Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $12 breakfast
Found money - $0.10 (on the floor of Metro bus behind the driver's cage)

Actual, actual light rail came to Seattle. Finally. DH and I took a free ride on it today. I'm sending pictures because light rail to Seattle has been so long in coming, its like saying I went to the moon - who would believe me unless I produced evidence?

We started from home by taking the 48 (aka the 40-late) to the Rainier Beach stop, then went south to Tukwila (the SeaTac airport stop will be done in December), got off at Tukwila, and then came back into the bus (now bus/light rail) tunnel at Westlake - heart of downtown Seattle. We live in north Seattle; we had to take the bus home. In a few years, hopefully that will change.

Rainier Beach stop at ground level.


Tukwila station - free rides produced a lot of interest, but the trains ran every 7.5 minutes so the lines moved pretty quickly.


Inside a light rail car.


The end at Westlake


Oh yes, the fares will be between $1.75 - $2.50. My bus pass that I get at work covers it. Free for me, unless I'm laid off.

For your own snowy commute:

1. Buses have the usual issues with starting and stopping on hills. Of course you do not want to wait at a bus stop on the middle of the hill, but...
2. If you have the chance to pick your stop, from say, different places downtown (evening commute), the best stops are:
3. stops close to where the bus begins or ends. Buses lose time as they plow through the snow. If the bus is coming directly from the bus barn or from where it rests, its probably close to on-time. Because its at the beginning of its route you have an excellent chance of getting a seat.
4. stops where the bus transit time is measured. Lets say you are looking at a schedule and it says bus "comes from intersection x". Intersection x is better than where you are (unless you are at intersection x ) because it is usually is comprised of two arterials, multiple buses use the stop, its usually flat, and buses try to be on time for it. In snow that's an impossibility, but there it is.
5. better likelihood that a place nearby exists where you can get a hot cup of cocoa. You just don't want to be out there by yourself for hours.

And a tip for walking: if you do have to walk in the ice and snow, if you are walking on an east-west street, walk on the north side sidewalk. The north side sidewalk is going to be less icy because the sun, traveling along its southern course, is going to warm that side of the street and soften & melt the ice more quickly.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $9 lunch

All that walking around north Seattle heading from house to downtown, all while noting bus stops paid off today.

I live in North Seattle, my usual morning bus crosses into downtown via the Aurora Bridge. I caught the bus while lugging about 15 pounds of canned goods (food drive), and congratulated myself on my luck. The intercom on the bus was on, the dispatcher mentioned delays on Aurora. I settled in because that's fairly usual.

We got to Fremont Ave (the very pretty leaf-strewn street in the post below). Traffic was backed up, we didn't move, and the dispatch estimated a hour to hour & half to get to downtown.

Time to get off, even lugging the cans. The aisle seat woman and I chatted as we walked along Fremont from 42nd to across the Fremont Bridge. We saw at least three large police vans and fire trucks on Aurora. The aisle seat woman crossed headed on Dexter. I had cans, so I waited on Nickerson to catch the 17. Everything was late, but I caught it, stood in the aisle, did the penguin-chick thing with the bag of canned goods. Got into work at 9:45. I was sooo happy to dump those cans!

Turned out it was a jumper on the Aurora Bridge. You know, its so odd to want to off yourself in such a public way as jumping off a bridge during rush hour. Suicide is not really an extrovert's activity; its not entertaining so what's the audience for? Talking you down? Cheering you on?

The odyssey this morning was useful. I found two pennies while I was walking.

.14 - .02 = .12 to get to .31. I now have this week to find 12 cents on the street.

Found out that our floor won the Halloween decorating contest. I chatted a bit with the organizer - if we weren't so politically correct, our floor would have swept all the categories, so we got Best Overall.

I bonds got their new interest rates today. 0.70% fixed rate 4.92% cpi for a total rate of 5.64%. Still not fantastic, but better than the last batch with a fixed rate of 0.0%.

