And the weekend is here, just like that.


There's a family of at least 4 chipmunks who seem to have taken up residence in an old vole tunnel close to my front door. They seem unusually tame to me, and Luther's not happy about it.



Here's a slice of orange I tried feeding the black swallowtail butterfly with until the weather cleared and I released him:



Hard to believe I wrapped up 2 weeks at the new job. Pay day will happen on MONDAY and I can't wait.

There were a zillion more rounds of edits to my piece but it goes to the client Monday.

In just the 2 weeks I've been there, they've already had:
1. Thursday afternoon alcoholic drinks at 3 (I skipped this and wasn't sure it was appropriate for me, a contractor, to partake)
2. A hot breakfast this morning of scrambled eggs, bacon and French toast!
3. A gourmet style food truck and all you can eat off their menu, compliments of the company. (I checked with HR and they said it was fine to join in)

So...nice!

I have a ton of stuff I want to do this weekend. At the top of the agenda is starting the paint job of the bookshelves. Or at least the priming.

I'm totally overrun with disgusting black carpenter ants, mostly in the kitchen, but elsewhere too. I think all that rain is to blame. And I thought I had found a way to seal off my kitchen. Apparently not. I still don't know exactly how they get in. Sprinkling ant bait is also high on my agenda.

I am trying again to sprout broccoli seeds for my daily salads. I need to go to Aldi's. I have to go to the dump and the household hazardous waste drop off is tomorrow. I want to spread a bunch of mulch on some perennial beds and plant more flowers for the butterflies, and veggies for me. I need to buy the paint for bookshelves. There's a plant sale at the middle school.

I am pooped just thinking about it.

First, the bad.

I must have told myself three times to write myself a sticky note and put it on my thermostat. The note would read: Do not turn on central air without taking outdoor cover off.

You know what happened, right? Yesterday was the first of 3 very hot and humid days, up to 95 today. Before leaving for work I set the thermostat to kick on when indoor temps reached 80 degrees. This was the very first time I'd be using it since having it installed in April.

I forgot to take the cover off.

I'm not sure when the AC would have kicked on yesterday, but maybe about 1 pm. All windows were shut and blinds drawn. So it was running, on and off for about 5 hours, until I came home from work and suddenly "remembered."

The hottest it ever gets indoors without AC is about 84 degrees.

It was noticeably cooler (tho not by a lot) and drier when I came home yesterday. So it had been on and running.

I went online to look for info on whether I damaged my AC. Some people said forget it, if you run it with the cover on, it's fried, while others said there's an automatic emergency shut-off switch that prevents it from overheating, but if that kicks on it won't run again until you manually reset it.

Well, my AC is running fine. I'm not sure why it would NOT have overheated. The cover that was on it does not cover the entire unit. The bottom 6 or 8 inches are left exposed even with the cover on, to prevent condensation from building up and rusting parts all winter long.

Maybe that helped? Maybe it helped that I set the AC to run at a relatively high temperature and it didn't need to run as much as I thought?

Maybe there's an automatic shut-off switch that doesn't need a manual reset? I don't know but I am SO SO SO thankful my idiocy does not "appear" to have damaged my new unit.

I'm happy with how it's operating though I must say the upstairs is, as usual, warmer than the downstairs. I'm not sure at what temp I should leave it on while I'm at work.

The cats make do and lay low in hot conditions, but my main concern when I'm not here is protecting my mother's art from humidity. I think I have it set at 75 now and it feels okay upstairs, but I'm wondering how many $$ that's going to add to my electric bill. Which is a good reason to re-check current electric rates. I usually lock in for a year when possible, but you can switch suppliers if you find one at a lower price without penalty, if that's the kind of plan you signed up for (and I always do). So rates could have fallen since I last signed up.

I will be very interested, and a little fearful, to see how running the AC affects my monthly bill.

In other news, I'm trying to organize my work and home schedule moving forward and asked my new manager to clarify how long I'd be working for. He said the next project will probably start in a few weeks and may overlap the existing project I'm working on now. So it sounds like no break in between. They hired a 2nd writer to help.

The deadline for the 2nd project is Sept. 1 but he's not sure at this point if I'd be working non-stop or if there would be little breaks/intervals throughout (which I'm rather hoping for, so I can play catch up on personal stuff, but not if that would reduce my overall income from this job).

Thinking about it now, I guess the deadline is the deadline. So I may just need to buckle down without breaks if I want to maximize my income because if I don't do it, the other writer will probably pick up the slack and draw from my hours.

But the good news is that instead of grossing just $8800 for 1 month's work, I am looking at earning over $35,000 for 4 months' work!

I have a doc appointment end of this month so will only work a half day that day. I am going back to my neurologist about my toes on right foot. They became numb 3 years ago shortly after I pulled my hamstring and that never disappeared. I saw 3 podiatrists, who did x-rays, and the neurologist, who tested and found my nerve conduction was normal.

Now my toes feel more stiff than numb and I'd like to rule out MS, Lyme and arthritis. I don't think it's the 1st 2, really, but not sure about arthritis. I just know the toes are very stiff and hard to flex and I might say the ankle is a bit stiff too, compared to the left foot. And I also can't walk barefoot anymore or that foot becomes very sore very quickly.

Today was the 2nd "reveal" of my copy internally, at the marketing agency where I'm doing a contract job. After the first review, she wanted me to come up with 2 more versions; at this review, they cherry-picked what they liked and asked me to make some minor revisions to 2 versions only, instead of 3.

The 3rd reveal will take place Wednesday, still internally. God willing, it will then go to the client. I'm sure I'll be sick of it by that time, but I've already finished the 2nd assignment, modeling it on the first and hoping the client likes the first.

They hired another writer, a young guy, to help me with the larger assignment that comes after this one. I guess I'm okay with that since it answers my question that yes, I will definitely be able to pick up more work at $55/hour!! Yippee yay hi ho!

For all I know, this could be my only big paying job this year. Whenever it ends, I'll be going back to my very LOW paying job with the higher education company. What a difference: $15 vs $55/hour. Which would you rather have?

I'm already planning on devoting the upcoming weekend to priming and painting my bookshelves. To clear my plate, I drove home from work a different way so I could return a top I bought for this job at Macy's.

Of course, now that I'm working f/t, I MUST go the dump and do my grocery shopping and fill up the gas tank on the weekend, but I should still have time leftover for the bookshelves.

There have been plenty of warnings on the local news that this is going to be a particularly bad tick season becus we had a mild winter and lots of rain this spring. They are right, and I am kind of freaking out because yesterday, I found a large deer tick crawling around (unattached) on Luther. I pulled it off and flushed it down the toilet. Then I called my dad to warn him becus his garden is for sure infested with ticks plus he can't see them due to his eyesight. I assumed he or the carpenters had carried the tick inside the house since the cats don't go outside.

After I hung up from dad, I was going to sit on the front stoop on a lawn chair and I found a 2nd tick crawling on the metal part. I flushed it, too. Later that day, I found ANOTHER ticket on Luther; they can't seem to attach to him becus of his incredibly long hair.

Today, I found a 4th tick again on the lawn chair, this time on the arm rest!! What is going on? The lawn chair had sat for several weeks in a shaded area of my courtyard/driveway, under the canopy of several large rhododendrons. Yesterday I moved the lawn chair to the front stoop. Could the tick have fallen onto the chair that I'd been sitting on?

It's amazing to me how the ticks were somehow transferred to Luther, whose like a magnet becus he rubs against everything. Maybe the 2 ticks I found on him were on my legs from the lawn chair and then he picked them up.

The whole thing is making me very skittish.

Here they are:




This is the seat/cabinet under the window. I need to buy knobs for the 2 doors.

I'm very happy with it. It came to $1600 but I have some unused trim to return for a refund, so it will be somewhat less than that.

If the rain stops, I will get paint and supplies tomorrow. I will use a good quality brush and a sponge brush to get in back of those small cubby holes above the window.

Eventually I will buy some thick foam for the cushion on seat.

After they finished up, I went to gas up my car, deposit some cash and get groceries at Aldi's. They had pints of blueberries for $1.69, which I think is a good deal. Although I remember when you could get them for $1 at summer's peak.

It's been raining all day, so this am as I was clearing space for the carpenters, I glanced at my butterfly aquarium and saw that the last of the unhatched pupa from last summer hatched into a butterfly!



