Today I did 3 hours of driving, up and back from UConn for a nutrition study-related meeting of just about an hour. The good news for me is that the research assistant got permission to have me recharge the actograph I've been wearing at home, from my computer, so I don't have to rendezvous with the assistant, saving me one 40-minute trip. This will be the 3rd such trip I was supposed to make, but was able to avoid becus research assistants were driving past my hometown on the Interstate en route to somewhere else, and stopping by my exit saves them an extra trip too.

So I was paid $100, my 2nd payment of the $500 total I'll get. If I end up getting the energy analyst job, I may not be able to finish the study, which goes til year's end. Most of it I could do (wearing the actograph and doing food and exercise logs), but 24-hour urine collection would be tough if I were at work, especially since you have to refrigerate the urine. Can you imagine the reaction if i stored my pee in the office refrigerator???

Only way we could still do it is if I did the urine collection on a Saturday and met with the study team on a Sunday.

The vinyl siding is almost done, and it's only day 4!! They're still here, working, but I'm pretty sure they're on the tail end of the vinyl. then they just have to reinstall 5 exterior lights they took off (without having me turn the power off)), and on my way home from UConn, I stopped at a Home Depot and bought 2 new lights for the front entry, relatively inexpensive ($35 each) so the entry will look just spiffy with the new siding. They also have to put back all the gutters and downspouts and do the aluminum on all the door trim. And shutters on the last window, and 2 window mantels with keystones, a final, classy touch. I'm only getting shutters on the 5 front-facing windows, becus at $85 a pair, they're rather pricy and I have a lot of windows on the house.

My mother's going to the organic farmer's market in my town tomorrow, so i told her to stop by. She has no idea i got the vinyl siding done, and i'm sure she'll be quite surprised when she drives up!

Tomorrow I have a phone meeting with a potential new freelance client, to write stories for him on the mortgage industry. I also have a meeting at the library on what to look for when buying a laptop. I won't be in the market anytime soon, but I have been thinking of how nice it would be to work on my computer in, say, my sunroom and not be tied to my office all the time.

I've worked a little each day on my Bangladesh energy report/writing assignment from that job interview. I think it's pretty close to done, but I'd like to do some basic fact-checking as a final review. There were so many stats and data in the speech which I totally reorganized, it would be easy to make a mistake. It's not due til Thursday.

Wed. I will treat myself to a $2 movie to see Judy Moody and the Not So Bummer Summer. It sounds fun, altho I know it's for teens. Anyone see it?

Also on the way home from UConn I stopped at Staples to get an ink cartridge and Shop Rite for groceries. I felt good that I consolidated 3 extra trips into that drive to UConn, so less running around in the car. Still trying to limit myself to 1 fill-up per month, which shouldn't be impossible while I'm still not working.

My author has bill issues, so she's asked me to temporarily stop editing the book for a while. She said she'll send me the check ($333) for the 2nd part that I've just completed, though. Hope to see that in the mail tomorrow or Wednesday.

I'm still doing meds for Lyme. Amazingly, after just a day or two on them, the mysterious sore back and very painful right knee nearly instantly disappeared. Maybe they were related to the Lyme after all.