The Accidental Recessionista

I must have somehow anticipated the current economic crisis because I am in a good position to save money on poinsettias this year: I still have mine from last year. Actually, I think I'm less of an economic soothsayer than just plain frugal. My poinsettias held up pretty well after the holidays last year and I didn't have the heart to throw away healthy plants. So I moved them to my kitchen windowsill where they flourished. Now the only trick is to get them red by Christmas. I googled "how to turn poinsettias red" and learned that they need 12 hours of darkness at a time in order to turn red, starting in September. I did not speed things along by placing them in a closet before daylight savings time ended, but they're getting 12 hours of darkness now so hopefully they'll be red at some point before December. If not, I'll just have green poinsettias--how could I bring myself to buy new ones at this point?

I also canceled HBO today--I'll reinstate it when Entourage starts again, but in the meantime, I'm saving $18/month.

H is a teenager in an 8-year-old's body. She had a meltdown yesterday because she was frustrated that (i) she broke a stupid toy dinosaur from the American Museum of Natural History ("it was a special keepsake from New York and I'll never get another one," she sobbed), (ii) she could not get her diary to lock and (iii) her room was a mess. It was a complete emotional breakdown and a scary foreshadowing of her teenage years....