Home again, home again... If only home really was where you hang your hat. ;-)

I went "home" for a visit last week for my Mum's birthday. We surprised her with my arrival, and then again with a party on Saturday. It was funny, she had no clue, and honestly, I was very surprised that nobody spoiled it before I got there!

Now of course I'm totally broke, and wondering how I'm going to put gas in my car *and* buy milk this week. Y'know, for a "civilised" country, the US really needs to re-think its vacation policies! I don't have paid vacation time this year, and I took 3 days off last week, so my paycheck (once they took all my deductions) was paltry to say the least. My paycheck next week will be only slightly more, with 3 days of pay.

But, I got to pig out on Canadian goodies for 5 days, so not all is lost! And I got to see family and a few of my friends. I just wish I had thought to have my camera out to get a picture of Mum's face when I walked into her house! It was hillarious! LOL!

I got back to NC on Monday evening, which was James' birthday (more than half the family has their birthday in July...its a rather expensive month!). My Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was here waiting for me, and I got maybe one chapter read that evening. I finally finished it Thursday evening, and now I'm waiting for James to read it so I can have another go at it.

There were some bits that dragged, but all in all, not a bad read really. Despite her assurances that 2 people would die, more that that did, and I was more than a bit angry at the final death toll. (I won't go into detail in case there are any readers who have not finished yet!) There was one in particular that had me sobbing like a baby. And one or two that shocked the heck out of me. When this movie is made, it'll be a tear jerker for sure!

Not much else has been going on really. I had a short trip home (I'll post some pics maybe once I get them uploaded) that I wish could have been longer, and work is stil work. There's not much of it to go around, so we're still on a 4 day week, which really hurts the wallet, as I'm sure you can imagine. I've thought about getting a second job for the weekends, but then that leaves me with no life. Plus, I'll be taking time off again to go to Dragon Con at the end of next month, so what's the point? *sigh*

Oh, and our air conditioner is broke, the hot water heater is leaking, and so is the roof to one of the downstairs bedrooms.

I don't know yet if this "slow down" will continue thru September, but if it does, I'll have to consider looking for a different job. I can't afford this one. We all just found out by a round about way that it was continuing through August. It was only supposed to be for July.

Dragon Con is going to cost us a small fortune, but when I booked it, I was working 5 day weeks, and had no idea we'd be cut to 4 day weeks. When I booked my vacation time off for Mum's birthday, we were working 5 day weeks, plus, at the time I had no idea how much my weekly health insurance premiums were going to cost me. They took up pretty much my whole paycheck this week :-p *sigh*

Ah well...live and learn. Maybe we can get these houses sold soon and move somewhere with better jobs and closer to home. blah blah blah...  ¶ 11:44 AM