'Tis the season to be jolly!

It's that time of year. And I just completed my Christmas Cards (did I miss someone? It's probably because I don't have your address and therefore YOUR fault! :)). At the end of the everything, I totaled it all up. In total, I spent about $100.42* in sending out cards. That includes everything from the sitting fee for pictures with Santa, the actual photos themselves, the cards, and the stamps (good GOLLY stamps... I remember when they were 23 cents!). Oh wait, there were some 8x10s in the photo prints fee, so it's probably closer to like $88.28*.

Anyway, I was talking with our Admin and she said $100 is way too excessive to do for Christmas.

But, if you break it down, I sent out 68 cards (which means I have 12 stamps left and can send 12 more out as I have about that many cards left also). So, 88/68 = $1.30 per person in cards.

It doesn't seem so ridiculous when you hear that number. Until you break out the percentages of what is what.

Stamp = 41%
Photo = 29%
Card = 30%

It's sad to think that the smallest item in the whole card ordeal costs the most!

Our Admin also insists that in future years electronic cards should be sent instead of traditional mailed cards. I have two problems with this:

1) My sister and I have a contest every year to see who gets the most cards mailed to them. Whoever gets the most wins Xmas!

B) There's something awesome about getting a physical card that you can display within your home.

Anyway, Happy Christmas to all y'all and if you don't think you're getting a card from me because I don't have your address, maybe you should use the Google Voice widget over there --> and leave me a voicemail with your address!

*And this does not include the awesomely printed label costs

I told you, I'm not on call anymore!

So, last night I'm sleeping. Having an awesome dream that may or may not have involved Jensen Ackles. And all of a sudden, I hear my phone go off.

Now, my phone hasn't gone off in the middle of the night for over a year. In my previous employment with The Suffix, I was one of those people that was on call every now and then (seemed more "now" than "then", but I digress). And when the phone rang, we had to get things fixed. When we were on call, sometimes we slept, sometimes we didn't.

For SEVERAL months after I left was forced out of The Suffix, I was unable to sleep with my phone in the same room as me for fear of it ringing. Finally, that unsubstantiated fear has gone away and I now use my phone as a backup alarm.

Anyways, my phone is ringing and I slowly get out of my dream mentioned above. And I am trying to figure out what's going on and I realize it's my phone. I look at it and see it's one of my coworkers from The Suffix. The phone stops ringing before I can think about getting to it and I go back to bed.

This morning, I send said former coworker friend a text message. Here's the conversation:

Me: Did you forget I'm no longer on-call? What was up with that call missed call from you at Midnight:05?
Her: I was updating your contact info and pressed the # instead od 'edit' first! Sorry!
Her: Of
Me: Aahh -- I heard phone ringing and was like "WTF?" and saw it was you and was like "Excuse me?" -- but was too unconscious to do anything about it.
Me: I was like "Did Product blow up and She have no idea how to fix it?" :)
Her: I'm glad you didn't answer. I was going to apologize
Her: :D
Me: No worries -- I've gotten a good laugh about it (and soon to be another when I blog it)

Yeah.... so, calls in the middle of the night kinda scare me still!

And there were marines -- and trophies!

Yeah -- so there was an event at The Company today that involved a Toys for Tots collection. And there were marines that were there to collect the toys. And I drooled.

Then, as part of the event, there was trivia.

At the end of the first round, we were proud to not be in last place! At the end of the second round, the same was said. Then it got worse.

That's right, we were in last place!

And we didn't quite get any additional points in round three. Or round four. So, for the final question, we went with big strategy! Wager the maximum points and go for the gusto to have the lowest score!

And then there was the awards -- First place got some awesome trophies and what looked to be a gift certificate. And last place got trophies as well.

I present to thee, my trophy!


Fun was had by all!

Yen Dollars! Get your Yen Dollars!

So, as part of my job, I create accounts and departments and other items of metadata for The Company. The requests come in, are reviewed by the Governance Team, and sent to my team for actual creation.

Within a request today, the following was the purpose of a new account:

"A new bank account in JPY Dollars is at Citibank for this new BU, a balance sheet account is required to capture the activities of this bank account."

Yeah. That's what I said as well.

*hangs head in shame*

I can't stand it anymore!

So, I had yet ANOTHER discussion about random things with coworkers and more items that they haven't seen (and in some cases HEARD of), so I decided to start making a list *points over to sidebar*.

I can't believe some of the things they haven't experienced! And these people think Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey are funny. They haven't experienced good humor!

Ungrateful Craigslist Bastards!

So, I've converted from the "traditional" Christmas lights to LED lights.

Which means I have approximately 1200 lights to get rid of. (yeah, I'm a light whore on my tree)

I placed an ad on Craigslist for these used lights to help someone out. I figure they cost approximately eight cents a light based on retail prices, so that's about $100 in lights I'm trying to get rid of.

My price? $20. (They're used!)

Anyways, someone calls me. We'll say her name is Rachel for anonymity sake (oh wait, that really is her name. Sue me!).

Anyways, she informs me I'm some sort of God-Send because I have these lights available for her. She asks if I'll send her some directions to my place and she'd come by Tuesday to pick them up during my work from home day.

Mind you, this is a savings of approximately $100 from retail for a used product. That's a savings of like 80%. Clark Howard would be proud.

Anyways, I send her the directions and several (7?) hours later she replies saying she will pass on the lights because she thought I would be closer to her.

The problems I have are as follows:
1) The ad has my location in it
b) She said she was in Douglasville. That's approximately a half hour drive from here
iii) I would like to think a half hour drive each way would be more than worthwhile to save $80. Gas prices aren't THAT high.

I swear, I hate Craigslist flakes!

Am I being a little excessive here? Or am I semi-in-the-right?

Cashflow

So, a few friends invited me over last night for game night.

Expecting something like Chutes and Ladders, Life, or Fluxx. Instead, we got Cashflow. (Apparently it was their homework to play it a few times as part of some investing thing they're wanting to do).

The concept behind Cashflow is to "get out of the rat race." -- it's part Monopoly, part Life, and part work. Yes, work. You have to keep a Financial Statement about yourself... And get it audited! (Do I have E&Y written on my forehead?)

I started out semi-over-analyzing things -- like why my debt wasn't going down when I made my "monthly payments" as spent my expenses on Pay Day. But, once I got to the point where I ignored my standard financial logic, I got into the game.

We played for a few hours and then we all were getting tired. I was declared the winner because I was the closest to getting out of the Rat Race (where your passive income is greater than your monthly expenses).

Of course questions of my background came up to see my "personality type" to help me get where I got in the game. Apparently some of my business background from my alma mater helped. And a lot that I learned on my own as I was buying my house (there's a lot of real estate transactions in the game).

Then I started to think -- that's not my personality in everyday life. I don't think. It would be great if I could find a way to incorporate that person into my persona, but I'd need to figure out how. Then who knows what could happen!