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Monday, February 23, 2009

This Week's Projects

This should be an interesting week:

Larry finished one project, putting terracotta tiles in the area in front of the most-used entrance door. I like the way this came out, and it blends nicely with the brick hearth in the living room. The tile came from ReStore, Habitat for Humanity's resale store that has all kinds of great building supplies at low, low prices.



Now he's moved on to re-grout the tile on the kitchen counter. A few years back he re-did it with a dark grout and I have hated it. No matter how clean, the grout always looked dirty and it made the counter look darker. The white grout takes more cleaning time but it looks....clean.



My projects this week:

Learning all about BBPs and PPE and MSDS and such things for Staff Development Day training at work. Sound like fun? Hooo boy.

Finishing our income taxes. I got a good start last week, and then just left it. I can only handle so much of the IRS at one time, you know?

Helping Derek and Jared fill out the FAFSA. (This post is starting to look like alphabet soup).

Paying my BILLs. Capital letters because that's how they feel, big. (If BILLs were an acronym, what would it stand for--Busting it & losing lots, sucker? or Bitty income large loans? or But it looks like spending?)

Storytelling on Saturday night in Gallipolis, Ohio. (pronounced, gal-i-poe-LEES, thank you).

And maybe, maybe, if my mind isn't mush by the time all these things are finished, maybe I'll get some seeds started.

(What do all the above acronyms stand for? anyone want to guess?)

12 comments:

  1. You're going to need a vacation after this week. Great work Larry!
    Amy H.

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  2. The acronyms make me tired. The boys and I just learned the letter "B" today, so you're asking way too much of me to figure them out.
    The ReStore is on my list of places to check out this spring. Good luck with your projects!

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  3. The tile looks great. I love that store. We've found some cool things in there.
    I have no idea what any of those stand for. Want to try ICBM? That's where I work and get lots of amusing guesses at that one.
    Have a good day!

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  4. ICBM? I can imagine what people think that is! How funny. I have no idea what it means, though--i'm guess International consoildated business machines or something like that?

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  5. Aside from the FAFSA and BILLS (lol), I don't know what the acronyms are!

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  6. One of the eco-homes here in St. Louis has a floor made with recovered surplus tiles, arranged like a quilt or mosaic. Just beautiful! I'm not sure it shows in the photos here, but there is also interesting woodwork, much from trees from the site of the building. (I have friends in Chuckey who made their floor from an old tree the died).
    http://chrisandrews.cbp1.com/inframe.php?U=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coldwellbanker.com%2Fservlet%2FAgentListing%3Faction%3Ddetail%26ComColdwellbankerDataAgent_id%3D233728%26page%3Dlistings&T=View+My+Listings+-+Chris+Andrews

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  7. I'm goimg to have to look at that, Mary; sounds lovely. We have some old mosaic tiles from ReStore too, no idea what we'll do with them yet but they were irresistible.

    As for the acronnyms: blood-borne pathogens, personal protective equipment, material safety data sheets,infernal revenue service and Financial Aid something-something-something. All sorts of fun stuff.

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  8. Love the tile!
    Let's see....I know MSDS is Material Safety Data Sheets,and PPE is Personal Protective Equipment and FAFSA is Federal Aid for Student Assistance (I think)....I know it has to do with $$ for college.
    :) Tracey

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  9. Good job, Tracey. I should know what FAFSA is, I've certainly completed anough of them.

    Maybe it's Federal Assistance for Free Student Aid? Or Financial Assistance for Free Student Aid?

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  10. Close on the FAFSA...it is "Free Application for Federal Student Aid".

    God knows I filled out enough of them over the years.

    Now that reminds me how resentful I am of the whole student loan industry. Funded with our tax dollars, private companies give loans to students with interest...now that just seems inherently wrong to me. They are funded with our tax dollars!! Why doesn't the government just supply loans to students at no, or very little interest? After all, students who apply for financial aid in the form of loans, are mortgaging their futures in hopes of betterment of themselves, AND the country as a whole.

    I mean some reputable student loan companies charge 7-10 percent interest! That's just wrong.

    It just seems the whole system is set up to keep poor students down, regardless of intelligence and accomplishments. Sure you can get a degree, but your net earnings in many fields will be less than if you just got a job at McDonalds right out of high school. (To prove my point,look at the starting salaries of most state jobs that require a Masters degree...many are less than $18K/year). When low salaries are coupled with repaying student loans PLUS interest, how does that promote the ideals of the original student loan program? A person can't afford a home, a car...when the interest on student loans (just the interest) increase by $12,000/year. How about a program where certain fields that work for the public good could get a credit where you could work off student loan debt based on years of service? How about a broad program to elimate interest on student loans so the borrower would only have to repay the principle? A novel idea? For anyone to make money off the backs of students who are trying to better themselves is just inherently wrong.

    There's more to it but maybe I just need to lay off the caffeine.....lol.

    But I'm not bitter,lol.

    Good luck with the FAFSA.

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  11. I never thought about it like that, Jason, but I see your point. When I went to college I went mostly on the Pell Grant, and had two small loans. So it was no big deal. Now my youngest is going, he can't get much grant money and he has to get loans. It's crazy the way they do it, so confusing, and the FAFSA itself is a nightmare. We just did another tonight for my grandson. Ugh.

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  12. Yeah, when I started college, I had mostly grants and scholarships. Then as my academic career continued, tuition and fee's increased, grants were nearly done away with, and the scholarships went the way of the weasel. Student Loans were the only way for me to continue.

    Of course, as soon as I finished my degree program, the state implemented the Promise Scholarship, but of course, that didn't help me.

    Now between Shirley and me, we have a six figure student loan debt that increases more every year due to interest than we make in our scheduled payments. To make our loans even break even to where the interest wouldn't be added to the principle, we'd have to pay $2,900/month. Now who could afford to do that?

    We could manage to pay them off if the government would just offset the interest on these loans. Seems like a small thing they could do considering that student loans are funded with taxpayer monies.

    So we feel like the broken student loan system has it's foot on our throats.

    On a humorous note, many lenders consider student loans "good debt". If that is the case, our future is paved in gold!!!

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