There's a major storm coming, and Connecticut is in the bulls eye. I hadn't been aware this was definitely happening since I've been lolling around this afternoon watching TV with my new Roku, but then I got a robo call from the power company telling me to get ready.

From Patch: The NWS stated a “crippling and potentially historic” blizzard is headed our way late Monday into Tuesday. Snow accumulations of 20-30 inches are expected with wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour. I'm worried, of course, about losing power.

I'm not sure whether or not to go in to work tomorrow morning. Looks like a 30% chance of snow showers in the morning, which will transition into 100% chance by around 1 p.m. I'd rather not drive in the snow if I don't have to, but I could be home both Tuesday and Wednesday as well.

I just talked to my friend Ron, who provided reassurance and told me frozen pipes are nothing to worry about because outdoor temps won't get down below, well, 12 degrees at night, around 20 daytime.

He reminded me that if I really thought frozen pipes were imminent, I could shut off the main water valve coming into the house. Then, even if my pipes froze and then burst when they dethawed, I would only have a small flood, not an unending one. I guess that's some reassurance.

Well, anyway, I do hope I don't lose power. Thank God I brought the laptop home from work on Friday. I made it a rule that, regardless of the weather forecast, that I would ALWAYS take the laptop home on a Friday night, because a lot can change with the weather in 2 days, and this is a pretty good example of that.

Another bad thing about losing power is that if i lose it for the bulk of the day, I might have to use a vacation day for it since I can't work without the laptop. Even if it's not my fault.

On the bright side, I did buy a handheld Polti steam cleaner on HSN for $60. It has all these attachments you can use to clean all sorts of stuff. Since I'm a lousy housekeeper, this could make the job much easier.

OMG. I hooked up the Roku 1 all by myself and got it all working. AMAZING.

I am not a tech geek.

I didn't even need the wireless router I bought since I already have DSL with AT&T. So I can return that and get my $20 back.

I started out trying to get the router up and running but when I plugged the Ethernet cable into the AT&T modem (none available on my computer tower), I noticed I lost my Internet connection on my desktop, and the router was not correctly working anyway. (I think becus I needed a 2nd Ethernet wire and i tried using a regular phone wire, which sort of plugged into the slot but didn't "click."

I called my friend who wasn't much help long distance and we got 5 inches of snow today, so I knew I was more or less on my own.

So after unplugging the wireless router and making sure my computer network connection was again running, I decided to just try hooking up the Roku directly into to the TV. (I had been under the impression I needed to buy a new wireless router becus that's what they said I needed on the Roku website, but I guess they were assuming I was starting from scratch, without any pre-existing DSL.)

Luckily, the Roku, once plugged into the TV, searched and found my AT&T connection and from there it was a cinch. I just had to register on Roku and type in my modem password and then set up my channels.

I'm so happy! All I wanted was to be able to watch Netflix on my TV (not the computer) in my bedroom, but now I've gotten so much more with a bunch of apps and many free videos. If I want to watch a paid movie or show, it looks like it's $1, so no biggie.

Welcome to the 21st century, Patient Saver! As always, I'm a little late to the table.

I shoveled about one-third of my driveway. It took me about 40 minutes. I'll do the rest maybe later today or tomorrow. And now that I've done 3 loads of laundry and vacuumed and changed the bedsheets, I may just pamper myself by watching some free daytime TV, something I never do!

I've added a bunch of apps to "My Channels" but what I'd really like to find is some live news. I have to check out the channels. I know I have HSN and CBS and Fox and I think ABC but I'm not sure if it's just a few shows or actual news. I guess it wouldn't be local news but even national would be ok.

Weather has once again demanded that I reorder my weekend plans.



Here's the view looking out my office window to the front yard.

And here's the view of my driveway:


The white strip to the left of that smaller evergreen is the driveway. You can see the top of a telephone pole to the right of the tree.

I hope I can get at least a few of my running around errands done tomorrow, but first I'll have to shovel the driveway. Snow won't end til tonight, they say.

In the meantime, I need to do my laundry, change the bedsheets and vacuum. And since my Roku 1 and wireless router were delivered, I REALLY hope I can hook up my TV to the Roku and wireless so I can watch Netflix on the TV in my bedroom instead of my computer here in my office.

I had researched getting a new TV with HDMI cable capability or even a smart TV, but the Samsung TV I liked was $280, and so I figured I might be able to get by just spending about $75 on the Roku 1 (designed for people with older TVs with the older "composite" wires of red, yellow and green plugs). The TV I'm using is ONLY 7 years old and I always liked the picture. I only had to pay about $30 for the 2 items because I redeemed my Discover card points at Amazon. Very cool.

Maybe someday I'll catch up on all technology has to offer, but for now, this could be the ticket.


Oops. Someone turned away just as I snapped his photo.

I've been thinking of little day trips I'd like to make in the coming months. One is to the Marsh Botanic Gardens, which is really a group of 5 or 6 greenhouses at Yale. They give little tours there, and I always like to visit greenhouses or other botanic gardens in the dead of winter. It's so uplifting.

Also on my calendar is the annual cacti and succulent sale put on by a club in my area. That's not til April, but I think this year I'd really like to add to my collection with some interesting plants. That being said, my aloe and some other succulents are not looking so hot these days; they are so sun-starved. They're crowded in my upstairs bathroom which, with its south and westward-facing windows, is the sunniest room in the house.

Finally, I'd like to visit HORSE of Ct, a group nearby that rehabilitates abused or injured horses. (http://www.horseofct.org/) They often have open houses and I'd like to visit someday soon.

I have not yet been able to donate food to the town animal shelter, as I completely forgot about it when picking up a case of cat food at BJs, and once I break down the box and empty all the cans out, it's no longer convenient to transport. But it's top of mind now so next time, I will pick up an extra case.

I see that Citi is now providing FICO credit scores to card holders. Mine is 809. I've had that card since 2012 but now it will be harder to give it up. I AM anxious to unload my Susan B. Komen BOA card, just as soon as I can earn the minimum $25 to redeem points. Right now I'm at about $23 in points so maybe just one more payment cycle.

Ahh, retirement....It will be strange to arrive at some day in the not-too-distant future when I am no longer earning an income, but spending down savings to live on.

After spending a lifetime saving/earning/saving, my fear is that I'll be overly frugal like my mother is and not really enjoy my life as I could.

I try to imagine how it will feel to be officially, fully retired. How will it feel to have the knowledge that, aside from Social Security, I have no source of income? How will it feel to know that whatever pot of money I have to live on is all I'll have for the rest of my life to support my standard of living, and that I may never earn income again?
It will feel like the die is cast and there is no changing that.

Of course there is p/t work, but p/t work is often low-paid work and might not make a material difference in one's standard of living.

Will I feel comfortable making discretionary spending purchases if I am no longer earning an income?

For instance, I have really wanted to get a new couch for a long time. I have a 19-year old couch I bought used, believe it or not, and while it's in okay shape, the colors are kind of bright and hard to match things too.

