Ronin Holiday*

So we left off with me going to give blood. Ok, well that was an interesting little fiasco all on its own, but I was able to drop off a good pint for a good cause, which is the most important thing. That night, I took my coupon for free ice cream to the local grocery store and picked up a pint of chocolate. The cashier was nice enough to donate the .06 cents for sales tax that I naively didn't anticipate. She had good spirits about the exchange, so I thanked her and went home to split my spoils with the lovely Budget Naginata.

A couple of days later, my paycheck clears, so we're off to the grocery store. Naginata is prepping for a crafts class she'll be teaching all week long, so we get good stuff for her lunch and prep for my week managing our Budget Edamame. It will be Father and Daughter against the world, kind of like Lone Wolf and Cub, except with less ninjas (which is a real shame, if you ask me).

$2 Kids Toothpaste
$5 Peppers
$3 Corn
$7 Granola Bars (x4)
$6 French Bread Pizzas (x2)
$3 Instant Grits
$2 Bananas
$2 Crumbles (vegitarian ground meat replacement)
$2 Nectarines
$7 Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Carrots, Mushrooms
$5 Boca Burgers
$4 Cheese
$3 Sausage
$6 Porkchops
$8 Beer
$2 Watermelon
$8 Milk (x2)
$7 Cat Litter (x2)
$7 Coke (x2)
$1 Charity Donation
Total $90

We also topped off the gas tank to make sure we could get around that week.
$17 gas

So Monday rolls around and due to inclimate weather, we spend time around the house playing and watching movies. It's a lot of fun and fairly relaxing. We decided to grill out that night, but we ran out of propane.

$15 propane

Tuesday finds us at the zoo. Naginata has, much earlier in the year, purchased season passes, so the only outlay on my part is $3 on a joint carousel/train ride that is in the kids' section of the zoo. She loves it and after seeing it, I'm glad it only cost $3, because there is like no way I'm not going to be able to leave with my sanity if she can't have at least one ride. We pick up Naginata from work and start all over again the next day.

Wednesday we had planned to have a "playdate" with some of Edamame's friends, but it did not happen. I ended up having my father, Papa Ronin, come over and help me plan out a small project that would involve me crawling underneath my house a lot. Papa Ronin rolls over in his big truck, talks way too much, and succumbs to the charms of his granddaughter, taking us both to get nuggets of chik, from the local Chik-fil-A. The rest of the afternoon was general playtime. That night, Naginata brought home some fresh herbs that someone had gifted her for her craft class. She made some delicious pesto with it, but we had to pick up some pasta at the store.

$1.5 Eggs
$5.5 Family Sized Tortillini
$1 Garlic
Total $8

The garlic was for the pesto. The eggs were not for the pesto, we were just out of eggs.

Thursday was similar to Wednesday, but we had planned to see Edamame's other grandfather at the beginning of the week, so we killed some time at a park in the morning, ate one more free lunch and had a general good time of it. We picked up Naginata from work and called it a day.
Friday was spent much in the same way as Monday, though not because of the weather. Edamame and I walked around the neighborhood a bit, but generally bummed around and played. Naginata and I spent most of the time prepping ourselves for a long Saturday.

Saturday I spent most of the day with Papa Ronin under my house. We were stringing, restringing and moving cables in order to reorganize our house. The work was successful, but all parts of me were sore, and there was no part left unworked. Naginata spent the day out with Edamame and my mother, Mama Ronin. So over the course of the day, we got a free puppet show for the kid, some free handiwork for me and all for the low, low cost of being reminded that we don't do things like they do and are generally less successful than them in pretty much every aspect. Yes, I have a small "thing" with my parents, but "no" it doesn't really belong here, so I'll drop it.

Sunday was a day of rest, as ordained by me, the spiritual head of the household. I have a certificate to prove it.

Whew. Long vacation recap. I'm posting this now, because my return to work has been crazy busy and other financial news has had us scrambling since then. I'll post about that shortly.
So, to recap: Yay for time off with my wonderful wife and daughter. Boo for still having crazy finances and debt (yes, this wasn't likely to change over the course of a week, I just thought I throw it in there). Ok. That's all I have for now.

*Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn were not harmed during the writing of this post.