Put 5$ in the tip box.

Bought a coffee in the old, a bit more expensive spot (1.75$) because it was on my way. Bought a bowl of pho for lunch (7$ including tip). DH read my mind and bought dinner - shrimp fried rice for me, from a carryout teriyaki place that has massive portions. I showed some self control and ate half.

Not much happened today, it was all the usual craziness. I can't even think of a good rant.

Friday - not much happened. Thursday night I was restless, but it wasn't the coffee particularly that kept me up. See a few paragraphs below.

Finished DJ friend-co/worker write-up for his website Friday night. I had a lot of fun with it and turned out well - he had a lot of material, had lots of sentences. It was just a job to polish the sentences (keeping his style), get rid of the "well duh" phrases and connect them into coherent paragraphs. It took maybe 4 hrs. I've got to think about doing more of this - its a blast and I might just as well get paid for it. I'll put the link on when I get it.

Friday night DH and I went out to get burgers. Had a cheeseburger for the first time in 10 months. $5.95

Put 40$ in a DRP.

Saturday DH taught me a frugal trick of his own. Instead of parking meters, Seattle has parking stations - a whole block is marked off, and at the center of the block is a little pay station where you pay for a ticket with the expiration time and a sticker to stick the ticket to the sidewalk-side of the window. The ticket has a sentence that I've never noticed before - the ticket is transferable. DH and I had several errands around town. DH added a little extra time and we just drove with the same sticker and parked in our spots. Very clever - once you came back to the old parking meter, you couldn't get your change back.

Now for what made me restless. I have a crush on a man. It feels like the classic - a bolt of lightening, although I should have known it was coming - I've been bubbly and receptive for weeks. Flirty jeans are good, but come on... I don't know whether its requited, and since I'm married, its moot. In a weird, weird way though, I'm laughing as I write this: crushes are very frugal if you don't act on them - no dates, no diseases, no come-downs. (if you do act on them - the cost of divorce will kill ya!) At least its not a workplace one - you have to grit your teeth about those and ride them out.

That's what I bought today - $1.75 coffee + $4.90 2 grey L tops + $21.75 tweezers. A few footnotes.

Coffee - at the weekend place, where I have a punch card and have saved up for a couple of free-bee coffees.

2 grey L tops - at the thrift store. I always go for the best feeling stuff in solid colors. Nice to be able to buy Ls, as opposed to XLs, but when I try them on with the 14s, I get the "muffin top" effect. So I'm jazzed, but I shouldn't be too jazzed because I have plenty of work to do.

Tweezers - couldn't find my favorites and my eyebrows needed shaping. Anybody got a problem with that?

A few questions answered...

Toiletry drive: buy toiletries and they will be packaged and given to once-homeless folks now moving into several of the newly built non-profit apartment complexes scattered around downtown Seattle. I've toured the downtown emergency shelter 3 times in 6 years; each time I've seen fantastic progress. The shelter itself is now not a "snake pit" and folks are moving up and out into clean apartments. Still lots to be done but compared to 6 years ago, its phenomenal.

Got the Walgreens passport picture for $7.99. Not fantastic, but it does look like me and will probably look like me after 6 hours on a plane.

So I was getting my cheaper coffee and it turns out that my chiropractor gets his coffee there too. We chatted - lawyer friend is thinking about trying out a chiropractor and I was going to send him the business. At the end of the conversation, my chiropractor said to me that since we were finishing up that he wanted to do something special and that he was going to talk to his accountant. I wonder what that could be?

it just happens to drive a big Safeway truck. During my evening hike home, I waited at the slow crosswalk when said grocery truck slowed, then stopped before the crosswalk. Crosswalk light still showed not to, but the truck blocked both lanes on the left, with no traffic coming from the right. Normally, if its a car, I much prefer to wave the car on. A bad driver could make the love/hate relationship I have with my knees even worse. I knew how much effort this truck took to slow and stop and it seemed a crime to wave him on. I went against the crosswalk light and waved back.

Gave 7$ to a toiletry drive at work. Shopping for that stuff doesn't give me enough of a thrill; better to give the money to someone who likes shopping for that stuff.

Got another rain check at a different grocery store, this time for diced canned tomatoes. 2 for .98.

Put the old passport, the passport renewal form, the check for $67 (yikes!) into the padded envelope. All that remains is to get 2 current passport pictures.

