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.

While I am still acutely aware of how grateful I am with my new job and all that it provides, Sunday night thinking of Monday makes me go "blah."

The next few weeks will bring a few office Xmas parties that I'll be expected to attend, with the requisite Secret Santa gift exchanges with people from other office locations whom I hardly know. I could care less, really, and going to parties I'd rather just skip introduces a degree of stress in my life I wish I could avoid.

NPR had a great series of interviews this afternoon with people who chose to test their personal physical endurance by rowing across the Atlantic Ocean (a woman) and the French guy who walked a high wire across the Twin Towers in NYC years back.

The French man was very interesting to listen to; asked why he did it, he mentioned something about wanting to do something more important and meaningful with his life than feathering his own nest. The woman rower said that although she was petrified with fear the first 2 weeks of rowing alone, with no backup, what kept her going was realizing she was even more afraid of having to return to work in a little cubicle.

The first comment made me wince, the second one made me laugh. They both hit home. Sometimes I feel that my only goal for a long time has been amassing enough savings so that I can retire "early" from work.

My conundrum for years has been that either I'm working and I have "no time" to do the things I want to do, or I'm unemployed and have "no money" to do the things I want to do.

I think it was Monkey Mama who once spoke about the importance of balancing saving for the future with enjoying life now. I need to follow that advice better.

I'm at that point where I'm assessing my life in its entirety, and the ugly truth is, I do feel it lacks purpose. Unlike most people, I can't say I raised a fine human being. And I've worked mostly for private, profitable companies where the bottom line is how much money is made, not making the world a better place.

In my own defense, feeling "secure" has probably been more important to me than many. Due to divorce and multiple moves before I turned 10, I have to say my childhood was very unstable and insecure. We lived in more than one scummy apartment complex; I remember as a kid seeing rats swimming in the stagnant lagoon separated from our apartment building only by a chain link fence.

And although my mother claims not to remember it, I very much remember being told to use no more than 4 squares of toilet paper at a time, and to not drink so much milk, because we didn't have a lot of money.

Perhaps it's been an internalized determination not to live in squalid surroundings and, seeing my own mother's marriages disintegrate, not to depend on anyone else, that's made financial security a pretty big priority for many years.

But I'm getting close enough to reaching my financial goals to see I need other things to focus on. Paying off the mortgage in 2012 was a biggie, and I imagine reaching $1 million in assets a few years from now will also be huge, but after the initial euphoria, what then? I mean, it's not the kind of thing I can go around shouting from the rooftops anyway.

Volunteer work might be part of the answer. I've volunteered in the past for animal organizations and a food pantry. I always have to fight my natural introvert tendencies to get involved, and truth be told, I can be perfectly content to watch movies or do a crossword puzzle, alone.

But I hate committees and meetings, and would rather be DOING something positive. I remember one animal shelter where I volunteered to write an article for the newsletter and I pitched my idea for a story about how destructive to local bird life (not to mention other critters) domesticated house cats can be when allowed to roam free, and the dangers posed by texting drivers, coyotes, dogs, etc.

The woman running the show asked me for an "outline" of my article in advance, and I told her I don't work from outlines. So then she had a long phone conversation with me where she attempted to learn what my "approach" was going to be and how exactly it would be written. She made me feel like i was in the 3rd grade. She was a very controlling person and wanted to vet everything, right down to how I wrote the story. It was a great way to disenfranchise a volunteer. She might as well have written it herself if she didn't trust another person to do it. In the end, I wrote it and it was published, but I never volunteered again for that group.

Contrast that experience with the food pantry at a local church. The leaders there were very amenable to any suggestions I had for improving or expanding on the services the group provided, and they let me run with it. When they experienced shortages of donations, I found a hunting group that agreed to donate venison.

There were a series of discussions, and while in the end the group decided not to take the venison (the hunters didn't want to break down the meat parcels into less than 5 lbs each or something), it was still an interesting initiative that I spearheaded. When a local organic farmer donated some leftover produce, it was my idea to interview him and do a press release that would benefit both the food pantry and the farmer. I found the work there very empowering because I was encouraged to come up with ideas and then run with them.

I was going to hit the mall for my once annual trip but after spending about 2 hours at some other non-mall shops, I hopped on the Interstate to head west to the mall and Trader Joe's. It was all backed up. Just not worth it, so I took an exit home. I was getting a little tired and hungry, but I may try again tomorrow.

I do really need to hit Trader Joe's as I'm low on food and they have a number of items I can't find anywhere else, like the recently discovered frozen julienned root vegetables (beets, parsnips, sweet potatotes). Really, really good, like the frozen marinated zucchini and eggplant slices I like.

I did go to a lovely garden nursery gift shop which has many nature-inspired ornaments and gifts. I got a small glittery copper-colored Xmas tree which will probably go to my boss. I'll save one of the 2 bottles of wine I got last night for the Secret Santa gift exchange, a safer bet for someone who might not be Christian.

Here's the new shelf my friend installed for me last night.


I filled up the gas tank and browsed a mineral/geode store. Also picked up some air filters for my air purifier at Lowe's, but they didn't have the reusable mouse traps I also wanted.

I am kind of glad I have the evening to myself now. It was kind of a tiring day.

