Happy Relaxed Sunday
This morning I discovered that a Wells Fargo joint checking account that we're not currently using has been getting dinged $10 a month for our inattention. It's probably at least minimum balance, but perhaps also other things like not having direct deposit feed into it anymore. Really, I'd forgotten there was any money in there at all! When Ian wakes up, I think I'll discuss closing it entirely. We used to keep it for a better interest rate on one of his student loans, but Wells Fargo sold that loan to another company a few months ago. I think we can ditch it... Hmm, the singular advantage to it is having a national bank for the few times a year that we travel, like for DragonCon. Wells Fargo owns Wachovia, and it'd be nice to have access to a local bank so we don't have to carry around all the cash we'll want for the trip. I'll think over delaying that close by a month.
Community College here is expensive! If I had bothered to look at local tuition rates, it must have been a year ago. I was surprised to discover that they're about $167/credit. It amazes me how much community college tuition varies by state. I think this is still less expensive than Georgia Perimeter College was for me, but I was certainly spoiled by Texas colleges which are about $98/unit. I got signed up for just one class this semester; I don't want to overdo it going back after a year-and-a-half of absence. This class will be in person, on Wednesday nights (it's not offered online) -- I'm taking Legal Ethics, a requirement toward my Paralegal degree. The class itself will cost $559! I think I get 50% tuition reimbursement from my employer, which is all gung-ho about me taking these these classes. I don't think my tuition reimbursement applies to the $130 worth of books for this class, though. I figure that if my employer will also cover the classes I need for my AA in English (which do not apply to my Paralegal degree), then that's about $3,000 out of pocket over the next 3 years or so. If they don't cover the extra classes, then it's closer to $4,000 -- not counting books at all. Oh well. I want to finish the degrees, and really I have to look at my education as a very useful hobby. I enjoy being in school, and it's important to me. The cost is spread out over time, and I'm on my own schedule.
Ian did something wonderful yesterday! He went to volunteer at the Dumb Friends League which is this really incredible "animal shelter" in downtown Denver. I put that in quotation marks because it's like calling Moria, "a mine." This center is immense. They have about 200 full-time time employees, and 1,200 volunteers. Ian came home overflowing with facts and figures and details about all the services they provide, and it's really mind-blowing. I'm so proud of him for volunteering! There are several hoops to jump through over the course of the next two months or so in the course of being screened as a volunteer (which is good). I hope Ian is able to stick with it, even as I hope LEGO comes through soon about that open job.
Speaking of which, Ian contacted the hiring manager for that position in this past week; he was surprised that Ian had not yet been contacted by Human Resources about his application. The hiring manager is going to push it from his end.
Friday night, we went to two local American Cancer Society Relay For Life events in neighboring towns, and walked some laps, and made some donations. We hung out over Jose and Kristen's house also with our friend Higgins and shot the shit for a couple of hours. Then I let Ian off the hook; he went home early to bed to wake up for the DFL opportunity in the morning. Jose, Higgins, and I went to a late showing of, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." I'm a big fan of the original series of movies! I have the series on DVD, and I watch them every year or at least every-other-year. I did not enjoy the Marky Mark remake at all; I thought it completely missed the point. Therefore I had really low expectations going into this movie. I didn't know that David Hewlett (Rodney McKay from Stargate) was in it, or Brian Cox, who is just wonderful in everything he does! I was delightfully, pleasantly surprised by the movie. They did not address the social themes that dominate the original series, which are really about racism -- but I can see that they set a proper stage for future films. They did handle elegantly the concerns that Ian and I had from the previews, however -- Look, I don't care how damn smart these apes are, humans still outnumber them, and we've got guns! The plot nicely handles that little detail. I had a good time out with the guys, and fun watching the apes. Ian does not share my love for this series, so he was positively delighted to bow out.
Yesterday was the kind of no obligation, relaxing but productive weekend day I really enjoy! Ian left really early for the DFL volunteer thing. I got up, put on my straw hat, and went to the farmer's marketing in Louisville (in which you pronounce the S like Lewisville). Bought a handful of staple veggies for us, and found some really nice pickling cucumbers for my Office-BFF, so I enjoyed a brief phone chat with her about that. Did our grocery shopping. Declared war on the mess in the kitchen. Washed bath rugs and bath towels, but did not go crazy-go-nuts on laundry in general, which was nice. Ian came home, and I fixed him a Nice Lunch TrayTM, and we traded stories from DFL and the apes outing. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing however we might. I've started knitting a cableknit hat for my mother for Christmas, and I watched movies while knitting. Ian played Rift. I made us a Thyme-baked Cornish game hen with vegetables roasted with spices in the chicken juices for an early dinner before Ian's Rift raid -- YUUUUMMM! It was fairly healthful grown-up food! That's always exciting to me since too many dinners around here devolve down to grilled cheese sandwiches and tater tots.
