Still no laptop, so DH took me to the laptop shop...

Me: So how's my laptop repair coming along?
Guy at the Shop: What is your last name?
Me: (told him)
Guy at Shop types a bit, then says: We told you that it can take anywhere between 1 and 2 weeks... (and then blinked at me blankly)

Good gravy, I know that! Could it have killed anyone to say that "we are in the midst of fixing, and we are so very glad you showed up but it will take awhile because we want to do a good job?" Bueller...Bueller?

But then I remembered the stereotype. No social skills. No wonder why computer networking and its multiple components often don't work well together. Their creators don't work well together so they make stuff that doesn't work well together.

But DH and I had some success - we bought 3 very large tomato plants for 10$. I'll put them in tomorrow. Today I walked another 6 miles, tomorrow it will be digging and weeding for a little upper body workout.

More recession-y observations: along my walk I saw at least 30 placards and sandwich boards advertising condos; the ice cream shop is advertising that they are open until 7 (okay that might be weather); at every bus stop along my way I saw at least one person waiting for it, and as the bus passed me, most had a very decent load of passengers (and this was Saturday during a holiday!)

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $10 lunch + $2 snack

Well I'm sick of not having a laptop. Ugh!

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $2.00 coffee, apple + 6$ sandwich (for 2 lunches)

The repair shop asked whether they should back up my hard drive before they wiped it and re-installed Windows.

Yep - which is yet another reason why you should try to back things up often. I'm going to be at least $80 lighter after this. On the other hand, no laptop frees up a bit more time. Out of sheer boredom, I cleaned the bathroom floor behind the toilet. Necessary but Ick.

Figured out a bit more about my mysterious transfer agent for a DRP. I sent them $500 at the end of April. They bought 19 shares on May 14. A quick look at a spreadsheet tells me they only buy once a month - on the 14th. So if you send them bucks on the 15th, you're waiting for a long time. Other transfer agents buy stock at the end of the month (Compuserve), on the 15th and end of the month (Mellon BNY), and every Friday (Wells Fargo). Wonder what their sell schedule is?

Have to remind myself to call about my CD. It matures tomorrow!

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $5 lunch

Been noticing that more and more businesses are promoting new and expanded hours. In good times, they seem to keep to a bit more restrictive hours (harder to keep the dependable retail employee, and the business still makes a profit even with tight hours). Even the expensive places are promoting the 11 am lunch, the ice cream shops are promoting hours until 6 pm.

The ATM at my brick and mortar bank was not working, so I went in to the teller. She asked whether I wanted something smaller than a 20, and we both laughed... If I could get a $40 ATM bill, that would be sweet. Well, bitter, but sweet.

Laptop is still out, so I'm blogging after work. DH promised to sent the laptop to the repair shop he goes to. Fingers crossed!

Actually, this should be a stronger word, but since this is more than likely a family forum, I have to tone it down.

My laptop completely went out. I've gotten a few minutes on DH's machine - enough time to warn you that until I get this fixed, my blogging will be a bit ... intermittent.

Walked about 6 miles today on an apple and $1 bottle of bottled water. This threatened heat wave is a bit of a bust - temps are "only" in the mid 80s. Still a bit on the hot side for me.

DHs sister is coming in tomorrow, so it should be a fairly spendy day.

Grrr....

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!

Felt a tad nauseated today and thought better of sharing that physically at work. So I stayed home and caught up on my newspaper reading.

Here's a nice little rant in the Seattle Times about hating the soon-to-be .20 tax on plastic bags from the grocery store.

Local stores, in response, have been selling more permanent bags costing anywhere from .98 cents to $4. We collected ours from various places and managed not to spend a cent on them.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004411952_ram...

Frankly, changing your habits to incorporate bringing along a permanent bag and using it hasn't been that taxing on us. Here is my strategy:

1.) Fold a small cloth bag, put it in the bottom of your purse (man equivalent = backpack or messenger bag). Set your shopping on the conveyor, remember to set the bag on top of the stuff.

This is the bag you use for the little incidentals you pick up through the day. Frankly, 90% of my errands I would collect one plastic bag, so I've slowed the accumulation a lot just by doing this and remembering to pull the bag out.