Yesterday I walked for 6 miles, today I took it easy, and just went for 3. And I caught a couple of football games. So darn lazy.

This weekend, I have been noticing several effects of the current recession.

1. More restaurants are taking cash only, no credit cards. Along with gas stations, a couple of other restaurants are offering different prices for cash vs credit card.

2. (this during the week) Seattle buses are now filling up so much that they have to pass stops.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008163633...

My 5 bus had an increase of 9% ridership.
My 28 bus had an increase of 15% ridership.
My 15 bus had an increase of 5% ridership.

Advanced bus rider tip: If you see a large group waiting for the bus at your stop, walk backward along the route to the previous stop.

3. This is very funny in a mean sort of way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuKYP2cBvBA

4. One WaMu banker went out the window, metaphorically.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/200...

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $5 ticket + $20 beer and lunch

Tried out the Metro Employees Historic Vehicle Association's bus excursion today. It was a 4 hr trip - 1 hr to go to Snohomish, 2 hrs at Snohomish, 1 hr back, for a straight $5. No gas surcharges, no nothing.

DH and I waited at 2nd Ave S and Main - two blocks east from Elliott Bay Bookstore, paid our $5, and took off. It was a little back in time - we rode on a Metro bus, circa 1976. Since we were in the past, my pics will be in black and white (ha ha).



Before Starbucks (what! I can't bring my $5 coffee on the bus!) and before headphones, there was this sign.


I chatted with one of the MEHVA drivers. Apparently its easy to collect buses but to really maintain them, the bus has to be driven, and driven a fairly long distance. They drive the bus anyway, and they charge money to defray costs.

Snohomish itself was a pretty little sleepy town with a lot of antique and furniture stores. Didn't really feel like antiquing, so we walked around along the river, made fun of shop names (Seafood Grotto does not encourage me to eat seafood!) and window shopped. We had a beer and a sandwich at a saloon. Nice, but then we were plenty sleepy during the ride home.

Summer is fleeing...


Next $5 excursion is a night trolley tour on October 4th, and a fall foliage tour on October 19th.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.70 coffee + $11 lunch (included paper and a soda)

Well my morning bus was late and I was quietly vibrating during the ride because I thought for sure I had a meeting first thing today. Turns out that the meeting was an hour later, so phew!

Then a co worker waylaid me the last thing as I was getting out for 30 minutes, wanting to dole a little whine with his bitch session. My heart was heavy as I waited at the stop; I was 8 minutes late according to the schedule. But it turned out that the bus was late.

"Boy, am I so glad you are late!" I said to the driver. He had to do an impromptu re-route; the Fire Festival closed off his regular route.

Speaking of the Fire Festival - it was a nice free stroll. Its a big deal with competitions and an obstacle course. I'm 1/32 Scottish; about the only genetic attribute that I chalk it up to is having a strong fondness for guys wearing kilts. (real kilts, not those fake Utilkilts.) How many of them does it take to set up a tent? ... 3, it looks like.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $9 lunch

The theme today is tourists. Specifically, I've been noticing a certain type of tourist... the one that squints out the bus window, then their map, trying to figure out where the ride free area ends. In past years, it didn't seem that noticeable - most of the time the tourists were just a tad frightened of the bus and would either taxi or walk. Or they weren't frightened, so what about $1.75 (last year's fare)?

2008 must be the year of the frugal tourist.

In the spirit of knowledge for all you frugal tourists out there, let me teach you a useful memmonic for the streets of Seattle: Yep, Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest.

Y - Yesler
J - James/Jefferson
C - Cherry/Columbia
M - Marion/Madison
S - Spring/Seneca
U - University/Union
P - Pike/Pine

then on 1st:
Stewart
Virginia
Lenora
Blanchard
Bell
Battery

Then after the 3 B's, usually I don't much care (nor should you) because you are out of the ride free area and its $2.25.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.70 coffee

Another creamy bean lunch brought from home, so I didn't buy lunch and thus I had a very cheap day.

