baselle's Financial Diary

Saving log - 0$
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $6.50 lunch (footlong to nosh on for two days)

So lately watching my stocks and 403Bs is like playing eensy weensy spider over and over. Spider is at the top of the waterspout (last Thursday), the rains came (Friday) and washed the spider out, and now the spider's crawling back (Monday). I've got to stop monitoring it so much.

This Halloween my ambition is just not into the costume. I might just put a big fake blood spot on my forehead and call it a day. The Halloween potluck, on the other hand, I'm ambitious about. Go figure.

I'm working on a dark "Goth" potato salad - with purple potatoes, beets, red onion, pecan (walnuts weren't dark enough) dressed with olive oil and a bit of pesto. In other words, if you dribble, it will stain.. So far, the only way I've found to keep the purpliness is to get small, deep purple fingerling potatoes and steam them making sure that no potato touches the boiling water. Boiling liquid just kills the purple.

Not much has happened in the last two days. Played poker and lost. The company's fun, but not for every weekend, just once in awhile.

Lawyer friend and I are planning his lunch. I promised him lunch as payment for informal lawyerly help during dad's probate. Now that the second property has been sold, lawyer friend got hungry.

A wind and rainstorm hit, and now only green and brown leaves are left on the trees.

Today I bought a few groceries, keeping an eye on the register. "Wait a minute, I thought that..." I said. It turns out that some linguine I bought had been mistakenly set up as an end cap display, so mistakenly set as 50%. I got the mistaken price, but it gets one to thinking ... what is the most dollar-saving thing you've said?

"Wait a minute, I thought that," politely said, is mine.

Thursday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $4 lunch

Wednesday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $15 lunch

The hold on the 95K dug a bit deeper - I tried to send money to me to pay a credit card and to sister and couldn't do it. This time I called and sent an email. They will unblock at the end of the week. It was a security issue - the system thought the transactions looked funny, so close to a deposit with a hold on it.

I asked the bank's customer service to send the checks by physical mail. I'll see how long it takes to the electronic - electronic so far takes 4 days.

Today our HR at work unveiled the market research data - the average person working at my job (or jobs like mine) makes about 14% more, so I can expect a few more payraises in the next few years, which means that setting the 403B at 15% ensures raises there also.

I still do gym. My weight has been rising again - its at 190. Sigh. However, my new clothes fit better than they did 6 months ago. Go figure. We did the tape, something we haven't done in awhile - I lost .5 inch off the hips, .25 inch off each arm, and 1.5 inch off the waist. I'll just have to lose weight the old fashioned way: lie about it.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.16 coffee + $8 lunch

I wonder how many people walking up or down the Cherry Street hill between 2nd and 3rd Ave past the parking garage ever noticed the fern growing out of the side of the building? Thinking about all the nasty paint and the shade the fern has to deal with, wow, its amazing its here and looking good.


This morning, I used the restroom, which meant washing my hands, which meant either wiping down the massive puddles around the rim of the sink and the counter, or ignore them completely. I've been wiping down the sinks and counters, but man, I'm just sick of it. This is what I did:

1. Wrote this on a PostIt note in tiny lettering -

"If you can read this -
You probably now have a line of soapy water cutting across your pants.
Please wipe down the counter when you are done."

2. Attached said PostIt eye level onto the mirror.

Went back to the bathroom at 5 pm. No PostIt but the counters were dry. I'm considering it a win.

Saving log - $8 tip box
Spending log - $1.16 coffee + $9 lunch

At noon, I went back to the bank to get rid of the non-sufficient fund fee, and talked to the training manager, who was doing customer service. I was armed with a printout about six weeks of transactions, which were mostly unnecessary - the guy remembered me from when I deposited the money. 95K makes you memorable, it appears.

As soon as I got to the 95K, he glanced at the paper and said, "oh, that NSF fee is so wrong, would you like me to reverse that for you?"

"I'd like that very much," I said.

We swapped stories about being reasonable to customer service in the face of weirdness. He liked my Nashville story

Yesterday, on our way to the grocery shop, we drove past glorious autumn trees around Green Lake. Its very rare to see great fall color in Seattle - it mustn't rain if you want the trees to develop brilliant color.

Later, I walked around Green Lake with a camera in hand. Admission was free - it only cost me a few calories.

Cascade in gold.


The bluer water part of Green Lake. Many other places near the shore had algal mats, which aren't photogenic.


