After a ridiculous battle of trying to find out which drop quests I did and did not pick up during my World of Warcraft history, I realized that I should probably just start looting everything. Apparently it doesn't matter that I'm over level 80 and can kill most things in under 5 seconds now. It also doesn't matter that I'm trying to complete this equally ridiculous achievement that will eventually give me the Loremaster title on my main character. Ugh. This is more insane than the Chef title. Also, I may not even change it to my primary name when all's said and done, so....
The real lesson learned? Never get hooked on World of Warcraft. Just makes life easier. :)
In other news, today was awesomely productive. Not only did I begin my fitness regime (with a 20 minute beginner session on this), but we went grocery shopping, did our meal planning for the week (slow cooker sausage, corn and potato chowder ftw), did a load of laundry and steamed business clothes, and completed our budget analysis for the past 9 months. I want to explain more about this since I am, quite frankly, so proud.
For the last 9 months, since moving and starting my new job (and, honestly, making a regular salary not based on hourly wages), I've been tracking expenses. Not just major ones, either. Little, piddly, every day expenses. For the most part, this has been hugely successful. After Chris moved we continued tracking, but it was just my expenses/income that we based all our budgeting on. Now, looking forward into January/February, we're going to begin tracking our expenses, and our income. I think I'll still try and budget on one income, but it will be nice to really begin to see where our expenses end up every month and where we come up budgeting more. So far I can see we've been pretty right on for food/groceries, but we originally hadn't budgeted anything for the animals, my car insurance went up drastically since moving here (figure that one out - both downtown locations, and in Madison I parked out in the open, whereas in Mpls I pay an extra $250 every 6 months!), and we (read: I) spend WAY too much on video games and books every month. I always keep things pretty much in check, but it's a weird balance. Some months I spend nothing and others I spend way over. Also, this past year I spent a lot gathering initial crafting supplies and stuff, so that was a lot of investment for a longer period of time.
The reason I did this analysis (which is a fantastically beautiful Excel grid, I might add) was to make budgeting a little easier going forward. From the grid you can see total expenses by year, month, category and specific expense type. You can also see average expenses for each, so it's easier to plan ahead (say, if you're going to move somewhere new making a different amount of money...). So, yeah. Excited about budgeting!
Between all of this we had a fantastic lunch (I'm in love with baguettes and Laughing Cow cheese) and I had time to indulge (become frustrated with?) WoW. So, all in all, pretty successful weekend.
I'm just hoping this next week doesn't absolutely tear me to shreds. Not only are we back on regular business attire from this week forward (there's a way to piss everyone off in the new year), but forecast is due in 7 days (business days - due next week Tuesday). Now, I know this may not mean too much to you, but forecast is a bitch. And not just like something I have to do but don't want to, or something that takes a lot of time but really it's easy. Forecast is akin to setting one foot on fire and then waiting an hour to remind yourself it's on fire, find someone to help you get to the hospital, wait in a lobby for treatment, etc. It takes too much time, is difficult and requires multiple revisions/reviews to complete with any mild degree of accuracy, and is, ultimately, completely and utterly useless. Which is, after all, like many of the things big business chooses to pay its employees to do, right? :)
Beyond forecast, though, this week shouldn't be too horrible. I've got a fancy new side project I want to work on (combining methodology from when I worked at the QRM Center and the needs of our department to capture all steps/processes in our programs) and I still get to eat out a couple days, even with the new year's resolutions. Plus I get to come home after it all, drink hot chocolate and cuddle with cute kitties. What could be better? Probably not having to go to work at all. Yes, that could be better. :)
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