TEXTURE MAGIC Flowers, Poverty, Zucchini Report

These flowers are very interesting.  They were made using Texture Magic.  Here's a link.  The taupe fabric on the right side is silk.  What a gorgeous look when it's quilted.

Pretty much every morning I spend my breakfast time checking out Facebook and a couple of forums and blogs.  This was a link on Facebook this morning.

Sipping my coffee and reading the story got me thinking.  Slow, morning-fuzzy thinking.  When was the last time I raised MY rates?  Two coffees and a bowl of oatmeal later, I blew off the dust from my 2010 shoebox of bookkeeping.  Yup.  January 2010 was the last time I gave myself a raise.  Just out of curiosity, I thought I'd check on some of my annual expenses over those years.

• Property taxes increased $350
• hydro costs increased $240.  And now I have to wash my underwear at night.  In the dark.  Using cold water.
• house insurance increased $420.  Never had a claim.
• car insurance decreased $35 (huh? clearly a mistake by the insurance company)
• business insurance increased $100.  Never had a claim, but DID increase my coverage.  It's costing you gals a whole lot more to buy fabric, which increases my exposure.

Every time I get on the subject of money, my brain goes STRAIGHT to Executive Compensation.  I am a former Royal Bank employee, so I like to pick on them.  Even though my years with them were pretty much okey-dokey.  They decided to get all fancy a few years ago and morph into RBC ROYAL BANK.  Poor Mr. Nixon.  Having to get by on a measly $12,700,000 last year.  Let me spell that out for you.  Twelve million, seven hundred thousand.  Dollars.  Per year.

That moved by brain along to "I wonder how much the normal people at THE BANK earn these days?  You will see from the chart below that the customer service reps who actually look after you at the counter earn between $12 and $15 per hour.  On those wages these people are expected to dress professionally?  Um. 
Mr. Nixon!  Shame on you!  A LIVING WAGE is $14 per hour.  Anyone paid less than that is living below the poverty line.

All this financial pondering brings me to the weekly zucchini report.  Feeling as impoverished as I do right now, I regret going out for a cheap (but yummy) dinner at Bangkok Temptation last night.  Today I will eat my free zucchinis.

ZUCCHINI REPORT
Picked this week:  7
Picked YTD:       13