On the trail, colors turning. Green Lake is considered "Seattle's backyard". I overheard plenty of gossip, and if it wasn't in Russian, I might have had chance in understanding it.


Even the wildlife got into the gossip act. What were the ducks and turtles talking about anyway?


This tree's fully turned.


Just to let you know you are firmly in Seattle.

The Denny's that we ate at for the last year or so for a late Saturday breakfast is no more. That leaves us again with a quandary - where to go for a Saturday breakfast?

You see, on Saturday Seattle has far fewer breakfast spots than breakfast lovers - everywhere there is a line, places are packed. Its an annoying mystery - come on, we all can afford breakfasts - that flares up as a crisis. When the big windstorm hit on December and many folks living in hotels or in cold houses, one could literally drive all around Seattle to look for a place to eat that wasn't going to be an hour wait.

My thought is that most Seattle-ites grab a coffee and danish somewhere during the weekday, which means very few weekday full breakfasts which means that few breakfast spots are profitable during the week. Apparently we have the amount of breakfast sites that we deserve.

We went to the Library Cafe this morning. Nice enough and we got right in.

It looks like I will be employing the innocent missive to get rid of yet another overdraft $29 fee. This time its - ironically - the bank that I just put 95K into. I know how it happened, and it's totally inappropriate.

Step 1 - before I deposited the 95K, I had 16K, to use to pay sister in our joint account for farmette expenses.

Step 2 - deposited the 95K. Was told that the 95K, due to its size and that its out-of-state, that it will have a hold on it for 5 business days. Fine, I said.

Step 3 - actually Step 2a, because as I deposited the 95K, I said that I wanted to also put a piece of it into another CD. Great, they said, we'll mail you the paperwork so that we can send you on your way.

Well, I thought that meant that the CD would be created after I sent the paperwork. Well no, it was Step 4..

Step 4 - CD was created 2-3 business days, so with the hold, it gave me a negative account. Fine. And FYI, that's not when the fee was charged. It was charged during...

Step 5 - I sent 5K to my sister on the weekend after I deposited the 95K. After all, I did have 16K in an unheld account.

Well, what happened was that the 5K bounced because of Step 4, and that bounce generated the overdraft fee. Essentially what happened is that with the creation of the CD, all of my money was put on hold. That's inappropriate - I was told that only the 95K would be put on hold.

So its an innocent chat with the bank to get rid of the fee. I'm guessing that they will be reasonable - why charge me $29 when they have the use of, well, lots more?

So far this year the reasonable request using in-depth analysis has saved me twice - and what's with everyone charging $29?

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $9 lunch

Not much happening here - just waiting for the Monday paycheck. I'll be running on financial fumes - $100 for the weekend. The Duvall friends have got our blueberry bushes. (We decided to get a couple and put them in kind of a secret corner of the back yard.)

Sister's lawyer sent both my sister and I so I asked in an email for a little clarification - did he split the bill in half, or is one just a copy?

Took the bus tunnel for the first time since it opened. Its geometry seems different, but that could be because I hadn't seen it for two years.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $7 lunch (for 2)

Had a free espresso drink card laying on my desk so I used that instead of the usual coffee and milk breakfast routine. Had the $3 in my wallet to put in the tip box.

DJ friend saved up a multitude of 2 for 1 cards at a new restaurant, so he organized an outing. Trouble is that when one friend accepted, he had to find another to keep it even. A co worker didn't have the cash on him, so I bought the 2 for 1, plus tax and tip. He now owes me at least one.

Normally, I buy very few t-shirts; I get one every so often, so why bother buying? I hadn't gotten a t-shirt in about 2 years when today I got my third t-shirt in 3 weeks. Tomorrow, as a payment for some of my work on DJ friend's internet radio station (see links), I will get my 4th t-shirt. Weird how gifts run like that.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk

Ate the other half of the sandwich I bought on Monday. These days a lot of people use the work refrigerator, but no one used the vegetable bin. Ha ha, score for a hiding place!

Last night I got the final piece of mail from the executors - a Schedule K-1. I'll have to look it up in the IRS site to see when and if its used. The letter stated that they filed a copy with the IRS, so we shouldn't. I suspect that it means that they've filed and paid so if I file and pay, I've paid twice.

Tonight I voted proxy as on one of my DRP stocks - M&I - is splitting off one of its subsidiaries into a new company - Metavante. If the split goes through, I get some additional Metavante stock.