We got a notice from HR that our bus pass was going to be paid "pre-tax" versus how it is normally paid - post tax. I think the implication is that our bus pass is going to be treated like our 403B - deducted from our income in such a way that we don't pay taxes on the bit of the salary that funds the pass. Not sure what our yearly bus pass costs us ... I'm thinking its about $200. Every little bit helps.

Speaking of transit and bus passes, I ran across this article in the Seattle PI.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/366371_busridin...
The article didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know - I'm riding with many more people.

What was especially interesting was the comments - the Soundoff link at the bottom. The fascinating thing was the reasoning of the many bus haters out there. The hating part was interesting - of course the one person who puked on your shoes on the bus is going to put you off. Funny how ones' first car breakdown or accident, more scary and catastrophic, doesn't put the bus hater off nearly so much. Must give car another chance, whiplash be damned!

But the truly fascinating thing was...why hate the bus so strongly that you tell the rest of us in such gory detail? Why?? Wouldn't you want to encourage as many people as possible to take the bus? We know you are already never going to ride, but wouldn't you understand that if everyone else took the bus, traffic would be lighter and you will have a better, safer, faster drive to work? You would use slightly less gas with no stop-and-go traffic, and if demand for gas drops slightly with the same supply, price should drop slightly too. Win-Win-Win. Wouldn't you want that? C'mon! If I was a bus hater, I wouldn't say anything - or I'd encourage folks to take the bus, then snicker in my sleeve.

Or maybe they secretly take the bus and want to get a better seat? Dang I'm confused.

People are smart .... Bwahahhahaha!

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $10 lunch, snack + $10 grocery

Not much going on, had a nice quiet day.

Watched the I-5 traffic on my way to work. Still heavy, even though we've passed $4 and are gaining on $5. These days, if you can possibly save money by taking the bus, no matter how out of the way, well, why wouldn't you? And now there's the report that if you want to tool around town in a scooter you need an addendum on your license. You need more than that these days, there are still plenty of SUVs tooling around with you on the road. Frankly, I think traffic will get even nuttier before it gets better. All the sane drivers say, "holy crap, who cares who I have to sit next to? I'm saving $500!". That thins the herd a bit, but it leaves the insane drivers, the recalcitrant ones, the ones that didn't get the memo. I see a bit of a difference in parking lots, but out on the roads there is still a lot of denial out there.

Sister gave me an update. The toilet, water heater, and water softener are in at the farmette, but she and her partner stayed in Milwaukee, battling the rains and the flood. Apparently they got 4 inches, had to make sure that the gutters were clean so they could do their job, and their basement was leaking. It could be worse.

The farmette land is low, I wonder if the place got touched by the floods. Darn glad no one's farming most of it - they'd be behind. Knee high by the fourth of July is a milestone and that's only three weeks away.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $1 coffee + $5 farmers market

Ate the other half of the foot long sandwich I bought yesterday, so it was a low spend day. I bought another cup because I got the afternoon yawns.

Now that the deli is R.I.P. (no official word or sign on the door), for coffee this morning, I went back to the place I had frequented before. The woman working the espresso machine asked me how I'd been and what happened to me. It had been over two years since I had disappeared, so its a little embarrassing but amazing on two counts: that I'm that memorable and that she's still working there in a high turnover retail environment.

Gas prices took quite a jump here in Seattle - DH tells me that even the Arco, the rock-bottom cheap place for gas, is now at $4.11. The paper here is talking about raising bus fares again (we had one in March). With my bus pass at $10/month for an unlimited number of rides, it pays for itself the first week of the month. But price hikes are happening everywhere. My workplace renews the yearly bus pass at the end of the month. Here's hoping they raise rates after I renew.

Money's now very tight at the end of the paycheck ever since I hiked up my 403B to take care of my tax bite in 2008. I'm proud of myself for keeping my head above water, and still saving at the same rates, but the checking account stands at $180 with a week left to go (get paid on Friday the 13th next week). I'm feeling the frugal burn.