I've been putting off the purchase because, well, I still have my 2 cats, and I'd freak if they got in the habit of scratching it. They don't really scratch the current couch now, but if they happen to jump on it, they do dig their claws into it.

So I'd rather defer the couch purchase for as long as possible, because each passing year is that much less scratching.

I have already made up my mind that once these cats go, I will not be getting more animals. (Of course, that's what I said when Sitka died 5 years ago but I was so miserable that 3 days later, I was at the cat shelter...it was the only way I knew I could console myself.)

But I've gotten tired of lugging home cases of canned cat food, cleaning out messy/smelly litter boxes and then lugging heavy bags of dirty cat litter to the transfer station. Not to mention the constant hair all over my clothes and the house, and my inability to have nice drapes, rugs, furniture, etc. And let's see, last year I spent $900 on the cats, a not inconsiderable expense.

I absolutely love my cats but I really feel my sense of obligation toward them ties me down and prevents me from being more social and doing other things. This is a really terrible thing to say. I haven't traveled much in the past 19 years because I always worry about them being on their own. Luther is often bored silly as it is, and then he gets destructive.

So, back to the couch....while I feel very comfortable buying a possibly $1,000 couch now because I'm working and making what I consider good money, I wonder if I still would want to spend such a large wad of cash once I am "retired?"

Hmm. I don't know. It's just a different mental outlook.

Today is a dreary, rainy day. It was icy this morning and I heard there were lots of accidents on the roads. I finally ventured out around 3 to the local supermarket as I've decided on 3 recipes to try out tonight and tomorrow for my workweek lunches. Tonight I'll be making a pesto pizza with leeks and mushrooms and tomorrow it's a sweet potato casserole and something else.

The only other things I'm doing tomorrow, which I have off due to MLK Day, is

1. Getting my physical results at the doctor's (how low is my cholesterol now that I've gone vegan?)

2. I want to use up a movie gift card and see The Imitation Game at a matinee

3. Go for a long walk, hopefully

4. Wash the salt off my car.

5. Dream of spring.

Last year I was funding a traditional 401k from my paycheck. Today I got my first paycheck after having switched from funding the (pre-tax) traditional 401k to an (after tax) Roth 401k.

My net bi-weekly paycheck has remained almost exactly the same, at about $1204! I thought I would net much more because I reduced the overall contribution from 25% to 22.5%. Yet I'm paying an extra $350 in taxes each paycheck just because I'm having to pay taxes upfront on the Roth 401k contributions..

I was paying just $476 in taxes per paycheck with the traditional 401k contributions as opposed to $825 now!

Still, I'll be netting $2709 a month in pay and with my expenses sometimes as low as $2,000, I should have sufficient cushion.

I wanted to put more money into a Roth account as I am quite top-heavy now with much more $ in traditional IRAs, and after having read a number of articles about withdrawal strategies that minimize taxes, I know I need more money in Roth accounts to do that.

Say you know you'll need to withdrawal a certain amount a year for living expenses in retirement, like $40,000. By being aware of tax bracket cut-offs, you could make sure you stay completely in a lower tax bracket by simply withdrawing whatever excess you need over the lower tax bracket limit from your Roth account. (In this case, the 15% tax bracket peaks at $37,450, so you'd withdraw the overage of $40,000, or $2,550, from your Roth.) So by withdrawing a combination of both traditional and Roth IRA/401k monies, you can minimize your taxes; over the years, it could become a significant amount. Of course, it also depends on where your income needs fall in the bracket and how much you need to live on. I mean, the 25% tax bracket goes from $37,451 all the way to $90,750. For me, knowing my annual income needs are right around $40,000, perhaps up to $45,000 if I travel, I would want to have some Roth money to withdraw to avoid bumping myself into a higher tax bracket on anything over $37,450.

Now I suppose MonkeyMama or Dido will tell you you'd be taxed at the 15% bracket up to $37,450 and only the $2,550 would be taxed at the higher 25% bracket. But if my income needs were higher, say $45,000, then we're talking paying 15% taxes instead of 25% on $7,550. A little extra attention to details would be worth it to me.

Around the holidays I bought myself a very nice mug from Stash Tea. I'm a big tea drinker so my mugs are important to me. This one had a rabbit in a woodland on the outside, and the image was repeated in miniature on the inside.



Well, I just don't know what happened to this mug. I've looked absolutely everywhere for it. At one point I had brought this mug in to the office and kept it there as my office mug. Now it's possible I left it on the desk before I locked up my drawer at the end of the work day; it's where I usually store personal possessions. So while I think it's unlikely it was stolen (becus I've left out so many other more valuable things) it's the only conclusion I can come up with, simply becus i can't find this mug anywhere.

I spent more time thinking about it than probably was worth it, but since i got out of work at 3 today, I had to scoot over to a gift shop in town where I had seen the same mug. I was hoping they might be having an after-Xmas sale and I could just buy it again. Turns out the mug wasn't on sale, but i bought it anywhere, plus the matching mug with a fox on it. (I like woodland animals I see in my own backyard.)

Although they weren't cheap, they cost about the same as they would have cost on the Stash Tea website, after you factor in shipping. So I got 2 mugs I really like. Murphy's Law being what it is, I will probably find the original bunny mug, but maybe not. Maybe someone took a liking to it and made off with it. I hope that's not the case and i sure would like to know one way or the other. I need closure.

I was delighted to fill up my oil tank today to the tune of $2.15 a gallon for 166 gallons. I haven't paid less than that since March 2009. I charged it on my new AARP card, easily hitting the $500 spend target (I only had $200 more to go), thereby earning the $100 credit.

Happy Friday!!!!!!

I watched an interesting Netflix documentary tonight called Living on one Dollar. It follows 4 college buddies and economics majors at Claremont McKenna College who travel to Guatemala to live in rural poverty in a small village for 2 months on just $1 a day, which is what the average Guatemalan lives on. Wow, that was a long sentence.

I was so inspired by this simple film that I made a donation at their website, livingononedollar.org. Thanks to underwriting by Whole Foods Market, 100% of donations go to help Guatemalans through either education or microfinancing, which they talked about a lot in the film.

I'm happy that tomorrow is casual Friday, it's Friday, it's payday and I don't work on Monday.

One of my workmates was sick all through Christmas and still sounded sick last week, in her voice. She was debating whether or not to keep her follow-up doc appt and I urged her to do so. I'm glad she did, because it turns out she has walking pneumonia. She is one of those people who feels an exaggerated sense of responsibility to work late hours and do everything, be everything, never slowing down. I hope she gets well soon.

I've been extremely busy at work this week with 2 large projects and 3 different people coming at me with stuff I need to write. I was feeling a lot of anxiety becus at one point i felt i didn't know what was going on, didn't feel on top of things as i usually do, and was afraid my boss was going to say something to me because I failed to attend an 8:30 a.m. conference call. Truth be told, I had worked from home the day before due to bad weather, and I totally forgot about the call the next morning. My usual hours are 9 to 5:30 p.m ., so I would have needed to get to work earlier to make that call.