This is one of the more fascinating tip jars in Pioneer Square Seattle.


A few years ago, this coffee shop's tip jar was stolen regularly. The baristas came up with a novel solution: immerse the tips in water. It does cut down the desire. Water's heavy - you can't just grab the jar and flee - and who wants to stick wet money in his pocket?

Its just very interesting to see the tip money come out. The coins are easy - a quick wipe and they are dry. The bills have to be hung up along a line like the wash. And since dollar bills are 25% linen and 75% cotton, they are wash.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk

Got bought and ate a Vietnamese lunch today with my Viet host, along with four other co workers, one from Thailand, one from the Philippines, and two of us mongrel WASP/Germans. Very fun and I learned of several new places to try around Seattle.

The three south asians all compared the consonants that each language didn't have and discussed intently the dishes they'd order.

I learned that pho (soup) is a breakfast food, although my host said, "we eat it for lunch and all the time."

Chopsticks are rarely used in Thailand - only for noodles in broth. I very much admire the pushing of food with a fork to a large spoon. Its a delicate, beautiful way of eating: a secondary cooking stage because you construct your spoonfuls.

I shared that it was interesting that the United States really took pho under its wing, while in Paris its bahn mi (bagette sandwich with pork pate and thin sliced pickled veggies).

And at the end of the meal as a digestive, my host and I ate 1 raw garlic clove, provided for by the restaurant.

I heard a rumor - which Wikipedia didn't confirm - that Ho Chi Minh studied pastry making with Escoffier. Fascinating what could have been.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $7 lunch (footlong for two lunches) + $11.84 groceries

I was busy for the entire day, that kind of rushing around busy that isn't really exciting or financially descriptive - unbloggably busy, in other words.

Found out that in three weeks, the chiropractor is moving 3 blocks in the other direction. In other words, what would take me about 30 seconds would now take me about 5-10 minutes. Not horrible, its just going to take a bit of getting used to.

Now to straighten out the last weird thing about the farmette (at least for now). Last Saturday, sister gave me a paper grocery bag of envelopes, proclaiming, "I am my father's daughter."

Yikes.

That night, I went through the bag, shucking envelopes like oysters. Many were closed, which was depressing. It turns out that about 40% of it was hers but had nothing to do with the farmette.

I sorted into four piles: statements from our farmette bank account, bills that are clearly farmette, incidental letters and info clearly farmette, sister's items.

I then made an excel workbook with three spreadsheets: costs, deposits, summary statement that linked the total costs and total deposits - the number is black if we are in the black, red if we have more bill than deposit. There were two transactions that I had to correlate with sister's checkbook.

This took me all of 45 minutes. We were in the black, the big assumption being that she put everything in the checkbook and the grocery bag.

"Could you at least get one of those file boxes with the handle? At least its swankier than the grocery bag." I chided.

I extracted a promise that sister would send me the spreadsheet, then tell me the totals of the bills so I update. It'll force her to open the mail. (Drat, I should have saved the spreadsheet on my flash drive.)

Man, that bugs me. Sister's not an accountant, doesn't 10-key, and doesn't do audits, but at least open the mail and tally your bills up with a calculator. I'm trying to figure out what sister's so afraid of. I'm worried that I contributed to it a bit by threatening to cut her off. But if you treat your bills like they are going down a rathole, then I have to assume that my money is going down the same rathole.

Money's complicated, but if you tackle it one thing at a time, its not bad. I was afraid, once, when I had more commitments than money. The first step is being able to face the bad news.

Friday
Saving log - 3$ tip box
Spending log - 1.84$ coffee, milk + 7$ curry

I put $3 in my tip box for a later deposit, and deposited the $95,000 check in the bank. The $3 transaction was more satisfying to me as the $95,000 one. The 3$ transaction was all due to me, the $95,000 was the result of a long road. The proceeds of dad's estate are still unreal to me, as is now my new net worth. What to do with all that money? It would seem that I have an amount to do something good with, but definitely not enough to do nothing with. My ship has come in, all right, but its green sails are still powered by the winds of doubt.

Sister and her partner seem to have a plan for some of sister's share - they are interested in fixing up the farmette and using it as a weekend getaway. I was surprised to find out that sister's partner was especially happy with that, telling me that she found that she can really relax at the farmette. Sister's partner especially surprised me in telling me that sister is the frugal one, the one who trying to curb things, saying "we can't afford that" to projects, and not do everything at once.

