Good luck, Allyson!

Good luck, Sophia!

All will be well.

Hope it all goes well Sophia.

Our reviews were bumped back this year for fiscal reasons, but I'm still not expecting any raises.

Julian of Norwich!

Good luck to Allyson!!

Sophia, I know what you mean. I just keep telling myself "At least you have a job...at least you have a job..."

Even though last year, I had a third job for six weeks and worked at the bookstore a full year vs. the six months I worked there in 2007, I only made $2400 more than in 2007. Stagnating wages, here I am!

I just got an incremental raise (meaning another step up on the pay scale) and as of April 1st, we get an annual cost of living increase. Both of these are pretty small increases in actual pay after the deductions are taken out. However, it's just been announced that the pension is underfunded, so they are increasing our deductions to the pension plan. I'm still waiting to see how much of the raises are negated.

I finally got to replacing the timing belt on my 15 year old Honda with 175,000 miles. Total cost for the timing belt replacement and all the other little things one does to save future labor costs came in at a cool $900. Yikes. It's supposed to last 90,000 miles though, so that is probably the last one.

Yeah, but that's maybe 3 (or even 4) payments on a newer car, so you just have to drive it for another couple months to theoretically "make back" your investment.

Good luck Allyson, Sophia, and billytea!

Good luck, Allyson!

The last sentence of this report from HuffPost cracked me up: 'Million Tea Bag' Protest In DC Is Blocked

The Tea Parties here in Washington DC are off to a roaring start, right? Ha, ha: No. Right now, the Tea Parties are contending with a number of terrible struggles, which this report from Fox News documents.

In the first place, the big event of the day was to be the dumping of one million teabags. The Washington Post notes that this was originally supposed to happen at the Potomac River but was shifted to Lafayette Park because of issues of legality. And seriously, why anyone thought it would be legal to further pollute to Potomac is beyond me.

But! As it turns out, the alternate plan - 1. Take a million teabags to Lafayette Park, 2. Dump them on a tarp, 3. Yell at them, 4. Clean up the teabags - also isn't happening, because of permit issues.

According to reports, the truck filled with teabags pulled up to Lafayette Park, but didn't have a permit, and so they were loaded back on to the truck and driven off to an undisclosed location.

Also, the plan to have a second rally in front of the Treasury Department was scotched after the Secret Service said, "Uhm, no."

So, this epochal day is off to an amazing start. And somewhere out there, a truck full of teabags rolls on, destination unknown, into an uncertain future.