I don't know how long it had been like that but I have not released it because it's so chilly and rainy. Tomorrow will be windy. I'm hoping I can release on Monday; for now, it's protected from the rain in its aquarium with screened lid, in my sunroom, with a slice of orange, some zinnias I cut from my potted plants, a water dish with marbles to perch on and a paper towel soaked in sugar water. I've check on it though and it hasn't moved from where it's hanging onto a twig from the underside. It's only about 50 degrees.

Tuesday for sure will be in the 70s and it can be released then, but I'm not sure it will last that long if it doesn't eat/drink something.

Dad's coming over tonight to see the shelves and then we'll have a great dinner at a very good Italian restaurant in town.

Cell phones and me just never clicked. I just rarely find the need to chat with anyone while I'm away from home, though certainly I recognize there are times (infrequently for me) when having a phone on the road would be very handy.

I let the minutes expire on my smart phone last February. Being unemployed, I didn't see the point in spending another $100 to keep me going for another year. It's an Android Trac Phone, pay as you go plan.

Today I had to complete 2 different time sheets for my new job. I got them signed and used the company fax to send them to the recruiter's office, who will be issuing my paychecks. The fax indicated only 1 page went thru the first time, so I sent it again and this time, the 2 timesheets went through.

That was around 4 pm and I didn't see the 4:30 m email right away from recruiter saying call me, there's a problem with your fax. Maybe he sent that after I sent the first fax, where only one page went thru. Maybe he didn't, I didn't know.

So I sent a quick email to say i was heading home and would call him when I got there. I couldn't call him at the office becus 1) i didn't have my old smart phone with me and 2) the company doesn't use normal phones. They use something called Fuze, which is a phone via computer, and I haven't set it up yet. No one's really around to help much and I thought I might even get thru the whole monthlong assignment without needing to.

I got home and there's another message from recruiter saying call me there's a problem. Of course he doesn't say what the problem is. If it wasn't that the fax didn't fully come thru, it could be becus yes, I did claim the 4 hours of at-home time I worked for the company before starting on-site. This was done at the request and blessing of my new boss there who gave me a pile of reading material to absorb about the client so I could "hit the ground running" when I started the job 4 days later. So maybe the problem was the recruiter was going to tell me I couldn't bill for that.

I still have no idea because although I immediately replied to the email, called and left a message AND scanned and emailed the 2 time sheets in case neither fax went through, the recruiter never got back to me. Even though it was just before 6 pm when I tried to call him back....not that late.

So anyway, if I'd have my own phone with me I could have easily found out what the problem was while I was still at work. So I'm thinking I should activate the stupid phone again.

Here's why I don't like using it:
1. The on/off button is hard to push. Do most people just keep the phone on at all times and then have to recharge like every day?
2. Half the time when I tried to check personal emails on the phone while i was at the bank, the internet connection did not work. I was using the bank's wifi to connect. This was totally annoying. I just don't know enough about using the settings to know what do so, especially since the phone didn't come with anything more than the briefest instructions.
3. Figuring out how to send photos I'd taken to my computer was also a real pain in the butt.
4. The phone was synced with great difficult with the Bluetooth in my car but then inexplicably was disconnected. This happened more than one.

The phone was fairly straightforward to use, so I guess for that alone I could use it but every other function just seems so complicated and a hassle. I could just get a basic phone with no internet, but then i couldn't sync it with my car's devices, and that's one of the coolest things about it! I can make calls using buttons on the steering wheel. Truth be told, once again rarely had need to do that, and the number had to be one already stored in the phone. But it was still cool.

I got the first feedback on my first completed assignment at the new job. She said it was "strong writing" and she liked it a lot but asked me to do 2 additional versions so the client "has a choice." On Monday we'll meet with 2 other senior people to review the versions and then she thinks we'll be ready to present to client.

I will have today (Friday) to do that; the copy can stay the same but she wants me to experiment organizing the content in different ways, with different subheads. Kind of a pain, since each time you move paragraphs around you lose some of the connective language which you then have to adjust.

Personally I feel it's just a time-waster as I carefully thought through how best to approach the topic and the approach I chose really is the best.

My concern is reserving enough time to do the remaining 3 pieces. They kept giving me important background reading material until the eleventh hour on this first assignment, even after I'd already written it. Not the best organization.

And I'm anxious that my content passes muster with the client after the Monday meeting. I picture myself as a runner on a track clearing little hurdles.

But I hate working full time! No time left to do ANYTHING! I'm getting up earlier in the mornings, around 5:30 or so, so I can have a leisurely start to my day and not have to leave for work until 2.5 hours later.

I've been leaving the contract job at 5:15 or 5:30, getting home around 6 or 6:15, and by the time I finish with dinner, the dishes and feeding the cats, it's 7:30. Then I check emails (I'm still applying for jobs when I see them) and I am addicted to watching new episodes of The Americans (I usually try to fit in 2 full hour-long episodes), before hitting the sack at 10 or 10:30 at the latest.

There just isn't much time to think about "me" stuff. I just have to keep reminding myself how much I've grossed so far. To date, it will be about $1,760 by the end of today...just 4 days work. Yay for me!

I did decide I will be putting in for 4 hours of at home reading on my timesheet today. This is for time spent before starting the job. It's not my fault I got conflicting information about doing so, with my boss at the new job saying yes, do it, it's really important, and the recruiter saying no, don't do it because all the paperwork hasn't been finalized. I did it because I knew I wouldn't be prepared otherwise to "hit the ground running" on my first day on-site, as my boss said he wanted.

While waiting for the meeting to review my work yesterday, I was finally able to get the required online courses to launch at the office, and got them out of the way. Practically everything you try to do at the office requires a password, even the computer phone system. It was more than a little frustrating because you just get automated responses from the help desk and no one's there to walk you through things if you have a tech problem.

Tomorrow I am HOPING my carpenter shows up to finish the built-in bookshelves. It's just the cabinet below the window he needs to do. However, we're expecting rain for most of the day, starting at about 9 am. He can set up in the garage, but he'll need to keep running out in the rain with the wood he cuts. I just hope he doesn't try to bag it because next Saturday is his daughter's graduation, so it would mean at least another two-week wait, and this bookshelving thing has dragged on long enough. It still will take me quite a white to prime and paint it so my entire downstairs will remain in disarray until it's done.

The job is doing okay. Day 1 was a little overwhelming as "everything" was new...They use Macs, which I haven't used in 8 years, and there were various accounts to activate, an electronic timesheet, figuring out which drive to save my documents on, learning people's names, where's the kitchen and the restroom, etc. All the little things you take for granted once you've been settled into a job for a while.

Yesterday, I ate at my desk and basically took no lunch break, but today, I returned to my usual routine of eating at my desk and then walking for a half hour wherever I can. This job is in an office park on a busy road, so my walking will be restricted to in and around the buildings and a few picnic areas in the office park. It's better than nothing.

I've met about 5 or 6 people I'll be working with directly, but otherwise most people don't always bother to get to know contract workers becus they know they may not be there long. It doesn't bother me, to be honest, for the same reason: I won't be there long.

Because it's a marketing agency (consumer packaged goods), they have all these cutesy decor items around the place, like outdoor umbrellas and lawn chairs, a foos ball table and stuff like that.

I was largely finished writing the 1st of 4 marketing sheets on my first day, believe it or not, and just played with it some more today, massaging it a bit here and there and reviewing some last minute background materiaL they just gave us. I was so stressed out about having enough time to do a good job, but with all my advance prep at home (which I probably won't try to claim on my time sheet) and reading, I was pretty well prepared to write it.

See, this is how agencies operate. My opinion is this one spent way too much time talking about tone and voice and brand; they threw so much reading material at me it took me longer to read it all than it did to write the marketing collateral. I could be doing the same kind of project for a company and they would spend maybe 15 minutes talking about it and then they'd expect you to do it. But agencies turn it into a long, drawn-out "process," maybe as a means of justifying their existence.

Of course, what I've written still has to pass muster with the agency and I'm sure there will be some changes. I'm also a little nervous because the people reviewing my work are used to reading stuff for CPG (consumer packaged goods), not financial services.

I just hope none of the changes they may propose are massive. The real test is when they run it by the client bank; it makes sense to let them see this 1st piece to make sure they're happy with the voice and tone, before I move on to the other pieces.

It's a little nerve-wracking having so many pairs of eyes critiquing my work. Maybe that's one reason I never liked working for agencies.

