Happy “Bonus Day”

It takes 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 16 seconds for the Earth to make one revolution around the sun. Since our calendar is based on a 365-day year, we squirrel those extra hours away in a lock box and create an additional day every four years or so*.  Today is just such a bonus day, more commonly called Leap Day. What will you do with your extra day? I’m making a pot roast.

 

*To accomodate the slight inaccuracy of rounding up the 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 16 seconds to equal a 24-hour bonus day, there is an additional qualifier for whether or not a year is a leap year: not only does it have to occur in a year that is evenly divisible by 4 (such as 2012), years that mark a new century (such as 1900, or 2000) must also pass one additional qualifier: they must be evenly divisible by 400 in order to get a leap day.  Under this additional calculation, 1900 did not have a leap day, but 2000 did.

You could be next

Today one of my coworkers watched a young man selling small electronics out of a shopping bag in the park near our office. He says he has seen the young man before, and he called the police – but of course, they weren’t able to respond quickly enough and the man left the area. The young man was clean-cut and wearing a business suit and tie (though the jacket was too big for him), and was carrying a white shopping bag like what you’d get from a department store. Inside, however, was an assortment of small electronics – cameras, cell phones, even a laptop. He made a circuit around the park, offering the goods for cash. My boss watched him offer three digital cameras to some ladies sitting on a bench, and a MacBook to someone else. Most likely, the items were picked up around the area from unsuspecting people – at coffee shops, or lifted right out of a purse. His outfit would allow him to blend in with the thousands of business folks working in downtown Seattle; I wouldn’t give him a second glance if he was behind me in line at Starbucks.

So here’s my McGruff advice:  pay attention to your stuff when you are out in public, for there are sticky fingers around and they may not “look” suspicious. Don’t leave your laptop unattended when the barista calls your order. Zip up your backpack, purse, or bag and keep a good hold on it. Don’t leave your purse or shopping bag under your chair in restaurants, where someone could walk behind you and grab it. Don’t set your Kindle or tablet down on the chair beside you. And don’t turn away from your stroller when you have your purse in the basket (I have seen this in a store, someone left their stroller a good fifteen feet away as she browsed some clothing racks and her purse was underneath in plain sight).

Grooming in the sun

For six whole minutes, our two cats managed to be on the same piece of furniture together. They must have been delirious from the unexpected bit of sunshine, for they both took advantage of the warmth to do a bit of basking and face grooming before going back to the usual growling and smacking.

Ready for a spin

I haven’t done much spinning lately, so after I finished my errands and chores I sat down to do a bit of plying. This here is merino wool and silk, and it’s real purty. Soft, too. I’m getting good yardage out of it, hopefully enough for a scarf.

WIP Wednesday

(pretend the I remembered to hit “send” on this post yesterday, ok?)

Working on my third pair of socks this year, these for my husband. A nice, bright red with maroon toes, these are thick wool – perfect boot socks! Thick wool also means fast knitting, which is always nice.

Pay it off quicker

With my mortgage refinance in the works, I figured today would be a good day to share a simple tool for calculating how you can, by paying just a little extra on your monthly mortgage bill, pay it off sooner and save tons of money in the process.  I’ve always rounded up our payment to the nearest hundred dollars – for the past few years, that means just $35 a month extra – but while that seems a rather insignificant amount, over the course of a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage that would knock SIX YEARS off the end of my mortgage period. Six years, and some seventy-thousand dollars in interest payments.

Working on my new mortgage terms, I wanted to see how I can pay it off sooner, like in 20 years instead of 30, and so I pulled up a handy-dandy calculator in Excel that lets you play with the numbers. For me to shave ten years (and save over $80k in interest payments) I would have to send in an extra $300 a month – but on my new terms that is still less than what I was paying so it’s very doable, and would save me so much money…

If you want to give it a try, here’s a link to an Excel worksheet that you can customize with your mortgage balance and interest rate, and lets you play around with other info (like the extra payments): Home Mortgage Calculator in Excel

If you are not an Excel fan, you can do this kind of thing online as well; here’s a link to a very simple one:  Mortgage Payoff Calculator

Growing pains

One of the most rewarding things about raising and/or working with children is watching them become adults. This process is also, unfortunately, fraught with growing pains in the form of poor choices and actions that frequently lead to hurt feelings, misunderstandings, over-reacting, disappointment, and somebody crying in the bathroom. I’ve been blessed with three kids who weathered / are weathering their teenage years without too much strife (not counting arguments about schoolwork) and it makes my heart ache to see others, whom I’ve known since they were five or six years old, struggle with the simplest of social situations. Blinded by hormones, bowing under peer pressure, and desperate for attention and acceptance, these young people say and do things to their friends and even adults that serve no purpose other than to inflict hurt. They act disrespectful, selfish, spiteful, and downright mean – and they think it’s ok.

