baselle's Financial Diary

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $10 lunch + $17 groceries

Got paid today.

Semi spendy today, but I have a 1/2 sandwich in office refeer for tomorrow and a going away party that will serve a light lunch on Thursday. It means that I plan on spending next to nothing over the next two days.

Still this entry is a bit dull, I'm tossing in a great music blog aggregator called The Hype Machine

http://hypem.com/. Lists blog entries by the tune and the artist they are blogging about. When you click into the individual blog, then right click on the mp3 entry, often you can save an mp3 or two or many ... to test out in your iPod. A little free entertainment!

Saving log - $6 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $7 lunch (for two days)

Sister called. Part of the ditch about 100 yds from the property line (now part of the state of WI) washed out a bit, and there's water seeping into the basement, and sister wants to replant a whole lot of beans ... but everything made it through the flood unscathed. Berlin (20 mi southwest) on the Fox River is still a bit flooded, even now.

The utility company that is buying our excess solar power now wants to send us checks. Means, apparently, that we are generating more than $25 worth of power per month. Sister now is interested in getting the 7 acres certified for organic farming. Seems worthy; its not like our next door neighbor (state of WI) is pumping the ground full of fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides. It'll just be a repository for native plants - and a generator for "weed" seeds. It'll make weeding a chore.

The other bidness is that I got a bit blindsided to the tune of $85.22 from Capital One. I haven't used the card in over 6 months, when one of my yearly charges got pinged on it. Then, since I haven't been monitoring it like a hawk online (lost track of the username and password) and beforehand I decided to save a tree and not get a paper statement, well it meant Cap One had me for a couple of months of fees.

Lessons learned:
1. Beware the once/yr charges. (Moving that sucker in the next week)
2. Keep up the paper statements even with the online account.

Save a tree indeed. I could have bought and taken care of another tree for $85.

Final order of bidness is WaMu. I'm not a shareholder of it ... although a share could be had for the cost of a latte. Will Whoo Hoo! turn into Boo Hoo? WaMu would say no and would say no until the weekend it failed. So who knows? I have my paycheck in a WaMu checking account, along with a little savings account ... my tip box squeezings go into that. All told, I have about $1500 in WaMu at any one time. Easily FDIC insureable. I'd miss WaMu if they went under, but would figure that they would have the sense to go under early. As in the old saying: Don't panic, but if you are going to panic, panic first. More worried about my bank stock - MI. That stock could be had for a sandwich and latte. Its the difference between an account holder and a share holder.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $5 ticket + $20 beer and lunch

Tried out the Metro Employees Historic Vehicle Association's bus excursion today. It was a 4 hr trip - 1 hr to go to Snohomish, 2 hrs at Snohomish, 1 hr back, for a straight $5. No gas surcharges, no nothing.

DH and I waited at 2nd Ave S and Main - two blocks east from Elliott Bay Bookstore, paid our $5, and took off. It was a little back in time - we rode on a Metro bus, circa 1976. Since we were in the past, my pics will be in black and white (ha ha).



Before Starbucks (what! I can't bring my $5 coffee on the bus!) and before headphones, there was this sign.


I chatted with one of the MEHVA drivers. Apparently its easy to collect buses but to really maintain them, the bus has to be driven, and driven a fairly long distance. They drive the bus anyway, and they charge money to defray costs.

Snohomish itself was a pretty little sleepy town with a lot of antique and furniture stores. Didn't really feel like antiquing, so we walked around along the river, made fun of shop names (Seafood Grotto does not encourage me to eat seafood!) and window shopped. We had a beer and a sandwich at a saloon. Nice, but then we were plenty sleepy during the ride home.

Summer is fleeing...


Next $5 excursion is a night trolley tour on October 4th, and a fall foliage tour on October 19th.

Just a little service in these troubled times - I've put FDIC in list of Sites I Enjoy. Easy to search for, and feel free if you need to check your bank out.

Oh yes. Banks tend to "fail", or rather, get taken over by the FDIC on a Friday. Makes it much easier to control a bank run that way. Sleep tight.

Walked on Fairview, instead of Eastlake, this afternoon for my walk, up again to the U district, finishing at Trader Joes.

Part of the walk was at the water line and was very nice. The part of Fairview where the houseboats were was unexpectedly not nice. Lots of Private Property, no Photography signs...not unexpected. But the road itself was broken up and dirty, cars all sticking out & lots of liquor bottles & beer cans strewn around. Surprising for supposed "worth" of the properties.

