Today's doings:

1. Last pickup for the season at the farm CSA: head of cabbage, 2 heads celery, 2 apples, bunch of scallions, bunch of kale, 3 small heads of red lettuce, 2 acorn squash, 3 small peppers.

The farmer said I could pick all the daikon radishes I wanted, as well as Swiss chard and kale. We already had a frost here so I don't know how his fields escaped that. I only pulled up 3 of the white radishes and peeled them into a salad for lunch, and I rather liked them.

2. A load of laundry

3. Grocery shopping at Shop Rite

4. Made some corn chowder for my workweek lunches.

5. Blanched a bunch of celery leaves and froze them for use with future pots of pea soup. They add a lot of flavor.

6. Baked a pumpkin pie.

7. Took a walk (where we walked that time, Dido, if you're reading this and ran into my mailman with his dog, along with some other people and dog walkers, whom I enjoy small-talking with.

8. Went to a craft show and wound up buying 2 pendants which are actually a kind of stone whose name escapes me but her prices were incredibly reasonable. Each one cost $12, compared to another vendor who had gorgeous gem and mineral jewelery but at much, much higher prices.

So it was a pretty nice day and only have to work tomorrow and then have Tuesday off.

In my hometown weekly paper last night, I read with sadness of my neighbor-across-the-street's wife's death. I did not even know she was ill.

In fact, I never spoke to her in 19 years, but he, my neighbor, always had a friendly word for me when I saw him out mowing or walking his dog down our street.

He lost his twenty-something daughter to a car accident just a few years ago. So sad. He has a son left. His own parents also died together in a car accident many years ago.

I don't know why these things affect me so. I am not close to him. And now the 2-year anniversary of the school shootings is coming up and so there is a somber mood in town.

I had to pay $100 for really nothing this morning when i had an overhead garage door company come out to repair my door. It hadn't been opening and closing properly, but he saw something that slid out of something and fixed it in 30 seconds. He said he could "service" the door to make sure it was balanced and so on. It took him 10 minutes. Oh well. He pointed out a grinding noise inside the motor, which he explained was plastic shredding and eventually, it would go. Maybe next week, maybe in 2 years. I declined to have him replace that.

I am annoyed at my stupid handyman guy, who really isn't a good handyman; he's more of a carpenter who has trouble finding steady work. But the price is right. He taped a taped seam that was coming up in my office ceiling, I believe 2 coats, and is to come over Tuesday, a day off for me, to finally paint the ceiling, but the taped section looks terrible. The compound he used cracked, and you can still see the netting that holds the compound in place. I haven't been able to put my office back together because i knew the ceiling needed painting.

On top of that, he had said he could do the whole job in 1 full day. That was to include the painting. The only reason why he didn't is because he took a very long break about mid-day, over an hour, outside, in my garage. When i went down to investigate, he was talking on the phone. I don't think I should be paying for that.

He's cheap enough that it won't kill me to pay him another $50 for 2 hours of ceiling painting, but I'm just annoyed. I'm so tired of contractors who try to suck whatever they can out of you.

I'm in a bad mood, can you tell? I did a bit of shopping at Kohl's with a coupon and filled up the gas tank at a remarkable $2.99 a gallon. Then I mowed lots of leaves on the lawn. I am quite aware of my using shopping and spending as a salve for my depressed mood. It's a bad habit. In fact, I was wanting to go shopping, although I need nothing, and only didn't do more damage because I couldn't think of any stores nearby where I wanted to go.

For the last 2 months of this year, I'll be contributing 30% to my 401k. Without the mortgage and with much cheaper health insurance, my minimum monthly expenses are now down to $1500, from $2,000 when I was unemployed. I am grateful that at least I don't have financial pressures now.

I stopped at Boston Marked for lunch today but have no idea what I should do for dinner. It will be a Netflix movie night. A guy I dated a while ago had recommended I watch "Californication" on Netflix, and so I watched a few episodes but it's already getting old. A directionless loser/writer with talent but no focus sleeps around with a bunch of women while he wishes he could get his ex back. I can tell why the guy I dated liked the show; the women just flocked to this guy and since this isn't on network TV, there are some pretty suggestive sexual scenes. But in truth, this guy would not be so desirable in real life. He's kind of a jerk, actually.

It's a blustery, sunny day here in Connecticut, just perfect for cooking up 2 butternut squashes I got from the farm. All I added was onion, garlic, sage, stock and parmesan cheese, and this creamy soup is to die for. Will be part of my lunch each day for the coming week.

Yesterday my carpenter replaced the decorative mullions that criss cross my office ceiling (and 2 other rooms in the house). I've always liked it...it looks like a tic tac toe grid. My original intent was to have him sand and scrape off all the old paint, but after considering there was probably lead paint in there somewhere, I had him remove and replace the mullions instead, to minimize the dust. I even bought a HEPA vaccuum cleaner and 2 face masks for lead paint removal. His labor was $175 for an 7-hour day and it was another $100 or so for supplies, counting the drop cloths and some caulk and joint compound I needed to repair a crack as well. I still need him to paint the ceiling. (I hate painting ceilings, and this one hasn't been painted in the 19 years I've lived here.)

One of the worst things about getting work done around the house is that it forces me to hang around and wait for him to finish. I did make banana bread and granola while he worked, and picked up around here, but it was still tiring to hang around, and every time he banged something, I kept thinking about my soft fir floors. He also left dirty handprint smudges all over one of the walls, but I have to repaint that wall anyway after having to repair some more cracks above the door frame.

Today I returned some disposable overalls he didn't bother to use and 2 drop cloths, and also picked up a few things at BJs, and a ton of cat food at Wal Mart.

At the CSA I got a head of celery, an acorn squash, 8 small bell peppers, scallions, lettuce, 4 apples. I think I have 2 more weeks to go for the season.

This morning I also wrapped my hot water heater with insulation.

Saturday was an emotionally draining day. It affected me all day, and that's part of the reason why I'm only making a brief mention of it here. I shared with my mother the letter from doctor saying she HAS to take the driving evaluation or she'll lose her license. Of course, she could lose it if she fails the test. She got very, very upset. I have her scheduled to go on Wednesday. This was the 2nd time I scheduled to test so she'd better go.

The IRS increased its contribution limits for 401(k) for 2015, and after crunching some numbers, I should be able to easily max out my contributions for the 401k, 401k catch-up, IRA and IRA catch-up, to the tune of $30,500.

Right now I'm contributing to a traditional 401k in the hope that these contributions will lower my taxable income enough so that the traditional IRA contribution I made earlier in the year, before I knew I'd have a perm job, will be fully tax-deductible. To be fully tax-deductible, I have to get my taxable 2014 income down to below $61,000, or at least below $71,000 for partial deductibility.

I THINK I can do that, and this is one reason my current 401k contributions per paycheck are so high, at $1,000 per paycheck.

But next year I will do a Roth 401k and Roth IRA as I'm trying to create a more balanced mix of Roth vs. traditional retirement accounts. I've read about some interesting tax strategies you can use when withdrawing retirement money as income, and having the ability to withdraw a combination of both traditional and Roth IRA monies offers the best tax savings.

Right now, I have much more money in traditional IRAs as I have never felt my tax rate in retirement would be higher than it is now. But for the reason just stated above, I will attempt to create greater equilibrium in Roth vs traditional retirement monies.

Update on my mother:

After my mother told me she didn't want to take the meds which could slow progression of dementia or take the driving assessment, I called the doctor's office to let them know she changed her mind, and was there anything else they could do. I left the message on the nurse's answering machine but the doctor called me back later that same day.

He was very concerned about her not wanting to take the driving assessment, based on her test results, and he stressed that if she would not take the test or took it and failed and continued driving and then got in an accident, that she would be 100% liable because it would become known that she was driving against doctor's orders. She could be sued for everything she has.

I asked the doctor if he would compose a letter on his letterhead reiterating everything he'd just said to me and send me the letter, which I would then go over with my mother.

I called the driving school and cancelled the original appointment; they agreed to do a driving test with her on a Saturday, when I can take her there myself and make sure it gets done.

If she does flunk the test, I have the very unpleasant vision of having to take my mother's car keys away, as well as the car. I'd have to get my sister to drive over with me so that one of us could drive away my mother's car. I would then sell the car for $2,000 or so to a private party and deposit that money in the joint checking account I have with my mother, to be used to help defray the cost of having an aide come to the house a few days a week. This was something my mother already rejected out of hand, but if my mother couldn't drive herself, she'd have to have someone to drive her to grocery shopping and doctor's appointments at the very least.

Although the hourly rate of around $15 to $20 an hour seems reasonable, even having someone come just 2 hours a day twice a week really adds up, to $4,000 on an annual basis. My mother gets just $942 a month from Social Security ($11,304 a year) but she does have $130K in savings. We would have to dip into savings a bit to cover the aide or other transportation options.

(There is a regional, low-cost shuttle bus for seniors that I looked into once before, but they have a fairly involved process and rules for making reservations which seemed a bit beyond my mother to remember. If you are a no-show just a few times they stop accepting your reservation; i guess that was a problem with some riders in the past.) I'll have to call senior center to see what other options there may be.)

To sell the car, however, I need the title, which I noticed was still sitting on my mother's desk when I was there yesterday. She had it out because we had been talking about buying her a new (used) car and we thought we would trade in her current car when we bought the new one from a dealer.

However, after having my mother's mechanic check out her current 96 Subaru wagon with 110,000 miles, he said there was nothing wrong with it save for an issue with the rear differential that if it got worse, would cost more to fix than the value of the car.

So I don't think we would want to sell her current car now anyway as the mileage is not too bad and although it looks like an old car, mechanically it's in decent shape. It just needs new tires, which I'm wondering if I should replace with just middle of the road new tires so that I could sell it more easily.

So though I was tempted to take the title when I saw it on her desk, I was afraid, if she saw it was missing, that she'd go nuts looking for it again after she had such a hard time finding it to begin with. So if I wind up having to take the car keys, I will need to remember to also get the title as well.

Right now I'm in a holding pattern, waiting to receive the doctor's letter this week which I will then show to my mother. I also need to talk to my sister about it, who's been largely out of the picture.

I did go an AARP meeting Friday night for caregivers. It wasn't exactly like a support group but she did go over various resources and such that I haven't had a chance to dig into. I have so little time to make phone calls and such since I have just a half hour during my workday, during my lunch break, when I can make a private call or two on my cell phone sitting in my parked car in the parking garage. If I can't reach someone and have to leave a message, it's a problem since if they call me back at my work phone, I can't have a personal conversation there.

In January, that situation should improve quite a bit as the company, in another cost-saving measure, is going to squeeze 200 people now on 3 floors onto 1 floor of the building. To do that, they have to reconfigure the seating (get rid of the cubicles in favor of long rows of side by side desks...UGH) and most people will be required to work at home to some extent.

