Meh...

I drove down to Kroger yesterday to do the shopping, realizing when I got there that I forgot to grab the money off the counter.  So, wasted a little gas and drove back home and then back to the store in a nice, useless loop.  I pretty much stuck right to the list, but I still spent nearly $40.  Hopefully, that will keep us going at least for the next week, until we head out on our vacation.  Before I headed off to shop, I looked through some of the ads and such in the paper, but there were no good coupons for anything that we needed.  Oh well.

I got back home just a little before the girlfriend did.  I had enough time to get the food put away, but that was about it.  We sat on the couch and had some chips and salsa for dinner.  Not that terribly healthy, but better than just candy or chips and regular dip, so I guess it's all right.  We had some leftover salsa and such from before, and I got some more at the store.  Not hideously expensive, but certainly not the cheapest dish.

I'm going to make another loaf of bread today, this one being a more whole-grain sort of thing, which is what the girlfriend likes.  I have some whole wheat flour, I think, and some wheat berries, so it should make some kind of a little whole grain loaf.  Hopefully it'll wind up being something that she likes.

We retired to the bedroom after the cold started to get to us.  It's even colder today, and I'm currently sitting in the bedroom typing this and watching a show about Humboldt squid on the National Geographic Channel.  I was out in the living room, but it's got to be in the low 50s or something out there.  Even with a sweatshirt on, I was starting to get a little too cold for comfort.  Yesterday evening, we finished watching a hockey game and then watched a bunch of her home shows, since there really wasn't all that much on the tube.  We finally got to sleep around midnight or so, although Kala decided to wake us both up a short time later by banging on the cabinet doors rather unexpectedly.  I don't know why she's been doing that so much lately, but I do rather wish she'd quit.

I got up this morning at about 9:30, and I had to reboot the computer again.  That took a good little while, but once it was done, I got a couple of things done.  I found out that my last paycheck got direct deposited, but it was about $140 less than what my usual ones were.  I'm guessing that they'll mail me my pay stub, and they'll have to say why they took the money out.  If it turns out it's because of the power adapter, then I'll raise a bit of a fuss about it.  If it's because of the insurance and such that I signed a week before my termination, I guess I'll just have to let it go.  That's one of those little things that annoys me.  Why did they have me sign all the insurance papers and shit if they knew I was going to be gone in a week.  Oh well.  On the plus side, I also got my Oregon tax return deposited, which just about makes up for the shortage to the paycheck.  Although I was kind of counting on that money to help pay some of the bills for April.  Overall, I guess I'm about half a week down on my "safety net" time.  Hopefully I'll be able to sell off some of my books and such today or tomorrow and get a little money out of that to make up for it.

I went to the Texas unemployment agency's website this morning, and it confirmed what I expected.  I'm not eligible for unemployment, since I was terminated with cause.  So, it looks like I won't be getting any help from them, and it's just a matter of whether I can find a way to manage to make some money aside from that.  I was looking at some of the listings on the WorkInTexas.com website, and there are a number of things for which I might be qualified, so I'm going to start trying to apply for some of those jobs.  One is as an IT specialist at UNT here in town, and that would be a great job if I can get it.  I'm going to see if I can use Dave, our ex-roommate Corey's new roommate, as a reference, since he works in that same field for UNT.  Can't hurt, at least.  Between having him, Danielle, and maybe Corey and Betty, all of whom work at UNT, I'd think I have a decent shot at it.  And it makes close to the same amount as my old job, which would be a really good thing.  There's also a bunch of other jobs, of course, but most of them are things I'd rather not take if I could avoid it.  Stuff like sorting pallets or doing cleaning.  We'll see what I can manage, though.  I just know that I need to do something...