Bought a bottle of water for $1.19. Bad girl!

I looked at a For Sale sign (it was so tempting to photograph it ). Catty, snarky note here: if you are trying to sell a 1M houseboat, it might help to learn to spell (where is the Space Needel anyway?) and don't use serial killer/ransom note handwriting. The seller really would have done better with cutting and gluing letters from the newspaper.

Finished off by getting 32 clif bars at Trader Joe's for week day breakfast use. Still holding at .99/apiece.

From the SA blog:

Stick a clean dry towel in your dryer load to make the load dry faster.

I didn't hear of it until now. I stuck the towel in my load this evening and I found it saved me about 10 minutes of drying time. Nice.

It'll bum out our rhododrendron bush near our front door - it blooms in February because its next to both our and the upstairs neighbor's dryer vents.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.70 coffee + $11 lunch (included paper and a soda)

Well my morning bus was late and I was quietly vibrating during the ride because I thought for sure I had a meeting first thing today. Turns out that the meeting was an hour later, so phew!

Then a co worker waylaid me the last thing as I was getting out for 30 minutes, wanting to dole a little whine with his bitch session. My heart was heavy as I waited at the stop; I was 8 minutes late according to the schedule. But it turned out that the bus was late.

"Boy, am I so glad you are late!" I said to the driver. He had to do an impromptu re-route; the Fire Festival closed off his regular route.

Speaking of the Fire Festival - it was a nice free stroll. Its a big deal with competitions and an obstacle course. I'm 1/32 Scottish; about the only genetic attribute that I chalk it up to is having a strong fondness for guys wearing kilts. (real kilts, not those fake Utilkilts.) How many of them does it take to set up a tent? ... 3, it looks like.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.70 coffee + $9 lunch + $18 groceries

The 2000$ worth of MMM was bought a couple of days ago. It wasn't bought at the lowest point (+$70), but it was lower than my previous average (+$71/share), and due to the dollar cost averaging my original average is at the very low end of the 52 week spread ($67 - $97) so the purchase lowered it even more. It was a win.

Right now I've stopped buying shares of KO. That stock is going down along with everything else, but my buying average is ($41/share), so I'll buy when it goes down to that.

I also bought $100 more of IP, so I have more than 25 shares and I can switch to dividend reinvestment. I don't have enough of it to figure out a buying average, so for that one, its just simple dollar cost averaging. Buy $50/ month for a few years and see how you do.

I'm also in the process of buying $100 more of MI. Its a regional bank, and dropped like a rock like all the rest of them, so that one frightens me a bit. I'll decide on buying that month to month. I should just take the emotion out of it, but I worry. Some banks have to survive this credit crisis, but not all of them do.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $9 lunch

The theme today is tourists. Specifically, I've been noticing a certain type of tourist... the one that squints out the bus window, then their map, trying to figure out where the ride free area ends. In past years, it didn't seem that noticeable - most of the time the tourists were just a tad frightened of the bus and would either taxi or walk. Or they weren't frightened, so what about $1.75 (last year's fare)?

2008 must be the year of the frugal tourist.

In the spirit of knowledge for all you frugal tourists out there, let me teach you a useful memmonic for the streets of Seattle: Yep, Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest.

Y - Yesler
J - James/Jefferson
C - Cherry/Columbia
M - Marion/Madison
S - Spring/Seneca
U - University/Union
P - Pike/Pine

then on 1st:
Stewart
Virginia
Lenora
Blanchard
Bell
Battery

Then after the 3 B's, usually I don't much care (nor should you) because you are out of the ride free area and its $2.25.

Tuesday
Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $1.70 decaf coffee + $9 lunch & snack

Monday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $9 lunch

You might remember a certain shack that was apparently to be had for a certain princely sum of $499K.

http://baselle.savingadvice.com/2008/02/22/the-housing-bubbl...

I promised to follow it down. And down it is going.

Feb 2008 - $499K
April 2008 - $445K
2hrs ago, 2008 - $395K

Still too much even with a 20% haircut.

Yesterday afternoon I found my electronic pay stubs, which list my 403B contributions. I changed my withholding after Q1 2008 to shelter a few more dollars from taxes and I aimed for the limit of $15,000K. (I know the limit is $15,500; I wanted a little breathing room) The good news is that I will get a 4% raise, possibly a 6% raise, which is, in a sense, bad news if it tips my 403B withholding above $15,500.

So I added up what I already put in. I get paid 24 times. I calculated my current withholding times 1.06, and got an estimated withholding. I figure I will be just under the limit with a 2008 withholding at $15,445. Cutting it a tad close, so I will look again on the August 15th pay stub, just to make sure. I'll have 4Q to adjust if I go over.

Yesterday, I explored a new walking route from downtown to home:

Downtown to Stewart to Eastlake to Roosevelt to Ravenna to Green Lake and then home. It was a great route - I made it to Green Lake when my 48 bus came a few seconds after I stopped for a little break. I gave into temptation and took it. I figured I walked about 5.5 miles in about 2 hrs, and it would have been another 30 minutes to get home.

All told, it was one of the prettier and more pleasant routes. It was a tad close to I-5 on the right, so I got a fair amount of freeway noise. On the left, I got great views of Lake Union, all the businesses along Eastlake, and the public art embedded in the street corners. The public art is a series of square sculpted friezes of microscopic critters - rotifers, diatoms, algae, paramecium. The sculptor has a serious rotifer fixation! They are kinda cute in the microscope, however they do cause pretty serious dehydration in children, so that cancels out their cuteness.

And I crossed the University Bridge. Not as easy as the Fremont Bridge, but much, much nicer than either the Ballard or the Aurora Bridge.

I wish I would have brought my camera. I saw at least 5 good shots that I wish I would have gotten. I'll have to think about walking along Fairview, one block over from Eastlake...right on the water.

Today I took what I thought would be an easy day. Just Greenwood to Fremont. But I still had some "gas in the tank", so I walked along Leary, with the plan to catch the 28. But I saw 3rd Ave NW, and decided to walk that, just to see what I could see.

3rd Ave NW is one of the those "secret" residential arterials. No bus line serves it. The local car traffic moves along pretty well at a high 35 mph, from 39th St all the way up to 105th. (I only went to 85th). Its one of those roads that will help you out of many a commuting jam. Just don't tell anyone!

Oh yes, this route was a bit more profitable - I found a dime and a penny on it. .11!

With all of that introduction, here is the only grocery store on 3rd Ave NW until 85th. Let's hope that Mr. (Invisible) Hand doesn't get wind of it.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $3.25 bagel, coffee + $3 iced tea, apple + $17 groceries

I can't say whether this is the most cost effective or cost saving, but this is how I've altered my shopping habits.

What I have:
"Easy" public buses - I regularly take the 5, 355, 15, 28, 48
Willingness to walk; expanded my sphere of what constitutes easy walking distance to 1-3 miles.
Experimented with routes and walking, noting the grocery stores along the way.
I have 7 grocery stores - 4 of which are along my long (over 1 mi) nightly summer walk - what I was asked to do nightly for cardio. 1 of which is the new downtown supermarket.
Always carry one cloth bag.

Right now I:
Look at the flyers
Note what I absolutely need for dinner that night. Concentrate on using everything up and not having to toss slimy stuff.
Hit the grocery store on my nightly walk for what I need. No more than 4 things, or what can comfortably fit into cloth bag.
Lug home.
Keep the refrigerator about 1/3 - 1/2 full. Use the stockpile a bit.

What we used to do:
Look at the flyers.
Saturday afternoon was weekly grocery shopping. DH and I would make a car circuit and hit 3 or so produce stands and grocery stores. Keep the refrigerator 3/4 full and stockpile.

In other words, I'm now starting to shop like a European. I'm shopping nearly every night for small amounts of fresh stuff and let the refrigerated stuff ride until its eaten. If we barely make it through something, its time to give our taste buds a rest and not buy more.

Noticed that Paris really tied common shopping with the Metro. The really big stations had shopping marts connected with them where you could pick up a little something at your Metro stop. Otherwise, the sub-neighborhoods in each arrondisement had a grocery, a bakery, a day market and a late-night market connected with them.

I'm probably not doing as well as I could be, or am I? Right now, I'm still a bit overweight and I'm trying to eat less. That represents locked-in energy that I'm trying to tap. The buses will run their routes and burn their fuel whether I take them or not. I'm trying my darnest to avoid waste.

Eating the stockpile seems to make the least sense, because it represents stored food at its cheapest. When I eat it, any replacement of the item is going to cost more. Still, this stuff doesn't keep forever, and if you are saving food for high cost "emergencies" ... this is the time.

So far, its costly in terms of time. 30 extra minutes/day walking and european grocery shopping works out to be 3+ hours extra.

Coming back to life after nearly being chewed to bits...


Its probably never going to a big headed broccoli plant, but its going to be mine, darn it.

Decided to just be and not blog-be this fourth. Brought watermelon, feta and mint salad to a 4th potluck to our hosts who live on Cap Hill, within 200 yards of a very decent lookout for the Lake Union fireworks. The salad was good, and recipe was straightforward (Watermelon, feta, mint in whatever proportion tastes good), but perhaps a bit too advanced for the palate of the party. About 2/3 of it went, while the 1/2 of the watermelon that I didn't use went right away. Oh well, that's why they call it "potluck".

The view looking out over Lake Union. The large barge in the middle is where fireworks are shot off.


I brought a little tripod for the fireworks, so I tried out snapping firework pictures. My digital camera had a firework setting, but it needed a good 15 seconds between shots to reset, so it meant basically hitting the button over and over, hoping for the best. Here's one of the best, much better than last year.


Here's where the digital camera is frugally awesome. I snapped well over 100 shots. No way would I even think of burning off that much film just to experiment and learn. But if the only downside is that it just eats up camera memory, and you delete the bad ones, the worst that can happen is if every picture is bad, delete them all.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.40 coffee + $15 lunch

Bits and pieces on the day before the 4th:

Server room got warm in the early morning hours, so as I walked in, I was told: no Internet, no SQL, no access to data, email wonky. But an hour later, everything was okay. Darn! No computer data would have made it the shortest work day ever for me.

Found 3 pennies in front of the place I ate lunch at. Another homeless person was asking for change, but I thought better of it to give her the pennies after getting yelled at for giving so little the last time.

Pointed out to DH one of the green worms that was snacking on broccoli leaves so he knows what he is looking for. The broccoli plant that nearly got nibbled to death now has a little crown of new leaves.

Had to move $400 from savings back to checking. It felt a bit like failure, but I remembered that the original plan when I increased my withholding to the stratosphere was that I would make up money shortfalls with savings. The fact that I started the withholding April 1 and managed not to seriously cut into savings until now is doing well.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $17 groceries

Ate the lunch I packed that I was supposed to eat yesterday. Picked up fruit, yogurt, salad, and turkey breast on my way home.

Found a penny in front of the payday lender business on 3rd and Columbia. If there was a coin that needed rescuing, that was it.

And... oh yes, Seattle police shot it out with a bank robber three blocks away. I happened to be at the gym at the time with a good window view. Four police cars came by, sirens blaring, along with a dark blue unmarked van with a police light on top coming on second, going the wrong way (and no, that was not the bank robber), with the news chopper leading the rear.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $12 lunch + $2 groceries (fruit)

Lumpy spending today. I had every intention of it being a very cheap day. I brought my lunch to work, and we went to see a free premiere of the movie _Hancock_. (Fun summer movie - not sure I would pay 10$ to see it, but its worth a matinee and a total blast.)

But I got lured into a lunch with lawyer friend, lawyer friend's partner and screenwriter friend. I put my lunch in the work refrigerator and went. Right now, without any temp staff the refeers are clean and clear.

Net worth 2008

Grandmother's inheritance has been dispersed (dad's was in December 2007), which is why the net worth jumped radically again. Since I am now the oldest direct descendant, no more big inheritances now and forever.

I've pruned a number of accounts - I've put all but 10$ from Paypal into ING, I've shifted some money from one bank to another to keep under the $100K FDIC limit, and put all but .80 of grandma's Ameriprise money into Vanguard. I expected to shelter most of the Vanguard money into tax-free or tax deferred accounts. Now with grandma's gift total and the ability to shelter at 15K/yr for 403B and 5K/yr for a Roth, it won't happen. I have to be okay with that.