I am hopeful that I'll be able to work at home at least 2 days a week, maybe 3, and have already let my boss know I'm really concerned about my ability to write (it's difficult now) when people will be sitting in such close quarters. There are some very loud people who talk in their normal speaking voices or louder as they talk to coworkers sitting further away and there is no custom of hushed conversations as there were in other workplaces I've been in. It amazes me that people can be either oblivious or just not care whether they're disturbing others.

I am just so f****** frustrated with my mother right now. I feel like I've had it.

Everything I've done to try to maintain her quality of life (ie, living independently in her condo)has been refused and rebuffed.

Two weeks ago I arranged to have a representative of a home health aide agency come to the house to discuss what they could do to help her. He spent a long time there, but after he left, she said she wasn't interested.

Yesterday I used a vacation day to accompany her to a followup office visit with a neurologist to discuss the results of her testing. He told us she has early dementia (something I long suspected) and recommended 3 things:

1. A medication that can slow progression of memory loss and cognitive decline

2. A driving evaluation to make sure she is still safe driving.

3. So-called physical therapy where they teach you ways to compensate for the memory loss.

I scheduled an appointment for the driving test as well as the physical therapy and she got her prescription. I thought we had made great progress and were at least attempting to take control of things.

Then today she did what she's always done. She read the warning label on the prescription drug, which listed possible side effects of diarrhea and digestive issues, and even though the doctor told us NONE of his patients experienced any side effects, she no longer wants to take the drug.

She has also reneged on taking the driving evaluation because she says she thinks it's "premature" and is doing "fine." And she doesn't want to spent the $185 for the evaluation.

Keep in mind she has plenty of money. She's not frugal. She's just a tightwad.

I am just so upset with her I told her I didn't want to speak to her again. She doesn't get the connection between the medication slowing progression of dementia and prolonging the amount of time she can live as she always has, in her condo. Most rational people would at least try the drug if there was a chance it could improve memory loss, but she has always been anti-medication because she routinely reads prescription warning labels, freaks out at the long list of possible 1-in-a-million side effects and refuses to take the med.

Will I really not speak to her again? I probably will, but I feel like this is my last option, the very last bit of leverage i have. Because I am the only caregiver; my sister wants nothing to do with it and hasn't helped at all.

Why should I jump through hoops to try to help someone who doesn't want to be helped?

I have a neighbor who had her mother, who had Alzheimer's, living with her for a number of years, but the disease worsened and her mother any number of times would wander outside the house late at night (they live on a busy road) in her nightgown screaming that my friend was trying to poison her. Paranoia is a hallmark of late stage AD. Finally, my friend couldn't handle her anymore and she signed over responsibility to care for her to the state, who assigned an attorney to oversee her mother's care. At that point, she was put in a nursing home; I don't think the attorney ever even met the mother.

I've spent so many years planning for a comfortable, fulfilling retirement. I am not looking forward to 10+ years of wrangling with my mother.

I plan to go to a support group this Friday night. I feel constant stress and frustration and I am tired of sacrificing my own time and happiness for nothing. I am angry at my mother for being so god **** stubborn. I am angry at my sister for not giving a s***, and apparently not even caring if she ruins her relationship with me (not that we ever had a good one).

I made plans to accompany my mother to her followup visit with a neurologist to go over her test results for dementia/Alzheimer's.

Since I had both that appointment and a podiatrist visit of my own, I had to take the day off today instead of the Friday I had originally planned. Well, I guess that's what PTO (Paid Time Off) is for.

I wasn't sure how my mother was going to take it. I was already pretty sure she has dementia and I know it's been on her mind too.

The doctor didn't make a grand pronouncement, but indicated her test results showed she did somewhat worse than others her age. He then started talking about a medication that can help slow the progression and preserve what memory you still have. My mother was a good candidate for this since she's considered early stage.

My mother's first response was (as I knew it would be) "I don't like taking medications." But between the doctor and me, we talked her into trying it. So she starts at half the normal dose, 1 pill a day for a month, then she goes for a followup visit to see how she's doing and to begin the full dose schedule. A month's supply of the drug only cost her $2.50.

So I asked what the difference was between dementia and Alzheimer's and he said Alzheimer's s just one type of dementia and when I asked point blank if my mother had dementia, he said yes, but in a way that perhaps my mother didn't pick up on.

In addition to the meds, the doctor also suggested what they call physical therapy, but which are actually one or more sessions where they teach the patient different ways to compensate for the loss of memory. I thought this could be very helpful to my mother. Right now she has little notes all over the place, but just keeping track of the notes after a while is too much. So I urged her to try a session of this and and we made the appointment.

Finally, the doctor recommended she get an evaluation of her driving, and I scheduled an appointment there as well. It costs $185 and of course Medicare doesn't cover that, so while my mother protested the high price, she didn't flat out say no or object to the appointment....until later, that is, when she emailed me and said she didn't see what the hurry was and thought it was premature and that it might rain next week. I told her I'd reschedule if it rained, but otherwise, I'm not going to let her off the hook. I sure hope she doesn't give me a hard time becus this appointment is during the week and I can't keep taking days off to take her to her appointments.

When we got out of there, I wrote down all the appointments and what she needed to do on a single piece of paper and she was very appreciative as she said it was all "overwhelming."

After that, I went to drop off trash at the landfill, got my hair cut at Great Clips and did some grocery shopping. When I got home, I raked a part of the lawn where the pine needles are too thick for the mower to mulch, and I also raked up piles of leaves collecting in the driveway. I made some baba ganousch with 2 eggplant I had and a big pot of soup for lunches for the rest of the week.

One other thing happened that concerns me. Last night when I got home I noticed one of the cats had spit up on the stair. It's not an uncommon occurrence but this time it was bright red and looked like blood. Both cats appear perfectly fine. But last week was when Luther ate a long (3 to 4 inch) pine needle, although he later barfed up a hairball and I could see tiny bits of the pine needle embedded in it. I don't know if that was part of the pine needle or all of it.

And Waldo last night was sort of acting like something was stuck in his throat. As I said, they both seem fine now.

I was debating whether to try catching Waldo to bring him to the vet, but I honestly don't know which cat may have spit up that blood, given the little bit of background I told you about here.

Luther also does play too rough with Waldo, but again, it looks like bright red spit up. So I am still worried about it but haven't done anything about it. The good thing is there's a new 24/7 vet's hospital right down the road from me and you don't need an appointment. They are open day and night. So if I need to, I can zip down there with either cat.

I had thought maybe it was a dental issue or abscessed tooth with Waldo, but he has been eating fine so I don't think he would be if had a bad toothache.

All in all, i feel like I got a lot accomplished today without too much stress. I'm very appreciative of having the ability to take a day off from work and still get paid, a perk of a perm job. Tomorrow it's back to work. It was nice to have this breather in the middle of the week, even if the things I had to deal with were not so pleasant.

I bought a new hot water heater insulation wrap at Lowes since I replaced the hot water heater last year sometime. I'm not sure I'll get to putting it on today (in fact, I probably won't), but it'll go on my To Do list for next weekend.

Tuesday is going to be a tough day. It's the day my mother has a follow-up doc appt. when we will learn if she has dementia or Alzheimer's. I don't know how she will take it but I know it is definitely a concern for her.

I have a podiatrist appt of my own in the morning and then I will head straight to my mother's doctor's office after that.

I had only been planning on working from home Tuesday, but now with my mother's appointment, I might tell my boss I'll take the day as a day off so she doesn't think I'm taking advantage or anything. The doctor appointments will take up close to a half day.

A friend and I were supposed to take my mother car shopping Saturday but I decided to defer this until we hear from the doctor on Tuesday. If the doc says it's not safe for her to drive, it doesn't make sense to buy her a car beforehand. Although I doubt she would comply and stop driving if the doc said she shouldn't anyway. As it was, she couldn't find the title for her current car but then she found it Saturday morning after I had already cancelled car shopping with my friend.

I also plan to call her mechanic Monday to ask why specifically he was saying she needs a new car. Putting a few thousand into the 96 Subaru might still make sense if she's only going to drive another year or two, compared to spending $10 or $12,000 on a new (used) Subaru, plus higher insurance, registration, etc. I just can no longer assume my mother's capable of having this kind of conversation with her mechanic. If I ask her what someone said, I never get much of any detail from her.

The advantage of moving forward with a car purchase would be that I'd be removing a small portion of assets from her overall estate and converting it into something (a car) which I don't believe a nursing home would go after and claim. Other than this, I don't anticipate my sister or I seeing any inheritance. I'm fairly sure whatever savings my mother has now will be taken by a nursing home when the time comes.

Some of you were asking what happened with the potential paraplegic date I had. I decided to not respond again, as he'd requested, and did not see him. I know some of you probably didn't like my reaction to the prospect of getting involved with a paraplegic, but I have to assess my own life right now and decide whether I would have the time or energy to deal with that. Looking at the facts (he lives over an hour away, I work full time with a 35-minute commute and I have the responsibility of looking after my mother and an old house I'd like to fix up enough to sell) I don't see how it would work.

I did meet someone else who lives right in my hometown. Soooo much better. He is a cop (in another town an hour away) and works the nightshift. So that would be a challenge, too. He also had bariatric surgery sometime ago and said that while he has lost a lot of weight, he still has a ways to go, and having met him once, I basically agree. Partly because of the weight issue, I'm not sure I'm romantically attracted to him, but he is a super nice guy and I know the weight should not be an issue if I can be patient and understanding about that. (Most men wouldn't give a heavy woman a second look, that I know for sure.) So that's why we're getting together later today for a 2nd meeting. Actually, I'll be getting to meet his horse, his 3 dogs and his chickens, and then we'll be going out to dinner before he heads to work later tonight around 10 pm.

I could really use a supportive person in my life because dealing with my mother can often be frustrating, draining and stressful. In fact, it's the biggest stress in my life these days.

I do have friends that I talk to about things that come up, but there's nothing like having someone close to you whot you can really lean on. Right now I have to make a lot of decisions about my mother on my own, and I often feel I totally screw it up and do things with a sledgehammer when it doesn't have to be that way. It's just that my mother resists every suggestion I made to help her and I have to spend all my time cajoling, persuading etc. etc and actually that doesn't always work anyway. As mentioned before, patience is not a virtue of mine.

At least now the lack of money is not a problem. I am saving 22% of salary and still have plenty left over to spend on home improvements or just stuff that pleases me. And, maybe as a way to deal with the crappola and stress, I do spend on myself. Yesterday I went to a craft fair and spent $52 on a beautiful dried floral arrangement, which I would show you if the photo problems on this site were ever fixed.

