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DEAR ABBY Jeanne Phillips
Nanny’s bad habits become issue to boss
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DEAR ABBY: My children’s nanny, “Daisy,� has been with us for more than two years. She’s not the best, but I know I could do a lot worse. The most important thing is my children adore her and she is used to our routine. By and large, I’m happy to have her. However, I have two pet peeves I don’t know how to address. Daisy is always late. Not by much, mind you — but it is consistent. She’s at least five minutes late every single day. Maybe it shouldn’t bother me so much, but it does. I never dock her pay for tardiness, and I always pay her on time. To me, it’s a reflection of how important she views her job. I feel it is disrespectful. The kicker is, Daisy is studying to be a nurse. I have told her unless she breaks this bad habit, she’ll be fired from a future nursing job. The second thing is, on hot, humid days, Daisy has the worst body odor imaginable. When the weather is cool, she doesn’t smell, but once sticky weather arrives, the wall of stench is enough to make my nose hairs curl. One day it made me physically ill and I had to excuse her for the day without explaining why. How should I address these problems? Or am I making too big a deal out of this? — HAVING ISSUES IN VIRGINIA DEAR HAVING ISSUES: Daisy may not be the best employee, but a good employer makes clear what the ground rules are when someone is hired. Because you’re a stickler for punctuality, remind Daisy about what her hours are and stress that you expect her to be on time or risk having her pay docked. (If she uses public transportation, there should be some flexibility, but because she’s late every day she should be told she needs to leave home a few minutes earlier.) As to her personal hygiene issue, address it directly. Tell her you expect her to have showered, used deodorant and put on fresh clothes before coming to work — especially in the summer. Helpful hint: When you hire someone, have a list of written rules prepared for the individual to read and sign so there will be no misunderstandings. Doing that is being an effective boss. DEAR ABBY: I am going to a concert by a popular band. My brother and my cousin always make fun of this band. People commenting online also post mean things about them. I know they have a right to their own opinions, but I don’t get the same reactions when I talk about or listen to other popular music. Did people do this 10 or 20 years ago? Do they think it’s cool to express hatred about mainstream musicians? Maybe the more popular something is, the more people there are having negative feelings toward it. — FREE TO LISTEN AT 13 DEAR FREE TO LISTEN: There is always a degree of backlash against hugely popular entertainers because some people think it’s more “cool� to be a fan of a new, upcoming band. Years ago, some people loved the Beatles and hated the Rolling Stones, and vice versa. The behavior you describe has been going on ever since the music business began. Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby at DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069. COPYRIGHT 2013 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2013
Blueberry lemon bread is nice summer recipe It is Thursday morning. Time is going by fast, but I need to take time to get this column in today’s mail. My plans are to go help sister Emma today. She is having a garage sale this weekend. With both her daughters de-tasseling corn I offered to help her organize everything. My husband, Joe, and daughter, Elizabeth, have both left for the RV factories where they work. Daughter Susan and son Benjamin left around 6 a.m. to go de-tasseling. Daughters Verena and Loretta are staying with a 93-year-old lady from 3 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. so I am letting them sleep a little longer this morning. I do hope we can be leaving for Emma’s house by 8:15 to 8:30 a.m. The lady lives around three miles from here so her son brings the girls home when he gets off work. This will only be until she is recovered enough to stay alone. This week we have been kept busy canning tomatoes and pickles. I made 22 quarts of freezer pickles to put into the
freezer for Emma and Jacob’s upcoming church services next month. I also canned 25 quarts of THE dill pickles. AMISH Yesterday COOK afternoon while we were in the of Lovina Eicher middle canning pickles, Uncle Joe and Betty and two of their granddaughters came for a short visit. Daughter Lovina, 9, seems to be recovering well from surgery she had last week. She had her tonsils and adenoids removed. She can’t do any strenuous exercise for two weeks. She says the hardest thing is not being able to ride the pony. She loves to read and write so that helps keep her occupied. She enjoyed getting the extra ice cream and Popsicles.
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The children have only 3 1/2 weeks until school starts. This summer flew by so fast. My husband, Joe, and the boys dug up all our potatoes. This year we laid the potato seeds on top of the soil, then covered thickly with straw. We had a nice crop of potatoes and that method seemed to work well. It also kept the weeds from taking over. We had some nice-sized potatoes. There were a lot of potatoes on one plant. With the garden starting to empty out here and there it makes you think of autumn. We were blessed with a lot of nice rains to help the garden grow this summer. We have been having cool evenings and mornings which make it feel like fall weather. With it being blueberry season here is a good recipe!
Blueberry Lemon Bread • 1/2 cup butter • 1 1/2 cups sugar • 2 teaspoons baking powder • 1/2 teaspoon salt
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2 eggs 2 cups flour 1/2 cup milk 1 1/2 cups blueberries 1/4 cup lemon juice 1/3 cup white sugar
Beat together butter and sugar. Then add baking powder and salt. Add eggs one at a time and stir well. Add flour and milk alternately. Stir in blueberries gently, pour into 9x9 pan or a loaf pan and bake for about one hour. When the bread has finished baking, prick the top with a fork. Brush lemon juice and sugar mixture on top. FOR LOVINA EICHER’S “RECIPE OF THE WEEK� go to theamishcookonline.com. Lovina hand-writes this weekly column by gas lamp light from her Michigan home. Readers with culinary or cultural questions may write Lovina at The Amish Cook, c/o Oasis Newsfeatures, P.O. Box 157, Middletown, Ohio 45044 or visit oasisnewsfeatures.com. Due to volume of mail, personal replies are not always possible.
