Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $8 lunch

Payday. Attended an allstaff meeting, so coffee and breakfast was on the company dime. All I bought was lunch today.

Last night I finished editing a call for sponsorships for DJ friend to attend a New York City function. (he's from NYC, and he'll be visiting that week anyway).

Its supposed to get into the 90s tomorrow and the next day in Seattle. Ughhh! Its only May. This is supposed to happen for a few weekends in July-August, when we retreat to our nearest cheap arthouse movie theater. It is a deal - $3 for air conditioning, lovely darkness and pretty pictures. More if you want snacks. Hopefully there will be a set of pretty pictures with an okay plot that I want to see. Oh, to trade my weather with boomeyers!

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $10 lunch + $3 bag of salad, apple

I'm ending the big project at work. Basically, its importing electronic pledges coming from a very, very large software company from Redmond who shall remain nameless. I've been working with over 14,000 transactions (oy vey), cleaning the data and batching them in groups of 250 apiece for audit to check over and the data entry staff to find out if the donor is in our system already, and do the final upload into our systems.

I sort them alpha by last, first, then middle, so it just so happens that there is a very wicked batch of 250 pledges, 52 of which are Lee, 2 Lea, 2 Leigh, and 52 are Li. It tells you my state of mind that I found that hilarious. We were thinking of giving the batch to our boss, coming back from a day off... just for laughs.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $8 lunch

I'm finishing up a huge project at work with an eye on all the other crap piling up while I'm on the big project, so it was a crappy day at work. It should let up, but this whole season has been strange - I shouldn't be this busy in May. Last year at this time I was packing for Paris!

This evening I saw that the IP stock has now been bought, and that drip fully made, all done by the transfer agent (Mellon) in less than two weeks. It was because I already had a drip with the transfer agent, and the company had a program where you didn't have to buy the first share from a broker. Very nice to know that Mellon's so fast.

I did have a good laugh at this website - based on a local series of insurance ads.

http://www.werealotlikeyou.com/

Much funnier if you live in the Pacific Northwest. No stereotype really, really nails me...maybe #73 - The Blackberry Hunter, so I guess they're really not like me at all. For laughs, I submitted my type: The Intimate Anonymous Blogger.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $13 lunch + $7 groceries

I got the first paycheck after my new 403B withholding. In case you missed it, I hiked up my 403B withholding to bulk up my non-taxable accounts, force me to spend my taxable accounts, and basically put me in a better tax position for next year.

Better tax position, baselle, better tax position. Keep repeating that while I blink at my direct deposit deposit in my online bank account. It was a 400$ drop. Per paycheck. That makes me queasy.

This is going to be very, very different.

Collected up my coupons and bought $14 worth of groceries that we use for $7.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $6 lunch (foot long sub for 2 days).

There is one downside to having a day off on Monday: Tuesday becomes Monday. On my Monday, everyone else's Tuesday, I worked through:

1. missing pledges that the fundraising staff assumed were with us. Ha ha, we received them in the mail all right, but we sent them back to the fundraising staff to sort and batch. Where did we find the pledges? - in the fundraiser's safe.

Guys, its a safe, not a wastebasket with a lock! If they make safes with a clear, bulletproof plastic panel...well, they could sure use that.

2. I returned sister's call at work. Turns out that she did her own taxes, and she's wondering why she's not paying nearly as much as I am. Where does the Schedule K-1 fit into it? For me, the Schedule K-1 fit into actual professional help. !

Oh yes, sister mentioned that she might have quit her job. She got tired of her $13/hr job, she got yelled at one too many times, she said she had a headache felt sick and was going home. Sister's partner thought that sister should take off six months, work on the farmette, then go back and find another job.

"Well, if you did quit, you did it at the right time," I said. "It will look like it happened because of the recession, and not because of anything you did."

I can relate, I'm actually a bit surprised she lasted this long. I've had similar emotions - a fair amount of cash so quickly has its own pull. You hear all the pettiness at work, you look at your bank account, note the fact that it will last a good ten years even with careless spending, and you think - well, what for?

