baselle's Financial Diary

to go for the FCC picks for 2011. I got mine, and I got a couple of other sets. So far nobody has dups and we all have interesting picks.

I am accepting remote players. Picks by Dec 31, money later on. Those folks interested can see the comments my last FCC post - they tell you who to email. Write me a comment in case my spam filter is doing too good a job.

I found another silver dime yesterday, half buried next to a tree in front of a church. This one's a bit older - date minted was 1944 - and its a Liberty head dime. For all you young whippersnappers (including me), here's a picture of

one. (not a pic I took, I can't focus it enough using my little digital camera). Its a little grungy, but the relief is nice on it - only the E Plurbis Unum is faint.

I also looked at my PTO accrual as I was figuring out the percent on my 403B. 255 hrs. I'm waiting for HR to bring the hammer down. I could call in sick for a few days.

Finally, I'm working on my FCC list. Have about 8 that I'd like to follow, so 2 more and I'm done. Thank you scfr for a couple of more ideas.

I've been saving relatively crisp $1s and a couple of $5s for the Vietnam trip. So far I have about $30. Because I'm saving for the trip, I've decided to slow down the tip box savings, and return to it in March. I'm now reading and taking notes in a notebook, to bring on the trip.

Merry Christmas to you all!

It has been a low key, frugal Christmas up here in the upper left hand corner of the US. Cooked a goose we traded for beef for from our Duvall friends. 'Little Henry' was written on the package. Little Henry was all dark meat. I made a bread dressing with onion, celery, tarragon, chopped nuts, dried fruit, cinnamon and nutmeg. Really can't taste the cinnamon and nutmeg. Also fried the last of the potatoes my sister sent (with the turnips) in goose fat. OMG, good. Made Szechuan green beans, a green salad, and a pear/cherry brown betty to round out the whole thing.

Yesterday, I ran my second yogurt making experiment. I scalded the milk, let it cool to 115F or so, poured the still warm milk into the wide mouth 'food' thermos ($10 from the grocery store) with a spoonful of store bought yogurt, stirred, sealed it up and waited for 6 hours, then opened it. Worked like a champ! While the goose was roasting I got out the jelly bag, spooned the new yogurt in, let drain, and a couple of hours later I got 1 cup of greek yogurt. About the only issue with the thermos for yogurt making is that it really only makes one serving, so it will require planning.

Got an unexpected, but really interesting gift - DH gave me a pocket video camera. Takes AAA batteries! Boy that will be a fun gift for the Vietnam trip.

The final interesting thought came from the newspaper.

Use your live, hopefully not-sprayed tree in cooking! I don't usually have a Christmas tree, live or fake, but no doubt I can find a residential, unsprayed pine overhanging a sidewalk as I walk by.

December is generally my most spendy month. This year has been exceptionally spendy, after buying Vietnam trip and plane tickets for sister and I.

However, sister is moving money so she asked me what her share is: A bit more than 8K. So I will be getting that back.

DH's mom sent us a bit of Christmas money. DH needs it way more than I do, but a got a bit of it, so about $400 that I didn't expect.

The final bit of fiscal news is not about money coming in. Turns out that the HR software payroll uses to pull money for the 403B works on percentages, rather than flat dollar amounts. So no more $666.66 taken of each paycheck, now its 31%. Works out that I'm contributing a hair more than I have in the past - even closer to the $16.5K upper limit. Took a look at how I'm doing on the 403B. Not quite as nice as a last year, but I'm up about 8%.

Just in case you find it unsavory enough to back out ...



not too late....






Tra la la, the FCC (Fantasy Celebrity Cemetary) aka the death bet. Haven't heard much about who is "winning", just that all of my 10 picks for 2010 stayed very, very alive. Thank you, grim reaper... I think.

This obscurity will change for 2011. I am going to be the organizer for this upcoming year. Most of what is happening will be the same - $20 buy-in, 10 picks, final age minus 100 are your points, most points wins.

I'm instituting two twists: 1. celebrity is defined as a person having a Wikipedia page. Useful for many reasons - saves me time to figure out whether your pick is famous enough, the participant does the research, we have a ready birth date, and Wikipedia lists out deaths by year and day, so no fighting about a death date. Twist 2 is that I'm going to collect everybody's pick, list 'em out in Excel with their Wikipedia link, and everybody can see everybody else's choices. Full transparency.

