baselle's Financial Diary

of why we are all here:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/253544_grayingpoverty27....

As a woman, I feel for her. As a woman, I know that our biggest financial tool is our brains and our self-awareness.

Christmas dinner: Marinated a duck with soy sauce and oolong tea, then stuffed it with a chopped orange and a chopped onion, and roasted it. Yummy, but you really couldn't taste the tea.

Tonight we are having defrosted beef stew with bread. Christmas Day - well we found a good deal on duck, and DH bought a bottle of un-frugal champagne. Sister sent us a lot of cheese, spices, and a summer sausage shaped like a beer bottle with a Pabst Blue Ribbon label on it. It made us both laugh very, very much!

Merry Christmas and remember that the parents of Jesus were the most frugal couple imaginable, yet they persevered.

That's what it felt like today. All of the bigwigs are gone on Christmas break, at home or in sunnier places thinking of ways to torment the rest of us. I saw an admin playing computer games. I have to say that reading a book is a classier way to pass the time. You look better.

Down in our department, we are hard at work processing money and pledges so our non-profit might live. We have quite a backlog, and now its a matter of keeping people cheerful as the piles keep expanding. Oh well, piles growing is better than piles non-existant. We work tomorrow, but Monday we have the day off, and next Monday we have the day off also. Otherwise, we are expecting a little business as big donors that want a tax break for 2005 get their gifts in under the wire.

About the only frugal thing I'm doing is using up that Starbucks card, and eating cheap lunches. My favorite curry place is closed for the holidays. With 8 days left before the next paycheck, I'm down to $185.00. I'm going to see how long I can hold out before dipping into savings. Feel the frugal burn!

Saving log: 3$ tip box, 1.22$/day ING, 450$ into savings.
Spending log: 1.65$ coffee, 26$ to the gym, so far about 350$ in Christmas gifts and shipping.

Man, for the frugal December really sucks.

Sister called at work. She's working the night shift, so she had a little time and got me up to speed. Apparently it appeared that someone was stealing propane from the farm, but it turned out that someone was stealing the copper pipes that led to the propane. (Stealing, or thinking that they bought it during the auction?) They grabbed the copper, sniffed, got scared and ran. We were lucky that no one lit a match nearby. Turns out the bank and the executor carry insurance coverage for something like this.

Dad's farm bordered a corporate farm, which turns out to have one the largest holdings of cows in the state; the owner of that place is the first interested buyer. Sister isn't too thrilled and for once, I have to agree. There also might be an additional interested buyer in the property with the barn and house, a friend of a friend.

Well, I still couldn't find the dried mushroom guy at the Pike Market, so it was plan B for the gift for SIL and her husband. When they last visited we went on a wine tour, which they enjoyed, so I found a wood wine box covered with chinese characters that holds two bottles. Its illegal to ship wine most places and since I'm not interested in figuring out whether Wyoming (where they live) is one of them, I've packed the empty slots with gourmet cheese and chocolate bars, and finished it with a X-mas card and a note. That's the other semi-frugal trick of mine: an interesting storage box filled with something else. $27 for the wine box, $18 for the cheese, $10 for the chocolate.

Now what to get my mil....

I haven't really figured out my fiscal goals for 2006. Paying off the credit card from the personal trainer is number one; keeping up my pace of increasing my net worth by $10,000 every 8 months is good, but it depends on investments that always increase in value. Some will; stocks won't. Holding and managing the inheritance is a good goal - if I get it in 2006.

Paid the credit card bill - 1/4 or so of the personal trainer - 500$
Paid the electric bill - 121$
Paid for $50 worth of KO stock & reinvested a $17.50 dividend, giving me 1.5 shares.

Realized as I was standing at the bus stop to go downtown that I forgot my gym clothes. I was going to walk back, but it would make me too late for work to be comfortable, and I need spare gym clothes to rotate through the laundry. So at lunch I went to Ross and bought gym clothes - $27.18

And then the ever present 2 little lunches - $9.00

Put 3$ in the tip box
Will move 450$ into savings, to buy an I-bond on Dec 27.

Payday today on the 15th.

Got a cryptic email from the VP of HR, with a cc with the COO. The takehome message was that I had apparently been underpaid slightly since February and that I should have gotten bonus and retro pay. The 600$ bump was real. Whew, I guess. It works out to about 25$ more a paycheck, about 40$ gross, and about 4.00$/day, or about .50/hr. Would have been nice if they had told me two weeks ago, but these things happen.

