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Archive for July, 2012

commission brought in $100

July 29th, 2012 at 01:55 am

Last week I grouted the house numbers in gray grout, then I let the grout cure gently for 1 week. This morning I delivered it!

The couple thought that it turned out better than they could have imagined. Even though I offered to charge them $70 as a thank you for taking a chance on me, nope I got a $100 bill for it....


And an offer to mosaic their business address number ...
in any way I choose as long as the number conforms to City of Seattle business statutes.

And a hey, we want some of your business cards so that we can talk you up...

ka ching for the TGT shareholder

July 26th, 2012 at 06:09 am

I don't usually talk about shopping, but I will today. Today was the first day of a "City" Target located smack dab in the middle of Seattle. Last year, I opened up a Target DRIP and became a Target shareholder, so while I did a little shopping (sliced turkey breast for $5/lb), I did mucho research.

The place was packed - plenty of business being done. An excellent addition to a once nasty block where you now can get lunch fixings, a sport bra, feminine products, hardware, furniture, an iPad, a wheeley suitcase, cards and wrapping paper... not that you couldn't get them before in downtown Seattle, you would have to run a 2 hr steeplechase through at least 7 stores. And you still wouldn't be able to find a hardware store.

So I'm stoked. I'm stoked that I can shop at it, stoked that it really opens up that once incredibly nasty block (2nd & Pike), and I'm stoked that I'm a shareholder to it.

middle of staycation

July 19th, 2012 at 02:55 am

Still no call from the court, so I have to assume that the jury I was an alternate for is still deliberating. I'll see if there is a way to search cases online. I was a little disappointed not being able to deliberate last week. I'm sure the jury that remains probably envies me.

Right now I'm relaxing at home, but I do have some goals for the day this week. Goal #1 is to catch up on my house cleaning - which I am doing 30 min or so at a time by using mini-projects. For instance, I scrubbed out the tub out yesterday afternoon. Ah, heaven! Goal #2, unfortunately is work related - performance evaluations. One more section for me to write on my own eval, and I scheduled the meeting for my direct report who went on family leave.

Goal #3 is to finish my commission. So far, everything is glued - I stick the mosaic onto a board using thinset, then grout. Grout cures for a week and voila. But so far, it looks good... Paulette, the finished piece will appear near you!


Sunday I hit the mother lode. I was at a yard sale, looking, and I talked with the owner who told me that she had a lot of stuff due to "projects". Smile I mentioned my mosaics. Turns out that she used to do stained glass and asked me if I could use stained glass. Could I! Big Grin. I bought what I think was about 10 lbs of glass for $5, it was a nice variety too. You can see the stained glass above and below the numbers.

Other things - I finished by change finding for the third year in a row (yes, oddball me I started in mid-july). $90.35. Thank you loose change losers. And yesterday, I found my 6th silver dime for my precious metal portfolio.

No interesting deaths that I know about - nobody had Andy Griffin, or Kitty Wells. 4 people in our group have Bashir al-Assad.

dodged a metaphorical bullet

July 14th, 2012 at 05:12 am

These days in Seattle you have to make that distinction.

After 1 month of no gym, and during jury duty lunch was free range with all the old haunts, I weighed and worked out with the trainer today. 167.8. By comparison, my lowest in the modern era is 164.2.

Phew!

done, kind of

July 12th, 2012 at 05:17 am

So I was the jury alternate, the spare in case something happened to the other 12. The other 12 are now in deliberations, and I was released. I'm still not to talk about the case until it is over, but the court will call me when that happens.

As far as fiscal is concerned, I had a very merry time eating lunch at restaurants, not going to the gym, etc. Gym and the trainer cost bucks, so having to cancel means despite eating at restaurants I've been saving a bit than usual.

Excited that KO stock will split 2 to 1 in August. It doubles the shares, halves the price. It halves the dividend but since twice as many shares are generating the dividend one would get the same dividend ... however if you reinvest the dividend, at half the share price you buy twice as many shares, which then get reinvested. Right now I have about 123 shares, which will soon be 246 shares. The $60/quarter in dividend (not changed) will soon buy almost 2 shares/quarter.