The drive is about 38 minutes long and a pretty one at that, going through the woods and passing the reservoirs. But when I get home, I sigh with relief but have no time to get anything done. A familiar complaint, I know. I am doing this solely for the $$ and will be glad when the assignment is over. Though of course I will take the extra work this summer if they offer it. If I can just get at least a few days' reprieve in between assignments.

Still, I'd rather be doing this job now than in the dead of winter when I'd be getting up in the dark and driving home in the dark.

So it's Sunday morning and I'm enjoying a late breakfast around 7:30 am, sitting at the kitchen table by the north-facing window. Out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of black. Behold, it is one of my neighbor's cows.

She disappears and I run to the back window to see her racing the length of my backyard. Most people rarely see cows move that fast. She paused at one end by my toolshed and then cavorted across the lawn once again. I can only describe her actions as gleeful and joyous, and she reminded me very much of the fawns I've seen racing around the back lawn with their mother nearby.

Then the cow disappeared up a narrow footpath through the brushy overgrowth, headed back toward my neighbors.

I called neighbor at 7:40 am and she thanked me for telling her, then went to call her husband. She said the cow is just a year old; her mother had also escaped a few times, going down to the road and getting the police involved to help corral her.

I feel sorry for their animals because I constantly hear the cows and sheep. Although they have their dogs and cats, they are not sentimental people. They are keeping the animals to raise their own meat and milk, which I "get," but I don't get the idea they are especially concerned with treating their animals humanely.

Don't know why the cows are always mooing and the sheep baaing, but if they were contented, I don't think they would be so vocal. Are they hungry? Do the cows need to be milked? Why wouldn't you board up the gaping window-sized hole in the wall of the barn so winds don't make wintry nights even more frigid? Why would you leave a ewe to deliver a lamb without veterinary assistance if it ran into trouble? The answer is, they don't want to spend the money, so as he put it, "One of 2 things can happen: either it delivers a healthy lamb, or it dies." Case closed.

Had a great dinner with Dad last night. I had sea scallops and risotto which was very good. Today for lunch I'll have the last of my wild Alaskan salmon from the freezer. After this, I will be eating strictly vegan except for my weekly dinners with Dad.

I'm very happy that tomorrow the carpenter is coming to finish the bookshelves; namely, building the window seat and cabinet below it.

I may spend some time today investigating where to buy the particular enamel paint I learned was best for things like bookshelves. I could even start sanding and priming today if I wanted.

I finally got word: I start the contract job Monday.

I'm about as ready as I can be: I read volumes of material they provided me and even drew up a rough outline of the first brochure (assuming I'm still writing brochures). Based on what manager said, the parameters of the job have likely changed.

I bought some new clothes, I figured out (roughly) what I'll pack for lunch, will test alarm clock tonight, etc.

And now my nerves have kicked in. Not at all unusual when starting any job, but I feel nervous about this one in particular, just because of what's expected. I walk into so many places where the existing writing is so bad that it's easy to shine in comparison. I'm not confident they'll love what I do. Worst case scenario, they let me go prior to the full 4-5 week term, bruising my ego and of course less money.

The commute is 35 minutes, all back roads and very scenic. It's the exact same route I drove to work 8 years ago to Norwalk about 4 miles further down the road.

So I passed the personal background check but am not sure about the employment check. They only check the last employer, and so I listed the education website. I gave them the general Houston number i found on their website (we've never had a need to talk on the phone) but learned later that my contact there works remotely out of Seattle.

So the firm running the check ran into problems, I spoke to recruiter, then they ask for W2 or equivalent. I had to explain they don't issue W2s to freelancers, so then they email another note asking for tax return signed by third party or 1099.

I do my own tax return so it's not signed by a third party and I don't have a 1099 since I only started with the website in Nov/Dec and hadn't made enough money ($600) for them to issue me a 1099 in 2016. And I won't get one for this year til end of year, obviously.

I really wouldn't like to send my personal tax return to some firm based in India. However, the recruiter had forwarded to me a brief email my contact at the website had written saying when i started there and that I'm doing a good job. I hope that suffices. They're only checking to confirm employment during the times I stated.


"Job, humbug!"

Amazingly, I have nothing special planned this weekend. Maybe one more load of laundry. I suppose I could even find the right paint for the bookshelves and start priming, but would rather do that on a sunny day and it is very dark and gloomy today. Lots of rain coming. No more drought.

OH! One exciting thing that happened in the midst of my bookshelving construction yesterday: I happened to be in the garage and glanced up at the aquarium I'd moved there for safekeeping while the carpenters were going in and out. (It was previously located on my front porch so I could monitor any activity.)

I saw that 2 brand new butterflies had formed from pupae made by caterpillars last summer! I wasn't sure they would survive the winter. I took them out into the bright sunshine and removed the screen top while they rested a bit and prepared for takeoff.

First one and then the other spontaneously flapped up and fluttered out of the aquarium that had been their home all winter and aloft they went. I even called the carpenters over to have a look.

Now you can see they've really taken shape.


I'm very happy with the way they turned out. I designed everything as far as the dimensions of the shelves, the divided shelves on the top 2 rows, the cubby holes above the window and still to come, the bench and cabinet below the window.


Can you see the detail here? There are 4 little rosettes above 4 pieces of vertical grooved trim on either side and either side of the window.

They left here around 2:30 pm because they ran out of materials. So the one guy has to return to do the seat and cabinet below the window.

I can't wait to fill these shelves up with stuff, but I will have to prime and paint it first, which will probably take forever. I already researched paints and knew that plain latex would NOT be a good choice because when I used it on my 2 entry doors, despite having a lengthy time to dry, the paint lifted right off when I closed and then opened it.

Oil paints smell too much but I think I found something that doesn't have the tackiness of latex paint. It's called a waterborne enamel.

I'll be doing a white semi-gloss to match all my other trim. I am still thinking about whether I should paint the back of each shelf in a pale turquoise color to match my repainting of the risers on the main staircase which is close to the dining room. I got an idea from Better Home & Garden where you paint each riser, (or every 2 risers) starting from the bottom successively lighter shades of the same color. To make sure the colors match, you just go to the paint store and pick your favorite colors from one of those sample color strips. So you would use maybe 3 or 4 shades of the same color and my favorite color is turquoise.

I would use the palest shade of turquoise for the back wall of the shelves to tie that room in with the staircase, since the staircase is open on both sides, to the dining room at the right and the living room to the left.

I still don't know the status of my contract job situation. Am supposed to hear today when or if I'm to come in on Monday. If I do start Monday, I may have to wait til the following Saturday to have carpenter back to do the bench/cabinet. Which is ok, but I just don't want this to drag on too long.

Otherwise, if I don't start that contract job, he can come back on Monday to finish.

So here's the dollars and cents part of it. I gave the first carpenter $500 cash, and a day or two later, another $200 cash, for materials. I have the receipts so I now he spent about $550, leaving $143 left over which he kept when he left here so abruptly.

However, I kept track of his time spent and I calculated that I still owe him $250 in addition to the $143 he kept. For the life of me I can't understand why he thinks he's been paid in full. He's not the kind of person to be charitable and I can't imagine he miscalculated.

So to date I've spent a total of $1227 on the bookshelves; I'm hoping when he comes back (I assume without his helper tho I will check) that he could finish the bench in 4 hours or less, so total not including a few extra materials would be $1447, which I'm happy with. There are also a few pieces of molding/trim that weren't used, so I will bring back for a refund.

Last night I emailed the person who would be my manager at the contract job that was supposed to start late this week. I asked for the latest status of my start date.

He replied back this a.m. and send they are "reevaluating" whether they need to bring in extra help and will let me know later today.

I had a feeling this could happen after seeing how this job unfolded. I understand from the company's perspective how they just want to be ready to go once they get the green light; unfortunately for me, it may end up petering out.

There is still some sort of project he had mentioned over the summer. I'm still hopeful that whether or not this assignment pans out, I can still do the 2nd assignment.

If neither of those things pan out, I intend to ask recruiter if I can get reimbursed for the 6 hrs at-home time spent prepping for this project. I know the recruiter had told me NOT to do any work before the contract papers and background checks were complete, however the hiring manager 1) gave me piles of reading material to do before arriving there 2) emailed me more reading material that night and 3) when i asked if in addition to the reading, i could go ahead and work on an outline and even start writing at home, if i found time, he basically said god yes.