Crappy day otherwise. Its a rare payday that's crappy, but today the highlight was the check and it all went down hill from there. A couple of key people were out. Apocalyptic horsefly swarm at work, stupid questions and the fax machine didn't work. I didn't get to do what I wanted done until the end of the day.

Christmas getting and giving front - sister got the fish and had some salmon already. She was also amazed at the size of the halibut steaks. I got a 150$ check as a gift from MIL, which I put into savings. I'm still at a loss as to what to give her. We got a fruit of the month box from SIL and her husband. Pears this month. Dried mushrooms would be a pretty good gift for them. Now if I can only find the market guy who sold them. No dice finding him yesterday at the market.

Conceptually, it would had been no spend day. We had our office holiday aka the Winter Event. It was held at the Triple Door. I ordered a small glass of red wine, which I shouldn't have, not because I'm gonna wear the lampshade over my head, but because it was a buy-your-own bar and I forgot to ask how much it was. 12$. eek! At least it wasn't a mixed drink. The office event was fun, FYI. I just should have remembered to pack my own bottle and glass then deploy them when the time was right. It would have been easy - it was plenty dark and nightclubby inside. The only downside is I would suddenly get a whole new reputation around the office.

I now have an official Vanguard IRA. The money left ING and went to Vanguard, all within four days, for only 10$. Of course a glass of wine doesn't come with it.

On the inheritance front, it seems that we now have a couple of buyers for the main property - the piece that has the barn, sheds, house. Sister has gotten a secretary's desk to our aunt, and the last of the furniture bits to various family members.

Spending log - 1.65$ coffee+ 12$ wine + 7$ groceries
Saving log - 150$ (thanks MIL!)

Got another piece of tax-vital paper today from one of my DRPs. Looked at a lot of pledges today, and I finished by actually going to the gym *By Myself* for a little cardio bike pedaling. I lasted at least 1 minute more than Friday.

Got a card from the paper deliverer this morning, or rather, I got a card with a self addressed, stamped envelope. Tip troll, if you ask me. I never know how to respond to these things, especially since he has an unerring ability to never, ever hit the driveway. I'm thinking of writing "5$ now if you hit the driveway, another 5$ if you keep it up". But then the turnover will kill ya. I'd have to train each person as they screw up.

Went Christmas shopping today at the Pike Market. I got sister 2 halibut steaks and a 5 lb filleted wild salmon. Nothing like food for the holidays - it gets consumed, it doesn't clutter the mantel, and doesn't need to be cleaned or dusted. The only problem is the shipping - yikes, 40$ - more than the fish itself. The fish spot I use is Jack's Fish Spot in the sanitary market, not City Fish or the stall that throws the fish for the benefit of the tourists.

To tell you the truth, I absolutely hate the fish flingers. Posers. Real fishermen take enormous risks to catch fish, including the noble salmon, who is giving its life and often its sex life so you could have a meal. And you're throwing it around for laughs. Why not pitch a dead bald eagle around for laughs? I haven't even gotten to the sanitary/ culinary aspects. Pitching salmon around bruises the flesh and if they miss? The fish lands on the fish gut smeared concrete. Well ick.

City Fish isn't so bad. They're pretty normal, so no flinging. But most of the seafood they sell is an augmented catch from other parts of the Pacific and who knows if its fresh.

Because its yikes with the shipping, I've decided that many of DH's family in Montana and Wyoming is getting dried mushrooms - chanterelles, morels, trumpets. It's light but also screams Northwest and should go fantastic with beef.

I opened up a 2005 traditional IRA with Vanguard this afternoon, using money from the ING account. It was pretty straightforward to do from the website

www.vanguard.com. The site itself is pretty clean with a lot of good information.

Did a little grocery shopping and bought a $15.00 bag of groceries for a food drive the grocery was running for Northwest Harvest. Except for tomato ketchup and spaghetti sauce, not a trace of vegetable in it. Not a great respite from junk food.

Cheapest gas in Seattle was down to $2.09. For us out here in the far left corner: wow. With the sun shining and blue sky deep, DH and I took a little Saturday drive through the arboretium. We ended up near the University, so I showed DH my bubble tea place.

Saving log - $4000 to the IRA for the tax break
Spending log - $1.80 coffee + 35$ grocery (15$ to Northwest Harvest) + 3$ bubble tea

Just like many other journals: after this week, I'd like to hole up this weekend.