Not much financial happened today. Got the cheap coffee @ 1.37, with tax. So only a 17% savings.

We are doing a living room reorganization and DH found my passport. Even though its older than ten years, its still exciting because it be a whole lot easier and cheaper to replace than to get one from scratch.

Work is getting crazy again. Today in gym, my trainer was shadowed by another pre-trainer. I ran through the exercises pretty well - I must do better with an audience.

Put 6$ in my tip box.

Forgot an energy bar today, and since my usual coffee place only has bad-for-you stuff, I checked out the little deli that I sometimes get sandwiches from. The energy bars were 1.69 (sob - better remember my .89 bars tomorrow!) but they also sold my usual brand of drip coffee...

For a 1.25$, or about .40 cheaper than I usually get it, or even better, for 25% less. Time for a switch. No harm, no foul, just a cheaper way to run my routine.

Waiting for my paycheck on Friday.

Put 35$ into a drip.

Hard to believe it had been five years. Five years ago this morning, I rode on a quiet bus. I heard a laugh from someone, then a growl, "don't you know we are at war?" At work, we watched buildings pancake on CNN and the dust cloud roll into the street, and watched them over and over. We were allowed to go home if we wanted and many people did. I was numb; I wanted to stay and do a simple repetitive task. It had to be better than watching tumbling buildings.

Had a chat with the chiropractor. Week after next, I'm just going once a week. One $40 check drops to $20.

Glancing at a before and after diet commercial, I realized how incredibly frugal I am. Everyone else in these commercials is wearing the great condition fat pants, sticking their thumb out from the waist to show how big the pants are. Dammit, I'm wearing my too big stuff until it falls apart (or it falls off - hah hah). No one's getting me to pose in perfectly new usuable stuff. Besides, everything's incredibly comfortable and easy to get on.

Put the $7.45 from this week's T-bill into ING.

Put $10 in the tip box, sent $40 to my MMM drip.

Trip 1: to get an emergency nice outfit in case I have to go out on the road with the fundraising staff for the non-profit that I work at. The mission is to look nice, but not too nice. You don't want people to assume that their gift goes to your favorite boutique, and besides, this blog is part of Saving Advice, not spending advice.

So it was Ross Dress for Less, where I got a wonderful surprise. I am 2, count 'em 2, sizes down. I'm now a 14, instead of an 18. Freakin' Woo hoo! Got a brown suit and a pair of nice black pants = $38.06.

Trip 2: Best Buy. More of a treat, but it will be used a lot. Got an FM transmitter that plugs into the cigarette lighter of the cushmobile, and it broadcasts what's on your MP3 player on an unused FM band. Not fancy, but it'll work with either mine or DH's MP3 player. Set it up and it did what it advertised. Best of all, you can unplug it and take it with you or hide it from prying, thieving eyes = $54.39.

Used a 2 for 1 coffee coupon at a local coffeeshop - coffee for DH and myself = $2.00.

Oh yes, the bed came on Friday night. DH was not happy that he toasted an entire day waiting. Even if they had said morning or afternoon, he could have planned.

But I finally got a good night's sleep Friday, Saturday...ah. The hardness adjustment works, the position adjustment works, the massage works. But I could hear the vibrations coming from the massage all the way in the kitchen.

Ran out the door with my purse, my wallet nestled in its little pocket. I walked to my bus stop just as the bus was pulling up (I love it when that happens). I reached for a compartment in my wallet...

No bus pass.

Its okay, especially on a commuter bus in Seattle - they know you have a pass and that you've bought the ride already. Besides, the driver said, its the first of the month and it'll happen a lot today. Get on.

Got in line for coffee. The cashier knew my order, poured my coffee while I opened my wallet and discovered no money in it. Worse, I had no debit card. Got my coffee anyway, because I was a regular.

So I went fiscally commando all day today.

I hate the surprise. I hate it when I forget that I stuck my bus pass, money from the ATM and debit card in a spare pocket for speed. I especially hate it when I have to dip into the tip box for the necessities.

Spending log - 4.50$ curry

do I seem to wear out my jeans at the crotch? Even when they are officially 1 size too big? Don't answer that, and I am fully ready to delete the obscene comments (after I wipe my eyes from laughing)...