The columnist above doesn't want to carry a cloth bag (too girly, apparently). Might I suggest that he take along a plastic bag (if YOU provide the bag, then no .20 fee), wad it up, then stick it in his pants? Gotta admit that would be the ultimate in win-win frugality: he has the plastic bag, and correct placement of the wadded bag in his pants should make him look more manly. Of course, no bagger's going to want to touch that bag...but you can't have everything.

2.) For serious grocery shopping, we have the bag of bags. I fold up 7-8 cloth bags (we got them all from free), and stick them in a small tote that we keep in the backseat of the car. Remembering to bring them into the grocery store is the hard part.

I have noticed two great things about bringing my own bags. First of all, most grocery stores will give you a .03 - .05 rebate for your bags. The cashiers who will give you that rebate for EACH bag are especially treasured. So far I figure I've made a $1-2 on the deal. Secondly, the baggers are starting to improve their bagging skills. Before, baggers would pack a couple of items per plastic bag - which made one feel like a dog-walker of a mass of plastic bags. Now, with the cloth bags, the baggers seem to try to get everything into your cloth bag. And that's good to see.

I won't go cold turkey with the plastic bags, I use them for garbage liners. I do shop outside the Seattle city limits and plan to pick up a few there.

One last story. I jokingly apologized to the cashier at the grocery store that I wasn't using their branded bag. The cashier smiled and said, "well, we don't care - you're shopping here!"

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $1 apple

As of right now, I am unfiscally stimulated. Not a surprise, I paid, I mailed the check, so I receive a mailed check in return. Noticed that our grocery stores in Seattle are doing the 10% sale if you use your stimulus check.

Ate the other 1/2 of my footlong sub, but bought an apple. Not a no spend day, but a very cheap day.

Got an odd $5.67 from my bank. It was an debit rewards annual payment. Small surprise, but I'll take it.

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 - $7 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $8 lunch

Neither of the big checks were presented to the bank, and my ING transfer went through, so I could move the money back to savings. Now you know that if I hadn't moved the money in the first place, it would have been a different result.

Have to call the Ameriprise planner to close that account. All I will have left is stock and apparently, legally an email stating that decision is not good enough. Makes some sense, but a phone call is even more ephemeral than an email.

I've put the money into Vanguard, but I've put it in a money market fund, so I can buy the funds at once.

Got my new glasses today, and they replaced the lenses on my old glasses. It is such a luxury having two pair, even though right now it means I squint in a different way.

Been quiet otherwise.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.25 coffee, bagel + $700 glasses, eye exam + $8 lunch.

Eyes, that is.

I'm 46 today. I had two birthday errands: glasses in the morning, and gym in the afternoon.

Glasses - the original plan was to check but assume that the old prescription would hold and I could simply get a second pair of frames and lenses. It turned out that my prescription had changed sufficiently so that I really couldn't use my old prescription for my second, but I could get new lenses for current frames, making up the second pair. The last test was to dilate the pupils of my eyes so the optometrist could check most of the back my retina to identify detachment, degeneration, the optic nerve, etc. Two sets of eyedrops - the anesthetic drops to prevent the sting and the dilator. Everything checked out well - no glaucoma, no degeneration, no oddities on the retina. Just more floaters in one eye than in the other. What is ... nah, don't tell me, I don't really want to know what causes the floaters. :P

The two pair of lenses and one pair of frames were quite expensive, as you can see above. I was a bit more nearsighted, I needed progressive lenses (my current pair is the first one I had) but my astigmatism improved slightly. It makes for a complicated prescription. I just have to think that its to make an heir and a spare, that I do this every 25 months, and I have savings for it.

Then it was to make it through my plans half blind (only 6-10 ft was okay) and avoid the sun at all costs for at least 4 hours. Just another reason why it paid to be a bus devotee. I could sit in the dark, rotating section of the articulated bus. Seattle helped out too. It was sunny when I left the optometrist - within an hour it grew cloudy and rainy. Thanks, Seattle, I owe you one.

Gym was fine, except for the fact that I was doing stuff while my eyes were dilated. We kept it simple.

