CostcoWarrior

Christmas Party Spotlight 24 December 2008

TW’s boss emailed me asking for his help in a super secret undercover operation.  At their engineering group’s annual Christmas party, they were going to highlight a few of their team members–TW was one of those few chosen.  Would I be willing to help him out and tell him things about TW that the team didn’t know, so they could get to know TW better?  And would I keep it a secret from TW?

Of course I would!….but that “keep it a secret” part lasted only 5 seconds.  I called TW right away and teased him about all the things I was going to tell his co-workers.  :)  I’m much nicer to him in the spotlight…

     TW is the official “shopper” in our family.  He loves to find a good deal, and he’s an expert at it.  Whether it’s for kitchen gadgets, roofing supplies, computer parts, professional tile-layers, electronics, or even that car we are NOT shopping for—TW tracks down amazing deals on anything—daily.  This is probably why his wish list changes hourly.  If you need a deal on something, hire TW to find it for you and you’ll still save money in the end.

     One time, TW’s “deal radar” found a sale at Costco on long-lasting compact fluorescent light bulbs—something crazy, like 50 cents per bulb.  I wasn’t with him that time.  Now we own a lifetime supply of long-lasting compact fluorescent light bulbs in multiple shapes and sizes.

     One reason TW is so good at finding deals, is because Google likes TW more than any other person I know.  Any normal person wanting to find information on, say, how to build a bridge, would type in a Google search and come up with links to architecture and engineering documents.  It took me 5 different searches to find the same link TW got: “How to Burn Bridges with People Symbolically.”

     TW isn’t the kind of person anyone wants to burn bridges with, though.  He’s kind and compassionate and confident.  He’s been taught to be generous, and he’s willing to give time and resources to all people in need.  TW is the perfect kind of perfectionist—eager to work tirelessly on the smallest details, but able to wrap it all up without agonizing over every possible mistake.  He recognizes the value of good humor, yet tempers a laugh with sincere praise for all those around him.  All these things make him a remarkable asset for any team—both personally and professionally.

Food Storage? 23 December 2008

CostcoWarrior schedules have been super tight these last few months with full-time school and full-time work.  Evenings are crammed full of classes and homework and projects and reading–it’s hard to keep up on the ordinary tasks of living, let alone fit in time to fulfill personal goals like losing weight or finishing craft projects that have been lying around for years…

So.  What about eating?  We are on a strict budget, and can’t eat out every day.  That would also be SO counterproductive to the aforementioned weight loss goals.  Instead, we have refined the interim “prepared food” plan:

After testing a number of sandwich flavors and combinations, we nailed down the two best options:  PB&J and Turkey&Cheese.

On the weekend we buy 2 loaves of bread, 2 lbs of lunch meat, and we splurge for the pre-sliced non-processed cheese.

We spend 1 hour at the kitchen table–one person busting out the Turkey&Cheese combos, and one person stacking up the PB&J.  We sandwich until the bread is gone.  Then we bag and label:

And finally: Freeze.

Now…hold the judgment for a minute.  We were skeptical too.  But we gave it a try thinking “what’s the real harm?”  And we love it.

We spend all evening on our work and get to bed late.  The next morning we’re usually in a big hurry to get out the door–and we love that it takes 2 seconds to grab a lunch.  At work they thaw pretty quickly just in the lunch bag, so by lunch they’re perfect–no taste difference at all.

As mentioned, this is one of the interim solutions to our menu/time/money struggles.  And while some day we may have more time to actually prepare dinners and lunchs every evening, in the meantime we’re loving the frozen program.

Book Lover Websites 22 December 2008

So this last weekend I found two really amazing book-lover websites and I’m totally hooked.  Not only are these cool sites–THEY’RE FREE–which totally pleases my super tightwad, budgeting soul.

For the reader who is always wishing for more time and bemoaning the busy-life that makes it hard to curl up in a blanket with a good book:
www.dailylit.com

For the reader who never has enough money to buy any/every book they desire; and for the reader (or spouse of the reader) who wants to clean house a bit. Swap out the old for the new!
www.paperbackswap.com

Out of the Mouths of Babes… 14 December 2008

Today we showed this picture to our sunday school class of 5 year olds:

We asked a bunch of questions, trying to get the children to focus on the picture and understand the event it depicted.  We asked “What is Jesus in?” expecting answers like “clouds” or “the sky” or “heaven”.  What we didn’t expect was the excited answer of one of the little girls: “Jesus is wearing a fairy costume!”

MBA = Mega Big A$$-kicking 1 December 2008

So the school thing is fun and interesting and generally a good thing…

When is it not such a fun, interesting, or generally good thing???

When you have to stay up on all of your day-to-day homework AND

When you have a 20 page first draft paper due in 3 days  AND

When you have a 10 page final draft paper due 5 days AND

When you have a 20 page final draft paper due in 9 days AND

When you have a class powerpoint presentation due in 10 days AND

When you have an online ALL ESSAYS final due in 12 days AND

When you have an in class ALL ESSAYS final due in 17 days.

It’s crunch time, folks, crazy crazy crunch time…

For all those who remember what school-life was like, please have pity!