Hi, Hello, How Are You?

Just disregard those last two posts, okay? It turns out that I'm sick --I really DO have walking pneumonia, and it's adding a bit of a hallucinatory tint to my daily life. Like, just now I was at the grocery store filling my prescription and I seriously had the urge to shoplift a big tub of mums on the way to my car. I mean, the urge came right over me, like when you're in a crowded auditorium and you are suddenly afraid you're going to scream? (You have that, too, right? It's not just me? Oh.)I got in my car and my heart was racing like I really was a thief. And I didn't even TOUCH the darn thing.

(You might have to know me better, but I'm the woman driving everyone crazy because she spots the remains of a donut her kids have eaten and insists on paying for it, even if it means holding up the entire line while she digs around in her purse for 54 cents.)

Anyway, I have some antibiotics and I'm hopeful that maybe I'll even lose some weight! Yahoo! Let's hear it for Walking Pneumonia!

I've decided to stop complaining about stuff because last night, I was reading to the Fair Jane while she was on the potty and she interrupted me to tell me her knees had just cracked.

"First my toes and now my knees!" she said. "I'm getting so old."

Yep. It's all downhill after six, sister.

In other news, my lovely, wonderful camera bit the dust. I was just about to take it back because I only got 13,000 pictures out of it! Hardly ever used it.

My husband gave it to me for Christmas of 2003. I remember this very distinctly because he CHEATED.

We had decided that we weren't going to exchange presents that year. I can't remember why but we'd had a lot of expenses on the house. That might have been the year we had to replace both air-conditioners and one of our cars, I don't know. Anyway, we just decided that spending a bunch of money sounded silly since we were already going to be spending a bunch of money on the kids. So, on Christmas morning, I was feeling all proud of myself because my husband wanted this $20 bike tool and I found it on-line for $10. WOOHOO! Look how frugal.

And then I opened my present. It was the Canon Digital Rebel --the one that totally revolutionized digital cameras everywhere. It must have cost at least $1,000.

So, he cheated. But it was kind of hard to be mad about that. And over the course of the years, it has proven to be the best present anyone has ever given me. If I had to choose between my camera and my CAR--I would go with the camera every time.

It's funny because I hadn't wanted a digital camera until that point because I was afraid I'd never use my traditional camera again. And you know what? I didn't. (Oh, well.)

Anyway, I have to replace my Canon and I'm going to replace it with another Canon because of the lenses. I'm looking at the Canon Digital Rebel XTi. The real problem is that the cheapest I can find it is about $700 and I am, as you all know, unemployed (in Greenland.)

So, I've been thinking about what to do and here is my conclusion: it's going to take a huge sacrifice to be able to get my new camera. Given that I am what the business world calls a "cost center," meaning I bring in no direct revenue but have plenty of expenses associated with me. So, the trick will be to offset another expense and divert that money to the Camera Fund.

But see, that's kind of a problem because except for my camera, I am not really into STUFF that much. (Well, okay, yarn but I'm already on a Stash Diet so that's not a line item in the budget right now.) (Plus, I have plenty of stash so I can probably knit socks until my camera is paid off.) But I don't buy clothes or shoes and we've pretty much got our furniture now. So, where can I cut expenses?

I know what you're thinking and let me just say straight out that I am not cutting out our housekeeper. I swear she's saved my marriage and my sanity. And anyway, this is really my husband's expense since he gets credit for cleaning the entire house top to bottom every week because she comes.

Well, that leaves only one other thing. Are you ready?

Wine. Wine!

I've been wanting to dry out for a bit anyway, given that I still have my, "It's summer! Vacation! Woohoo!" mentality going. And given that there's a history of addictive behavior in my family, well, it'd be good to throttle back before my nearest and dearest stage an intervention. And since I'm on antibiotics now and shouldn't drink with those anyway, I'll get kind of a head start.

Let me run the numbers here...I figure we spend about $60 a week on wine because we drink about 5 bottles at an average cost, I'm guessing, of $12 a bottle. (This may be conservative on both fronts. I'm afraid to look at the real numbers.) So basically, every day that I don't drink wine would be (let's do some rounding) $9 in the Camera Fund. So, let's see... $600 divided by $9 is... oh my gosh...78 days!

Okay, anyone got any other bright ideas?