Friday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.25 coffee, bagel + $1.70 coffee (McAmericano - hah hah) + $25 duck ride ticket + $11 lunch + $20 2 CDs

Thursday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.80 coffee + $13 lunch + $11 crockpot cookbook + $30 graphic novel

Made my gym appointment yesterday (181.8 lbs!! yay), but also played tourist at the little shops inside and underneath the Pike Market. Ate lunch at my hideout in the market, and afterward in one of the shops, found a crockpot cookbook that had a couple of good ideas and contained a number of pork recipes (DH loves pork and brings some home all the time). Also, you probably don't know this, but I do follow one particular comic/ graphic novel "world". A new novel came out and I was glad to see it. There was a very bad movie made of that comic world - it seemed to clear out the poseurs, I guess.

Today I rode the Duck ride - amphibious craft will take tourists throughout downtown Seattle, then will splash into Lake Union, chug around Lake Union for 45 minutes or so, then come up onto the road, drive around Fremont a bit and head for base. At least twice a week every week of my workday, as a pedestrian I passed a Duck picking its way through Pioneer Square. After nine years, curiosity got the better of me.

The only vaguely frightening part - the driver (Captain Hoohaw) needed both hands to get his wig on. Hope he was steering with his knees.


Coming on the left and over you on the water...


Then, after the Duck ride, 3 block walk and a little shopping at a CD store - both new and used. The checkout person saved me 50% - she was interested in buying one of the CDs that I had so she knew that there were a couple of used copies.

So far, it has been a bit more spendy than usual to play the tourist rather than the working slob ... on the other hand, no hotel rates, no gas consumed, no terribly pricey restaurants.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.25 coffee, bagel + $3.50 wrap

First day of at-home, in-situ vacation. I don't know about you, but as long as I don't have to look at a spreadsheet at work, its a vacation. Besides, one of the cardinal rules of frugality is, "enjoy what you have". I live in a city that people actually travel to see, so instead of traveling somewhere else for a week, enjoy some of the things here.

But not quite today. I got caught up on some chores and errands. The one that was the most successful was going to Greenwood Optical. I feared my glasses were scratched beyond repair - it had been 2 years after all - but it turned out that only the anti-reflective (AR) coating was scratched. Remove that, and the lenses underneath were fine. I can see! Very well!

The optician was interested in putting the AR back on, but that would take a week and I had no second pair. I made an appointment next week to get my eyes checked and get another pair of glasses. Its not cheap, but it would be very prudent to have a spare.

I remembered that I really had to be talked into getting that AR coating the first time. I thought of it as like rust proofing a new car. Now its a sweet deal to reincarnate my glasses.

The AR stripping was free. (We treat our customers right, they said.) The AR reinstallation will be $79. Insurance will pay for part of the second pair of glasses.

I walked around Green Lake, bought a sandwich with a coupon for lunch, then came home, read blogs, and cleaned the living room.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch

Thunder and lightning, and now snow which is starting to stick. January, or April? April, I know, because at least its still light out.

It might snow tomorrow morning, but I am undaunted. Coffee in hand, I will be at 67th and Greenwood at 9 am tomorrow if anyone dares to join me.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $13 brunch + $4 coffee, water, apple

Well, I was curious, so I checked it out. Yes, I can walk from 4th and Pike back to my house in Greenwood. Talk about an extreme commute. Whew!

It was such a nice day. Too nice actually for this project - it hit the upper 70s, so walking got quite warm. The best walking weather for me is low 50s. Then you get just warm enough to be pleasant, and you want to keep moving to keep warm.

Anyway, if you are familiar with Seattle, its long and lean and if you are going north you have to pick your bridge. For this experiment I went direct - walking along Aurora Ave, picking the Aurora bridge. It took a soulless hour twenty minutes to go from downtown to Fremont; then I rested a bit, got myself a water and an apple in Fremont; then another rest at the Phinney Neighborhood Center; then home. Including the breaks, it took 3 hrs and 5 minutes.

Next time, I've got to think about hitting the Fremont bridge. Crossing that one on foot is far less scary for someone with a fear of falling.

I'm proud of myself. In a true emergency, even something like a repeat of WTO, getting home in 3 hrs by my own steam has got to be better than waiting 3 hrs for a bus.

10 blocks from home, I photographed a joke at the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company.

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

Lawyer friend's brother has taken a turn for the worse - sepsis, lawyer friend thinks. He's 3000 miles away so he's getting info third hand.