My time spent only comes out to $330 so I don't think it would be a big deal for the company to pay it especially if they might like to use me for the summer project. I won't push it but I would like to at least make the case for it.

So I'm trying to knock things off before my contract job starts. I haven't heard from my manager there since last week (he was supposed to email an update Monday) so I will email him tomorrow to see if they have a firm start date for me yet.

In the meantime, my replacement carpenters are coming tomorrow at 8 a.m. I was wanting to have my dad over for lunch, just so he could hang out with me and I wouldn't have to be alone with 2 new carpenters, but dad moves pretty slowly and would probably in the way just trying to get in the house. So I guess I won't do that.

I was able to switch a dentist appointment I had for tomorrow to this afternoon instead, so it was good to get that out of the way. My dentist likes to get to know all his patients and actually keeps notes on things, so when I came in today he mentioned that last we spoke I was in a jobs transition and was I still. I said yes, yada yada yada. He's a nice guy. He plans guitar in a band with his grown son at local bars when he's not doing dentistry. I'd like to see him play sometime.

When I go to pay, i told the woman I no longer had dental insurance and would just pay out of pocket. Umm, I knew it would be a lot but I didn't realize it would be $195. She said she would check with the dentist to see if he would waive his fee (so I'd just have to pay for the cleaning). I'm pretty sure he did that for me once before but had forgotten about it. I am crossing fingers she will call me back to say she will refund me some of the money I paid. That would be nice.

May is the nicest time of year at my home. I look outside my office window and see a gorgeous old apple tree with a canopy filled with white flowers. There's also 2 white dogwoods, a salmon azalea and so much more to come with the enormous viburnums I've got around here and the rhodies. Today was my first mowing, but he's only doing it every other week, so it will cut my bill in half.

It's getting down into the 30s tonight so as a precaution, I took plastic sheets, tarps and some plastic pots turned upside down to cover tender plants just coming up. I can't cover everything, but at least I can ensure a few things don't get zapped by frost.

I went to Macys and Kohls two days ago and spent more than I should have on a bunch of tops and shoes but I felt that I had nothing to wear and the insidious weight creep makes everything feel a little more snug than I like.

Yet I hate to get rid of most things in case I can lose weight, so as a result, my 3 closets are always bulging with clothes I don't wear. Maybe I should fold up a bunch and put them in an underbed storage container. I have one of my mother's; I just was never in the habit of storing clothes under the bed.

Tomorrow while the carpenters are here I plan to make a wheat berry salad I can bring to my workday lunches, and a fruit salad. It's quite possible they won't want me to start til Monday, or even later, but I like to be prepared.

It's been really nice this past week not having to do any freelance work for the education place. The problem with that work is that the work takes a long time to do and you "feel" extremely busy, yet the pay doesn't reflect that. There's a danger you'll allow yourself to just keep doing that once you get into the rhythm of it, but it's not enough to cover all the bills.

I redeemed earned rewards from US Bank credit card for $108 in statement credit.

Have been enjoying sitting out on my little sun room with the kitties. The afternoon sun this time of year is very nice, not too hot. Hummingbirds are already back at the feeder, and I've also seen rose-breasted grosbeak and a flycatcher buzzing around here. I repotted some cacti I purchased at the show in April. I have one succulent called Horse's Teeth that is putting out a skinny tall stem I presume will be a flower. Very exciting. Can't wait to put out certain plants for the season to reclaim some much needed room indoors, particularly in my bathroom.

I bought a butane grill lighter to see if I could use it to burn the grease/oil stains off my pavers. It didn't work. I suspect the flame is not strong or hot enough. I may try a propane torch yet though that's more money, like at least $20.

After my first carpenter walked off the job, I contacted 2 other carpenters. One, recommended by a friend of mine, said he could come over to look at the shelves last night, but late, around 9 pm. He never showed up.

The other one came over this morning and carefully looked at the already purchased materials in my garage and listened to what I wanted.

He agreed it would be about a day's work but wanted to bring in a helper who would make the same rate as him, at $45/hr. He said the job would go faster with one guy cutting in the garage and the other working inside.

So I'll be paying $90/hr x 8 hours = $720, but I asked about a cash discount (ALWAYS do this) and he offered 10% off, so I'd pay him $648.

So while the hourly rate sounds high, it's just one day and it's possible they could finish up sooner.

Just for comparison purposes, this rate is considerably more than my original carpenter would have charged, which would have been $200 for a day's work. What a difference!

However, according to my calculations, I still owe the first carpenter about $250; he hasn't tried to collect it, nor have I heard from him since he walked away last Saturday. I may have figured his time spent more generously than he did.

The new carpenter can't start til Thursday morning. My new contract job could start the very next day, so it's pretty important they finish this up same day. I had a dentist appointment on Thursday but miraculously I was able to move it to tomorrow.

I was surprised to be able to find someone else to do this so quickly. The 2nd carpenter was recommended by a builder I found on Craig's List who often employs him. That guy at first recommended a cabinetmaker who also works for him, but it turned out the cabinet maker (who charges $65/hr) was busy working on someone's yacht.

Crossing my fingers this will all go well. It always makes me a little nervous employing someone for the first time. There's a lot of trust involved.

I think Creditcardfree was right about how some people's anger issues prevent them from being able to "let go" of things that bother him. I dated someone about 8 years ago who had major issues of that sort and acted in the same extreme, irrational way to minor irritations. It took me a while to figure out that my changing my behavior in this way or that way had no effect on his anger one way or the other.

I also think that given his history, the encounter with the police was practically a traumatic event for him.

The carpenter, "B," is a guy who has gotten the short end of the stick in life. He has a marketable skill but doesn't know how to leverage it to get ahead and he seems to make a lot of poor decisions that exacerbate his problems. Years ago he got behind on his property taxes due to a seasonal work shortage and the interest and penalties just piled up. He is still digging out.

Years earlier he was in a bad motorcycle accident. His young daughter (he's divorced) was riding behind him and he'd given her his helmet. (There is no helmet law in CT.) A driver backing out of his driveway didn't see him. B. jammed on the brakes to avoid a collision and went flying over the bike. He broke his back and had numerous other fractures. I remember seeing an account of the accident in the local paper and calling him at the hospital to see how he was doing. He mistook my concern for romantic interest which I had to quickly correct the next time I saw him, when he got out of the hospital.

This was why he had a doc appt on the second day he was doing the bookshelves. Pain management, he said. I didn't pry, as it was none of my business, but he seemed to want to talk about it. So then we get talking and I mention that painkillers can be very addictive, and he agreed. I asked him if he was in pain and he said "not really."

I got in touch with the friend who referred him to me and told her what happened. She is still using him from time to time but she lets her husband deal with him mostly. She mentioned another incident she'd heard of where some woman cut him off in her car and he chased her down. She had a baby in the back seat. If my friend had "heard of it," I imagine the woman must've called the cops when she saw he was following her and they pulled him over.

Anyway, my friend recommended another guy she said was very nice. I also have 3 guys I'd found on Angie's List earlier who I was going to try before B. agreed to do the job. I really think there's just one full day of work remaining on the project -- all the fun finish work including baseboard, trim and moldings, plus the cabinet below the window and the cubby holes above it. To think that I was going to pay him a $100 bonus just because I thought he was doing a good job.

I did try pouring Dawn dish detergent over the oil stains on the pavers, let it sit a half hour, then rinsed with very hot water I warmed up in the microwave. Disappointingly, this did absolutely nothing to the stains. The source said you may have to repeat.

Instead, after researching it further, I decided to try clay kitty litter sprinkled over each stain, which I then ground into a fine powder dust with the heel of my foot. It should sit overnight and hopefully lift up some of the stain.

If that doesn't work, I still have a few more things to try. One clever idea was to use a charcoal grill lighter fluid, the kind that's a skinny foot-long tube, to heat the oil up and out of the brick so it burns off.

I remember when I pointed out the stains to B. and said I think your truck is dripping oil, he said no, that's not oil, and he never really finished the sentence. Maybe it's transmission fluid or brake fluid. I did get down on my hands and knees and it had just a vague petroleum smell, not that strong, so I don't know exactly what it is.

If, against all odds, the stains remain (there are a dozen of them), I could have the company who laid the driveway last spring come over and just turn the pavers over. I'd want them to do it becus they level it with a soft mallet or whatever and I don't want to mess it up. Perhaps he wouldn't charge that much since I hired him twice now for big jobs.

My carpenter walked off, leaving me with a half-done job.