Snapshot of net worth, first half of 2008

$136,780 IRA/403(B)
$197,000 Vanguard taxable (cash that will be put into equities...eventually)
$17,322 stock (5 DRPs)
$27,762 EE bonds, I bonds, T bills
$125,464 CDs
$18,999 ING, PayPal savings
$934 immediate cash in checking/savings
----
$524,261 grand total

By comparison:
June 2008 ($524,261 total, $387,481 in taxable accounts)
Dec 2007 ($328,688 total, $192,747)
June 2007 ($176,422 total, $48,205)
Dec 2006 ($132,062 total, $40,329)
June 2006 ($120,261 total, $65,148)
Dec 2005 ($67,778 total, $23,740)
June 2005 ($46,115 total, $11,293)
Dec 2004 ($38,338 total, $7,558)
June 2004 ($29,050 total, $4,533)

I have my files of all the slips of paper that I keep on my DRP stocks. The paper that I get was/is:

transaction receipts
optional cash forms
monthly list of transactions
envelopes
website account stuff
emails and correspondence (I ask a question and they obey )
1099-DIVs

Often I saved them from the first, so I have KO paper from 2000, MMM paper from 2004, and a couple of these DRPs changed transfer agents, so well, you get the idea... lots of paper, most of which is old.

I saved the DIVs, saved all transactions from 2008, saved a couple of current envelopes and optional cash forms - most of the time I send money electronically, saved anything giving current website settings, and saved the December monthly list of transactions because they list the activity for the entire year. Checked, though, that rolled-over totals in Jan matched the previous December totals.

I tossed: old correspondence, non-December monthly lists, and any routine correspondence/non-IRS forms from the old transfer agent.

I now have a grocery bag full of paper from 2002-2007. Its a bit much for my little 3-sheet shredder, so I'm bringing it to work tomorrow to dump in our shredder.

Happened today. For the financial diary part, I spent only $1.00 at it. The recession and $4 gas has hit here a bit also - in past years, the car show sprawled from 87th to 66th or so. This year, it "only" extended to 71st. But there were some very fun and frugal things at it.

For Ima Saver - a 60s red corvette. I think its a '62. There also was a '67 there.


My favorite exhibit - MEHVA (Metro Employees Historic Vehicle Association) always brings one of these babies out at the car show. If you were trying to get to downtown Seattle from Greenwood 40 years ago, your 5 bus looked like this.


The other reason why these old buses are great is that the MEHVA run historic Seattle tours on these old buses - 4 hours for $5. I wanted to get a schedule and remind myself to try it out. Much better cost to time than a Duck (1.5 hrs for 25$) - although no intentional water trips.

http://mehva.org/schedule.php

Many more solar and electric cars and trucks than in years past. This is a solar truck. Battery storage underneath the truck bed.


Perhaps a Boeing engineer had a tad too much time on his hands? The driver's cockpit of blue velour looks comfy, but there is a jet engine about 6 feet behind you.


Finally, high tech to a much lower tech: the leather car. I thought when I came up to it the leather was a case for the car underneath, but the door handle was attached into it, and in places you can see the metal frame underneath where the cow hide stretched over it. This car was made in Czechoslovakia in 1962. Only 10 exist in the US.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $10 lunch + $7 groceries

The meeting on my calendar was spurious - months ago, I registered for it but not in time. I was not too disappointed, I had plenty to do. Picked up a bento box and a 24 oz iced green tea at Uwajimaya. Drinking the 24 oz can behind my desk made me look like I was kicking back with a malt liquor somehow.

Well, it was a quiet Friday afternoon.

Took a look at my DRP stocks. One, MMM, is now at its lowest point since I bought a whomping amount (okay $2K) nearly two years ago. Too delicious for me to resist. Tonight I wrote a check for another whomping amount (another $2K) to buy some more MMM. I'll put it in the mail tomorrow. It will take about three weeks for the check to get there, opened, check cashed (if its cashed by Tuesday the shares will be bought on that Friday), and the shares to be bought (every Friday).

So here's for a very strange hope: go down baby, go down!

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.70 coffee + $3 groceries

More home cooking for lunch today. So far this week its been $7 lunch split over 2 days, yesterday a $3 bahn mi (Viet bagette sandwich and fantastically frugal), today homestyle. I have an all day training tomorrow, so I'll probably go for the old habits and get a regular lunch. Unless, since its Friday, all the places will be packed. But then we have ... the supermarket.

I've looked at my Drip stocks. Even after the 350 pt drop, I still show a profit on two of them. There are some fantastic deals here - blue chips on sale. Not really time to buy anything right this minute, but its time to look, research, and plan on adding more.