Dad, mom, grandma and grandpa put up with a lot of what for to build up what they gave to us. Seems like I should put up with just a little more "what for". My bank account still feels like its not completely mine. My own safe is full, locked, and also needs a clear plastic panel.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $9 lunch + $2 tea

The nasty fire alarm sounded off at around 1 pm and it was real.

While a couple of fire trucks rolled in, our whole office tromped over to the meeting point. Ten minutes later, one of the floor wardens gave us the news. There was a small fire on the roof of the building inside the elevator penthouse.

"Elevator penthouse?" I said. "No wonder why the elevator doesn't always work. Would you if you had a penthouse to come home to?"

It was a small fire. We could go back to work after about 45 minutes, so to pass the time, I had a chamomile tea. I couldn't smell any leftover smoke in my office right away, but I could catch whiffs every so often.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $4 coffee, bagel, apple + $8 CD + $20 sushi lunch

I walked a huge amount today, and began to jog. I'm a terrible jogger, but dammit, since I bought warm running tights I'm going to see if I challenge myself a bit more. As if walking from 92nd to 35th and back ain't enough.

I did manage to jog about 5 blocks. I'm no runner, have no bounce in my shins, and got winded quick, but I'll see if next week I can do 10 blocks.

The worst part though was midway, because I landed in Fremont, where I bought and ate my apple, but then I flipped through the used CD store, walked through the Fremont Sunday market, found the Theo chocolate store (and they give tours of the factory, FYI). I managed to sniff and enjoy the store & amazingly, didn't sample any. However, tired and hungry, I succumbed to conveyor belt sushi, picking and enjoying the most expensive plates. Luckily the most expensive plates were $4 apiece.

It did mean that I felt that I had to walk back. And now I've go to think about my endpoint at the end of my walks - I don't want to turn them into rewards where I spend a lot of money.

Checked my bank account online. Tomorrow is the last day of the month when we get paid, but the next paycheck was there already. Nice. I was expecting that the net $ of my check would drop due to the increased 403B withholding ... A pleasant surprise that I miscalculated - March 31 should be the last paycheck of 1st quarter 2008.

Savings log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $12 lunch

Very quiet day at work - several people were out sick or on PTO. Not only that, it was restful - the phone didn't ring once today. I attribute it to both: the non-pious concentrating on "March madness", and the pious concentrating on Good Friday.

DJ friend was looking for someone to do his taxes, his normal guy got sick. I gave him a recommendation for the place I used two weeks ago. However, I tossed my coupons. (I saved them for a few days, trying to figure out who I could give them to but in the end my hatred of crap lying around the house won out). I stopped by the CPA on the way home and the office gave me new ones, so perhaps I get $20 off.

My subject line doesn't refer to anyone here, or anyone I interact with online. DJ friend is wrestling with a guy from another Internet radio station stealing the content of his radio stream. For a monthly fee, DJ friend had a lawyer write the guy. The guy has no name (not a surprise) but calls himself troll. So the letter is addressed Attn: Troll, and the salutation is Dear Troll. Its a serious letter, but the "Attn: Troll" made me smile.

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 + $8 lunch + $17 groceries

Went to my 403B administrator in HR to get the form to change my 403B withholding.

"You're early," she said.
"But its for a change of April 1," I said...

Usually HR canvasses for changes the week before, I guess. I tried to explain why I was changing it and that it will look weird, but she would have none of it...she didn't want to know. Filled out the form, so I pulled the trigger. It puts my take home pay at what I was at 4 years ago; it'll be something to get used to.

And I have to remember to back it down for next year.

Picked up some plums and apples for $1.48/lb/each, received grapefruit from Harry & David. We are awash in fruit.

Saving log - $0 tip box + $35 Drp 1 + $40 Drp 2
Spending log - $1.55 coffee (16 oz size), $6 lunch

Put money into two of my Drp stocks. They aren't going gangbusters, but its nice to be able to put a little something in when stocks are cheaper.

I finished figuring out what I want to now put into my 403B. 2007 I had to pay tax with a penalty, and I want to avoid that. I figure the most strategic way to avoid it is to increase my 403B to the max.