And I think I'm going to be the very last American to get my stimulus check.

Now that I have my laptop back and I have all these pent up posts .. ker pow.

Friday on the bus I caught this:


And tonight:


So far the neighborhood Arco is holding at just unnnddder $4. $3.98/gallon.

I also read about some gas stations having yet again to retool their pumps or charge by the liter or 1/2 gallon because their dollar digit didn't go up to 4. Seems like very poor planning to me. I can understand if you didn't go up to the dollar, but if you bought a gas pump that went up to the dollar, why only 1-3? Why not spring for all the digits, 1-9$? Why would you even bother making a pump that only did 1-3$? Base ten was invented for a reason.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $10 lunch and snack

Laptop is still in the shop. I guess I'll have to suck it up, because you all are bored and there are others worse off than me (good luck Carolina Bound).

Got on my usual bus to get to work this morning. In the good old days, I could get a quick window seat on the front half of the bus. In the last few weeks, I could get the last, next to last, or next to next to last window seat in the back half of the bus. Today?

Half the bus was full, no window seat to be had, not even the seat in the articulated area (usually the last to go). I sat with another old timer.

I used my guile to get a window seat. I knew that several people got off at the next stop. Luckily one of them opened up a window seat which I pounced on.

Watching for Mad Max on the motorcycle riding over the Aurora Bridge. Now that's a good recession sign.

I walked from downtown to the southern-most neighborhood of North Seattle - its the midway point between downtown and home. Last Saturday, taking Aurora and the Aurora Bridge took 1 hr 20 minutes. Today I walked Dexter and the far friendlier Fremont Bridge, and that leg also took 1 hr 20 minutes. The walk was equally boring, but with less traffic it was quieter and much less fume-y.

One of the reasons why I walk so much is that I have "perfect" bus timing. I think, "it would be great I could catch the bus at intersection x", only to find that 50 yds ahead of intersection x and against the light the bus I wanted to catch is now pulling away. Happened twice today with two different bus routes 5 blocks from each other. And the buses run every 30 minutes on Sunday.

If it weren't for bad bus luck, I'd have no luck at all. Until I looked at the corner of the bus shelter after the second missed bus and found this:

Saving log - $12 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $7 lunch + $9 groceries

Put 12 in the tip box because I hadn't in awhile. One of the other things that shook out with the 403B decision is that I have almost 190 hrs of paid time off (PTO). Time to get out of my workaholic self and schedule a week.

Found 11 cents on the sidewalk by the gas station ... always good hunting grounds.

Day didn't turn out half bad, even though I forgot my bus pass and both the morning bus and the afternoon bus were more full than I've remembered ... even with the fare increase. $3.50/ gallon gas and pouring rain tends to fill up a bus fast.

When a bus is stuffed to the gills you really notice the crap everyone lugs around. Ever really use all the stuff you lug around? After I got my degree and was packing up for my postdoc, I pulled papers out of my bag - the one I lugged around daily for 5-6 years. There were scientific papers that I might have read once, but then lugged around in my bag for years. What a waste.

People carry stuff to put on appearances. Look how busy I am. Look how prepared I am. You're pushing paper, emails, computer files. A cellphone, a wallet, an iPod, a PDA/blackberry thingee, keys, your lunch maybe. Need a huge backpack or tote bag for that, whapping everyone in the aisle seats as you go? I know that with my little neoprene purse I look somehow less productive, less busy. I'll still have my shoulders.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $7 lunch + $14 groceries + $50 cash

For the new readers out there: saving log and spending log are quick snapshots of what I spent or saved that day. Nothing much more.

Since my Paypal interest rate is not any higher than my ING account, I consolidated by moving the Paypal money into ING.

Getting my folders ready for the tax advisor tomorrow night. I still have to find my SS card and my last year's form. If nothing else, I have files for both on my flash drive.

