Thanks for the reminder.

It's Friday. My bartendress is off tonight. Ima try and get freaky w/her.:jig:

Wish me luck.

Good luck, man!

Aw yeah!

Good Luck!!!

Thanks all! It worked!

:doit:

That makes me happy for you.

Woo! Gravdigr got lucky , y'all!

:)

Does that make her a gravdigrdigr?

Honey, I got some honey from nowhereman and like it. Different than any honey I've ever tasted. It doesn't overwhelm me with super icky sweet like it was thick sugar, it's a more subdued and interesting flavor. I like it a lot. The only problem is I bought some as Christmas gifts and I may have to do more shopping now.
They don't know the honey. They can't handle the honey!
Two thumbs up.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

She acted like she dug it.

That's really all I ask for.:D

Second hand happy...

Popdigr got a sattv bill last month for $91. Called them up "I can't [won't] pay that." Dude said "Can ya pay fifty?" Popdigr says yeah. Little victories, and all that.

He just opened the bill a minute ago.

$39 - w/no channel loss.

This is Direct, btw.

Two little green flakes in m'noodles this morning.

'S gonna be a good day, Tater.

My guy has read the manuscript, is "very impressed" and has no major changes! He has passed it up the chain to make sure the corporate overlords are cool with it, too, but he anticipates they will be. Next comes delivering the whole package to my agent, and the nail-biting sales phase, and plenty more stress before it's all a done deal... But his approval is 1.) a critical step and 2.) personally very important to me, so yay!

That's great news!

w00t!

Yay Clod.

http://cellar.org/2017/aaaplaud.gif

Yay, I can't wait for the next book.

I just discovered a consignment shop nearby that sells outdoor gear only. Picked up a nice lightweight down backpacking jacket for $70 when it retails for $200. I'll be coming back regularly.

Nice!

Is a backpacking jacket different from a regular jacket that you happen to wear a backpack with?

Here ya go Clod:

https://snarkynomad.com/why-a-packab...t-backpacking/

Mine stuffs itself into its own chest pocket.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e6d133c927.jpg

Hmm... digital gram scale. No wonder you've been throwing money around. :lol2:

24th wedding anniversary

Congrats!

:facepalm: ;) :lol2:

Happy Anniversary CG!

Congrats Mr Ghost.

Good job CG!

Thanks much. I don't know why she puts up with my shit, but she does.

Y'know...If she'd killed ya when she met ya, she'd prolly have been out for a few years by now.

:D:p:

This didn't really make me happy, but, made me feel good that there are still good people in the world.

I don't know any of them, but...:(

Retired Marine Keeps Promise Made In Bunker In Vietnam

Sigh. Made me tear up. And I’m at work.
Also makes me glad, Grav. Thanks.

No matter how many times ya hear it...

Marines are different from the rest of 'em.:devil:

Annual review. Apparently I'm OK. Maximum merit pay raise. Boss put money where mouth is.


In case you haven't figured, I'm a pretty low self-esteem kind of a person IRL

Awesome, Mon.

I'm working up my self-review thingie prior to my one-to-one with team leader in Jan. They start hassling you with reminder emails from end of November. - I fucking hate it. I hate, hate, hate it with a vengeance.

But Dana, you can channel that hate into the motivation to get it done... or kill your boss. :D

Oh! You posted - that reminds me why I came into this thread in the first place ...

What's making me happy today: I came home from work this evening - it was cold and dark, and my front door is currently busted and having to be kept closed with stoppers (the lock smith fitted them to the door frame) when I'm in and padlocked when I am out - so it is not fully closed into the UPVC frame and there's a big draft coming through - Carrot in tow, feeling vaguely harassed by the day (when the weather is like this a day in home insurance becomes a bit of a sprint ) and there, poking through my letter box was a Christmas card from across the pond.

Very funny, as always, and totally put a smile on my face. In fact, I knew by the envelope which card it would be and was already smiling as I opened it.

It's funny, when I went to the post office I mailed a package and 6 cards going overseas. When I got home I glanced at the receipt and it said "Green Succulent" 6. WTF? I figured out it that round green stamp they put on overseas mail. :smack:

This:

Once a Long Shot, Democrat Doug Jones Wins Alabama Senate Race https://nyti.ms/2C8yEQz

I guess we now know what a Republican has to do to lose in Alabama - by 0.8%.

Kind of. I think it was as much a repudiation of Trump as anything. Roy Moore had been elected to several previous offices, and if he'd been up for Senate during a Dem presidency, I think he'd have won in Alabama just fine despite the scandals.