The maximum that we can put in is $15K; from my latest paycheck (end of February) I've already put in $1170, I can change quarterly so I will have put in $1755 by the end of March (quarter 1), so I have $13,245 to put in for 9 months. That works out to be around $1470/month, or $735/pay period. I used the paycheck calculator, first putting in what I was doing already to see if the numbers were about right. They were within $5, so I increased the percentages by 5%, then 2.5% until I got a 403B withholding close to but under $735. 37.5%. I drop my paycheck by 300$ and that's per paycheck - $600/month. I can do it, but it will take some getting used to.

The other commitment was to the trainer. I've had a heart to heart. I've basically been 185 (sometimes as high as 190, or as low as 183) for over a year. Is the plateau an issue? What kind of new goals should we go after?

I thought about this over the weekend, and I came to some conclusions:

1. The weight plateau doesn't bother me - unless I stepped on a scale, you wouldn't guess that I'm 185, and these days, maintaining and not increasing weight even during the holidays is an achievement.

2. What does bother me is my waist. Legs, arms, chest, back, butt, even upper waist have become more defined and I'm happy with their progress. My lower and mid waist are stubbornly resistant. Don't get me wrong - the ab muscles underneath have gotten a lot stronger - they just are still cloaked by the fat on top.

3. Weight training is great and I enjoy it - but right now its the same moves with increasing weights. Not too much to learn after you get the form down and you figured out what muscles get targeted. I suggested that I'd like to learn some pilates and yoga moves and with that my trainer brightened up. We did a couple of them today - the v sit keeping the chest up and moving the arms up and down. Pumping arms up and down gives you something to do while you are holding that darn v sit...my mid back is very stiff.

Conclusion is that we are going to work on an inches goal, specifically for the waist. Not that you can spot lose, but something's bound to happen.

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.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $15 lunch

Got a lot done today, but at the expense of telling people, "go away...right now." At 5:30pm, as I was about to leave, one of the temp staff found a check and an envelope of money on the street. It looks like its coming from someone who works in the building next door. No way to lock it up with the rest of the money - the co worker with the key to the safe left a half hour before - so I had the temp person tuck the envelope underneath my keyboard.

We'll see if we can do a good deed on Tuesday, after the President's Day holiday.

Sweet holiday this year - payday was today, right before it.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $10 groceries

Today was the last day for most of the temp staff. We'll have a couple staying on for another month or so; my temp person will stay for one more month. We had a last lunch party, paid for by the department.

Then it was another party for a co worker leaving after 21 years. She wanted to make sure that I was still writing so in her memory book I wrote in the address to this blog. I've given my blog address out to a couple of others on their last day. I wonder if they ever looked me up here?

Kinda funny that in the age of easy worldwide publishing that I would be so covert about it. But it is far weirder to be so open. Like somehow its bad for a company to check if you've put up your spring break drunk pic...and then, the gall, not hire you if they find it. How dare they?

Checked to see where I could go to caucus at 1pm tomorrow.

Wrote a 40$ check and a $35 check to two drips.

Saving log - $8 tip box
Spending log - $60 dinner (for two)

Was treated to the coffee and lunch, so I paid it forward and treated sweetie to a restaurant dinner. It included a very good folk singer/ satirist, so it was appetizer, dinner, dessert and a show.

It was a good antidote to the general craziness at work. Right now I'm just buzzing, thinking of all the things that I have to do. I have to calm myself, see what has to be done, and work my plan. I even went so far as to consult the I-Ching which told me to center myself, work the details and don't draw too much attention to myself.

DJ friend asked me to look at his 403B plan to identify a fund that is too crazy. Sounds a bit terrified that his 403B is dropping with the stock market. Said that his DW lost 100$, so she put everything in cash. Its hard to advise someone so risk adverse; they really can't put it in anything but cash so while they keep the numbers from obviously dropping, they don't see the stealth effect of inflation. The numbers stay up, sure, but when it costs twice as much to buy something in 18 years (at a 4% inflation, using the rule of 72), you've lost a lot.

http://baselle.savingadvice.com/2007/07/28/rule-of-72-with-a...