Seattle is bright and sunny lately, but it gets bright late and dark early. The Hitchcock birds are gone - to where? - from the bare trees at my bus stop.

Neither DH nor I have great ideas on when to use the hotel room I've won. No Saturdays, No Christmas, No Valentines' Day. And we don't have great ideas for Christmas presents for his family. Sister is going to get a fish. Maybe we'll just give everyone a fish and be done with it.

I worked out today. I told the trainer that I was stressed, so he gave me a lot of upper body work. The hardest part of the diet that I'm on is to wake up early and eat breakfast, although when I do I'm a lot less likely to mindlessly snack at the end of the day. It took me a little while to figure out that the diet is decreases the starch and increases the protein and fat as the day goes on. Seeing a pattern like that makes it a lot more interesting to follow.

Of course, since this is supposed to be a financial diary, I'd be remiss to not write that I got my Vanguard mailings on how to start my traditional IRA. A little fun Friday night bedtime reading. It used to be that Friday nights were for romantic thoughts, but not this weekend.

I had about 1.5 M worth of pledges to check, stamp and send to our auditors. Eeeps! Time to lock the door, batten down the hatches, cancel a couple of meetings and get it done. Since I avoided the meetings, it really wouldn't do to be caught at the gym either (the gym is across the street from work), so I canceled today's workout. We are in the thick of it.

But lunch to me is sacred and I wanted to get some fresh air. I was also curious, with the re-routes in Seattle, whether a couple of buses that used to go in the tunnel would take me where I wanted to go in the International District. I hopped on, and satisfied my curiousity. Nope. Not really close. By the time I could get off, I was at least a mile away from where I hoped to be. So I had gym by other means.

Spending log - 1.65$ coffee + 7.00$ lunch and mini-lunch
Saving log - $0

The latest little thing from sister is a stock certificate she found in the attic bought, apparently, by a great-great uncle in 1919. She was wondering if the company got bought out and whether it was worth a little something. The company is The Burnrite Coal Briquette Co.

A quick google search gave me some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that the company went bankrupt before 1927. The good news is that the company was part of a Supreme Court decision in 1927.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vo...
If its fairly pretty, it might make a nice framed collectable.


Spending log - $1.65 coffee + $6.00 lunch
Savings log - $6.00 tip box

Thank you retire@50!

Took a look at the official IRS publication for IRAs

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590.pdf. I made under $40,000 this year, including dividends and interest which right now isn't that much. I'm at the high end (it appears that $45,000 is the cutoff), but the traditional IRA is what I'm looking for. Since I can do it - I'm going to the limit at $4,000.

I asked Vanguard to mail me some info. I have a little time and I want to pull it from my ING account, which is going to the de facto antechamber for the family gifts and the inheritance. It'll be the first project that my inheritance money is going to. I decided that the big lump of money will go to Vanguard unless they mishandle the little IRA, so it will be a test for them too.

Speaking of ING, I figured out how to make a sub account so now I have the family gifts and the kiss my a** fund separated. Its important to me - otherwise its the family kiss my a** gift fund. That was 10 years ago. Thanks to mymoneyblog, I found out what the routing number of ING is. I'm not really interested in pulling 4000$ back into my checking account.

Not much today, thankfully. Trips to a couple of grocery stores to pick up milk, 8-grain hot cereal, brown rice, and bubble bath. I could have gotten away with going to one grocery but the holiday food samples were fantastic at the other, so I had a frugal lunch of samples.

Found the equation that tells me how to best invest in my DRPs - put it in my spreadsheet. When I want to deploy my lump sum into my DRPs I can figure it out.

But I should explore starting an IRA, to save money on my taxes. I've either done the 403B or been too poor for an IRA other years, not to mention that I thought that if you have one you can't do the other. I have too much dividend earnings, I think, to file 1040EZ this year while next year when dad's estate lands in my lap my taxes will be even higher. No matter where I invest 250K the interest, dividends, and capital gains is going to be high. (4% of 250K = 10K, and 33% of that would be 3.3K). Balancing that out every year with a 5K IRA contribution is only prudent. Roth or classic?