But whatever -- he didn't win tonight, and that's what matters.

I'm not a big Christmas person - find it all a bit stressful (time, money etc) up until a couple of days before - once it's pretty much too late to do anything else or buy anything else I accept that it is Christmas and stop stressing out.

However there are one or two Christmas traditions that I like in the run up. I usually, most years, buy at least one or two presents from Firebox, because they are awesome. They have really cool stuff and their customer service is brilliant. I think there's maybe been 1 year in the last decade that i haven't bought at least one gift from them. Probably longer than a decade, actually - could even be 15 years.

There are just so many cool little touches in the Firebox shopping experience - like the fact that they include a little packet of sweeties as a freebie in each delivery. That kind of thing goes a long way :P

The reason I'm talking about it in here though is because I have just placed an order for two gifts for Sophie and Amelia and the order confirmation page made me grin. And that made me happy, because it made me feel Christmassy. Because it's Firebox.

Here it is (anonymized obv):

Hah I just got the order conf email:

Cannabidiol.







Ok, tetrahydrocannabinol makes me happy, too. But today in particular? I'm all about the CBD. Ahhhhh.

We sell that.

You're not on their map, you should tell them so people can find you.

What kind of communist, twinkle-toed, John Wayne-hatin, piece o' shit came up with that?!?!

:joint::p:

Inorite!? :rolleyes:

Happy = Day trip to Tug Hill Plateau xc skiing with Pete today.

I got a very interesting piece of mail today . . .

Back in the late '90s, I worked for Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports) in their San Francisco consumer advocacy office. It was a grant-funded position that lasted three years. During that time, I contributed the max to a retirement fund which Consumers Union matched.

Today's mail included a nice letter from the retirement fund, letting me know that they're offering a one-time option for people who are at least 59.5 years old, no longer work for Consumers Union, and have at least $10,000 in their retirement account.

I can either take a lump sum payment ($22,706, less taxes), roll it over into an IRA, or turn it into a monthly annunity ($186) that starts paying immediately and pays out until I croak.

What to do? What to do?

I'd never notice $186.

Take the chunk and put it in something similar, or roll it.

Then again, if the $186 would make a noticeable difference, then that might be the thing to do. Maybe that matches nicely with a monthly bill. Hey, free electricity/groceries/heat/water/weed for life!!!

Yeah, that wasn't any help at all.

I got a recent offer from a similar pension fund - they wanted to buy me out because if I take the money now it's the cheaper option for them, and it was impossible that putting it into a new scheme (i.e. IRA in your case) would bring me the same income that is available under the current scheme. My financial adviser said stick. YMMV.

Roll it over and avoid that if you are making ok money now. You'll pay taxes on that monthly annuity too, right?

I did consider that $186 a month isn't much, but would cover my TV, phone, and internet bills. Of course, I could croak at any time, so I'm not convinced an annuity is a good thing.

Besides, I've decided I need a fence along my southern property line - the asshole neighbor on the other side has forced me to take him to court because he won't pay his share of the cost to repair my road (logging truck damage). That southern boundary is 310 feet, and I want a GOOD fence that won't crap out 10 years from now - I've decided on clear-coated cedar with metal posts in cement. I don't want asshole neighbor or his seven brats crossing my property line ever again. That's an $8200 bill.

Plus, I've got to pay the full road repair cost myself, and will eventually get repaid by asshole neighbor. That's $5900 to me (with an eventual $4747 repayment).

And, I'm going to have the road construction crew move some land around my property to give me a flat/terraced back yard (20% slope back there right now) and build a 20' x 30' graveled pallet so I can one day build a nice outbuilding. That's another $5000 for a total of about $19,000.

My initial thought is to take the lump sum payment, pay for all this shit, put whatever's left over into my IRA, and put the eventual payment from asshole neighbor into the IRA as well.


Yeah, I need to talk to a money guy. *sigh* I hate money problems, but at least this is a GOOD money problem.

:rolleyes:

Yeah, I'm bringing in enough right now to live on, but see my previous post . . . lots of expenses coming up that I don't want to go into debt over.

Not sure about paying taxes on the annuity, as Washington state has no income taxes . . . ?

Gotta get a money guy, I guess. ;)

No WA taxes but the Fed gummint do take a bite.

I guess for me it would depend on how much retirement savings I already had. $186 a month isn't a ton, but unless you die in the next ten years, it is more than the payout. You probably won't die in the next ten years. But if I already knew I was going to be okay--through existing 401Ks, other pensions, or whatever--then I'd probably take the lump sum just for the convenience of it. Long-term fixed income is subject to the whims of inflation anyway.