I got another 30% off Kohl's coupon so I bought my sister a shirt for Xmas and one for myself for just $15. I also dropped off a few things as donations for Good Will, filled up the gas tank and spent an hour or so at my mother's to go through her "paperwork."

When she wasn't looking, I trashed a bunch of junk mail which she insists she wants to read but I know she never will get through. She has piles of such junk mail in various rooms of her condo which I consider a fire hazard and an obstacle if you're walking. Most of the time she insists on going through each individual piece of paper with me explaining what it is before she will agree that I can toss it; this process takes hours. So when she went to the bathroom, I grabbed handfuls of stuff I knew she'd NEVER MISS.

I mowed the lawn and leaves on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I picked up produce from the farm (cabbage, eggplant, peppers, apples, kale, butternut squash) and blanched a bunch of kale, which is drying now and just about ready for the freezer.

I'm running my new dishwasher for the first time right now. Seems to run fine and now I have a functional dishwasher. I'll have to remember to use it more often. The main thing was i needed the new one for when I sell this place.

Luther, the death-defying Maine Coon, just used up another of his 9 lives. That leaves him with 6.

On Saturday, I tracked in a white pine needle off the wet pavement outside. White pine needles are 3 to 4 inches long and rather pointy at both ends. I absentmindedly noticed the needle on the seat of a chair.

I walked into the kitchen to do something and mentally told myself to remove the white pine needle before Luther found it.

I walked back to the dining room chair to see the needle was GONE and Luther chewing on something in his mouth. I sprang for him but of course he ran and swallowed it before I could catch him.

I had visions of him puncturing his intestine. Either that or he would throw it up. I debated whether or not to bring him to the vet but decided I would watch him closely for any signs of discomfort or, hopefully, vomiting.

No vomiting. Yesterday, each time he went down into the basement, I followed to see if he pooped. No signs of the pine needle, and I really was not sure if he swallowed the thing whole (shudder) or at least chewed it into pieces.

Finally, this morning, I was downstairs when I noticed he threw up a hairball. I put on some latex gloves and examined it closely. There were pieces of the broken pine needle embedded n the hairball. I did not pull the whole thing apart to see if the whole pine needle was there, but I am feeling greatly relieved nonetheless.

Luther has been his usual unconcerned self.

If you're keeping track, Luther used up 2 other lives by 1. Jumping out of a 2nd story window onto a brick patio below and got away with just a sprain and 2. Swallowing a foot-long piece of string, which can be deadly if it wraps around his intestines.

It's a long holiday weekend for me. Yippee!

Yesterday morning I had an appointment to visit a second assisted living community for my mother, this one in my hometown. It seemed pretty nice, but the cost seemed nearly as much as the top of the line one I went to a few months ago. I was surprised, because Masonicare is a non-profit. I've also come to the conclusion that my mother isn't ready for an assisted living community; the people there seem so out of it. She would never accept having 3 meals a day prepared for her. She's a health nut, like I am, and she is very particular about what she eats.

Most of yesterday afternoon I spent with a rep from a home health aide agency trying to convince my mother to have someone come over at least once weekly. Nope. Basically, she doesn't want to spend the money. It will be about $20/hr. As is usual, she wound up giving the RN a tour of her art in her condo. It covers every square inch of wall space, including in the bathrooms. He just kept saying "wow." I guess I'm used to it, having grown up seeing my mom's space that way.

After the very nice male RN left, we went for a walk around her condo complex. She's still getting around very well for an 80-year-old. I may try instead for simple, periodic housekeeping services. I would have preferred home health agency visits instead but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

After I left my mother's, I filled up the gas tank at an incredible $3.29 a gallon. It's so low here. I also stopped in at Lowe's and used up 2 gift cards to buy a new broom, which I tried out last night in the driveway and outdoor stairs. It works quite well, maybe even better than the corn husk broom I had for years.

I watched another World War II movie on Netflix last night. I admit to being preoccupied with WWII and today I found myself wondering what side of the war my German relatives were on. My grandfather came to the US as a teen from a small town in Germany and I figure that was at least 10 years before the war started, but he had brothers he left behind. Were they in the German army or part of the Resistance? I wonder. I exchanged a few letters with Peter H., my cousin and the son of one of my grandfather's brothers. He never married or had children, and my dad and I learned he died a few months ago; I guess he was in his 60s and as I understand, he was the last of the H. line there. I wish I could have asked him some questions about that.

Thank goodness my 2 half-brothers have 3 little kids between them, or my entire family line would cease to exist after we go.

Today I managed to mow the front lawn and mulch the leaves and pine needles at the same time. I also picked up my produce at the CSA. I think we have just 3 more pick-ups left in the season.

Today I got some big 'ol tomatoes, potato fingerlings, a butternut squash, apples, kale and yes, more eggplant.

I bagged some sunflower seed that I'm going to bring to work. It's the strangest thing...there's an Eastern wild turkey that is hanging around downtown in the city where I work, right in front of our building. It is very much out of place and I can't imagine why it continues to hang around. It does not appear that afraid of people but there seems to be nothing for it to eat. Hence the sunflower seed. I am sure the security guards in our lobby will scold me if they see me feeding it, so I'll do it out of sight of them.

Tomorrow my new Whirlpool dishwasher will be installed. The guy is supposed to call today/tonight to tell me what time.

I emptied out my sun room in preparation for the winter season. Since it's unheated in there, I take most things out, although I don't know if very cold air alone will harm things like a bamboo mat or an upholstered lounge chair. As it is, I put all the stuff from the sun room in the family room, which I also close off for the winter. (As an addition, it's the only room in the house with electric heat, so no use adding to my bills just to heat that one room.) I also already put up the insulated curtains on the French doors to that room.

My boss has ok'd me reverting to my "winter hours" at work once Daylight Savings Time ends in a few weeks, which means 9 to 5:30 p.m. instead of 8:30 to 5. I'm up at the crack of dawn with the summer sun, but in winter I can't stand getting up in the dark, so the later start helps with that. It will be dark when I drive home, regardless, but at least I'll have a more leisurely morning routine.

I called my handyman to see if he could tackle my next home improvement project in 2 weeks when I am taking a Friday off. I'm trying to steadily knock off a long laundry list of things that need to be done.

This project is all about the ceiling in my office. It has some wood moldings that criss-cross the ceiling that I've never seen anywhere else, kind of like tic tac toe. I like the look, but there is so much old paint, and some ill-advised caulk that I applied, that it looks kind of crappy. I want him to hand sand all the criss-cross moldings and then paint the ceiling. It's probably something I could do but it's a little labor intensive and I know his full day charge is $200. I figure it's worth it for him to do. Maybe it wouldn't even take a full day, but maybe it would with all the prep work.

So for the past year or so I've been dabbling in online dating. Nothing to date worth mentioning here, as I've met a few people one time and decided not to pursue it.

Recently I met a guy who seemed pretty appealing. He's written 3 books and is a writer like me. He does live 1.5 hours away from me, but becus of what i saw as common interests (he's also vegan like me) i told him i was willing to take things a step at a time and see what happens. Then he suggested we get together for lunch at a restaurant midway between us.

It was only when I tentatively agreed to do that this weekend that he said oh, by the way, I'm a paraplegic following a diving accident in the 1990s. He uses crutches to get around (a wheelchair in the house) and that it doesn't stop him from doing most things, but he does do them more slowly.

This is when I started feeling queasy and like a real shit. Do I, with my f/t job, aging parent issues and old house to keep up really want to take on a long distance boyfriend who happens to be a paraplegic? I don't think I do. Do I feel like a total cad for saying that? Yes.

In the email that he told me that, he said if i wasn't interested to just say nothing at all, in big bold letters. Evidently he has experienced rejection in the past, and I'm sure it's very hurtful. Yet i feel like he set me up for this, in part, by not telling my about this until after I'd agreed to meet him. If I were in his shoes, I would just put it all out there in his dating profile; that way, he could be sure that anyone who struck up a conversation with him was ok with it.

So I don't know what to say to him. If i tell him the truth, it would be rather hurtful. I was thinking of just telling him that since we spoke I met someone else from the dating site and hit it off fairly well with them and want to see where that leads. I did in fact meet someone else on the site who lives right here in my hometown and who I DO plan to meet this weekend. It's just that that hasn't happened yet.

Do you think I should say that? Or do you think it's advisable to just take him at his word and say nothing further to him, no explanation as it appears that's what he'd preferred. It seems pretty cold.

I went to the podiatrist today about the ball of my foot that's been sore since 2010. Two previous podidatrists had not taken x-rays so this one said let's do it, which we did, much as I hate x-rays, and naturally it showed nothing. Which is only to say that I don't have a metallic foreign body in my foot. There could still be a sliver of glass, a wood splinter or even a cat hair. So then we talked and he painted on some salicylic acid, which is commonly u sed to treat warts, except that this was heavy duty salicylic acid. I'm to wear the bandaid til tomorrow morning and return to him in 2 weeks time, at which point the acid will have dissolved my skin at the point of entry of whatever it was, theoretically making it easier to get whatever was in there out. If if's even in there now.

I know 4 years was too long to wait, but I didn't think a 3rd podiatrist would have any more tricks up his sleeve, and i found that by wearing padded band-aids I could get around just fine. That is, until i pulled my hamstring and all of a sudden my foot is sore again, with or without a band-aid.

We'll see what happens.

A man struggles to survive on a disabled sailing vessel in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Seventy-eight-year-old Robert Redford was outstanding in this movie made last year with no dialogue and only him in the movie except for at the very end of the movie. It makes you wonder whether, in similar circumstances, you'd lose it and give up or if you'd rise to each challenge that could determine whether you make it or not.

If you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend it. I saw it on Netflix.

Back to the more mundane aspects of my life...

Yesterday I picked up a new comforter set and some towels at JC Penney. I browsed Pier 1 but didn't buy anything. I bought a fall coat at Kohl's with my 30% off coupon (I will still have to take up the sleeves on it, which are wayyyy too long) and earned another $10 in Kohl's rewards. I picked up some Chinese and decided to eat it in my car so I could then go to TJ Maxx in the same shopping center and wound up spilling the tinfoil tray of food that was balanced on my car seat. I had to throw half the food away and hose down the floor mat. Also filled up the gas tank and vacuumed both floors of the house.

Friday night I mowed the front lawn. It's getting dark out earlier, so I knew I had to mow asap upon getting home from work or I'd be mowing in the dark. I made it.

Today I need to mow the back, as much to mulch fallen leaves as to cut the grass. I also MUST vacuum the car, which is getting a little too grungy and soon it'll be too cold to vacuum. I also have to pick up my CSA shares at the farm and make a pot of soup for this week's work lunches.

