Now, as I said, BabySis™ left her job at Pier 1 a couple of weeks ago, but her manager had not taken back her employee discount card (as he technically was supposed to). So she offered to use her employee discount to take even more off for us. My mom is very good at making mountains out of mole hills and actually had to leave the store while we waited in line because she was so overcome with visions of her daughter getting arrested for using an employee discount where she was no longer an employee (which afterwards she kept referring to as embezzlement to which I would chime in, “no, it’d actually be fraud”). Meanwhile, BabySis™ had somehow not noticed the text printed in bold black letters on the front of her card which read “Expires March 31, 2008.” So we get up to the register and she hands the card to the person working the register who, also doesn’t notice the March 31 expiration date, and proceeds to unsuccessfully try and scan it. Failing to get it to take, he calls over another employee to try. She notices the expiration date and the conversation goes something like this:

P1 Employee: This is your old card, you should have gotten a new one recently from your store.

BabySis™: No, it’s the new one, I know because they just went from 20% off up to 25%.

P1 Employee: Well see it says it expired March 31st.

BabySis™: Oh, I didnt’ really look at it too closely, I don’t use it that much.

P1 Employee: That’s ok, we can just call your store to confirm.

BabySis™: (some what sheepishly) That’s ok, it’s already on clearance.

P1 Employee: Are you sure? It’ll only take a minute.

BabySis™: No, it’s already alot off, don’t worry about it.

Now I find this whole exchange to be quite amusing, and it’s all I can do to keep from cracking up laughing. My mom on the other hand is almost certainly sitting outside wondering what’s taking so long and imagining that police cars are about to rush up lights flashing and guns drawn to take out the girl with the expired employee discount card.

In the end, we didn’t get the employee discount (but still got the mirror as the clearance price was great on its own), BabySis™ didn’t get “found out,” and my mom made it through without having a total nervous break down. And the rest of their visit we all (more for the benefit of my mom than sister) took turns razzing BabySis™ about being a fugitive of the law.

My job has really picked up. That’s a large part of what’s been keeping me so busy, but it’s a good thing. For awhile now it’s been slow for me here. Not slow for the company, but there’s been a limited amount of work coming across my desk. So much so that I began to worry some about whether or not my particular position was going to continue to be needed. Not as stressful a situation for me as it could have been, because at the peak of my worrying about it, TheBoyfriend™ came home telling me that his company was casually looking to fill a position that, while not exactly my field, was one which I was qualified enough in that I’d have likely had little trouble getting the job. When feeling insecure in your job, it’s nice to know there’s another one available to you, should you need it.

It’s especially good when you’re looking to build a house, and we finally are. It’s been just over a year since the land surveyor was hired to come out and survey the property we are planning to buy a piece from. This guy is known for being quite slow, but he’s pretty much the only one in the area. Well, it’s taken him a year but he’s finally done. The only thing left to do is to sit down with seller and figure out exactly where the boundaries are going to be drawn, have it notarized and make the purchase. Then we can get a loan and start building. It’s exciting and a bit scary at the same time. TheBoyfriend™ (who doesn’t blog) has suggested that once the building process starts, we should start a blog to document the progress, so stay tuned for that.

We’re more than ready to move, especially since the owner of the townhouse we’re currently renting has discovered that we own cats. We’d neglected to mention them in the past because policy this renting company takes on pets is utterly ludicrous. I’m completely OK with a pet deposit. I understand that animals can cause damage and they need to be able to recoup that cost should those damages occur. What I think is ridiculous and unjustifiable is charging a one-time “pet fee” (we don’t get that money back) that is double the amount of the deposit and tacking on an additional $10 to each month’s rent. We could bring another human being on the lease (which would arguably actually cost the townhouse owner more since they pay water) and not pay a cent more per month, but not a cat that doesn’t cost them a penny. Ridiculous. But I signed the lease, so I guess I can’t really complain, just get this house built and get the hell out.