I'm watching "Mad Men" which I had never before seen. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm just about to finish off Season 1, and I think it's ending better than it started. I'd like to credit that the setting, costumes, set dressing, writing, and acting are all superlative. I can see why this show gets so much praise. Every single episode, the show just raises my dander about issues of sexism. I can only assume these things are mostly accurate if overblown to fill up a TV show, and TV People never behave in a truly rational manner. I just have such difficulty wrapping my brain about the 1960s sometimes. I can't believe that much racism, sexism, and social injustice was the mainstream norm just 10 years before I was born. I'm not really "offended," so much as outright totally horrified... Again, I accept that this is a fictional TV show, and it no more presents a realistic historical account than TV People do for modern-day shows... just commenting on these concepts as a whole. Back to the show itself, I do have concerns that it will go the way a lot of shows about dysfunctional people with interesting careers go (witness: every drama every produced for the FX Network) -- at a certain point, the audience has to accept that there is no redemption for these characters. If there were, then the show would end. I tend to watch a lot of these shows until I reach that point, and then like watching "Rescue Me," I lose interest when I realize that the characters' situations, and dispositions are never going to improve. Once I lose that hope of real growth from the characters, I'm out.
I'll close with your report on the end of summer here in the Rocky Mountains. Since I grew up on the surface of the sun, I'm used to August being the hottest month of the year. Not here. It's already begun cooling down. Even we, the King and Queen of Air Conditioned Eternal Winter, have begun shutting off the a/c and opening the windows lately. It's about 65 when I leave for work in the morning. It capped out in the 80s yesterday. It amazes me that the snow never melts entirely from the mountains that I view every day. I mean, they're not exactly "snow-capped" in the summer time, but in the valleys, you can still see huge tracks of snow any time of year. This place is wonderful! My eyes are dazzled every single day with sumptuousness from every view that's difficult to encompass in a description for you. People are nice here! Ian and I have made great friends who in turn all get along together and seek out other's company. After just one year, we're really building the kind of community and home that we've always wanted, and in such a magical, incredibly beautiful place to live. I can't WAIT until we're able to buy a house, settle here with some sense of permanency, and open the doors properly to visitors to come out here and see this place. I so look forward to it!
Meanwhile, this next week represents 1 year at my current job since I started temping there. Yay!
Love & Kisses,
Trace
Community College here is expensive! If I had bothered to look at local tuition rates, it must have been a year ago. I was surprised to discover that they're about $167/credit. It amazes me how much community college tuition varies by state. I think this is still less expensive than Georgia Perimeter College was for me, but I was certainly spoiled by Texas colleges which are about $98/unit. I got signed up for just one class this semester; I don't want to overdo it going back after a year-and-a-half of absence. This class will be in person, on Wednesday nights (it's not offered online) -- I'm taking Legal Ethics, a requirement toward my Paralegal degree. The class itself will cost $559! I think I get 50% tuition reimbursement from my employer, which is all gung-ho about me taking these these classes. I don't think my tuition reimbursement applies to the $130 worth of books for this class, though. I figure that if my employer will also cover the classes I need for my AA in English (which do not apply to my Paralegal degree), then that's about $3,000 out of pocket over the next 3 years or so. If they don't cover the extra classes, then it's closer to $4,000 -- not counting books at all. Oh well. I want to finish the degrees, and really I have to look at my education as a very useful hobby. I enjoy being in school, and it's important to me. The cost is spread out over time, and I'm on my own schedule.
Ian did something wonderful yesterday! He went to volunteer at the Dumb Friends League which is this really incredible "animal shelter" in downtown Denver. I put that in quotation marks because it's like calling Moria, "a mine." This center is immense. They have about 200 full-time time employees, and 1,200 volunteers. Ian came home overflowing with facts and figures and details about all the services they provide, and it's really mind-blowing. I'm so proud of him for volunteering! There are several hoops to jump through over the course of the next two months or so in the course of being screened as a volunteer (which is good). I hope Ian is able to stick with it, even as I hope LEGO comes through soon about that open job.
Speaking of which, Ian contacted the hiring manager for that position in this past week; he was surprised that Ian had not yet been contacted by Human Resources about his application. The hiring manager is going to push it from his end.
