Whining about the Bad Stuff

Perhaps it was inevitable that since things went so well on Wednesday, there would be problems on Thursday.

Problem #1)
One of my children went out yesterday afternoon to turn in some job applications. I will not name any names, but he does look a lot like this fine-looking fellow.

The child called full of excitement. One of the places, upon hearing that he was homeschooled (and therefore available during the day) had said that they were interested in hiring him. He would need to get a background check (can't have a felon mixing those milkshakes!) before he could have an interview, though.

I did some googling and calling and finally found the right office at the courthouse downtown. I then called the child and told him that he would need to go to the courthouse (3rd floor, if anyone else needs a background check) with $25 to get the background check. I told him where the parking garage was and wished him luck.

A little while later the phone rang again. "Mom," he said, "I have to have $25 to get the background check."

"Well yes," I said, "that would be why I told you that you needed $25."

"But I only have $5 cash," he said. "I thought I could use my credit card." (The question I have not yet asked is, at what point did his $25 background check become something he could use my credit card for??)

While we were discussing his options the stake president walked by. I suggested that he hit up the stake president (a good friend) for a loan, which he did.

Sometime later I received another phone call.

"Mom," he said, "they won't let me out of the parking garage."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because I don't have 60 cents to pay the parking fee."

"I thought you just borrowed money from the stake president."

"Well, I had $5, and so I borrowed $20 from him. I forgot I would need money for parking."

Now we live quite a bit north of Northern Durham, and the child (and my car) were right smack in the middle of downtown Durham. And I was not in the mood to drive downtown just then.

I considered the options.

First I called the credit card company. Chris, a nice man who's native language was fortunately English, answered and asked if he could help me.

"I'm not sure," I told him. "My brain dead 17 year old son is stuck in a parking garage 30 minutes away without 60 cents to pay parking. He does have a credit card with him, and he is near a cash machine. I am wondering if he can use the credit card to get some cash so that he can escape from the parking garage." (We don't ever use our credit cards to get cash, so we don't know the PIN numbers for them.)

"Sure," helpful Chris replied. "But I do need to make sure that you know that cash advances will be charged the highest interest rate of 29.9%."

Since I didn't plan on paying any interest at all, this didn't bother me too much.

But he continued. "I also need to let you know that there is a transaction fee for the cash advance. It is 4% of the total of the cash advance, with a minimum transaction fee of $10."

HUH? There was no way in the world I was paying a $10 transaction fee so that he could pay a 6o cent parking fee. I thanked Chris for his time, and hung up the phone.

Just then the child called, telling me that there was a bank near the parking garage, and suggesting that maybe he could get some money that way.

I called the bank, and spoke with a teller, explaining the whole long saga. After laughing, he agreed that if I gave him permission he would let the child withdraw $5 from my bank account. With no transaction fee.


Problem #2)
After I saw the ants on my sewing table on Wednesday afternoon I got out our favorite ant poison. It's called Terro and it usually does a terrific job of getting rid of the ants. Sometimes it has the unfortunate intermediate effect of bringing more ants to the area. Sometimes many more.

Yesterday was obviously one of those times. Here is one of the cards I put the Terro on. The other one had about a bazillion more ants than this one. But I don't mind that so much, since I know these ants are going to eat the Terro (which they obviously love) and take it back to their ant brothers and sisters so that they will all, um, no longer come visit my sewing table.

Unfortunately this time the ants haven't confined themselves to eating the Terro. They're also traipsing all over the sewing table, crawling under the sewing machine and even getting on the fabric while I'm sewing.

I finally had enough last night. I can only smash so many ants and keep on sewing. I cleaned off the whole table, and wiped it with a clorox wipe, gathering many tiny ants in the process. Unfortunately the clorox wipe didn't chloroform them like I'd hoped it would. And I wasn't in the mood to smash that many more ants. After some consideration I zipped them into a ziploc bag and stuck it in the freezer.

Hopefully that will teach the ants to stay off the sewing table!