I'm just floored and very upset.

Today was Day 3. He was making good progress but had to go to Lowes to get more materials. We talked in great detail about what he had left to do, he calculated what it would cost and I gave him another $200 on top of the $500 I gave him at the start of the job.

He left around noon, and didn't return til 2:30 pm. While he was gone, I saw some oil stains his truck had left on my pavers, which was kind of upsetting. It doesn't look good but I went online and cleaning them seems fairly easy, just using dish detergent you let soak on the stain for 30 minutes, then using a scrub brush and then rinsing with hot water. I have it soaking in Dawn detergent now; hope it will work.

But anyway, he was annoyed having to walk further up the driveway since he couldn't drive all the way up. I explained why and pointed out the pavers. He actually said he thought I had put the stains there and said he "knew" I would try to deduct for what I owe him for the bookshelves becus of the stains. I never said I would do that. I just moved my car so he couldn't drive on the pavers.

But this wasn't the real reason he was upset, and I knew it. When I asked him what happened, he said some other driver hit his truck, but while they had damage to their vehicle, they only hit his tire and we looked at it and apparently there wasn't damage. But then he said he almost got arrested because HE LEFT THE SCENE OF AN ACCIDENT, but that the cop was "nice" and didn't make a big deal of it.

So he is VISIBLY upset, and I could understand that. I tried to calm him down and pointed out his truck suffered no damage and he wasn't arrested.

But then he starts talking about things I did that he didn't like. He said the day before I had turned out the dining room chandelier light, and that annoyed him. I turned it off when he left thee job for a while. It had been a cloudy day, but then the sun came out and since the chandelier is pretty dim anyway, I didn't think he'd need it on.

And then he went on and on about the pavers, that he knew where this was going, etc. He just went off on a rant.

I tried talking to him and explaining why i turned the light off and that i hadn't said anything about making him pay for the pavers, but when he remained agitated, I just went inside the house and thought maybe it was best he calm down by himself.

He's coming and going out of my dining room (i went upstairs) so after a while i look out the window and i see him packing up his stuff!

He was walking off the job! I tried to go out and talk to him again, asking him if he could just stop for a minute but he refused and the whole time I'm trying to reason with him he's walking back and forth collecting all his tools and equipment.

He said so many things that were completely irrational, that it just wasn't his day, etc.

I just can't believe this and now I'm wondering who the heck I'll have to find to finish this job. If he showed any interest in finishing it with maybe a small apology, I would gladly let him finish, but he was just so off the deep end I doubt he'll do that.

I'v known this guy for nearly 20 years and hired him off and on over the years and never had this happen. He has had some run-ins with the law and I do remember my girlfriend, the one who first gave me his info as a good handyman/carpenter, telling me a story about him getting arrested after he showed up at the police station with a rifle in the truck.

I think he has some anger management issues, clearly. He had several chances to just calm down but he just made things worse instead. I know he was upset about the car accident and the cop, but he could have recovered from that. You don't go yelling at your customer when clearly I had nothing to do with that, and if the pavers and my turning off the light really bothered him, there were better ways of dealing with it.

I'm holding out small hope that he might call in the next day or two to smooth things over, but I am a little doubtful that will happen. This really stinks.

Today is day 3 on the bookshelves. Carpenter only worked a half day yesterday. I'm happy with the way it's turned out so far.



I'll have him do a bench under the window with 2 cabinet doors that open to reveal a single shelf inside. Above the window, I'm going to have him build 6 small square cubbies where I can display mom's miniature art pieces.

There will be trim with the vertical lines and rosettes on 4 vertical parts of the shelves which will really finish it off nicely. Similar to this, which matches what I have on my family room French doors:


I guess I'll do the painting myself (not looking forward to it). First primer, then a semi-gloss waterborne enamel like Sherwin ProClassic, which will harden better than your typical latex paint. I had all sorts of problems with stickiness and paint lifting off my doors when I tried using a latex on them, despite lengthy dry time. I don't like using oil-based paint due to clean-up and odor issues.

I've researched the best paints for doors and shelves, things that either have pressure applied when they're closed, or have things put on top of them and both Sherwin Williams ProClassic and Ben Moore Impervo are said to have the advantages of an oil-like finish without the drawbacks of oil. I sure hope so.

FINALLY, I surpassed $900,000 in savings...$900,308, to be exact. I'd been eyeing this particular milestone for the last 3 months.

I hope I can hang onto it and not see it dip below $900K again due to my "under-employed" status. That is just one way the contract job could be helpful.

I was supposed to start on Monday but now the client has changed direction and they won't have things ironed out til later next week, so new start date is next Friday or maybe the following Monday.

Despite the big savings milestone, I'm in the red for the month of April, the 2nd consecutive month that's happened. Not including my capital outlays for the built-in bookshelves this month, my expenses exceeded income by $1200.

It's not that I spent that much but I only had $1330 in income.

I don't regret My little April "splurges:" a $75 birthday lunch with dad and $30 on Easter goodies for my friend's nieces.

I also had to pay $500 in state and federal estimated taxes for the 1st quarter, which I wouldn't be surprised I overpaid. It sure seems like a lot, given what I earned. The estimated tax forms are ridiculously involved and I just don't want to spend hours upon hours doing it. Instead, I use my own highly simplified estimate which in the past has resulted in over-payment. But I'll get it back and the main thing is not to incur a penalty for under-payment.

My annual transfer station (dump) fee has risen to $95 this year. It irks me to pay that much given that most other area towns charge far less; my father, in nearby town, pays nothing.

So I spent 4 hours today reading all the bank material, highlighting key stuff and looking over competitor websites. All this while my carpenter was banging away downstairs and really making a racket.

I just got an email from the agency saying the bank has changed course and they will need to re-brief me again but they won't have things firmed up til end of next week.

So I will NOT be starting there Monday after all; more likely, he said, it will be next Friday or the following Monday. It's possible I won't get paid for the 4 hours spent today since recruiter explicitly told me not to do any work yet til he got back to me on Friday. I'm pretty sure he was going to make sure I would be paid for at-home work (even though the guy at marketing agency said yes, please, go ahead). I'm not sure whether or not I should tell recruiter I did not follow his directive.

Can you believe it??? I really felt I HAD to start the prep work asap to be ready to go on Monday. Oh well.

On the plus side, it appears I will now have plenty of time to have my carpenter continue work and finish the bookshelves. He put in a full day today and while progress was a tad slower than I'd hoped for, we did spend a lot of time determining the number of shelves and their dimensions, which will carry through to the other side of the window, so it was necessary to spend that time.

He has a mid-day doctor's appointment tomorrow so I guess I will hang around here til then. Once he leaves, I'll do my grocery shopping and also run to Macy's, as I would like to get a few tops and some new shoes, just to make it easier to get dressed in the morning in something presentable.

I feel a little bummed, and even worried now that this job may not pan out if the client bank doesn't know what it wants. I hope that's not the case.

So as mentioned in yesterday's post, I really felt kind of ambushed when I showed up at what I thought would be a job interview but what turned out to be a kick-off meeting meant to debrief me on the work I'd be doing.

When I say "ambushed," I don't mean they were trying to do anything unkind, but it certainly threw me off kilter as I struggled to comprehend the scope of a very involved project and what they were asking of me.

I don't blame them; they are obviously behind an eight ball with the deadline for this project and had no in-house talent to execute it, but it makes me wonder why they would take on such work if they didn't have resources IN PLACE. I guess their attitude was, 'shoot first and ask questions later.'

I want to make best use of my time between now and Monday to clear my plate of various errands or other things so they won't become a distraction when I'm neck-deep in the project. I'm only going to focus on essential stuff to do, and then I plan to get into the reading they gave me so I can absorb as much as possible and as the manager said "hit the ground running" on Monday.

My carpenter has arrived to set up his tools and saws for the built-in bookshelves. He's just left to go buy the wood and will start later this morning and can work today, tomorrow and Saturday on it.

Here's my list of things to do:

1. Pick up more meds for Waldo before they run out.

2. Laundry

3. New central air test of system this a.m.

4. Fill up gas tank.

5. Fill out all the recruiter's paperwork for: a)confidentiality agreement, b) IRS withholding form, c) Paychex timesheet, d) contract, e) direct deposit of my paychecks, which will be every 2 weeks.

6. Haircut

7. Dump run

8. Groceries

9. I may also do some clothes shopping. Altho it's casual attire (jeans) I may want a few things just to make it easier to get dressed in the morning without having to figure out what in my closet looks okay.

