baselle's Financial Diary

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $12 dim sum

Last night we did get the snow finally. As I was sitting at the bus stop, someone commented that they were happy to see someone else wearing "chains". (she had on hers.) The driver took it low and slow; at 2nd and Columbia, our last stop before heading down to the viaduct, he took one look at the two jackknifed buses that tried and thought better of it.

Maybe only a quarter to a third of our office made it in. Today was our all-staff meeting, but the breakfast delivery guy made it by accident. We set up about third of the food in a conference room. The food was very appreciated, and its appearance was lucky today - a lot of local places weren't open - and will be lucky tomorrow when a lot of places again won't be open.

The dim sum place was open and they were happy to see us. Normally people were swinging from the rafters, but today they filled up sedately. Lawyer friend and lawyer friend's partner were hosting but they couldn't make it, they couldn't get up Beacon Hill.

Our offices closed an hour early. However, there were a number of reports that Metro was cutting service to a number of peripheral lines to concentrate on the core ones, so I left even earlier. I didn't feel up to waiting for a bus that might not come in the dark. I caught a bus in the light but had to walk home in the dark. It reminded me of college, when we thought nothing of walking miles in the dark in -50F weather for

fried chicken and how much fun we had going there. It didn't hurt to imagine that I burned more calories getting the chicken than the chicken had.

Had a nightmare that I was super late to my gym appointment...no wait, that was real. My bus spidey-sense worked as it usually does during weekends and holidays - 30 seconds too late.

I was 45 minutes late, so I was an official no show. However the trainer did weigh me for the 15 minutes of my time and we now have confirmation - I'm at 183.

Latest project - DH and I are in the process of getting another kitty. I half expected that eventually another cat would appear, but after 2 years, I guess that we aren't cat magnetic. We put the word out to our network that we were interested. DJ friend has a friend who has several cats and a adolescent stray showed at their door. We got a picture - all black with a brown sheen undercoat, good coat, cared for. They've put up posters for several weeks. No owners have shown. We are going to visit with a carrier. If kitten is agreeable, we bring him/her home. I'm ready for another pet relationship.

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - no spend day

Tomorrow is my day off. Just in time for the snow.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $7 groceries for work - (1/2 & 1/2 for french press coffee, turkey breast for lunch)

One of my DRP (dividend reinvestment) stocks, a utility called Wisconsin Energy Corp (WEC) actually raised its dividend a couple of days ago. And not just a girlie 1 cent per share, but 7 cents a share to over 33 cents per share or about a 25% increase. Wonder what they know that scared investors don't... Whatever it is, stop showing it! I want your price to drop so I can keep buying more.

In other news, I went to the gym, weighed myself - I'm at 182.8 and worked out a bit. I tell you now because I know that when the trainer weighs me on Friday, I'm going to be 187.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.50 coffee, bagel + $11 ground coffee + $22 groceries

The cold front hit Saturday night here in Seattle. I don't think we even hit freezing today. Only walked about two miles maybe today, to 70th Street and Greenwood then back. If the sidewalks were walked on it wasn't too bad, but as soon as you hit a shady untraveled patch, it was killer. This is my third winter I've pulled out my

Yaktrax.

Seattle's a funny place when it comes to winter. With so many transplanted mid-westerners (like me), you think we'd take the reins and sand our walks. Nope. Much more fun to complain like the natives and wait for the ice to melt. Which it won't for at least 3-4 days.

Got home fairly early so I made my lunch and snack for tomorrow. I expect that it will be quiet at work tomorrow - the fundraising temp staff's last day was Friday.

Saving log - $40 Drp
Spending log - $13 breakfast + $110 DH Christmas gifts

R.I.P Crown Hill Bistro, nee Library Cafe. We went and found a U-Haul sprawled along the parking strip, and talked to the owner. Done in by the recession, drop off of business and two mistakes in the Entertainment coupon book. (They were in as the Library Cafe, and they shouldn't have been in at all.). Entertainment coupons can really kill a business - we need our spendthrifts.

So the

search for a Seattle breakfast spot continues anew. After the Denny's, then this, DH and I decidedly feel jinxed. Anybody have a Seattle spot you hate and you want gone? Let us know.

