Down to Less Than Three Bucks a Day

Time to update the Cost per Day for the Drama Playset.  We have now owned the Drama Playset since January 14, 2022, or 1553 days.

Now the local cousins don't come over as much as they used to, but Boris swings literally every day, and Natasha joins him sometimes, especially when our pseudo third child is around.  So I'm going to keep using the previous formulas with some tweaks.

Conservative Estimate: I'm assuming that 2 kids using the playset on most days equals 1 kid using it daily.  Also, we have had an additional kid for most of the year.

So, using the Time and Date Duration Calculator to figure out the time between January 14, 2022, when it finally arrived, and today this year, I get 1553 days.  

That works out to $6000/1553 = $3.86 per use.

Slightly Optimistic Estimate: If we get more optimistic, we can assume that 3 kids using the playset most days equals 2 kids using it every day.

That works out to $6000/1553/2 = $1.93 per use.

If we take the average of these two values, we get the more likely CPU of $2.90.

Other Entertaining Outside Activities

So as we have now owned this for 4 years and some change, it costs $2-3 bucks a day to keep my kids entertained and off their iPads.

Got my First Troll on Quora

I answered a question on Quora, and at the bottom of the post, like many other Quorans, I said, "If you liked this answer, give me an upvote."  It seems to have worked because this is the most upvoted answer I've ever had.  It's likely more that it was posted to a very active space, and the question is getting a lot of answers.

Anywho, someone commented, "I block upvote beggars" and did so.  I went and looked at her profile, and as you can imagine, she has a whacky About Me which implies she thinks she's more sought after than reality would suggest.  

"And asking me to upvote and follow is the fastest way to earn a mute and block. Don’t be tacky. Earn your upvote."

As she blocked me, I could not reply to her comment.  If I could, I would say something like: 

I didn't beg, I asked.  Unless my answer got sent directly to you somehow, I didn't personally ask you for an upvote.  I'm not sure how I'm supposed to know about this rule of yours that you feel should carry the day,  especially since other Quorans do it all the time.  You could have just scrolled past or silently blocked me, and I'd continue blissfully in not even knowing you exist.  

But I guess that is the point, isn't it.  You want attention and the last and only word.  Well, go peddle crazy somewhere else, we're all filled up here.

Good Bye March, Hello April

 For almost the entirety of March, we were able to function with the heat and AC set to OFF.  We were even able to sleep with the windows open, and it was some of the best sleep I've had since the kiddos arrived!

There were 2 cold snap days, and a few mornings I needed to run the heat for an hour so the kids could defrost and get to school.  And toward the end of the month, we did have a few above-average hot days when AC was desired.  These were offset by us going out of town for a weekend and being able to leave the Nest set to ECO.  

Alas, the temps are steadily creeping up and I have a small window to do any outdoor/garage projects before the Southern Summer begins (in Mid-May). 

The Running Shoes  

As soon as I got home from dropping Moose and Squirrel off at school, I changed into my running clothes and went for what passes for me running these days.  It was my second run since buying the new shoes.  Anyway, I managed to eke out another 1-mile run, slightly faster than the first one.  More importantly, I ran longer than I walked.

Date Distance Pace Time

04-01-2026    1 mile 11:35   11:42 

03-23-2026    1 mile 12:04   12:22 

On the first run, it took a quantum of seconds to get the Strava App to pause, so the Time was probably at least 10 seconds faster. By the way I really hate the Strava app and website.  it is hard to navigate and it is constantly trying to sell you the pay version.  Since my data lives here, I'm stuck with it for a while.  If the running thing takes off and gets anywhere in the neighborhood of consistency, let alone what it once way, I'll look for a better tool.

Long Weekend, Short Sleep

This has been a busy but rough weekend.  First, on Thursday, we had to be in Oxford, Mississippi, for Natasha’s science fair. This required getting up fairly early to be there by 8 o’clock. The issue is it’s 62 miles away, and I didn’t get the best sleep that night.