I may have to give up going to the local climate march on Saturday as planned for many weeks. Disappointing but I really need the time.

Once I get my personal stuff out of the way, I want to concentrate on the following, definitely for Sat/Sun but maybe even starting tonight or tomorrow:

10. Reading and absorbing all materials.
11. Sketch out an outline for the first brochure.
12. Closely review the bank's website.
13. Start a competitive review of other banks' private banking pages, printing out stuff I can bring to the office on Monday.

Now, the recruiter had told me NOT to do any work until he checked back with me tomorrow because I know he wants to make sure I'll get paid for time spent at home. I could just listen to what he told me, but honestly, I will be the one bearing responsibility for getting this done on time, so I'm only hurting myself by sitting around twiddling thumbs. I think I can safely say I'll be paid for at least 4 40-hour weeks, so I'm not too concerned about a few hours here or there. I'm kind of looking at it as a single project that will pay me $8800 rather a weekly paycheck.

So the recruiter for the short-term contract job set up an interview with the marketing agency I'd be working for.

As mentioned earlier, they didn't require an interview and were ready to hire me based on my resume, but the recruiter had very little information about what, exactly, I'd be writing, so for my own comfort level he agreed to set up the meeting.

He told me it could be brief and basically be a meet and greet and I could be out the door quickly.

To my surprise when I arrived, instead of an interview, they had scheduled a kick-off meeting for the 4 brochures I'll be writing! There were 4 employees there, all very nice, but it was a little overwhelming. They threw a whole bunch of reading material at me so I could write the 4 brochures in 4 weeks, which is a very tight schedule. The plan is to read and absorb it all over the weekend and I'd feel much better if I could also do some kind of rough outline for the first brochure.

It's going to be a challenging job, for several reasons:

1. The audience is very affluent people with assets of $3-$15 mm or something like that. I need to write at a sophisticated, intelligent level but still find a way to make the prose friendly and approachable.

2. I'm writing full brochures from scratch, which again can be challenging. I've done it before, though more often a group of people determines the outline and what content falls on which brochure panel. At a typical company, one brochure would take 2 weeks to do and that would be by someone already familiar with the client and the content.

3. He wants me to review all the written material and "hit the ground running" on Monday, which is starting earlier than I'd wanted to.

My carpenter, for instance, was supposed to start work on the built-in bookshelves tomorrow. I haven't heard from him (he was supposed to buy and drop off materials tonight in my garage) but it would be great if he could work Thurs/Fri/Sat and then maybe have one more day to do it when i'm not here.

Not crazy about not being around, but may have to do that.

But just entering a new work environment where everything's "new" is hard to do and then immediately achieve high focus on the task at end. The people are new, the workspace, hopefully they use PCs, not Macs.

The pay is excellent ($55/hr) and there's a good chance that if they like what I do with these brochures, they'll have me work on another project that will extend through the summer.

I'm feeling very stressed mainly given the tight deadline. It's going to be sink or swim.

In my last post, I described 2 job possibilities: the perm job at fertility healthcare company with the long drive, and the 6-month contract job that paid much better and was closer.

I mentioned also that the contract job employer wants to hire me, sight unseen.

Late last night, I got another email from that recruiter in which he explained he'd made a mistake: that it wasn't a 6-month contract but a 4 to 5 week contract!!

I was incredibly disappointed because I was leaning toward that job. No wonder they didn't feel it necessary to meet me for such a short-term job.

That recruiter knew I had the interview today with the faraway perm job and I touched based with him today after the interview. Basically, I explained I would now only take the contract job if the other job fell through. He perfectly understood though he upped the rate to $55/hr. The job is still there for me but he has to know by TOMORROW at the latest whether I want it or not.

I've passed this info on to the recruiter for the fertility job and asked as a courtesy that if they don't want me for whatever reason, that they let me know quickly so i can grab the contract job at least. I doubt that will happen and I'll probably wind up calling the contract job recruiter and telling him go ahead and re-advertise it.

So I could end up with neither job, which would be kind of a bummer despite my reservations about the fertility job. It was a heck of a long drive down, I think 65 minutes, although driving home in non-rush hour traffic I got back in 50 minutes.

They are 98% sure of moving in a month's time to a location a bit closer to me on the same highway which would shave off 10 minutes from the drive, so it could become a 50- or 55-minute job. Still long. It would really pile on the mileage on my car.

I met with 3 people there, including the 1 I knew from an old job 8 years ago. He gave me a writing assignment, an email he'd written. I discovered when doing research to rewrite the email that he'd totally plagiarized a particular website, so I guess it's a good thing I mostly rewrote it.

One of the people there said i could work at home on snow days in winter but that they otherwise want people in office to collaborate. I would still intend on asking for 1 or 2 workdays at home once I got settled in the job, maybe after 6 months or so. And I guess if i got the job i would continue my job search so that in case they say "no" to partial work at home schedule that I can look for something else.

I'm frankly sick of job hunting but that's the best I can come up with. I think I could live with the job working at home 2 days a week but if I can't, I don't think I'd want to stay there for long.

PS The cats killed a snake and left it for me in the basement!! They don't go outside, and Waldo has arthritic legs and doesn't jump on anything but the bed and upholstered furniture, so I'm sure it was Luther. The poor snake must have just emerged from hiberation, or perhaps it even hibernated in the space between sill and foundation.

I was shocked to find it, dead, on the floor. I had just done laundry yesterday, so it must've happened last night or today. Thank god they didn't carry it up...live...to main living quarters as they have done with mice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JOB UPDATE:
Heard back from recruiter for perm job. They found a writer with 20 years of experience in the fertility industry so they want to hire that person. I'm a great writer but I can't compete with someone with that much targeted experience.

I'm a little perturbed because I put a lot of effort into the written assignment today when my current freelance assignment, which I planned on working on, is due tomorrow. And they probably knew about this other person when i came in to interview, so I'm not sure why they even had me come in.

At the same time, I'm also a little relieved as I won't have to deal with that commute.

But anyway, recruiter said they really liked my work and want to hire me to do contract writing.

As soon as I hung up from him, I called back the recruiter for the 4 to 5 week contract job, told him what happened and said I'd like to take his job now, with or without an interview. (He told me before they hadn't asked for an interview but I had, just becus i wanted to get more info about what I'd be doing.)

At this point I'd prefer a phone interview as my carpenter is coming on Thursday to start the bookcase and tomorrow is due date for my current freelance assignment. Once I turn it in, I will take a break from that work til things settle down next week and I know what's going on with the short-term contract job.

AY yi yi!!

So I unwisely accepted this humongous 40-school assignment with a Wednesday due date, because I wasn't 100% sure I'd have a job interview to go to this week. I do, on Tuesday.

So (gulp) I had to go all out for the past 3 days so I could free up all day tomorrow to prep for the interview, and then a half day on Tuesday for the interview itself and one hour drive there and then back. (I did free up time to have dinner with dad at the Chinese place last night.)

So I wrote 10 school summaries each of the last 3 days, which really wasn't easy since most take me 50 or 60 minutes to write. I worked from 7:30 am to about 5 pm yesterday, and from 7:30 a.m. to 3 pm today. Got done what I needed to. Phew. I will never do THAT again but it's hard to turn down a paying job in my situation.

I sort of don't even want this job I'm interviewing for but one thing led to another and since my friend J. is the recruiter who's been leading the charge, I feel obligated to follow through as I don't want to disappoint him. Tho I may have to if I get an offer. At my age, I'm just not sure I have the stamina for a 2-hour commute (RT) every day and who knows how long they'll expect me to stay each night.

At the same time, I feel a need to consider it because I need affordable health insurance and have 8 months left on COBRA before s*** hits fan.

As usual, this is my conundrum. I feel like I've faced this dilemma a thousand times.

I could take the risk of passing on this job and not getting another perm job interview for a long time. The last perm job interview I had before this was shortly after I was laid off last summer, so yeah, the quality job interviews are few and far between.

I could try it for 6 months or so and then ask to work at home 1-2 days a week, which could change things mightily as far as my tolerance for the drive. Or they could say no, and then what?

I look in the mirror and feel I look so old, going in for a job interview, it makes things even harder. No spring chicken here.

In other news...

My sugar snap peas are FINALLY emerging. Took rather a long time. I intend to have them twine around the metal vertical poles of the shelving system they'res sitting on, out on the sunny, sunny driveway. All the parsley and some of the butterfly plants have also emerged.

