To Fry's, or not to Fry's?

Fry's has a combination CPU, Abit motherboard, and Antec Aria cube case on sale this weekend. $160; figure about $200 with RAM. I could move Dorsai (the bedroom/recording box) into the case, which would be a better fit with the cart it's on, and use the MB/CPU in the office. It would be quieter, and I could use the current box (Harmony) as the guest machine.

OTOH, that's $200 I don't really have right now -- the finances are pretty marginal, and we haven't done a proper budget yet. I'm trying to set a good example here. For that matter, it's time I ought to be spending on more productive things, and there's already a lot to do this weekend. I should wait for the deal to come around again, or buy it in pieces.

Grump.

Household notes

I'm feeling very proud of my chaoswolf and flower_cat this weekend, for different reasons.

The Wolfling improvised dinner last night out of what was in the house needing to be used up: chicken with redeye gravy; and a potato, carrot, cucumber, and cheese casserole. Yes, you can cook cucumber (it's in the squash family, after all), but I've rarely seen it done. Tasty, in spite of timing glitches on both items. Both kids liked it, so that's a win.

The Cat is in the process of taking over control of the household investments and budget, as well as most of the marketing for my CDs. Makes good use of her phone and people skills, doesn't require standing up for long periods of time, and can be done at home. It's also essential for getting control of the credit cards, which have been bleeding money for years.

QOTD

mdlbear: "Pay no attention to the mess behind the curtain."

(Referring to the curtains blocking off the view of the part of the living room that has the Wolfling's hoard of wedding presents...)

Puttering about

After a nice walk this morning (Rose Garden) and a short shopping trip with the Cat and Wolfling (BevMo, Barefoot Coffee Roasters, and the bank), I've spent most of the afternoon puttering around the house, mostly in the office. This is basically what I do when the list of things that ought to get done is totally overwhelming. I can either sit around admiring the problem, or nibble away at the edges. It's marginally more productive to nibble.

The main task for the weekend is getting all of last year's banking and investment records put away, along with tracking down a couple of missing pieces that Colleen will find useful. This will eventually result in substantially less clutter, and a nearly-full paper recycling bin.

There are system administration tasks in the queue, too, but those will mostly wait until tomorrow when the main WiFi users are out of the house, or at least otherwise occupied.

People who love the English language...

( ... should probably just skip this post. )