I am still not feeling great, but I have more energy, anyway. Today is the last day for the Zpack (antibiotics) and I'm continuing on the Prednisone thru Thursday. I have to remember to keep dosing myself with acidopholus to stave off the dreaded yeast infection that often comes with antibiotics.

I can hear pretty well out of my right ear, but it's the left that's still clogged pretty bad. I hope it continues to improve.

So I'm TRYING to catch up on so many things I let slide in the last 3 weeks.

Yesterday I managed to put in about 5 hours of work at the proofing job, then stopped to deposit some cash and checks at the bank. I also changed my flannel bedsheets and did my November expense and investment statement.

Year to date, I'm doing well. Even with my paltry income, after paying all bills and expenses, I've managed to save roughly $3,000, with a month left to go. And I was thrilled to get an early payment of a big freelance job I did, that came to about $1,034.

I did get a nice surprise at the proofreading job yesterday. Because of my extended illness, the holidays and their not having any work for me on one scheduled work day, this week was technically only the 2nd week I've worked there. (And I really, really hate the job, although the people are very nice.)

I saw from emails when I returned that they had given out a free turkey to each employee the week I was out. I figured I missed out, but I was surprised when I was leaving when the receptionist stopped me and brought me to the freezer, where a 12-pound turkey was with my name on it.

It actually will come in handy because I had just suggested to my mother that we recreate Thanksgiving in late January or February, and because I was sick, I hadn't been able to spend the $300 needed to get a free one at Shop Right last month. So this will make up for that nicely and save us all a few bucks.

Last night I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the most lucrative credit card reward to go after with my upcoming property tax payment. I was disconcerted to find there's nothing better out there for me than a $100 Capital One card.

Some of the better offers I've already taken advantage of. Some have an annual fee, which I won't do. Others are travel rewards cards, and I don't see any travel in my near future, and even when you read all the details on the card, they don't always say whether or not you can choose to redeem your points for gift cards. (Didn't feel like talking to a rep on the phone.)

Then I tried going after a PenFed credit union card ($150 reward). I realize you have to be eligible to join, and that's not too much of a hoop to jump through, even if you have to pony up the $15 to do so. But then they want you to open up a share account with at least $5. OK, did that. But THEN they require you to fax or email your last 2 years tax returns (!), and that I refuse to do. (Course doing so would also trigger rejection of my application since I'm not working full-time.) But even so, I don't think I would do it..it's just too personally invasive.

I mean, they can see from my credit report that I have an excellent history, paid off my mortgage and never had a late payment on anything. Oh well. There will be many more big property tax payments to come, so I can just keep looking for some new offer. There was a time $100 cash back seemed like such a big deal, and now compared to a few $250 rewards I got, it seems puny!

J., the guy I've been driving to work since July, told me he MIGHT have someone else who can drive him starting next week, after I told him I didn't want to do it anymore. He said it seems a bit "sketchy" as this guy doesn't live especially close, and even though the guy needs to drop off his kids close to where J.'s kids get dropped off in the morning, the rest of the drive taking J. to work is a royal pain, especially now that they're doing major road work on the main road. And the guy drives a non fuel-efficient truck, so even though he's out of work, I can't see how he'd think it'd be worth it for $20 a drive.

J. is going to let me know this weekend if the guy takes the job. I dearly hope he will so I don't have to continue driving J. this coming week. I'm really sick of it and it interferes with other things I want to do and certain other money-making opportunities.

Today I'm still not up for running errands, but I hope to do so, maybe as late as Monday/Tuesday since those are free days for me (aside from driving J.). Today I'll be content to do my laundry and try to clean up around here. The place is dying for a vaccum cleaning although that's a bit strenuous. I also need to make some soup as I'm dethawing some of my garden tomatoes.

On my errands list:
1. Return overpriced items my mother bought me when I was sick to 2 different grocery stores.
2. Grocery shopping
3. Bring trash to landfill, pick up mulch for my garlic (better late than never) and maybe drop off a few more chainsawed tree trunks from the storm.
4. Haircut badly needed
5. Bring trimmer and lawnmower into basement from garage.
6. Refill birdfeeder
7. Tell computer guy who charged me $100 to add more memory that my computer's still freezing up.