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Sep. 30th, 2016 12:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljGosh, October already (tomorrow). Graham has been here for six months and has his permanent residency for 2. He's getting a good long rest and not bored yet staying at home. He spent nearly 10 years in a job he hated with every fibre of his being and I really wanted him to relax and regroup. He's hoping to get some income doing his artwork, has already done a couple of cartoons this year on commission. If it doesn't work out, he'll probably look for something part time but it's nice that he knows he doesn't have to work to help make ends meet. Here's hoping he will never have to struggle to pay the bills again. I remember well what that's like. It shouldn't happen because even living on my pension alone will be enough to get us through, even if we would then have to curtail our travel but by the time I reckon on actually taking my work pension, I should also be able to apply for Canada Pension and that will make up the difference. He'll be able to get the Canadian old age pension whether he's a citizen or still a Permanent Resident plus he can get the British Old Age pension, and he's got a British Gas one for the time he lived there.
He's keeping busy at home and then we usually try to go somewhere on the weekend if possible. We're going to a movie tomorrow, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Tim Burton). I've read the books and they're great! Fantasy, YA, but quirky too. Yea, full of CGI but what can you do? I pre-paid for a summer movie pass back in June so we could go to four movies together. This was the last weekend but they've extended it by a week. It worked out quite well, giving us the movie tickets about 3 dollars cheaper per person per movie. We also have three free movie passes because we were at a movie in the summer, with Mom as well, where the projector light wasn't working properly. The new STar Trek it was. The whole movie seemed a bit dark, darker than usual and they apologized and handed out passes. Thank you. I'll have them. Plus my movie points card has enough for another free movie so that means there's two more movies for free that we can go to.
Used up almost all of my vacation time for the year but am taking the Christmas week off. We have Thanksgiving long weekend next week and the November 11 holiday is on a Friday this year too, so that's another long weekend. Breaks up the time. Our last contract raise kicks in on November 1 though it isn't much.
Now that Graham has PR I could add him to my health and dental insurance at work and yesterday he went to the dentist. He hadn't gone for about 10 years because he didn't have the extra money for it and his job didn't have that benefit. Needless to say he needs a bit of work done so it will be spread out over a few months. Ouch! We have a pretty good plan though so most of it is covered. Also, my plan turns out to be way better than the individual Blue Cross he had before, for his diabetes meds. Between that, and getting them at Costco, we're doing much better. On the individual plan, diabetes supplies were 70% covered while prescriptions wer 80%. On my plan, prescriptions are 90% covered with a $10 max per prescription and the supplies are covered completely (can't remember if there's a 500 a year max on that or not). The Costco drug prices are about 20 - 30% cheaper than the drugstore's. It certainly makes the Costco membership worth while, just for that! Just for what we will save on the diabetes supplies alone will pay for the membership fee in no time.
Better catch up on books read, too.
Tooth and Claw - Jo Walton
Quirky book, about a dysfunctional family only.... they're all dragons! It was quite fun really even if a bit old fashioned. The girl dragons looking for husbands and having to take care their reputations didn't suffer, kind of a Pride and Prejudice for dagons, maybe though it wasn't based on that.
Fifth Business - Robertson Davies
He's a well known and "classic" Canadian author and I have been trying to read more Canadian. This tells the story of the life of a school master and the people he's known. The main character himself was a bit dull but the people he knew were all quite colourful!
Under this Unbroken Sky - Shandi Mitchell
A family trying to survive the Canadian prairie winter, I think the time was in the early 1930s but it was so remote and bleak it might have been the 1800s. Excellent book however.
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordecai Richler
Another Canadian classic, about a teenage boy, his ambitions to own land and what he does to try to get it. I enjoyed it more than i thought i would
The Tempest - William Shakespeare
Read this as part of a monthly challenge on Goodreads group. One of the items was to read a Shakespeare play. I chose this one because Margaret Atwood has a book coming out that is based on this play, called Hagseed.
The Couple Next Door - Shari Lapena
A thriller about a kidnapped baby. Were the parents involved? both parents have secrets to keep from each other. Not bad, a bit too rushed and it was predictable. Won the book through Goodreads for a review.