The funds that I moved from Ameriprise are now in a money market fund in Vanguard. Time to think about when to put them into equities and the funds I'd put them in. Again, no moving this minute, but as the stock market in general gets lower, the NAVs of the funds get cheaper and you can buy more shares.

Killing things. No, seriously. I discovered what had been munching on my broccoli plants. (the ones I got for free in April when I went to a friend's one act play)


It was a green worm anywhere between 1/2 - 1 inch long. They rest along the rib of the broccoli leaf, hiding out. Me: picked worm off, set worm on grass, stepped on, then twisted, repeated until no worm was seen. Savagery was much, much fun. I think I got them all and it was satisfying to figure it out. One of my plants might not make it (and I'm showing it to encourage the newbie gardeners out there that no one's perfect), but I'm going to kill everything that will try to eat it. RAAAUUUR!


In other gardening news, the tomato that I've been following. It is getting bigger but the leaves are curling in an odd way (odd to me), so I'll be keeping my eye on it. It could just be its quality of the tomato variety--

June 25


June 10

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $22 energy bars

I had every intention to make it a no-spend day, but my trainer asked me to buy a box of energy bars from her to get a bonus. She's never asked me before because as she says, "she sucks at selling supplements", so I don't expect her to ask again. Besides, I can always say that I'm finishing off the box I bought. It just so reminds me of high school band selling candy bars that it made me laugh.

Did look at the grocery flyers today - the sales start on Wednesday finish on Tuesday. Coming up on the 4th of July, its an okay week for produce - $1/lb for peaches, broccoli, cauliflower. But $1 seems to be the floor this year which is depressing compared to years' past.

Took a couple of pictures of items that I want to remember. The Ballard Denny's got destroyed this morning. I had eaten here in the past couple of years - Just pick any Saturday that I blogged in 2006 or early 2007.


And to remind myself of persistance, I took a picture of the last holdout of Ballard condo development. She didn't sell, despite being offered up to $1M for her little house. She died in her house a couple of Sundays ago - some folks stuck flowers in her fence. I have to admire that, but when sister and I faced a similar decision, we sold.

Saving log - $600 + $5.64 dividend
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $7 lunch (for two days) + $8 groceries

I need a cigarette because I FINALLY got stimulated in the mail box this evening. I was about to tap the IRS on the shoulder and say forget it.

Goes into ING.

Also going into ING was a bit of prunings from my savings that I was saving for the farmette. It was getting okay interest, but that account plus the two CDs were over 100K. I just wanted to be under the FDIC limit.

My coworker claimed that the bike/pedestrian trail leading from the Olympic Sculpture Park, then Myrtle Edwards Park, then Elliott Park would go all the way to Fisherman's Terminal.

Didn't quite.

Past Elliott Park, it goes through Magnolia Connector to Pier 84, then it goes through a very funky bypass along land owned by the Port of Seattle, along railroad tracks (trail was well marked and fenced, so it was safe but the view was very industrial), and ends up at Pier 91. There was a sign pointing to Fisherman's Terminal. I still had plenty of energy so I followed it. It turned into the Magnolia Bike Path. Not bad, but it was at least another mile crossing the Dravus Bridge, and another 1/2 mi further to Emerson. Crossing Emerson, it was another 1/4 mi to Fisherman's Terminal.

So I made it that far, but I can tell you from personal experience that its at least another 2 mi from the edge of Puget Sound Park System to Fisherman's Terminal. I figure all told it was about 6 mi.

Thinking about all of these superlong walks as urban hikes. I pick my destination, my rules are simple. If I see a sidewalk or stairs with railing I can walk it. When you think about it, while nature is beautiful and inspiring, if you need the physical challenge, why drive 50 miles to walk 10 miles? Why not walk the 10 miles from home?

So far I've found out:
-I have my choice of 3 direct routes to walk from work to home. (Aurora, Dexter, Westlake).
-I need a Sherpa to get to the top of Queen Anne Hill. Brutal for a hill. Phew!
-It takes only 1 hour 15 minutes to walk from home to University of Washington.
-It takes only 20 minutes to get to Green Lake and another hour ten to walk around it.
-Walking the Ballard Bridge is only slightly less scary than walking the Aurora Bridge.

There has been a lot of press about the floods in IL, IA, and MO, but there's still plenty in WI. Just clicked into the NOAA Flood map for the upper Fox River Valley in Berlin (about 15 mi south of Omro, and Omro is 3 mi west of the farmette).