Friday night, we went to two local American Cancer Society Relay For Life events in neighboring towns, and walked some laps, and made some donations. We hung out over Jose and Kristen's house also with our friend Higgins and shot the shit for a couple of hours. Then I let Ian off the hook; he went home early to bed to wake up for the DFL opportunity in the morning. Jose, Higgins, and I went to a late showing of, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." I'm a big fan of the original series of movies! I have the series on DVD, and I watch them every year or at least every-other-year. I did not enjoy the Marky Mark remake at all; I thought it completely missed the point. Therefore I had really low expectations going into this movie. I didn't know that David Hewlett (Rodney McKay from Stargate) was in it, or Brian Cox, who is just wonderful in everything he does! I was delightfully, pleasantly surprised by the movie. They did not address the social themes that dominate the original series, which are really about racism -- but I can see that they set a proper stage for future films. They did handle elegantly the concerns that Ian and I had from the previews, however -- Look, I don't care how damn smart these apes are, humans still outnumber them, and we've got guns! The plot nicely handles that little detail. I had a good time out with the guys, and fun watching the apes. Ian does not share my love for this series, so he was positively delighted to bow out.
Yesterday was the kind of no obligation, relaxing but productive weekend day I really enjoy! Ian left really early for the DFL volunteer thing. I got up, put on my straw hat, and went to the farmer's marketing in Louisville (in which you pronounce the S like Lewisville). Bought a handful of staple veggies for us, and found some really nice pickling cucumbers for my Office-BFF, so I enjoyed a brief phone chat with her about that. Did our grocery shopping. Declared war on the mess in the kitchen. Washed bath rugs and bath towels, but did not go crazy-go-nuts on laundry in general, which was nice. Ian came home, and I fixed him a Nice Lunch TrayTM, and we traded stories from DFL and the apes outing. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing however we might. I've started knitting a cableknit hat for my mother for Christmas, and I watched movies while knitting. Ian played Rift. I made us a Thyme-baked Cornish game hen with vegetables roasted with spices in the chicken juices for an early dinner before Ian's Rift raid -- YUUUUMMM! It was fairly healthful grown-up food! That's always exciting to me since too many dinners around here devolve down to grilled cheese sandwiches and tater tots.
I'm watching "Mad Men" which I had never before seen. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm just about to finish off Season 1, and I think it's ending better than it started. I'd like to credit that the setting, costumes, set dressing, writing, and acting are all superlative. I can see why this show gets so much praise. Every single episode, the show just raises my dander about issues of sexism. I can only assume these things are mostly accurate if overblown to fill up a TV show, and TV People never behave in a truly rational manner. I just have such difficulty wrapping my brain about the 1960s sometimes. I can't believe that much racism, sexism, and social injustice was the mainstream norm just 10 years before I was born. I'm not really "offended," so much as outright totally horrified... Again, I accept that this is a fictional TV show, and it no more presents a realistic historical account than TV People do for modern-day shows... just commenting on these concepts as a whole. Back to the show itself, I do have concerns that it will go the way a lot of shows about dysfunctional people with interesting careers go (witness: every drama every produced for the FX Network) -- at a certain point, the audience has to accept that there is no redemption for these characters. If there were, then the show would end. I tend to watch a lot of these shows until I reach that point, and then like watching "Rescue Me," I lose interest when I realize that the characters' situations, and dispositions are never going to improve. Once I lose that hope of real growth from the characters, I'm out.
I'll close with your report on the end of summer here in the Rocky Mountains. Since I grew up on the surface of the sun, I'm used to August being the hottest month of the year. Not here. It's already begun cooling down. Even we, the King and Queen of Air Conditioned Eternal Winter, have begun shutting off the a/c and opening the windows lately. It's about 65 when I leave for work in the morning. It capped out in the 80s yesterday. It amazes me that the snow never melts entirely from the mountains that I view every day. I mean, they're not exactly "snow-capped" in the summer time, but in the valleys, you can still see huge tracks of snow any time of year. This place is wonderful! My eyes are dazzled every single day with sumptuousness from every view that's difficult to encompass in a description for you. People are nice here! Ian and I have made great friends who in turn all get along together and seek out other's company. After just one year, we're really building the kind of community and home that we've always wanted, and in such a magical, incredibly beautiful place to live. I can't WAIT until we're able to buy a house, settle here with some sense of permanency, and open the doors properly to visitors to come out here and see this place. I so look forward to it!
Meanwhile, this next week represents 1 year at my current job since I started temping there. Yay!
Love & Kisses,
Trace