I just redeemed my Citi Dividend CC points for a $200 check. Should have it next week, just in time for Xmas! (Actually, it won't be spent on Xmas but will go straight into my checking account to pay for the usual bills. Nothing sexy, but it works for me.)

My next card will be a Citi Diamond Preferred, for another $200 bonus, thanks very much!!

Met The Author at a local coffee shop this afternoon so she could tell me all about her meeting with an agent. The agent asked her to bring an edited version of the first 40 pp or so of her second book and do a reading to her and 2 other agents.

So she's having me do that editing. I still have about 30 pp. to go with her 1st book, but the 2nd book is more contemporary (takes place in the 60s) and I think will have wider appeal, and the agent reacted very favorably to what she read her so far.

So more work coming from her, which is very nice.

Tomorrow's supposed to be as beautiful as it was today (what a sunset) so I'll be doing more..you guessed it, tree cleanup. That plus trying to edit those last 30 pp.

As it turned out, I couldn't continue with the contract job directory update becus the mac computer they gave me to take home on Wednesday was giving me problems. Well, not the Mac, but the Quark program would not allow me to open it up without getting a message that I had to "activate" Quark (by phone or online, no idea what that's about) and that if I didn't, then I would only be using Quark in demo mode and none of my work would be saved. Sure enough, after working for about 2 hours Wednesday afternoon after I ignored that message, my work was lost.

It's pretty annoying. I mean, I have to assume that the equipment provided me is going to be in working order. It's really not my job, and certainly not my forte, to be troubleshooting their computers. I had been eager to get off to a running start, and now this.

I was emailing my contacts at the employer back and forth, though i got the idea they didn't want to be bothered with it over a holiday weekend. (Neither did I, quite frankly.) But I was afraid that if I couldn't fix it (I couldn't, after running a disk utility repair and doing some other stuff), they might say well, then you have to come into the office every day to do the work. For many reasons, I'd rather work at home. But anyway, we agreed I'd come back on Monday with the computer to see if she could troubleshoot it. So there's still hope. Provided the mac gives them the same "activate" message it kept giving me.

I made a pretty good pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving family dinner, but it would have benefited from being beaten by a regular mixer. (I mixed the cream cheese by hand, not easy.) I never replaced my old hand mixed several years ago when I sold it in a garage sale for a few bucks. There was nothing wrong with it, but it was SO old (like 30 years) that I didn't feel comfortable using it. So first I asked for one for Xmas, but then we all decided to really go easy this Xmas money-wise, since none of us has a lot of $$ this year. We put a $10 limit on gifts. This, after many years of excess, a legacy of my dear grandparents who spoiled us all.

My grandmother for years had a gold heart in her jewelry box. It had some angels engraved on it and 3 rubies. She was always fond of telling me the 3 rubies stood for the 3 most important people in the world to her: her husband, her daughter and her 2 grandchildren. (I guess she counted me and my sister as one.) Today, I have that heart in my jewelry box, and sometimes I wear it.

Back to the mixer....So then I realized that by grouping together 3 small Amazon gift cards I'd earned by participating in an online forum, that I could pay in full for a Sunbeam electric hand mixer with a retractable cord for $21, shipping included. It got extremely high reviews.

I do have a blender, but I find that if there's not much liquid in what you're blending, the food all gets jammed in the bottom and you run the risk of blowing out your motor. My small-sized Cuisinart, well, i seldom use it cus it only holds about a cup or two. I also have a whaddya call it, the long, thin gadget you use in soups and smoothies. I don't think its motor would be powerful enough to handle everything, like cream cheese. I don't bake often, so I didn't want anything fancier, or more expensive than the little Sunbeam.