It's just as well I'm staying inside all day, due to my cold, but I am getting just a wee bit stir crazy, since this is Day 3 of doing so.

It's coming down in sheets and the rain is blowing mightily. They said to expect 2 to 4 inches, and I'm just praying my caulking job on my 2 leaky windows hold. So far, they are. This is certainly the ultimate test.

I wrapped up my Xmas shopping online today. My sister's so difficult to buy for, doesn't give us any ideas and since she hasn't invited my mother or i to her home in at least 5 years, it's really hard to tell what her tastes are like these days.

But i found an interesting website (uncommongoods.com) and ordered a pair of dangle earrings made out of vegetables. I got the beet and mango version, 2 round disks, one smaller than the other and laid on top of the larger one. They dry the vegetables, slice it paper thin and then layer that on top of a copper disk. Very interesting.

I also got her 2 books she wanted, plus a collection of dark chocolate from all over the world. For my mom, I got flannel sheets, a cotton jacket and a new pressure cooker. I got my dad a slow cooker cookbook, but not sure when I'll give it to him. I guess if I don't get a job January 1, I can make a trip down there to Jersey and give it to him then. I also got my friend H. the same packet of dark chocolates, as she's a chocolate lover.

I'm still kind of sick, though feeling better. Maybe I'll have the energy to wrap a few presents on the dining room table.

I managed to do a new freelance assignment I got. I made myself do it becus i may very well need the $ given my current job uncertainty, plus, this is a new client and she'll pay me cash, $100 for an hour or so of work.

I also made my SEP-IRA contribution for this year. It's just for my freelance work and never amounts to much, though of course if I had thought to open it 15 years ago when I started doing freelance, it would have really amounted to something. But anyway, this is just year 2 and I transferred $300 from checking into it. The more tax-deferred investments, the better.

Holed up in the house...talked to my mother, talked to friend N., talked to friend H. Last night for dinner I dethawed a big bag of zucchini chunks from last summer's garden, pureed it in the blender, and added it to a Trader Joe's cream of tomato/red pepper soup, along with sauteed onions and garlic and some leftover brussel sprouts I had. Pretty good.

My plan for next week is to work an extra half hour each day so i can leave work Friday at 3 pm without losing any pay for doing so. Then I'll head to Ikea, which is a lot closer to my work than my home is. I want to browse the lower level; i hardly ever shop there due to its location an hour from home, but it occurred to me that would be a good place to shop for Xmas, altho i'm basically done. I have to say, the renewed job worries really take all the fun out of Xmas shopping. I can't really splurge as much as I'd like after several years of frugal Xmases.