Dish

I'm staying home from work today. I've had a frog in my throat for the past three days and I'm feeling kind of puny, so I'm going to take today as a rest day. I'm going to need to be rested because I'm helping DM install a Christmas store display Saturday night until the wee hours of the morning.

A few months ago, my parents gave me a new set of dishes to replace my current ones, which have a pattern called "Minnie's Garden," depicting Minnie Mouse picking fruit out of her orchard or weeding or some other such girly nonsense. The Minnie dishes were also a gift from my parents; when they gave them to me they expressed the hope that they weren't too... whatever. I assured them that I gave up any illusions regarding my masculinity a loooong time ago. ;-)

So this morning I've unpacked the new dishes and washed them off. The new dishes have a pattern called "Garden Bloom" -- daisies, irises, butterflies, etc. Not a huge step up on the masculinity scale but they look a lot more grown up.

The Minnie dishes will be packed away to await transport to Goodwill, although I think I'm going to keep the matching canister set and butter dish, just for a touch of.... whatever.

I've also unpacked some more glassware from my move, determining what I'm keeping and what will accompany Minnie on her journey. I have some more sorting to do in that department.

I'm planning to go to the library this afternoon to return a book and do a little research. I'll see if I can motivate myself to do a little more housework. Russell is coming over this evening for our weekly Enterprise date. I'll have to run over to the the grocery for some cheese -- I think I'll prepare macaroni and cheese, served with stewed tomatoes, one of his favorite meals.

Yay!

My bank just released the funds that kenny73 gave to me. I have a positive bank balance again! Woohoo!

Phone Post: My First Phone Post

First rule of holes

I think I've mentioned that I put things off. I'm trying to reform myself, and the latest task I've completed is going through all of the mail on my desk, dozens of pieces. I've opened all the envelopes, discarded all the offers and paid bills and stacked the rest in one neat pile.

Now I'm confronted with another thing I've been ignoring: medical bills. I've had HIV for a little over a year now and I haven't paid any of the lab bills that have come to me. So I separated out all of the lab bills and entered the dates and amounts into a spreadsheet. They total $1,368 and I know that there are some bills that are missing.

Two of the bills make up the bulk of that -- bills that weren't processed by my insurance company. They total $1,160.25, leaving $208.10. So I'll be calling the insurance company on Monday to see if it's too late to process these bills from August, 2003. If it is, then I'll probably ask my Mom to loan me the cash for the two biggest bills and pay the others myself.

I also never filed taxes for 2003 and I'm probably cheating myself out of some sort of a refund. I've separated out my tax documents and I need to find a tax preparer to just take care of it. I'd do it myself, but I've got income from two employers, a 1099 and a tuition statement. I don't have the motivation to learn how to file that.

I also have a debt to the Baltimore City Community College for about $281. They accidentally cancelled one of my classes. We had to reregister for the class. A few weeks later I received a check for the amount, which I deposited. Then they wanted the money back and I never paid it.

So I'm not debt free. I have no credit card debt, true, and no car, but I have about $1,500 that I owe people. I'm going to make it a priority to pay these things, because the first rule of holes is that if you find yourself in one, stop digging.

Oh, here's another bit of wisdom: if you can't be a good example, at least you can be a horrible warning. :-)