Stump Removal

Why? Oh why do the stump removal people have to come to cut out our neighbor's old tree stump during Caleb's nap instead of say...sometime between midnight and two a.m. when he was already awake?

Anna Karenina Update

I started reading Anna Karenina weeks ago, and I loved it. Loved the characters, their struggles, and the translation. Then I read the last sentence, and I was left speechless. I felt (and still feel) robbed and betrayed. How can one line of an eight hundred page book ruin the whole thing? Tolstoy delved into so many great questions and then gave me that answer? That's no answer! That's a trite band-aid to cover the fact that the questions he raised are still agonizingly, achingly unanswered.

I suppose it takes a good author to make me care enough about their story to be unsatisfied when their characters are unsatisfied instead of just dumping their unsatisfied characters back into the library drop box.

Buying in Bulk...worth it?

I have a love-hate relationship with buying in bulk. I love saving money and getting the best deal. I hate going over my weekly grocery budget, and buying meat for the next 3 months will definitely do that. I love having staples on supply in my freezer or pantry. I hated the pounds upon pounds of hot dogs that I ate as a kid because that's what we had on hand. I don't think I've purchased hot dogs since.



Recently I heard reports of cheap diapers at our area's warehouse club. So I started looking into a membership. Because they publish prices online, I was able to compare their prices with my usual grocery store price to see which items were big savers. I recently spent $54.02 to save $22.37. Of course those savings come with several footnotes. I've saved only if we don't use more than we normally would, simply because we have it. I've saved only if the products don't go bad in the pantry, fridge, or freezer. I've saved if I don't buy extra things we normally wouldn't get just because it's a good deal. And I've only saved if we don't have to buy a whole other appliance (like a deep freeze) to store my 'savings.' And then I have to consider the time (and gas money) it takes to drive to another store for groceries. Is this frugality really worth it? The jury's still out.

The real question is: Why am I saving money (if I end up actually saving)? Is saving money in an of itself a worthy goal? And now I'll stop writing before I get too philosophical.

Pictures

Need I say more?

Life is good.

Current Reading

Is it a sign of arrogance or simply a mark of a good reader that I can see myself in every diverse character in Anna Karenina?