But it isn’t ok and it makes me sad and angry because I know it doesn’t have to be like that.
I do understand and remember what it is like to be fifteen (and you couldn’t pay me enough to do it again), but I also know that it is possible at that age to make good choices, to be kind, to avoid situations that make you stoop to low behavior, to have respect for yourself, and to treat others how you would like to be treated. I also know that most teenagers won’t listen to that because they can’t see beyond their own noses, that 99% of what they think is of utmost importance isn’t really, and all the crap they obsess over right now won’t mean squat three years from now.

What started out as a fun lazy weekend ended on a sour note and I’m exhausted and disappointed; there is a reason the phrase is “dealing” with teenagers. They flip faster than a jumping bean on a hot sidewalk, and you never know what will set off an emotional firecracker. After the anger fades, I’m left with every parent’s wish: that someday they will have kids of their own.

Just ask

A number of years ago, a friendly coworker gave me the best advice boiled down to two simple words: just ask. She even mailed me a card with those two words on it, and I pinned it to my bulletin board as a reminder. At the time I was reluctant, young, naïve, lacking in confidence; but in the intervening years I have put these words to work for me and let me tell you, more often than not, it is worth it. If you find yourself in a situation that you are not entirely satisfied with, and there is something you “wish for” that you feel would make it better, just ask. The worst that can happen, I have found, is that you are told no – which doesn’t leave you any worse off and at least you can tell yourself that you tried. And a surprising number of times you will either get what you asked for or some compromise that makes it worth the effort.

A few recent examples:

1. My son ordered an item online, and the very next day the company put up a discount offer on Facebook. He was grumbling, and I told him to write a polite email to the company explaining the situation, and ask if he could have the discount applied to his order. They did, easy as that.

2. I had a credit card that I hadn’t been using and thought I had closed out last year (had a zero balance). The company initiated an annual fee, which they probably sent literature about in the mail, but who reads that stuff?? Anyway, I didn’t recall getting a bill for the charge because as I said, I was not using the card so it wasn’t on my radar to watch for a bill. Last month I received a past-due notice and an additional fee – now I owed some $50. Instead of paying it, I called and explained situation and asked if they would waive the late charge. Well, not only did the representative waive the late charge, he transferred me to a manager who was authorized to remove the annual fee itself and close the account out properly, not costing me a penny.

3. Today was the capper. We’ve got a house, which we’ve renovated and added on to over the years. We refinanced after our last addition in 2007 when housing prices were nice and high and locked in a (at the time) good rate. The last few years have seen tremendous changes in the financial market, and while our house has lost quite a bit in resale value, I have been keeping an eye on the legal side and waiting for the winds of fate to swing back in our direction. While our interest rate is not horrible, it pales in comparision to the rates being offered today – but with the housing market upside down there is no way our house would appraise at the level needed to get one of those better rates.  I’ve asked periodically over the past couple of years if there was anything that could be done and been told no, but today I got a yes that makes it all worthwhile. New legislature put into place made it possible for us to refinance and shave two whole percentage points off our mortgage rate – without an appraisal. We had to meet some special criteria, but let me tell you — it was totally worth the time spent on the phone.

So there you have it, real-life examples of how it can pay off to spend a bit of time pursuing something you want, be educated on what is going on in the world, and have the gumption to just ask. Thank you, H, for two simple words that have made a ton of difference in my life.

Annis in action

I wore my new scarf / shawl today, over a plain black shirt. In retrospect I should have worn a pale shirt to better show the gorgeousness of the scarf, but I still got a few compliments (especially at my LYS, where I went during lunch to model it and to search for a skein of Zauberball to finish my Laodice scarf). It was so small while I was knitting it that I was afraid it would be unwearable, but a good blocking does wonders and it turned out just right. I wore it with the center point in front, and the tails wrapped behind my neck and back over my shoulders, so the tails rested on my chest as a bottom layer to the center point (if that makes sense). It slipped around just a bit during the day but I’ll blame that on the shirt; over a cotton shirt I think the scarf would have stayed in place. No pinning needed.

Breakfast Casserole

Good for breakfast or dinner!

Breakfast Casserole, serves about 6

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 lb ground sausage
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can cream of ___ condensed soup (broccoli, chicken, celery, or mushroom, your choice)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 cups broccoli florets, cut into small pieces
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 1 large bag of shredded frozen potatoes
• salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350*F. In a well-greased 10″X13″ pan, spread a layer of shredded potatoes approximately 3/4″ thick. Bake 15 minutes, then press them down firmly into the pan. Meanwhile: cook onion in a frying pan until translucent. Add sausage and cook until no longer pink, crumbing into small pieces. Add garlic and saute for 2 minutes more. Drain.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the condensed soup, milk, and sour cream. Add meat mixture and mix well.

Time to layer the casserole: To the pan with the potato layer: sprinkle evenly with broccoli. Sprinkle 1 cup of the cheese on top of that, then the meat mixture; press and smooth out without mixing it together. Pour the beaten eggs over the meat. Top with another 3/4″ layer of shredded potatoes, some salt and pepper, then the rest of the cheese.

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve!