I knew it would be bad, but yikes. I had a lot of non-recurring expenses this month that all combined to put me over the $5,000 mark in expenses this month.

New hot water heater: $723
Car insurance (for the year): $704
Homeowners insurance $584
New furnace humidifier: $520
Heating oil top off: $464
Medical: mostly related to my headaches: $330
Quarterly estimated IRS payment for my freelance: $112

My net income for the month was just $1766, so my net loss for September is - $3,292.

While I should catch up once I start the new job, this brings my YTD savings for 2013 to just $2913. At least I saved something. (I did not deduct the $19K I spent on my new car from this equation, since I pay cash when I buy a new car and it always comes out of savings.)

I wrapped up my 2 weeks at the real estate brokerage today and left a bit earlier than planned (3:30 pm), but really, while they are still so busy, they didn't even have time to give me anything to do so I literally sat around all day.

I brought in some muffins from Dunkin Donuts and we all sat around in the a.m.

I got a bunch of things done earlier, though, and it was really nice working with such an appreciative group of people. I got a chance to write press releases (3 of them), blogs (2 of them), update a bunch of web copy and update two key brochures, one for sellers and buyers and one for new realtors coming on board. I also wrote the CEO's bio on my very first day.

And I have the promise of lots of freelance work in the future. So a win/win for sure.

Got a call from BAchelor #3 tonight; first time we talked on the phone. So he's a retired equities trader. He worked on Wall Street for his entire career and finally left about 5 years ago. So I guess he made out quite well, financially. He sounds much older than the age he said he was on the phone because of the garbled way he talks, which I took a distinct disliking to. It makes him sound like an old man. Maybe it would be different in person. Can't say I felt much of a connection, but I so seldom get to even this point with this online dating stuff that I try to make an effort to at least meet once for coffee.

I think he was leading up to a possible get-together this weekend, but I sort of hedged, saying I was still unsure what my schedule was going to be as I'm trying to get various things done in the week before starting yet another new job. I guess I'll meet him, but again, feel sort of blah about it.

I had another ton of paperwork to take care of for this bank job with the recruiter. It's really getting super annoying, because instead of simply mailing me a packet in the mail, she's emailing me individual documents and forms, some from the employer and some from her agency.

Because they're PDFs, I can't just type my answers in the forms. I have to print out the forms on a cheap printer that jams when you insert multiple pages, so I have to hand feed each page one by one. Then fill out the forms, then put them back on the printer to scan them, save the scans and then email the scans to the recruiter.

How many more forms can there possibly be? What really got me going is that the person researching my background could find no record with secretary of state's office of the existence of my freelance business. That's because I chose not to register the name with the state, becus once you do that, the town learns of it and then starts wanting to charge you every year a tax on your business assets. So I just use the name informally and surrendered an earlier name I'd used before I realized the repercussions. When you register the name, it just protects that name so no one else in the state can use it, but for my little business, it doesn't really matter; it's just something I'd put on an email signature.

So anyway, she said becus there were no records of my business registered with the state, she said we have to document your income, either with a paystub showing your income or your tax return. For the past 2 years, every source of income. I already supplied info on all my other piddly little jobs, and now we're down to my freelance business.

Say what??? Why isn't my word good enough for you, for one, and two, if you're self-employed, you don't get a paystub, you idiot and 3. I'll be damned if i'm going to just hand you my federal tax return. My income is not public document and none of their business. What relevance does any of this have on my ability to do this *&^%% bank job?

I sent her my 1099 from my one main client. That's all i'm going to give her and i'm just wondering come Monday when she goes thru all the paperwork how much more insistent she's going to be. Because I may just draw a line in the sand. If she wants to risk the embarrassment of having a job candidate back out after she told the bank I accepted, becus of their excessive documenting requirements, I may suggest I'm having second thoughts. It's such an intrusion and invasion of my privacy. Once again, if you're an employee or a patient in the health care system, NO PRIVACY.

I hate this crap.

Tomorrow is our town's annual health fair, something i like to attend cus you can visit a bunch of different booths, get some free apples, toothbrushes and talk to various medical professionals, etc. Then it's to the library to rent some DVDs, drop off some old paint at the household hazardous waste drop-off site, and 3 or 4 other stops while I'm out, including some condos I'm unfamiliar with and just want to do a drive-by to see if I'd like the neighborhood.

I have a builder to interview Sunday and will write up his bio same day. Thinking of may be going down to Jersey to see my dad on Monday, come back Tuesday. See girlfriend to catch a movie Thursday or Friday matinee. None of the house chores or doc appts I'd hoped to knock off next week came to fruition becus everyone's booked well into October for whatever you need done. I still have other things to do anyway.

Math is not my strong suit.

I underestimated how much I'd make from the f/t 10-month bank job. If I work a 40-hour week making $35/hr, then I'll gross $6066 a month, or $60,666 for the 10-month period. Net, that comes out to $43,302, or $4330.25 a month.

After subtracting my "bare minimum" expenses of $2,000 a month, I'll still have $2,330 left over each month. Hey, that's a lot. It's been a long time since I worked full time. Not counting the 2-week real estate job I'm wrapping up now, I haven't worked full time since 2010!

It'd be nice to think that I could save as much as $23,300 over the 10-month period, but I do have so much deferred home maintenance around here. And, I'm not all that disciplined, especially after chafing after such a long period of self-imposed frugality.

I'd like to automate my savings, meaning on the first of each month I'll transfer a fixed sum to my online money market account. I figure if I save $1600 a month, I'll still have plenty ($730) left over for other stuff. Some of those savings could go into my SEP SIMPLE IRA, from my freelance work. (The Roth is already funded.) It won't be a lot, but I think, off the top of my head, you can contribute up to 25% of your gross, which for me would be just about $1,000.