Lawyer friend is heading back to the east coast this evening. He told us he's going to stay there until his brother gets out of the hospital. Our workplace has catastrophic leave, but even if we didn't, it wouldn't matter - he'd go anyway, rules be damned.

Lawyer friend's partner is hanging on, but is a bit of mess - many loose ends in partner's life - job, remodeling the house in Hoquiam, planning a family trip that is now up in the air, supporting lawyer friend - lawyer friend leaving leaves a lot of loose ends.

Our lunch to send lawyer friend off & back to the east coast was subdued, with so many emotions underneath. He's trying to figure how to feel. I didn't have any good advice for him - I thought that maybe just feeling everything was the best. It was certainly better than pretending to feel nothing. Feel nothing in front of the TSA guy in the security line.

At the end, I dropped off his library book. One less chore for him.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $7 lunch

The magazine I bought Saturday at the grocery store (yes, I still am addicted to one magazine) had 10 blurry pages in it. Not what I paid for. I knew I would walk past the grocery tonight, so I packed up the blurry magazine and the receipt. I showed the blurry pages, the receipt, and that all I wanted was a new magazine. Trade cheerfully accepted.

Friday, March 28th
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch + $77 groceries

Saturday, March 29th
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $15 brunch + $84 GI Joes

Last night the local Safeway had their grand re-opening from their renovation. Armed with a 10% off coupon, I have to say I splurged. Lately we've been eating out of our freezer. Last night I bought a number of things that I don't ordinarily buy at Safeway - salmon and cod, stilton cheese - and items that I do buy - peanut butter, pot roast, produce, ham, box of salad. I could have done a bit better, but I went for the treats. I was careful and bought on sale with the coupon, so I saved $35 dollars. I didn't regret the purchases, but I did regret going overboard a bit when I had to lug four plastic bags home, by hand, up the hill.

This week I noticed that my gym shoes huff a bit when I walk - they are about 2.5 yrs old, and I've used 3-4x/week. They're still okay for kicking around in as long as it's not raining, but its definitely time for a new pair. I'm lucky that they lasted so long. So today I bought new gym shoes, a pair of running tights, and a new fanny pack. I've enjoyed the 60-70 block mega weekend walks these last couple of months so I treated myself with the tights and the fanny pack. I broke the shoes, the tights and the pack this afternoon. Breaking in shoes is problematic for me - its always my heels that take the worst of it.

Paid DH for my share of the rent. This month, rent's going up by $30/month. It hadn't gone up for 5 years - sign of the times.

Saving log - $4 tip box + $35 Drp + $40 Drp
Spending log - $5 coffees + $10 lunch

We nearly got snow last night. Snow in late March is apparently rare, but not unheard of. Sister, in Milwaukee, told me last week (one snowstorm ago) that this winter she's gotten nearly 96 inches - they're coming close to the 1880's record, 117 inches.

The rest was social butterfly day - DH had heard about drip coffees made with Clover machines, so we had Clover coffee together before work. Then lunch with lawyer friend. He came back with good news - his baby brother's leukemia is in remission.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $13 coffee, breakfast + $36 IKEA

Our kitchen sink tends to be a disaster area with DH leaving his Melitta coffee drip filter in the sink, with various scrub pads and brushes along side the back of the faucet, and the paper towel roll just around.

A couple of weeks ago in the paper I saw a little picture of a hanging kitchen sink organizer with drainage shelves and a paper towel roll. Perfect. Who sells it? IKEA. Sigh.

I have nothing against IKEA stuff but I hate shopping there. I suppose I could have gone with the catalog - but I do like to see, feel, compare measurements. And both DH and were looking for a fresh air trip.

The IKEA Renton superstore just looks too darn busy for me. You park and you're led along and through the various showrooms with blue and yellow arrows and there are five of every line with names full of a-ring letters and o-slashes, not to mention stacks and stacks of neatly arranged stuff broken down into its various components with variants. Tidy, logical, too much detail that needs too much concentration, alien letters: if there's department store shopping on the planet Vulcan, it would look like IKEA.

We managed to get the components of the organization system, along with along with a couple of other items, so we were successful. DH even installed it this afternoon. In the end, I had the IKEA hangover - tired and with a headache.

