March 31, 2008 - 4:18 PM.

Oh, better days have been had.

My husband has been invited out of town for a concert tonight -- won't be back until deep into the wee hours. Simultaneously, the poor little Punim has caught a bad cold. So the house goes uncleaned, the dishes undone, the laundry unwashed, while my poor baby asks "Where'd Daddy go?" and rubs at his nose, crying, "It weally huht-th me Vewwy Badly!"

At least my mother-in-law sent me a big stack of People magazines, so I have crap to read while lolling around on the boy's bed (he insists on having company). Also, I have a stack of books from the library, as I have discovered that I can log into the catalog online, enter my library-card number, and request books to be put on hold for me! The lovely library ladies apparently read these requests, pull the books out of the stacks, and place them on the 'hold' shelves (quite extensive, a lot of people apparently knew about this ahead of me). Then I just go in to pick them up whenever I like -- I can even scan them myself at the self-checkout, and be on my way immediately!

So when I had Mommy's Budget Day Out 2 days ago, I rode the bus into town on my pass, picked up four books on hold from the library, sat outside on a bench in the sun perusing them while eating a lunch I brought from home, and then spent a little time at my office doing paperwork and gathering laundry. I spent a total of $0 and zero cents for four hours away, a lunch "out," and four books. Budgeting still sucks, but not as badly that day.

(Reading: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by A. McCall Smith, a Vogue Knitting stitch dictionary, Blink [about how people make decisions], and "Your 3-Year-Old: Friend or Enemy?" Plus 12 People magazines. Ahem.)

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