This morning we went to a new spot, Rooster's Breakfast Club. There was a bit of on-street parking, and that was great. The place was the right kind of jumping - a consistent 3/4 full, so no lines but no desperation. Food was very good and very ample - I split the meal in half. Service was speedy and professional. I could adopt this place. But ...

Along the side of the building was one of those gigantic posters put up by the City of Seattle - environmental review of a construction project. The building that the new breakfast spot was housed in will be torn down for something nefarious. But right now its only the environmental review.

In other words, the breakfast place jinx continues. However, unless the sign went up yesterday, the particulars of this jinx has already happened before we showed for our meal. Is it wrong of me, now that the recession hit my Saturday morning, to hope against hope of a recession serious enough that the RE developer goes bust? Can we equate the economic niche of a breakfast place to an environmental niche?

N.B.: As of 1/3/09, there is a

Text is petition and Link is http://www.phinneywood.com/2009/01/01/61s-and-greenwood-development-petition/

petition going around.

Friday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $5.77 box lunch

Thursday
Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $14 lunch

Yesterday I went into work even though I probably shouldn't have. There were a couple of meetings that I had to attend. One was a casual meeting with the COO and two other supervisors - we meet to keep the COO up on the department doings while our boss is on leave. We talked a bit about how our new internal staffers were doing with some of the work we were giving them. Everybody is working out well on both sides - we have the extra work right now, and during these recessionary days nobody at work wants to be sitting on their hands.

The other meeting I felt I had to make was a visit from the Merrill Lynch administrator of our the 403B plan. He talked a bit about the two new funds replacing two under-performing funds in January (my bond fund is one of them), and he answered the question pleasantly when I asked him, "How's Bank of America treating you?" Apparently Merrill Lynch will be a subsidiary of BofA, not totally chewed up and digested.

I suppose I could have missed both of these meetings, but it meant that I had enough witnesses - I had no qualms about calling in sick today.

But I bundled up and did make the gym meeting with the new trainer. (We meet once a week on Fridays.) Something about losing $60 as a no-show made me brave it. He took one look at me, weighed me (184.8 lbs) we worked on the food plan for an hour, then he made a little green tick at the end indicating that this meeting will probably be a freebie. All because I showed up. I usually can't wheedle into freebies most places, but gym is apparently one the few places that I can.

And at the very end of the day, I got a bit of money from the neighborhood WaMu and asked the teller whether he was going away. Apparently the layoffs were in corporate and in back office - the WaMu branches are to be untouched, except maybe to have "Chase" all over them. I was happy to hear that and he was happy to hear that the neighbors were concerned.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $19 groceries

Found an interesting article about

procrastination, or more precisely, why we procrastinate on some issues but not others. The key is concrete-ness. Make an issue concrete and you do it, keep it abstract and you procrastinate.

Could it be that while I read and am entertained by the fiscal exploits of all of my blog friends, the act of blogging itself makes my thoughts concrete and keeps me from procrastinating? Write about it and you should do it or at least you have to write about it the next day why you didn't.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $10 lunch + $12 office party

Got caught up with lawyer friend at lunch and went to the office party (drinks and snacks) held two block from work, so there was a bit of spending. Tomorrow I'll bring the lunch and gym to even out the spending. I can now make $40 last the whole week.

Pulled the trigger on accumulating the devil money in the 403B. And yes, I definitely noticed the 0% 4 wk T-bill. I've learned my lesson - the money's getting pulled back into ING. To depress me a bit, I looked through my records on what my t-bills used to earn, $60, $70, $80/ month, quite a bit better than ING. Oh yes, I found two pennies today, so I immediately paid myself a better rate.

The cashbox came today, so it was time to arrange the recession kit. I want them to open it right away - no need to wait until GD v.2.0.
From the top, with Christmas card taped inside:


And from the coin tray and a peek at the till:

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $0

I managed to work out during lunch, or more precisely, before lunch and I brought my own lunch - a ham sandwich - and used a gift card for the coffee, so no money was spent on my part. Nice to make up for the heavy-duty weekend spending. I will be spending tomorrow though.

Sister emailed me. In addition to the flooring, which I totally support, she also wants to replace the windows at the farmette. I support her far less on that project. There are some bad windows, sure, but replace those and wait for next year. The window guys I think are starting to apply some pressure on her. They are interested in a 2 yr contract. I can see that that would help them out more than it would us. It means that we are locked into a price, and if the price of the service rises, great. But what if the price falls? Best to do what absolutely needs to be done and wait until next year. 10K on the farmette is my spending limit for 2009.

The 2008 tax season is here. I got my first 1099 of the season, and at work we got the change-your-403B-withholding email. We can save up to $16,500 for the year in the 403B. This last year, as part of getting into a better tax situation, I hiked up the 403B withholding to the limit, and found that I got used to the much smaller check. Not to mention that this year its the golden opportunity to buy into equity-based mutual funds. I will continue for 2009.

As far as the title of my post - dividing $16,000 into 24 pay periods gave me an answer that made me smile.

Saturday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $10 brunch + $20 Christmas gift

Sunday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3 bagel, coffee + $1 apple + $20 cash box

I was very stiff and sore from gym and the trainer on Friday - so I went Christmas shopping Saturday instead. Ordered sister's Christmas fish(es) for Tuesday delivery - the fishmonger still had trout.

The recession kit is coming together. I forgot that my giftees now have a black lab (met him last summer), and chocolate is not for dogs, so I included a couple of doggie gifts along with the chocolate bars. I also picked up a $1.99 bag of chocolate coins.

Today I walked the 7 miles and began "interval" training. I asked him a couple of days ago what he considered cardio, and he told he whatever it took to maintain your heart rate at 110 or so for 8 minutes, and spike to 130 or so for 2 minutes. Rinse and repeat for 3-4 times. Both juggling a stopwatch (my PDA has a stopwatch program) and trying to take my pulse would be a PITA, so I came with a stripped down version: walk briskly for 5 blocks, jog for 2. I could do it six times going down to the Fremont Bridge, only three times coming back up because I go up a hill back home.

As I walked, I hit all the hardware/craft/general goods/ office supply store that I could to serve as the container of the chocolate. I saw ideas, but nothing that matched what I wanted to do. Then it hit me: cash box. Ho ho, there's a theme I can work with. Its steel, it locks, it contains things, the coins and dog treats can go into the coin slot tray, I can tape the Christmas card/recession kit note to the top, and the flat chocolate bars can be put underneath the till like dollar bills. If I feel really funky, I can get currency strips to bind the chocolate bars. And frankly, every family needs a cash box - just try holding a yard sale without one. Decided not to waste any more time. I found a cash box online for quick delivery - 20$ total.

Thursday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $8 lunch + $6 groceries

Friday
Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $2 coffee + $70 groceries

Spendy day today after several days of cheapness. The $70 of groceries was really the beginnings of a theme Christmas gift, plus a turkey ham for me.

Most of our Christmas shopping is family. My sister loves the salmon and whatever other fishy/shellfishy thing that looks good. (One year I gave them 8 months of Harry and David... meh, they said. We get good fruit here, too. But you can't buy salmon in Milwaukee) A few weeks ago the fishmonger had trout for sale. Fingers crossed that that's still around next week.

That's it for my family. DH doesn't have a big list either - his sister (and BIL), and his mom. Let's divide and conquer, I said. I'll buy for his sister and BIL, and he can buy for MIL. Done, he said.

I'm going for a theme here. Big fad in Seattle is chocolate - fair trade, dark, vegan, single sourced - in other words, treating chocolate like coffee, where it comes from a country or an estate. There's even a chocolate factory in North Seattle that gives tours. So I went to the Greenwood market and ran the table of large chocolate bars. Some were of countries, some were of flavors. 1 was even 100% dark chocolate.

Now to find a nice container, or maybe a military grungy one (like it was buried in the backyard), just for laughs. (Both his sister and the BIL have a sense of humor) When they open the box, I have a nice sign over the chocolate:
"In case of recession, break seal."

Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $5 office party

Third day of brown bagging french press coffee. Except for adding money to the tip box and paying my share for the department soiree in late December (different and in addition to the all-office party), I would have spend no money today either.

Tomorrow I field trip and eat lunch with lawyer friend's partner and screenwriter friend. Lawyer friend is in DC. His brother is ill and his father is waning. He might be away tending to family for awhile.

