Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Hoo boy

Today I was informed that I'll bump up against my part-time hours limit sometime in April. That means once I hit 950 hours I can't work until July 1st. I can try to stretch it out but however I choose to do it I'll be bringing in less money. My already meager paycheck is about to get meagerer. I need to figure out how I want to manage this.

I could cut my hours back and take an extra class this spring. I could try to get a second job. That might be hard in this economy but it's worth a try. I've been putting off getting some eBay sales going. If I get that rolling it would be a double plus. I'd make some money and get some crap cleared out of my house, garage and yard. I can take some time off and work on my house. I'm already planning a trip to Texas in March. I have enough credit card points to buy a plane ticket.

Bleah. I can't allow myself to get too stressed over this. It will mean I'll have to dip into the retirement fund again sooner than planned. I hate doing that. Anyway, who knows? I might be able to land one of those full-time positions that occasionally open up at RCC.

So, just keep going. Right foot, left foot, etc.

Lio got chomped yesterday and I'm pretty sure it was Bozzie who did the chomping. I didn't see Lio after I got home from work and it took a while to find him. When I picked him up he cried out in pain. He's been gorging himself on anything he can find to eat so I was afraid he had pulled a Marty. When Marty was fairly young he gorged himself on dog food and got his intestines good and blocked. That was a BIG vet bill. After some fussing I got Lio into the house. I gently prodded his belly but it didn't seem to bother him. Then I saw two spots on his rear end that looked like dried blood. When I touched it he cringed and whimpered. He wouldn't let me do much exploring but it didn't look serious. The bite is on a fleshy (fat) part of his leg. I brought litter box back in and kept him inside last night. I checked on him several times and today he seems fine.

He's been getting pretty comfortable with the dogs lately. Boz has turned into a real jerk. Well, more of a jerk than he always was. I'm pretty sure Lio was being friendly and Boz decided to get grumpy and lash out. I've seen him do it before. Hopefully, Lio will heed the warning and stay out of the back yard.

Sheesh. Boz is my youngest and healthiest dog so he's the one I'll be stuck with after Gracie and Lady are gone. Think his behavior will improve when he has no more dog competition? Yeah, I didn't think so either.

The good news is Ivy and Lio seem to have figured out how to use the cat door.

Well, I'm off to weight loss class. Did I lose 40 pounds?

Update: 38 pounds. Dinner was a little salty last night. That has to be it.

6 comments:

VO said...

That sucks that you've got a limited number of hours for the fiscal year. Can you get hired on as a student worker and a second job on campus?

As long as you're a student you might be able to qualify. Usually they work 20 hours or less so that might be one way to have a second job but still be on campus.

Donita Curioso said...

I don't think it works that way. I'm sure if there was any way they could finagle it they would have found a way to give me more hours. Another woman in our office will have used up her hours in February. She'll just have to leave.

The budget is getting tight. They're not going to lay anyone off but they're not hiring anyone new.

We're getting a new boss this week. Actually, the whole system is getting shifted around. Dr. Linda didn't get the president's position at the Riverside campus so she's coming back to her old job, which is the job Dr. Deb has been doing, which means Dr. Deb is sliding back to her old position. It's all pretty weird right now. We don't know how the whole thing is going to play out. And it's not just our office that's shifting people around. Anyway, this could end up being a good thing or it could suck. But I do know that working for Dr. Linda will be a good thing. She's cool.

VO said...

It'll be good. Another person for you to network with and keep an eye open for something you could slide into.

Donita Curioso said...

lindsaypaige
Yep. I'm looking forward to working with her. She's a family friend.

bones- we know what bones are.

Anonymous said...

Pleah. Well, when you get here, everything will be free or extremely cheap because by then Greg and I will have climbed into your boat. In fact, you'll live cheaper while you're here than you do at home.

I think that's so clever of you to have charged your way to a free airline ticket. I've always meant to do that and never have.

Talk to me about ebay. The fees seem pretty stiff to me.

-dean

Donita Curioso said...

I haven't checked the fees lately. I'll let you know what I find out.

I didn't really mean to charge up the card for points. They were building up for quite a long time. When Paige's iPod broke I used my points to get her a new one. Then I figured I'd let them build up again and get myself an iPod. But then I got impatient and just bought one. Right around that time we were cleaning up the farm and renting all those dumpsters. I put them all on my card and got reimbursed by the farm. I really racked up the points quick. I was going to spend them on a microwave but when you do it that way it's not a very good deal. It's better to apply the points towards airline tickets. From what I can see, it's the best value.

After this it will take FOREVER for my points to build up again because I am NOT going to be using my card. I am really scared of getting into debt right now and a credit card can get out of control really fast. No, no, no.