Weekend Open Thread

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1. Random first world work problems:

   – I wish my Outlook had the plug-in for MS Lync that lets me click on a phone number from a calendar invite. Sounds small potatoes, but I’m on so many conference calls a day that it’s a pain to copy and paste. I could take them from my desk phone since my number is VOIP, but like I said, first world work problem.
   – I also wish MS Lync would default to my wired headphones/mic when I make/receive a call. It’s a pain to have to manually switch over.every.time. The solution is to use USB headphones – um no. Those headphones are ginormous.

   I filled out a trouble ticket for these issues, talked to IT, and yeah, I’m stuck for the time being.

   1. A quick google shopping search pulls up many different types of USB earphones & earbuds. Check with your IT dept, obviously, but I bet you can find the style (& size) you like.

      1. Sorry– headphones, not “earphones”, whatever that would be

2. Any of you ladies have advice on removing a co-signer from a loan? My dad cosigned on a loan for law school — I’ve been out for 3 years and have paid faithfully. My credit is very good now, but when I called about asking to remove his name, I was told that my payments would go up by nearly 50% a month. I can’t afford that. But neither should my dad continue having this on his credit report, for goodness sakes. Any advice on how to negotiate with the lender? Are they off base here?

   1. And thank you in advance….!

   2. It makes sense to me. Isn’t that why you got the cosigner? To get the lower rate? So when you remove him, it makes sense that it would go up. I’m not sure if your payments should go up 50% but it makes sense that your interest rate would go up. Mine with no cosigner was about 8%, and my friend with a parent cosigner was about 2%.

      1. I should add, though, that my credit is much, much better than it was when I first obtained the loan. Crazy as it sounds, it’s actually better than my poor dad’s. That’s why it makes no sense to me that my payments would go up.

         1. My credit is better than my parents’ (because they have cosigned multiple children’s loans), yet my rate goes down a lot by having them cosign. One of those annoying things about student loans.

            1. Good to know, anon21 – thank you.

   3. I’m also hoping to do this. I’ve already talked to my bank about a personal loan to pay off credit cards and I hope to roll my bar loan into the same thing. Note that you have to tell them you want to the loan to pay off others, and they actually make the payoff (this allows you to get better loan terms, because instead of asking to add to your total credit limit you are just shifting things around)

      However, in my case, the interest rate will be higher. I am willing to pay a higher interest rate to get my co-signer off the hook, because of how it’s affecting our relationship. (My cosigner comments/looks askance at a lot of my choices because of how it could theoretically affect him, even though I’ve been faithfully paying the loan AND paying extra on it).

      1. I should note – the loan I’m talking about is currently at 8% and the bank loan would be 10%, so it’s not MUCH higher. And, I haven’t actually applied for it yet, so I don’t know if it’s feasible, it’s just something I discussed as a hypothetical with the bank rep.

         1. Okay, makes sense. Thanks, anon and Dulcinea.

   4. Refinance in your own name

      1. Great advice- thanks Divalicious!

   5. My ex had this situation and his parents made him refinance to preserve their credit. I am not sure what happened b/c Alan wanted them to pay his bills when he started drinkeing. I think their was a big falleing out in the Shecketovits household when I dumped him b/c they had been counteing on him marrying me and me bearing them grandchildren.

      Alan does not have me anymore and I am not sure what he is doing. If I married him, I would be cleaneing up his vomit and he’d be draining mt saving’s. I would not have my 401k to save and I am not sure he could even give me a BABY.

      So the lesson is NOT to marry a drunk!

3. Anybody else watching the SAG awards? Favorite dresses? I think mine are Nicole Kidman (although her hair didn’t look great straight when she was presenting), Amanda Seyfried, and Amy Poehler. Tina Fey looked really glamorous on the red carpet show (love the hair) but her dress didn’t photograph all that well.

   Didn’t like Jennifer Garner’s gold dress. I loved the skirt on Marion Cotillard’s dress, but didn’t like the white top. Anne Hathaway’s dress looked better on the show than in pictures but I think it was because she was slouching.

   Anybody else?

   1. I’m not watching, but I saw some pictures online. Claire Danes is my favorite so far.

   2. LOVED Amy Poehler’s! I rarely dislike black, but loved the top of it especially…I also loved Amanda Seyfrieds, but did you see her walking in it? Looked like it was 1000 pounds!

      1. Amanda Seyfried said something to Giuliana Rancic about how heavy the train was. I think she was having a hard time moving around!

4. Ugh. Another weekend and we did NOT get the house in order. We moved a while ago and didn’t get everything put away before normal life started up again. Now I try to work in a home office full of books in boxes, whete they’re in yhe way, not where I can use them and I have to hold onto the bed or wall to get around my kid’s “temp” folded clothes storage to get to his closet. His room is just as disorganized as the rest if the house and it’s making us disorganized, ineffectual, and crabby. The place is also getting dirty…

   But how to find good help? I just read nearly the whole thread from last Feb. it’s full of anecdotes but doesn’t really have guidelines for how to find the right person and supervise.

   I know I want to micromanage, because I want the person to help me get those books on the bookshelves and get my kid’s room in order. Also, when I hired cleaning services in the last, I was dismayed at things like running water the entire time they washed dishes instead of just filling the sink, “straightening” my papers by combining piles, taking things off the table and throwing them away…

   Because of the unpacking/organizing (for real, not their wack definition) aspect, I’m sure I can’t use a service. My track record on hiring individuals has not been good. Where do I begin? I don’t think I know people who live in my area and have cleaning help.

   1. Excuse all the typos, please! I’m up in the middle of the night fretting about this and tapping out these posts on my phone. I’m not the slob the typos (or the current state of my house) make me out to be!

      1. I dont know if youre going to see this response. You need two different types of professionals. First, a professional organizer just to get you in shape. Then a cleaning service. And unless you want to clean the whole house yourself you have to let go and let them clean it their way. It will be ok. Take a deep breath. You cannot run around policing how they wash dishes or straighten piles. You have a tradeoff here – ask yourself, “do i want a clean house or do i want everything done my way?” And then choose your priority.

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