I had an idea this week about my family room carpeting. It's the only room in the house with wall to wall carpeting, and that carpeting is now grungy with its cat vomit and hairball stains and with the cats scratching and pulling bits of it up on a daily basis. I'd love to replace it but it doesn't make sense while my cats (ages 5 and 13) are still here. I remembered that when I bought the place, I saw there was hardwood flooring under the old carpeting I replaced with my own, but someone had painted it a dark brownish color. I'm toying with the idea of ripping up my wall to wall carpeting and not replacing it with more wall to wall as I was intending to do (at some point). The "distressed" look is in, and I think this hardwood floor might look distressed. I was thinking how good a white ultra-luxurious shag area rug would look against the dark floor color. Of course, the cats would scratch that too, so I won't do it now, although I could pull up the wall to wall carpeting and throw down a kilim 5 x 7 rug I already have which doesn't really shred when the cats scratch it.

The other option would be to strip the old paint and refinish the floors. I believe the addition was added to the house around 1990??? but I did just want to confirm that lead paint, which was banned in 1978, wouldn't be an issue. I tried to confirm the year of the addition by calling first the assessor's office, and then the building dept., but neither place could tell me. I know I saw the date written somewhere so maybe I can find something if I go thru my various files for the house.

Each week this month I have some sort of change in my work schedule which will frankly give me a break from the unending routine of working at the office. Tuesday I'm working from home so i can see a podiatrist. The week after that we have Monday off for Columbus Day (and I'm getting my new dishwasher installed that day), plus I have a dentist appointment mid-week which means I'll leave work a little early. The last 2 weeks of October I have each Friday off as PTO (Paid Time Off). Hooray.

I have an oval-shaped mirror that used to be my grandmother's with Victorian-looking, brass-colored handles with garlands or leaves around them. I believe it's meant to sit flat on a dresser and you put your little perfume bottles or what-not on it, although it could also be hung.

Probably not worth much, but it's rather pretty and has sentimental value. I don't really use it. It's been sitting in my closet. I've been wanting to buy an antique silver or silver metallic-type spray paint so I can change the brassy color to silver. There are so many choices out there so I haven't made the purchase yet, but I hope to before it gets too cold to do this outside.

Maybe I should just use the leftover spraypaint i have called Looking Glass Spraypaint. If you use it as directed, it will look like a mirrored reflection, but if you alternately spray the paint with spritzes of water, which you gently blot, you can achieve a surface that looks like mercury glass. However, that technique is only intended for objects made of glass; I'm not sure how it would work on the metal handles of this mirror. I'd had to ruin it, although i guess if i had to I could just spray paint over it again with something else.

I had to get a furnace cleaning so I was able to work at home today. The furnace guy is here now. It's yet another reason to get gas heat when I eventually move. I'm paying $150 for the cleaning, and that's a "special" early season price. I do it every year for peace of mind purposes. My coworkers with gas heat informed me they never do "anything" to their gas heat lines. It's maintenance-free.

I scheduled a lot of things for the month of October. A routine dental visit. A trip to podiatrist for a longstanding sore foot problem. A free flu shot, courtesy of my employer. And I cleared 2 days off later in the month, along with my dishwasher installation on Columbus Day, which is a paid holiday for me. It's a new Whirlpool model I got at Lowes; with installation it will be $592. The old one is broken and being 12 years old, I didn't think it was worth it to repair it.

I'm concerned about much higher electric rates in the coming year. In Connecticut, electric rates were deregulated years back in an effort to increase competition and bring down consumer costs.The state maintains a website where you can compare rates. The rate I currently have locked in for me and my mother is good thru Nov. 30, 2014 but then it will likely increase. I've been checking the state website but right now all the different choices are quite a bit higher, per kilowatt hour, than what we're paying now. And they don't seem to be offering the fixed rate in a year-long contract. All I'm seeing is 3 months locked in and then variable rates, which I'm not comfortable with.

My friend R. agreed to go with me and mother to go car shopping for my mother. Her mechanic has been telling her for some time now that she needs to replace her 98 Subaru. Now he's telling her the tires need to be replaced. No sense replacing tires when the car itself is getting too old. I don't like the idea of my 80-year-old mother still driving at all, but she's not going to give it up. AT least she avoids the highway and the vast majority of her driving is probably limited to a 5-mile square radius. So we'll go to the local Subaru dealer to find another wagon in the $10,000 range. I did a quick search of the dealer site and Kelly Blue Book and saw that the dealer has 5 Subarus from about 2006 to 2008 with automatic steering in that price range. I honestly don't know how my mother can drive the one she has, with its extremely heavy steering and spongy brakes. Hopefully the newer models will be a big improvement for her.

There is no way my mother could negotiate a car purchase on her own with the car dealer sharks out there (I learned that myself last summer and felt very ill-equipped) so I'm hoping we can find a car in a few hours at this one dealer. I really don't anticipation that at her advanced age she will driving a whole lot longer. She does have a good mechanic who could also check out the car if we could arrange that somehow.

I may hit Kohl's on Saturday....it's the last day I can use my 30% coupon. I'll also go to mall to pick up my comforter set and towels at JC Penney, and since I'm in that area, I may browse Xmas Tree Shop just for the heck of it. And maybe Pier 1 as well.

I want to start getting active with the book club here in town. There are 3 of them, but the 1 i want to join meets in the evenings. They have a new book (Reconstructing Amelia) so I have to get it soon and start reading before the Oct. 16 meeting date! Basically, I will have 1 week to read it. Maybe I'll zip over there after 5 and get it tonight to give myself a few more days.

Am I like the drunk stumbling around in a room full of teetotalers when I say that? I know most people here are trying to save money or get a handle on their finances.

I am, too, of course, but for the past 5 years I've lived on very little, so with a pretty well-paying job, I am feeling like a newly liberated shopper.

I did my monthly expense report a few days early this morning, and I see that year-to-date, I've saved $19,744. That's not counting any appreciation of my investments; it's just a strict accounting of income minus expenses from January through today. So I feel I can relax my frugal ways just a bit.

I'm not out of control, but I did just now spend $96 on some things at JC Penney. They're having a pretty good sale this weekend. I picked out a sheet and comforter/sham set plus some bath and hand towels. I chose to pick up at the store in a few days to avoid a delivery charge.

I also got a 30% off coupon for Kohl's, so I may go there for clothes, although i don't like their stuff nearly as much as I like Macy's. It would be tempting to hit the mall too, but I fear I may go overboard there.

This is going to be our last summer weekend with temps up in the low 80s. And perfect sunny days.

Today was pay day. I automatically have $1555 of pre-tax money going to my 401k each month. That's about 22% of my pay. I also paid about $1200 for both my homeowners and car insurance. That was charged to my credit card so I can at least score some bonus points.

I'm in a spendy mood. Usually I contain it by directing to to mostly food. But I'm looking forward to the new comforter and towels (an indigo blue) and sure wish I could pick them up this weekend.

My handyman Billy did a good job with the concrete filling in some cracks in my front landing and step. He only charged $80 for his labor and supplies. Even handymen around here want to charge you $100 just to show up, so I didn't mind paying him that at all.

I hope to hit a tag sale and a church craft fair this weekend, talk to my mother about her IRA RMD, plant some tulip bulbs and do a hundred other things. But hey! It's the WEEKEND!!!!

I picked up a pile of fresh produce from my farm CSA. They frequently have extras of certain things where you can help yourself, so in addition to my regular haul, which today featured kale, beets, eggplant, apples, acorn squash, and peppers, I was able to help myself to some freebies that maybe my mother could use (2 Japanese eggplant, more red bell peppers, a small watermelon and a head of celery).

I blanched and froze the celery leaves from another head of celery for winter use. They couldn't have been more fresh, and I didn't want to just let it sit in the cooler drawer for a week before I got around to doing something with it. I also blanched and froze some kale. But now I have another bunch of kale!

I made a big pot of vegetable soup for the coming work week lunches. After it cooled, I ladled it into 5 different glass lunch containers. Last night I was also making another batch of baba ganoush with some eggplant which is good slightly warmed with pita bread wedges.

It's all I can do to keep up with the fresh produce and not let any go bad. There was one handful of pole beans I had to throw away but I think that's it. I am getting awfully tired of beets, which are so messy to peel, along with the kale and eggplant.

Yesterday I went to the town's health fair and had my cholesterol checked. Total was 182 but my HDL (the good cholesterol) was very high, at 85 and the triglycerides were in the normal range. So the largely vegetarian diet is paying off. Although to be honest, I have never had high cholesterol.

After that I went and picked up 2 lunches at Boston Market and brought them over to my mom's. A non-vegetarian meal, but I am fond of Boston Market. Because I used my Discover card on a $15 tab, I'll get $3 back as a statement credit. I didn't even know about that deal, but they sent me an email. (I did know about a different deal that earned me a $5 credit after using my Amex card at Walmart, which is where I always buy my cat food.

I'm beginning to see that it's really worth my while to be aware of the various deals they make available. With Amex, you have to "select" the deal you plan to take advantage of. I never bothered to do this before and was content to just earn my upfront bonuses of $100 or whatever it was.

I helped my mother with some more bills. She had 3 more ambulance bills (from when she called 911 this past spring!) Oh, I called the senior center and they told me i don't have to pay them, my mother said. Well, umm, that is true if you fill out the coupon on the back of the bill with your Medicare number and mail it in so they can, umm, process it.

My mother had to sign each one. Along with the signature was a date line. She could not remember what year it is. Her memory is totally shot. I worry about her living alone all the time, but she doesn't want an aide or anyone, mainly becus she doesn't want to spend the money. She did grow up during the Depression. It's sad, but I'll have to wait for a health crisis to make some changes.

Last night while I was making my baba ganouch, a friend of mine called. I hadn't talked to him since the start of the summer; we had reconnected after probably 10 years apart, and we had agreed to do all sorts of fun things this summer, but then after spending some time with him, i didn't hear back from him, even after I invited him to do something. I kept thinking about it and assumed he decided he didn't want to spend time together anymore and that maybe it was something I said. The last time I saw him we picked up a bunch of koi fish to restock his pond, and I remember I was worrying about the fish staying cool in the hot car while we went to lunch and maybe I mentioned it a few times too many. I can't help it, I'm an animal lover.

So anyway, he called last night and it wasn't that. The reason why I hadn't heard from him is becus he has a recurring and persistent digestive problem where he can't leave the house with diarrhea and cramping, etc. He's had this for years and estimates he's spent $15,000 trying to figure out with his doctors what it is. He had told me of this before, but I got the impression it was all behind him and not an issue anymore.

I was glad he wasn't mad at me about the koi. I thought I had lost a friend. But felt very bad becus this definitely affects his lifestyle in a very big way.

