I'm still waiting for word from the recruiter about when exactly I start. It was supposed to be today but then on Friday she said probably "closer to Wednesday." I didn't hear from the recruiter today so I guess I'll email her tomorrow unless I hear from her.

I hit Xpect Discounts today (a grocery store) to take advantage of their $4.95 a pound sale on walnuts. I got 4 pounds, plus some almonds. I eat them often and freeze them in the meantime.

Also made a big batch of my very delicious vegetable soup with tomatoes from my garden, lots of beans, wheat berries and spinach.

I signed up for a health insurance plan online for 1/1/14. Because I had to factor in the new job for the last 3 months of this year, my income was bumped up a little, resulting in little if any subsidies. (It was a little unclear to me when stating income if I should go by what I made last year, for example, or what I expect to make this year, and I figured it would be the latter.) Still, a Bronze plan with Anthem will cost me about $95 less than what I'm paying now, although the deductible will be $6,000 (!!!) but with $0 co-pays on many things.

Yesterday late afternoon was rainy and overcast. There were not one, but two deer family groups here in the yard....3 does in the back and 2 does and 2 older fawns in the front.

A few days ago I happened to glance out my upstairs bathroom window and I caught sight of some animal moving into the undergrowth of a large rhododendron in the back, the same rhododendron where last summer I saw some sort of large cat-like creature go. The cat I saw last summer had a long tail and seemed to be tan, while what I saw a few days ago was smaller than a big dog but much larger than a house cat and it had no tail. To me, that says "bobcat." But I just saw it for a fraction of a second before it disappeared from view and by the time I ran down to the sun room I knew it would be gone.

There have been both bobcat and mountain lion sightings here in town, and I've seen the photos in the paper, so there's no mistaking it. The bobcats have been verified by photos, whereas the official state DEP position is that there are "no mountain lions" in Connecticut. Yet people continue to report seeing them.