The Heart Goes Last - Margaret Atwood
A couple is living in their car and barely surviving. They join up a new social experiement where you go to prison for a month and then live at "home" for a month working in the community and alternate that way. Someone else lives in your house while you are in your prison month. The couple become tangled up with the alternates that share the house, and everything comes apart. The social "utopia" also begins to show a corrupt underbelly. Didn't much like the couple, they were shallow and immature but the story was great! They wouldn't have got sucked in if they hadn't been the way they were. I pretty much love anything Atwood does.
He's keeping busy at home and then we usually try to go somewhere on the weekend if possible. We're going to a movie tomorrow, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Tim Burton). I've read the books and they're great! Fantasy, YA, but quirky too. Yea, full of CGI but what can you do? I pre-paid for a summer movie pass back in June so we could go to four movies together. This was the last weekend but they've extended it by a week. It worked out quite well, giving us the movie tickets about 3 dollars cheaper per person per movie. We also have three free movie passes because we were at a movie in the summer, with Mom as well, where the projector light wasn't working properly. The new STar Trek it was. The whole movie seemed a bit dark, darker than usual and they apologized and handed out passes. Thank you. I'll have them. Plus my movie points card has enough for another free movie so that means there's two more movies for free that we can go to.
Used up almost all of my vacation time for the year but am taking the Christmas week off. We have Thanksgiving long weekend next week and the November 11 holiday is on a Friday this year too, so that's another long weekend. Breaks up the time. Our last contract raise kicks in on November 1 though it isn't much.
Now that Graham has PR I could add him to my health and dental insurance at work and yesterday he went to the dentist. He hadn't gone for about 10 years because he didn't have the extra money for it and his job didn't have that benefit. Needless to say he needs a bit of work done so it will be spread out over a few months. Ouch! We have a pretty good plan though so most of it is covered. Also, my plan turns out to be way better than the individual Blue Cross he had before, for his diabetes meds. Between that, and getting them at Costco, we're doing much better. On the individual plan, diabetes supplies were 70% covered while prescriptions wer 80%. On my plan, prescriptions are 90% covered with a $10 max per prescription and the supplies are covered completely (can't remember if there's a 500 a year max on that or not). The Costco drug prices are about 20 - 30% cheaper than the drugstore's. It certainly makes the Costco membership worth while, just for that! Just for what we will save on the diabetes supplies alone will pay for the membership fee in no time.
Better catch up on books read, too.
Tooth and Claw - Jo Walton
Quirky book, about a dysfunctional family only.... they're all dragons! It was quite fun really even if a bit old fashioned. The girl dragons looking for husbands and having to take care their reputations didn't suffer, kind of a Pride and Prejudice for dagons, maybe though it wasn't based on that.
Fifth Business - Robertson Davies
He's a well known and "classic" Canadian author and I have been trying to read more Canadian. This tells the story of the life of a school master and the people he's known. The main character himself was a bit dull but the people he knew were all quite colourful!
Under this Unbroken Sky - Shandi Mitchell
A family trying to survive the Canadian prairie winter, I think the time was in the early 1930s but it was so remote and bleak it might have been the 1800s. Excellent book however.
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Mordecai Richler
Another Canadian classic, about a teenage boy, his ambitions to own land and what he does to try to get it. I enjoyed it more than i thought i would
The Tempest - William Shakespeare
Read this as part of a monthly challenge on Goodreads group. One of the items was to read a Shakespeare play. I chose this one because Margaret Atwood has a book coming out that is based on this play, called Hagseed.
The Couple Next Door - Shari Lapena
A thriller about a kidnapped baby. Were the parents involved? both parents have secrets to keep from each other. Not bad, a bit too rushed and it was predictable. Won the book through Goodreads for a review.
The Heart Goes Last - Margaret Atwood
A couple is living in their car and barely surviving. They join up a new social experiement where you go to prison for a month and then live at "home" for a month working in the community and alternate that way. Someone else lives in your house while you are in your prison month. The couple become tangled up with the alternates that share the house, and everything comes apart. The social "utopia" also begins to show a corrupt underbelly. Didn't much like the couple, they were shallow and immature but the story was great! They wouldn't have got sucked in if they hadn't been the way they were. I pretty much love anything Atwood does.