Today at the real estate job we were all treated to a pizza lunch and the CEO called out a few people, and a few departments, to recognize for their big contributions toward ensuring a successful transition to the new brand. She singled out me, too, a lowly temp worker!

This was one of the easiest writing jobs I've ever had, but it was also pretty interesting. I guess I just enjoy working in real estate.

I've wanted to bring in some sort of little treat for them tomorrow, my last day there, but I've been too anxious to get home at the end of the day, after a longish commute, plus i haven't seen any good bakeries on the way in. There's a stop and shop nearby, but i don't think they're known for their baked goods.

If I can get an earlier start tomorrow a.m., I could maybe find something at Caraluzzi's right here in town. An extra 20 minutes would do it.

I charged my homeowner's and my car insurance tonight on one of my rewards cards, immediately earning me the $100 cash back. I also earlier earned another $100 from my new Barclaycard. It sure is easy money, but I may be running out of cards to apply for with those bonus rewards.

The last 2 days I happily created a list of all the things I want to accomplish next week, before I start the bank job.

Among them:
1. Visit dad for an overnight trip in Jersey.
2. Get handyman back out here to do a few repairs.
3. Chimney cleaning.
4. Furnace cleaning.
5. Breast ultrasound.

I was crushed to hear back from the handyman who had been in a very similar position to me, financial-wise, when I first met him, but then had to put the work on hold when my 3-day-a-week furniture company job was downsized to "as needed."

Today he told me he also landed a big break and is supposed to start a new f/t job...you guessed it, next week. He'll be building a large luxury home that he estimates will take a year to complete.

I really was counting on him. He's smart, knows what he's doing, wasn't trying to gouge me...I went back to the friend whose husband had recommended him. Friend says hubby has a ton of contacts in all the trades, so maybe there's someone else they can pull out of a hat.

I scheduled the chimney cleaning, but it won't happen til end of October becus they're booked up, and same thing with the furnace cleaning. Will have to call one of them back to see if I can put both jobs on same day so I don't have to ask my new employer to come in late or work at home on 2 days, just one.

As for the breast ultrasound, nurse at gynecologist's office isn't sure if doc will do a referral for me to get the ultrasound (dense breasts) without doing the mammogram as well. I've had mammograms yearly since age 40....they're not without controversy, you know, due to the not insignificant radiation. I just had that CAT scan, so I'd like to skip the mammogram for one year and just do the ultrasound. She said she'd call me back tomorrow and let me know.

Today at work I was talking to my manager when the CEO walked up to us. She held up a brochure in her hands and said, "Did you write this?" (Uh-oh, I think.) "Yes, I guess I did," I said. "This is fantastic," she said. "This is really fantastic. We've got to get this in the agents' packets," she directed to my manager. I asked her if I could have a copy and she told me that I wasn't getting hers and walked away.

Today was the big gala event at local performing arts center to officially transition to the new brand, and 1400 agents would be there; CEO wanted my sales brochure in their information packets.

This, coming from a woman with a rep of being hard to please. I think this will further secure my ability to do more freelance work for them after I leave.

I knew today would be an easy day and ending early for me, because both the agents from all over the state, and the staff at HQ, would be heading to the gala event around 2, and that's when I would have to leave. Also, I'm back to my usual insomniac ways, and I woke up again at exactly 3 am for the third morning in the row. As often happens, I started composing a blog I had told my manager I would write the next day. I had it all written out in my head! Fearful that I'd forget it my a.m., I got out of bed and typed it all down on my computer, then went back to bed, where before I knew it, I was composing the 2nd blog in my head. Wide awake now. That one, too, I had to get down on paper lest I forget my brilliant prose.

So anyway, it was easy to wrap these both up today. Sure was nice to have a few extra hours for moi late afternoon. I was able to mow the back lawn and change the hummer water, though I'm not sure if the hummer has left for Mexico already. Nights are getting chilly.

Speaking of chilly, the heat is not yet on, of course, but I did throw my winter comforter with flannel duvet (oh, it's SO comfortable) on the bed. Also partly due to one of the cats, ID unknown, having puked on two quilts AND a throw, meaning I had to strip the bed.

I'm looking forward to figuring out how to allocate my future weekly or biweekly paychecks. I like to set aside a fixed $ amount toward savings on the first of each month. I firmly believe that without setting goals, you'll never achieve anything worthwhile. So I need to set new goals for myself.

The month of September I will likely be way in the red, due to 5 large irregular expenses: 1. higher than average healthcare cost of over $300, due to headache issue, 2. the humidifier ($530), 3. the new hot water heater ($770), 4. an estimated IRS tax payment for my freelance work (just $125) and oil tank fill-up this week ($440).

Coming any day now will be the homeowners and car insurance totaling over $1,000. Yikes.

This month's income will be half of what would be needed to pay for all this stuff. I'll be catching back up to where I need to be soon.

I'm reading a new book which I really quite like. (See sidebar.)

Things didn't work out with Bachelor #2. I really was attracted to him, but I think we both realized that we wouldn't mesh because riding his "hog" (he has TWO Harleys) is a big part of his life, and he likes to take trips with them, like to NH, while I have zero interest in getting on a bike, at my age! I just don't think they're worth the risks you take with so many distracted drivers.

Just yesterday there was a one vehicle motorcycle accident; i suspect the biker was cut off or tried to cut someone else off at an exit. As the traffic crept by the crash, I saw the police leaning over the man, still on the bike and on the ground. He wasn't moving. So no, you won't get me on a bike.