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 - $3.39 coffee, bagel + $1.50 decaf coffee

Thank you to all who voted in last month's blog contest. I placed third for a cool $10. Much appreciated!

Walked all the way down to the Fremont Bridge for 60 block walk, then went through the Fremont Sunday Market - didn't hoof it all the way back, though, just part of the way to wait for my bus, then hit the library.

Had myself an "eew moment". I got a little decaf at the Peet's in front of the Fremont Bridge, and I bought it because I wanted to use the restroom. So I set my coffee down, put a couple of items from my purse to mark the table, then waited in front of the bathroom door.

The eew moment occurred when 20 year old girl left the bathroom. She was still carrying her coffee! It meant she brought the coffee into the bathroom, did number whatever probably while still drinking it, then had to juggle the coffee while she washed her hands ... or did she even bother? Double eew on that possibility.

Am I weird for thinking that's disgusting? Has coffee become that precious that you're willing to compromise your hygiene rather than risk it getting stolen? I mean she got a coffee drink from a coffee shop...anybody who made it to the bathroom also has a coffee, why would they want yours? There was also a nice little shelf across from the door where you could put your coffee on. Of course you could get your coffee dumped by the staff, but I've put a pen on top of the cup to prevent that possibility. Somehow that signifies "I'm here and I'm not done"

Reminds of using the restroom at the old Larry's Grocery. Set the shopping basket down on the floor by the door before taking your rest! I was nervous about having it stolen, too, but since I hadn't bought it - who cares?

Every day I'm sounding more and more like my mom....

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $4.50 curry

At lunch today, the owner of the curry shop asked me if I wanted anything else.
"No," I said.
The guy next to me in line said, "You're supposed to ask for the cash register when he says that." Then he smiled. So much for his two cents!

Found two pennies on the street one after the other this aft. As I bent to pick up the second one, I thought, wouldn't it be funny if one of my friends was playing a practical joke on me. C'mon, it would be easy to lead me anywhere... just put a penny down every ten feet or so.

I looked at one of my DRP stocks (MMM), and found out that they had raised their dividend by 2 cents per share. The stock's now 50 cents/ share/ quarter. I'm getting about $2 more in dividends than what I expected.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee (got the next largest size today) + $13 lunch + $7 groceries

Through out the day today I felt bombarded with headlines - how to save $2500, what you can do to save, how Oprah saves, get out of debt, how to invest during the coming recession. As I stood in line at the grocery store and read the magazine covers every one had the message "hunker down the recession's coming" all over them.

Hunkering down is a comforting position for me, but being contrarian has worked even better for me in the past. I think its planning time for how to invest for better times to come. What companies are going to survive and thrive in the years to come? If I wanted to buy a house in say, 2010 or 2011, what would I want and how much would I be willing to pay?

When the whole world is zigging, time to plan for the zag.

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $3.28 bagel & coffee + $15 groceries

This weekend was gym laundry weekend, which meant a Sunday trip to the office to stow my clean gym clothes in my office. Long explanation for a Sunday tip box entry.

Saturday DH and I went Fry's Computer to pick up a digital camera tripod. Of course, I got a lot, lot more - $164 worth. Because after a year and a half, my headphones were starting to cause an ache against my ears - headphone cup would press against ear which would press against the frame of my glasses - I decided to try earbuds one last time. $99 worth. They feel great, have great sound, and come with a lanyard to keep the weight off the wires and cause them to pop out of my ears. Again, the cheap man (me) spends the most. By buying a few cheap earbuds and earclips, I spent 30$ needless dollars two years ago. DH, though, wants my headphones so he'll probably use them up.

I also have a weakness for purses and bags and picked this beauty up for $22.

Its made of 70% neoprene and zips up completely - perfect for Seattle weather. Also, if I stuff it enough and zip it up, I have a stretchy Russian kettlebell that I can whap a purse snatcher with.

The rest of the purchases were the tripod - night pictures! - and a GPS case. I don't have a GPS unit, but MP3 player fits into it very well, and I then can use the large cell phone case that I'm using as an MP3 case for my digital camera. A good frugal trick is to remember that most digital objects are similar sizes. Just because a tag says that its a large cell phone case doesn't mean that you have to use it for a cell phone. If the digital thingamajig fits, you can get at it, and the zippers and pockets are useful to you, who cares!

