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Archive for July, 2011

mystery gift

July 29th, 2011 at 04:01 am

I got a mystery gift today. Somebody paid $20 for me to get a twenty minute massage. I suspect it was my boss, but I'm not sure. I'll ask her tomorrow.

Yesterday was the Greenwood Seafair Parade... somehow the pictures I took didn't really turn out, but I'll see if I can find some good ones for fun.

The crafty patch is thinning out some. The non-crafty, but creative project of getting my database to play nice in Office 2010 is nearly done. It loads and mostly works - only two buttons don't. Of course they are the two buttons that I use in January, so sigh, project not completely done. But done enough for August.

Video for what our department does has been written and filmed. Now it has to be rendered into a file format and edited ... then done!

We are planning to get another 1/8 of a cow. This one is larger, so it will finish a bit slower (late August instead of right now) - good for a little time to save some money. Bigger means that 1/8 is going to run more than 50 lbs, so I've gotten another buyer who we can sell some to if we don't have enough freezer space. The farmer is offering us two possibilities - one is an Angus, the other a

Text is Limousin and Link is http://www.cattle.com/articles/title/limousin+cattle.aspx
Limousin. Finding out the Limousin is a very old breed that runs a bit leaner is tipping me toward that choice.

Everything is now quiet enough to allow us all to wonder about a US default. But in the meantime, its payday tomorrow.

steel penny

July 25th, 2011 at 04:37 am

I found a 1943 steel penny on the floor of Safeway yesterday. Different color and a magnet really grabs it. The US made these pennies at the height of WWII, when copper was needed more in other places. The penny is not in great shape, but its another interesting find.

Nobody had Amy Winehouse ... but several of you suggested it.

I've sometimes wondered...

July 23rd, 2011 at 04:33 am

what the 30s were like. In the next few months, I worry that we'll all find out.

I got the checks I ordered. Nice. I'm being dinged $40 as a late payment from the landlord and I'm not sure why. I've found that the credit union's bill pay can be useful, but its slow, and doubly slow when the receiver doesn't seem to handle the EFT well. Far faster to write a check, date it, and stop by the landlord. Not to say that I'm completely reverting back to primitive, I'm just bowing to the best way depending on the payee.

The check patterns were fun - if I wanted a Scooby Doo checks, or Cruella De Vil, well, I know where to go. But the safest is the classiest. Imagine writing a mortgage check on the Scooby Doos. Smile

Am back at 167, and I'm making progress on the database. It seems unstable lately - it bombed out on me several times today.

crafty patch part 2

July 21st, 2011 at 04:22 am

I listed out all the crafty creative projects I've been roped into or found to do -

Wrote the story board and wrote about a 1/3 of the shooting script. Screenwriter friend brought his camera and showed us how to use it, so now the camera people are working out shooting the piece. Today I made four joke pledges as props - Montgomery Burns giving to the Release the Hounds Dog Park in Springfield, for instance. Since stamping is part of my job, I made a joke Bulls%*t stamp. It will be small, but subtle. Thank you mom's side of family for the mean sense of humor, it came in handy.

Working on getting the database to play nice with Office 2010. I got the database to load (yay), and 80% of it works, but a number of functions were lost, and I'm working to get them back.

Got my first mosaic piece mortared with thin set on the wedi board (wedi board is a stiff styrofoam board coated in concrete and mesh. Thin and light but waterproof). It went about as smooth as I'd expect it to go the first time. The big thing is that even though I was careful in my calculations I still made a lot more than I needed. I'm willing to bet that many people try to finish several pieces before mortaring. There is a bit of thin set on the glass, but not much - I've been successful taking a knife and gently scraping it off. I learn to grout on the 30th.

I'm gluing glass onto mesh and making my second piece. Goin' solo on this one!