Years ago he and the people from the bike group he organized were planning a trip to Amsterdam and he had to cancel out at the last minute, losing several thousand dollars for the airfare, etc.

So I encouraged him to 1. start taking probiotics every day and 2. make an appointment with a naturopath. He seems to have exhausted every other avenue so he has nothing to lose. In the past his doctor felt he had some sort of bacterial bug, so what does he do? He puts him on antibiotics, twice. It didn't make sense to me since antibiotics wipe out everything. Without restoring balance to the digestive tract.

I took down screens in 3 windows and cleaned the windows so I have a much nicer view all winter long. Put the screens in the basement for storage. They'll need a good cleaning come spring. (I don't usually really clean them before putting them up.)

Today's a very warm, humid and damp day. I would like to get out and do some yardwork, but am not really feeling motivated.

Good evening, all my fellow SAers. And happy Friday.

A friend at work was raving about how wonderful homemade, or handmade pasta is. So i stopped in at the local Villarina's which specializes in all things pasta.

I bought a frozen entree, eggplant rollatini, and some garlic raviolis, which came to $24. I suppose each entree could serve 2 not-too-hungry people.

I tried the rollatini tonight. It was ok, but nothing to rave about. It was essentially a frozen dinner. I won't likely go back to that place.

I had a very trying afternoon at work over something that only a writer/editor would get upset about. The lawyers at our bank love to capitalize Every Other Word in a letter, and frankly, it looks ridiculous. In some corners, it's known as "vanity capitalization." It's designed to say, we're so important, we cap every other word. You know, that's how they write legal briefs. Well these are customer letters that I write, not legal briefs. It seems the legal people at the bank always assert their whims and preferences. It doesn't matter to them whether it's correct or not. I've never worked for an organization before where lawyers dictate grammar and punctuation and such.

With my pushing and prodding (to a point, these are senior level bank colleagues) my group did make some progress in establishing some reason when it comes to capping. We are, after all, writing to everyday people, not JDs. But they are still capping certain Key Terms, which is driving me nuts.

This silly little problem was hiked all the way up to a very senior level guy who said there are no legal risks involved over not capping these words, but they later squeezed in a few exceptions anyway and becus he had more important things to worry about that day, he said "fine" and they got their way.

Just annoying, but in the grand scheme of things, who cares, as long as I get my paycheck.

In other news, a raccoon or some other unknown animal discovered the basketball-sized hornet nest hanging low in a rhododendron here and demolished the nest. Apparently, hornets make for a tasty treat. I was going to harvest that nest after the first hard frost, but so much for that idea.

The cats have already caught 3 mice here since the nights are getting very cool, and I'm really tired of having to chase a mouse around the house with a box and broom with the cats pitching in. And then they want to snuggle in bed with me. Yuck.

Tomorrow I'm going to my town's annual health fair. I consider it a civic duty to maximize any benefits I can from my high property taxes. I want to get the free cholesterol check to see if my having gone largely vegan has greatly reduced my cholesterol, or not. Or maybe I haven't been as vegan as I thought I was.

After calling a half dozen outfits to try to get started on my front entry door replacement, I finally got a local handyman I've known for years to come and do measurements, but he measured the door, not the "rough opening," and so I still don't know if the door featured on Lowe's website will fit my opening. I have to wait to talk to my guy again, who is also doing some concrete stoop repair for a very reasonable $100 for me next week.

It may not occur to you to consider your Social Security earnings records as a snapshot of your financial history, but looking at my own records sure reveals a lot about where I stood at various times during the past 37 years, or all of my working life.

It also goes to show that you don't need to have a high income to retire comfortably.

Below is a list of my gross income for each year since I started working part-time at a local insurance agency in high school.

You might say my income, for a college-educated woman who has always lived in the Northeast, has tended to be on the low side, with less than $2,000 earned in high school and college to a high in one singular year (1999) of $128,000. But if you exclude p/t student jobs and the one year I lucked out with the sale of some stock options in 1999, you'll see my income ranged from a low of about $4,000 to $7,500 in the first few years after college (when I somehow survived on that income as a newspaper reporter) to a high in 1998 when I grossed $71,464 writing for a mutual fund and annuity marketing company.

(I guess you should keep in mind that my actual earnings were probably at least 15% higher than shown here since in most years I maxed out my 401k contributions, which reduced my taxable earnings. I also mostly contributed to a traditional IRA.)

If you exclude my school years and the stock option year in 1999, my average income over the course of 30 years was just $37,742! That number is low on account of the 5-year period of underemployment I just went through from 2009-2013, plus another yearlong period of unemployment in 1992 during another recessionary period.

If you add back in an average 15% that I faithfully contributed to traditional IRAs and 401ks most years...though there were some years i contributed after tax monies to a Roth, and there were some age 50+ catch-up contributions I made....my average annual earnings is still a low $43,403.

Pretty amazing, isn't it? And still, I've done pretty well for myself.

The Social Security Administration tells me if I begin collecting benefits at the minimum age, 62, I'll get $1,432 a month; if I wait til age 66 and 10 months ("full retirement age"), I'll earn $2,033 a month. If I could somehow wait til age 70, I'd get the maximum benefit of $2,549.

I base all my retirement calculations on the age 62 benefit amount, but in truth I plan to try to wait til age 66 and 10 months to begin collecting. I don't see the point in holding out til age 70, an age when I might be too old to really enjoy the extra income.

I know the SSA calculates benefits based on the 35 highest income years of your work history. I now have 37 years of earned income, but since as you can see from the chart below, I had so many LOW income years of under $1,000, I'm eager to start adding some much higher earning years now with my new job so these new years are added into the 35-year average, effectively bumping out those lowest earning work years of 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1992, which are pulling down my average considerably. So I hope to boost those 3 magic numbers, quoted above, about what I could to expect from the SSA at age 62, 66/10 months and age 70.

How about you? Have you ever studied your SS earnings records to see what you could glean from it?

2014 $80,000, new job at bank!!

2013 $32,923 Got the bank job as a contractor in Oct.

2012 $13,992 Under employed freelancer

2011 $11,550 Under employed freelancer

2010 $30,575 Under employed freelancer

2009 $66,445 Laid off in September...uh oh

2008 $67,766

2007 $60,847 Layoff, then new job as a website writer

2006 $54,059

2005 $56,019

2004 $43,173 New job at a PR agency for the next 3.5 yrs

2003 $26,831

2002 $37,941 Consulting

2001 $64,688 New job in financial services start-up but laid off after it goes under

2000 $53,517 New job in financial services followed by layoff 9 mths later shortly after 9/11

1999 $128,835

1998 $71,464

1997 $65,132

1996 $55,042

1995 $50,707

1994 $46,118

1993 $49,182 Financial services job that lasted til 1999

1992 $1,109 Unemployed

1991 $40,160 Crime bureau job, then layoff after company goes thru merger and relocation

1990 $29,397 Crime bureau job

1989 $20,794 Real estate copywriting

1988 $22,561 Low-paying non-profit job

1987 $20,395 Undiagnosed MS symptoms; moved to CT

1986 $16,076 News reporter in VT

1985 $4,008 Law school dropout

1984 $7,030 Entered law school in MA

1983 $9,296 News reporter in MA

1982 $7,499 News reporter in MA

1981 $401 College

1980 $1,518 College

1979 $1,420 College

1978 $911 College

1977 $726 High school

1976 $740 High school

From what I can tell from my reading, it's mostly athletes who pull a hamstring with some kind of sudden start or acceleration, such as when someone might start sprinting.

I'm no athlete, but I'm 99% sure I've pulled my hamstring, simply by walking up the stairs.

I've been walking up 5 stories (that's 10 sets of 12 steps each set) for the past month or so, ever since I got stuck in the garage elevator at work and the doors wouldn't open to let me out. But I also thought I'd walk the stairs to squeeze some more exercise into my workday.

Here's what I think happened: as I placed my right foot on the step above, I only put the ball (front) of my foot on the step; my heel was hanging off the step. So when I lifted up and put all my weight on that foot, it pushed down on my unsupported heel and stretched my hamstring, the group of muscles that run from the butt down to ankle, in the back of the leg.

This painful sensation, in a much more mild variety, happened to me twice before after walking up those stairs. Each time i said to myself boy, I'm out of shape, and thought nothing more of it. Didn't really even know much about hamstrings, but I put 2 and 2 together only because a friend of mine at work severed her hamstring when she was knocked over by a wave in the ocean while she was on her vacation. She had to have surgery to reattach it and is now home convalescing.

When it happened before, I didn't start feeling sore until the next day, but it cleared up after a day or two.

This time, I think I did more damage as I must've pulled it on Friday but didn't really start feeling it til Monday, and it hasn't improved. In fact, my little toe on that foot and the side of my foot are numb. I read that's a common occurrence in pulled hamstrings.

I'll be seeing a doctor on Friday morning but also working at home tomorrow and Friday, as I'm not quit sure if I should be "resting" the leg as much as possible or doing "gentle exercise" to avoid muscle atrophy and loss of range of motion. I did try icing it once, and I know I'm also supposed to elevate it, to the extent possible.

I don't think it's a major, major thing, but if I see the orthopedist, i imagine he'll want to do an MRI to assess where the pull is and how inflamed it its. He's also a surgeon, which worries me as I don't want a hard sell on surgery or anything. It just may take a while to heal, and I don't really have a while. For instance, I need to mow tomorrow night.

Walking in smaller baby steps and keeping my leg bent are best, but i can feel the muscle in the back of the knee pulling if i take longer strides or even just stand or straighten my leg out. Then I feel it cramping up and contracting, which is very painful.

At least I'll be home tomorrow.

And it sure is nice to know I have a good health insurance plan and even a "Benny" card, an easy way to pay for the co-pay which is automatically deducted from my flex savings acct payroll deductions.

It's hot as heck today. As it was yesterday. The humidity is way, way high. We're supposed to get thunderstorms this afternoon, and then tomorrow should feel much better.

I got a small editing job from a former freelance client. I've edited two of her self-published books. I gave her a price to edit the third over 6 months ago and she kept promising I could start on the book "in a few weeks," "next month," etc. I learned a long time ago not to take her at her word. It's a little annoying, but at least now, I really don't need the work.

She finally got a job so her money problems have improved, but then she informed me she was trying to get an agent and if she got one, they would handle the editing. So the small job is simply editing the 1st 15-20 pages of her manuscript, which she will send along to agents with a query.

Her character is a sexy, independent woman living in the 1960s, so she encouraged me to listen to "These Boots Are Made for Walking" by Nancy Sinatra before I began editing. I found it on You Tube and it was quite amusing to watch.