The last picture is for a laugh... if you know Latin, that is. You probably don't want to translate either one for the kiddies.

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

It was a nearly no spend day; our temp treated me to lunch as a payback for me treating him a couple of months ago. He has only a couple more weeks with us, but he got picked up by another department for a few more weeks.

Now the not so nice news. Rent is going up by $30/month should we sign another year lease. We've only had a couple of rent increases in the 8 years we've been renting, need a place to sit out and watch as housing prices drop to our level, even with the new rent its still a good deal ... blah blah blah. Still mildly sucks.

FYI - walked past the 500K hovel with no view. The flyers are all gone. It could be that its a sign that new, reduced price flyers will come soon. Or the sellers found an idiot with money. Or the sign will come down.

DH wants to pick up a one-time cleaning. I dunno. Not that the place doesn't need it, but somehow it would be better if it was closer to the spring, in time for "spring cleaning".

Tuesday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log- $1.19 coffee + $7 lunch

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

To recap, one of our temp staff found ones (for a football pool) and a man's paycheck in an envelope on Friday night and was going to try and put it in the safe as I was leaving. I didn't have the key to the safe, so we put it in a safe place for Tuesday morning.

Looking at the paycheck, I knew that this guy's office was in the building next door. The temp and I took a little field trip to the office that morning.

Total success!

Turns out that on our way to the receptionist we were intercepted by their head of HR. Apparently the guy had requested a new paycheck cut and she was on the way to start the process when we stopped by. HR head also waved the guy in so temp staffer could give him the envelope personally.

The temp staffer was so shy. The guy was going to give her a couple of bucks as a reward, but she waved him off. I think I would have waved him off too (maybe ) but it was a nice gesture on his part.

But I did put one of my business cards (writing the temp staffer's name on the card) in the envelope. We work for a non-profit...maybe it will plant a seed for next year.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $6 lunch

Over ate during the Super Bowl as we hosted the Duvall friends. Another anchovy pizza lover is so, so very rare, so when a medium arrived with anchovies, I went whole hog.

Usually the anchovy pizza is a covert, solitary pleasure - when DH is on the road, often I will order an anchovy pizza to nosh on for days - because during pizza ordering all it will take is just one "ick" and nix on the anchovies. "Ick" it will be because no one is middle of the road with anchovies. Sure we do have the anchovy posers who pick off the 'chovies and eat the rest, but really the best use of anchovies, other than their delicious saltiness, is the place holder feature: the area around the anchovy is inedible to anchovy haters.

Darn useful for marking pizza. In a mixed crowd, ever notice that the vegetarian pizza gets snarfed up before the meat pizza? Strategy! The meat eaters can eat the veg pizza, the veg eaters can't eat the meat pizza, so of course the competitive eaters figure that if the first piece is the veg, they can always get a meat pizza slice later, at their leisure. Add anchovies and the balance of power changes. We can eat whatever pizza we want. Bwahhhahhh!

One last anchovy pizza story. When I was a TA in grad school, I taught labs and graded tests along with 4-5 other grad students. Grading tests was a chore, so to make it a bit better we would order pizza and make a party out of it. The first test, for our pizza order we conferred using the "what do you hate-we'll leave it off" technique. One of our brethren just for laughs, said, "you know, I really like anchovies." We all looked at each other and said slowly, "we like anchovies, too." What are the odds of finding fellow anchovy pizza lovers? We ordered anchovy pizza for the entire quarter.

A little something for Dollars for Dough Nuts, who predicted this about a year ago.

Remember that in the credit card world good is bad and bad is good. When a credit card company talks about a deadbeat, it means someone who pays off his debt monthly, so the credit card company gets a little basic profit from the transaction. Following the rule of bad is good and good is bad, when the credit card company talks about "riskier customers", they're talking about their risk, not about yours.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/feb/03/creditcards.citi...

But why would a deadbeat really care? If we truly pay off our debts monthly, the only crimp in the whole system is not having the card just in case. Frankly a deadbeat credit card user is so close to using cash exclusively anyway. The deadbeat holds the stronger hand here.

Pass the popcorn, the main feature of the credit crunch is about to start.

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.