What the heck, I'll do the Monday Mission this week... :)

1. When you take a vacation, do you ever suffer from Internet withdrawal? Or maybe the nagging urge to blog or read blogs? Or are you glad to be away? YES! I should use the time to take a break, but I don't... I'm going on "vacation" part of this week and next, and I'll probably still try to get online...

2. Have you ever been "furloughed" (told to take time off work without pay) or laid off? How did that impact your family dynamics? Your finances? If not to you, have you seen it happen to anyone you know? How did they handle it? Nope, I haven't. And though there are quite a few lay-offs going on at the university right now, I only know one person who has been laid off...

3. If you fell on hard times, what is are some non-essential reoccurring luxury expenses (cable TV, TiVo subscription, cigarettes, high-speed net connection, newspaper, daily Starbucks coffee, etc.) you would give up to save money? I don't have cable or a high-speed net connection (they're actually things that I'm planning to get soon), but they would probably go pretty easily if I had them. That's about it, though... mostly I don't have a lot of non-essential reoccuring luxury expenses...

4. On the same thought, what is the one non-essential expense you would NOT give up? My cell phone. Yes, I could just have a land line, but when they're about the same price, plus the fact that the cell is portable and has free long distance, I can't see NOT having it...

5. Would you ever ask your family (parents, in-laws, relatives) for financial assistance? What would be some of your concerns about asking for help? Have you ever asked for it before? Did it go well? Probably not... I borrowed money from my mom before, when I moved to Carbondale (and paid it all back), but I'd rather not have to do it again. It's just easier that way.

6. Has a friend or relative ever borrowed money from you? Who were they and how much did they want? Did you ever get paid back, or did it matter? Did you feel compelled to keep an eye on them to see if they spent it wisely? Nope... but then again, I don't usually have a LOT of spare money...

7. Imagine you won a tax-free gift of $7,000. The only stipulation on the gift is that it must not be invested or saved, and must be spent before 2004. How would you use the money? Well, I guess Gabe and I would be getting a lot of movies, CDs, and clothes, and maybe a new laptop (yeah, like we need a 5th computer!)... if I had a little more than that, it would work well as a down payment for a house, but $7,000 wouldn't quite be enough for the houses in this area... at least not the ones I would want to live in! :)

::..::

So yeah, vacation of sorts coming up...

I'm at work today, tomorrow, and Wednesday.

Thursday: laundry, helping Thor and Cindy move to the new house, wrestling
Friday: driving to Chicago... leaving probably far earlier than any of us really want to be awake and coherent, but when it's a 5-ish hour drive, and we will want to eat and use the restroom and things of that sort, it's more like 6 hours, and Megan has to go to the rehearsal (and subsequent dinner)... so we have to get there by dinner time, I'd say...
Saturday: dunno what we're doing all morning, but the wedding is in the afternoon, and the reception after that
Sunday: driving back home, again leaving at probably far earlier than we would like to
Monday: I have absolutely no idea... and I like it that way!
Tuesday: nothing in the day, but Type O Negative is that night
Wednesday: recovering from Type O

And then Thursday it's back to work... so it's only 7 days (as opposed to the 9 consecutive days off I had last year), but it's still gonna be nice... :)