I went to Marshall's today and nearly bought a $70 quilt/coverlet with pillow shams. It was pretty, but I don't really need it, and I'm trying too keep my center linen closet from becoming overflowing with stuff again. It was very hard to walk away from that purchase. I'm not used to doing that. I have lately been feeling the urge to spend, mainly because I can now afford to. Trying my best not to do that as I'd rather spend on bigger home improvements like a new entry door or a new kitchen or a generator or... or... or...there are so many things I could spend on.

I also stopped in at a local garden nursery that had advertised its "Open House" this weekend. I'm pretty sure it was their effort to attract more customers at a time of year when no one really feels like gardening. As far as I could tell, it was a day like any other day except that 1. A man offered me a hot dog from the grill near the entrance and 2. They had a raffle for a few items, which I would have liked to have entered, but since there was no indication whether you had to buy the tickets and there was a line at the cash register, I didn't hang around to find out.

Too much stuff to do this weekend which I know I won't get to.

The guy I found on Angie's List, well, I've given up on. We've played "phone tag" all week, which was totally unnecessary since I left him my work and home phone numbers and told him i work 9 to 5. Yet he continued to leave messages for me at home. If he doesn't have the time or motivation to figure it out, I guess he doesn't really need the job. Next.

Tomorrow's my next pickup of produce from the farm, yet i still have a bunch of kale left over from last week, plus some pole beans. I whipped up a (raw) kale salad for lunch with walnuts, dried cranberries, diced onion and grated carrot with a dressing of maple syrup, Dijon mustard, olive oil and lemon.

Delicious. A very healthy power lunch.

Met my dad and sister for dinner Thursday night. He'd come up to pick up the rest of the firewood I had for him. My sister gave me a 2 pound tomato from her garden. Well, I haven't weighed it yet; that's what my dad called it.

Next week there's an arts festival in town. I may go. Any kind of fair or festival with an admission fee was something I stopped doing years ago. This is the first one in a very long time. Again, I can afford it. I may invite a friend to join me.

Oh, where's my energy today? Being vegan, most of the time I have plenty of energy. Today, not at all. I'm wondering if possible mild dehydration is the cause, as I haven't really drunk too much today except for tea. I kept trying to nap without ever really nodding off because my neighbor was mowing and then Waldo kept jumping on me.

I did manage to get my $10K CD taken care of this am, but the State Farm agent who did it didn't know what he was doing and had to call for support to walk him thru the screens online. Patience is NOT one of my strong suits, and I was getting very impatient. Especially since this same thing happened last year when I got another IRA CD from him!

But he made up for it as I was walking out his office and we had a very nice conversation about investing and a few other things. He's very personable.

I also managed to get the $30 I was charged for a door measuring that never happened to be credited by Home Depot. However, it was a prolonged, unpleasant process. I called them last night and was finally told I had to talk to customer service and was transferred, but of course no one answered the phone. I got them early this morning at 8 a.m. but she still put me on hold THREE friggin' times!

So I'm back to square one with the door.

I stopped at the local Windowland showroom to look at entry doors, but turns out the place is now called something else and was bought by the employees of the old Windowland. Not sure when that happened, but they seemed very disorganized. And they had NO wood entry doors to look at so I spent all of 5 minutes there.

I will try Angie's List next.

Then it was on to Staples, where I wanted to get 2 new ink cartridges for my good-for-nothing Dell printer, which was telling me there was an issue with my printhead, even after I did a "deep clean" of the nozzles. There was still ink left in the cartridges but it was printing all smeary. This printer has multiple problems and I hate it. It's actually a replacement for another Dell printer, same exact model, that was also giving me problems. I have to hand feed the paper one page at a time or it will jam, and I often have to rerun the driver disk just to get it to print becus "Printer does not recognize computer."

So as it turned out they were out of one of the 2 ink cartridges at Staples, and I was worried I'd get home with just the one and it still wouldn't work. A nice young fellow was around and in all of about 3 minutes, with his help, I picked up a Canon printer for I think it was $69 on sale. And it came with the ink. So for the cost of 2 Dell cartridges ($40) plus a few dollars more, I got a whole new printer. He assured me it would be compatible with my Dell, something that had in the past kept me from replacing my stupid printer. When he told me he owned it himself, I decided to go for it.

It's still sitting in the box but hopefully I'll feel motivated to get it up and running sometime this weekend.

I picked up a few groceries at Shop Rite and then came home. It was only noon, but I hardly did anything since then except sweep up a small portion of my driveway where the firewood my dad took left a bunch of debris. I did a teensy bit of weeding and mostly sat in my sun room and watched the many bees going at the white hydrangeas in bloom and my autumn joy sedums, which also really attract bees of all stripes (pun intended). There's not much else in bloom this time of year.

Oh, yeah, I also repotted a small mum plant I bought while at Shop Rite. I had a large ugly plastic pot that had some nice perennials in it along with some tulips, so since I wanted to get rid of the pot, I transplanted the perennials and dug up all the tulip bulbs, which seem to have multiplied. However, I think it's a bit early to plant the bulbs, so will wait a few weeks for that. They'll go near the front door in a protected spot where I know the voles won't get to them.

I was able to leave work today at 3 pm. I mowed the lawn and did my monthly investment statement, which looks sweeeet.

My net worth as of today is $650,633. That's more than $18,000 more than last month. Most of this....$573,000.....is tax-deferred money in IRA and 401k accounts, accumulated over a lifetime. I have $76,999 in taxable accounts. The house and car are paid for. And I have a real job now. Life is good.

Yet, all it would take is a market correction, probably overdue. Then, I would have to rebuild savings without a bull stock market acting like the wind in my sails. It would be more of an uphill climb.

My retirement savings goal for year's end was $623,000, so I've already exceeded that goal. In fact, my goal for the end of 2015 was $673,000, so it's entirely conceivable I could hit that goal also. These are specific, tangible goals I set for myself in order to save $908,000 in 5 years time, after which, I could probably retire. (Although my "number" has long been $1.25 mm, but I don't think I want to work that long.)

Home Depot never called me this past week as they said they would, to schedule a time to come to measure my front entry so I could get a new door. They charged my credit card $30 for the measurement fee, which goes toward the door purchase price if you wind up getting the door.

But I'm annoyed at their poor customer service already, not doing what they said they would do. I'm just too busy to chase after them. I called the credit card company to dispute the charge so I can get a credit and go elsewhere, but they required me to attempt to resolve it with the merchant, so then I called Home Depot but she said I'd have to talk to customer service, and evidently, they closed early becus the phone just rang and rang and rang. I'll try again tomorrow.

I also thought I would stop in at my local, in-town Windowland to check out their doors.

Tomorrow I've got an appointment at the local State Farm office to buy another $10K worth of 5-year CDs with IRA money that's earning practically nothing in my Vanguard money market. I think the rate I'll be getting is 2.15%. At least it's something. It's long-term money so I won't need to access it.

Yesterday there were more layoffs at the bank. Not on a massive scale, but selectively done. There were some long-timers, no doubt with much bigger salaries than I have, that were among the casualties. It was upsetting.

Also on the weekend's agenda: installing new bamboo shades in my upstairs bathroom, vacuuming, laundry and attending my town's Labor Day parade with a friend on Monday.

I got yet another new credit card, my 3rd or 4th (!) with Bank of America...the Better Balance Rewards card. You earn $25 cash rewards each quarter you charge something each month and pay more than the minimum balance, on time.

There's no minimum spend requirement, just that you spend something each month during the quarter and then pay more than the minimum required, on time. So it works out to $100 a year, which is equivalent to many other credit card up front bonuses I've gotten, but those offers are getting harder to find as I've gone thru most of them, and this at least lets me earn that $100 a year over and over again, if I keep the card as one of my long-term cards. It's a fairly painless way to earn free money, so that's what I'll do. The hardest part will be making sure I charge SOMETHING in each of the 3 months within a given quarter. Otherwise, no reward that quarter. I have so many cards, that can be tricky, but as soon as I accumulate enough rewards to redeem, I'll be wanting to close down some of these excess cards. Like, my Discover card will be the first to go.

While we're talking credit cards, I'm also going after an Amex deal where if you spend $50 at Stew Leonard's (a local grocery store around here), you get a $10 statement credit. I don't think it's much more expensive than any other grocery store around here, and I always need food, so why not.

Luther and Waldo have become so jaded. They won't even bat at the string I toss for them. Stop taunting us, they seem to say. We know it's dead. We like the real thing better.

After a fair amount of time researching CD rates (I'm determined to do better than the measly .06% I'm getting with my Vanguard money market), I decided to put $10,000 in an Everbank 5-yr CD earning 2.30%.

I called last night and since it was after hours, he emailed me the forms I'd need to fill out. There were 3 different forms with over 25 pp. After using up a good deal of printer ink, I saw in one form where they actually ask for your employer's name and how much annual income you make.

This is ridiculous. Since when do banks ask for this info? I'm aware of some credit card applications that ask for income and type of occupation, but this is going too far. And frankly, I don't see the relevance of my earnings when I'm handing over ten grand.

I've opened up CDs before (at State Farm, last year, most recently) and never had to disclose this.

I called to confirm that this info was in fact a requirement and she said yes, it was. I voiced my disagreement over the phone and again over email and then tossed the printed out application forms.

Truly annoying and way too invasive. I'm tired of having to disclose every nuance of my financial life whenever I want to do something. So I won't.

In the interest of eating healthily and frugally, I continue to find new and enjoyable ways to prepare all the fresh produce I'm getting from the CSA.

Last night I whipped up some Baba Ghanoush... my first. I regret not measuring out one-quarter cup of lemon juice instead of just juicing 2 lemons, because it came out with lemon being the predominant flavor. At the same time, I ran short of the 3 tablespoons of tahini that was needed; I had only 1.5 tablespoons left.

I picked up some more tahini at Stop & Shop on the way home from work and improved it. It was quite tasty with the pita bread yesterday, but tonight slathering it like butter inside the pockets with chopped cucumber and tomato was even better. Yum.

I decided to finally do something about the $37,000 sitting earning nothing in a Vanguard money market account. Everbank emailed me the paperwork; since the it's an IRA I'm transferring, they need a real signature. 2.30% is better than .06%. It's a 5-yr CD, but this is only a portion of my cash position and I won't need to access it. I think I'm in for $10,000. If rates rise within that time, as I expect they will, I have other money I can use to ladder some more CDs.

Today at lunchtime I walked for 45 minutes; tonight at home I mowed the lawn for 30 minutes. So fit in some good exercise there.

Tonight I applied for a Bank of America Better Balance Rewards card where you earn $25 a quarter as long as you charge something every month and pay it on time and make more than the minimum payment.

I was disconcerted to not get an immediate approval...probably becus I already own 3 BankAmericards. I hope I get this one.....

Looking forward to a long holiday weekend next weekend, and of course, getting out a few hours early on Friday.