The science fair was kind of weird. Parents and chaperones were not allowed on the main floor until the lunch hour, and the students weren’t allowed to leave the main floor except for one bathroom break and then lunch

Meanwhile, Nightingale was going to bring her father-in-law at lunchtime, thinking that parking would be a breeze, which it wasn’t. We wasted a good 20 minutes trying to find a spot to park, and so when we got back to the stadium, all the food lines were long. Luckily, we had snacks.

Today we’re in Huntsville, Alabama, at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.  We were three years ago by ourselves, but this is a school field trip.

Bedroom is now complete

Instead of sitting around the house all day doing nothing much, I got us to go to Memphis on Saturday.  The reason was twofold.  

First, I wanted to replace the last remnants of the sectional that the cats have destroyed with this:

Second, I wanted to get some new running shoes.  I'm past my glory days of running piles of miles, but I think I can start doing a mile or two after I drop the kids off at school.

I went for a 1-mile run on Monday, so if I use the Anne Landers School of Thought, it cost me $130 for that run.  When I run another mile, it will be $65.  And so-on and so-on.  

It's interesting to note that the chaise lounge cost less than the shoes.  It was listed at $75, but I got them to give me a $5 discount because there was some scuffs.  At the same time, I sold something for my in-laws and the buyers offered me $200 down from $250.  Ca sara sara.  

Some meal favorites

 On the Book of Faces, I shared a post from The Onion about substituting ingredients in a recipe. The first time I try a new recipe, I strive to use all the ingredients and follow directions to the letter.

An exception might be that it calls for an ingredient I don’t have and don’t want to invest in. For instance, earlier this week I made česnečka soup but didn’t have marjoram (actually, we did, I just didn’t see it in the cupboard) so I used oregano instead.

Last night I made crockpot shrimp scampi. I made this a few weeks ago, but didn’t have any cooking white wine, so i used vinegar wine. BIG mistake. This needs either cooking wine or real white wine.
I did use lime juice instead of lemon juice but otherwise followed the recipe and it was delicious.

https://lowcarbyum.com/crock-pot-shrimp-scampi-slow-cooker-recipe/

Last Week I made česnečka or Czech garlic soup.  Forgot to take a photo but it was delicious.  

Work Friends, Colleagues and Acquaintances

Last week two former work colleagues reconnected with me.  I sent a text to Sasha* asking a simple yes/no/the color purple question.  A tad bit later she responded, ignored the question, and just said she was traveling back from Tampa Bay.  Date with Tom Brady?  I said no worries, we can chat/text tomorrow after you get some sleep.

* I don't remember what alias I use for her here.

So of course, she does the one thing that fucking annoys the hell out of me. She calls without first brokering a call, as if we are living in 1987.  It turns out her dad is going to have quadruple bypass surgery the next day.  

We talked for about an hour until the call started getting staticky.  i guess she was driving and got ot a place where the reception wasn't great.   I was also picking up my kids at this point, so I said let's talk tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a person I worked with at Big Audit 2.0 reached out to me on LinkedIn.  I like her, but I trust her as much as I trust gas station sushi.  She really straddled the line of being my work friend and also enabling my Office Nemesis.  Let's call her Veronica.

Veronica reached out, acknowledged that it has been 4 years since we last chatted. In fact, it was actually 4 years almost to the day.   I'm not sure if she was genuinely interested in what I was up to verses a fishing expedition but I took the bait.  We exchanged some messages and left it with maybe we will have another phone call soon.  

"no special reason to reach out, I was scrolling through LinkedIn and remembered out chats: I miss those! there is nobody left to chat with at work, I so do not fit the group I am in right now - it's really sad; there are no lunches, or after work drinks, everyone is sitting alone at home...and majority of people I came up with are gone and the group I am in right now is a lot younger than me so they are at a different stage of their lives; I am not on social media other than Facebook which I try hard to stay away from as it has become toxic; I will stay in touch here on LinkedIn for now, maybe we can chat on the phone one day? like dinosaurs we are :)

stay well and in touch!"

I'll probably send a volley to her, seeing if this is a Genuine Offer versus Conversational Device.  I'm 0 for 3 with recent phone calls and that doesn't include Sasha.  She actually did ask me how things were going when we talked the second time.