Fortunately, there is now a Bachelor #3. Jeff by name. He's supposed to call tonight; if all goes well, I'll suggest a meeting next week. He sounds very mature, smart and balanced. Semi-retired from hedge fund trading, I think, and doing some volunteer work. I really don't know much about him aside from a few emails, but he sounds pretty nice and lives nearby.

That is, I got the bank job!

I start Oct. 7.

Will be mostly wrapping up the real estate job this week, but told her if she needed me to work a bit into next week, I probably could, although I might want to do it from home at that point, and that I was still available for occasional weekend work.

She agreed to both suggestions. Not that I want to work 24/7, but I have a lot of catching up to do and you never know what'll happen with the bank job, so better to have two birds in the hand.

Next week I hope to take care of a few doc appts and HOPEFULLY deal with my headache issue. Maybe call the guy to do my closet damage repair cus I'll want ot be home when it does it. I'm on Prednisone for a week and it seems to be keeping headaches at bay, but not sure what happens after that if they just return? Also would like to run down to Jersey to see my dad for a day as I think his worsening vision is keeping him from driving up here.

Recruiter's feedback was that employer thought the interview went very well (so did I), that I'd be a great fit and they liked me not just for my copywriter skills but also becus of the "outsider" view I could bring to the job. (Not having worked at a bank before, I guess.)

I had a ton of paperwork to fill out tonight, the app, background check ok, references, w-4, etc. She wanted precise salary and contact info for last 2 years of work, including, she said W-2s, which I thought was overly intrusive and unnecessary since I'm giving her all the $ details anyway. It seems if you're an employee or a patient, you have zero privacy.

Anyway, I'm happy I got the job. I was afraid she'd think I was overqualified. I don't know that it will be the most interesting job, and certainly not as interesting as my current real estate job, but hopefully it won't be too bad. And I've never worked for a bank before, so this will nicely round out my financial services experience on my resume. It's not so much marketing, which is really my thing, but more customer communications, writing in a very concise, direct and straightforward manner about non-marketing stuff they need to know about their accounts or whatever.

So it will last for 10 months, or into next July. I'll gross about $56K which I calculate will be about $40K net. I hope to save as much of that as possible but also get some long-deferred home repairs done. No extravagant dining out, clothes shopping or OTHER SHOPPING. Just the essentials.

Commute will be a relative joy, at just 35 minutes, a very easy and direct drive, compared to 50 minutes to real estate job and 60 minutes plus to the furniture company job.

Also got some nice feedback from the woman who hired me for the real estate job; she said she couldn't have done it (the transition to new brand) without me, that I'd helped her out like this a few times before, that everyone in the dept liked me and asked if I could stay, etc. I will have to bring them donuts or some kind of treat before I leave.

I had also suggested via email that in addition to staying a bit longer into next week, that I'd still be available on weekends, and she liked both ideas.

I must say this job was super easy to fall into from day 1, partly becus i had a prior work relationship with the hiring manager, and partly becus I've worked quite a bit in real estate (different brokerage) and know the business pretty well. Also, the people there are very down to earth and friendly and seem like a good cross-section of everyday people. Very different from the furniture company where it was a very youthful employee base with a certain snob appeal and, i noticed, a lot of gay people (who gravitate toward design or artsy jobs, i guess?) and very NYC-oriented.

There was a guy who started at the real estate company, someone I knew from the job I was laid off from in 2009. He was also hired temporarily, but he lasted 2 days and then they let him go. So, you can never rest on your laurels, sit back or relax when it comes to jobs. Stay alert, do your best, always.

On to yet more new adventures. I've had a ton of experience in new work environments with new people all the time, new commutes...makes my head spin but I guess it's all good experience, especially for an introvert.

So if you haven't been following the fiasco, it went like this: The HVAC company came to install a furnace humidifier. The winters here are so dry I wake up with a sore throat each morning.

The old humidifier connected to the furnace had, at some point leaked and rusted out the plenum and some of the furnace. No real damage to the furnace but it looked unsightly and I didn't want it to attract attention when I sell the place, so I also asked them to replace the plenum, which is basically a large duct on the furnace. (Nothing I can do about the furnace rust, but at least the rusty plenum doesn't draw attention to it.)

They quoted me a price of $520 if I supplied the humidifier myself, and another $210 if they supplied an Aprilaire humidifier. (It's all labor.) Getting the different brand, a Desert Spring, was something I'd been considering after researching it online. Ultimately, I decided not to because they weren't familiar with it and I decided it'd be better to go with an Aprilaire in case they or someone else needed to service it.

They came to install it about 2 weeks ago and left. A day or so later, they call and say they have to come back to "reinstall a certain part." Actually, they had to reinstall the way they wired it to my furnace. They rewired it so the wired isolation relay is between the oil burner primary control and the fan center. The fan center is now the power source for the humidistat and thermostat. Apparently a conversation took place and that's what they decided to do. Not sure what he'd done to start with...

OK, I can deal with that.

After they left the first time, I noticed a wet spot on the floor of my electric hot water heater. I did wonder, momentarily, if it could be related to the recent humidifier installation, but i also know that hot water heaters will start leaking when they beg in to "go." I looked up when I'd last replaced it, and it was 11 years ago. I went online to see what the average age of an electric hot water heater is, and it said 10 to 12 years. So I figured it was probably ready to go due to age.

I didn't want a flood in my basement so I went with Home Depot to install it to the tune of $770 with labor.

I took a day off from work so I could be here when they came (and also for my bank interview). Home Depot never showed, but they managed to arrive the next day.

