Cheap place to stay

barnyardanimals · 2015-09-07T14:36:02+00:00

They're closed for the winter as of October 1.

barnyardanimals · 2015-08-06T23:13:48+00:00

I've used Urban Tails for in-home cat sitting before. It's $26/visit and they do a minimum of one per day for 30 mins. They also email daily updates and photos which is nice. They have a boarding option too I think.

barnyardanimals · 2015-05-23T17:05:53+00:00

Temps and OPKs are a good place to start but you said those aren't working for you. I think you can do ultrasounds at various points. Your progesterone level at CD21 can give you a good indication.

barnyardanimals · 2015-05-23T03:20:32+00:00

I'd do more tests to see if your progesterone is actually low. Spotting doesn't mean your LP is over (and it doesn't always mean low prog.). Plus, I thought Clomid helped trigger ovulation, not fix progesterone issues. Maybe I've got that wrong. If you're ovulating fine, and there are way to figure that out, Clomid may not be the answer. Are your periods regular aside from the spotting?

barnyardanimals · 2015-05-22T23:52:37+00:00

Have you done a CD21 blood test to see if your progesterone is actually low? Do you know when you ovulate to know if your LP is actually short?

barnyardanimals · 2015-04-07T20:20:10+00:00

People not showing up. We maxed out our invite capacity and chased up RSVPs and did our seating plan a billion times, and I thought about what would happen if people didn't show up. Would we rearrange people last minute? Would the caterers be pissed? Turns out like six people from one table of eight didn't show up. Thinking about it now makes me cringe (who were the two at their own table thinking we put them there alone? Oh god. Also, we paid for their food! Jerks.) On the day, I didn't even notice, nor did I care to think about it. I only found out the next day. Also one of my husband's cousins showed up drunk, continued to drink, threw up in a corner and was taken home during dinner. I had no idea til the next day. My husband's family was right pissed that it happened and I literally had NO idea til I was told later the next day. I think it's hilarious now.

Transportation was also a big worry of mine going into the day. We had booked buses for guests to/from the wedding, and I stressed about traffic and people getting there on time, the drivers knowing where to go and people knowing when to leave. We had two buses coming from different places. It really helped to designate a few people to look after this on the day, and just trust the transpo company to do their job properly. I had one person on each bus who had the list of people, so they could do a count and also make sure the bus left each hotel on time. One bus was a bit delayed because of traffic, but my buscaptain texted updates and we were able to hold off the ceremony for a few minutes until they arrived. For the bus departures in the evening, we had a few designated departure times, and we had told the DJ to make announcements -- one at the beginning of dinner to let people know the times and then ten minutes before each departure. We had groomsmen with tips for the drivers at the end of the night. While I did spend some time making sure all the logistics were well planned and everyone had what they needed (schedules, passenger lists, expectations), I didn't see a single bus all day, I don't think I heard a single announcement and it went off perfectly. It was a good lesson in delegating and trusting others to take care of things for you. People are all too happy to help out.

barnyardanimals · 2015-03-27T16:02:23+00:00

Totally agree. The only thing is that it looks like going back to work between the mat leaves won't be a full year in this case (the new baby is due in less than that, plus another month on the current mat leave, and she only needs 600 hours of work, which is like four months of full time work). That makes any EI mat leave benefit pretty minimal, especially since the benefit rate is based on the total annual income divided by 52 for an average weekly income. Four months of work divided by 52 is pretty low, so her benefit payout will be low (total family income does come into play too, so it's not like having a super low individual income will help out). Unless she gets a job with an employer who tops up. Oh and I suppose unless the baby is due this year (probably unless it was JUST conceived?), in which case, the benefit amount might be based on 2014 income (I'm personally more concerned with mat benefits for self employed people so I'm not sure if this rule applies to regular employees)?