My boss never mentioned it, and she was on the call. I'm not sure why but I'm relieved. It's possible it's because she's so extremely busy herself. Or maybe she didn't feel it was that important. Or maybe she didn't expect me to attend a call outside my normal work hours, though I've done that any number of times before. Maybe she will bring it up at my first performance review at this job January 27. Makes me nervous just thinking about it.

Scary thing happened to my friend Michael, the one I went out to dinner with last weekend. He finally got around to filing his tax return for last year (he had an extension) and his tax preparer informed him that someone else already filed a tax return in his name. Tax fraud! Michael vaguely remembers giving out his SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER to someone on the phone who identified himself as a jobs recruiter, as Michael is job hunting. He didn't realize he should NEVER EVER give that out unless he knows who he's talking to and there's a darn good reason for doing so.

He's set up with credit monitoring service now, but that's like closing the barn door after the horse is let out. Makes me worry about ID theft myself. It happens so often.

Umm, after 2 weeks, I've lost 1 pound on my weight loss plan. I guess by now I'd be kicked off Biggest Losers.

I didn't take any giant steps but did a series of very small steps that could perhaps said to be the reason why I lost 1 pound. Or, it could be totally random and gained back next time I step on the scale.

I've tried to not eat 1 or 2 squares of dark chocolate at lunchtime every day. I also have been trying to walk more frequently at lunchtime, even in the cold. Also, I've avoided going to the office cafe at the tail end of the work week when I run out my homemade lunches; I am sure those lunches are chock full of fat and calories.

I've noticed lately that Luther is especially bored at home alone. When he ignored the string I tossed in front of him and watched the scrunched up paper ball but did not fetch it, I knew I had to do something. This time of year they cannot go into the sunroom and catch a breeze, hear the birds sing or see local wildlife up close and personal. There is really nothing to do except eat, sleep, poop and fight with each other. So I spent $50 on the Cat Scratcher Lounge by Pet Fusion. It looks like this:



It had been on my Amazon wish list for about a year, but I couldn't bring myself to spend the money on it. Finally, I did.

It's all corrugated cardboard and I was intrigued by the many rave reviews. I poured some catnip on and inside it as an enticement, and while they indulged in the catnip for about 15 minutes, I can't say it was the cat lounge that drew their attention. Luther had just as much fun with the long box the cat lounge came in after I opened up both ends so he could crawl through it like a tunnel.

We'll give it more time, and a few more scratching lessons to give them the idea. Waldo is very attached to the vertical scratch post downstairs.

I had a nice dinner with my friend Michael last weekend. I broke my vegan diet to have some chicken there, and I also had a 2nd meal of it as leftovers I brought home. I decided to treat him since his contract job ended, so the bill was $60.

I got out the door this morning fairly "bright and early" for me, around 9 a.m., in order to attend a 9:30 a.m. Alzheimer's support group. It's been something I've been wanting to do for a long time now, but somehow I come up with reasons not to go. There are plenty of them on weekday nights, when getting me to go out after work is like getting a flea to dance on the head of a pin. This was a rare support group that meets on a Saturday. Or so I thought.

I had a general idea of where it was, across from the hospital, but then I couldn't find it; luckily I had my cell phone with me and their phone number and I finally found it, although the guy who answered the phone there does NOT know his street names.

I walked in, only to learn there was no support group. No one could really tell me anything except that there was no support group that day.

(When I got home later I found the online listing, on the state of CT website, and emailed it to Maplewoods so that somebody might take some initiative to get the wrong listing down. I also discovered by calling another support group that the 2nd group also no longer meets. Gee, does anyone care whether their listings are accurate? I fired off an email to the state of CT as well.)

From there I decided to visit an Asian food market in search of reasonably priced Lycium berries, known as goji berries in higher priced American stores. It was in a part of town I don't usually go into. Although the hours were clearly posted on the door and they should have been open, they were closed. Sigh.

I managed to fill up the gas tank and hit Trader Joe's before the usual Saturday crowd arrived. After that, I saw lots of big prominent signs advertising a pottery sale, so I took a little detour to track that down; the signs led me to a pottery studio. Guess what? They too were closed. So annoying! Does no one care???

I called the studio also when I got home to ask why no one was there and she said "oh, the sale was for the month of December...and the 1st week of January." It almost sounded liked she added "the 1st week of January" so that it wouldn't sound so bad that she left the signs up. There's really no excuse for that. Very inconsiderate if you ask me.

I'm meeting my friend Michael for dinner tonight at a very good restaurant here in town. We've been friends since around 2007, maybe, but rarely see each other because both of us are always working or running around doing other things, and he lives about 40 minutes away. Now his contract job has ended so he has the time. Perhaps not the money, so I may treat him to dinner. And that's where my glass of wine is comes in...

He is a very unfrugal person and in fact, to look at his financial health is very sad to me. Divorced with 3 kids and older than me, he still rents a house in a very expensive town and I notice when he buys himself stuff, it's always top of the line. I don't see how he will ever be able to retire. He helps his grown kids out a lot when he should be taking care of himself.

My dad got mad at me for mailing him a pair of long johns from Macy's after he was telling me how his legs are always cold. He must've told me not to do it again 3 times. They only cost $10 for gosh sakes. Some people just don't understand that it makes you feel good to help other people sometimes.

Am hoping tomorrow will be a more relaxing day. I hope to see "Wild" at a matinee. (I read the book.)

When I was much younger and making about the same money as I am now, I felt that I had so much $$ I didn't know what to do with it. Seriously. Of course I was saving a lot, but I also started donating $100 a week for a while to my favorite charities, rotating among wildlife organizations, the Nature Conservancy, Bat Conservation International and local animal shelters.

My job history has been somewhat erratic. I'm certainly not one of those people who works 20 years at one place. The jobs have come and the jobs have gone.

Now I'm back to making what for me is good money, though strangely, I don't feel that I'm swimming in money as I did in my 30s. And that's even without having the mortgage anymore. Maybe it's because I've experienced several layoffs and some very long periods of un- or under-employment that's served as kind of a warning that the money can go away very quickly. Also, I think I have more experience understanding how incredibly expensive even "simple" home repairs/maintenance/remodeling can be.

Still, I am wanting to give back in a way that is meaningful for me and I am very loyal to my town, even more so since 12/14/12. I noticed in the paper there was a writeup about how our brand new municipal animal shelter was looking for donations of food, towels and toys. I was surprised that a town-funded shelter would be in need of such things, so I called them just now and they told me the town takes care of the essentials, but they don't consider toys essential and they go through towels quickly.

So while I cannot adopt any more animals, I think I will adopt my local shelter. When I go to Wal Mart for cat food (which seems like something I'm doing constantly, regardless of how many cases I buy at one time), I'll start picking up an extra case for the shelter, and I know I have some extra old towels I can donate as well. It's a start.

Actually, this idea morphed in my head because while the new shelter was finished well over a year ago, i have yet to get down there and check it out, something I've been wanting to do. Having some donations to drop off give me the perfect excuse to show up!

