(no subject)

Cordelia had her first practice with the new team last night. She gave the experience a thumbs up. There are two girls from her school on the team, so she knows somebody. Scott stayed and helped out with practice, partly to keep an eye on things and partly because he enjoys helping the kids learn soccer.

They were quite late in getting home. I was actually starting to worry a little. Not much because it had only been forty-five minutes since practice ended (I don't know how long it takes to get home from where the practices are. It shouldn't be more than half an hour). As it turned out, they stopped at Whole Foods and bought some fruit and some cookies. I think Scott felt the need to celebrate the practice having gone well.

Neighborhood Roofing finally got back to me with the amended figures for the loan. The woman doing it pinned down the guy who did the estimate and found out how much the worst case scenario for replacing wood would cost us and added that to the initial estimate so that we'd know how much to get approved for. The way it works, we'll borrow exactly what we need even if we're approved for a higher amount. We just don't want to be surprised and be $1500 out of pocket. I'll call the loan company at 9:00.

As to the name of the LARP, I suspect I called it something generic like 'Pyramid Plot.' I might have been more creative; I just don't remember. Scott favors 'The Sands of Plot,' but I don't like how that sounds. Wait, something's occurring to me-- The game centers on who's going to become pharaoh after Snefru (who's dying). I might have named it something having to do with inheritance or succession or something similar instead of relating the name to Egypt. Inheritance Plot? Royal Plot? It wouldn't be Funeral Plot; that's a different game. Why on earth didn't I record the name of the game somewhere?

(no subject)

Drat. I thought this might happen-- Scott does all the financial stuff, so I don't have ready access to the information the loan company needs in order to process our loan application. I don't know our monthly mortgage payment. I don't know the total of my monthly disability (Social Security and a payment from my former employer). I probably could find that information if I dig through the paperwork Scott has saved or if I can find our financial records on Scott's laptop. If something happens to Scott, I'd really be screwed on the financial front. I don't know where anything is or how much we can afford to spend on what.

Scott wants to do a twenty-four month loan. He says the payment is at the extreme edge of what we can afford, but he's reluctant to commit to a longer term loan. I'd be tempted to take the thirty-six month loan (about $60 less a month) and just try to pay it off early. That we could do on a month by month basis, depending on how much wiggle room we had in the budget.

The way the loan is structured, they call it a zero interest loan, but they tack on a chunk of money as a 'financing fee.' The longer the term, the higher the fee. I'm not sure what interest rate the fee actually adds up to over the term of the loan. The fee is calculated as a percentage of the principal, but it's not compounded. It's just a flat fee.

The loan company wants to talk to Scott anyway. It makes sense that they wouldn't want to put his name on the loan without confirming that he's willing (I'm a little bit startled that we can do this over the phone. Not that we could do it any other way-- They're somewhere in the mountain time zone). I thought about trying to qualify on my own, but I suspect that my income is insufficient to qualify on my own.

(no subject)

I'm tempted to bake. We have a brownie mix and a cake mix. I could do either. Of course, the frosting we have is something that Scott and Cordelia like but that I find vile, and there are all these cookies that Scott and Cordelia bought last night. I'm not sure I should bake something else today, however much time I have and however cool it is in here (It's in the low 70s F in here. The oven wouldn't overheat the house). I also can't manage to open one of the packages of cookies (cranberry oatmeal cookies that Scott bought because he knew I'd like them. I wanted one with lunch). It's got a pull tab to remove a strip of plastic so that the plastic tub can open. It doesn't yield when I pull. I even tried using my teeth, in case it was that I didn't have leverage, and using a knife. Neither made the slightest difference. I hope Scott can open the dratted thing.

(no subject)

Scott bought me another box of chai to try. This is Bigelow's vanilla chai. It's not great, but it's not terrible either if I limit the steeping time to three minutes (the package calls for four). I'm not sure if I should be relieved that I find something so cheap palatable or if I should take it as a sign that I'd like better quality chais that much better.

I do wish it was required for caffeinated things to list on the package just how much caffeine is in a normal serving. I've seen the websites that list average values, but I want to know specifically about each tea I try and about my instant coffee (those websites give a ridiculously broad range for instant coffees without any more information. I have no idea where on the scale my coffee falls. I suspect it's at the lower end, but I have no way to know. The company that makes it doesn't provide that information anywhere I can find it). Tazo does label its teas with the amount of caffeine one can expect, and I like that.

Speaking of Tazo, Scott picked up one of their green teas for me. It's a ginger pear if I'm remembering correctly. It's nice enough, but I have so many boxes of tea to get through. I'm going to have to start drinking tea daily to get through it all. I have approximately thirty servings worth of various chais. I've got that vanilla coconut white tea and the peach blossom oolong. And that's just the caffeinated stuff.

In spite of that, I'm looking with covetous eyes at some of Adagio's samples and samplers. I'd like to try the various different things they sell, at least those within my price range. I'm just not sure I can justify the expense when I've got so much other tea and when I find much less expensive stuff passable.