Lawyer friend's youngest brother was diagnosed with a serious form of leukemia; he's heading out tomorrow for the east coast.

Tomorrow is the last day for my temp guy. He can speak Mandarin Chinese; his new job depends on his ability to translate and he was tested on it. He squinted at a character and said, "Badger?". The company was very happy; no one else figured that character out.

Tonight I was milling around my bus stop at my usual time. Intermediate transit lesson for today is: Identify your markers. Markers are people who share your regular schedule and who you ride with. See them milling around the stop and be consoled that you didn't miss the bus. If you get sick of watching the road for your bus, watch their movements instead. If they're heading for the edge of the sidewalk, so should you. Its considered a nice touch if you yourself have a memorable flair and you're regular; you too can become a shining beacon marker for someone else.

Friday
Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch

Saturday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $13 brunch + $231 Christmas gifts + $40 dinner with friends

Sunday - $0 tip box
Spending log - $16 Walgreens

Finished Saturday with the Christmas shopping - whew. This weekend I saw a lot of shoppers and the stores were busy.

Once you buy more than one package, the hard part comes when you have to lug the loot on the bus. I thought I had just missed the bus, but luck smiled on me - the bus I had missed must had been extremely late because another my-bus showed up a minute later. It was especially lucky not only because I caught that one, but since the extremely late bus forged ahead it picked up all the other riders before my bus came. It meant lots of empty seats that stayed empty and no bashing of others with the boxes as I tromped down the aisle to get off.

We were also supposed to see I Am Legend with DJ friend and his DW at the IMAX. The IMAX projector broke Friday night, so it was just like the airlines - we rebooked. And we got several free passes for our trouble.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $9 lunch

Not much happening here - just waiting for the Monday paycheck. I'll be running on financial fumes - $100 for the weekend. The Duvall friends have got our blueberry bushes. (We decided to get a couple and put them in kind of a secret corner of the back yard.)

Sister's lawyer sent both my sister and I so I asked in an email for a little clarification - did he split the bill in half, or is one just a copy?

Took the bus tunnel for the first time since it opened. Its geometry seems different, but that could be because I hadn't seen it for two years.

Good news - a couple of months into my blog I wrote about the closure of the bus tunnel and how it affected my commute. The bus tunnel is back. Yippee!

However, some things will remain the same. No cars or 3rd Ave between 6-9 am and 3-6pm. Seattle got very used to the proceeds coming from those 101$ tickets. Not that I complaining - beforehand the cars on 3rd would just go crazy - turning into pedestrians, etc.

And some things are very, very different again. A few buses transferred to 3rd Ave. One of the buses that I can take to work now lets me off right in from of my gym, right across the street from work. Before, I'd have to take another 3 minute walk cutting through the interior of my favorite building, the Exchange Building. I'll miss that. I'll also miss the 20 calories or so that I burned off daily.

A homeless man's sign, as spotted from the bus:

Father killed in Ninja attack.
Need money for karate lessons.

My assistant for the pledge processing season came on board today. Bought him lunch.

Got bought breakfast by DH.

It was the best grocery shopping deal of the season. Peaches for $1/lb, 1/2 flat of blueberries for $6, frozen green beans for $.99/16 oz bag. (Corn and peas get that low, more rarely broccoli, but green beans getting that low is very rare.) I know, frozen's not as chic as fresh, but the best price for fresh green beans this year was at $1.49/lb, today they ran at $1.99/lb. There's chic, and then there's doing the math - last I checked, 16 oz equals 1 lb. Double the price.

My meal was a festival of good fats - guacamole with avocadoes & salmon, with homemade potato salad with green beans in it as a bit of a vice, and blueberries, blueberries, blueberries.

Up on the DVD tonight is the last episode of Deadwood - let the obscenities begin.

Fun image this week. A little bit of drama on the bus. Will it fall and fly around inside?

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $6 lunch

Just thought I'd write up something different...