Friday night I looked up my stocks, as I usually do. My bank stock, which has been limping along a low-ish level, increased its share price by over 1$/share & 18%. Wow, I thought, I'll have to explore that further after I read the news.

Then I read the news. My bank (M&I) is getting bought by a Canadian bank (BMO), at 0.1285 shares of new bank per 1 share of old bank. It means that if the sale goes through, I get 18 shares of a Canadian bank. They pay a dividend (a pretty good one), but appear not to have a Drp. So I will get checks.

Its a little disappointing in terms of losing the largest bank in my childhood home state, but at least the bank didn't get taken over by the FDIC or had a completely horrific buyout plan (like WaMu) so its not a total loss.

On another note, DJ friend/coworker showed me the 2Gig MP3 clips that one can get for $9.99. Why bother buying a $15 CD at those prices? I felt a Jackie Handey moment coming on. I suggested that his internet radio station contact the supplier and see if getting the internet radio logo on those little clips would be possible. Even better, he could load podcast radio programs or even several of radio station produced albums onto the critter and sell them. Even if the buyer wiped the songs clean, those little clips on a collar could be quite an ad statement.

Found over $10 in change last month! Thank you rainy Seattle - no one who drops coins wants to stay out in the rain and pick them up.

My passport with the Vietnam and Cambodia visas is sitting at Fed Ex right now. Not too bad - it took about 17-18 days. I now absolutely am going. Checked out one of the two books from the Seattle library. Its all about the Vietnam War - actually from the 1920's to the 1970's - so multiple Vietnam wars. Very interesting.

Big data dump (BDD) has occurred, so my email account now sports a message - I'm working on 43M worth of data, so stop bugging with your $25 stuff.

First the jelly bag with a tripod to hang over the sink. (I was jelly bag-less so I spent 12$ at the hardware store.) I was given a quart of apple butter, homemade by lawyer friend. It was delicious but runny. The solution is: the jelly bag. Pour the quart of apple butter into the jelly bag and wait for 1-2 hours as the liquid drained into the sink. A quart of runny apple butter turned into about a half pint of perfect apple butter.

It got me thinking about my second project. Making yogurt turned into a bit of a bust two weeks ago, but I still have an urge for a dairy project, so how about yogurt cheese, made with supermarket yogurt? I didn't have the butter muslin called for (a finer mesh more-clothy cheesecloth), but I did have the jelly bag. Turned out perfectly, and dead easy, so easy that it really doesn't call for a recipe. Dump supermarket yogurt into a jelly bag, let drip for 12-24 hours. Press a little - I twisted the bag to create a more compact 'cheese'. Its the consistency of cream cheese. I made eight little yogurt balls and rolled them in dried mint and a bit of kosher salt.

Now for the rant. Its been awhile for this one, but today it was just horrible. Our usual Sunday coffeeshop closed a couple of weeks ago due to fire damage next door so we went to a different one. We set down our wrapped newspapers to get coffee and discovered people reading 'em when we got back. I'm happy that people still want to read paper newspapers, yay, but dammit, if you are too damn cheap to buy your newspaper, you ask "may I?" and accept a no if we are not done. We share when we are done. Done means unwrapped from the baggie, paper in sections in a stack on the table. It costs some to get the paper, we buy it so we get first dibs.

Nuts, man.

Again, not much happening. The big expense - the Vietnam trip with sister - has been paid for. The Hep A shot was gotten on Saturday morning, and all I can say about it is: OW!!! It felt like the nurse dulled the needle and pounded in the shoulder. I couldn't even move my left arm Sunday, and had to hold it like John McCain. I'm in the process of taking my typhus oral vaccine - a capsule every other day, first thing in the morning because I have to take with no food, no chewing because the capsule with the attenuated bacteria have to get past the stomach. Its a bit of a challenge with my serious gag reflex, but I'm gonna do it.

Work is getting very busy again, with the big data dump (BDD) happening within a few weeks. I'm very happy about that because said BDD usually happens in late January, possibly interfering with the trip.

