Connecticut Tax Free Week
This is apparently not as off-the-wall unique as I thought it was when I discovered it, but once a year, the state of Connecticut suspends sales tax on clothing and shoes for less than $300. This year, that was August 17-23. Luckily, we found this out in time for me to get some pants, a shirt, and some shoes that I could wear to work. (The shoes are really for general use--my old ones were pretty well worn out.) Rachel got a couple of things to wear to school as well. It's a nice back-to-school thing, especially for parents with several children who need whole new wardrobes before school starts each fall.
I (Scott) Started Working
Monday, August 18, late morning: Rachel and I were walking up to Yale so she could check in with her department, get a key to her office, etc, when my cell phone rang. It was my new boss asking if I could start before the term began. She had gotten permission to pay me $20/hr (which she came up with by taking the hourly wage I'll make during the term and adding in the tuition waiver that comes with an assistantship) and she was desperate for help ASAP. I started the next day, and have worked two 20 hour weeks.
Working for the office of Institutional Research is interesting sometimes, but for the last week, it is been mostly cursing the previous director of I.R. for not naming his files in any meaningful and recognizable pattern and being frustrated because I do not have access to the files I need to get the data I'm supposed to be using. (This was especially an issue for me this past Friday, when Elizabeth (my boss) was gone for the day and Human Resources doesn't know who I am, so wouldn't give me any data--it wasn't even anything that shouldn't be public records anyway, but I didn't know how else to find it. Hopefully, she can deal with this for me pretty quickly on Monday and I can finish off this rather simple study and get on to something else.)
The Daisy Cutters Won the Championship
This is technically a west coast story since the Cutters are the hockey team that I've been captain of for the past 4 years. The "official" team picture has an homage to me by putting my retired jersey in the top left corner:
It's really touching to have been honored in that way. I really miss all those guys and they've made me proud. (Side story: they saved me a trophy and my dad sent it to me via FedEx, but FedEx now claims that they delivered the trophy but I don't have it. FEDEX OWES ME A TROPHY!!! "Left it outside our front door" my ass. I don't believe that for a second, especially since Rachel was home the whole day that day. Update, 9/2/08: The trophy was delivered to the rental office (which is not at the same address) over the long weekend. FedEx did NOT deliver it to our front door on Thursday, as they have claimed, and they have offered me no explanation. Still, the important thing is that I now have the trophy.)
Slightly related; I initiated contact with the Connecticut Hockey League today. Assuming I am able to get on a team this late (their fall season starts later this week, I believe) I'll be playing this fall. Otherwise, I guess I'll have to wait a while. If I do play, it would be in the Northford league, probably Tier 3 or Tier 4. (I think I belong in Tier 3, but we'll see what happens.)
Gizmo's Ongoing Issues Finally Diagnosed
Gizmo's medications ran out shortly after we got here, so we made an appointment with a new vet to get an examination and a continuation of his prescriptions. She said she wanted to see an X-ray and have a radiologist check it out. She didn't see anything in Gizmo's bladder, but the radiologist spotted small stones embedded in Gizmo's urethra, causing a partial blockage. (Both the surgeon and the doctor have said that they have never seen it this bad without complete blockage.) Gizmo goes in tonight for surgery tomorrow morning. He'll be fine in a few days, but it will cost $3000, about $1700 of which will be reimbursed by the insurance we have on the cats, but it's still a big unexpected expense. :-(
Funny Road Name
It seems apropos that on this day when I determined that I would finally post a blog entry we went out driving and found one of the best road names I've seen so far: Roast Meat Hill Rd.
Also out on this drive, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch and when we came out, the car parked next to ours also had Washington license plates. That was a huge surprise, to say the least. (We have our CT driver's licenses, but we need to get the car tested before we can get the CT plates, and that's happening later in the week. We're well within the 90 days allowed by law for getting the registration transfered over.)
That's it for now, but I'll probably be posting a bit more as school gets started for both me and Rachel in the next couple of weeks.
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