I wonder if giving him an exercise would help - ask him to track his 403B total daily for a couple of weeks. It will go up, it will go down, it will go up again, it will go down. The idea would be to show that a $100 loss is nothing compared to the variation that those weeks would show. Of course, it might could freak them out even more.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee

Yesterday I bought a sandwich from the winnings of the Packer game. I bought large enough so that yesterday I got free lunch, today I got free lunch, and tomorrow our little department is hosting a free lunch as a thank you for the temp staff. 3 free lunches this week.

I had 10$ leftover from Sunday and I won't have to hit the ATM until Thursday. Yay. Slow the velocity of money so that it leaves my wallet at a crawl.

Was a serious icebowl commute this morning. I live on a ridge, so its an icy downhill no matter where I go. Still have my Yaktrax. They work like a dream and get comments about them when I stand at the bus stop. And stand I did; the bus came late making me 45 minutes late.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $13 lunch

I woke up at 7:45 am for an 8:10 am bus. It went downhill from there. I got in and was bombarded by needy co workers, my temp guy looking for projects, and strange snafus. I solved them, but it wasn't until mid morning when I could work on what I needed to work on ... for me.

Then came lunch. My first choice had a line out the door - no good - so I went to my hideout - nearby. Got in at 12:30, and while it wasn't nearly as busy I mentally went over my schedule today. Wasn't I supposed to have a meeting at 1? I got served at 12:45, huffed it down, caught a bus and got back at 1:10 pm, heart racing thinking "I'm late!".

Meeting was at 1:30. Whew, wasn't late after all.

My boss and I waited for the elevator to make the 1:30 pm meeting when we heard voices in the shaft. Elevator was stuck on a floor - we got a co worker to call facilities and rescue the voice, making us both late ... by 10 minutes.

The day took its own today.

Yesterday I made an appointment with the financial planner for Monday. I was satisfied that he wasn't going to use me as a boat payment, and the last thing he said to me was that I should sleep on any advice and not be to rash.

Finally, the CD shop near my house put up a sign that he was going out of business. I passed by a couple of times since then, bummed and little bit embarrassed. The owner was a friend and, well, what is the etiquette here? Go in like nothing happened and pick over the stock? Walk by and leave it alone?

I went in tonight, gave my condolences, and found a couple of CDs. Turns out that he's moving a lot of stock this week. I laughed and said that the persian carpet sellers in Pioneer Square had the right idea. Keep advertising a going-out-of-business sale, lay low for a couple of weeks, then start back up again. Another customer told him exactly the same thing.

Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $1.91 large coffee + $9 lunch

Today was the downside of working for a large non-profit. We were very busy today, the last day of the year, charging the credit cards of the procrastinators who want a tax substantiation for 2007. When I left for my hour of gym, a donor was actually waiting in the lobby, tapping his card on the bullet proof glass in the lobby. Sigh. I have to admit that today's a lot easier when it falls on a weekend.

It feels like the recession is coming, even here in supposedly "bullet proof" Seattle. Other years we would have 3-4 unchargable credit cards/ week; this year 18!

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee

Nearly no spend day because we had our Winter Event - aka the afternoon office holiday party. A lunch in a nice venue in downtown Seattle, with a drawing for prizes, and a couple of speakers. It was all right, but not nearly as entertaining as ones when they had the no host bar. Now there was frugal entertainment! I don't remember the precise year when we stopped having the ability to buy a drink. A guess that's a good sign that I don't have an adult beverage problem.

I won 2 tickets to a John Denver (esque) concert at the Seattle Rep that I must use by Dec 24. I put the esque in parantheses for a reason, John Denver's been dead for awhile. Or maybe, just maybe, if I have that adult beverage that could appear to change.

Paycheck tomorrow. $50 goes to another DRP account. The interest that I've been earning on T-bills has been dropping like a rock - over the summer its been 5%, now its about 3%.