Today was rainy. Not surprising for Seattle, but today the rain was heavy and plus a fair amount wind which would catch the umbrella and do very bad things to it. As I walked 3rd Avenue downtown, a number of umbrella handles stuck out of trashcans all along the way. This rain's rough on even the natives.

Part one of consolidation occurred - most of my savings and CDs are now at ING, all pulling together and earning 1.2%. Not great, but I'm not trapped by a CD. Part two of the consolidation - moving from Chase to a credit union is stalled out. I'll have to talk to the credit union because I still haven't gotten my PIN number for my permanent card. I do have some savings in it and that are earning 6% ... so I can't be too mad.

Been about a week since I last posted. Mostly because not much has been happening. Waiting for my passport with the visa to come back from the visa service, and I plan to hit my medical center to get the shots I'll need for my February trip. Hep A, typhus shots, along with a blister pack of anti-malarials just in case. With that, the heavy duty buying is done, the rest is just collecting for the packing list.

Sister is a bit funny - she's asking me whether I'm reading what's on the book list. I think she means the professor who is leading the tour. If that's the case, probably not. There isn't going to be a formal test, at least not one that couldn't be passed by buying two slots on the tour.

Sister sent a TON of turnips in her latest box. I was at a bit of loss on how to use them - DH hates turnips so too much hiding is out of the question - until I remembered how much I liked turnip pickles at the Indian/Middle Eastern restaurants. Turns out making them is very easy:

Turnip pickles
6-7 medium turnips
2-3 tiny beets
2 1/4 tsp kosher salt
red pepper flakes
1 c warm water
1 1/2 c white vinegar
clean glass jars

Peel turnips and beets, slice into 1/4 - 1/8 in slices. Put in large bowl, sprinkle red pepper flakes and salt over slices. Toss to get everything well mixed. Cover, let sit for 12-24 hrs.

Pack slices into the glass jars. You should have a bit of liquid at the bottom of the bowl. Add the warm water and vinegar to the bowl, mix well, pour the liquid over the slices in the jars.

Cover, let sit for at least 2 days. And this is what they look like...

Had some extraordinary luck in finding change Thursday. I walked through the self-serve carwash (this before the snow and cold) parking lot and caught a glint of a penny, then several pennies, then a whole lot of change (pennies, nickels, dime) which no one picked up. Why? They were in amidst a wad of grease and weird lint. Ugh. So of course, true to my roots, I scooped up the mass in several scoops and put it in a my plastic bag.

Got home, and washed, and washed. In that glob were 90 pennies, 10 nickels, and 28 dimes.

And today, I picked up a quarter standing straight up in the top grate of the escalator. Also covered in grease.

Hand sanitizer anyone?

Seattle is in the throes of its every other year snowstorm. Actually the snow occurred yesterday, but the ice occurred today. I was extremely lucky yesterday - it only took me 1.5 hrs to get to work, and 1.75 hrs to get home. Today - with the threat of the virtually-assured-nightmare ice bowl commute both ways, the fact that I got caught up with all my work yesterday, I had the PTO, I needed to get cracking on my part for the Thanksgiving festivities, - I refused to participate so I called in for a PTO day.

All the transit systems and the Seattle Dept of Transportation all tweet. Yesterday, while it wasn't a pleasure, at least I could figure out why we were stalled and could make a better decision. It does make for hundreds of text messages per day. I had the minutes saved for just this purpose.

And when I put on my Yaktraxs for the fourth year, I got the "great idea!" comment.

Got caught up on a number of fiscal fronts - my second CD matured Sunday so I called and put the proceeds into checking, and got my ING account to pull it in. 1.2% is unheard of for checking, but you have to maintain a large balance.

BECU solved a mystery. I got the temporary card, put a bit of money into savings. A few weeks later I wanted to put my this month's tip box squeezings into savings, but couldn't because it rejected my PIN. (I cancel and get everything back) Turns out that the first time you put the PIN in it will accept anything set of digits. Its at the end that it then gets down to the business of verifying your account. I'd rather be rejected early. I can take it. Anyway, got that mystery solved.

