Since Kevin is out of town this week, I thought I’d take the opportunity to test drive some new recipes. I’ve been addicted to Foodgawker for a while now; it’s become my go-to destination for finding new stuff to stuff into my mouth. Even though I have a core collection of 31 recipes (yes, I’m a big old dork who doesn’t like to eat the same thing twice in a month) that are already Kevin-approved, I feel like I’ve been in a food rut lately, and my usual online recipe haunts just weren’t helping me out.
The best (worst?) thing I’ve done in a long time was adding Foodgawker to my RSS feed. Now I see every single thing posted, and believe me, I have a backlog of stuff I’m waiting to try. Homemade oreos, anyone?
The details of the stimulus have been released, and as an informed American voter, I have read (and I understand) the plan. Let me tell you something: I feel like I got screwed. Big time. We qualify for exactly *one* thing: If we buy a car in the next calendar year, we get to write the interest off on next year’s taxes. The only problem with this is that we’re not buying a new car, because we don’t want to have one more car payment. We’d rather save that money for things we need.
I’l be the first to admit there are things we could cut back on—the unnecessaries if you will. We have cable, we have cell phones, we go out to dinner once a week, and we have pets. Thankfully, we don’t have to pay homeowner’s association dues, so at least that’s something. We also don’t go out with friends (we have them over, if we do anything at all), and we have free passes to Disney, so that’s free entertainment. I clip coupons, and I get giddy each week when I save more than $10 at the grocery store. I only buy things on sale (the last shirts I bought were $1.60 a piece, and I stocked up. I wear these shirts every day).
The stimulus will be paid out to eligible Americans at the rate of $15 every other week, which evens out to $7.50/week. This is less than it costs for two people to eat at McDonald’s (even when one of them is a kiddo). So people who really need the rebate (and don’t mistake it for a refund) aren’t getting a whole lot of extra help here. People who don’t pay any taxes, meanwhile, are still seeing something, and I don’t agree with that. And keep in mind that this accounts for only $116 billion of the stimulus.
So while the FIRST $700 billion went to the banks who spent it on God knows what, I’m now expected to suck it up and shell out my share of the NEXT $800 billion. While I CHOOSE to have certain things, I certainly didn’t choose to foot the bill for people who don’t pay taxes (and some of those people also have cell phones and cable TV). I’m not saying that there are not people and organizations who need a little help right now; there ARE. And I’m happy to make private donations to my favorite charities (we like March of Dimes, Komen, and the American Red Cross). I’m also happy to donate time, since that ‘s absolutely free. But I really don’t think that this stimulus is the answer for MOST Americans. That’s just my opinion.
Oy vey. I’ve picked up a very bad verbal tic (and no, it’s not “oy vey”). I am (probably) overly sensitive to people’s verbal tics, so it’s something I tend to notice in myself. (Thanks, Caroline Kennedy, ya know? And you betcha, Sarah Palin). I’ve run the gamut, too: “Jeez” made an appearance for a while, “Oh My” was on the list for a couple of months, and of course, the usual “God”, “Woah” (a la Joey), and assorted other phrases have worked their way into my vernacular. The most recent one, though, is even annoying to me.
I’ve started saying “Yikes”. A LOT. I’ve noticed myself saying it out loud to no one in particular in reference to just about everything. Bad hair day? Yikes. Noisy dog? Yikes. Too much junk mail? Big yikes. I realize that everybody has their own personal go-to phrase, but most people mix it up a little. I’m in desperate need of a new phrase, because if I continue down this path, I’m gonna punch myself in the face. Yikes.