On the inheritance front:

Sister has found some insurance policies from grandpa and grandma in some of the other papers we collected. Not very much, but a little bit. Sister emailed me asking for advice, and she suspects that these were held by mom for some purpose. Grandpa died in 1999; I suspect that mom was biding her time, waiting for grandma to join him so she could collect. That's the problem with waiting; it could be you who runs out of time. The Greeks weren't kidding themselves when they thought the 3 Fates were vicious old ladies that held your life by a thread.

About all I could say is that they were still part of grandma's estate, and that sister should ask grandma's financial advisor - our cousin. It could very well be that since grandma is dispersing assets that sister should hold them and not do anything with them (more assets to disperse and take care of), but that's really grandma's decision, not sister's.

Sister also sent two boxes. The first box was the usual fun Christmas stuff: candles and jam and mustards and greenie dental treats for my cat, who loves them. The second box was a bit more thought provoking. Clothes. Mom and dad clothes. The dad clothes were a bit larger than my size but the mom clothes were my size. Dad was 67 when he died; mom was 61. Thank you, sister, but when their clothes fit me it's really time for me to lose the weight.

Spending log - $1.65 coffee + $7.00 lunch
Saving log - $2.00 tip box + $40.00 DRP

Lawyer friend bought my lunch and blew my diet. We had a nice normal talk and said nothing about any inheritance issues. For a going away party of the payroll coordinator I ate fruit and skipped the cake. It was very nearly a no-spend day.

Sister got ahold of the insurance company and lo and behold the claim form was for the $2000+ check that we received last week. Weird to me that the form came after the check.

Stomach muscles are sore from the baby ab crunches I did yesterday. Nice to know I have abs. They will never be a six pack; I think if I get them down to a 1 liter size from the 2 liter size I'll be doing well.

Moved the 600$ extra from the paycheck to ING and started asking around. If I have to give it back, I can still catch the float.

Spending log - $1.65 coffee
Savings log - $3.00 tip box

Hard to believe when I looked at my paycheck today (I get paid twice monthly - the 15th and the last day of the month). It was $600 over what I usually get, and it looks like I got bonus and retro pay. I thought I got all my bonus and retro pay already. Normally I don't look a gift horse in the mouth, but I have a very weird feeling about this - the payroll coordinator's last day is on Friday. A little bit of fun and games as she leaves? No reason that I can see to be singled out; I'm not a friend nor an enemy. Wonder if someone else got "treated" in this way?

I'd better figure it out and offer to give it back if its a mistake... before it gets comfy in my checking account.

Ever since I got the large checks I haven't done a darn thing with the tip box. I think I might take a break from putting something in this month. Still have to find a Christmas gift for sister. Wonder what to give someone who seems to have everything and no space to put it?

Right now I'm concentrating on diet and am in the middle of my second week of workouts. I did a lot better this week than last. My muscles feel thick and I feel tired. The diet part is starting to impinge on the frugality part - a breakfast which I'm not used to eating, two smaller mini-meals which hikes my lunch budget by several bucks. Oh well, with good health - like a lot of other commodities - the cheapest man pays the most.

Mom's retirement benefit, that mysterious Employee Trust Fund, came in a lump sum today. $137.39. Mom didn't believe much in 403(B)s, I guess, and they must not have matched. Its also taxable, so it came with a Form 1099-R. Round and round into the ING account it goes and what it interest collects, nobody knows.

Bought my November I-bond - $500.

Boarded a tiny bus for the commute this morning. We got a young woman (5 yrs out of being a girl) who clearly didn't know bus rules. Came on a commuter transit bus with not one, but two full large suitcases. (Must've been one hell of a weekend). There were no seats, so she parked the baggage right next to the bus driver, partially blocking the entrance, and sat on top of them. Sigh.

Why the driver didn't force her back is anyone's guess. The bus was too packed to yell something clever (who would hear me?), so I just tried to transmit a telepathic signal. A big clean taxi, a friendly taxi driver who is paid and is happy to take on a pretty customer, driving to the airport in comfort and quiet, no one kicking your suitcases. Maybe the subliminal signal will help her think again the next time.

Ha.

Spending log - $1.65 coffee + $6.00 lunch
Saving log - $137.39 + $500 I-bond

Yesterday we re-visited the hosts from Thanksgiving. We just didn't get enough time to chat with them Thursday because they were being good hosts. They are a couple, the husband is a very high-end wood craftsman (desks, cabinets, tables), the wife used to work for Microsoft (we'll use husband and wife to distinguish them from us), but her health grew bad and the agita about MSFT grew tough to take.