Saturday my bus stop got a shelter that it didn't have on Friday. It was amazing that it was built so quickly, but it was a bummer too. It means that this so-called temporary bus stop is now the permanent bus-stop. R.I.P former, convenient, all buses stopping bus stop. Sigh.

Oh yes, note to Metro transit: with the shelter we now need a big wastebasket. When you have people sitting down away from the elements, you get litter.

So last Saturday I felt (and might have written) that I was riding with the transit amateurs. Transit amateurs just don't know the rules of the bus - boyfriends stand in the aisle next to their girlfriends even though they are corking up the aisle for other people even when the driver tells him not to - people looking confused when they pay (to be fair, a bus going toward downtown you pay getting on, a bus leaving downtown you pay getting off. Not foolproof) - people even not remembering to hang onto rails - people really, really wanting a window or an aisle - and everyone with a duffle bag or a backpack that you're just wearing. Cripes, its Saturday, and you're heading to festival in the city. Whatever happened to the wallet and the clif bar?

So some new professional bus transit tips...
1. Use the penguin hold for your backpack if you are standing in the aisle. Its simple - take your backpack off, pretend its a penguin chick and stick it between your feet. You won't bash someone in the face.
2. I hate the window and being constricted and I'm going to sit in the aisle seat and sigh loudly if someone goes to the window seat. Get over yourself. You're in a community of transit riders for a 30 minutes. Play with others even if you're sitting in a seat you hate.
3. Couples - its okay if you aren't sitting or standing together. Just get off at the same stop. Are you that worried that another bus rider is going to steal your girl away? And we are all going to laugh if you call each other on the cell phone.
4. Don't annoy the professional riders by asking us "what's this bus like during the week?" or "I'll bet its real quiet on the weekdays." If you want to know, ride the bus during the week.

And here is the best tip for busriding in Seattle.

1. Watch and learn where your bus goes along its route, and look at other bus numbers at the stops it stops at. It means that:
The more routes you know and the greater the willingness to walk means you have more flexibility in the buses you can take.
If there are a ton of people at the stop you are waiting at, backstep and wait at the stop before the stop with a ton of people at it. (You'll probably get a seat.)

Saving log - $lots, see later in the post
Spending log - $20 for 2 breakfasts, $5 lemonade

This weekend's the Fremont Fair, which I usually don't go to even though its free - it just concentrates badly behaved people - but I wanted to see the art cars. I didn't realize that Seattle hosted the 3rd largest art car gathering in the US.

Here's one using materials familiar to a blogger:


This one can only be described as a tart car, with black bras and curlers on the top:


A working fountain on the hood?


This one has a wicked sculptural quality to it - the top of the windshield has the words 'outta my way' in mirror image, so you could see them that way in your rear view mirror.


Art cars intersect with frugality in weird sorts of ways. For instance, the one thing that art cars share is that the car part is all paid off; I'm sure that GM Financing takes a very dim view of gluing black bras on the hood of a car that you are still paying on. . In most cases, the materials used as a motif for the car - discs, lingerie, beads, chalk, paint, match box cars, pennies - are usually cheap or worthless. Making something out of nothing, as it were. And you have to be very, very willing to live with and still use the results.

Today I also received the 4th payment from dad's estate. The state of Wisconsin signed off and is buying our 2nd piece of property, but that money hasn't come into the estate yet. With this 4th payment, the sale of the first property is now divided up between sister and I. The amount is small enough so it would be FDIC insured as a CD, but large enough that its weird to see it as a simple slip of paper. Shouldn't it have a gilt frame or something?

Wednesday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $7 lunch

Thursday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $5 lunch

In Paris, DH was quite taken by the number of 2-seat Smart cars on the streets. Today, I saw something one better - a Sparrow in the street.


Its a one-seater; one bag of kitty litter would have to drive itself home.


And another shot of the stickers - an electric car. The caption underneath the Sparrow says, "Ruler of the City Streets".