He began to disconnect the hot water heater, saw the damp spot and showed me how the water was actually seeping down from the new shut-off valve, which sadly I didn't notice. In other words, the hot water heater was fine, but by this time he had already cut a pipe in the process of disconnecting it.

So I had to go through with it and I figure I might as well due to its advanced age.

But I was still fuming mad at the HVAC company becus for all I knew, I could have gotten another year or more out of it and not working f/t, I certainly don't need more big expenses.

When I called the HVAC people, I was real ticked off at his attitude. The first words out of his mouth after I told him what happened were, "We're not responsible for your new hot water heater." I wasn't asking him for reimbursement but I was simply telling him what happened, which wouldn't have happened if their valve hadn't been leaking. Then he suggested the water wasn't leaking from their valve. He didn't even see it and now he's trying to deny it???

He asked for photos, which I emailed and then he quickly said yes, that's our valve and he'd have someone over here to replace it. The guy who did the installation apparently told him the valve was "no where's near" the hot water heater, which wasn't true at all since it was directly above the hot water heater.


This is the shut off valve in question.


It's directly above the new hot water heater, as you can see.

So he apologized in the email for being testy.

Now in the past, I would just take my lumps like this as they come, figuring, what else can I do. There have been any number of times over the course of my homeownership where workmen or contractors here doing some kind of work cause damage to something else, and most times, I've just had to accept that.

This time, I was pissed, and while I knew I couldn't expect them to pay me the $770 for the hot water heater, I emailed and asked him for the first scheduled annual maintenance on the Aprilaire for free, to make up for some of the aggravation. Something I would never had thought to do before. He agreed.

I figure that's got to be worth about $100, so at least I got that for my trouble and aggravation.

It gets better though.

When the guy came this morning to replace the broken bolt on the shut off valve, he also gave me the bill for the humidifier installation. Usually they mail it after the faCt, but since he was here, he just gave it to me.

Again, the estimate i got said the price was $520 if I supplied the humidifier, plus another $210 if they supplied the Aprilaire model. The bill i got today was $520; I think the guy in the office looked at it quickly without reading it through and forgot that they supplied the humidifier, not me.

So IF they don't catch that mistake, I will have saved $200 on that. I wondered for a brief second if he threw in that break to me on account of the leaking shut off valve, but I really doubt that as he'd already given me the free service call and I think he would have told me if that's what he was going to do.

I just hope he doesn't catch the mistake.

I plan to connect with the recruiter for bank job first thing tomorrow to review how the interview went and learn when I'll find out if I got it or not.

At first blush, you'd think I'd be a slam dunk for the job becus I have the financial services experience, I'm a great writer, yadda yadda yadda. But I'm worried that because I could not show her specific examples of letters I've written JUST LIKE the ones I'd be writing in this job, she may pass on me. Employers are funny. It doesn't matter that I could do this job with my hands tied behind me in a pool of water. My portfolio had a slew of marketing writing samples, but these letters would be "non-cross-sell" letters, meaning, they weren't meant to sell anything, just inform the customer in a straightforward way about a change or event they need to know about concerning an account. Easy-peasy.

If I don't get this job, it will really suck, becus right now I have no other hot job leads.

So yesterday, the Home Depot sub-contractor finally showed up to install the new hot water heater. I can't tell you how upset I was when one of the guys informed me that the concrete floor right next to the hot water heater was wet, not because the 11-year-old heater was finally kicking the bucket, but because the new shut-off valve the furnace humidifier guy had just installed the day before was leaking!!!!

I had seen the wet floor and assumed it was the hot water heater leaking. The shut off valve for furnace humidifier is directly above the hot water heater.

By this time, it was too late to back out of the hot water heater installation as the guy had cut off a pipe on the old one. What it comes down to is that I spent $700 for a new heater I didn't necessarily need due to the ineptitude or carelessness of the furnace humidifier guy. The bolt used to tighten the value was no good. the hot water heater guy said when he saw the leak, he tried to tighten the bolt and it came apart in his hand.

I was super upset about it but have more or less accepted it now. Eleven or so years is about all you can expect from an electric hot water heater. How much more I could have gotten out of it, I don't know, and maybe I could have sold the house before I'd have to replace it. Also a shame that when you buy a new hot water heater, it's not like you're getting anything NEW or better in terms of the water that's provided. It's just money spent. It will look good when I sell the house in my list of home improvements, I suppose.

I got an email from a dentist I've been to before on Friday announcing an unusual Saturday opening, due to someone's cancellation. They are usually booked far in advance. As an added incentive, the first person to take that spot would also get a free teeth whitening kit. I decided to take the spot becus I realized it had already been 6 months since my teeth cleaning, and they said yes, you can get just the cleaning ($105) without the exam or x-rays.

The one thing I don't like about this dentist is he's always trying to sell you something when you get there and i disliked having to sit through his sales pitch. Dentists have these expensive x-ray machines and so they don't make their money back unless they get people to pay for x-rays.

Now I've gotten dental x-rays all my life and not once has a dental x-ray revealed any issues whatsoever. Not to say that wouldn't happen, but I don't think you need to get them every year like the dentists want you to if you take care of your teeth, as I do.

Plus, I'd just had that CAT scan for the possible sinus infection and I knew I'd had dental x-rays about a year ago with a different dentist who offered them for free, so I declined this time around. Then he said he would do the exam for free, probably becus if he uncovered problems in your mouth, he'd be boosting his income anyway. He didn't find anything in the visual exam but kept hammering away at me saying my fillings are old and there could be a cavity under them and you really should have x-rays.