Now the river level is at Major, 25 yr flood stage.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=mkx&gage=be...

I wonder what is happening at the farmette. I remember the April 1973 flood well - the fields were flooded, but the house was fine and we could get to the road.

Now the fields are owned by the WI DNR to be reclaimed as wetlands, so the fact that they are wet is not so tragic (except for that mosquito repellent dip we'll need before we go outside), but I wonder how close the water is to the farmette in general. No doubt sister's 75 tomato plants are going to be in a world of hurt.

Oh yes, for you new readers out there, farmette = house, barn, sheds, 7 acres of land that sister and I were co-deeded as the final settlement of dad's estate. Pictures of the then dry land are in the "Farmette" category.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.65 coffee + $17 groceries

The IRS claimed that they cut my stimulus check by 6/20/2008 (today). I opened my mailbox with bated breath.

Nope, unstimulated by the IRS.

Not that its horrible, because I already spent my stimulus check on starting another DRP, so the check will be used to replenish my savings. The twist on that DRP is that reinvestment (the R) doesn't occur until you accumulate 25 shares. I have 22, so the transfer agent sends me dividend checks until I get those 25 shares.

Ironically, I got the dividend check of the DRP I started in the mail - before the stimulus check.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $10 supermarket lunch

Found out that the bus pass will cost us $4 more/month, for a total of $171/yr that we shelter pre-tax.

The really thrilling frugal news is that downtown Seattle actually has a supermarket at 3rd/Pike. They had their grand opening today.


You go in and immediately head down the escalator and into the produce section...


No screaming great deals but a few good ones - 10/$10 odwalla bars, .79/lb bananas, .97/lb asparagus (not fond, but you might like). No parking - its downtown. And it was a bit of a mad house so the checkout lines were crazy. Matter of fact, the person behind me in line had enough time to notice the sale prices on a couple of items were higher than the regular price. Ha ha, be careful, supermarket, most of your customers will be accountants!


I know it sounds like a shameless plug for spending money, but its really great - now I can do the Rick Steves frugal picnic trick for lunch, rather than hitting the restaurants all the time. Pioneer Square has a couple of places, but their only produce is an apple and a whole lot of distilled grape products, if you know what I mean. And its so nice to know that when you have 5 people bring chips to the workplace potluck, you've got options. The Pike Market (3 blocks away) is great for produce and great bread, but what about the salad dressing and the butter?

Anyhow - bought my lunch and apple at the downtown supermarket and got a free cloth bag (note what the bagger was holding in the last picture) to add to my bag-of-bags collection.

Also found 10 cents on the street today.

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.70 coffee

Another creamy bean lunch brought from home, so I didn't buy lunch and thus I had a very cheap day.

We got a notice from HR that our bus pass was going to be paid "pre-tax" versus how it is normally paid - post tax. I think the implication is that our bus pass is going to be treated like our 403B - deducted from our income in such a way that we don't pay taxes on the bit of the salary that funds the pass. Not sure what our yearly bus pass costs us ... I'm thinking its about $200. Every little bit helps.

Speaking of transit and bus passes, I ran across this article in the Seattle PI.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/366371_busridin...
The article didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know - I'm riding with many more people.

What was especially interesting was the comments - the Soundoff link at the bottom. The fascinating thing was the reasoning of the many bus haters out there. The hating part was interesting - of course the one person who puked on your shoes on the bus is going to put you off. Funny how ones' first car breakdown or accident, more scary and catastrophic, doesn't put the bus hater off nearly so much. Must give car another chance, whiplash be damned!

But the truly fascinating thing was...why hate the bus so strongly that you tell the rest of us in such gory detail? Why?? Wouldn't you want to encourage as many people as possible to take the bus? We know you are already never going to ride, but wouldn't you understand that if everyone else took the bus, traffic would be lighter and you will have a better, safer, faster drive to work? You would use slightly less gas with no stop-and-go traffic, and if demand for gas drops slightly with the same supply, price should drop slightly too. Win-Win-Win. Wouldn't you want that? C'mon! If I was a bus hater, I wouldn't say anything - or I'd encourage folks to take the bus, then snicker in my sleeve.

Or maybe they secretly take the bus and want to get a better seat? Dang I'm confused.

People are smart .... Bwahahhahaha!