Tonight I got back to my third pile of catalogs. I've gotten twelve this week. I'm sure for a serious shopper twelve catalogs is a light read, but for me, it seems like a lot of temptation. I've pored through them and especially noticed the gadgety ones are selling the same things.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $7.47 groceries (the checker exclaimed that my bill was a plane)

Had another nearly no spend day - with the brown bagging, and the home brew coffee I only spent at the grocery store this evening. Breakfast bars and a head of raw garlic. I felt like I staved off a couple of colds last month by a raw clove of garlic chopped in a salad.

Over lunch today, I caught the PC World's 11 Lamest blogs. Well, I blog, and thankfully this is not one of them. However

number 6 has a very familiar format.

I also picked up this useful article. The next time someone asks me about how to be frugal, that they have to be frugal, and yet somehow can't be frugal, well, I can be torn between two responses:
1. Well, that's quite a problem, but you are smart and you can figure it out!
2. Wow, you are screwed! Where's my coffee cup?

Oh, and I found two pennies today. I'm moving another $4K back to ING. It would have earned 13 cents as a T-bill.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $0

The gym and brown bag/leftover lunch strategy worked very well. Not planning on going to the gym tomorrow, but I am planning on bringing my lunch again and finishing off several containers of leftovers. I do still have plenty of white turkey breast for turkey salad and turkey soup.

2 funds of my 403B are going to be swapped out for two other funds. There's my tinkering and then there are other people's tinkering. I am still considering moving some of my taxable cash in Vanguard to a Vanguard index fund - however I don't want to do it now because the distributions are on Dec 15 or so. I would be taxed on the distribution if I own it, even if I own it for a day.

Strangely enough, I am getting used to the freakish gyrations of the stock market. 680 points? Yawn. Now it feels if the market only goes up or down by twenty or thirty points one thinks, "why bother running the darn thing?"

All this backdating prognostication is getting to me. Yes, the recession started December 2007. Yes, I remember December 2007...everyone was saying, "no its not a recession, don't even think its a recession, and to say so means you'll trigger a recession." Decided to declare the bad news late, so maybe we'll be out of it by the time we call it? Well, I've got news for you ... this is going to be a nice long recession, we won't get out of it until 2010 at the very earliest. Ha! What do you think about that?

Sister is helping the local economy of Wisconsin out, though. She's going to get the flooring done at the farmette. Yay! The floors are the one thing that badly need repair. I suggested we hold off a bit for some of the contracting jobs until the recession really bit. If the contractor is a bit hungry, they should give you a better deal. At least if you are the only meal in town, they won't blow your project off.

Saturday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - 0$

Sunday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $5 groceries and lost $7 out of pocket

Did the gym laundry Friday night, then returned the gym bag to work Saturday afternoon and walked part of the way home. As long as I was at work, I put in a few dollars to show the tip box some love.

Walked Saturday and Sunday - it is getting harder to do the full trip because I much prefer to walk during daylight. When it gets dark by 4:30, that's my deadline, and it if takes about 3 hours, I have to start at 1:30. Not complaining particularly, weekends are for a bit of laziness. Even if I have only two hours, walking is good, because I made these three observations:

1. Listened to Marketplace radio. The piece talked about the price of eggs and the correspondent let slip that she pays $3.35 for a dozen. Yikes! Still the rationalizations flew: "But LA is so expensive and I have them delivered." Cry me a river. Here's a hint: buts cry out for a creative solution in times of trouble. Do you really have to have your eggs delivered?

2. Same radio show, except the piece talked about re-setting children's expectations. If only we can tap into peer pressure. What if everybody's teen was told, "nope, we can't afford it."?

3. Discovered that while my new hoodie is a magnet for sidewalk small change, its pockets expel dollar bills. Time to be more careful where I put my change. Sucks.

More signs of the times: the North Seattle Goodwill is doing brisk business, even on a Sunday (Monday's when the new stuff gets laid out), even at 4:30 in the afternoon.


Where am I going to get my colon cleaned now?
Before

After

Ah the seamy underside of the holidays...