Also began making cranberry trifle try two. Try one was delicious, but I added a tad too much Cointreau. I'll fix that this time. All I've been doing is making three things: pound cake from a box mix, roasted cranberry sauce, cornstarch vanilla pudding. Cube the pound cake, layer it, add a bit of Cointreau, add a bit of cranberry sauce, a bit of warm pudding, more cubes of pound cake, Cointreau, pudding this time, cranberry sauce, etc. Keep layering until you run out of ingredients. Chill overnight, add whipped cream when you are about to serve.

Worked with the death bet organizer today. The second thing out of his mouth was, "man, did we not pick the right people for our death bet." And we only have one month left.

I commiserated - a celebrity who dies seems to be two degrees of separation from the celebrity on my list.

So far lawyer friend is in a slight lead. He picked Robert Byrd, which I remember several of you all suggested. Nah, I said, not enough points. Well, amongst 0 points, the 5 point score is the winner.

Had a no spend day, but in planning for the trip, I've spent for plane tickets, visa, soon some more for a Hep A shot, typhus shot, and for a bit of anti-malaria drugs, and very soon will finish paying for the rest of the Vietnam/Cambodia trip in February with my sister. I hate to see the money go (funny how you INVEST so much in the number when you know your net worth) but it will be fun and exciting and I still have plenty even after the spending.

The most interesting part with buying the tickets is the Chase Fraud alert phone call ten minutes later. Its doing its job.

I mailed off my passport for the visa ... a little scary, so I sprung for the USPS tracking with 24 hr delivery. $18.30, paid for no mistakes and so far no mistakes.

Anyway, I'm nearly done and the plan is taking shape. Sister is flying out from Milwaukee to Seattle, we fly out together to Hanoi, with stops in LA and Hong Kong. We go on the tour with an additional 35 people (tour closed - no more free spots). Then at the end, we fly home from Cambodia to Seattle.

Updates from the last few days, a few fiscal but most not.

Got into the dress I bought for the workplace social with the 60s theme and I think rocked it. I also demonstrated the best and most polite way to eat finger foods using white gloves. Even got 'wow' comments that I didn't stain the gloves while I ate. - But that's not really a surprise; one usually doesn't stain one's bare hands either.

We did the canning exchange at work the next day. From my 4 half pints of quince marmalade, I received: 1 half pint pear butter, 1 half pint of apple chutney, 1 pint of pickled okra, 1 quart of tomato vegetable soup. I was a tad nervous about the soup, but I did eat it already and had no ill effects. I did boil it hard for 15 minutes though. The pickled okra came from lawyer friend and the time table for it was thus: got home at 6:45pm, opened the okra; 6:47, had eaten 2 okra, began to boil the soup; 7:00, had eaten about 1/2 the okra; 7:10, all the okra was gone. . Hope the gang enjoyed my marmalade. Out of all the jars, mine was the prettiest - a bright pink red.

I got the travel materials for the Vietnam/Cambodia alumni trip - visa information for both countries, bill for the rest (I just put down the deposit for sister and I), travel information, guidance for how the plan will go. So far there are 21 other people who booked. The tour managers gave me another set of everything for my sister. Today I mailed it off, and went to Walgreens for another set of 2x2 pictures for each visa. And yes, no smiling ... I think that your passport/visa pictures should pretty much match what you look like after you step off the plane. That way the customs official doesn't have to use his imagination. Now to book the flights, which determines the date of the Vietnam visa.

Consolidation on my accounts is proceeding. The first CD will be fully in my ING account Tuesday. And I get paid on Monday.

We are going to the Duvall friend's house for Thanksgiving. WE might mix it up a bit and have prime rib instead of turkey. It will give me license to make some British-inflected sides and dessert. I get the feeling that cranberry trifle might be smashing. The Duvall friends just started their

blog, and it looks to be pretty good. Want to learn how to build a goat barn?

One CD matured yesterday and I've moved it to the checking account. I have it scheduled to be moved into my ING account early next week.

There are only 5 people in the canning exchange, which is good news - my other 6 half pints will turn into Christmas/ hostess gifts. Cracked open one and had several tablespoons in a cup of plain yogurt. Was a bit syrupy, and that was perfect for the yogurt.

Discovered another symptom of this recession: a very large banner advertising "we take EFT and SNAP dollars." Its great that this place does, its a new produce stand, but I've never seen a gigantic banner proclaiming it. Usually I've seen the window sign or a sticker at the checkout.