I heard back from driveway guy about the weed poking through the new asphalt, as happened last year right after they paved. He agreed it shouldn't be happening and said he could try an extra thick coat of sealer. I asked if he would do the whole driveway or just that one spot and haven't heard back yet. Becus I have a feeling this is going to keep happening and how may times can I reasonably expect him to return.

I gave $500 to my carpenter so he can buy materials for my built-in bookshelves. Hooray. I had to delay his start on them due to my job interview cus I wasn't sure I could think straight with him hammering away downstairs, etc. So he's going to start this Thursday and while I can't wait to see them materialize, I'm not looking forward to probably 4 full days of no privacy and banging noise here. I'll have to make sure to pill Waldo his meds before he arrives or he'll never take them.

I am excited about getting them and the ability to design as we go along, as I'm not sure if, under the window, I should go with a window seat that opens from top, a cabinet or a cabinet with pull out drawer. He'll do whatever I want.

I think I'll skip the window seat that opens from top as I don't want to have to clear whatever's on top of the window seat everytime I want to open it. Cabinet doors are kind of boring/predictable so I don't know.

He's also open to using matching fluted vertical trim with the little rosettes to match the trim on my double set of French doors in the living room/family room.

I'm glad he's looking forward to doing job nearly as much as I am but even though the job interview prep will be out of the way by the time he comes, will his work make it hard for me to work on another writing assignment? I'm turning in this assignment later on Wednesday. Carpenter starts work on Thursday; I don't know if he'd want to continue over the weekend, but if not, he might not finish up til Tues/Wed. I suppose I could afford to take a break from the writing, but maybe I should anyway because I'm kind of house-bound while he's working here so I'll need something to do anyway.

I took an hour walk today.

Tomorrow I'l take a break from my interview prep for an MS lunch in neighboring town. (I don't really need an entire day for it, but I do also need to assemble my portfolio, lay out an outfit to wear and write down directions.)

OK, so the very best deal I've come across after researching over 260 schools YTD for this freelance job of every kind is this: If you attend any CUNY or SUNY 2 or 4-year university in NY full time and if your family income is less than $100K, you get FREE tuition.

The only catch is, you have to have lived in NY for at least once year before applying for the program, and you also have to agree to reside in NY for at least as long as it took you to earn your degree. So if you went for a bachelor's degree, you'd have to agree to live in NY for 4 years following graduation. You could defer this requirement if you were planning to continue with grad school, but you would still have to meet the requirement after that or risk having to pay back the money. The program is called the Excelsior Scholarship and it starts this fall. It's the first program of its kind in the nation. The idea is to help make a college education affordable for middle-income families. In the next few years, the income cap will increase to $125K.

Wow, I wish I could have taken advantage of this program.

This is the f/t perm job about an hour from here at an IVF fertility healthcare company. I used to work very closely with the recruiter when we both worked as writers for a certain employer about 8 years ago, and the person I would be reporting to is also someone who worked at that same place! I didn't know him well at the time.

So I'm putting together my portfolio and will be prepping this weekend. I think my biggest shortcoming as far as they're concerned is my relative lack of healthcare copywriting experience.

In other news...

Dad asked me to order him a second magnifying glass as he lost the first one. I got it from Amazon and he came over to get it. We had lunch at the German restaurant nearby.

A recruiter called me about a contract job I'd applied for yesterday: a 6-month contract for an agency about 35 minutes away. My client would be a national bank. This job could pay much better than the one described above ($85-$90K) and it's a reasonable drive, but of course it's just for 6 months. He said there's a possibility it could go longer, but who really knows. I'm not crazy about working for agencies but I would do it for 6 months.

The seeds I planted are finally coming up: parsley (for the butterflies), assorted flowers like Mexican sunflower (for the butterflies) and snap peas for me.

One of the tiny cacti that I bought a few weeks back at the cacti and succulent show is sending forth what looks like a flower bud. So exciting!

I had my driveway paved last spring. I thought he laid the asphalt very thin, and several times I had him return because WEEDS were growing THRU the asphalt. Now it's happening again and I'm sure since it's been a year he will be less inclined to come up. I can spray weed killer, but I shouldn't have to!

I was notified by Kiva that I've received some repayments on my loans and have enough to make another $25 loan.

As you may remember, I started with $100 and made 4 $25 loans, and then 1 more, for a total of 5 loans. The five loans were made to women in Armenia, Pakistan, Uganda, and Moldova. Of these, one loan is currently delinquent.

I am searching now for the 6th recipient, and there are so many people I would like to loan to.

You can use filters to narrow your search, and I have narrowed mine to include only women. It is very hard to be a single woman in a third world country. Of course I don't know for sure that these women are all single, but you can sometimes tell from the description of the loan request.

I also favor those who want money for basic necessities, like sanitary toilets, an education or to start a business, like farming or for any green enterprise. I've noticed there are a lot of women who want to buy a sewing machine.

I won't loan money to pay for a wedding or for someone's husband's business, or for pesticides/insecticides or for someone trying to raise cattle in a desert environment.

I am trying to loan to as many different countries as I can, so I decided to make the loan to a married woman living in the Gaza strip with her husband and daughter. She wants to buy solar panels to deal with chronic power outages.



It may be a while til I get another chance to make a Kiva loan, since the loan terms can be a year or more, but today I pledge that if I get a full-time perm job with benefits, making another $200 in Kiva loans will be something I do after I get my first paycheck. That way, I'll have 8 outstanding loans and they will be repaid at more frequent intervals.

So my Easter was fairly nice but fairly uneventful. I did have fun shopping to create some Easter baskets, one for my friend's 2 young nieces, 1 for his sister, who was hosting the dinner, and 1 for the mother of the 2 nieces. I only spent about $24 on everything.

The 2 little girls are spoiled and quite chubby at such a young age, around 5 and 7. They were pulling stuff from the baskets out of my hands as soon as I walked in and had to be coached to say "thank you." They also walked right by me when I was leaving because they were more interested in their ice cream. Oh well.

Yesterday and today I settled into my normal routine: working all morning on my freelance work, breaking for lunch and then going out for a longish walk. My afternoons are free to run errands, although I didn't have any today but I did enjoy lounging in my sun room.

Called my cousin M. on Easter and caught up with her. She fell on her outdoor stairs when there was black ice in March and bruised her ribs, which laid her up for 3 weeks out of work! She lost another cat due to kidney failure.

I had my scheduled 2nd phone interview regarding that part-time proposal writer job. This job has all the trapping of a full-time job without the pay or benefits.

There are various regularly scheduled weekly calls, training in Denver and mandatory attendance at the national sales conference each year and yes, that 10-2 pm daily availability even though I wouldn't be paid for that.

I think it would be very difficult to do this AND my current p/t job as the learning curve for this new position would be fairly intense. It amazes me they plan on paying just $15-20 an hour.

I was honest with her about my concerns regarding time and travel, so I doubt she'll call me back. She said she would know by week's end who she'd be calling back for a 3rd meeting with the other proposal writers.

Given that these p/t jobs are not my ultimate destination and I still need a perm job with health insurance, I don't want to get entangled in another commitment. Much easier to work on increasing my billable hours at my current job which has unlimited work and I'm getting fairly good at doing it. I had applied for it hoping the pay would be better than what I'm doing now and when I learned in the first interview that it would not be, I just decided to keep mum and see where it would lead. Now I know: a dead end.

Another major holiday is approaching. Not really being religious, I never really thought of Easter as a major holiday, but truth be told, it was one of 3 major holidays, not including Mother's Day and our respective birthdays, when we all got together.

Now that mom is gone and I still have no relationship with my sister, the approaching holiday has been causing some stress. I know if I did nothing on Sunday and stayed home alone I would be depressed and sad after 55 years of always having someplace to go.

I thought about past Easters when I would buy some flowers or sometimes bring even a homemade Easter basket for my mother and sister. I think about how some years, when Easter was warm and sunny, how both me and my sister, I think, shared a secret longing to not have to show up for Easter because we both just wanted to stay home and plant stuff in the yard and otherwise enjoy the weather outdoors instead of being holed up in my mother's condo where she never opened the windows (due to her allergies). Now i would give anything to have another Easter with mom.

So I asked my friend R. if he was going to his niece's home for Easter, knowing full well that he would be, and hoping he would invite me to come. That's what he did, and so I am feeling weepy and grateful to have a family to spend Easter with.