But as for me, I'm not so interested in starting a business, have no kids to put through college, no strong desire to pursue holidays, toys, or hobbies. Retirement awaits, sure, but should everything have a 25 year time horizon? And if you don't have a habit for spending, you'll probably save and save and save even when you get into your 60s, all to create even more money for non-existant heirs.

This is a little tour of the grounds, especially the pieces that now the Wisconsin Dept of Nat Resources (WIDNR) owns. Warning - lots of fields that all kinda look the same. You just can't make that composition interesting.

The zoning situation, in a sign.


This is due east. The clear area is now WIDNR to be restored to wetland. They've sprayed for weeds and have seeded.


This is southeast, taken from the road. The weeds are from the road. The soft gray area in the background is the WIDNR's previous purchase of our eastern neighbor's land 15 years ago. Its a sign of things to come.


From the south, through the weeds. The foreground weeds are all ours, BTW.


The property line between us and WIDNR cuts close to the solar panels. They have a bit of "our" pasture. We are on the left, WIDNR is on the right, and yes, it sure looks greener on that side.


Sister in our weeds.


View from the southwest.


On the west edge, we discovered that our property line is about 10 ft farther than our fence line. So we own that 10 ft of grass past the fence. Its what caused that slightly increased acreage that freaked us out at the final step.


A picture of the corporate farm that sister despises. They were kind of interested in the property, but we were less interested in selling to them than to the WIDNR.


Fun shot of one of the barn kittens. He looks so much like my dead Augie that I just about cried.

I know you are curious, so as threatened, pictures of the farmette. These are shots of the house and barn. Warning - long, long, long, with lots o' pictures.

House - facing west. This is the side facing the barn, which we will see later. The foundation got recently fixed.


House - facing east. This is the side facing the garden and the property now owned by the Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources. We'll see that later, too. We never ever used that porch.


This is the north side of the barn and the now fixed up milkhouse. The red barn door is now new, and there aren't many diamond windows around on barns these days. The house would be behind you and to your left.


Inside of the old shed on the east side of the barn - all you would do is take a few steps to the left of the previous picture. This old, 20 ft shed contained the old, copper-bottomed still my grandfather (father's side) used to make whiskey during Prohibition.


This is the south side of the barn. The barn is actually in the shape of an upside down U - The milk cows were generally led in the central courtyard before milking and went there during rainstorms. Nowadays, the solar panel stands proud on the left. Its generating power - kind of fun watching the inverter go in reverse, sending power back to the utility.


Close up of the three poles. We installed three poles in case sister and I wanted to install two more solar panels. Under the three poles lay a trenched copper cable which delivers the power to the farmette. In the background, the southwest corner of the house is peaking through the trees.


Close up shot of the back end of the solar panel.


Close up of the courtyard where the cows lay. The flooring - ahem, compost - is like scotch: very well aged.


This is the south west corner of the barn. That little blue-green thingee sticking out is the automatic manure spreader - how cow manure got out of the barn.


Grounds and fields next.

So I think that I'm doing well if I pick up a few dollars worth of quarters or in the case of a Milwaukee parking lot last Sunday, I picked up a stylus for DH's PDA (he loses that hardware a lot).

I'm hopelessly outclassed by sister's partner (DSP). Here's the story.

Sister and I were working on sister's laptop when DSP came by and asked if we would join her in walking the dogs. We said no and continued on with her laptop. FYI - it now starts a lot faster.

Thirty minutes later she comes back and says, "You should have come, it would have paid. Look what I found three steps from the porch."

She unfurled a $50 bill, which we later used at West End Pizza.

And last week she found three twenties and a couple of ones.

I run a coin rescue, DSP runs a bill rescue.

Despite the fact that our second piece of property has to be rezoned entirely into agriculture, the State of Wisconsin mailed us our respective checks. I got a phone call this morning from sister.

$95,000.

So ends, finally, everything from dad's estate. Now we turn to grandma's estate.

Funny, non-financial story about grandma mentioned at the funeral. She had talked to the pastor a couple of weeks ago, mentioning that she had lived too long.

The pastor replied, "it beats the alternative."
Grandma retorted, "I wouldn't know, I haven't tried the alternative yet."

We are talking the funny, witty, sometimes mean side of the family. If you find yourself re-reading this blog and laughing every so often, I attribute that entirely to that side of the family.