Haven't declared that we are in the season of Venus yet, which is lax on my part, because we have been very much under Venusian skies this week. It is early enough in the season, though, so drivers apparently having to get used to it. On my walk today I saw a large truck drive the wrong way on 2nd Ave ... a street that you do not want to be driving upstream of. He made the corner before any serious damage was done. Nobody honked though. Also saw a car neatly front end an ornate cast iron street light. Bad day for someone else. If he was one of those drivers that really gun it as he turns right out onto the street ... well, then he got his just desserts.

Received a $150 check Saturday, meaning I received the rest of my payments (save one) from my participation in the bird flu study. Save one, because the last data point is at 180 days. I'll get the last $50 sometime in March.

My tolerance for flu shots and blood draws made me $500, which comes in handy.

DJ friend had a little re-writing task that he was willing to pay me $25/hr on. (Which he did via Paypal) It took me two hours to do, so there's another $50.

Can't say that I see more of those side payments on the horizon, but what is coming up this month is the second phase of consolidating my accounts. One of my CDs is due, so I will call tomorrow morning and inform the bank to move that CD into checking along with the remnants there already. I have a link between this checking account and ING. After November, this money will in one spot earning 1.25% versus a couple of spots earning 0.35%. It will add up quickly.

Had a slightly spendy weekend. I'll be at an event at work where we dress up early 60s (and I thought I escaped Halloween expenses!). Normally I wouldn't care and would use nothing to wear/no time to buy as an excuse to go for only a few minutes, but I like how I look in early 60s garb so the project will serve double duty - I can consider what I buy refreshing my wardrobe.

I managed to find the near perfect blue dress at Ross for $22; white gloves, blue shoes that nearly match the dress, and a blue collar-less jacket at Value Village for another $23. Final thing - pantyhose for $4 (yeah, but I rarely wear pantyhose). I have a perfect pocketbook already. I tried out the whole ensemble and I look pretty good. However, if anyone asks - no all you can eat anything because I can JUST get into the dress.

Last night I canned 11 1/2 pints of quince marmalade. I used this recipe:

Quince Marmalade

3 1/2 lb quinces (after de-peeling and coring you'll get about 3 lbs)
5 3/4 c granulated sugar
10 c water
1 whole lemon, thinly sliced.

Peel, quarter, and core quinces. This was the tough part - especially around the very woody core, those quinces cut like squash. Collect the peels and cores, wrap them in cheesecloth. The quinces will turn a bit brown, don't worry about it.

Combine all ingredients (including quince trimmings in the cheesecloth) into large stockpot.

Simmer under low/low medium heat for several hours. Quince will begin to turn rosy, the sugar syrup will turn red. Pierce a quince piece, when it softens, remove and discard the bag of cheesecloth.

Mash your quince and keep cooking until the quince jam is of the color you like and the mixture passes the sheet test. The longer you cook, the redder it gets. 5 hours was my limit, and turned my yellow quinces into a glorious red marmalade...


Process by boiling waterbath (quince ph range is about 3.8 - 4.0, plus the lemon adds a bit more acid). Fill jars with 1/4 inch headspace, put on lids and rings, process for 25 minutes.

Yesterday I did a wet walking tour amongst the grocery stores and produce stands in my neighborhood. I've been invited to a canning exchange party - provide 1 of what you made and canned, either pints or half-pints, to each of the invitees. So far there are 9. Of course half-pints are way easier to can than pints, but I want to can something special, but seasonal ... because seasonal is cheaper and tastier. Hence the walking tour.

I was excited to see quinces at the produce stand for $1.49/lb, and even more excited to find very straightforward recipes for quince marmalade. (Which before the 19th century, was what everyone considered marmalade, not citrus). So that'll be my contribution.

Yesterday was the fact-finding mission; today was the buying. One of the coins I got in my change was a 1952 dime. Any dime made before 1964 is a silver dime, and apparently the current price of silver makes

that dime worth about $1.40. So along with the wheat pennies, I'm looking for old(er) dimes.

I made the external link between the bank where my close-to-maturing CDs are and ING. I paid a bill, sent a P2P transfer to my DH (who picked it up immediately), discovered that ING keeps an internal address book complete with routing and account numbers. Not quite sure whether I like that or not.

