http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/
It’s not quite all there yet, but it’s pretty darn neat!
A good reminder to myself
Dear Ann Landers: So many people I know seem to believe if you can “pay later,” you can afford it. The following may help explain why our parents had happier and less stressful lives. — T.L.G., Oceanside, N.Y.
Dear T.L.G.: Thanks for a provocative letter. As one armchair philosopher said recently, “It’s nice to be civilized, but I think perhaps we’ve overdone it.” Here’s your list of how our parents managed with less:
They had no charge cards, no VCRs, no cable bill, no computers and no online charges.
The house only had one TV.
Dad was not ashamed to bring lunch to work.
Mom was the family barber and cleaning lady.
Birthdays were celebrated in the back yard.
Pizza and Chinese were treats, not staples.
They always drove a used car.
The house had one phone.
Basements were where the furnace was, not rec rooms knee-deep in toys, exercise equipment and pinball machines.
Vacations were a two-hour ride to the country.
A daughter’s wedding did not cost a year’s pay, and everyone had a wonderful time.
V-day report
Prior to Valentine’s Day when asked what my plans were my response was: I don’t know, CS is cooking me dinner but everything else is a surprise.
So now I know what the surprise was and can rave about my wonderful Valentine’s Day!
CS met me at my place (and took care of the kitties for me beforehand – food & litter) to take me back to his. So I got to ride to his place anticipating the surprise and enjoying being chauffered around (which I love since I hate driving with a desperate passion). I had been missing it actually since for the last two weekends I’d mostly driven myself. And of course I drove myself to work all last week and yesterday. So I was feeling particularly burned out on driving again. We spent most of the drive talking about romance and what it is.
On the way from the car to his place he claimed that he found my gift to him, and being gullible and trusting as I am I believed him… so he managed to trick me into telling him what part of his gift was. A little love monkey – it’s white with a red heart and a red lip print on it’s cheek. And he already read my love poem and got the gift I sent throught WoW mail early. He opened it before reading the “Don’t Open till Valentine’s Day!” in the subject line. So his dwarf was quite drunk for a while. 
Once we got to his apartment he made me close my eyes. I felt a bit silly, mostly because one of his roommates was there, but it was fun. When he let me open my eyes I got to see my surprise finally. I was so busy kissing him thank you that I didn’t actually tak it all in at first. He had a dozen red roses in a vase surrounded with baby’s breath (which I think is really pretty). A super soft white teddy bear next to the bouquet. He had two candles burning in the center of the table and pink and red balloons on the ends. There was also a big gold box which and an incredibly sweet card. As soon as he started making dinner I dug into the box and found Sherrie’s Berries (fancy absolutely delicious chocolate covered strawberries) and another little teddy bear. And I couldn’t resist trying to get one of the balloons to stick to his head with static cling, but it didn’t work too well. It was fun trying though.
We then had pasta for dinner – after I got to enjoy watching him in the kitchen as he prepared dinner while I relaxed on the sofa. He even picked up one of my favorite sodas to have with dinner – the Henry Weinhard’s root beer. And I managed to save room for more strawberries. After that we packed up and headed back to my house for the night. And the rest I’ll just have to remember without writing it down. 
Also, my friend Princess SP made me an adorable little valentine, and PH got me a rose and a pretty vase… well, he says it was for Cookie, but I’m the one who’ll appreciate it. And I made my own little flash e-card to send to my friends and family.
So today my little strawberry bear is sitting next to me and the flowers are on my desk where I can stop and smell them every time I get up from my desk.
So the end of my story is that this is the best Valentine’s Day I can remember having, and I think the best part was that he planned it all and surprised me.
Yet another untimely update.
I really have been slacking off on updates, but maybe that’s because (other than carpool stuff) things really are getting so much better for me that I don’t really feel the need to vent. So what haven’t I mentioned? One of my exes emailed a bit ago with a freelance job lead, which was a pleasant surprise. So I’m hoping that pans out as the extra money certainly wouldn’t hurt the pursuit of my goals.