Have all but two of my yard sale frames painted. Time to take a look at pictures.

paper checks

July 16th, 2011 at 04:53 am

Yeah, I broke down and ordered a box of paper checks for my credit union account. I can transfer about 95% of my transactions using bill pay, but somehow its just so satisfying to give a person a paper check. Write it give it to them and its done, versus sending it, making sure the other person clicks on the link blah blah blah.

As I was waiting for my name to be called to order the box, I idly watched the ATM line. How come when I get to the machine, it takes thirty seconds, and it takes the guy ahead of me five minutes? ATM performance anxiety, me thinks.

Also got a check from Bank of Montreal for a fractional share as my old bank stock went away. Turns out that yes, the new bank stock is a full Drp, and one can optional cash payments (can pay in US dollars), so I went in and signed up for dividend reinvestment.

tourist silly season

July 15th, 2011 at 05:30 am

Its July in Seattle, the height of the tourist season, and everybody is looking to make a bit of coin off of them....

$89.66

July 14th, 2011 at 04:50 am

I started with tracking any change that I find on July 14, 2009. The first year I found $49.98, so missed $50 by two pennies. This year I found $89.66, missing 90$ by 33 cents.

Not sure whether I just really got better at hitting the places that are likely to have dropped money or whether the recession has eased some which means a bit more carelessness.

I don't know whether there is an upper limit to the amount of money I can find. Jeffrey, in his change finding, found money in the hundreds of dollars. Somehow even at Seattle's sloppiest, hundreds seems a bit high. But I once thought that $40 was high.

new bank stock

July 10th, 2011 at 06:28 am

Perhaps you remember that I have some drps - stocks where I can add to my position in small amounts along with reinvesting the dividends as they come up quarterly. My bank stock had been ailing since the near-implosion in the fall of 2008. I say had because as of July 1, it had been acquired by the Bank of Montreal (BMO). I discovered that the transfer agent (the banking/ accounting entity that you buy the shares from) is the same one as my KO stock. Good news - no new weird one, and they are very prompt with the payments. It appears that I can drp in that one also, but I've asked for the prospectus. The only odd thing is that the account is kept in Canadian dollars.

Stocks went up in the last couple of weeks (though not on Friday) - my net worth broke 600K again. We'll see if it holds.

Have 5 more days til I close this year's change finding adventure. I found .21 today, and I'm at $88.23. Probably not going to hit $90 this year ... but $88 - $89 is darn good enough.

Nope, nobody had Betty Ford.

On the crafty side, I'm making progress. I have only a couple more frames to paint, and I've finished gluing the glass and tile bits into my mosaic. I also bought a bit of thinset mortar ($12 for a box), and found a notched trowel for $2 at Goodwill. Gotta love it when I can find what I need at the thrift store. I've emailed the mosaic teacher several questions. When I get the answers I'll take the plunge and get the mosaic mortared to the board. Grout awaits! will

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

July 6th, 2011 at 04:18 am

Their

Text is website and Link is http://www.consumerfinance.gov/
website is up and running. Support Elizabeth Warren and check it out.

crafty patch

July 3rd, 2011 at 03:28 am

Now with July 1, it turned quiet on the accounting/ pledge processing front again, probably because most of the people that I would have had to slap took Friday off as a 4 day weekend.

I seem to have entered a crafty patch. Here's what's on deck:

At work: helping write a storyboard & screenplay for a 20 minute video about our department.
At work: troubleshooting my main database to get it to play nice with Office 2010. (creative, but not so crafty)
At home: painting frames and framing some of my more interesting pictures.
At home: picking some of my Vietnam and Cambodia, and perhaps even the Paris pictures to blow up, frame, hang on the walls.
At home: potluck dish for the 4th party and fireworks.
At home: finishing up the mosaic I've started on. Glass has to be glued in the mesh and the mesh has to be mortared on my board by July 29. July 30 I learn to grout.

Bought the last ingredient to make my mosaic - the glass - today and began to do some more gluing. Still having fun and I've gotten a couple of complements on what I have so far.