Tomorrow I see what my new paycheck will look like. I've learned not to form an expectation, otherwise I'll be disappointed.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - .65$ milk + $5.25 lunch

This morning I was called into my boss's office and was offered the promotion. On May 16th I will be packing for Paris but I will be the official boss of DJ friend (boy that'll be weird) and another co-worker.

The job grade is one step higher than the one I have, so I'm guessing it will be a $2000/yr pay raise. That and an expected 4% raise at the beginning of the next fiscal year (July) means I have a fighting chance of paying off the Paris trip within the year. I'm not sure if the job grade pay raise and the cola are additive or not.

Tried out some more settings on the camera. I figured out that it takes black & white, vivid color, cyan, and sepia. Since the MayDay rally caused a stack-up of buses, that's what I used.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - .65 milk + $15 lunch

Did the chirashi lunch today because I needed brain food for the afternoon. This afternoon I interviewed for my promotion. It went okay, considering I was the only contender. I fretted, though, about what I said or didn't say. As I was fretting, a co worker said to me, "remember what your competition said!"

Still, it will be a battle not to think about it this 3-day weekend. I have Monday off for my birthday and plan to do a couple of trip related errands.

The picture today - we get all types of morning bus commuters in Seattle.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $7 lunch + $11 goodwill (shoes and light blouse)

Bought a pair of brown slip on shoes and a neutral light blouse for summer. Seattle is not known for summer particularly. Usually there's a three week space that you need something summery - after that, its long sleeves year round if you want. I just don't want to hit Paris in t-shirts.

Hit the gym again armed with an index card containing a lower body routine.

My bus ride goes past a sign that never fails to make me smile. Here it is.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.62 coffee, milk + $15 lunch

Just a lot of Robert Altman-esque Short Cuts today.

Succumbed to the lure of chirashi today. I got a new sushi chef, who gave me a slightly smaller plate but wasn't stingy with the fish. I'll have to remember that my usual sushi chef works on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

Found out that the first person I met at work had died. A remembrance of his is tomorrow. He was the computer/network guy who showed up to fix your computer when it was ailing. He retired five years ago, but its still a bit of a shock.

Gave my assistant a little hug as she was leaving on her last day. She told me that she had done more varied stuff in 5 months here than she did in 7 years at workplace unnamed.

The 2007 Poetry on the Bus competition is up and running. I'm a bit lukewarm on the theme - but I have my idea and my twist. All I need is a bit of incubation on a couple of words (you only have 50) and I'll send my shot off. We find out on June 1 - perfect, I'll be in Paris not fretting about it - but by then I'll sure be able to use the $125.

Speaking of the bus, I relearned the pole slide today. It's where you use your angular momentum to slide into a window seat, usually stealing it from someone who hasn't discovered the trick.

DH discovered old stewing hens at .99/ each at the HT. Coq au vin tomorrow!

Saving log - $3
Spending log - $2 coffee, milk + $8 lunch

But the $8 rare beef pho lunch came with a walk, which is what I needed. Tonight all the electrons around me went on strike - two electric buses made a turn, twisted a bit - I wouldn't really call it a jack-knife - and stalled out, blocking all the other buses heading north on 3rd Ave. I thought I had missed my bus, instead I walked past it. Waiting there for a little while, I got antsy again, found that my MP3 player died (electrons again) and decided to walk all the way to Macy's and catch the easy bus home.

Just finished calculating and free-filing my taxes. It seemed easier last year, but the reason could be that I had a couple extra 1099s, and I there were a couple of IRA twists that I forgot about. This year I free-filed at the same site that I did last year, so I saved having to hunt around for a company that would do it. (I file in WA state, which has no income tax. Most of the free filing sites will let you file your Federal taxes for free as a loss leader, but want the ability to charge for your state taxes.)

I was very happy that I had my financials on my USB drive (w/ password). The last step had me looking at several lines of my last year's 1040 - the answers would be known only to me and would form an electronic signature. It was a lot easier to look for my .pdf form on the USB than it was in my paper files.

