Business as Usual

I could write a sad and mopey post about how Jill left yesterday and we all miss her and I hate this business about living apart. And I could tell stories about how Noah woke up this morning and immediately went running through the house calling “This Mommy! This Mommy!”

But it sucks enough without reliving it for the Internet to share.

Instead, I’m going to have a bitch moment and a “yay me!” moment.

First, the bitch moment: My plan today was to get my car registered and get a new driver’s license, go grocery shopping, and deal with computer/network issues. Then if I had time before I have to pick up the kids, I could also blog.

The Wisconsin DMV web site has a great deal of information on it, none of which can be found associated with any other piece of necessary information. It looks nice and there are lots of hyperlinks, but as far as actual functionality is concerned, I give it a D+.

I tried first to get the emissions test done, since in Georgia, you have to do that first, and in Wisconsin, there’s no information available about what you have to do first.

Nope. The guy managing the line told me that I needed to go inside to get my paperwork. So much for benefiting from the nice short line. Inside, the line was also short, but slow. The woman disuaded me from getting the emissions test done, as it would be free after I got the car registered in Wisconsin. (Huh?) But she couldn’t do the registration part.

(Amusingly, the web site asserts that you can get a “driver license” with an out-of-state license online. Fortunately, I assumed that was only included in the “Online services – save yourself a trip” section as a joke.)

The site is also confusingly organized, such that I thought the downtown office was a full-service DMV center, when it actually only deals with drivers licensing, and even that, not if you have to take the test.

Imagine my surprise when I arrived and figured out that I could only get the driver’s license there, not the vehicle registration. However, given that it took more than an hour to get from the person with line ticket number 4 to line ticket number 19, me, I think it is safe to say they could not handle additional work. Incidentally, 4 of the people between #4 and #19 had given up and left, so they only actually spoke with 10 customers while I was waiting.

Look for a future post here, outlining what you need to do and in what order, if you are moving to Wisconsin with your car. After I figure it out.

On the “yay me!” front, I am feeling like Ms Smart Shopper. Last week, I joined the local food coop. I love food coops, and the big local one here has a large branch in the best local grocery shopping area that I’ve found so far.

One of the member benefits they gave me was a book of “try this for free” coupons. When I looked at the coupons on Saturday, I noticed that they all expire on 12/31/2008. So I went to spend them today.

Total value: $49.87, including Seventh Generation all purpose cleaner, Cascadian Farms frozen vegetable of my choice, Traditional Medicinals box o tea, quart o soy milk, 2 different non-dairy fake ice cream products, and a number of other items. Some I would have bought anyway, some I would have bought a cheaper substitute, and some I would probably not have otherwise purchased. Still, for $0.62, I am well satisfied. (That’s the tax, which I still had to pay.)

My real total was $3.50 higher, since I did also buy a gallon of skim milk. But either way, that’s thirteen cents shy of 2 years worth of ownership fees, already saved. And I saved about $11 in owner sale pricing on my first trip. It may not be as cheap as the big box food store, but since it already paid for itself, I’m very satisfied.