He did also give me a brochure that described a dental insurance plan where if you spend $210 upfront, it covers 2 cleanings, x-rays and exams for a year, plus you get 25% off any fillings that might be needed.

I might consider doing that since, unless I found another dentist offering a new patient special, which I've done a few times already to save on dental bills, I'd be paying $105 anyway just for the cleanings.

I spent a number of hours yesterday doing additional work for the real estate job, writing up a press release about an award they got and finishing up on a brochure given to new realtors, talking about training, benefits and so on. I was trying to make up for Friday, a day I mostly didn't work, becus of the bank interview and the hot water heater contractor.

So this second week there will likely be my last week there, although if it turns out I don't get the bank job, I will definitely tell her I'm still available if they need me. Either way, I'll tell her I'm always available for weekend work should they need me. I'm hoping that now that I've shown how easily I can pick up the work, she'll find it easy to send me various assignments. They're really so very unparticular about what you write. As long as it sounds good, you can approach it whatever way you like without having to conform to anyone else's idea of what it should be.

I used to do a ton of PR work for this person about 5 years ago but have gotten very little from her in the more recent past. It's possible she'd forgotten how easy I could make it for her! However, what they're paying me now, $35/hr, is quite a bit less than what I usually charge, $50. I knew that when I suggested the $35/hr; I wanted to encourage them to consider hiring me to work full days or weeks at a time, on site, rather than piecemeal for individual projects. I'd make more money that way.

Trying to figure out what to do today; I'm not used to having only a day or two of free time to do personal stuff when you're working. I need to go grocery shopping and figure out some work week lunches, although I've been doing pretty well with $1.25 bean burritos at Taco Bell supplemented by my own snacks and drinks.

I did make a pretty good vegetarian chili using a box mix and adding a can of beans and my own tomatoes. I think I'll save the 2 leftover portions for 2 lunches this week. For the other days, I think I'd like to make my mother's cold pea soup recipe. It's very good, and becus you don't cook the peas, the soup is a bright green and very healthy looking.

I was going to pull up my cherry tomato plants this weekend, but there are still so many tomatoes on the plants and it will be in the low 70s this week. Maybe I'll give them another week.

I HAVE to mow later today when the grass is dry. I think I'll pick up around the house (really needed) and maybe around noon stop by to see my neighbors with some more tomatoes from the garden.

There was yet another delay in getting my 5-year CD with State Farm Bank going. First it was the agent I saw who explained he needed a copy of my driver's license, and so I had to wait for him to mail me the forms. Then yesterday State Farm the company sent me forms becus they needed either my beneficiary or me waiving my right to name a beneficiary. If there's one more delay or issue associated with this stupid CD, I'll withdraw the whole thing and do something else with the money. Not sure it's worth the 2% on $8,000 ($160) for all the trouble.

My first pay day is this Friday. Can't wait. Before I left the office on Thursday, I asked my manager if I could email her my hours for the week, have her review them and then have her pass them on to Payroll. She said fine, but I was feeling nervous becus she's super busy amid the whole brand transition thing and I was worried she wouldn't see the email and not get it to Payroll in time. So after I emailed it and later in the day on Friday, I also called and left her a message. I didn't get any acknowledgement from her but am counting on her to get it right. Too easy to let something like that slip; it happened to me before with the furniture company job becus the woman who usually handled my time sheets went on vacation and my time sheet somehow got lost in the process of someone else doing it.

So the next step in the search for a cure/cause of my near daily headaches: doctor suggested Friday night that we try prednisone/steroids for a week to see if we could "break the cycle" of headaches. I was game. I picked up the meds yesterday and was going to start them today (best to start in the am due to dosing) but now I'm delaying doing so becus i was mostly headache-free yesterday and feel pretty good today. If the headaches return, fine, i will start the meds tomorrow. But they are pretty heavy duty meds so don't want to use them unless i have to, and right now, it feels like a spontaneous recover; i want to see if that will last or if headaches return.

This was a crazy busy week.

I wrapped up my first of 2 weeks at the real estate job. Very, very busy over there, and I have lots to do, but that's a good thing. The people are nice to work with and I even have my own office.

I think it will look very good on my resume to be able to say I was hired for 2 weeks to help the company transition all its sales lit to the new brand, and among my first day assignments was writing the CEO's bio. I also updated the key brochure used with sellers/buyers, and have been asked to interview a homeowner (who's listed his home at $5 million) for a story they want to pitch to the local paper. So very diversified work, which I really like.

My doctor wanted me to have a CAT scan yesterday for my headaches becus she suspected I have a sinus infection. I had the scan, reluctantly, and the technician told me that while she's not a doctor, my sinuses look perfectly clear. So, likely waste of money, not to mention radiation I'd rather not have.

I will have to chase after the doctor now for the official results. Unless you're there for an appointment, their follow-up is terrible. I have no idea what the next step is, but I can tell you the headaches persist; better on some days, worse on others. Sometimes not like a real headache, just a lower grade pressure. I personally have not ruled out Lyme or some other tick-borne illness, though it appears my doctor has based on the bloodwork.

And the beat goes on.

I had the anticipated interview at the bank for the 10-month contract job there. I think I did pretty well; my only concern is that she doesn't think I'm overqualified or that i might be bored with the work, as it's solely focused on non-marketing customer communications. I sent off my thank you letter earlier and of course the recruiter is anxious to talk to me about how it went. I'll let her call me. She's a little over the top. After my interview with another recruiter at her firm and after scheduling the interview with the hiring manager at the bank, she also wanted to have a special conversation with me to prep for the interview. We did that 2 nights ago. Then this a.m. she calls me again to wish me good luck and make sure I didn't have any questions. Enough already!