Got the recycling bin cleared up. All the paper/cardboard I chucked from the linen closet and the home office is gone, gone, gone.

On my last real vacation day (DH tells me I should count the weekend, too, but I'm not), I got my haircut and walked 1/2 of Green Lake, listening to Vanguard podcasts.

The second T-bill matured yesterday, and after Treasury Direct automatically rebought for the next 4 weeks - I scraped the leftover back into ING. Another $7.89.

Since many of us take care of laptop batteries, cell phone batteries, PDA batteries, MP3 batteries, and since batteries are pretty much the reason electronics get busted, I thought of you all when ran across this link:

Oh yes - bedroom carpet is dry, and a fine perchlorate product (oxy-clean) did a fine job of getting rid of the musty smell. A final shampoo and we have moved back into the bedroom. DH bought a better, queen size air mattress and I can sleep okay on that.

I still wish the bed would hurry up and come. I noticed that we've paid for it already.

I was flush with linen closet success, so I tackled the home office and library (aka the second bedroom). DH uses it about 80% of the time and I use it about 20%, but in the last year its been running 95%/5% because the office is a total squalid shambles. Total ick. DH makes nests despite several books on organization and cleaning clutter (hah hah - teaching the organizationally challenged organization is a bit like teaching an elephant to fly), and I have to be in the pitiless, ruthless mood to do the task. Perfect: sleeping on an air mattress and the couch for nearly a week has put me in ferocious, ruthless mood. And after that blog entry about enjoying your own box - well, I've been in that vibe all week.

Day 1 - desk, floor, and 2/6 bookcases. My technique is pretty simple: sort into empty boxes. Clean the desk down to the wood making several piles: paper to toss immediately (including pamphlets/CDs of equipment that I know we don't have), paper to put in a pile for DH to sort, CDs and video games, computer equipment and cables. Dust the desk.

The bookcases are bit more problematic. We both love books and we have more book than bookcase, but I figure if I can dispose of 3-4 pieces per shelf (dups, outdated, bad condition, items I was given that I'm never going to re-read), I can get everything back in place. Dusting, though, is brutal!

I finished by vacuuming the floor and turning the HEPA filter on. Here's hoping that the dust on the bookcases makes it into the HEPA.

The pile technique is very useful for DH, because he can make pretty good decisions once his attention gets narrowed down to a box. He got his CDs and video games sorted and sold them at Half Price Books for 18$.

Day 2- file cabinet and 2 more bookcases. I started another box of office supplies. So many reams of paper, blank labels, blank envelopes, pads of paper, blank journals, pens & pencils, computer tools, postits, a binder or two! I've got to use this box before acting on the cravings when I'm at Office Despot.

Found Clif bars for .99/apiece at Trader Joes. Now both DH and I use them as breakfast bars. Not bad with a cup of coffee and the serving size is highly defined.

Slept much, much better on the couch last night, it was quite a bit softer than the air mattress. It took awhile to get into a good position with my neck and upper back straight and not over the side of the couch. I might be able to keep my humanity and sanity by the time the new bed gets delivered and assembled. I guess its a bit more than plunking down a box spring and a mattress over a bed frame. Still..two weeks?

Anyway, did the deep decluttering of the linen closet. The floor became a miscellaneous storage area along with shelves stuffed with bed linens, beth towels, hand towels, dish towels, napkins, tablecloths, pillows. I tossed three boxes worth of stuff - two boxes of magazines (anyone for Consumer Reports 1996?) and fifteen year old scientific journals. It felt a bit sad, but I hadn't looked at them since we moved here six years ago. And there is always the Internet and the library. I bound up a very large plastic bag of clean linens for donation and put it in the car trunk. Out of sight, out of mind...only the memories remain.

I mentioned it to DH in passing. I didn't want to be a complete sneak about this, but I have to use some special strategies with him. Yesterday I mentioned that I put a large catalog out for recycling and that I did the same with his Chilton manual on his old car (the one that was wrecked, now is gone)...he still wanted it! He has this fantasy of putting the manual on the hood of the first 1988 Corolla AllTrak he saw. That book cost $60!, he said. DH never went to college...you get a little blase about book prices when you do!

I'm rolling my eyes here.

My special strategy is to put the manual in the car, because he must be out and about and driving when he blesses some hood with the manual. He can look at the book in the back seat for a week or so. Then I move the manual to the floor of the car, kind of out of sight, then the trunk, and then...poof. If he asks... I dunno, where did you put it?

