Raincharm’s Weblog

We did our quick trip north today.
Shopping, voting, soccer, frisbee and flag football.
That pretty much sums up our time in Vancouver.
Oh – and seeing how turned around I could get at Ashlan’s dorm.

The dorm has lots of angles. I guess they do that to make it interesting, or some math major was trying to figure out how to cut a pie into five pieces with a straight edge and a string (something like that).
Here are a few pics of her dorm suite.
When you walk into the suite there are 10 doors to choose from! (really only 9, since you just came in one of them.) Oh but turn around quickly and try to go back out the way you came in. Which door would you choose? I would probably go for the one with the Exit sign, but that would be wrong. Yes it does exit you from the room, onto a stairwell. It’s even the same stairwell you just climbed. It’s just in a different place on the stairwell than you used to get to the door that allowed you to enter the suite. –

5 doors

3 more doors

These suites are considerably different than my MSU rooms.
There are 6 pod bays that each house one girl. Cozy would be a good word.

1 person

Then there is the common area – kitchen/dining/living room. Cozy would be a good word here as well. They even have a cute triangular balcony (remember the angle thing). But I don’t think all six could get on the balcony at once, even if they were all standing up. It appears to function as a recyle area and cell phone quiet space.

common pod

kitchen pod

Anyway, a good trip with minimal border waits, dry roads and only a few other drivers.

Today is errand day.
Revolves around banking and then buying – and focus on travel north.
We are openning some new accounts to better manage what we have. Since they want us both to sign, Saturday bank hours are helpful, but limited.
Being generally green – we walk – return a DVD, post some letters and the bank (one that has been recently bought out by Chase). Open the account, figure how to split the money we already had in an old account, blah, blah, blah – when do the automatic withdrawals happen, what checks are outstanding, blah, blah, blah need a check for the next big contribution to education – finally out. On to Trader Joes for goodies to go north.

North – did we get any funny money while we were at the bank? No! Did we get money to fuel the trip? No! How much longer are those banking hours, and when will football traffic really hit (Notre Dame – so it probably won’t matter how badly the home team is playing). 

Not quite so green as we need to get to the bank so we won’t be quite destitute in the great white north. !$100 gets us $120! Unexpected. I thought the teller had said $100 in twenties, not $120. Then, since we have the car now, fuel for both the car and Carl, and a pumpkin for soup on Wednesday.

Still a bit of afternoon left – time to do some more things that need to be done. Tomorrow will be travel fun. (Main reason for the trip is to take the girl her absentee ballot, let her vote and we bring it back.)

Michigan 21 – Michigan State 21 (don’t know the time left in the game)

We were gifted with about 5 pounds of concord grapes by a friend.
So on-line I went to find what I could do with these grapes – recipes for sorbet.

MMMM sounds good – late night last night, but about 4 pounds has been made into sorbet and is in the freezer. The other pound has been made ready for freezing, but couldn’t fit in our maker … maybe tonight.

Thanks to all for their kind words yesterday.
We finished the day by trying a new restaurant – mmm so tasty, and a wonderful glass of wine (as it turned out sponsored by my carpooler who separately showed up for dinner), and pumpkin pot-de-creme for dessert. Had me pining for my mothers pot-de-creme served in demitasse cups with little spoons. I need that recipe, but can’t imagine having it without the cups.
The good tidings have spilled over into today – foggy start turned sunny and warm (60) and clear.

I guess that is not the best term, but I have been regifted.

1st – Rey checked out a CD that I had wanted to hear, from the library, in his name. I did have to pick it up as he was 500 miles away. But, he did the real work. And I suppose it was really the 2nd gift because he also let me know about the movie that the CD is from, Once. (I really enjoyed this movie, and may have mentioned it before. But if I have not – rent it – it is a chic flick with music I really enjoyed. Carl did not watch the movie (not a chic), but listened from another room and enjoyed it too.) [Did i close all my parentheses?]

The 2nd/3rd regifting is that Carl got me the CD for my very own. I was listening to it on my way to work – nice way to start the day.

Weather alert – cold fog – first scraping of the season, and the little yellow “it’s cold outside” idiot light came on for the first time as well.

Or was it, “Are you still here?”
That was my second wake-up call this morning.
I woke up with C and he got up, I rolled over for just a moment.
Then the fateful words.

One of those 10 minutes and I am out of the house. Made it to work with 10 minutes to spare, but didn’t exactly feel like I hit the ground running. And yes I did get my teeth brushed in those 10 minutes.

You know how every now and again you get a call from your kid, and it doesn’t have to do with asking for a care package, or when they are coming home next? It often has to do with money. We got one this morning – but low and behold it was to try and figure out why they had received a REFUND check – from the university.

Nice to wake up to. Finally did figure a reasonable explanation – appears to be a check for leaving University Housing in 2 months. (they require 2 months notice, so maybe they hold extra rent??) Anyway – nice to have money coming in for once.

OK, how many started humming the OJ’s tune to the title. (Not the drink or killer kidnaper.)

We just spent 1-1/2 hours with our financial advisor, as it were. That is the person that handles our IRA, 529, etc type accounts. The focus was transferring Rey’s leftovers to Ashlan and then figuring out a strategy for covering the part of Ashlan that we are projected to not have covered yet. A transfer here (loss due to current market may help at tax time), little more deposited there … we’ll check again in a few months. The dollar is stronger in Canada and the 529 accounts are stable and retirement is still fairly far away so, wait it out and vote in November.

One of the best parts of Thanksgiving dinner is the leftovers.
We have now managed to finish all except a small amount of Cranberry Jelly and some wine.
I guess we will have to figure out how to cook again.

Today is our 1/2 day full office seminar on Violence in the Workplace.
I was so frustrated at the end of the workday yesterday I could have done some violence.
But – I don’t think that’s what they are talking about – at least not so directly.

Carl calmed me down and I am ready to go again.
Coffee anyone? Need to uncalm a bit.

It is a balance between total calm and getting things done, but on the other end of the spectrum, I am rarely really efficient when totally frustrated either. Kind of like a circle….

Maybe first thing in the morning isn’t the best time to put together a cohesive thought.