Things That Made Me Happy This Week, Week One-Hundred-Seventy-Two

[glenniebun]

• My mom went home today! I'm pretty surprised that it happened on a Sunday, but apparently her doctors agreed to take out the drain they'd had put in her and didn't see fit to keep her in the hospital. All she has to do now is fill some prescriptions and make appointments with each doctor in turn.
• Neil deGrasse Tyson truly is the font of all human knowledge.
• If there's anything the internet has proven, it's that Star Wars can be mashed up with anything.
• Were I prone to skydiving, I know I'd hope to catch a rocket launch while falling out of the sky.
• Few video-game music performances are performed in real time with gameplay, complete with sound effects. So well done!
• Okay, so my dryer broke a couple weeks ago; it would heat, but not tumble, rendering it pretty much useless. Shortly before that my car insurance bill came in with a $275 increase from the previous year's rate, so I made a couple of calls and switched providers. Also, I had to get a $425 heating oil delivery--about a hundred less than it'd typically cost during wintertime, actually--and my clothing purchases from the beginning of the month are coming due on my credit cards soon. Thankfully, since I was able to get a moderately inexpensive dryer off of Craigslist and shave $200 off of my yearly car insurance rate compared to last year (not to mention the fact that my new provider won't let me pay a full year in advance, so I've only paid half), the Special/Irregular Expenses account I deposit a small amount into each week is able to cover everything at once with a little bit left to build toward the next tank of oil in the winter, or the other half of the car insurance in December, or any big expenses that may come up in the meantime. Also, because the amount of the weekly deposit was calibrated for my old car insurance rate and I've decided not to change it, it's going to continue to grow faster than the rate at which I strictly plan on using it, leaving more wiggle room for things like car repair and the wardrobe supplements I'm going to need in the fall. tl;dr version: financial planning (and steady income) FTW.