They also asked us for advice on husband's business for marketing and advertising ideas. Husband's business has been falling off as of late. Jobs that husband easily closed on in one meeting are now getting the "wait and see" answer, which is usually a Seattle style passive-aggressive no. DH and I gave them a few ideas, but nothing earth-shattering.

I'm a little worried about them. They took out a second mortgage to rent increased shop space. Dangerous position, if you ask me. They also asked us, yet again, about buying a house. I don't want to buy a house. Even when the inheritance comes in, I still don't want to buy a house right now. It was hard to answer them without being impolite. I see and feel the economy constricting, especially in that husband's business. All the rich smart money is slowing down, waiting for the economy to turn one way or another. It's really no time to take on debt. Assets can shrink but debts never do, unless you pay them.

I got a claim form from Prudential Financial, the same insurance company that sent sister and I each a nice check last week. It has to be another insurance policy. Sister thought it might be the same policy, but why would they send a check first and then the claim form? She told me that she'll call and ask.

Actually, not quite true, I just bought needs: milk, onions, celery, and a cup of coffee from the grocery store; canned cat food from another grocery store. With me, its never a full blown Buy Nothing Day, but an eternal Buy Very Little Day. Saves money in the long run because you never binge.

Why do they call it Black Friday? Yeah, I know, but BF was the name given to the stock market crash in 1929. To my ears, today's nickname just sounds creepy.

Ate, drank, and made merry at a friend's house outside of Seattle (Issaquah, if you know that area). Brought a tasty 3 grain pilaf (wild rice, quinoa, kasha), and during the potluck, I did my bit as the gravy maker. Gravy is pretty simple, but mysterious enough to be nerve-racking, I guess. The real trick is knowing that you can expand the quantity of it using chicken stock.

Most of the folks there were former Micro-softees, and a few years ago it was buy this and bought that. With their reduced means, they've become more interesting.

My new-found wealth in my ING account now brings in interest of 1.44/day. Now I can afford a small coffee every day for the rest of my natural life.

I had another good workout so I made a fateful, not very frugal step. I signed up for four months for the use of a personal trainer at the gym. It will be $1941. Ulp!

It was with decided nervousness that I brought it up with DH. (Our finances are separate, but this is big.) Au contraire, DH told me, this is one of the most frugal things you can do. You want to get more active and slim down, you figure that a gym is the next step (I don't have a car, so I walk everywhere or I catch a bus. That takes care of endurance, but my weight is still high), but you don't have any experience with workout machines. Paying somebody to spot you, point out your mistakes, encourage you and keep you from cheating is da** frugal because you'll get it done with no fuss. The frugal part means that since you've put money on it you won't blow off workouts. And what good is inheriting money but not being healthy enough to enjoy it?

Funny how I'm starting this during the holiday season. I figured as long as its not January, I've got a jump on temptation.

Ah...settling down for a 5 day weekend. Nice.

Put 47$ in the bank from my tip box. That felt nice, too.

I put the two big checks of last week in my ING account for the moment. It's going to earn far more and be tied up far less than it would in my regular bank.

This last Sunday I really window shopped with a very different eye. Everything I looked at I could afford, which makes things a lot more difficult. The siren sings louder when you know you have a lot more unearned money in your accounts. I can see how people blow windfalls so quickly. It is easy to say, "just what I always wanted. I'll take it!" the first time and then over and over. After the sixth over, its gone. Generic advice about budgeting 10% for your treats then stopping when you're done makes a lot of sense to me. I also have to say, "I already have that and I'm happy with it."

Didn't think about money, didn't handle any large checks, didn't hear anything from sister. I just read the newspaper, drank coffee, grocery shopped, ate grocery samples, planned for Thanksgiving, cleaned the house. I have a very short week next week, just Monday and Tuesday.

Thanks, suedavids - I found out that Bob Brinker broadcasts on KIRO 710 1-4pm on Sat and Sun. I'll check his radio show out.

Spending log - 1.65 coffee + 4.38 lunch + 26.34 groceries + 104.35 gym membership

But not for a long time. Okay, it was weird and scary, just like others had said in a thread in the forums. As I trotted those three block to the bank, I clutched my purse just a little bit tighter, kept my head down, growled sublimally, and didn't let anyone come within three feet of me.

Figured that if I was depositing it in my bank, I might just as well visit a teller. She took one look, made a couple of key strokes, glanced at my signature and boom it was done. Blase, like she had done it before. Probably figured that the honest person would personally deposit the check and the criminal would just put it through the ATM.