I got an email from the organic farm where I was a CSA member last season. They were telling people they could sign up for next year (I won't) and invited feedback, so I wrote a fairly lengthy and detailed note about why I wouldn't be joining the CSA again but I also talked about the many wonderful things about it.

The main reason I'm not doing it again is becus we couldn't pick up the food until 1 pm Sunday afternoons. That left me with the very tail end of the weekend to decide what recipes to use (based on what I got) and then run out and get missing ingredients, and then try to cook up as much as possible on that one afternoon because I have neither the time nor energy to be doing much cooking during the work week.

I really did wrap my entire weekend plans around the Sunday afternoon farm pick-up.

I also mentioned being disappointed that after they said they hoped to provide a dozen eggs every other week, we wound up getting eggs just ONE time. Even worse, when I went to browse their little store, I saw they had eggs in there. I'm sure they just wound up with too few eggs and didn't have enough to go around for the CSA members, but in my mind, since CSA members are paying up front for an entire season, they should be given preferential treatment over those who just come in at will and buy from their store.

But I also said how incredible their produce was and how it really felt like Christmas morning each Sunday when I made my little trip to the farm, wondering what I'd be getting that week. And how they are one of the top 10 best things about my town.

The farmer's wife wrote back a very nice note. She said I gave her a lot to think about and was apologetic about the eggs. She said she wasn't going to promise any eggs this season, and then if people wound up getting some, it would just be a pleasant surprise. I wanted to explain to her that while that's fine, last summer what she should have done was offer some sort of explanation to customers (which they didn't) becus I'm sure there were others besides me who wondered about the eggs and then saw them in the store. It just made things a little worse. But I didn't want to press the point so I just decided to drop it.

Brr...temps falling rapidly. With the wind chill, it will feel like -18 at midnight.

I hope my car starts tomorrow morning.

I worked at home today after getting my annual physical this morning. I'll have to go back in a few weeks when they get the bloodwork results on my next day off, Martin Luther King Day. I am curious how my numbers will look after eating largely vegan for the past 6 months or so. I'm hoping my cholesterol is way down from my usual 180 or so.

One Kings Lane very efficiently credited my BankAmericard for the $60, on account of the shattered Foo dog I received. The other foo dog (it was a pair) it just fine, so I think I will just stick with that. I was already having buyer's remorse after ordering those things anyway, so very happy to have the $60 back in my pocket. It was one of those what was i thinking moments.

I also got my first quarterly $25 credit on the BOA Better Balance Rewards card, which credits you $25 EVERY quarter, as long as you charge something every month. So yeah, it's $100 a year, and every year after that....so i will never give up this card, as long as I continue to get those rewards. After 10 years, I would have earned $1,000 from doing what I do anyway...charge most of my expenses. A real no-brainer.

I also need to get crackin' on my new AARP Chase card to earn $100 back on it after charging $500.

In between work, I squeezed in a dump run and vacuuming.

I have lost no weight on my weight loss plan, 7 days after starting. The dead of winter is a really tough time to diet. Not making excuses. I have been exercising, but not any more than I usually do, and I can't say I've really cut back on portions. Sometimes at night I'm still hungry after dinner, so I'll have an apple, but then I'll still be hungry after that, and I'll have something like dark chocolate-covered dried cranberries. Too much sugar.

I continue to derive simple satisfaction from seeing the inside of some kitchen cabinets after I tidied them up.


All I had to do, really, was get rid of about 5 or so old coffee mugs I never use.


These are some/most of my glasses.


Ahem...but then we have this monstrosity...my refrigerator! Badly in need of an intervention but I always put off cleaning it because I would waste so much energy my keeping the door open and cleaning it.

I was talking to my dad last weekend and he was complaining that his legs are always cold. He's a diabetic. I was going to buy him an electric blanket until I read all the warnings about diabetics using them and getting burned. They are not advised for diabetic use. So I settled on a pair of long johns on sale at Macy's and had them shipped directly to him. It's only Tuesday and he already got them. He called tonight to thank me and told me not to do that again. And he said he already uses an electric blanket. I told him about the warnings.

Tomorrow I'm getting my annual physical. Not only is it free under Obamacare, but I will actually get paid $50 for getting it via the health and wellness incentive benefits offered by my employer and Cigna. Plus I will work at home tomorrow to make it easier to get the physical, so a win/win/win all the way around.

I walked 30 minutes on my lunch half hour for exercise today; it was cold but I'm glad I did it.

Yesterday we got an inch of a "wintry mix," meaning a very wet snowfall.

Yet today is very mild, well into the 40s, and this is to be followed very soon by the icy cold blast now covering the rest of the country. So I KNEW I had to get out and walk today as it will be the warmest day for the rest of the week.

I should have worn some boots, but was too lazy, so I slopped through this for most of the 35-minute walk:



Evidently, I'm not the only one walking today.


A bend of the path.


This is our municipal center, which I pass by after getting off the walking trail on the way back to the car.




In other doings, I returned my neighbors' bread machine and regained some more space in the kitchen cabinets.

I also made another batch of granola, which should keep me munching for 2 weeks, and I made a berry cobbler so I could use up the rest of the fresh cranberries I bought around Christmastime. I also used up a bunch of frozen organic berries I got from BJs. The cobbler/crisp came out really well; it's the same recipe I use for making apple crisps, except that I cut the cooking time in half since berries don't need an hour to soften as the apple slices do.

I started a big project taking all my tried and true recipes which are now handwritten on little 3 x 5 index cards and kept in a small kids' lunchbox, and typing them up on 8.5 x 11 paper and putting them in plastic sleeve protectors in a 3-ring binder. Those little index cards are just too tiny to read, let alone squeeze in all the directions.

A wintry day out there, so had to settle for 18 trips up and down the stairs, indoors. Hey, if I didn't plan on documenting it here and being accountable to YOU, I wouldn't have done it.

Also, watching Biggest Loser on Hulu helps to motivate me.

In the interest of full disclosure, housekeeping is not my thing. I love having a neat and tidy house, but cleaning up around here is not often top priority, and so I do a somewhat "slap dash," cursory job of cleaning up.

We're due to have a "wintry mix" arriving here around 3 pm today, and oh wow, it's already started snowing.

I had been wanting to go to the Downton Abby Tea at the library today, but it was just a popular event it's completely filled up. I KNEW I should have signed up for it (it's free) but I often don't like to "commit" myself, and this is what happens. Sigh.

But anyway, somehow this morning I got involved in cleaning out certain kitchen cabinets. I think it started as I was putting away some Christmas decorations. Also, becus I bought that really very nice set of new dishes for $23, I decided to donate to Good Will my set of blue dishes that I think I got from HSN maybe 6 or 7 years ago. I packed up all the dishes in a box along with 5 or 6 coffee mugs I don't like or need, and I also decided to offer back to my neighbor a used bread machine she'd given me a year or so ago.

So doing all this I rearranged stuff in my kitchen cabinets and created quite a bit more space.

I was debating whether to keep some of the stuff for a tag sale next year, but decided against it. Things like dishes and mugs don't sell that well and it's SO much work for negligible $100 or so profit.

