[Stormieweather]

Very good Christmas for me!!

I had passed on all gifts for Valentines/Anniversary, Mother's Day, and Birthday (basically every gift occasion for the year) with the intent to request (buy myself) one very nice present for Christmas. I wanted either an Ipad or a good DSLR camera.

Then, in October and November, we had several unplanned-for car repairs to my my partner's car, including the transmission, which we still have not repaired to the tune of nearly $2k. In any case, my partner chose to take the city bus to work for the time being. It actually works out pretty good, he can sit and drink coffee and read for 55 minutes instead of fight traffic for 45 minutes. Pick up and drop off within 1 block of home/work. So then, he scraped up funds and bought me my Ipad anyway. And my son got some sort of really good deal and bought me a Sony a230 DSLR for Christmas. And on top of that, I got a nice bonus and bought a couple of accessories for the Ipad/camera and a shirt or two (putting most of the bonus aside for the transmission).

So I'm happy...Ipad, camera, clothes, happy partner and almost enough saved to fix the transmission without going into dept or borrowing retirement/down payment savings.