Things Are Going Swimmingly

So much going on!

This week is Carnival Kick-off and I found door prizes right in the house. I've been Grocery Gaming for almost a year, and I realized it was time to donate the overstock. I mean, do I really NEED twenty-five toothbrushes? Or twelve bottles of bodywash? So everything went out on the kitchen counter and JJ took a picture. I forgot to have him download it for me, so I'll add that soon. We figured out that for the entire counter's worth of stuff I paid under $50. But I discovered I had two complete sets of Garnier Fructis styling products that I had got free, and now I have door prizes. That's not too cheesy, is it?



Last week I had an interview for Precinct Chair with the county GOP vacancy committee. No news yet, but they sounded mucho enthusiastic. However, they'd best hurry if they expect me to be an election judge by the first week of November. County office isn't the most efficient place, for sure.

It's raining and the back door let in water again. No sense replacing the carpets until the yard is graded, so there's another back-burner item. Anyone having a spare, oh, $20k lying around is welcome to forward it my way. I can pay you back in groceries, apparently.

The Little Critter's school had a Word Parade the other day. Each grade got assigned certain things, like homophones or prefixes, and they were to dress up as their word. Her grade had compound words, and they sent home a list of suggestions. Did Fish work from the list? Perish the thought. Fish discovered a list of eleventy thousand compound words on the internet and scoured it for entire minutes until finding the perfect one. Since LC collects pigs we had them in abundance, so I sewed elastic bands on the back of a denim shirt and inserted her pigs in them to make PIGGYBACK. This was the hit of the day. They were talking about it hours afterward. A picture will be in the yearbook. Downside: now Fish has set a high bar for creativity and is afraid she shall never reach it.

Great idea for school fundraiser: Teacher Pizza Delivery Night. We teamed up with a Papa John's and had PTA parents drive teachers to deliver pizzas to students. The families would call and order, and state that it was for the teacher delivery. Then a random teacher would be driven to the house and bring the pizza. The kids loved it, the PTA got to spend time with teachers they didn't know, we kept the tips, and PTA raised over $1000 in a couple of hours.

Great idea for birthday party goody bags substitute: Movie Theatre Gift Cards. LC got one yesterday after a skating party, and I was impressed! No junky candy, no toys that disintegrate in moments upon opening, and a gift towards another activity to do with the LC. Home run in my book. If you already do this just call me Fishie-come-lately and move on.

Great Birthday Party Gift: Webkins. Go see for yourself. Addictive, cute, and less than $10. Someone tell Miss Doxie; it's almost time for her gift guide.

Work Update: I'm off the rest of the month! Yay! And they fired the slacker girl whose scripts I had to write. Actually it was more that they took away her position, offered her another non-salary non-benefit just-hourly thing, and she declined. I since heard that she was not holding rehearsals and was lying about it, and that she frequently wandered in to work whenever she felt like it. Oh, poor thing, that cushy seat in that new location just got really uncomfortable, dinnit?

God love the library. Make Your Kid a Millionaire is one of the best non-fiction books I've read in, oh, weeks. Seriously, it's all about things you can do now, relatively cheaply, to get your kid to $1 million or more with little or no help from them. And how to get them interested as they start work to make them even richer. Oh, if I had started sooner. One way I am going to make my kids millionaires is to stop buying so many danged books.

Greatest In-law News Ever: They sent a check to us payable to our mortgage company for $5000. Unasked. Unsolicited. Out of the ever-lovin' blue. JJ says his mom said something about having done so much for his sister, they felt they should do something for us. Could you just DIE? Who DOES that? I'm just shocked and awed.

Mrs. Chili reports a call out to bloggers to post something every day in November. Possible?