Today FedEx delivered something I ordered from One Kings Lane before the holiday. It was a set of 2 turquoise ceramic "foo dogs," in the style of ancient Chinese foo dogs that guarded the palace gates or whatever. I like Asian stuff and the color would be great in my family room, which i'm redoing in gray, turquoise, silver and white. The foo dogs are a good 12 inches high.

I noticed the delivery guy was in and out of my driveway very quickly. Perhaps the tinkle of broken ceramic when I picked up the box was a clue why he high-tailed it out of here. And yes, while the box inside a larger box appeared well packaged with air pacs on the sides, there was no cushioning above it, and sure enough, one of the foo dogs was completely shattered, too much so to glue together.



Fortunately, altho One Kings Lane prominently states all over its website All Sales Final, NO Refunds, the rep quickly told me the full refund would be charged back to my credit card. She didn't require the return of the broken piece or the pix I'd taken, so I was very happy with that since I still get to keep the one foo dog.

The bad news: I had pasta with pesto sauce for dinner.
The good news: I did 13 flights of stairs just now, in addition to what I did earlier today.

It's just too cold again today, with a high of 32. For many years, I didn't mind going out to exercise in winter if I was properly bundled up. Now, I'm not even sure that would do it. I'm just disliking the cold more and more.

My father, who is diabetic, is complaining of very cold legs. I was going to buy him a heating blanket or pad, but i've been reading about how that's not a good idea for diabetics because they have no sensation of heat and could be burned.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience for this?

This a.m.'s weigh in: 145.5

Walked up and down the stairs 12 times, enough to get the heart pounding. Will plan on doing more later in the day.

Working from home today. Had a conversation with my neighbor. She gave me a used bread machine that her son didn't want, about a year ago, and i tried making bread in it once but it came out overdone and I haven't felt the desire to try it again, so I offered it back to her.

It takes up a lot of space in my cabinets and I think given my limited time, I'd rather have the cabinet space back again.

Wow, I spent over $200 at BJs today. I got some very nice sturdy metal shelves ($25) that were a snap to put together (literally). And you can buy additional sets to snap onto these, in various configurations. I may buy another set.

I want to use them for excess food storage. I hoped to fit the shelves in a little nook halfway down the stairs leading to the basement, where I now store my cooler, but alas, the shelves were too high to fit there, and they were bumping into the underneath of the stairs that go to my 2nd level.

So for now, I stuck the shelves in the only closet I have on the 1st floor, the coat closet.



Probably not ideal, but the basement itself is, well, pretty dusty and dirty, and the cats' litter boxes are down there.

(Some day, I would LOVE to clean that basement from top to bottom, but with the dusty litter boxes, it's sort of a lost cause. I know they sell those litter boxes with the cover on it, which does contain a lot of the dust, but it also concentrates the odor. Maybe I can investigate better litter boxes with higher sides to contain the mess.

If I had a separate table to put the shelves on, it could work, and my dehumidifier does a good job of keeping the basement dry all summer. But right now all I've got is the old workbench which is filled with old paints and work tools.

I do like to keep my onions, garlic and potatoes down there as it is cooler and dark, and you're not supposed to refrigerate those.

I also bought a set of pretty dishes dirt cheap at BJs for $23 (on sale). It's a 20-piece set that serves 4. What I like about the set is that it has 2 different sized plates, and 2 different sized bowls. And NO mugs, which I don't need.

They are white with a nice ribbed pattern reminiscent of the Jadeite I and my grandmother had years ago.

I noticed a few new organic things while I was there, including organic ketchup and some hard-to-find organic apple cider, which I scooped up.

So, the cupboards are full. Always a comforting feeling. I filled up the gas tank too, while I was down that way, although it only took $5 or so, and dropped off another bags of odds and ends at Good Will.

I TRIED to go for a walk afterwards, but even with my mittens, scarf and hat, I was freezing and turned around to come back home. It's in the high 20s, some of the coldest weather we've had this season.

In place of walking outside, I will go up and down the stairs inside my home as many times as I can. (I've done this before.) I will go and do it now.

I did 18 trips up and down (counting each way as 1). There are 12 steps. I was winded after 12. I should keep doing this and build up my stamina. How many can you do, fellow dieters? Establish your baseline and then see if you can do better incrementally.

In answer to my own question, yes, most definitely. For me, losing weight is much, much harder than saving money.

So here's the ugly truth. I weighed myself this morning to set a starting point for my weight loss goal for 2015. It was worse than I thought.

Starting weight: 146 lbs.
Target weight: 130 lbs.
Weight loss goal: 16 lbs
Deadline: March 31, 2015

I guess it's been a FEW weeks since I last weighed myself. Geez. Could holiday goodies add an extra 6 lbs??

Any middle-aged woman out there will tell you that losing weight is very, very hard. There's something about approaching menopause that keeps the pounds sticking to you like butter.

Still, I should be able to lose 1.3 lbs. a week. If they can lose 10 lbs a week on The Biggest Loser, surely I can do this!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I am working from home today and Friday.

I missed out on some Amex rewards for Petco and Walmart purchases I made in-store instead of online. Stupid me, I have to READ those offers more carefully.

I rarely make online purchases at stores that are in my area, since who wants to pay shipping fees?

Tomorrow is pay day. It's also weigh-in day for my weight loss resolution. And of course, it's the new year.

A friend at work yesterday invited me to her New Year's Even get-together and while I would like to go to cultivate our friendship (this would be the first time we socialized outside of work) I'm not really crazy about New Year's Eve stuff, preferring to stay warm and cozy at home. So I will probably call her today to let her know I won't be coming.

Since my workday today only goes til 3 pm, I'm thinking of getting out and over to BJs. They're open til 6 so i have 3 hours. Wondering if it will be quiet or mobbed?

I want to make some orange/date muffins today using a recipe where you use the entire orange, rind and all, for an especially flavorful muffin. Of course I'll use an organic orange for this purpose. I bought a bag of organic oranges, and I think I will plan on zesting each orange when I eat it and then freezing the zest for later use in recipes. The zest is also very flavorful to use in salads or baked goods.

Hoping to get my AARP credit card in the mail soon so I can start earning the $100 bonus.

How many times have I typed an entry and forgotten to copy it before hitting "Publish," only to lose it? I hate that....

Today I closed my Chase Amazon card account. I'd only acquired it a few months ago for the upfront bonus, and credit cards seem to freely procreate in my wallet. (Doesn't seem to be hurting my credit score any...my FICO score has been flirting with 800 for a while.)

I have 9 cards now, plus another, the AARP card, on the way. I'll get back $100 after charging $500 in the 1st 3 months.

My total credit limit on all the cards is an incredible $67,500! Enough for a house down payment, for gosh sakes. I am sure they are all just hoping I will not pay in full eventually, but that ain't about to happen. I need to cancel another card or two.