I also paid a visit inside to the ING/Shareholder brick and mortar building on 1st/King. The ATM doesn't look like it handles paper checks (no deposit slot) - which makes sense for mostly-online bank. Still, while I don't get that many paper checks, I still get a few. And there is my much beloved tip box squeezings. So ING can't do it all, I think.

So the plan is to first move the CDs (tiny amount of interest), to ING (slightly greater amount of interest), and close that bank account.

Second, I plan on move my direct deposit to ING, then later move most, perhaps all of my money out of Chase, leaving just the credit card.

For the paper checks, small savings and tip box squeezings I plan to put that into a BECU account. G*d love 'em, they still have an interest rate of 6% on checking and saving accounts under $500.

My 403B has two parts - one where I contribute, the other where my employer contributes a percentage for me. Combined they have been over 100K since the first of the year. Today I looked and the part where I contribute cracked 100K by itself.

Last night DH and I went to the Georgetown Haunted History tour with lawyer friend and partner. It was a walking tour of one of the oldest neighborhoods in south Seattle - was there when the Alki party settled Seattle. The walking tour, held at night, moderated by what we learned was "the woman in white" ghost, was full of ghost stories and various neighborhood actors reenacting tales and neighborhood quirks. One of my favorites was of a house that dispensed candy from a long tube. A string ran through the tube - the little tyke was supposed to tug at the string, signaling the owner to dispense the candy.

Cost: $10/person. Entertainment: priceless.

One thing that one has to know about my little fiscal empire - I have money scattered throughout several banks. It worked well once when the interest rates were reasonable, the FDIC limit was $100K, and I needed a bank with a fair number of branches so visiting my sister wouldn't be a hassle. (Remember those days. My, it seems so long ago!).

Course it was explained to me that no bank really needs a depositor anymore; they get all they need from the Federal Reserve at 0.25% or even 0%.

Anyway, now my savings seems scattered and unwieldly. If I'm not going to be earning much in interest, at least I should put it in a place easy to manage and consolidate. As my CDs mature, I'm planning to move them to ING. Turns out that even the Electric Orange checking has a better rate than many 1yr CDs out there. I'm sure that there are places with a higher interest rate, this consolidation just feels like the downstroke of a heart beat - send the savings out when times are good, bring them back in and wait.

I'm going to go a bit slow and see what I can and can't do with Electric Orange. Best case is that I can do anything and the ATM situation is good, which means I can move the CDs, and even move the Chase account. I like the brick & mortar (I'm over 40 after all), and it turns out that ING has a brick & mortar site about 4 blocks from work.

I wrote the date on some of my work today:

10-15-10

And its payday. I saw the raise - about 15$ per pay period. The new health insurance contact will kick in in November, for perhaps a few dollars more.

This week Safeway had the all the loss leaders: grapes, broccoli/cauliflower, bagged salad, cat food. We ate enough of the beef to make room, so I also bought 2 lb bags each of frozen corn, peas & carrots, green beans, at $1.25/lb. Not great but we were out of the frozen veg so it was needed.

Received 75$ for the second shot. I have only two more blood draws to go, but three more payments, so $150 more.

Found 3 $1 bills yesterday folded in quarters on the sidewalk right on the corner. Across the street lay a fairly upscale bar, but a bar nonetheless. Ah liquor, my friend.

Right now I'm about 3 months ahead of finding money than I was last year. Two theories:

1. I've gotten better at finding at finding money.
2. Due to the recession, people are using less plastic and more cash; more cash, more change; more change the more likely one loses some. After all, you don't get change from a debit card.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a wheat penny penny board from the neighborhood coin shop, so it looks like I'm turning into a coin collector after all. The owner asked me what my angle is in collecting and I answered, "whatever I find on the sidewalk." He was amused. "Never heard about that twist before." Since he is close by, it will be easier to stop by and learn a little bit about grades and show off that 1927 S. A couple of weeks ago DH found a 1944 wheat penny (non steel), so now we have 6.

We are close to finally getting our raise. Every paycheck since August I've been looking for the bump, and have been secretly disappointed. Secretly because it is the hallmark of ingratitude these days to mutter, "when the h%!! am I getting my raise?"

