Hey! I just filled out a do-it-yourself will at Legalzoom.

I somehow resisted the idea of asking for a Viking boat funeral. Instead I asked for minimum embalming and a cheap coffin. (Too bad they don't have coffins at IKEA....)

Costco has coffins.

But then you'd be left with the choice of either assembling it yourself and having it kicking around (what's Swedish for memento mori?) or leaving your loved ones with the task of assembling it as well as going through all the legal hassle.

But no vacation or paid sick days until 6 months in, which is twice the waiting period at either of my last gigs.

Yeah, my current place, you started accumulating right away, but couldn't take any paid vacation or sick for 90 days. But then at the end of 90 days, you've got a decent chunk.

Of course, years 0-5, you only get 18 days--sick, personal, vacation, whatever. And you have to "earn" it throughout the year, which annoys me.

My last company, you started at 24 days (sick+vacation) and then at 3 years went to 26. AND you just got it straight up at the beginning of the year. You couldn't carry it over, either. Sigh. I miss that many days.

German is great with portmanteau words.

Case in point: backpfeifenesicht.

I don't think it changes anything for me personally, but they've passed a law in MA requiring people to get health insurance. They will be fining people who do not get insurance (fined 50% of the lowest cost health care plan offered through the State). That just seems wrong on so many levels.

what's Swedish for memento mori?

Ikea?

hmm I also don't know if at new company my vacation time comes all at once or is accumulated. I accumulate at current job and can carry over 40 hours a year.

Frank, it seems they're taking the pooling idea very seriously. It's on a sliding scale, and the pay-in/fine starts at 300% of the poverty rate, IIRC. It's sort of like having to buy insurance if you have a car, except of course, you automatically have a carbody to insure.

Incidentally, my very attractive health insurance COBRA payment when my severance period ends will be $438 for a single person. Which seems very high, but evidently it could be much much worse.

But then you'd be left with the choice of either assembling it yourself and having it kicking around (what's Swedish for memento mori?) or leaving your loved ones with the task of assembling it as well as going through all the legal hassle.

You could just wait until you were about to die, and then assemble it by yourself. You know how some in animal species a dying animal leaves the group and goes off to die alone? It would sorta' be like that, instead of leaving your family, you'd go to the workshop and assemble your coffin.

We let people use their time right away, but we only give combined sick/vacation time of 8 days during the first year. It's my big fight as HR Manager--trying to get more PTO.

In house-buying news--We are talking to a mortgage broker who is a nice guy who's a lifelong friend of a friend and he just called to say our credit scores were "close to biblical in their perfection" Hah. And hooray. They sure didn't used to be that way, but 7 years of scrimping and budgeting like mofos has paid off. Now to figure out with him what we can pay each month and what kind of loan will let us do that. We are looking for a very small house that needs a lot of TLC, because we can't afford any more than that. But until this week, I don't think we thought we could even afford THAT much, so yahoo!