Yesterday morning I washed up with the free bar of Dial I was given to prep my legs for product testing lotion with Unilever. Then I brushed my teeth, using the free tube of Tom's of Maine I was given to use prior to answering a Pinecone survey.

Yesterday i sat around for 5 hours doing the lotion product testing ($120). It was a smallish room with about 15 women in it. They fed us a nice freelunch (chicken parmesan). I met 2 nice women there my age, and exchanged contact info with one of them. We seemed to have some things in common.

This morning I met with the author I last saw over the winter and she gave me an advance of the first third ($333) of my payment for editing her first book. She has already written the 2nd book AND is well into the third. She says the stories just pour out of her. We met at a local coffee shop and talked for an hour or so about her books, her characters, menopause, veterinary prices, contractors, etc., then I headed for Costco, where I forgot to buy half the stuff I went there for.

Aside from that, I managed to do nothing the rest of the day except make a pitcher of iced tea and read the weekly paper. I'm telling you, if it's lousy weather, my energy level is the same.

One of the things I was supposed to do, but didn't, was run over to a local high-end salon in town and pick up a (free) gift certificate to get a cut and color, in exchange for answering a survey about their services. they advertised for secret shoppers on Craig's List. (Amazing what you can find on CL.). I called and he explained how it works to me, although it still sounds a little too good to be true. It's basically first come, first serve, and they do it for 2 months each year, he said. They must be hurting for business, and maybe this is a way to try to get back people who could become regular customers, and at the same time really find out why others are no longer customers. (A lot of people might not say if they weren't happy with the cut.) So anyway, I plan to go 1st thing tomorrow or I may lose out.

On Monday night, the research assistant I'll be working with on the nutrition study will be driving back to CT from visiting her boyfriend in NJ, so she said she could meet me in my town at a diner off the highway, since it's on her way home. It will save me one driving trip of the 14 total I'll be expected to make during the next 6 months. So that is great, it cuts down on my gas bill which will eat into my reimbursement for the study. I sure hope she sees her boyfriend often!

Mom's coming over tomorrow a.m. for some lettuce from the garden.

There was a craig's list ad for a job i could tell i wasn't quite qualified to do, but what attracted my interest was that it was right in my hometown, and my hometown is hardly the jobs mecca. So I decided to email the guy after viewing his YouTube ad where he talks about what kind of job candidate he wanted. It's an Internet start-up. He emphasized they are a small (10) group of young people, some of it is family, and no one is over 35, so you should be young or not mind working with young people. He also said the first interview would be done via Skype and that if you don't have Skype, you're probably not the kind of person they want. I found it all a bit offensive, especially the age thing, but i decided to email him saying if you ever need a writer for those websites, I'm just over the hill from you on the other side of so and so farm, and included my resume.

He actually responded and said they DID need a web writer and he was going to post that job but didn't get a chance to. But that it was for a different website and would i be interested and let's talk. I wrote back and said yes, i was interested but didn't have skype, how about next week, and i haven't heard from him since. Wierd. I guess I'm not too broken up about it. Even among 20-somethings, I don't think Skype is something a ton of people have.

But anyway, looking forward to getting started book editing on Monday. It will add some real depth to my resume. The work keeps coming my way, but not the permanent kind.