A Couple of Things to be Grateful

Besides the love of a wife and child, I have to stop and remind myself, things are not so bad.

1. On the night shift this week, and co-workers and I ordered Chinese takeout, at my suggestion. We all order the same dish. Co-worker Glenda gets food poisoning and is still out sick. Big Boss gets sick the next day, goes home early.

Me? I'm fine. They call me "Iron Stomach." So I've got that, my health.

2. I'm dropping off Little E. at daycare and N's Mom stops to talk to me in the parking lot. I'm wearing my usual "uniform" -- shorts and flip flops. She says, "I wish I could wear shorts to work."

My job is not the greatest, or the most intellectually-challenging, and the people are so-so, but here it is, almost October, and I get to wear shorts to work.

I have to stop under-estimating the value of that.

I Paid How Much for Cirque du Soleil Parking?

I've been on a new discipline of not complaining too much but I have to get this off my chest. How much is too much for parking?

The wife and I went to the Cirque du Soleil's latest show, Corteo. It was under the big top in the parking lot of the Forum in Inglewood. Those familiar with Los Angeles know that Inglewood is a bit on the rough side. Picture Pay Day Loans, short-term motels and Bail Bonds businesses. In fact, we were advised to take the crappier car.

So we lined up the babysitter (aka Grandma), and headed down the 405 to our hot date. Traffic was surprisingly good for a Saturday night and we got there a little early.

The tickets were $81 per person, and parking was...$22.

And the wife was so thirsty that I shelled out another $4 for a bottle of water.

Let me see if I can put $22 in everyday terms. That's:

5 1/2 In-n-Out Double-Doubles.
22 hours of meter parking in Santa Monica.
4 months of Netflix membership.
1/5th of a blowjob.

Twenty-two freaking cash US dollars.

The upsides were that the tickets were free and show was pretty good.

Half-Million Dollar Question

Riddle me this: If I'm worth a half-a-mill, why am I still cleaning my own toilets?

This was going through my head as I was on my heads and knees cleaning the bathrooms this morning. I was raised in a lower middle class family. We didn't have maids and cleaning people.

Although I did have a maid briefly when I worked in Hong Kong. But everyone did. They were very cheap. Something like half of what a mow-and-blow gardener costs here.

I need to get over it and hire some cleaning people. Here's my resolution: When my net worth goes up to 600k, I'm going to hire a maid. That will free me up to make more money, spend time with the family and start on the Tree House project.