It was only because of my longstanding habit of tracking my expenses that I recently realized I'd never gotten or paid the 4th quarterly sewer bill of the year. I called the town and sure enough, they mailed it in November and it's due this Friday. To avoid a late payment fee, I hand-delivered it since I'm off work today. I inquired about the charge itself, which is higher, and yes, the fee went up. Oh, it was mentioned in a story in the local paper, she said. Well, not everyone in town subscribes to the local paper; you'd think they'd send out some sort of notification about rising fees, but no.

After paying the fee, I walked on the nearby trail for about 35 minutes.

Today I also made a pear/oatmeal thingy in the slow cooker.

I'm also making a split pea soup now with carrots, parsnips and celery, so I'll have plenty of food for work week lunches. It will be a short work week, just 3 days, thank God.

In other doings, I moved $27,000 from some Vanguard stock funds to some bond funds. I was over-weighted in mostly large cap stocks by about 5 percentage points and sought to reduce volatility in my portfolio. Counting all domestic, foreign and REIT stock funds, my stock exposure was 65%, rather high for someone in their mid-50s, and I worry that the hammer will come down sometime in 2015 after such a long bull market. The transfer I did today should get my stock exposure down to about 60%, I believe, and my ongoing 401k contributions will continue to tilt my portfolio more toward bonds than stocks. I'd like to have about 45 or 50% stock exposure.

I also went online to direct future 401k contributions into a Roth 401k instead of traditional 401k and set new contribution amounts for the 27 pay period deductions in 2015.

So my NET income in 2014 was $48,773...it sure doesn't sound like much, and in fact, it's only $8,000 more than I netted in 2013. However, let's remember I'm contributing the max to my 401(k). More about that later.

Here's a breakdown of my 2014 income.

My job at the bank: $43,543 (net of taxes and deductions)
Freelance work: $1,975
2013 IRS refund: $977
Credit card rewards: $565
Manufacturer rebates, discounts, etc: $210
Sale of plants from my yard: $206
CT tax refund: $119
Online surveys/forums: $58
Other: $1,021

Also, I can tell by looking at my income and expense reports that in addition to maxing out my 401k and the over age 50 extra contribution, I somehow managed to save an additional $19,855. I'm pretty happy with that, and of course a roaring stock market has only furthered my gains.

Looking ahead... All in all, I'm pretty happy with my financial picture in 2014, and mainly just want to lower my Dining Out expenses and maybe cut them in half. I also want to reel in my Household expenses. If I make the various repairs to this place in preparation for someday selling it, then my "Major purchases of $500+" category will also go up.

I spent a total of $28,918 in 2014; this was actually $8,889 less than in 2013, namely because in 2013 I got a $5,800 roof and paid off my sewer loan.

Probably the most notable thing about the list below is the absence of the 2 largest expenses most people have: a mortgage and car payments. Once you get these two expenses out of the way, you can live quite comfortably on a surprisingly small amount of money. I'm now very confident that I can live on $30,000 or less in retirement without feeling deprived in any way.

Here's a review of my expenses, ranked from highest to lowest:

Property taxes:$5,856

Food: $3,748, a 12% increase from 2013. I've been freely spending on quality food (many organics) and don't really plan to stop.

Household: $2,371, a 48% increase from 2013. This is the only catch-all category I maintain. Household purchases could mean anything from a new dishtowel to a new sofa. Basically, it means somewhat durable goods of $500 or less that are not "used up" like cat litter or food. $500+ is a separate category so that big expenses aren't buried in the Household category. It's not surprising that my expenses here are way up as I'm aware I've been buying lots of "stuff" for the house since my job went perm.

Health insurance: $2,333, a 58% decrease from 2013. I'm happy to finally see this big drop in healthcare costs, now that I'm getting health insurance from my employer and not the open market. Huge difference in premiums.

Fuel oil: $1,529, a 35% increase from 2013. Unfortunately, I ordered a tankful of oil last summer, when prices usually are at their lowest; this year was different as that was near its high. When I fill up in January I will see a big price drop so the savings will be reflected in my 2015 expense report.

Ailanthus tree take-down: $1,500. I separately report any big ticket, one-time expenses over $500, and this was one of them.

Gas for car: $1,254, a 33% increase from 2013. I suppose this isn't too surprising since I worked all year at the new job, which I didn't start doing in 2013 until October.

Maintenance: $1,159, about the same as 2013. This includes work spent on various repairs around the house.

Out of pocket medical: $1,155, a 33% drop from 2013. Like my health insurance premiums, this drop reflects just all around better co-pays and such on my employer's plan. Also, i spent over $400 on 2 pairs of glasses in 2014 while I was still a contract worker and did not benefit from any kind of insurance-covered contribution toward the cost as I didn't have vision coverage then.

Cats: $909, a 26% increase from 2013. I guess I've been spending a bit more here and there on premium-type catfoods, as an occasional treat for the boys. I only do it since I can afford it.

Dining out: $882, an 81% increase from 2013. I am most unhappy about this; the big increase in spending was largely due to usually a day or two each week, sometimes more, when I didn't have time to make my own lunch and so I went down to the cafe and paid for it. It's just so darn convenient! It really adds up, and it's just lunch, so I'm sorry to see how much I spent. Another big chunk was paying for my mother and a friend and myself at Thanksgiving, to the tune of about $140. Eating out is SOOO expensive.

Car insurance: $701, a decrease of 12% from 2013. As I'm sure you've experienced, my car and homeowners insurance inexorably increase each year, whether or not you've made any claims. (I haven't.) The only reason why this cost decreased is because I hiked the deductible again.

Electric: $660, about a 5% increase from 2013.

Phone/Internet: $626, about the same as 2013.

Clothing: $624, a 15% decrease from 2013. Wow, I'm surprised.

New dishwasher: $592. It made more sense to get a more energy-efficient dishwasher rather than replace the old one when it broke. I got another Whirlpool.

Homeowner's insurance: $565, about the same as last year.

Septic pipe replacement: $525. Pretty much an unavoidable expense. I did lower the price by collecting several bids on it and using Angie's List.

Car tax: $451. For those of you who live pretty much anywhere outside of Connecticut, feel lucky you don't have to pay a car tax! It's highest when you buy a new car and then the cost gradually comes down. I was paying about $121 on my 13-year-old Honda before I bought this new one, to give you an idea.

Gifts: $320, about the same as last year.

Gardening: $213

Water: $190, 19% more than 2013 but it's such a small overall expense it doesn't really matter.

Entertainment:$156, or 58% more than 2013.

Borough taxes:$153, about the same as last year.

Car upkeep: $119. It's low because I bought it new in 2013.

Dump sticker:$85

Haircuts:$65

Subscriptions:$52

Birds: $7 (This is largely suet as I had birdseed left over from the prior year.)

So, just looking at my top 10 expenses, my expenses rose in 6 categories (property taxes, food, household, heating oil, gas for the car and my cats) and dropped in just 2 categories (health insurance and out of pocket medical expenses).

Christmas this year was somewhat low key, there being just the 3 of us. I hauled my assorted dishes to my mother's, along with the presents, and there was the usual flurry of gift opening hastened by my sister's announcement that it was getting dark and she had to leave soon to put the chickens in.

