I plan to connect with the recruiter for bank job first thing tomorrow to review how the interview went and learn when I'll find out if I got it or not.

At first blush, you'd think I'd be a slam dunk for the job becus I have the financial services experience, I'm a great writer, yadda yadda yadda. But I'm worried that because I could not show her specific examples of letters I've written JUST LIKE the ones I'd be writing in this job, she may pass on me. Employers are funny. It doesn't matter that I could do this job with my hands tied behind me in a pool of water. My portfolio had a slew of marketing writing samples, but these letters would be "non-cross-sell" letters, meaning, they weren't meant to sell anything, just inform the customer in a straightforward way about a change or event they need to know about concerning an account. Easy-peasy.

If I don't get this job, it will really suck, becus right now I have no other hot job leads.

So yesterday, the Home Depot sub-contractor finally showed up to install the new hot water heater. I can't tell you how upset I was when one of the guys informed me that the concrete floor right next to the hot water heater was wet, not because the 11-year-old heater was finally kicking the bucket, but because the new shut-off valve the furnace humidifier guy had just installed the day before was leaking!!!!

I had seen the wet floor and assumed it was the hot water heater leaking. The shut off valve for furnace humidifier is directly above the hot water heater.

By this time, it was too late to back out of the hot water heater installation as the guy had cut off a pipe on the old one. What it comes down to is that I spent $700 for a new heater I didn't necessarily need due to the ineptitude or carelessness of the furnace humidifier guy. The bolt used to tighten the value was no good. the hot water heater guy said when he saw the leak, he tried to tighten the bolt and it came apart in his hand.

I was super upset about it but have more or less accepted it now. Eleven or so years is about all you can expect from an electric hot water heater. How much more I could have gotten out of it, I don't know, and maybe I could have sold the house before I'd have to replace it. Also a shame that when you buy a new hot water heater, it's not like you're getting anything NEW or better in terms of the water that's provided. It's just money spent. It will look good when I sell the house in my list of home improvements, I suppose.

I got an email from a dentist I've been to before on Friday announcing an unusual Saturday opening, due to someone's cancellation. They are usually booked far in advance. As an added incentive, the first person to take that spot would also get a free teeth whitening kit. I decided to take the spot becus I realized it had already been 6 months since my teeth cleaning, and they said yes, you can get just the cleaning ($105) without the exam or x-rays.

The one thing I don't like about this dentist is he's always trying to sell you something when you get there and i disliked having to sit through his sales pitch. Dentists have these expensive x-ray machines and so they don't make their money back unless they get people to pay for x-rays.

Now I've gotten dental x-rays all my life and not once has a dental x-ray revealed any issues whatsoever. Not to say that wouldn't happen, but I don't think you need to get them every year like the dentists want you to if you take care of your teeth, as I do.

Plus, I'd just had that CAT scan for the possible sinus infection and I knew I'd had dental x-rays about a year ago with a different dentist who offered them for free, so I declined this time around. Then he said he would do the exam for free, probably becus if he uncovered problems in your mouth, he'd be boosting his income anyway. He didn't find anything in the visual exam but kept hammering away at me saying my fillings are old and there could be a cavity under them and you really should have x-rays.

He did also give me a brochure that described a dental insurance plan where if you spend $210 upfront, it covers 2 cleanings, x-rays and exams for a year, plus you get 25% off any fillings that might be needed.

I might consider doing that since, unless I found another dentist offering a new patient special, which I've done a few times already to save on dental bills, I'd be paying $105 anyway just for the cleanings.

I spent a number of hours yesterday doing additional work for the real estate job, writing up a press release about an award they got and finishing up on a brochure given to new realtors, talking about training, benefits and so on. I was trying to make up for Friday, a day I mostly didn't work, becus of the bank interview and the hot water heater contractor.

So this second week there will likely be my last week there, although if it turns out I don't get the bank job, I will definitely tell her I'm still available if they need me. Either way, I'll tell her I'm always available for weekend work should they need me. I'm hoping that now that I've shown how easily I can pick up the work, she'll find it easy to send me various assignments. They're really so very unparticular about what you write. As long as it sounds good, you can approach it whatever way you like without having to conform to anyone else's idea of what it should be.

I used to do a ton of PR work for this person about 5 years ago but have gotten very little from her in the more recent past. It's possible she'd forgotten how easy I could make it for her! However, what they're paying me now, $35/hr, is quite a bit less than what I usually charge, $50. I knew that when I suggested the $35/hr; I wanted to encourage them to consider hiring me to work full days or weeks at a time, on site, rather than piecemeal for individual projects. I'd make more money that way.

Trying to figure out what to do today; I'm not used to having only a day or two of free time to do personal stuff when you're working. I need to go grocery shopping and figure out some work week lunches, although I've been doing pretty well with $1.25 bean burritos at Taco Bell supplemented by my own snacks and drinks.

I did make a pretty good vegetarian chili using a box mix and adding a can of beans and my own tomatoes. I think I'll save the 2 leftover portions for 2 lunches this week. For the other days, I think I'd like to make my mother's cold pea soup recipe. It's very good, and becus you don't cook the peas, the soup is a bright green and very healthy looking.

I was going to pull up my cherry tomato plants this weekend, but there are still so many tomatoes on the plants and it will be in the low 70s this week. Maybe I'll give them another week.

I HAVE to mow later today when the grass is dry. I think I'll pick up around the house (really needed) and maybe around noon stop by to see my neighbors with some more tomatoes from the garden.

There was yet another delay in getting my 5-year CD with State Farm Bank going. First it was the agent I saw who explained he needed a copy of my driver's license, and so I had to wait for him to mail me the forms. Then yesterday State Farm the company sent me forms becus they needed either my beneficiary or me waiving my right to name a beneficiary. If there's one more delay or issue associated with this stupid CD, I'll withdraw the whole thing and do something else with the money. Not sure it's worth the 2% on $8,000 ($160) for all the trouble.

My first pay day is this Friday. Can't wait. Before I left the office on Thursday, I asked my manager if I could email her my hours for the week, have her review them and then have her pass them on to Payroll. She said fine, but I was feeling nervous becus she's super busy amid the whole brand transition thing and I was worried she wouldn't see the email and not get it to Payroll in time. So after I emailed it and later in the day on Friday, I also called and left her a message. I didn't get any acknowledgement from her but am counting on her to get it right. Too easy to let something like that slip; it happened to me before with the furniture company job becus the woman who usually handled my time sheets went on vacation and my time sheet somehow got lost in the process of someone else doing it.

So the next step in the search for a cure/cause of my near daily headaches: doctor suggested Friday night that we try prednisone/steroids for a week to see if we could "break the cycle" of headaches. I was game. I picked up the meds yesterday and was going to start them today (best to start in the am due to dosing) but now I'm delaying doing so becus i was mostly headache-free yesterday and feel pretty good today. If the headaches return, fine, i will start the meds tomorrow. But they are pretty heavy duty meds so don't want to use them unless i have to, and right now, it feels like a spontaneous recover; i want to see if that will last or if headaches return.