I keep getting Ameriprise materials, so I know that an account in my name had been created and bits of grandmas trust is moving into it, but nothing final. They say that trusts resolve more quickly for heirs, but in my experience the probate process was much more absorbing and a bit more transparent. I know that's a bit weird to say, but with all the decisions that sister and I had to make it seemed that probate knit us together a bit more. I'm sure sister would disagree - she had to do most of the heavy lifting. Trusts just seem mysterious. If its that much a done deal, just cut us two checks and be done with it.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $15 chirashi lunch

I'm on disc 2 of an F/X series called 30 Days. 30 Days is made by Morgan Sperlock, who famously tried to live on McDonalds for 30 days in Super Size Me. Different people lived a different lifestyle for 30 days. For the purposes of this journal, the two interesting 30 day experiments were of 1) Sperlock and his fiancee trying to live on minimum wage for 30 days in Columbus OH and 2) a couple trying to live "off the grid" for 30 days. Both couples managed it, with some insights, but 30 days is not that long a time. They are both punks compared to lrjohnson, living for ONE YEAR on CA minimum wage. I miss her...is she coming back?

Managed to lose 1% of body fat last week. How did that happen?

Work is crazy, of course, but now a tad strange. One of the higher ups (defined as anyone higher up than me) is having issues that I find hard to describe. The closest I can come up with is mental confusion. Not emotional issues, and not dangerous, but ...odd.

Monday
Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $2.39 coffee, milk + $8 lunch

Tuesday
Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $7.50 lunch

Nope. While I'm in North Seattle, I did not get flooded out. I'm on a ridge, but about 20 blocks from the flood plain near Northgate. Sure has been wet rain, not a mist - a quick jog for a couple of blocks gets your legs soaked.

The rain's made a hash of the work schedule. Temp guy had to take off work to go rescue his stuff from his apartment. Day care places have flooded out, so I've had to be flexible and allow for a child or two. We work in the basement, ordinarily okay except for this fall we've had a lot of leaks - water coming in from leaks between the sidewalk and the curb on 2nd Avenue.

DJ friend is back on the mend, but his finances got wiped out from the week he'd been out. I had been looking for a Christmas gift for him - instead the stars aligned to give him a much better gift. I had been paying my copays to the chiropractor, but during the physical therapy billing phase the copay turned into a credit. My original plan was to ask for a refund of the chiropractor at the end of the year. Instead I asked to put half of my refund into DJ friend's account, good for a month of back popping at the student rate.

Trust administrator is asking for "one more form" for grandma's estate. This time I'm the foot dragger - it looks like the trustees are setting up new accounts in my name. Sigh. Just give me the inheritance in my name.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch + $25 poker game

Crazy, crazy day today. I work for a large non-profit in Seattle, who shall remain nameless (initials are UW). Today we organized and readied pledges for processing from a large company. From my perspective it was fun, putting pledges in piles, adding things together, taking a box of unruly and making it "ruly". Just a few observations on the process.

1. Fascinating looking at personalized/ artistic checks. It makes you wonder what kind of adult writes a Kenny Chesney or a Scooby Doo check. Since artistic checks come in a series you have to wonder ... for every Kenny Chesney-guitar pose check, do you get the Rene Zellweger handing-you-divorce-papers check?

2. Checks are a magnet for another kind of transaction - badly filled out checks. A fundraising staffer showed one check which had the money amount written on the to:line, where our name of our non-profit is supposed to go. Nothing else. We can't cash it. I was pretty sanguine about it. "Fake pledging at its finest," I said.

Fake pledging happens every so often. Its a badly filled out check or a pledge form. Sometimes the check bounces, sometimes the "donor" wants his gift to go to a place that we can't send it (a place that's not a non-profit). If you are new to the non-profit biz, you think, "how can the person be so careless?" The old hands to this biz just smile. Fake pledging. After all, if the person is paying a mortgage or rent ... they know damn well how to write a check.

Fake pledging is perfect to the passive aggressive employee. They appear to follow the herd and pledge, and if they do it in the sight of others they aren't bothered for the rest of the fundraiser. They don't have to go through the discomfort of saying no. Best of all, they spend no money - when the fake pledge gets to us, we can't cash the check so we don't book it.