Transfered $200 into ING today. Its not all my bonus, but a good chunk of it. I figure my raise works out to about $40/paycheck, so I've hiked my pay-yourself-first rate by $25 at the beginning of the month, and $50 at the fifteenth.

Ate breakfast and coffee out today, and celebrated the linen closet by a gigantic fruit and green tea slurpee concoction. Yum.

Another year, and another August sewer, water, garbage bill. Again, the landlord got it wrong in the letter by claiming that the lease said we owe 70% of the utilities. I went a bit stronger than the innocent letter. Instead, I copied the current lease (which referred to the 2000 lease, no changes), and the first page of the original lease, which said 50%.

Now don't get me wrong. It's not the money, its the fact that the lease is a contract. If I paid 70%, it'll suddenly be 70% all the time, and who's to say what it will be in the next bill?

These last couple of days have not been particularly vacation-y, if you know what I mean. We've decamped on air mattresses in the living room which means I wake up with a stiff back. The bedroom floor is dry, but smells a bit musty. Gotta be a bit of mold. Time for another carpet clean, and hit the carpet with the sodium perchlorate. New bed won't be here for a little while, so we might just as well get the carpet in great shape. This afternoon, I lit up a particularly powerful bit of incense in the bedroom and that helped the smell quite a bit.

Today I felt a bit blue because of all clutter. Tomorrow I'm doing my favorite cheer-up technique: deep decluttering. In just fifteen minutes this afternoon I found a quarter. Looking forward to earning some money!

Gotcha reading, didn't I? DH and I spent the first day of our vacation sleeping around...for a new bed, of course. We tried out mattresses from Select Comfort (all those Sunday mornings listening to Prairie Home Companion paid off) and Sleep Country, then rounded out the day by checking out Costco online just in case there was a deal, and reading Consumer Reports online.

A few random notes:
Why do mattress companies all have initials SC? And lots of mattress names start with S; many have "pedic" at the end. You get so that you say...that one!
The sales staff at each place were very nice about their competitors, but they did try to distinguish their products.
DH sleeps hot so he warms up Temperpedics, Latexes, Memory Foam...and that eliminated a lot of choices. (Shouldn't blame DH for this - in a few years, I'll be sleeping hot, too, if you know what I mean.)
We both seem to take a bed of similar firmness.
We both squealed with delight at the idea of an adjustable bed (I can blog in bed)!
DH really liked the massage features..when the massage was going, I kept looking for where the quarters would go.
Shopping mattresses is kind of relaxing. Ten minutes on a mattress with a nice pillow...wake me up when you decide whether you like it or hate it...the stress comes from that its all d%*n pricey because we're starting from scratch (no box spring, and only waterbed bed box).

In the end we went with the Sleep Comfort adjustable. It was actually 19$ cheaper. Of course when your total was at $5,147, what's 19 bucks? (by comparison, DH's original waterbed cost 100$)

The waterbed began to leak this morning, and it was terminal. And yet I'm thankful that:

-we are on the first floor.
-bed bag lasted 30 years, according to DH.
-bed bag blew at about 8am. We got going when it first started. In other words, no waking up to floating slippers.
-we both knew what to do, which was to unplug everything in the bedroom, drain the bed, move dry things to the living room, wash wet sheets, wait for the bed to drain (coffee and the Sunday paper), put drained bag out in the back yard along with the container and the platform, wet and dry vac, shampoo & rinse carpet, run fan to dry.

If I'm buying with the emergency fund, I'm looking forward to getting something else. I've suspected for awhile that the waterbed has been keeping the chiropractor in business. Being able to get regular sheets will be a treat, we can catch up with the latest in bed technology, and if I have to give up the travel part of this vacation, then darn it it'll be the hotel bed at home.

I've a two week vacation starting tomorrow. Wheeeeee! We're planning to go to Canada next week. Go before we need a passport.

Cleared out the valuables from the office, which means cleaning out and depositing the tip box: $53

On Tuesday, the raise and the bonus comes in into direct deposit - 4%, of which 3/4 is raise and 1/4 is bonus.

And to make it a real vacation and a real break from routine, I cancelled my chiropractor and personal trainer for the two weeks. Saved about $280.