Last night I shoveled the entire driveway in the dark. This morning, I could see we didn't get nearly as much snow as they'd forecasted, so I was able to get everyone to agree to meet for dinner today as planned.

I went out to shovel down by the road some more and then I vacuumed the first floor.

Then I drove to mom's to pick her up but before we left, I shoveled off all the snow on her car and also shoveled around her car so she can drive out easily.

Then I brought her back to my place, waited for my friend to show up and then we met my sister at the restaurant. We had a great dinner.

The bill for 4 of us came to $200 (!!!), including the tip. Yikes. Three of us had the lamb (with butternut squash soup, dessert and tea for me) and my friend Dave had a traditional turkey/stuffing meal. It was the 3 glasses of wine that added considerably $19) to the total tab. My sister chipped in $60, so my portion of the bill (I was also paying for my friend's meal, since I invited him, and half my mother's meal) came to $140. That's a lot, and no doubt much more than if I'd made dinner myself, but I didn't feel like cooking, and I can afford it. Thanksgiving only comes along once a year.

Plus, my friend brought over not one, but two bottles of wine (a red and a white), plus a store-bought apple pie. Since I don't drink much, I can use both bottles as Xmas gifts for 2 people at work I wanted to get something nice for. I could even use it at the Secret Santa gift exchange. Either way, I'm covered, and then I just have to get 8 much smaller gifts; I was thinking small bags of chocolates or something.

After we drove my mother home, my friend helped me install a new 40" long shelf I'd purchased. It required a bunch of anchors but it's all pre-finished and looks great above my computer desk. I gave my friend a 2015 wall calendar compliments of the local paper; everyone seems to want one of these.

Tomorrow is a big shopping day. I have 9 stops to make. Then Saturday is more shopping, locally, for Small Business Saturday.


One of my Japanese red maples earlier this fall.

It began snowing right on schedule, around 8 a.m.. It was more like rain when it started, but it has since changed over to snow.

I am snug like a bug in my house. I could've done some grocery shopping beforehand, but this storm won't be sticking around. I hope to start shoveling this evening.

One good this is that there is no wind associated with this storm. When it winds down, there will only be about 11 mph winds. I always worry about falling trees as I have had a lot come down over the years. At least the 2 big ones towering over the house are gone: the white pine was sheared off at its trunk during Hurricane Sandy and it came down frighteningly close to the house; the other tree, a giant ailanthus, I had taken down a year ago.

After taking advantage of the Amex/Petco 50% off deal, I also signed up for Visa Checkout, which simply expedites the checkout process when you're buying something online. The reward for signing up is a $10 prepaid Visa card from Bank of America.I have 3 BOA cards (planning on cancelling one of them soon) but I can only get one prepaid Visa card as a reward.

They're predicting 8 or 9 inches of snow to start tomorrow morning and go until the early morning hours of Thanksgiving. With that timing, I'm not sure I'll be able to dig out of my driveway, nor is my invited friend sure he wants to drive 45 minutes if the roads are still bad around noon time.

So we all agreed that my sister and I would consult again Thanksgiving morning to assess the snow situation and make a final decision. If we cancel Thanksgiving dinner, we will reschedule our restaurant dinner out for Saturday, same time.

The restaurant even said they would hold both reserved times open for us, so we have that flexibility. The downside will be that they won't be serving their special Thanksgiving menu on Saturday, but what can you do?

I have off the rest of the week. If, say, the snow unexpectedly ended early, like by tomorrow early evening, then I could be out there shoveling and wrap it up Thursday morning with time to spare. But that's not what the weather forecasters are saying.

I picked up a pizza on the ride home from work and inched my car into my rather tight one-car garage. I pulled out the snow shovel and scraper for the car, and brought my rubber boots inside so they won't get filled with snow. I guess I'm as ready as can be.

The boys caught yet another mouse last night in the basement and brought it upstairs. I was able to chase them back to the basement before they dropped the (live) mouse en route. Much as I hate them handling icky mice, Waldo does look awfully cute with a small furry mouse stuffed in his mouth. I doubt he does much damage to the mouse because he's missing most of his teeth. However, his claws, and Luther's, are like hypodermic needles. They lost the mouse and I think it found safety under the washer or dryer.

I was very upset to learn today, by overhearing other employees talk about it and then reading a news story about it, that the wild turkey that had been hanging around the bank where I work, located right in the downtown of a small city, was killed by two local thugs. I don't know if they caught who did it, but eyewitnesses said they saw 2 guys who looked to be about age 20 or so run out of their car to grab the turkey. And then they broke its neck and tossed it in their car and sped away. All this in broad daylight. Sad. The bird seemed attached to its reflection in the plate glass windows of our office building. There's always some loser who ruins a nice thing.

In other news of the unfortunate kind, I learned from talking to a plumber on the phone that the rusty, leaking old iron septic pipe in my basement will cost about $800 to repair. I emailed him photos and he estimated 4 or 5 hours of labor at $100 an hour (hard to believe), and another "couple hundred dollars" for materials. They will have to cut the pipe and replace it. He said they couldn't just reapply the sealant between the 2 connections becus mine has old lead sodder and isn't up to code. I guess it's just as well to get that out of my basement. I have the money, but of course you hate to spend it on things like that. I had a feeling it was going to be expensive.