Too bad the employee who didn't want to participate couldn't say no... they could save themselves a check, we could save some time, and we would have no one to laugh at.

Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $4.50 groceries

New temporary staff orientation with a little breakfast provided. And again, another lunch with turkey salad on top of a toasted english muffin. There's only enough salad for a couple more days; even so that's a good 4 day run of bringing my own lunch.

Also paid a total of $375 to my DRPs - $300 in one, $35 for another, $40 for another.

Homework for gym last week was to hold a hollow plank - on the back, legs up at a 45 degrees, arms parallel to legs, shoulders up off the mat - for a minute and a half. I told the trainer that I practiced and that I'm ready.
Want a countdown? the trainer asked.
No, let's just see how long I last, I said.
So in the middle of this, I'm thinking that this is the llloooonnngggest minute and a half, and I was about to drop when the trainer said that I had nine more seconds. I made it past the nine seconds...and it turned out that I had held the position for two minutes.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.30 coffee + $15 chirashi lunch.

Keeping on an even keel financially. Collected $49 from my tip box this month and put it into savings. I've been debating putting some new money into a WaMu 9 month CD, but WaMu got caught doing some interesting things during this subprime mess. Sure, its FDIC insured, but is it worth the agita?

We are now all busy at work. My supervisor and I went through my 6 month evaluation, which was successful. I'm the boss of DJ friend so I'm happy that I'm keeping things in a good place there. My other employee is working out very well, too - I've given her a bit more responsibility and she's run with it...that was good to see.

DH picked up our turkey - its huge, but it means that everyone will get a lot of turkey, darn it.

I'm usually not jealous of other people's thanksgivings, but my temp guy is heading back to Oregon to a Chinese feast of seafood hot pot. The WASP traditional feasts are nice, but the ethnic traditional ones are much more memorable. I was invited to an Iranian thanksgiving with turkey, pilaf, and a gigantic bowl of pomegranite pips. Just take your favorite feast food, make a ton of it, and enjoy.

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee, milk + $10 lunch

Mixed up day at work!
--In the last couple of days, my little deli hasn't gotten its half pints of no fat milk, so the manager has been giving me little covered cups of no fat milk either free or reduced rates.
--Our roof - actually the roof of my office is right below the sidewalk, not below the building - is leaking, so a guy from the City of Seattle has come by to fix the leaks. He complained that since its now dry, he can't find them. Well, duh. Today he was mixing up sealant trying to seal up the concrete over my office.
--Teaching a couple of my staff how to clean spreadsheets. Teaching moment was conflicting with the sealant.
--Chiropractor's staffer came for boxes.

Delivered good news yesterday to DJ friend. He got a small payraise, retroactive from 4 months ago.

I'm been exploring what to do with my grandma's inheritance. One of the local banks is in the process of offering a CD where you can donate interest money to the non-profit where I work, but the bank also will donate 20 basis points in addition. (I knew about this because we have to figure out how to put their proceeds onto our books.) I asked for more info by email, left a phone number. One of the bank's VPs called me back - turns out that I'm the first person who asked about it. (they hadn't made the CD public yet.) We had a great conversation. I could get used to having good conversations with banks.

Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $6.50 lunch

Work was on the snoozy side today, so snoozy that we had a debate about whether daylight saving was this weekend or next.

Next, it turns out.

Been noticing, strangely enough, all the "No Public Restroom" paper signs on all the local businesses. Don't know if they've always been there and I've only recently gotten a clue, or they're new. The paper looks fresh, FWIW.

I've also been noticing safety lately. I work on the southern end of downtown, a bit north of Pioneer Square. Now with the days getting shorter, the nights getting longer and I work a bit later and get to the gym on Sundays, what I've seen has put me on my guard a bit. Two incidents.

1. An older, larger woman was testing out our front doors after hours on the weekday. I was about to open the front door to leave when I saw her. She asked me through the crack of the door whether there's a pay phone. No, I said. And then I stood there, and she stood there for about 15 seconds. Like I'm going to open the door. She sighed, turned, and left, and that's when I opened the door.