Friday was rather busy with lunch, doctor’s appointment & movie & dinner. So I spent most of Saturday and Sunday relaxing. Watching movies, playing WoW – including a fun guild scavenger hunt race in which my team came in third out of six teams, and reading in bed with the kitties. I managed to squeeze in laundry, but the rest of my chores will have to wait till next weekend.
I can’t wait to see what CS has planned for tonight.
Mom is coming Thursday night to hang out on Saturday, so hopefully we can run my errands together since it would be easier with company.
Frustration
Ok, here’s the deal, I went to college for 5 years, got a B.S. with a minor and an A.A. and A.S. and spent lots of money to do so (though less than many I admit). So how much more am I making an hour 2 years after college compared to the job I had before college? I’m making just over $5 more. Heck, that’s less than a $1 raise per year if I’d stayed at that job and never gone to college to make the same money per hour as now, minus the huge cost of college. I’m not saying that college wasn’t a valuable learning experience and all, but I honestly don’t know that it’s worth the cost anymore. These days even people with master’s degrees have trouble finding work. I might have been better off finding a skilled trade and getting training in that and working my way up. But when I started school and even before then the economy was good and college practically guaranteed that you’d make more money.
So now I find myself in that proverbial position with the rock & hard place. The desire for financial security is extremely strong for me. That mean regular paycheck and good job security are really important to me. The flip side is that the way I’m wired, I don’t fit the commuting 40 or more hours/week inflexible job culture that gives me the security I want. The best option would be to work for myself so that I set my hours and my pay, but that’s about as insecure as you can get.
I guess it really comes down to fear vs. unhappiness. I’m not really happy with the current situation even though I’ve done what I can to make it better. But I’m absolutely terrified of trying to work for myself and failing. Or even being somewhat successful, but not successful enough.
Little Timmy
originally uploaded by Liata.
Ok, so I’m a geek. I’ve been running all the way around the canals in SW ever since I found out about Little Timmy more than a month ago – getting close to two months. So when one person in my guild told me he respawns every 6 hours and another told me where to look for him, I decided to change my strategy. I read comics on my laptop while I waited for him for two hours, but alas he was sold out when he appeared so I knew I had to get closer to his spawn point. With CS’s hunter using human tracking and his mount, I was back 5 hours later to wait for him again. This time I saw where he appeared and finally got to him first. I have my white kitten! Yay! I can stop obsessing over him! And I found out where Little Timmy spawns. So it made me a bit late to the superbowl party I went to…. it was worth it! Uh oh, is it bad when the real world takes a back seat to an imaginary online world? Hmmm…..
A new challenge
Well, I thought I had everything nicely settled, but my carpool dissolved today with no warning. So now I get to try to find a new one. I have a few options I’m exploring so hopefully things will work out. My back isn’t too thrilled with me this week, so I’ll have to put all my tools to use (back massager & electric thing and drugs & exercises) this week.
I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date! No time…
to say hello, goodbye! Well, ok not really, I just haven’t updated in a while. Wednesday & Thursday I watched more Firefly. Sometime Tues/Wed/Thurs night I watched “End of Evangelion” which like the rest of the series I thought was over-rated. Friday I did chores & errands and checked out granite slabs for countertops with PH and then went to play some more WoW with CS. Saturday I mostly played WoW with a break to go home and refill the water in my self-watering pots (which stop self-watering when they run out of water…..) and move the bulbs to one of the half wine barrels I have. We’ll see if they do better outside or not. I remembered to refill my bird feeder too, and had some nice quiet time in my sunny little den with the kitties while I read and they napped. Sunday my only 3 hours on WoW were spent waiting for Little Timmy, a vendor who sells one white kitten every hour. I finally had enough clues to track him down and get one and stop wasting my time looking for him every time I played – often more than once. It made me late to the superbowl party, but it was worth it. I had a ton of fun hanging out with my friends with the playful banter & all, and I lost (surprise surprise) the game of Settlers (Knights & Cities) that we squeezed in. And now it’s back to work – well at this moment it’s off to lunch.