The first 4 week T-bill matured yesterday, putting $7.99 into savings.

Spending - 1.75$ coffee + $5.00 lunch (with the tip)

Its probably why I started it today. I liked the coincidence. Almost 59,000 hits, but don't get too excited - at least 50,000 of those were caused by me, reading and re-organizing the categories.

Took the last 2 salmon cakes to lunch today, which meant I could do a very light small lunch, just rice and fish - $4.

DH didn't feel up to going out, it was birthday gifts and the card at home. It freed me up to try a test run of contrary1's recipe for extra salmon. Check it out in yesterday's comments. Fabulous! So much so that it will be a secret from the trainer tomorrow. If I got beat up for 5 girl scout cookies...

Got 3 return emails from the mail thievery situation that I sent out Friday night. It was nice that I got them all early Monday morning.

Inspector - what was copied was what was recovered. No lost DRP envelope, but it was comforting. No one's holding back.

WaMu - They sent the CD statement a week before the theft. No holds on the accounts, but I can change the account numbers if I want. Since my US Bond and ING accounts are linked to certain account numbers, that will be painful.

Wells Fargo (transfer agent to the stock) - I can put a hold on the account so that nothing can change without my express permission. My request has to be by letter or fax.

Put $7 in the tip box.

Got a different type of exciting government letter - this one was from the US Postal Inspection Service. Our mail had been stolen sometime in mid-July. The City of Seattle had apparently caught the person and USPIS is filing criminal charges. We were also given photocopies of our envelopes, the postmarks dated 7/10 - 7/12, along with the three forms filing criminal charges. I filled out the forms enclosed and sealed 'em. Then I emailed the bank and all my transfer agents.

and then I remembered something. I lost that DRP form July 15. Dang. There was no activity - the check number didn't show in my bank, but no deposits to the DRP either.

Now there is activity. Sigh.

Emailed the postal inspector on the case telling him (her?) about my loss on July 15. That would cap it all if that DRP form was found with the thief.

And its official: trust no one. Red Alert 24/7.

Well, we were the redneck carport of the week since the first week of April. And when DH got his mom's white Buick, we were breaking the lease by having 1 good car and 1 busted car on the concrete pad.

DH's front end smashed car is now finally gone, leaving the white Buick. Whew!

DH kept the smashed car out of pure stubbornness - he insisted that "I'd get it fixed" which then segued into "but what about the bumperstickers?" (Note to anyone: here be $1.75 bumper stickers.) and then finally "I want to get some money out of this."

He put an ad on Craigslist, a guy called, drove by, made an appointment with DH and towed it away. DH didn't make any money, but he didn't have to pay any either. And now we are in keeping with our lease.

Added 3$ to the tip box; spent for a $1.75 coffee and an $8 lunch.

Normally I eat lunch alone, so I can do my dividing, but lately I've been eating lunch with lawyer friend's partner to cheer her up and calm her down a bit. There's frugal, and then there's cheap and mean. Lunch on the high end until our nerves settle down.

$3 more in the tip box

Spent $1.75 for coffee, and $8 for lunch. The price per lb of salad rose .50/lb to $5.49/lb. Bummer! Although they still have mango slices, baked salmon, fried mushrooms, and tofu with black bean sauce, so .50 more is still worth it.

Saw the chiropractor checks online, which was a treat in each sense of the word; last week my bank "upgraded" its site. I couldn't get into my bank account so I couldn't reconcile my checks. It could have been worse. I don't use online bill pay, thankfully - that was completely knocked out during the "upgrade". Welcome to the icky side of the digital life.

Worked out at the gym by myself today. Because I'm in the fitness challenge, I have to get weighed and measured. Another personal trainer did the deed, and I got another piece of rotten news - no weight loss or inch loss. To be fair, a bad before number means that its easier to win.

And tonight, I joined a night out party put on by the Seattle Police & Fire Dept to promote block watches. The block in question wasn't my block, but the block on the next street over. We live on a high traffic street so we had no ability to block off our street. No matter - there were at least 3 parties within 2 blocks of us.

Not that much saving going on.

Lawyer friend's partner is alright, but I found out that I knew another friend, initials CG, who worked there and had gotten shot in the knees. Time to circle the wagons, figure out what is needed for her and how to help.