A quick entry. Here's the itinerary:

Friday - at work, stitching things up, and getting bereavement time.

Saturday - flying out using Midwest Air. All about the warm cookies, apparently, which I got two of, but the real treat was the ability to fly directly to Milwaukee. First night with sister and sister's partner. A highlight (NOT) - sister put all the farmette financial statements in a paper bag. Sigh.

Sunday - I'm put to work at the now farmette near Oshkosh, taking pictures, hearing plans, and later harvesting squash. It was in the high 70s and I got eaten by flies and mosquitoes on the last day of September. Yes, George, global warming does exist. A pizza dinner at West End Pizza in Oshkosh. Proust had his memories activated by a madeleine dipped in tea; I have mine with West End Pizza cut in squares and a couple of glasses from a pitcher of beer.

Monday - At the farmette again before grandma's funeral and wake to measure curtains. Grandma had an open casket for private viewing - sister, sister's partner, me, cousin, cousin's wife. She was buried in what she wanted - peacefully, in her pajamas and pink bathrobe. The funeral itself was closed casket, with a dinner for the funeral party at her and grandpa's favorite supper club. Had a brandy old fashioned with extra bitters in honor of my grandma.

Tuesday - Flying out again.

More tomorrow.

Saving log - $5
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $9 lunch

Sister called at work late this afternoon. Grandma died last night. She was 96.

I'll be off for a few days, heading back to Wisconsin. The viewing and the wake are on Monday. I'll be visiting sister, she'll be giving me a tour of the farmette. I plan on taking pictures.

See you in a few days.

Good news - a couple of months into my blog I wrote about the closure of the bus tunnel and how it affected my commute. The bus tunnel is back. Yippee!

However, some things will remain the same. No cars or 3rd Ave between 6-9 am and 3-6pm. Seattle got very used to the proceeds coming from those 101$ tickets. Not that I complaining - beforehand the cars on 3rd would just go crazy - turning into pedestrians, etc.

And some things are very, very different again. A few buses transferred to 3rd Ave. One of the buses that I can take to work now lets me off right in from of my gym, right across the street from work. Before, I'd have to take another 3 minute walk cutting through the interior of my favorite building, the Exchange Building. I'll miss that. I'll also miss the 20 calories or so that I burned off daily.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.65 coffee + $10 lunch

Three co workers and I traveled to get supervisory training. There were two highlights:

1. The dude who didn't set his cell phone to vibrate. He got a call. His ringtone was "Back in Black" by ACDC. Nice.

2. If you are going to fire someone, do it in the middle of the week, so they won't spend the weekend buying bullets. (Actually it was presented as contacting the lawyer, but I thought this quip was funnier.)

Actually it wasn't horrible. It was just... obvious. I guess that's what happens when you teach empathy to people who might not be naturally empathic. But in a nutshell:

Do unto others as they would have them do unto you.
Pass on as much information as possible and do it face to face.
The obvious might not be so obvious. (I guess this includes the training too.)
Follow your HR policies.

And yet afterwards, I got a headache (rare for me) and I wanted a nap.

A homeless man's sign, as spotted from the bus:

Father killed in Ninja attack.
Need money for karate lessons.

My assistant for the pledge processing season came on board today. Bought him lunch.

Needed a haircut, a couple of grocery items, and I had to write a check to copay the chiropractor, so I broke down and transferred $100 from the brick and mortar bank savings account - a little buffer against an overdraft fee.

Got a letter from Capital One. They're going to shift my billing cycle backward a few days back to the 16th. No matter, I now don't have any recurring charges on it anyway. I moved the newspaper subscription to the new, WaMu credit card. Sweet justice. I would have had to write a .35 check, but I bought a spare set of bedsheets from Overstock.com. The bill turned into a semi-respectable 50.34$, which I'll pay next week when the paycheck comes in.

Last week I talked with lawyer friend about 403Bs. It turns out that we made similar money moves with our 403B, but for different reasons. I trimmed my stock portfolio a bit and went for cash and bonds because I wanted a bit of safety. 90% stocks is pretty aggressive even during the best of times. I believe that a recession is on its way and I want a bit of ballast for awhile.

Lawyer friend nearly took all of his stocks and put them in the cash money market fund for a different reason. His favorite fund in the 403B, an international one, was eliminated in favor of a different one, which he hated, because of the fee structure. Yeah, so what about that 1.5% fee, lawyer friend ranted, my favorite posted great returns!

My thoughts drifted a bit, and I'm a bit ashamed that I didn't have the heart to explain it to him. Fees are important, and can be in some cases and conditions even more important because fees are inexorable. That fund manager will charge that fee whether that fund has a good year or not. The fee is fine if you're making in the rare instance a 15-20% return (although it means you are making 13.5-18-5% return), not so fine if you are only making 7-8% because you are barely keeping up with inflation, and it just becomes worse and worse - most actively managed accounts don't do as well as an index fund, and you pay for that privilege. Imagine if you lost 20% of your 403B, which often happened right after the dot.com bust. You'd still be charged that fee with the excuse that "imagine if we weren't your manager - your returns would be even worse!"

Fees are so important that there is a story about them. An investor met with a stockbroker to perhaps give him his business. The stockbroker gave him the grand tour, showed the investor how properous the firm was, tried to impress the investor even to the point of going to the slip and showing off the stockbrokers' boats. The investor wondered, "where are the investors' boats?" Fees, of course.

Anyway, by that time lawyer friend concluded, "I wish we had more choices." It turns out that lawyer friend's partner could choose up to 650 funds. Hear, hear. At least for me - I figure I could handle it.

Payday next Friday - and none too soon.

I wrote a 400$ check for one of my DRPs. It was one in my stock portfolio trading at the low end of its price range. I'm confident that its not a "value trap" so I'm buying on the dip.

It does mean that as we are heading toward the last turn of the month I'm in a rare position - I'm feeling the frugal burn and counting my pennies with the possibility that I'm going to have to transfer some money from brick and mortar savings.

Because of the frugal burn, its a bit of a bummer that the Greek Festival is this weekend. DH and I did the wine tasting - the wines were a lot better than in years past, but still a bit pricey. I weakened and bought Greek olive oil, grape leaves, feta, sheep cheese, capers, taramasalata, sea salt, cracked green olives, and variety pack of Greek cookies. $70.50, and I put it on the credit card. Blegh. On the plus side, we get 70.50$ worth of pleasure out of what we bought.

I also encouraged DH to take the bus out to the festival. Even at $2.50 for the trip that's a lot nicer to do than to drive then drive around for very limited parking. And we are maintaining our habit that we bring our cloth bags. We'll figure it out yet.

Saving log - 0$ tip box
(deposited 47$ yesterday from the tip box to the bank)
Spending log - $6 parking

Our little department was involved in a county-wide volunteer "Day of Caring" today, but we needed a ride to the place that we were to volunteer.

I publically drove our little group. It sounds strange, but I commute every day by bus, I don't really own a car (I consider the cushmobile DH's car), I hate driving standard transmissions that DH loves, I bum rides off of co workers, I consider driving the ruin of my finances and the cause of my weight gain. All reasons that for most of my life I drive maybe once a year. In other words, even after 7 years of working, no one at work has ever seen me drive. The cushmobile - a white Buick - is an automatic transmission, seats five very comfortably, so it made sense to carpool and for me to do it.

It was fun. The volunteering project was a landscaping job - good hard work and we had just enough people. Everybody was busy doing something, we got the project done at about 3 pm, and we had a lot to show for it.

Everyone considered me a boring driver - the conversation kept at a steady stream, no "eeek watch it!", no honking, and probably no stories or whispers behind my back.

The only issue was a frugal one - I paid 6$ for parking - my only spending for today. I know that DH would frown deeply. (Spend money on lot parking? Take away my cojones right now. ) I'll save the parking receipt - I might just as well ask if I can get reimbursed for it. And if I get reimbursed for it, maybe I can get my cojones back.

Noticed that ING dropped their rate to 4.3% the day after the Fed dropped the prime leading rate. It will probably even go a bit lower in the next few days. Here's to having a long-ish term CD.

Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $7.60 lunch

Crazy day, with work coming from all sides. Last night I lost 25$ at poker with the lawyer friend hosting, but I forced lawyer friend's partner out of the game, so I won a bounty of $5.

Then this morning I received a lunch invitation from lawyer friend. I know he reads this blog sometimes, but here goes. I had to use one of my other frugal skills - friend avoidance. I dearly love (friend love, get your mind out of the gutter) lawyer friend, but $25 dollars today, $15 dollars tomorrow. Well, I am plenty busy these days....