We have a new gal on our team who wasn't aware of the Thursday Farmer's Market in the city where I work, so I suggested I take her there next week. She sits where most of my group sits (I'm in another location) and there are several people there who have never struck me as especially friendly, so I do feel for her a little, being new.

My neighbors behind me are making some moves I don't approve of. We had a talk last night. I am looking the other way that they have 3 illegal tenants up there now, their solution to allowing them to remain living in their home instead of selling (which they haven't been able to do) and moving to Tennessee, home of cheap real estate.

However, she told me last night that her husband's daughter and two granddaughers are coming to live with them from England. (He's British.) His daughter is divorced, but the father sees his girls once a week, although he hasn't always been a regular part of their lives.

They are due to arrive here in the States next week, and apparently are not planning on informing the father they are leaving. My neighbor kept saying disparaging things about the father, that he was not a good husband, doesn't make good money and that his ex lived in a very bad neighborhood and needed to move to protect her children. Well, they could have moved somewhere else in England....She made it seem like the move to the US was the ONLY solution.

She said oh, the father can come visit us here. Like yeah, that will be easy?? It's outrageous to me they would disregard his paternal rights so casually.

In the meantime, they have now acquired 2 cows. The first cow kept mooing constantly for the several days it was alone and then suddenly, things went quiet. They had gotten a 2nd cow, thank God. I felt bad for the cow; it was the first time it was separated from its mother, the first time it had ridden in a trailer, for 40 minutes, and everything was strange to it. At least now it has company.

So sad to hear about Robin Williams' death. It's sad when anyone commits suicide, but all the more startling when a funny man does it.

It just goes to show you, that even with a loving family, rewarding career, respect, fame and financial independence, depression can cause horrible things to happen.

And, while debate over legalizing marijuana has gone on for decades, a perfectly legal substance known as alcohol held someone like this within its inexorable grip.

So sad...

I find that when I'm busy (aka, working f/t) I am uber-productive on my weekends.

I got all these things on my list done: 1. Weeded the driveway. (Yes, many cracks...some day I will have to repave it.) 2. Weeded the veggie garden. (I pulled the rest of the onions, and while they are pint-sized, about the size of golf balls, they are very oniony-tasting.) 3. Weeded various perennial beds and the brick patio while giving wide berth to the growing paper wasp nest, which is now the size of a basketball. The weeding is by no means complete, but at least I did a fair amount. 4. I picked up my half share of veggies from the CSA and got my biggest haul yet: 5 cucumbers, a pint of cherry tomatoes plus a pound of small regular tomatoes, a head of lettuce, a few more yellow squash, 2 bell peppers, 2 skinny eggplant, a pound of string beans. I think I forgot to take some potatoes. The farmer is looking very, very tan/red these days. 5. I watered the grass I sowed this spring, but unfortunately, this is the time of year, very warm with little rain, when whatever grass I plant partially dies back and weeds take its place. I let the watering go for probably a one-week period, and that's all it took. I am SOO tired of watering this particular plot of grass, dragging the hose around, plus a much smaller patch in the backyard where I have to haul water in a large plastic watering can. 6. Also watered the veggie garden after weeding. 7. I made my lunch for the 1st 2 workdays: cheese tortellini with sliced cherry tomatoes and croutons with a bit of salad dressing, plus sliced cucumbers on the side. 8. Stopped in at Dress Barn looking for a nice top to wear at my Thursday picnic, but didn't find anything. 9. Did the final touch-up/coat of paint on 2 windows in my office.

10. Pulled down the Virginia creeper vines that were climbing over the roof of my toolshed.

11. Had a nice lunch with a girlfriend at a new restaurant in town that is very nice with its reclaimed barnboard ceiling and brick interior walls. I had lobster bisque and a beet salad, plus she wanted desserts, so the bill for lunch came to $62 with tip!!!! I can't believe the prices!

Her big news was that she had a melanoma removed from her face, and is having more surgery this week to remove some squamous cell moles elsewhere on her body. She is fair-skinned with red hair.

12. Went over my mother's to talk to her about having an aide come to the house a few times a week. Response: No go. We got in a big argument. I give up, for now. It's too exhausting. Guess we'll have to wait til the next medical crisis comes.

13. Filled up the gas tank and picked up a few groceries.

14. Picked up a few $3 tank tops to sleep in at Wal-Mart.

Plus, I did these things that weren't on my list: 1. A load of laundry. 2. I made a pitcher of ice tea, which I like to bring to work with me in my Thermos. Much better than drinking soda! 3. Swept the upper part of the driveway where the rhododendron leaves always fall. 4. Took a walk on one of the town's walking trails - very peaceful. 5. Took a walk around the block tonight to squeeze in some more exercise before dark. 6. Used my electric trimmer to tidy up an azalea and another shrub in front of the house.

This evening before dark i noticed a silver pickup zipping up and down the street. It had flashing lights and stopped at my neighbor's, then pulled up my driveway before going up the very long driveway to the people who live behind me up the hill. A fire truck followed them up. They were there about 10 minutes, then left. I called my neighbors to make sure they were okay, and she told me someone (they don't know who) complained about all the smoke caused by the fire in their fire pit. She had been sitting outside with a book and a glass of wine and was quite startled to find a fireman in full gear on the property. They live in the middle of the woods.

I'm so grateful for another Friday...although when the weekend comes around, I feel like it's just another kind of work I've got to do.

Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend for lunch in town at a new restaurant. That's the only really "fun" thing I'll be doing.

Yesterday I worked at home becus my landline was not working and i had to let the AT&T guy in. When I got home Wed. night, however, I discovered the phone was again working, but I decided since I'd already arranged it, to still work at home, which is rare for me during the summer months unless I have a doc appointment or something.

So I was able to make some much-needed phone calls which is incredibly difficult at work since I work at a cube and there's NO privacy.

So I scheduled my physical for September, after my new health insurance kicks in, so I can earn $50 I think it is just by doing a "wellness" thing and getting that physical. There are a bunch of other things like that you can also do to earn money, up to a max of $250 a year, and I intend to try to do every one of them! As you can see, I'm still thinking frugally, even after getting the big new job, and I doubt that will ever change.

I still haven't restarted Netflix. I am so busy with yardwork and that kind of thing now, so I may wait until late fall to renew since I'll have more indoor time then. I've gotten used to free Hulu's very limited selection of shows.

I called 2 home health aide agencies to get help for my mother. Both were recommended by 2 people I know. The next step would be interviewing the 2 aides one of the agencies would send to meet me and my mother. This all takes so much time, considering I can't do this during the week. While I worry about my mother being alone so much, at her age, I also worry about the proclivity of any aide we might hire to possibly steal small items (of which there are a lot) from my mother's place. Or worse, I could see my mother asking them to help her with the computer, which she often has problems with, and the aide gets a hold of her email password. From there, she could eventually get her credit card numbers, bank account number or who knows what. I'm hoping to feel more motivated and energetic about it to schedule something for next weekend.

So, here's some financial news....Earlier this year I contributed $6500 to a traditional IRA, not knowing I would get a perm job at the bank. I'm realizing in hindsight that with my $80K gross salary, my Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) for 2014 might exceed $70K, and that would mean that the traditional IRA I contributed to earlier in the year would not be tax deductible.

I recently started contributing (the max) to my new 401k at work. Thinking about how disappointing it would be not to be able to deduct that IRA, I decided to sign up for the $5500 catch-up contribution for those age 50+.

I checked the gross I made at the bank while still employed by the agency, and it was actually a lot less than I thought, what with my mandatory week-long furlough and all those unpaid holidays. So I calculate that my gross income from the agency and the bank will be just $63,140, and after subtracting my 401k contribution ($4,264 for a partial year) ad the catch-up contribution but then add back in about $1400 in taxable interest from investments, I figure my MAGI will be just $54,776, well below the $60,000 threshold to be eligible for a full deduction on the IRA contribution.

At the same time, I'm still working on earning a 2.5% bonus on my taxable contributions I've been making into my Barclay dream account. I figure it's worth about $114 to me. I should have already earned it (you have to contribute any amount up to $1,000 for 6 consecutive months to get a 2.5% bonus on the total interest earned on the money in the account) except that either I or they screwed up one month when I could have SWORN I contributed to the Dream account but apparently contributed to my OTHER Barclay money market account. Anyway, I have 3 more months of contributions to go and then I should earn it.

Garden news:

I've begun picking small cherry tomatoes and a few smallish tomatoes from my bushes, and I've pulled up a number of small yellow onions, too. Also occasionally picking beets and there's a cucumber that's almost ready. The wineberries, at least the ones I can reach, are pretty well spent. I was able to freeze at least 4 bags holding about 2 cups each. I'm satisfied with that and would rather stay Lyme-free than diving into the brambles for more berries.

It's been a fairly cool summer(no, not complaining at all), and so my tomato plants are holding onto the green tomatoes longer, I think.

For my birthday, my sister gave me a cute little thistle feeder and the birds have discovered it. Some goldfinches and also chickadees. I enjoy watching them. And she gave me a dozen or so oranges expressly for the Baltimore Oriole feeder she gave me last Christmas. I've hung it out and have seen Orioles in early spring, but haven't seen any at the feeder.

Possible home maintenance projects on this weekend's list which I likely won't get to but have listed anyway include:

*Paint Thoro Plug over patched areas of concrete wall in basement so it's all a uniform white

* Finish painting the trim in my office (will take 5 minutes, but the clean-up is a pain)

* Pull vines off the toolshed

I'd also like to get a haircut and figure out what I'll wear to the work picnic up in Massachusetts next week. I may buy something new. I'm not really looking forward to it becus it's ALWAYS an incredibly long day, having to drive 3 hours up and 3 hours back in the same day. In addition, becus the employee who usually rents a van/SUV and drives everyone is on vacation, that leaves just me and my boss as the only employees going, with 4 different contractors. Since a contractor isn't allowed to rent the vehicle and drive, that leaves me and my boss, and my boss has already told me she doesn't want to drive. I can't blame her since she goes up there every other week, but the difference is that she stays 3 or 4 nights, while when the rest of us go, it's up and back same day. I have never driven a van or SUV before, so now I'll be driving 5 women in a van on this long drive. I can think of so many other things I'd rather be doing, believe me.

I had an appointment to meet with the director of the assisted living place they're constructing in next town over. While the private apartments were small...just 600 square feet for the 1 bedroom, probably the coolest thing about it was that they recently "bought a farm," and in a few years time, they expect to provide 85% of all the food served at the place from this farm, including veggies, grass-fed beef, eggs, and even milk.

They have a lot of communal spaces including an art studio.