Now for the more mundane:
- I put 7$ in the tip box.
- I managed to "play my cards right" and get a week's worth of breakfast coffee for $1 (usually runs $8.75).
- Payment made it to the transfer agent in time to buy comparatively cheap 3M stock next week.
- Signed up for another fitness challenge, along with the two friends from work. The personal trainer rates are cheaper during this time, and she was in a contest to sign up the most people. Since I put her over the top, she's giving me a free session. Might just as well make gym pay me if at all possible.

Late this afternoon, there was a shooting at the workplace of lawyer-friend's partner. No names have been released.

I hope she's all right.

We are having a heat alert in Seattle tomorrow, so I expect to have another not-so-good night of sleep. Last night our 19 yr old cat kept hurking up, so his food is being cut back a bit.

Today I spent stupid money. I left my bus pass in my yesterday's pants pocket, I had to beg to get on in the morning and pay $1.50 on the return trip home. Lunch out with lawyer friend, but at places charging only 6$. Compared to 10-11$ a month or two ago, we are making progress.

Last night I was going to change a bit of information on my Treasury Direct account. I was so clever a year ago answering the security questions. Too clever: I locked my account. I highly recommend their customer service - no hold, no hold music, just a nice guy who answered the phone on the second ring, asked me some security questions and unlocked my account in all of five minutes.

I've still been doing gym. I haven't been measured lately, so I think I will ask next week. My large gym shirt is comfortable (It'll be years before I become a medium), the upper ab bulge is disappearing and the shirt is not creeping up. Yippee! My trainer is now working with my two co workers, who are now gym buddies and come in nearly every day. I'm excited for them, too.

Spending log - $1.65 coffee + $6 lunch + $1.50 bus ride.
Saving log - $1 tip box, scheduled a $2000 transfer from ING to another 4 wk T-bill, moved $1000 into another DRP.

Scraped up 48$ from the tip box and put it into savings.

Ate the footlong sub over 2 days to save a little bit. Ordered up DH's gift from Think Geek , DH's birthday card, and sister's birthday card. So $1.65 (coffee)+ $5.72 (2 cards) + $29.00 (DH birthday gift).

Our workplace is talking about converting vacation and sick leave into PTO (paid time off). I tend to accrue beaucoup amounts of sick leave and I'm not terribly interested in starting a family, so it'll be an okay deal for me. The COO had mentioned that there were about 30 people who he felt might be abusing sick leave. I didn't think it was that many, but then again I work for a living.

Bought a new-ish cordless phone at a yard sale for 5$.

One of our cordless phones is busted, useful only for getting the voicemails. The other cordless phone is a bit better, but it is now very touchy - you have to set it in the cradle just so, otherwise it won't recharge. At one point three months ago, for practical purposes we had no phone service for a few hours. I had to email in sick that day.

We'd get a new phone at Best Buy, Circuit City or Fry's Electronics but as soon as DH gets into one of those places, him and his money goes bye bye, so the yard sale find was a true find for us.

I found the owner's manual on the Internet. FYI, that aspect of the Internet really makes yard sale finds extra valuable. I remember when you paid a premium for stuff if the manual came with. Now (devil horn alert) you can bargain someone down because of no manual, then go and find it on the Internet.

The second wedding was tonight. It was a small, lovely ceremony. There was a wedding toast/advice free-for-all. Mine was to remember that getting married is one thing but being married is an even bigger task.

Gosh, how to not sound snarky but man! DH just got yanked around every which way. The original plan was that MIL (at 82) would be in Seattle for a day or two passing by as part of a tour of Victoria and Vancouver. Two relatives from Spokane came, one bearing flu. MIL caught the flu, and from that came a round robin of phone calls.

First MIL was not going to rejoin the group, then she got a doctor's clearance after a couple of days, then she was (and had DH make the plans), then she didn't feel up to it again. Which meant that MIL would have DH book ferries and taxis, then cancel them again, and then have to call other well meaning parties conveying the latest, conflicting story. What a waste!

There's pride and there's decisiveness. Even the idiot frugal DIL knows that. Finally even MIL realized that it was crazy to go on.

And to the tour guide trying to guilt me out by saying that she sat with MIL in the hospital at 3am: congrats, lady, for doing your job. It ain't all oohing at the Space Needle.

Curry lunch, payday, and $3 in the tip box. Waiting by the phone for the next strange installment.