Friday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.35 bagel, coffee + $1.61 yerba mate + $3.60 for 2 pie crusts

Thursday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.35 bagel, coffee + $17.41 many, many storage containers

Duvall Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, with a lot of food made for 4 people. Leftovers! We scored:

1. One large yogurt container of homemade pumpkin pie filling. Score because 2 pie crusts are way cheaper than one filled pie at the grocery store. Pumpkin pie is cooling comfortably on the counter. Now I all I have to do is ignore DH pleading, "is it ready yet?" No - not until its cooled.
2. Raw turkey liver. I love turkey liver. Its my tradition to fry up the liver with a bit of sage while the turkey roasts. Thank G*d none of my friends and acquaintences like turkey liver. More for me.
3. Goose fat. Cassoulet in January. I got several plastic bags of dried beans from sister. I gave the Duvall friends a bag of sister's dried beans.
4. Turkey bones. Not all the bones that I would have gotten had I hosted, but guests in general rarely get bones. Soup in a couple of days. Yippee!

Next week I'm going to brownbag it with the leftovers and I have a fresh supply of plastic containers. My homework with the new trainer is to hit the gym at least two more times a week in addition to the one hour per week with him. Unfortunately everybody seems to want to schedule over my time. The solution I've come up with is to hit gym at lunch (yeah, busy, the locker room will be like high school), then eat at my desk. Nobody schedules anything at noon, hah hah. Since I will have leftovers next week, it gives me a big break to try out getting into the habit.

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $12 lunch

We're getting our paychecks early this month - normally its the last day of the month, which this month falls on a Sunday. On a weekend, we get paid on the last work day of the month, which in other months would be Friday. Of course this month Friday is not a workday (hopefully its not your workday either), so the last workday of the month is ... tomorrow. 5 day early paycheck.

I finally got the hint and decided to cut off my recurring T-bill buying. For laughs I looked at what I would have earned on a 4wk $4,000 T-bill: 16 cents. The money that would have bought the T-bill now goes into the Treasury's no interest account, and I move that back into ING. What $4,000 will earn in ING in 4wks: $8.43.

I've been noticing more living thrifty articles. Here's

one from Alternet.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Spending log - $15 gloves, hoodie + $21 groceries

Realized as I began my six mile walk that it was far colder than I was dressed, so I picked up gloves and a medium (cut large) grey hoodie at Walgreens. It was a toasty warm hoodie, but it also seems to be lucky in another way: I found change on the sidewalk within a block of putting it on. I also found 11 cents as I cut through the Safeway. Basic gray lucky recession hoodie.

On my walk toward Fremont I saw this performance:

Coming back, I walked past them again. No babies in the baby buggies, all had enigmatic smiles.

The second performance? My blog. For laughs, I put in my blog address into

Typealyzer - which analyzes your blog according to Myers-Briggs.

My blog: ESFP.
Me: INFP.

They got the feeling, perceiving bit right. I'm flattered a bit - I just don't think of myself as a performer in any sort of way. Typealyzer seems to do a very quick analysis. I think its checking for verbs and active/passive voice on the first screen of posts it sees. Methinks for laughs I'll bore you all with a couple of heavy duty analysis type posts and see if it changes thinks a bit.

Friday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $11 lunch

Saturday
Saving log - $40 DRP
Spending log - $7 brunch + $65 groceries

At the grocery store. Shopped for my contributions to the Thanksgiving feast and to take advantage of the frozen corn, pea, and green bean sales. I also picked up one box each of chicken broth and stock. I also picked up some hard cheeses.

I didn't walk this today - I cleaned the kitchen. Clutterfree! It gets me that DH tends to be clueless about cleanup - or rather, he tends to be clueless about the follow-through. He'll wash, but he won't put away, or he'll leave it soaking in the sink. He is the anti-fly lady. I also got rid of the ancient condiments lining the baseboard behind the stove, and moved all the non-condimenty things back there. Condiments get nasty quick over the heat of the stove.

Then I tried the

roasted cranberry sauce recipe from Saveur - it is fantastic, and only about 15 minutes of cooking, 1 hr of waiting around. (actually, I'm an inveterate tinkerer, so I've already added my own additions and deletions). I also tried a new sweet potato recipe which was also fantastic. The very opposite end of sweet potatoes with marshmallows, but it uses a lot of butter.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $12 groceries

DJ friend took me out to lunch. That, along with breakfast food at the all staff meeting, made for a no spend day as of 6:30pm.

Unfortunately I "blew" it on cranberries, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and an orange. I'm going to try out a roasted cranberry sauce. In it, you put sugared cranberries on a cookie sheet with a bit of orange peel, cinnamon stick, thin strips of jalepeno, then bake for 15 minutes.