2. I was stopping over at work to unload before gym on Sunday. I spotted a guy in his early 40s testing our doors. I wasn't about to unlock the door; instead I walked past with a purposeful stride, then turned to see what he was doing. Yes, testing the door I was about to use. I walked slowly away, watching, until he crossed the street, then I looped back and unlocked the door.

It seems like over half of my coworkers have bad door hygiene. We have key cards for after hours (not a key), and 15 ft tall, heavy brass double doors that look like they take more work to open than they do. Most people use the key card, then love to open the door using the blue handicapped button, flinging both brass doors wide open for 15 seconds. That would be a very long opportunistic 15 seconds if someone was testing the doors.

Cripes, I feel so cynical, but geez, what's not to like about opening the door the regular way? Safety and a little upper body strength. How we've escaped having something horrible happen is anyone's guess.

Thursday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $4 lunch

Wednesday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $15 lunch

The hold on the 95K dug a bit deeper - I tried to send money to me to pay a credit card and to sister and couldn't do it. This time I called and sent an email. They will unblock at the end of the week. It was a security issue - the system thought the transactions looked funny, so close to a deposit with a hold on it.

I asked the bank's customer service to send the checks by physical mail. I'll see how long it takes to the electronic - electronic so far takes 4 days.

Today our HR at work unveiled the market research data - the average person working at my job (or jobs like mine) makes about 14% more, so I can expect a few more payraises in the next few years, which means that setting the 403B at 15% ensures raises there also.

I still do gym. My weight has been rising again - its at 190. Sigh. However, my new clothes fit better than they did 6 months ago. Go figure. We did the tape, something we haven't done in awhile - I lost .5 inch off the hips, .25 inch off each arm, and 1.5 inch off the waist. I'll just have to lose weight the old fashioned way: lie about it.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.16 coffee + $8 lunch

I wonder how many people walking up or down the Cherry Street hill between 2nd and 3rd Ave past the parking garage ever noticed the fern growing out of the side of the building? Thinking about all the nasty paint and the shade the fern has to deal with, wow, its amazing its here and looking good.


This morning, I used the restroom, which meant washing my hands, which meant either wiping down the massive puddles around the rim of the sink and the counter, or ignore them completely. I've been wiping down the sinks and counters, but man, I'm just sick of it. This is what I did:

1. Wrote this on a PostIt note in tiny lettering -

"If you can read this -
You probably now have a line of soapy water cutting across your pants.
Please wipe down the counter when you are done."

2. Attached said PostIt eye level onto the mirror.

Went back to the bathroom at 5 pm. No PostIt but the counters were dry. I'm considering it a win.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $7 lunch (for 2)

Had a free espresso drink card laying on my desk so I used that instead of the usual coffee and milk breakfast routine. Had the $3 in my wallet to put in the tip box.

DJ friend saved up a multitude of 2 for 1 cards at a new restaurant, so he organized an outing. Trouble is that when one friend accepted, he had to find another to keep it even. A co worker didn't have the cash on him, so I bought the 2 for 1, plus tax and tip. He now owes me at least one.

Normally, I buy very few t-shirts; I get one every so often, so why bother buying? I hadn't gotten a t-shirt in about 2 years when today I got my third t-shirt in 3 weeks. Tomorrow, as a payment for some of my work on DJ friend's internet radio station (see links), I will get my 4th t-shirt. Weird how gifts run like that.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk

Ate the other half of the sandwich I bought on Monday. These days a lot of people use the work refrigerator, but no one used the vegetable bin. Ha ha, score for a hiding place!

Last night I got the final piece of mail from the executors - a Schedule K-1. I'll have to look it up in the IRS site to see when and if its used. The letter stated that they filed a copy with the IRS, so we shouldn't. I suspect that it means that they've filed and paid so if I file and pay, I've paid twice.

Tonight I voted proxy as on one of my DRP stocks - M&I - is splitting off one of its subsidiaries into a new company - Metavante. If the split goes through, I get some additional Metavante stock.