A Tale of Two Mamas
Trying to keep someone IN timeout
Archive for February, 2008
February 19, 2008 at 3:04 pm · Filed under PP
I’ve watched Big Brother in the past and been quite impressed at the ultimate beer pong that they constantly play out of boredom and the need to get drunk.
That’s why I was quite impressed to see that this is actually a game and it’s being taken so seriously as to actually have marketed a real “beer pong table” - specific to the actual game.
However, considering the whole goal of the game is to have fun and get drunk…I’m not sure that interested parties would notice one way or another!
February 19, 2008 at 2:53 pm · Filed under PP
I’ve got some serious bad eyesight. In fact, I’ve had glasses ever since I’ve been in the second grade. The kicker is — I never wear them. Each year I feel the need to go to the opthamologist, get a new prescription, and get a new pair of trendy glasses. Only to lose them a few months later.
At this point maybe I should just stick with some magnifying glasses that I can pick up at the dollar store! At least everything would be a little bit bigger - even though it’s still scrambled and blurry!
February 18, 2008 at 12:36 pm · Filed under Actual posts about being moms, House Woes
The dollhouse! We got this freebie from Craigslist, and have since been working on the renovations. Mommy has been bad and has not had the time to rewire the lighting. It’s currently AC with a transformer, I think I want to switch to battery for safety reasons.
Check out the photos of what we are starting out with (already half-painted):
February 16, 2008 at 8:35 am · Filed under Finances
TAX TIME! I know this is sick, but I love tax time. But I guess it’s because I usually get a sizable refund, thanks to years of infertility treatment.
In spite of our dear PayPerPost stumbling on their 1099 distributions once again, I pulled the trigger and submitted my taxes–and crossed my fingers. Shortly after hitting “submit,” PPP did email me my final income–and I overestimated by $8.50. Not bad, Quicken! I’d rather overestimate than under, just to be safe.
The other joy of this time of year is my annual SEP contribution money from my employer. This is the only time of year that I can research new funds, since most have an initial deposit of $3000, and I never have that amount lying around. In fact, for Shawna’s contribution last year, I started her up on the somewhat ghetto Vanguard STAR fund because it has an initial deposit amount of $1000. It hasn’t been doing too well, but not terribly in spite of the economy. At least it’s something–and then I was able to make subsequent deposits whenever we had a little extra. This year I can max out our 2007 contribution using my tax return, and look at some new funds. We have to get Shawna into something better–the STAR fund we’ll keep as a moderate, long term growth fund.
Here are some ones I’m looking at (more as a list for me to remember, since come April 14th when I get my check, I usually forget):
VEIEX - Emerging Markets, since our combined portfolio has very little international assets
VGENX - Energy Fund, duh
VIMSX - Mid-cap Index Fund
VMGIX - Mid-cap Growth Index Fund
VMVIX - Mid-cap Value Index Fund
Anyway, I’m trying to diversify our portfolios, partially to reduce the total percentage that I have in the REIT Index (VGSIX). I still can’t decide whether I should dump it or not. While I had been doing a lot better on it before the subprime mortgage fiasco, I’m still ahead because I bought in so low. And I’m still beating all the market indices (not that they’re great)… so I’m even wondering if I should buy more while it’s low.
Maybe we should start talking to a financial advisor–I feel like I need reasonable goals to work toward for college and retirement, so it’s less ambiguous than “You need a ton of money,” or “You’ll be working at WalMart when you’re 92.”
I know, this is all so dreadfully boring amidst posts of 3D/4D ultrasounds and belly photos–but if you look to the right, in just over a week we will have less than 100 days (give or take 2 weeks) before little Emmy gets here. And I want to make sure we’re all set up.
February 14, 2008 at 8:12 pm · Filed under PP
Just last week I left one of my credit cards at a kid’s boutique in Brooklyn. I’m embarassed to say that I didn’t even realize it missing until the next day when I got a call from the credit card company telling me that my card had been reported by the vendor as “left there”.
I called the vendor and of course noone knows what has happened to the card. So my mind is racing that one of the employees has probably run of with my card and buying Louis Vutton bags by the bundles.
Now there’s a new service called life lock that allows you to subscribe to a service online for $10 a month and it protects all of your confidential and personal information. In fact, the owner of the website is so confident that it works and that your identity will be protected he has placed his social security number online for the world to see!
LifeLock.com offers a great website with tons of information on identity theft and ways you can protect yourself.
Either I need to be a little bit more aware about my credit cards or maybe I should just think about going with LifeLock!
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