This a.m. I also had the company that installed the furnace humidifier come back to fix something in the way they installed it.

When they left after the original install, I noticed my electric hot water heater was leaking. It's 11 years old, so I guess it needs replacement. To expedite matters, I found one on Home Depot and arranged to have them install it today. I was taking the day off from work to get all this stuff done, so it was important that they do it. They were supposed to call this a.m. between 8 and 9 to confirm the installation and let me know whether they'd be coming in the a.m. or pm. They allow themselves a 3-hour block of time, so you have to wait around a half day for them to arrive anyway.

Well, they never called this a.m. and they never showed, either. I finally called at 3 and the woman had no idea what happened, or why they didn't show. She said I'd have to reschedule, by which time, I was about ready to scream.

I was able to reschedule the install for tomorrow, but again, I'm supposed to wait for the confirm call 1st thing in the a.m. I have a 9 am dentist appt, so i hope they call on time.

I wrote a scathing review on the Home Depot site; their message said IF my review is "approved," it'll post in 72 hours. Hmph.

I usually like to bring my lunches to work, but I couldn't think of anything good to make for work lunches last weekend, and so after that first day of work when this woman monopolized the conversation, talking about nothing but her surgery, I decided to head out on my own for lunch each day to the nearby Taco Bell. I'm not a real fan, but they do make a decent bean burrito (sans sauce) which costs just $1, so I kept costs down for the most part.

Had to pay $1.50 in quarters to pay the meter when i went to the bank interview. The guard told me afterwards that i could have parked in the garage and had them validate the ticket. I had ASKED the recruiter about parking, whether the bank had its own parking lot, and naturally she said she didn't know. Hmph.

If I could just get that damn hot water heater installed tomorrow, and get the dental cleaning out of the way, then at least I'll have one full day (Sunday) to relax before returning to work. Then, it'll just be the whole headache thing distracting me from my work.

I wrapped up my second day at the new job. It's extremely busy, and they seem grateful that I'm there.

I can't help but compare this job at a well-known real estate brokerage, recently bought by a larger and even better known name, and the upscale furniture company I worked at over the past few months.

They are both extremely successful companies, but their cultures couldn't be more different.

At the furniture company, the whole atmosphere was what I'd describe as "urbane sophisticate." Their offices were in a renovated brick factory building in a section of the city that, once downtrodden, is being reborn. Inside, the plumbing and ductwork and wiring is all exposed on the ceilings. The kitchen is humongus, with 2 stainless steel refrigerators, 3 matching dishwashers and ample room to fit a bunch of people.

No one save the president of the company has an office, and even his had just a glass wall. The rest of us sat in an open setting with work stations butting up against each other. It was often very noisy and difficult for me, as a writer, to work.

At the real estate company, they share office space with other businesses, although this, too, is the corporate HQ. They still have the old-fashioned cubicles with walls only 4 feet high. So you get a modicum of visual privacy but really very little sound privacy. Still, after working in such an exposed setting where anyone can walk by and peer at your computer screen, I relish my little cubicle.

The kitchen is laughably tiny with a small table that could fit 6 people max. It's obviously an afterthought.

At the furniture company, there was a "briefing" meeting with several people attending for even the smallest writing assignment, just to spell out the purpose of the piece, when it was due and how it would be used. My manager, the Editorial Director, extensively rewrote much of what I wrote to fit their "style."

At the real estate company, they are preparing for the official launch of their new brand and are scrambling to have everything ready by next week. They are literally throwing brochures, presentations, ads and other collateral at me, asking me to update this, edit that and rewrite this. They provide next to no direction on what they're looking for when it comes to writing new copy, but they seem very pleased with everything I've done with not too much critique in the process.

Ironically, I found it more stressful working for the furniture company. I was surrounded by 20-somethings and a lot of city-oriented people with a certain snobbish attitude.

The real estate company seems much more your everyday people. Everyone seems to know who I am and it's flattering that the woman who hired me is having me do a once over on just about everything that's going out the door. It's obvious they never invested in a professional writer because a lot of their stuff is poorly written.

I am still struggling to set an interview date/time with the bank, and until i do that, I don't want to schedule my hot water heater replacement (the one I have is leaking it is somewhat urgent) nor schedule the return trip for the guy who installed my furnace humidifier as he neglected to do something with a certain part. (Annoying.) I'm also still having a lot of trouble with headaches. Spoke to doc yesterday and she said bloodwork shows I'm negative on any of the tick-borne diseases but that my sed rate, a marker for inflammation, was elevated, so i do have an infection somewhere in my body. She is thinking nit could be sinus infection and suggested either another round of antibiotics, this time targeted toward the sinus infection, not Lyme, or a CAT scan to see if there is swelling/pressure in my sinuses.

I initially opted for the CAT scan becus i wanted to get to the bottom of my problem, but seeing as how her assistant never called me today to schedule the CAT scan, I'm going to call doc back again tomorrow and ask for the meds. Otherwise, it's wait to schedule the scan, wait for the scan itself, wait for the results...this is ridiculous. I'm struggling to keep up with a very demanding new job and having to deal with constant headaches. I don't like dosing myself repeatedly with antibiotics, but it would be quicker, with no radiation from a CAT scan.

It's frustrating becus she's so difficult to reach; you have to call and leave a message and she (hopefully) returns the call in the early evening.

I took a Sudafed pill this morning to see if that would reduce my headaches, since it's designed to reduce congestion/pressure of sinuses, but i can't say it helped. I was very headachey all day until about 4 pm, when things eased up.