Credit card juggling keeps rate low DEAR BRUCE: My husband and I have four credit cards with approximately $5,000 in charges on each that we have been paying off. We always look for credit cards with better financing options. Once we find one, we transfer balances and close the old accounts. It seems we average about seven months on a card. Right now we’re paying 0 percent on all the cards, but transfer to other cards when the current deal expires. Will all of this shifting around of debt hurt our credit rating? — Reader, via email DEAR READER: The constant transferring of money and opening new accounts is going to have an adverse effect on your credit rating. How adverse is
another matter. The fact that you are doing all this juggling and paying 0 percent speaks well for your ability to juggle. Even if your credit rating is SMART suffering to degree, MONEY some it is clearly offset by the interest that Bruce Williams you are not paying. What you should be doing is trying to get the $20,000 paid off by making as large a payment as
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you can. It should be larger than the minimums because there is no interest to be paid. The maneuvering is OK, but the major thing is to get that rather substantial credit card debt in line. DEAR BRUCE: The company I work for asked me to participate in its 401(k) plan. They asked me to sign a paper noting that I could not withdraw or transfer the funds if I left their employment, as I have done. Is this legal? — W.S., via email DEAR W.S.: I don’t know what it was you signed. You should get a copy of this document and take it to an attorney who specializes in these matters. It may well be that you’re restricted to a
certain time period each year as to when you can withdraw it. The fact that I am not aware of such an arrangement does not make it illegal. First, get ahold of the document you signed. Second, have it reviewed by an attorney. The third step will be dictated by what you find. Send your questions to: Smart Money, P.O. Box 2095, Elfers, FL 34680. Email to: bruce@brucewilliams. com. Questions of general interest will be answered in future columns. Owing to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided. COPYRIGHT 2013, NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.
Create a family calendar with corkboard or chalkboard A family calendar is a great organizational tool. A simple wall calendar works for some families, but others need something bigger. You can graduate to a big desktop calendar and hang it. Or use chalkboard paint on an entire section of wall and create a calendar. The first reader tip shares another idea: FAMILY CALENDAR: Pottery Barn had a calendar made from a dry-erase board, but it was too expensive, so I outlined a large corkboard with
ribbon in a calendar grid pattern with movable/ reusable printed and laminated numbers. I can thumbtack party FRUGAL invitations, LIVING appointment cards, etc. onto Sara Noel it. I print off chores, regular recurring activities,
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special occasions, etc., and add them to it, too. — Lisa N., Ohio HOMEMADE CORN DOGS: I bought a corn dog maker from Amazon for $18.99 with free shipping and no sales tax. It came in yesterday and I tried it out last night. My 5-year-old grandson likes to help in the kitchen, and there’s no way I’d let him near a skillet full of hot grease to make them the old-fashioned way. You cut the hot dog in half, so you get two small corn dogs from each hot dog, which
means the portions are more kid-friendly. Another plus is that all store-bought corn dogs have a lot of sugar in the batter, and I hate sweet cornbread. I made my own batter with “on sale� ingredients, and the price came out to be a bit less than a nickel each. The hot dogs were $.50 per pack. The corn dog maker comes with 25 bamboo sticks that really are twice as long as needed, so I’ll make 50 corn dogs from them. I figure the whole thing will pay for itself fairly quickly. — S.P., Louisiana
Note from Sara: You can make cornbread muffins in a mini muffin tin and add a cut-up piece of hotdog in each compartment to make mini corn dogs. After they’re baked, you can add a stick if the kids really miss having one. UNDER $1 TEX-MEX BREAKFAST: Almost half the cost from this one comes from the enchilada sauce, so if you aren’t buying the canned stuff, you’ll do even better than I did, pricewise. • 1 can green enchilada sauce
• 4 corn tortillas • 4 eggs • 1/2 cup grated cheddar • 4 green onions, chopped • 4 tablespoons sour cream Warm enchilada sauce in a small skillet. In another small skillet, fry tortillas on each side until they start to puff. Dip each side in enchilada sauce and set on a plate. Fry each egg over-easy and slide onto tortillas. Top with cheddar, green onion and sour cream before serving. Makes 4 servings. — Lynn, Wisconsin
POTATO SALAD: I add chopped bacon and a tablespoon of maple syrup to my standard potato salad (potatoes, mayo, mustard, onion) recipe. Try it. You’ll love it! — Kelly, Pennsylvania
Lift Up a child’s voice. a child’s life.
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Frugal Village (frugalvillage. com), a website that offers practical, money-saving strategies for everyday living. To send tips, comments or questions, write to Sara Noel, c/o Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO, 64106, or email sara@ frugalvillage.com.
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