My mother was NOT supposed to cook anything, and in fact, I wanted to make sure my sister and I covered everything between us. But my mother insisted she could pick up a cooked chicken from Costco. OK, fine. But then the day before Xmas it was supposed to be raining hard and we agreed it might be best if she not go all the way down to Costco in the rain; instead, she said she would pick up the bird at Stop & Shop, right down the road. But lo and behold, she got an uncooked turkey and so Xmas morning she's calling me needing help in using the controls on the stove. This is why I didn't want her to cook; and then in a casual conversation she mentioned she was doing pumpkin pie and had to tell her NO, I am making pumpkin pie, and remind her once again she was not to cook anything.

Today I met a friend in a neighboring town and we drove together to his niece's house, where he'd spent Christmas with his now smaller family of 5. (His parents are now both gone.) I've known his family for many years, since we dated and were pretty serious when I was 28 and he was 40, and they have always welcomed me into their home.

My friend, who has terminal prostate cancer and probably just a few more years to live (I think he's around 67 now) gave his niece $100,000 of his retirement money so she could buy a new home free and clear and not have to worry about her ex trying to get half the house in their ongoing divorce proceedings. So my friend bought the house in his name, and 3 weeks after the divorce was final, turned it over to his niece.

In addition to the house, he also paid for a whole house generator for her ($7,000), a home security system, a new SUV to replace one with 180,000 miles on it and probably a few other things. She's a school teacher and makes a modest income with 2 little girls. He's been very generous and has freely admitted he has a sort of "rescue" mentality to help women in distress. He did the same sort of thing (less money involved) with his ex-wife, who unfortunately left him twice and then tried to squeeze as much undeserved $$ from him in acrimonious divorce proceedings as she could.

His other niece is an accountant who married an accountant, so they are doing quite well in Maryland, money-wise.

I had mixed feelings about his giving so much to his niece (she's 35 now....how will she ever learn to manage money if everything is given to her?) but what really bothered me is how he pressured and basically coerced his sister (his nieces' mother) into chipping in another $50,000 toward the house purchase. His sister was divorced herself, around the time her 2 daughters were born, and she has worked long and hard to raise them and send them to college. She never remarried.

My friend felt his sister could afford to chip in since she had paid off her own home finally and makes good money working many hours at 2 hospitals as some sort of lab tech. Still, it's not his decision, is it?

My friend is EXTREMELY pushy, with them, me, anything and everything. He means well but this is one of the reasons we split up way back when. He also tried getting his other niece, the accountant, to chip in money for the younger niece as well, and the older one refused and now doesn't speak to my friend (her uncle) for being so d*** pushy.

He reviewed the whole saga with me and still sees nothing wrong with what he did. In fact, he was looking for kudos from me again, and although I've long known how the whole story goes, he wanted to tell it all to me again. Sigh. He thinks he knows best about everything.

My friend's mother had Alzheimer's before she died, and of course my friend's sister is telling me "It's going to get worse, It's going to get a lot worse, it could last for 10 years," etc etc. I know all this. It just makes it all the more depressing when my hands are mostly tied because my mother rejects all help. So we'll have to wait for a fall, a car accident, god knows what, and then that will land her in the hospital and force our hands, meaning, the hospital won't allow her to return home with any kind of serious injury since she has a long flight of stairs leading to her living area, and so that will be the time I will have to put her in assisted living, and after her money runs out in 4 or 5 years, then we'll have to put her in a nursing home. And she will hate my guts because she thinks she is perfectly fine when she is not. I mean, she already went ballistic when I read the doctor's note to her insisting that she take a safe driving test or he would have DMV pull her license.

So much tension and anxiety. When she called me the other morning, even tho there was no crisis per se, it just stressed me out and it took me most of the day to get back to equilibrium. I am not good at this. We've had a problematic relationship off and on all my life, which makes it harder.

All that being said, perhaps you will understand that it was a relief to simply get through Christmas more or less intact. I am very happy to put it behind me.

Gimme, gimme some lovin...

I'd mostly stopped doing all the bonus credit card offers, mainly because I've pretty much done every one offering bonuses of $100 to $250. I think there was maybe one for $500 that I did. I haven't done the business credit card offers since the required spend for the 1st 3 months is just too high. And since I don't fly much, I don't do those that only offer airline miles. I usually go for gift cards, a statement credit, or cash back.

I occasionally peruse sites like creditcards.com to see if there are any new offers, and there usually aren't.

However, I came across an AARP card on the AARP website where you get $100 after spending $500 in the 1st 3 months. It's a Chase card, and I was approved, so to me, that's easy money for doing what I would be doing anyway.

There was another similar $100 offer for getting a Discover card on the Amazon site. I would have liked to do that one too, but I already have that Discover card. So I guess I would be rejected if I applied for a 2nd one.

Yesterday I got my hair cut for $6.99 + tip. (Note to self: Skip the online check-in at Great Clips in the future. It indicated a 0 minute wait but when i got there, I waited about 15 minutes. Plus I hate giving all my personal info away if I don't have to). I also did most of my grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and TRIED to fill up my gas tank at BJs. Each pump had cars waiting 3 deep but I guess becus of the high usage or something, all the people trying to fill up were saying they couldn't get gas. Perhaps a computer malfunction? I took off and will try again at some point. The price was just $2.53/gallon. The traffic was pretty bad in the expected areas.

Today's mission is to stop at the landfill, maybe check out the antique/collectible place (they're having a sale). I would like to get gas, but the BJs is in the worst possible location, traffic-wise, so I guess my one-third tank will last me til after Christmas.

I don't know why, but I made 2 different soups in the last few days and I have tons of soup left around here. I guess I'll need to freeze some. I made a sweet potato soup and then a vegetable chowder soup; both were new recipes and both are a little watery tasting. Hmm.

Tomorrow is the real cooking day for Christmas. I'm probably overdoing it, but I plan to make 2 pumpkin pies (1 for me at home becus i love pumpkin pie) and using coconut/almond milk instead of cream. Also stuffing, baba ghanoush as an appetizer with some pretzel crackers i have and a carrot/curry soup. Also cranberry orange muffins. I've been doing nothing but wash dishes! Got to remember to use my new dishwasher!!

If there's one New Year's resolution I'd like to achieve, it's losing 10 lbs.

I don't usually do too well with resolutions, but if I had someone to be accountable to, it could make a difference. So I was thinking, is there anyone out there who would like to join me in a weight loss resolution?

Here's what we would do:

1. On New Year's Day, weigh yourself and put it in a post entitled New Year's Resolution. Along with your starting weight, describe as specifically as you can how you plan to lose the weight and the deadline by which you want to lose it by.

Speaking for myself, I would like to lose 10 lbs. by March 31. That's a reasonable time period, I would say.

2. Then, every Saturday, weight yourself and put that weight in a blog post with extra info if you can, describing your successes.

I haven't done a group diet with others before, but I'm sort of hoping that with that extra little nudge from others who might join me that this will be enough to keep me motivated to eat right and exercise.

So how about it? Is anyone interested? If so, let me know and on Jan. 1 let's all get started!

