On Thursday we hit the road for our last big trip of the summer. PHEW! It's great to visit family and see old friends, but honestly I'm looking forward to being back in Carlisle for longer than a two week stretch! It's been a wonderfully busy, fantastically fun, whirlwind summer ... but come autumn I plan to bask in regularity.
We're headed to Maine again (for the third time this summer) and then to Milford, NH for convention and lastly to Cape Cod (for the second time). Really I'm incredibly lucky that my husband has such a soft summer schedule. He has had a lot of work to do but a good part of it he's been able to do at home between travels. And aside from the torturous car rides, Maxwell has been a trooper about all the irregularity. If only we could figure out how to get him to nap in the car for more than 20 minutes ...
There is not much else going on here ... I'm just trying to enjoy the crazy toddler antics that are in abundance these days. Maxwell is still taking two naps a day, bless his tired little self. He'll probably drop the morning one soon, but until then I'm loving that I have TWO brief opportunities to get things done (or rather, two opportunities to put my feet up and survey the disaster around me).
Maxwell is snoozing right now and I actually already cleaned up the kitchen .. hence the blog post. I take that back, I just heard a yelp from upstairs. Time to collect the toddler and head out for groceries.
Have a lovely day, dear readers. It's a beautiful one here!
Monday, July 23, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
I am still a math teacher.
I went to Kohl's recently with a 30% off coupon. Anyone who knows me well knows that this is THE ultimate piece of mail for me. I get that Kohl's envelope and see the 15/20/30 peel-off sticker and hold my breath ... will it be a 30 this time?? YES! I got a 30. So, off I went, prepared to stock up on Maxwell essentials.
The girl ringing up my purchases was college age, maybe high school. She accidentally hit the 25% button. "Oops! I'll just take off another 5%," she said, and hit the 5% button. I couldn't believe it. "Um .. I'm pretty sure that won't give me the same discount as a straight 30% ..." She looked at me like I had three heads. "Really? Why not? 25 and 5 make 30." Oh dear me ...
I tried to politely explain that percentages don't ADD together, they multiply .. and that I would end up with a smaller discount overall, etc, etc .. until she started to look confused and flustered. So instead I politely asked if we could start over and just see what happens. She graciously voided my order and started from scratch. I apologized in advance for causing her the extra work if it turned out the same after all (knowing all along that it wouldn't).
Sure enough, being a pain-in-the-butt saved me almost $2 more than if I had kept my mouth shut. The cashier was clearly surprised. "I'm so sorry, Ma'am, I've never been very good at math!" I told her it was okay, and to try to remember for future customers.
Just because I'm a stay-at-home-mom doesn't mean I can't spread a little math here and there.
For bonus points, dear readers: Assuming that correcting the poor cashier saved me exactly $2 extra, what was the price of my purchase before any discounts were applied?
The girl ringing up my purchases was college age, maybe high school. She accidentally hit the 25% button. "Oops! I'll just take off another 5%," she said, and hit the 5% button. I couldn't believe it. "Um .. I'm pretty sure that won't give me the same discount as a straight 30% ..." She looked at me like I had three heads. "Really? Why not? 25 and 5 make 30." Oh dear me ...
I tried to politely explain that percentages don't ADD together, they multiply .. and that I would end up with a smaller discount overall, etc, etc .. until she started to look confused and flustered. So instead I politely asked if we could start over and just see what happens. She graciously voided my order and started from scratch. I apologized in advance for causing her the extra work if it turned out the same after all (knowing all along that it wouldn't).
Sure enough, being a pain-in-the-butt saved me almost $2 more than if I had kept my mouth shut. The cashier was clearly surprised. "I'm so sorry, Ma'am, I've never been very good at math!" I told her it was okay, and to try to remember for future customers.
Just because I'm a stay-at-home-mom doesn't mean I can't spread a little math here and there.
For bonus points, dear readers: Assuming that correcting the poor cashier saved me exactly $2 extra, what was the price of my purchase before any discounts were applied?
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