I'm getting back $289. Not bad - I try to shave it close, and with all the interest income I've gotten, I needed the traditional IRA to keep it super close. Next year I expect to pay because I've gone for the Roth IRA, which won't shelter any money.

Saving log - $3
Spending log - 1.65$ coffee + 4.36$ lunch

The office opened 2 hrs late, and DH was sound asleep, so I really didn't want to push it by getting him out of bed..and frankly, traffic's been just nutty, even by Seattle standards. Waited for the bus for 25 minutes, and I did a little multi-tasking by buying a coffee and drinking it while I waited.

Love my Yaktrax. Every day for these past few days, standing around with them on, at least five people have asked me about them.

Its not particularly financial, but I have to get this off my chest. An open command to my brethren, the Seattle bus rider: Sit the he&& down!

Amateurs.

So many times in these past four days, on a packed bus, when the bus stops and a few people manage to ssssqquuueeeze off, there can be an empty seat. If there is no older person who needs the seat and you are closest to it, it does not help matters any that you are standing there like a goob next to an empty seat. Worse, you are now blocking the seat for someone else. But its my next stop, you whine. Yes, you are polite. Get over yourself. Sit down.

Yeah, I'm a tad cranky.

I did actually get an interesting financial nugget in the paper today, disguised in the science section. Researchers discovered two spots in the brain that are active when you are considering buying something. One spot, the nucleus accumbens, is a pleasure center active when you are about to buy something you want. Another, the insula, is active when you experience things you don't like - pain, disgusting smells, etc. So deciding on a purchase is thought to be a wrestling match between the two. Of course, the "tightwad" supposedly has a more responsive insula, but half of Americans tested have one of those. It also turns out that a number of retail tricks - buy one, get one free; the credit card; the all-you-can-eat buffet - short circuit the insula, while tricks like buying with cash engage the insula. Fascinating.

Now sit down. You're hurting my insula!

Thanks, guys for your advice. I'm going to tell lawyer friend about it so when I stick his name on the cc:line he won't be surprised. Except for the 70% weirdness, the landlord and the rental are fine. We aren't insane nutball tenants; if we do call, they respond quickly. Best of all the rent hasn't changed any in 5 years.

So why do I rent? Well to tell you the truth in the simplest and least bitter-renter sounding way, financially we can't swing it in any fiscal responsible way right now, circa 2006-2007.

The median price of a house in Seattle/ King County about 400K. As a matter of fact, Zillow.com estimates the price of the place we rent at 370K. DH and I together make 60-65K, and we rent our 2-bedroom digs at 845$/month. Even with the most evil, fiscally suicidal I/O, neg-am, no doc ARM loan at a bogus teaser rate we would still pay about $500/month more than we rent. And a loan like that means that I would still be renting - from the bank instead of a landlord. To afford a 30yr fixed, we would need to at least double, even triple our income.

So we cheap it out, save our money, and wait. After all, a house is like any other purchase - you want to get a better price. No sense being frugal in your choices, save your money, then turn around and overpay in the largest purchase that you'll make in your life.

That's not to say we aren't interested. We're saving our money - house prices can drop, or they can rise even further. Conversely, we can save for a down payment or we will sit on a ton of money and rent. Either way, we sleep well at night.

Well, maybe not DH. His side of the bed has developed a slow leak. (Select Comfort is basically an air mattress with a phd.) At least with air, it is a lot less messy. Because my side is just fine, right now we are swapping out hoses, valves, etc, to narrow down just what is failing on DH's side of the bed. (BTW, take your best shot - I'm going to either delete or treasure your comments.)

Slushy, goopy mess today but a lot less icy. 2 buses on my normal bus route didn't come, so it was plan B - down the hill to the workhorse bus. I was 15 minutes late.

Savings log - $2 tip box (finally deposited this month's scrapings today), 8.04$ coming from this week's T-bill, and payday.
Spending log - $2 coffee/milk + $7 lunch.