My holiday vacay is HERE. Hooray!!!!!

Now that I am totally chocolated out, maybe I can fit in some meaningful exercise during the coming week.

I got so much candy and chocolate little gifts at the office; I am a dark chocolate snob, so all the milk chocolate and white chocolate junk I will offer up to guests, but I don't expect many of them here. Another wasted office gift I got was a big tube of "body butter" with the usual assortment of unhealthy ingredients. I've also gotten particular about skin lotions and things that stay on my skin (as opposed to soap or shampoo, which is rinsed off). I mostly stick to Burt's Bees products now.

Hope to get together with 2 different friends, maybe take my mother to the movies and do my usual running around here and there, get my humidifier serviced, all before Christmas. Christmas eve day I figure I'll be cooking/baking.

I was able to wrap up my self-evaluation for my January performance review. Since I've only been perm since July, I won't be eligible for any raise, and I don't know if there will be any raises anyway, since I'm told there weren't for the past 2 years.

I'll also be wrapping up my own expense and income analysis for the 2014 year, one of the highlights of each December. I know I've spent way more than previous years since getting this job, but I can afford it and so it goes. Just yesterday I impulsively spent $60 on a pair of turquoise Foo dogs from "no refund" One Kings Lane. I like the variety of stuff they sell but feel uncomfortable with their no returns policy. Plus, their online descriptions are very brief. This will be my 2nd purchase from them so I'll see how it goes.

I plan to eventually redo my family room decor, and the new colors will be gray, turquoise, silver and white. The biggest expenses will be replacing the sofa (I bought a used sofa for $400 about 16 years ago) but I don't really want to do it now and risk the cats scratching the new one. Don't think I want to wait 10+ years before they pass on, so I don't know exactly what the timing will be. I also want to get rid of the stained and rather old wall to wall carpet in there too and either leave the floors bare wood (problem is the wood is painted and I don't know if lead paint was used or not, have to figure out when that addition was built) and either put an area rug down or new wall to wall in gray.

I noticed in the local paper they were offering free 15-minute chair massages at the Resiliency Center today. I have never had a professional massage, so this seemed like the perfect time to do it.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I walked in. There were several dozen people in a very cozy, homey space sitting around talking, eating. They were extraordinarily nice and welcoming. This is their mission, after all, to help Newtowners heal from the 12/14 shootings. You may be surprised this is still going on 2 years after the event, but there are quite a lot of activities in town related to that, including the beginning of a new park and memorial (my own handyman is building a bench), along with construction of a new school after razing the old one, and lots of kid-friendly activities all over the place.

I had to wait a while til the masseuse was free and the other people there, mostly women, were friendly and chatted with me a bit.

The massage was GREAT and really did relax me, although her mellow flute music was drowned out by the beating of drums as they were starting a drumming session downstairs.

I feel a little funny about disrobing for a massage, but I would happily do another chair massage like this one with my shirt on. They charge about $90 for an hour at spas around here.

I'm doing laundry today (2 loads) and I also washed the road salt off my car. I also filled the bird feeder and vacuumed both floors.

Still waiting for delivery of my Amazon shipment; it was supposed to arrive here yesterday. Most of my gifts are wrapped.

Talked to my friend M. His contract job ended a week ago so he is back to the job search. But at least he no longer has to commute from Connecticut to Hoboken, NJ., one heck of a train ride.

Also talked to my friend D. last night. I told him I was looking for fun things to do Christmas week, which I have off, and he suggested a few days on the Cape. That's a bit more of a trip than I planned; I'm really just looking for little day trip destinations. I may just let him take me out to dinner.

I wrote out all my Christmas cards and they're ready to mail.

...and for others affected by gun violence.


http://action.sandyhookpromise.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15290&track=documentary_shp_e&utm_source=shp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20141212_documentary&utm_content=1305386

What are yours?

I honestly don't have any financial resolutions. Everything is on auto pilot now, and as long as this job continues, I don't feel I have to worry about it too much. I am saving over 30% of income with ample funds left over for home improvements and fun.

I am still ruminating on personal resolutions that have to do with cultivating more patience with my mother and seeking out more opportunities to volunteer, possibly, or get more involved in my town.

Today, for example, I aim to go to a rare Saturday meeting on opening up a large (over 1,000 acres) parcel of land in the center of town to multi-family housing.


Looking up at the ceiling of one of the original state mental hospital buildings that was rehabbed and now serves as our beautiful municipal offices. The origami doves were one of several given to the town following the school shootings, one dove for each child or educator killed.


A closeup


One of many buildings on campus that will either be rehabbed or torn down.

The property, a former state mental hospital, campus style, was given to the town by the state over 10 years ago and the town has very slowly been redeveloping it by tearing down selected buildings deemed too far gone to rehab, creating lovely walking trails in the woods and meadows, new ballfields and relocating municipal offices there, along with a huge sports complex and a new ambulance facility.

After the 2012 school shootings, GE gave the town quite a lot of money toward construction of a new facility that would serve both seniors and teens...it will be located somewhere on this same property. This is where our Victory Garden is, where volunteers grow food that goes to the food pantry. It's also a great place to have road races and our arts festival, not to mention various events for dog lovers. I walk there often myself.

I have to say that when this town builds or develops anything, it is done in a very classy way. However, the townspeople have been surveyed and polled several times before and each time said no to more housing. Now they're asking again becus developers are breathing down their backs and promising lower taxes, which we all know never happens. We the people want to keep this rare parcel of open space for active/passive recreation and for town needs, not for developers who want to make money off rentals and yet more stores.

They must be expecting a big crowd becus the venue is the intermediate school gym. I hope that preparations for the upcoming holiday, just a few weeks away, don't keep people from showing up.

I recently posted about an old, iron, rusty, leaking septic pipe in my basement. It needed to be addressed but I'd been procrastinating becus plumbers are so freakin' expensive.

I called a plumber I've used before, and after I sent him pictures, he quoted me a price of "probably $700 or $800." You know when they give you a range that it never comes in at the low end of the range.

But since I'm making good money and know I can afford it, I was feeling lazy and wasn't going to bother calling other plumbers. I scheduled the job for the next day off I had, later in December on Xmas week.

But then my sister and friend urged me to call around after I told them what the problem was during Thanksgiving dinner, and the quoted price.

I'd forgotten I paid for an Angie's List membership so I went online and found a guy in my area who got a zillion positive reviews. I sent him the same pix and his guys just left here after replacing the pipe for $525, saving me $175 to $275.

When I called the first plumber to cancel the scheduled repair, I made a point to tell him why I was cancelling and that I found another plumber to do the job for a much more reasonable price. Maybe he won't be so greedy next time when he's quoting a job to a customer.

Note to self: Being lazy can cost you!

In other news:

My 1 year promo rate for voice/phone with AT&T Uverse expired Nov. 30. AT&T sold all its UVerse accounts to Frontier, so I had to negotiate new rates with them. I didn't get it any lower, but I pretty much the same rate for another year; then in years 2 and 3 it will go up by $50, she said. Who knows what will happen at that point. I may go with some other carrier.