But it doesn't really seem doable, given the incredible cost. For the one bedroom, it's $6,550 a month, or $78,600 a year. If I calculate the sale of her condo, her savings and what my mother gets annually in Social Security, she'd deplete her savings within 4 years. Yes, um, 4 years, when she would be 84. After which she'd have to leave, probably for a nursing home, whether she was ready for one or not, becus at that point she'd be broke.

I also studied the website of Masonicare assisted living, which is right in my town. This place is different becus it's non-profit. Unlike the first place, they require a large ($110,000) lump sum down, but then the monthly cost is in the range of $2,100. In that scenario, her money would last for 12 years. Big difference.

Both places handle the meals and offer local transportation to shopping and doc appointments when needed.

Seems that first place I visited is really designed for wealthy families, not us.

My sister and I are going back to talking about hiring someone through an agency to come in on a regular basis to do whatever or just be with her. That won't be cheap either, but I think it will be cheaper than the above 2 scenarios and she wouldn't have to give up half her stuff to squeeze into such a small space. Although the big plus about the assisted living places is their built-in social aspects with lots of activities and other people to get friendly with.

The hardest part will be getting my mother to go along with any of these options, once she hears the price. Having power of attorney and a joint bank account with her, I could just go and do it, but I'd rather she didn't hate me for doing that, so I'll have to be patient (NEVER my strongest virtue) and wheedle her into it.

Tomorrow's my birthday, so we'll be over there and bringing lunch. We will bring up the topic, although I'm not prepared to talk in great detail as I haven't done all my homework. There is so much to be done, and at work I have ZERO privacy to talk on the phone, so whenever I make a call I have to go to the stairwell, and people can't call me back given my lack of privacy.

I want to try to get my mother to give up the computer, for good. She's been calling me lately about how she can't remember her password and is leaving me frustrated messages. She really doesn't need it and mostly uses email, but mostly it just stresses her (and me) out.

I found a third yellow jacket nest in my lawn, but since it's been sort of rainy all day, I won't spray tonight.

I cooked up a bunch of zucchini and squash tonight in a casserole with sun dried tomatoes, onion, parmesan cheese and cubed stale foccacia I'd frozen a month ago. It came out pretty good. I am so tired of sauteed, watery squashes, or even roasted.

I filled up the gas tank and bought a few groceries (well, $70 worth, that's more than a few) at BJs.

Hooray, Friday and the weekend are here!

I got my first full paycheck today. By the time the federal and state deductions sucked their share, I wound up with less than I thought. However, I did contribute my 15% ($461) to my 401(k).

Hooray for the 401(k)! The first I've owned in 5 years!!

Yeah, as Petunia noted, the stock market was a bit of a downer in the past few days.

I've been keeping tabs on the largish paper wasp nest that's growing directly behind my house, maybe 8 inches from the safety of my window. It's about the size of a basketball now. At one point recently, I noticed a largish gash on my side of it, maybe 2 or 3 inches long. It was almost like a stretch mark or something, like maybe the hole was made by the weight of the nest itself. I'm not sure, but what really fascinated is that a day later, these hornets had neatly patched the hole with a live rhododendron leaf. It was really amazing. I don't know how insects can do that. It must have been a collaborative effort. Really, really interesting. To me, anyway.

My birthday is coming up on Sunday. I will be ancient then. Stash Tea sent me a deal where if I spent $20, I get $10 off, so I went and spent way too much time browsing their site and finally placed my order for $24 so I could try some interesting new teas and enjoy them in a new turquoise Stash mug.

I will also make use of a $10 off birthday coupon from the car dealer, for my next oil/filter change.

I got the lawn mowing out of the way on Wednesday and Thursday.

In another 2 weeks I'll have to make another trip north, to Massachusetts, to a team barbecue. However, because the company has instituted a new expense reimbursement policy, we can no longer drive our own cars and get reimbursed if it's over 150 miles. The trip to our office up there and back is about double that, and the barbecue will be, too. That means I have to go to the trouble of renting a car through a certain travel agency. Which will be a pain because I have no one to drive me to the car rental place, wherever it ends up being. If they don't have some sort of service to drive me home, I'd have to leave my car there, if they even permit that. Not something you want to have to mess around with, considering all the paperwork and then when you're tired coming back, to have to drop it off, etc. UGH Hate it.

I have an appt. to meet with someone and get a tour of an assisted living place near me. For my mother. I just want to get all the particulars. It would be a huge uphill battle to even get her to consider moving into one, especially if she knew the cost, but she has serious short-term memory problems. I don't think she can live alone much longer.

It's a huge task. I can't even barely think about it because if I do, I'll feel overwhelmed. My sister at least agreed to check out 1 or 2 places in her area.

Much as I love supporting the local organic farm as a member of their CSA, I've decided I won't renew my membership next year.

Today is just the 4th Sunday I'll be collecting my half share of produce, but I've already found myself with certain veggies I either don't have time to cook up or don't care for all that much.

Part of the problem is that half share owners pick up on Sundays, not before 1 pm (Full share owners pick up on Saturdays.) I'm never quite sure what we will be getting until I pick it up, so I can't plan ahead with certain recipes picked out that make use of those vegetables. Sunday afternoons I don't like running around so if I'm missing an ingredient or two, that means I have to run to the store.

I also don't much care for Swiss Chard, and we've gotten that I think every single week so far. (It's easy to grow.) I've frozen a bunch for winter soups, which is fine, but I feel I have enough and don't want to totally take up space in my smallish freezer. I already gave some produce to my mother last week, but umm, I paid top dollar for all this organic produce and here I am giving it away or hoping I don't get ever more Swiss Chard or zucchini.

I'd probably do MUCH better cost-wise to simply shop at the farm on my own, to get exactly what I want and nothing more. I don't really see any advantage to having to take produce I don't necessarily want.

I was pretty productive this weekend. I tackled the stupid back wall of a hall closet again, using some special primer that's supposed to work well on problem surfaces and stop peeling. It didn't completely work on the back wall,which had been damaged 2 winters ago now by ice dam leakage from the roof. I already overpaid a contractor and all he did was compound over it several coats. When i tried painting regular primer on top of it, it began peeling in spots when it dried.

I'm so sick of this particular job. I decided to "give up." I painted over everything and it's just one smallish area near the bottom where you can't really see it where it's still peeling. It's just not worth my time or aggravation, and I'm tired of looking at the pile of sheets, blankets, pillows, etc. on the floor. So after it dried, everything went back in.

I also was able to install a new set of bamboo shades in my office. They look quite lovely. I had been making due with two panels from a single set of curtains in my office for YEARS. They were a navy/white plaid and didn't exactly match the wallpaper in here. Now that I've gotten rid of the curtain panels, I really like the minimalist and contemporary look of the bamboo shades which, being bamboo, also remind me of my hippie youth, for some reason.

These are now the 3rd set of bamboo shades I've purchased. The other sets are in the sun room and my bedroom. Each one's a different pattern. They do take more time to raise or lower each day as i have to wrap the cord around and around and around the little thing you mount on the side of the window trim.

My new Frigidaire dehumidifier is working like a CHAMP in the basement. It's taking a ton of water out of the air down there and has done an EXCELLENT job of drying out my concrete floor, which had been getting progressively wetter with all the humidity and after the breakdown of my older DeLonghii dehumidifier.

The DeLonghi is still at Jeff's Appliance. They are trying to determine if it's just a broke sensor or the "control board," which sounds a bit ominous. Maybe they are setting me up to pay more than the $60 or $80 they quoted me on the phone (admittedly sight unseen).

This one is in the ground. I was walking across the lawn, up the slope toward the house, and there it was, plain as day. A hole in the ground where hornets were coming and going. If I had approached it from any other angle, I likely wouldn't have seen it.

I banged a wood post in the ground about 3 feet from the nest to remind myself to mow around it. I'm not sure I can go the rest of the year without mowing there, but maybe I will.

My veggie garden is pretty haphazard this year, but the onions are bigger. Too bad I didn't plant them deep enough; some are flopping on their sides. The beets are also finally taking off. I may dig a few up this weekend to see how big the roots are; i can always eat the greens.

I've also got 5 tomato plants scattered around the property (not in the garden, due to blight disease problems), in areas close to the house and fenced off to deter deer. Oh, and 1 cucumber that has lots of flowers but no cukes yet.

Nearly every year I have my annual run-in with hornets and their nests. It's hardest to spot them when the nest is in the ground. Then I'll inadvertently run over it with the mower, and that's when I get stung, on the back of the leg, usually. My leg will swell up for a week. If you've been stung, you know what it feels like...like someone's taken a small knife and twisted it into your leg. OWWWW.

A few times, now, no doubt from the trauma of being stung, I've been alert enough to spot a ground nest before I mow over it. I can spot them sometimes by noticing a lot of insect activity, of flying objects coming and going in the same area. If you stop and peer at it more closely, sometimes it turns out to be hornets going to their nest.

Earlier this year I found a small hornets nest under the broad-leaved canopy of a huge viburnum. It provides excellent shelter from rain, no doubt. I had to spray the nest because it was kind of close to the driveway, where a deliveryman could brush up against it, and actually that's what I did myself when I was mowing. The nest actually fell on the mower, but even more surprising, the hornets didn't go after me. Still, I felt I'd better spray.

Yesterday, I found an even largest hornet nest, about the size of a cantaloupe, in a rhododendron that sits very close to the house, on the back wall.

Because I know that hornets, like bees and wasps, play a critical role as pollinators, I am happy to be able to leave this nest alone until the frost kills them later in the year. It's in an area where no one will go, and I have the perfect vantage point indoors to watch as the nest gets larger.

I plan to collect the nest after a hard frost and bring it indoors to put on a shelf. To be sure no hornets are left in it to hatch when I bring it inside (they shouldn't be, according to the hornet life cycle I've read up on), I'll put the nest in a clear plastic bag and seal it for a day or two indoors. Just to be doubly safe.

I would like to post a photo of the nest but as mentioned before, I'm having trouble now adding images.

I finished up my 1st week as a perm employee. Today I got my last check from the headhunter agency, and I'll have to wait 2 more weeks, til Aug. 1, to get my first check from the bank.

I've signed up for healthcare, my flex spending account, dental care and 401k. I'll be contributing 15% to start; I may sign up for the catch-up contribution later after I get a sense of my comfort level and how much discretionary money I have left over. Just have to wait to get my ID card.

As usual, i have a ton of stuff to do this weekend. Uppermost in my mind is driving 45 minutes to drop off my dehumidifier for repair. The new one's been running and working like a champ.

I picked up a pizza tonight on my way home from work. It was the 1st time in the 19 years i've lived in this town that I tried out this particular pizza place. I don't know why that is, but it is. The pizza was pretty good and cheaper than the pizza place i used to go to, where it was hard to justify their prices.