I'm now officially starting the real estate job on Monday, 9 am.

It sounds like i might not have to drive in every day, but I will on the first day.

I will finish up by Sept 28, so it will really be just 2 weeks, not 3 weeks of work. Plus, I'll have to take some time off for the expected bank interview...but maybe I can work at home, or take work home, to make up for lost time.

I'm going to email the bank recruiter now and ask her to call me on my cell on Monday, now that I know I won't be home. Hopefully, when I get the call, I can just scoot out to somewhere private to set that interview up. Maybe it won't really be necessary, it's just scheduling a time.

It's something...perhaps it could lead to similar short-term assignments, you never know.

I finally got my furnace humidifier installed today and am looking forward to my first ever comfortable winter.

PS Wednesday night, per doc's suggestion, I stopped taking Cat's Claw for the Lyme Disease, as her quick search online indicated it could cause headaches. On Thursday, I had fairly strong headache all day, starting around mi-morning.

Today, however, no real headache. It seems borderlineish, but much better compared to yesterday. Could it be the stupid herbs themselves were causing the headaches? If so I will try to contact the author of the book. It was the same herbalist who said that "2%" of people report getting hives when taking the andrographis. I was one of those people. Don't know how he can judge it's just 2% since not everyone is going to bother to tell him.

The phone interview with recruiter for the bank job went very well this morning. She said she thought I'd be perfect for the job, and the more I heard about it, the more I agreed!

This is a regional bank in 16 states, on the East Coast, and I was surprised to hear they have never had a "professional writer" before. I would love to step into that role of managing all their sales letters and notices. It's not marketing as much as it is customer communications where you're not really pitching/selling something, but more about administrative stuff. I could do it with my eyes closed.

So, as requested, i sent a pile of writing samples over after I hung up, and she said she'd have her associate call me Monday to schedule an interview with the hiring manager at the bank.

I'd LOVE to get this job, because it's longer term (10 months) with the possibility to go further. It would be a 35-minute commute, which, after driving over an hour to that high end furniture company contract job, would be a piece of cake.

And, I'm still waiting to hear back from the real estate 3 week job which I was kind of hoping I could start on Monday. I will need to start quickly (that's what she said she wanted) so that it doesn't bump up against my start date at the bank job, which, if I was hired, would be Sept. 30.

I sent a brief note to my contact at the real estate job just letting her know I might have another possible assignment starting 9/30, which SHOULDN't be an issue since she'd told me their work for me would end Sept. 25. I'm not sure what the significance of that date is, but anyway.

So, I'm very anxious to get started at both places as I have various expenses, of course, plus I want to get started on some home improvement fixer upper projects to get my house ready for market.

Mostly minor stuff but I need money to do it.

I saw my doctor again yesterday for my Lyme. She seemed puzzled that I was still having headaches, and when I told her I was still taking these 3 herbs, becus I thought they helped on previous occasions when I had Lyme, she looked them up online and quickly found that the cat's claw can sometimes cause headaches! Which is interesting, cus the herbalist who wrote the book whose advice I'm following mentioned a few other side effects, but not headaches. So we agreed I'd stop taking the cat's claw.

I can tell you my headache has been with me all day today and has been fairly pronounced, so I'm afraid the headaches are not cats claw-related. Which would have been too easy.

I also had the doc take my blood and I asked her if she could identify the specific tick-borne bacterial infection I have since she said yes, the antibiotic(s) used for the infections would vary somewhat depending on whether it's Lyme or rocky mountain or babeliosis, although doxycyclin is the gold treatment, which is what I had first 2 rounds already.

She's supposed to call me tomorrow with the results and then I guess we'll take it from there. I do hope we learn something definitive. Unfortunately, though I'm paying $589 a month for health insurance with the state plan of last resort, my doctor doesn't accept that plan and so I had to pay for the visit/blood draw out of pocket, just $87, but I am hoping the bloodwork, which is done at the hospital, will be covered at the hospital. Doc said she thought they'd have to accept every plan there.

Despite my headache issues, I am feeling very upbeat due to the job situation. Staring no income in the face is not a nice place to be.

And if i got the bank job and, worst case scenario, it only lasted the 10 months, I would have worked there long enough, I think, to qualify for the maximum amount of unemployment benefits again, so that would be something. Having paid my mortgage off, I could almost live on it.Or at least get by.

Do you ever feel like events are just whip-sawing around you, and you're doing your best to stay on top of everything? That's kind of how it's been going today.

I was just headed out to the library so I could fax the job application paperwork over to the real estate company where it looks like I'll be temp working for 3 weeks. She'd said they needed it in hand before I began work, so I wanted to get going asap.

But just as I was leaving, I got a call out of the blue from an old friend of mine I haven't seen in ages. He's a court marshal and happened to be serving papers in my town, so we arranged for a brief get-together at a local hot dog joint. It was great to see him, but after that, I got to the library and faxed my papers. I've been assuming that I could be starting at that job tomorrow.

Then out of the blue I get a call from an Atlanta recruiter about a bank job (contract)I applied for earlier today. I probably didn't come across that well as she had roused me from a nap, and I must say she sounded rather nervous, but after a brief conversation, she said she'd schedule a phone interview with a more senior level recruiter there for tomorrow a.m., and that she'd send me an email confirmation.

After I hung up I realized I have some direct experience copywriting for several banks which I'd completely forgotten about becus it was a short-lived position right before 9/11 happened and then I was laid off. I needed to keep my resume to 2 pages and it seemed relatively unimportant compared to other work experience, so I took it off my resume, but in hindsight, other bank experience would be perfect.