I plan on consolidating most of my inheritance bits (and I count grandma's dispersement as inheritance) into my ING account until I figure out where I really want to put them.

Got my lunch paid for; this was very nearly a no-spend day. This afternoon at work I was on a field trip to a bank, helping process pledges to the non-profit I work for. They had a good reputation - "a banker's bank" - I was thinking of starting a bank account with them. Then I saw math mistakes and I am re-thinking that possibility.

And in the mail today I got another check from Prudential Financial. A death benefit from Mom. I called sister to ask whether she got one. She did - one penny more. I knew mom loved her best. Another chunk hits the ING account.

I mean I had an extremely lucky day.

In the morning, I won a gift certificate for a night at a Seattle downtown hotel.

I slipped away for lunch and talked with my lawyer friend who managed to talk to my sister before the farm auction. He had some good insights. She definitely wanted to honor dad's vision. However, the only way that we could know that would be if he had written it down. We didn't find it, and it wasn't in the will. Are we going to have to get it using an Ouiji Board?

Got a lot done in the afternoon.

Came home.

Got my 3M package
Got 2 checks from my cousin who had the power of attorney. One for 450$ and one for $9171. Time to put it in the savings account and figure it out.

Got back to work yesterday. Felt like I got hammered with requests (grrr), but I managed to get a fair amount done. I just have to take it slow, mix it up (easy project, hard project), and remember my predecessors magic words, "no one dies if it doesn't get done today."

Today was a lot better after about 9 hours of sleep. I went to the gym for the first time ever. The trainer was very nice - we did mostly the weigh-in, the measurements, the setting of goals. A revelation to learn what an ab crunch actually is. It'll be quite the little project to get my weight down.

On the other hand, three years ago it was quite the little project to get my finances in line. I never balanced my checkbook; I had two little 403Bs, 1 little, 1 medium, 1 large credit card balance, and about $1500 in student loans. It was a turning point for me when DH gave me my PDA for Christmas. Three weeks later I found a free, really good checkbook program

http://www.freewarepalm.com/financial/mycheckbook.shtml and put my info in with a quavering hand. I had a positive net worth, at least, but barely. This, at 40.

I started with the basics. With the PDA, it became important for me to reconcile my checkbook and to put what I spent in. I learned how I spent my money. It became very important that my credit card balances and student loan balances went down and my 403B contributions went up. When my student loan finally got paid off, that letter stating so was almost as valuable to me as the degree that I got with it. I made small investments, put little amounts and whatever bonus I got into a savings account which grew a little.

I wanted to cultivate some savings and a little investment so I knew what to throw extra money into after my debts were paid.

I learned about the debt snowball, and hit my accounts one at a time (although I did manage to put more than the minimum in each of the others). My worst one with the worst interest, which the cc company refused to lower, I transferred to a $0 balance offer. The debt didn't quite fit--so I made payments on the leftover debt that had to stay on the icky card, while paying low amounts on the balance offer. It was a bit dangerous, the 0$ interest after six month was okay compared to the icky card, but I was lucky. I had a couple of 500$ emergencies, not several $1000 ones.

I paid off my debts and now I'm manipulating my savings, tinkering around the edges.

It leads me into gramma's gift. I feel somehow that this is a dress rehearsal for the inheritance to come. Do I shore up my savings vehicles or go in a new direction? Do I throw it all in at once, or do I dollar cost average and spread out my payments into things?

Well, Nut's at it again. He's thinking about suing for back pay. I have no idea how far back. I do remember putting letters in a file saying to Nut "don't come back". Dad was always the pay as you go type, and if he didn't pay you it was a sign that you shouldn't show up. I'm thinking its either another try to get some bucks or to distract us from the fact that he was stealing stuff. Whatta Nut.

He and his father were at the auction. His dad bought a dead truck, I think.

Turns out that that pilot crashing in the trees in Milwaukee was within 6 blocks of sister's house.

Grandma, who is 95 and is living in skilled nursing care, is going to begin dispersing her assets. $10,000 in a few weeks, with the possibility of $10,000 more in March. After setting it in a 6 month CD to decide what to do with it, I'm going to have to get a financial planner.

It's raining money here, but today was a no-spend day. I'm down with a cold and I'm running on vitamin C packets, Airborne tablets, little oranges, and hot decaf chai. Bleggh.