Part of it was that the health insurance got figured out. I'm happy to report that with normal blood sugar and now very good blood pressure I chanced it a bit and went to the very basic plan. Starting in November, I'll be paying a hair less but changing my copay from $20 to 25$.

DH re-starts with the IRS for the second season. He will now learn how to look up and handle balance due calls. Far less fun calls, but at least he doesn't have to call out.

Feeling the frugal burn. I'm a little low this month and I only want to withdraw $100 from savings until the next paycheck. Been good for most of the week and dropped back down to 169.

I've been getting checks from the flu study. I only have about 3 more blood draws and I'm done, done, done. This last week's blood draw was interesting - my undependable veins have re-made an appearance (tried tapping but no blood), so they finally had to draw from my hand. They warned me that it would hurt, and it did a little, but I had a big vein in the hand and a straight shot so it was less painful than them digging around on either arm.

DH is going back to his second stint with the IRS. He starts training next week, but doesn't get his commuter pass until he starts for real. Means that the bus tickets I also get from the study will come in handy.

The big news is that sister agreed to go with me on the Vietnam tour trip and I put a deposit on it. This will not be a super frugal trip (about $7000) by any means but it looks action packed! I have to let myself spend a little bit for some real fun, but its funny, I've now gotten used to a large amount of savings and I feel wounded if it drops.

You wake up to the NPR beg-a-thon, and a primo thank you gift is: one of the gigantic coupon books. This is the

one in our area.

It made me smile when I read

this in the New York Times this Sunday. Let's just say that the character he plays on Mad Men would be more likely to hitch a ride on Apollo 11 than in a bus.

And I subscribe daily to the New York Times (have been for over 20 years). Pricey, but I read whatever catches my eye and pick something up daily, so its worth it to me. Online news, despite being "free", is just not the same, one tends to read whatever maintains your worldview rather than whatever catches your eye.

Downtown Seattle, at least in the Pioneer Square district, is a tad depressing. Every block, several businesses with the For Lease sign in the window, caused either by outright business failure or by moving to greener pastures in other neighborhoods.

But today a new lunch place opened up, complete with the free sandwich coupon. So free sandwich ... or rather, free doner. an o with the two dots above it, because its a turkish/german sandwich place. I got a lamb doner with the spinach wrap, cilantro, onion, feta, tomato, red cabbage. I think the cabbage is the german bit.

I asked the counter guy how you pronounce doner with the dots over the o. Sounds like "duna" rhyming with tuna or puma. I said "donor" and he told me that only the Texans say it that way.

I will not have a particularly spendy weekend. I opened my purse tonight on the bus and got a sinking feeling. I left my wallet in my office (well hidden and no guessing where, thief) and it has pretty much everything I need, including my way to get into work. Its a rare person who works over the weekend to let me in, so its surviving by my wits until Monday. Mostly its going to be buying money from DH, and using a couple of bus tickets that I get from the bird flu vaccine study. I took the tickets after the blood draws despite having a bus pass because you just never know.

Turns out that the IRS is going to call DH back starting in mid October. Yay!

Following up with CB in City, my own college alumni is sponsoring a trip in February that I am very, very interested in going on: "Temples and Waterways of Vietnam and Cambodia". Just sounds like the trip of a lifetime. Talked with my boss, and as long as we plan it out, it looks like a go. Since IRS is not going to let DH go in February, I'm in talks with my sister (going alone is unappealing). The time of year is perfect for her.

A little off topic. Despite the spin class on Wednesday, my weight had risen a bit to 172, then back down to 170 ... it all feels a bit like a plateau.

However, before I got my booster bird flu shot, I had the medical evaluation, including the blood pressure check. My blood pressure tested 122/76. I hadn't had that good a blood pressure since high school.

So like any other set of numbers, you have to cheer some, ignore others, and celebrate the whole.

Oh yes, no adverse effects from the booster.

You know, it might be easier to save dollars if dollars were better looking. If nothing else, you might want to hang on to them a bit longer. I can't say that redesign of the dollar would solve many (or any) of our financial issues, but it is fun to think about. Take a

look.

Like handing me a "Junior" (on the TV show Fringe, the alternate universe 20).

And yes, I remember my rant against spending money to mint new quarter designs.