But I am here in the midst of the November grocery bonanza. Organic broccoli for $1.49/lb, even cheaper than regular; frozen green beans, corn, peas, peas and carrots each for $1/lb. I know where I'll be Saturday.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $9 lunch

Watching a guy do a very frugal 15 sec stair step workout. It wasn't busy, so he ran up the down escalator.

We got all of our temp staff here and orientated. Orientation included food, so I didn't have to tear into my breakfast/ energy bar stock. I got a little SBC coffee card which I will hold in reserve. Plastic in the bank, as it were.

Put my tip box squeezings in for this month.

Made the Thanksgiving Day plans - we are eating with the Duvall friends. It made sense because if they come here, they have to put the poultry away for the night (otherwise the free ranging cougar gets her own Thanksgiving) or they have to come here early to leave early to put the poultry away. When it gets dark at 5pm, it puts a crimp in the festivities.

Now that you've set up your 401K or 403B, its time to maintain it.

This corny saying on Wall Street might help you: The trend is your friend, until the end.

To tell you the truth, I found that this post was the most difficult to write. And this is just the introduction. The classic advice: diversify and allocate according to your target age and risk, set up your percentages, check them every six months or yearly, then rebalance if your percentages get out of whack - definitely do if your target allocation is off by 4-5% or so. Rinse and repeat until retirement.

In these times, the classic advice - buy and hold with a touch of dollar cost averaging - is unsatisfying to say the least. The classic advice works if risk is unchanging, prices are gently variable, and the general economy is stable. Then the classic rules apply - stock prices and bond prices move in opposite directions, you can equities "buy on the dip" because you are confident that equities will come back up after giving you that buying opportunity. Once upon a time the trend, your friend, is gently up.

Unfortunately, while you might be stable and consistent as you put money in, the market that you are investing in is clearly not.

We are now at the end of the trend. We know now in late 2008 that risk was extraordinarily high when the general economy snapped. Now stocks are down over 40%, bonds are down over 6%. Both being down is unusual. Only cash is up, and only about 1-2%. The trend is volatile - downdraft, then up rally, then downdraft again. We know that a new trend will form, but when? And if the trend is gently down, what then?

To be fair, you can't time the market. You especially can't time the market in a 401K because, at best, your money is put in as you earn your paycheck. At worst, money is put in quarterly, even yearly, or worst of all, when your plan administrator damn well feels like it. Most people don't have the training or temperament to watch their accounts - I think of myself as a stable gal but heck I get excited (want to buy more) when things go up and bummed (want to sell) when they go down.

Still, there has to be something between the poles of set-it-and-forget-it and mad money trading. I'm trying to find a middle way.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $6 lunch

I went to the gym yesterday and today. 186.

Well, I'm going back in. I've signed up with another trainer at the gym. This time I've signed up for only once/week, leaving me to come back at least one more time during the week. I'm trying for the element of being a bit cheap, but also go for what works. If I put money on it, I make the meeting.

Turns out that I'm now regular enough so I still get the grandfathered 2006 rate, a good 25% off the 2008 rates.

I decided to take the plunge again because I think that a trainer is an inducement to make progress, and a trainer can devise different exercises for me to freshen things up - challenge my body to figure how to do new things. Not to mention, I'm a bit of a pleaser and have an audience so I will try harder.

The three months that I had working out on my own were valuable. I didn't slip, I think I'm as strong as I finished up. Alone I maintained well and I think I can push myself. However, just like you can't tickle yourself, you really can't surprise yourself either. I suspect that's the main reason why gym rats usually have a training buddy. Even if its competitive - "watch this?" "I'll bet you can't do that" *CRASH* OW! - seeing the buddy do something novel and trying it yourself adds that element of surprise.

For an novel exercise, the trainer had me do a plank (stationary pushup) with hands on a ball. I could hold the plank on the ball for 30 seconds, surprising myself. Usually we did side planks or regular planks or climbing planks or with one little ball in one hand or hollow planks but generally flat on a mat.

Yikes - I just realized it had been three years to the week since I first started going to the gym. November is a good time - get a counter impulse for the holiday eating season - and I miss the busy resolution season.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $9 lunch

Ah memories - on 60 Minutes, when Michelle Obama talked about Barack Obama's first apartment in Chicago near

Harold's Chicken Shack, it brought me back 25 years ago when I lived in a brownstone apartment across from the Hyde Park Harold's Chicken Shack, when it was on 53rd and Kenwood.

