Because I am a grownup...

[annathepiper]

... I have stayed inside for most of this gorgeous day, getting caught up on paying bills and balancing checkbooks. The annoying part of this entire enterprise is that I had neglected to take into account the automatic withdrawal for our health insurance. To account for that as well as leaving enough money for solarbird and me to live on till my next paycheck comes in, I had to un-pay most of the bills I had in fact paid. Meh.

(I can get away with this, fortunately. I was trying to be Proactive Girl, and take care of paying several bills early to try to make up for being Recovery Girl next week. So I'll just have to remember to pay all these postponed bills regardless, once the paycheck with the Ridiculous Amounts of Overtime comes in. But it's still annoying to have made this screwup.)

In lighter news, thank you to everyone who has answered my poll so far! Points of interest on what may actually finally affect my purchase decision:

1. How much of a treat budget I have, once Dara and I check my numbers from today's number-juggling.
   
2. What's actually being sold in the DVD section of Target at the Woodinville shopping center.
   
3. How much I can carry without fear of damage in my backpack, since the plan is going to be to go there by bike and take it back with me, and I have no bike basket.
   

Also, to those of you who aren't actually on my Friends list but who have answered the poll anyway, hiya! And to the one of you who suggested I should get an iPod: actually, I have one already, and even if I didn't that'd be outside my treat budget for this little expedition. Cool idea, though! (If they actually sold replacement batteries at the Apple stores, I'd seriously consider going to get one. However, I'm still waiting for word on whether the iPod battery class action suit is going to come through with a free battery replacement for me, and failing that, holding out till next month when we'll have more dollars anyway.)

Now I shall read the rest of the Daily Show book--America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. After that, it'll be writing! And possibly either poker or video games, depending on whether kathrynt and llachglin and tinlail and lyricae and wrog answer the mail I sent around on this very matter. (Yes, folks, I am looking in YOUR DIRECTIONS. Ping me if you're interested!)

And oh yes: why the hell did I wake up before 8am on a Saturday, and then get up on purpose, and not feel immediately like going back to bed? Am I turning into a morning person? Agh!

Friday evening miles: 2.05
Saturday miles: 0.15
Miles out of Hobbiton: 305.2
Miles to Rivendell: 152.8

Comments

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Don't want to be an asshole, but you really shouldn't wear a backpack when riding a bike. It raises your center of gravity too high and makes it more likely that you will fall. Buy panniers.

At least, this is what the kinesiology department told me after Keith almost killed himself riding a bike with a backpack on....

Cathy

[annathepiper]

That's not being an asshole, hon, that's being concerned for my safety, and that's totally cool. :)

That said, I'm curious as to whether there are any mitigating factors that make a backpack less of a problem. Mine is not very large at all, and consequently, there's only so much that I can put into it anyway. (I try to avoid overloading it in general because that's easier on my back, as well.)

What I had in my backpack on this trip was a trade-size paperback, the DVD box set (which was barely bigger than the paperback), a hat, my purse (which was also small), my handheld computer, and random small objects such as my keys and my wallet in the front pocket. Not terribly heavy at all, though I don't know what the exact poundage was.