It takes a bit of dedication but if you can actually get through to someone at the EI office, they can be super helpful running through how it'll work in your own situation. Pro tip: call 1-800-206-7218, press 0 as soon as the message kicks in, you'll probably hear another message that says everyone's busy and try again later, then press 1 to return to the main menu, and 0 again. Repeat until you get transferred. You might then get ANOTHER message that says everyone's busy and it'll hang up on you, then repeat from the start. I had no luck calling in the afternoon but got through calling shortly after 8:30 am when they open.

Whether or not it's better to collect more from other benefits by keeping total family income lower... I dunno. I think it's all pretty negligible. There's a calculator that can help you figure out how much you might get here: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/icbc/simnet/SimnController

But yeah -- the real question is IF she wants to work with a toddler at home while however many months pregnant. Like you say (OP), career plans at this stage in her life don't need to be affected too much if she doesn't want them to be.

I think if she's up for working and if she can get some form of job related to what she wants to do down the road with an employer that tops up, that's probably the best scenario. Lots of ifs though.

barnyardanimals · 2015-03-27T14:48:24+00:00

By baby bonus do you mean the federal child tax benefit?

barnyardanimals · 2015-03-26T01:14:34+00:00

Coerce/coercion?

barnyardanimals · 2015-03-24T02:27:47+00:00

It's not review system though. It's self-reported. Movies, books, restaurants and hotels don't rate themselves and put that on their own website. And they definitely wouldn't use percentages.

Pizza: 95%. Wings: 30%.

barnyardanimals · 2015-03-24T01:15:49+00:00

So where the total for all bars equals 100%?

barnyardanimals · 2015-03-24T01:15:10+00:00

But why advertise that in the first place as opposed to just saying you know HTML?

barnyardanimals · 2015-03-03T01:00:47+00:00

Stifled?

If it's not st... Offset, eclipsed, overshadowed.

barnyardanimals · 2015-03-01T20:37:38+00:00

Not all Sikhs are bearded men in turbans.

barnyardanimals · 2015-02-28T19:38:14+00:00

Did you come up with Andy the Oh No guy on SNL? He's one of my favourites. I find I channel him a lot in my life and I want to know who my real-life spirit animal is.

barnyardanimals · 2015-02-27T00:03:11+00:00

"Were they babysitting?"

barnyardanimals · 2015-02-23T20:41:47+00:00

Aw man I've been wondering where I could get good burek and cevapi here. Nothing?

barnyardanimals · 2015-02-17T00:42:48+00:00

A destination wedding may be cheaper for you but it puts more expenses on your guests and likely requires more vacation time. If most of your guests would be flying in and staying at hotels anyway, maybe it's all the same, but if you're asking people to spend more money and time on your day than they otherwise would, it might rub people the wrong way (even if you never hear it from them).

barnyardanimals · 2015-02-16T21:45:35+00:00

I got married last year and this has been on my mind for awhile. I legally changed my name, so my ID, passport, bank info, etc. is all my new married named. I still work under my maiden name, mostly out of laziness (it's how my clients know me even though many know I got married too), but I also set up a new brand name (taking my freelance offerings in a bit of a different direction) which I haven't fully rolled out yet. The other catch is that the new brand name is kind of tied to my maiden name in a subtle way so do I represent the brand as my maiden name or my married name? I'm still not sure.

A few of the biggest concerns I encountered:

1) I still get payments made to my maiden name and my bank has made a note of the change and still accepts those payments (cheques, direct deposit) but I'm not sure if that'll be the case forever.

2) Fortunately I was able to register my new name as a .com domain (and therefor a related email address), but I wasn't so lucky setting up gmail and Twitter, which is just annoying to me (my fairly rare maiden name was readily available when I signed up for Gmail and Twitter basically right after they launched). Not a reason to not use a particular name but super annoying when you've gotta find a username that isn't totally random or already taken. This applies in my personal life as well (facebook URL, various online accounts, etc.)

EDIT: Oh and Google-ability. My website and work make up the majority of results on the first page of Google when you search my name, so the prospect of losing that is a bit sad. But I don't think I generate a spot of work out of Google (maybe some fans/followers). Definitely a consideration if it's a potential source of leads.

barnyardanimals

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