This past week when I was in various stores I would see the aisles with all the Easter bunny chocolates and lilies, and it all reminded me of Easters past, and it was terribly depressing to think I had no one to buy little Easter treats for.

Now I have my friend's niece's 2 daughters to buy for, plus his sister and niece. I feel so relieved. I am waiting to hear back whether there's a dish I can bring. It's almost like having my adopted 2nd family.

R. and I are like fire and ice. (I'm a Leo, He's Aires.) When I fell in love with him about 30 years ago, we fought a lot, and that hasn't changed all that much over the years. But we are both mature enough to get over our quarrels and enjoy the good things about our friendship.

He is one person who perfectly understands how I feel about my mother's loss, as he was very close to both his parents and still grieves for them. In fact I might say he taught me things about family I never really knew coming from a divorced family and a sibling I wasn't close to.

I had a preliminary phone interview for a perm job with a large, well-known educational company who need a p/t proposal writer.

Hours could be variable but average 15 hours a week, so I would plan to keep my current job doing the school write-ups.

They'd like someone to be "available" for phone call meetings from 10 am to 2 pm. They would provide me a laptop. On-site training in northern NJ would be a few days. It would be a an hour and a quarter drive.

HR person cited pay of $15 to $20/hr. I would only take this job if it paid $20/hr since my current job pays about the same range, depending on how much time I take to write things. I tend to be thorough when doing my research, so that pushes my hourly rate down rather than up.

The main advantage of the new position is that as a perm position they would deduct taxes from my paycheck and time spent on this job would make me eligible for future unemployment benefits, should I need it. (Since the amount of benefits is based on amount of earned prior income, any unemployment benefits I earned due to this p/t job would be pretty small. I THOUGHT that contract work could not be counted toward Social Security earnings, but I checked and it appears that it IS counted, so that's really one less reason to take the 2nd job. Hmm.

The new job is more involved than what I'm doing now. Right now I research and write independently, as very little contact with my liaison at the company is required. I've been working there since last November so I know what they want and the overall parameters of each job doesn't vary that much.

What I like about my current job is that I have lots of flexibility in when I do the work, so I can juggle things around if I have something to do during the day. I can and often do write nights or weekends. I am still working on maximizing my income with them and have been tracking gross income depending on differing word counts. They do a direct deposit of my pay into my checking account within about 5 days, which is very convenient. No invoicing or time tracking required since pay is based on the assignment regardless of time spent.

The new job would require phone meetings and I'd need to interview internal subject matter experts to write the proposals. I'm not crazy about having to be at home from 10-2 every weekday becus that really reduces the flexibility I was just talking about above. I can do the phone interviews, but is it worth it to learn a new protocol, system, style, etc for just $20 an hour part-time?

It might just be easier to work for one employee at a time and focus on increasing my hours with the one I have now rather than trying to juggle two different jobs.

I'm not sure.

As you may know, I just had central air installed here. It was a long time coming. I've suffered in the dog days of summer for 20 years!

Even though I am under-employed, I decided to proceed with one more major home improvement project for this year, partly because if I DO find a f/t job, it will suddenly make my time very limited and I don't feel comfortable having workmen in my home when I'm not here.

(A similar situation developed 8 years ago when i was having my screened porch converted to a sun room. The work had already started and then i lost my job, but i just proceeded according to plan and everything worked out fine.)

So my new home improvement is this. For years, I longed for a wall of built-in bookshelves in my dining room on either side of a double hung window.

I love built-ins in general and I grew up in a house in New Jersey where the bedrooms had built in dresser drawers! Very cool.

In my dining room, there's a bump-out at one end of the wall that covers heating ductwork, and it come out about 14" from the wall. I think the bookshelves will work well running along the rest of that wall and be flush with the 14" deep bump-out. I will also put a loveseat under the window with some kind of cabinet underneath for added storage. However, cabinets are sort of predictable.

After my mother passed, I gained a ton of art but also various knick-knacks which I am fond of but which I can't display now due to lack of space. And I'm overflowing with books.

So several months ago, I called Billy, the guy i use as a handyman and who lives here in town, and left a message. He never called back and I assumed he was too busy with his regular work to fit me in. I called him becus carpentry is his specialty and he is very affordable, charging just $200 for a full day of work.

I went to Angie's List and identified 3 companies that could probably do a good job, but I was worried about cost. As I read the reviews, I couldn't find a single job that was under $10,000 and I really wasn't prepared to spend that much on this.

So right before I planned to call these other outfits to come out for an estimate, I called Billy again, and this time he called me back and said he could do it.

He came over today and spent an hour and a half talking with me about the job; I showed him photos of what I had in mind, we discussed different details, prices, materials and he showed me his album which includes bookshelves very similar to what I want, plus I noticed instead of a cabinet below the window, he had done a pull-out drawer for another customer which looked very good and is a little different.

He thinks he can start last week of April. He estimates 4-5 days of work plus materials, so we're looking at about $1,000 for labor and maybe another $800 for materials. All told, I would consider this pretty affordable and I suspect this is FAR cheaper than what I'd pay elsewhere, even though I didn't get a chance to call another place for a quote.

He works a bit slowly but is fairly methodical and knows what he's doing. This will be the biggest project he's done for me yet. I'm excited!!

The shelves will look something like this:

Except that instead of going around a doorway, the shelving will be on either side of a window, with the bench/cabinet below.

Here's the wall as it looks now:

At the left end of wall is the bump out I mentioned that encloses ductwork going to the second floor. So the shelves would be flush with the edge of that bump out and be about 14" deep. The length of the shelves on either side of the window will not be the same, so it won't be perfectly symmetrical, which I'd prefer, but it will still look good. There will be 2 vertical lengths of shelves on the left and 3 on the right of the window, which is a bit wider space.

I have to clear out space in my garage so he can store the materials and also clear out my dining room. It's mainly a lot of art and 3 pieces of furniture to move: the dining room table, a lightweight credenza and my mother's sewing machine. I will need to find a new location for the sewing machine, possibly just keeping it in the dining room but moving it slightly right to the adjacent wall. Might be a bit crowded. Will have to see.

Oh boy. I LOVE built-in shelves and will have no trouble filling them up. I will paint the whole thing white since all the trim around here is already painted.

I'm excited.

You may think it a bit premature for me to be moving forward with this when I'm not earning a regular income, but my main reason again is that I don't expect it to be super expensive and now is when I have time to hang around and be here when the work is being done. If I waited until I was fully employed again, I'd have to wait til I had some vacation time. Billy may not always be available as his new employer is keeping him pretty busy, so I'm glad he's willing to fit me into his busy schedule.

I turned in a $600 writing assignment this past Sunday and just got the next one tonight, so will have to put my bookshelf plans aside for now and focus on the job. I'll have it done by next weekend.

Here's an interesting calculator that analyzes the best time for you to start collecting Social Security:
http://www.bedrockcapital.com/ssanalyze/

Here are my results:

Recommended Solution
Based on the data above, the following plan of action is recommended:
PatientSaver will file for her own benefit to start on 8/1/2029, the month after she turns 70 and receive 125.33% of her full retirement age benefit.
The optimal filing solution results in a net-present-value of $748,337

In contrast, if the client filed at 62 the net-present-value of their benefit would be $583,267

I had an interview today with a small company specializing in IVF treatments in need of a copywriter.

I'm positioned fairly well to get the job even though I don't have a healthcare background because the recruiter is someone who knows me very well; we were both writers at a former job 8 years ago and worked side by side. The director of marketing at this new company is also someone who worked in the same former company with me, although I didn't really have a work relationship with him.

The job sounds interesting, the pay is decent, but the commute is longish, 50 minutes without traffic. The HR person told me during the interview they will be moving soon to larger quarters, and it could be to Greenwich, which would be even further away from my location and which was a hellish commute in winter when I once did it for 4 years.

I was looking for something no more than 40 minutes, but after 8 months of underemployment and expensive health insurance, I've been reluctantly broadening my search.

Recruiter agreed I could pitch the idea of working at home 1 or 2 days a week after working there 6 mths to a year. I remember so well how drained and fatigued I felt with that Greenwich commute, and how I didn't want to go anywhere on the weekends. So a partial work at home arrangement would really be essential in the long term, as far as I'm concerned.

I guess I'll take it step by step and see what happens, keeping my options open but having mixed feelings about it.