and communications with my work team were nonexistent despite several attempts on my part.
I was a cranky lady when I left the house to go pick up my car-less child from Forest Lake, 20 minutes away.
But after I picked her up, we stopped at the local whole foods type grocery store, where I am a frequent customer, and the lady at the register asked me if C-baby was my little sister. Oh Joy! I could have hugged her!
And then at the farm today, after scooping a wheelbarrow full of dung, I stopped and watched Betty hose off the girls, who are all still fully fleeced and very uncomfortably hot. They love the hose, like little kids love hoses & water. It was a hoot.
And then I watched the two babies born this year chasing and romping around the pasture.
I drove the back roads to go get my car-less child after I was done at the farm, and marveled at the emerald green fields everywhere I went. First crop of hay is being harvested at some farms. I want to learn how to cut and rake and bale hay. Does anyone out there need a hand with this task?
I also had a good laugh with C-baby over some of the "slingo" her and her friends have come up with lately - I'll post about that very soon. You'll find out what "Mackin' with yer Koolaid" means. So stay tuned on that one.
And then, just now, I checked one of my favorite blogger sites, Pioneer Woman, and she had literally JUST POSTED her daily Confessions blog - and I was able to comment as number eleven!!! Make that, number seventeen - in the 3 seconds it took me to post my comment, 6 others had been posted, too. I mean, number 19... once the page refreshed, I was bumped to 19. But still, this is a site the frequently receives hundreds if not thousands of comments/day (her giveaway posts exceed 30,000 comments!), so making the top twenty of any of her posts on any given day is no small achievement.
I know, I live a small and pathetic life. I have to look for the good where I can find it, when surrounded by child financial drama and work excommunication.
At any rate, I did smile today, several times, despite my tantrums and stress frazzles. And now, I am going to go make these. And all will be well with the world.
Smiles -
Victoria
Added to that stress was work stress - internet was broken (thank goodness for my Mifi card!), my server connection to a client site broke, and communications with my work team were nonexistent despite several attempts on my part.
I was a cranky lady when I left the house to go pick up my car-less child from Forest Lake, 20 minutes away.
But after I picked her up, we stopped at the local whole foods type grocery store, where I am a frequent customer, and the lady at the register asked me if C-baby was my little sister. Oh Joy! I could have hugged her!
And then at the farm today, after scooping a wheelbarrow full of dung, I stopped and watched Betty hose off the girls, who are all still fully fleeced and very uncomfortably hot. They love the hose, like little kids love hoses & water. It was a hoot.
And then I watched the two babies born this year chasing and romping around the pasture.
I drove the back roads to go get my car-less child after I was done at the farm, and marveled at the emerald green fields everywhere I went. First crop of hay is being harvested at some farms. I want to learn how to cut and rake and bale hay. Does anyone out there need a hand with this task?
I also had a good laugh with C-baby over some of the "slingo" her and her friends have come up with lately - I'll post about that very soon. You'll find out what "Mackin' with yer Koolaid" means. So stay tuned on that one.
And then, just now, I checked one of my favorite blogger sites, Pioneer Woman, and she had literally JUST POSTED her daily Confessions blog - and I was able to comment as number eleven!!! Make that, number seventeen - in the 3 seconds it took me to post my comment, 6 others had been posted, too. I mean, number 19... once the page refreshed, I was bumped to 19. But still, this is a site the frequently receives hundreds if not thousands of comments/day (her giveaway posts exceed 30,000 comments!), so making the top twenty of any of her posts on any given day is no small achievement.
I know, I live a small and pathetic life. I have to look for the good where I can find it, when surrounded by child financial drama and work excommunication.
At any rate, I did smile today, several times, despite my tantrums and stress frazzles. And now, I am going to go make these. And all will be well with the world.
Smiles -
Victoria
