Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk (noshed on the other half of the footlong for lunch)

More wheels in motion - two days ago I got a call from the administrator of grandma's trust, as did sister. Sister called back and was told that even being named in the trust she couldn't view it or know who else is named in the trust.

Well, that set her off again. Might just as well toss a red cape in front of a bull. I got a disjointed email and a sentence fragment "would email lawyer." Little did I know that she failed to write the word "you" as in "would you email lawyer".

I emailed back asking "what is your goal in all this?" I told her my goal in this which was "I want to receive what grandma wanted to give to me when she was of sound mind and body."

Sister called me at work today, and agreed with my goal. Then she asked me if I had emailed her lawyer.

I said, "Huh?"
Sister said, "But you would write it so well - it sounds reasonable. Me, I would sound like I'm ranting."

So I got down to writing sister's lawyer, and I'll send a copy to lawyer friend. Basically what it boils down to is that we are a bit suspicious of the cousin who made the trust. We don't know if he has a conflict of interest, when the trust was done, why the secrecy.

We'll be inheritance experts soon. We'll have seen everything.

So first a pic - it disappeared completely during the potluck.


Now the recipe

Goth Potato Salad

2 lb purple fingerling potatoes (nice and small)
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1/3 jar of sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil from sun dried tomatoes
2 handfuls whole pecans
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 c pesto
salt, pepper

Clean the skins of purple potatoes. Do not peel, do not poke. Steam potatoes covered, without allowing them to touch the level of boiling, salted water. I set up a colander with the potatoes over the boiling water and put a lid on the top. Potatoes are done when a fork can pierce them.

Allow potatoes to cool, do not splash water on them to cool them down. They will continue to cook a bit. Cut potatoes into bite-sized pieces.

Add chopped onions, sun dried tomatoes, and pecans to potatoes. Add the olive oil from the tomatoes to coat and gently toss.

Mix pesto with 2 tbsp olive oil, thining to a creamy consistency. Add pesto to potatoes, gently toss.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $6 lunch (2 day footlong sub)

So it begins again. Tonight I got a call from the cousin's lawyer. In a couple of days, paperwork from grandma's trust will arrive.

I got a letter on Saturday from my bank that I've stashed 2 CDs in. Apparently they hadn't gotten the signed paperwork yet on the second CD. I called today about it, the rep told me that it is possible that it might be part of the backlog. I'll take a look and call you back she said. Thirty minutes later, the rep called back and told me it was there.

To give myself a little break from the kvetching. Fall is here, the bus rides are getting darker and darker, but the views are atmospheric!

From a stopped bus off the Ballard Bridge at bit after sunset.


Mid day in Occidental Park - the tree leaves obscure Smith Tower. In the early 20th century, Smith Tower was the tallest building west of the Mississippi.


Benaroya Hall in the early evening. Blurry, but I just loved the purple lit windows.


A neighbor got into the holiday spirit.


Last night DH and I went to a Halloween Party - I didn't do much in the costume department, just sprayed some green hairspray in my hair and smeared some fake blood on my face. Total cost - $2. Bought nuts for the potluck tray - $10.

So I saw this in the Seattle Times Real Estate section:

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.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + 12$ lunch $2 fruit + $21 "happy hour"

Deposited $49 from the tip box to my bank - a good haul. Unfortunately, I managed to spend nearly $40 in the blink of an eye. Two drinks and snacks during happy hour just kills frugality. Liquor really kills any ability to save money. I just have to be thankful I had $25 to spend and no thought of pulling out plastic to dig myself in deeper.

Since DH has access to his family's cabin in Montana and I have access to the farmette near EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) in Wisconsin, DH and I thought to arrange a trade - sister and her partner could come and visit Montana, and the BIL, a pilot, could use the farmette and visit EAA.

All parties contacted were very agreeable, but it was very interesting that DH's sister and my sister had very similar reactions - DH's sister was thrilled, but asked to remind everyone that the cabin's very primitive w/outhouse, no electricity, etc, while my sister mentioned the bathroom, the kitchen floor, no air conditioning and the fact that they might be sleeping in the same bed that dad died in, but heck...it's free.

Out of everyone, I'm the only person's who has visited both places, tee hee. They're both comparable - each is not for everyone, but for the adventurous, each would give you something to talk about for years.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk

Gnawed on the footlong for the second day so I saved money on lunch. DJ friend did tempt me - he was interested in the 2 for 1 deal at the local indian restaurant.

Spent 101$ on a fall coat, a tote, and scarfy-earmuff thingee. Gearing up for fall/winter. Seattle rarely has a midwest style winter, but it does get cold, rainy, and dreary. I'll use what I buy.

Today, though, it was a beautiful day with blue sky, and freakishly warm - in the mid 70s.

Duvall friend is applying for another job - her boss is driving her insane. She fretted a bit about the loss of 6K of income should she get the job...but sanity should be worth more than 6K! I'll find out more about how her interview went this weekend, we might be picking up an actual blueberry bush.

Saving log - 0$
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $6.50 lunch (footlong to nosh on for two days)

So lately watching my stocks and 403Bs is like playing eensy weensy spider over and over. Spider is at the top of the waterspout (last Thursday), the rains came (Friday) and washed the spider out, and now the spider's crawling back (Monday). I've got to stop monitoring it so much.

This Halloween my ambition is just not into the costume. I might just put a big fake blood spot on my forehead and call it a day. The Halloween potluck, on the other hand, I'm ambitious about. Go figure.

I'm working on a dark "Goth" potato salad - with purple potatoes, beets, red onion, pecan (walnuts weren't dark enough) dressed with olive oil and a bit of pesto. In other words, if you dribble, it will stain.. So far, the only way I've found to keep the purpliness is to get small, deep purple fingerling potatoes and steam them making sure that no potato touches the boiling water. Boiling liquid just kills the purple.

Not much has happened in the last two days. Played poker and lost. The company's fun, but not for every weekend, just once in awhile.

Lawyer friend and I are planning his lunch. I promised him lunch as payment for informal lawyerly help during dad's probate. Now that the second property has been sold, lawyer friend got hungry.

A wind and rainstorm hit, and now only green and brown leaves are left on the trees.

Today I bought a few groceries, keeping an eye on the register. "Wait a minute, I thought that..." I said. It turns out that some linguine I bought had been mistakenly set up as an end cap display, so mistakenly set as 50%. I got the mistaken price, but it gets one to thinking ... what is the most dollar-saving thing you've said?

"Wait a minute, I thought that," politely said, is mine.

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.