The apartment itself was a dive, but it had three distinct advantages.

1. You didn't have to give directions. All one said was, "across from Harold's Chicken". None of this counting blocks or figuring the cross street. You either knew it or you were a Martian. Such a timesaver.

2. Dead of winter - and there were a few weekends when it was -80F with the windchill - a hot meal was across the street.

3. You could look down at a lovely colored neon sign (a cook with a cleaver going after a chicken) whenever you liked.

The Harold's Chicken that I knew was strictly take-out. No tables, no chairs. You walked in, pop machine was on your left, you turned right, walked past the nasty fake wood paneling, and past the handwritten cardboard sign of the rules:






Zen poetry in disguise.

You ordered through a microphone, put your money under the clear bullet-proof slot. You waited for your chicken (they fried it to order), and when it was done (with enough Frank's Hot Sauce to drown it) the cashier put it through a bullet proof carousel.

Prices? In 1984 I think it was $2.75 for a white half, $2.50 for a dark half. It made my weekend budget go. I ate there so often that the cashiers would complement me on my haircuts. Oh yes, I liked the soggy fries, but I didn't like the wonder bread. Giving away the wonder bread primed me for a life in non-profit service.

There you have it: a Chicago institution.
Even have their own blog -
http://haroldschicken.com/

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.38 coffee, bagel + $5 apple, clif bars + $10 sushi

Another 5 mi walk, however it was up Queen Anne Hill. Walking up it felt like Everest, but at least I could still do it. As a reward for going up the hill, I got a few snacks at the kaiten sushi place, more pieces, fewer rice rolls. Next week, I go to the gym.

Queen Anne is a fairly swank neighborhood of Seattle. Even here, I noticed a lot of For Rent / Vacancy signs for November. The university is on a quarterly schedule - in a normal year the signs go up in late August or September.

The seasonal clif bars came in. At a $1.38/bar, it was a seasonal splurge for work.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $14 brunch, coffee + $8 produce + $11 groceries

The weekend could not come any sooner. Today, after a leisurely brunch and coffee, DH and I teamed up to buy some fresh produce. Many good things for under a dollar: .69/lb apples, .99/lb cauliflower, 2 for $1 cucumber. The only things I got for over a dollar were red grapes $1.49/lb, and a box of salad for $1.29. The only rule that works for me with plastic boxes of salad is to check the bottom of the box for liquid. Clear liquid is bad, brown liquid is don't buy it ever bad.

Last week was so awful that I didn't even get to the gym once. I walked only 4 miles - to 50th and Greenwood and back, with a detour to Sakya Monastery to turn prayer wheels. They gave such a calming wooden squeak as they wheeled around.

Right at the beginning of my walk, the first block, I ran into this sign:

I've seen this green sign before. The last time was on 8th NW at least a couple of miles away, which means this neatly handwritten sign is not the product of a single desperate seller, but a marketing ploy. I remember when the house behind it was sold - for about $390K back in 2006.

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $6 lunch + $20 beer, snack, dinner

The office had a drawing at our internal United Way campaign. I won the other Obama book, Dreams of My Father. Another co worker on my floor won The Audacity of Hope. We can have a little lending library in the lunch room, a place even more convenient than the library. Got a certificate for our floor's first place in the Halloween decorating contest...so actually we just won bragging rights. And brag we will.

Had a beer and dinner with DH, and I tried the snack that I've always wanted to try - fried crunchy pigs ears with mustard @ 4.99$. They were french-fried strips, no curve. Tasty, crunchy, like fries with third and a fourth dimension. DH had one, and had no more, so I had the rest. I felt like Mike Tyson, bearing down on these guys. I probably won't order them again, but it was great to try them and have nearly everything but the squeal.

Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $9 lunch + $.40 banana

Again with the busy. The CFO (who is, during our bosses' leave, is our acting boss), kindly reminded me that a little bit of overtime, strategically deployed, can be appropriate if its a busy hump.

Took a look at the T-bill interest this month: 22 cents. Now its insulting, pops. Time to think about taking scfr's T-bill "breather" myself and move the money into ING. I can move it back if the interest improves.

If only it really weren't a brilliant

satire:

For a little more info about this parody - here