She asked me about availability, and I didn't want to mention the real estate job becus it IS only for 3 weeks. The bank job is for 10 months. The pay for both happens to be the same ($35/hr). I figure by the time they get to the point of offering me the bank job, time will have elapsed and it might only be a matter of a 1 or 2 week delay before I could start.

So I'm juggling bank interview scheduled for tomorrow a.m. and the real estate job, possibly starting as early as tomorrow. Luckily, it's already 4 pm and I haven't heard from real estate job so I should be able to squeeze in the bank phone interview without trouble.

Seeing doc in a little while for the Lyme. Headache most of the day. Not good.

I was told I couldn't start til their home office has my application and credit check permission in hand. If she wants me to start day after tomorrow, I don't see that happening unless I fax them the app/credit check ok. The forms couldn't be filled out and sent via email, very inconvenient.

So I offered to fax them, which she said would be great. So tomorrow will go to library and pay the exorbitant fee of about $6 to use their fax. (Perhaps I didn't need to offer that, since the burden should be on them to pave the way for my start, but I was worried that the timeframe for me to do their work ends on a certain date, after which I couldn't work, even if work needed to be done. In which case, it would behoove me to start asap so as not to lose any billable hours.)

She also said I'd be treated as a temporary p/t person working 30 hours a week for 3 weeks. Which is what I wanted (instead of being an independent contractor).

I got my haircut today; I'm never really thrilled with my Great Clips cuts, but it does the job.

I also went to BJs and stocked up on 5 large, heavy boxes of cat litter there so I wouldn't have to buy them in winter. I'd like to get another 5 and that should get me through winter and into next spring.

I also made appt with my doc for tomorrow to ask about the Lyme. Or, more specifically, do they use a different antibiotic depending on what kind of tick-borne disease you have? If so, i need to get the blood test, which we dispensed with this time to save me money, since at the time I was without health insurance. I have a feeling it's the same antibiotic, but I'd like to be sure, cus otherwise, that might explain why I'm still getting symptoms.

I discovered when checking my Vanguard accounts online that the $8,000 I wanted transferred to a State Farm Bank CD never went through, and a rep on the phone said no record of that request anywhere. So then I had to get on the phone with State Farm. Turns out they didn't get my signature on something where they needed it, plus he needs a copy of my driver's license AND they want a copy of my Vanguard brokerage statement. NOT. This seems really intrusive, and I'm not about to reveal my assets to State Farm, so he said I could white out the numbers, they just want to see the account number. Well, I supplied them with the account number of the money market from which I want the transfer to take place, so I don't see why that's not good enough. So annoying. I spent at least 30 minutes with the State Farm guy there just to set up a CD, and as it was, he had to call State Farm to figure out how to do part of it. And now this. I hate ineptitude about as much as I hate unnecessary intrusive requests for personal information.

Back to the new temp job. It's quite possible I'll get some sort of assignment from my old p/t job, the one that was 3 days a week and turned into "as needed." I'd hate to discourage them from giving me work if I have to turn it down, so hopefully it'll be an at-home assignment I can do on the weekend (especially since the real estate job is just 30 hours a week). If not, then I guess I'll have to explain why I can't do it, but only for a brief 3 weeks time.

Still don't know where I'll be working. They have offices all over the place, although their CT corporate offices are in a town about 45 minutes away.

Got another email this am from the woman asking me when could I start and could I go into a certain city to meet the executive team and get a sense of what was needed. She also said there might be some paperwork to fill out with HR. I said I could come in as early as tomorrow and said that if they treated me as an independent contractor and they wanted me to commute in to said city or elsewhere, that I'd like to submit for reimbursement of commuting costs; if they treated me as a temporary p/t employee, I couldn't do that, but they would be paying payroll taxes on me. My preference, I told them, would be the latter. (This would boost earnings used by DOL to calculate my unemployment benefits, whereas freelance work does not count.)

I asked whether this would be work at home or on site job, as she hadn't specified. I don't mind commuting in, but the rate I quoted her was on the very reasonable side and it'd be nice to get gas costs reimbursed or, alternatively, get treated as a temporary employee and have payroll taxes picked up. Either way.

Things can happen very quickly and one must be nimble. So once I get confirmation of a possible meeting tomorrow or, if not, probably later this week, my agenda for today will be 1.haircut (using the $8 haircut coupon from Great Clips I've been hoarding) and 2. BJs.

I'm also still concerned about my Lyme. I've been headachey the last few days and was debating whether to go in to see doc again. Not sure what else she can do as I already completed 2 courses of antibiotics totalling 5 weeks of meds. I am still doing herbs but skipped the garlic this a.m. after over a week of heavy raw garlic intake as I'm not sure that was doing anything, either, and online research suggested some anecdotal support for it but no scientific studies that I could see.

I'll make some time to prep for meeting and familiarize myself with what's going on with this company. So this meeting she wants to have....is that a group interview sort of thing or is this a welcome aboard, you're hired sort of thing? I THINK I basically have the job, but I need paperwork from their HR to confirm the details.

My financial situation looks pretty bleak right now. Meaning, no work. I've gotten a few itty bitty freelance assignments since the p/t job ended, but nothing major.

But every time I say, OMG, now what do I do, something pops up out of the blue.

I just got an email from an old contact/freelance client from another real estate company. Years back, she gave me a ton of PR work to do for her; she's a sales manager for two key offices for this company.

I probably haven't heard from her in over a year, and now she says the company is rebranding itself and needs a freelance writer to help them redo their sales literature.

It would only be for the next 2.5 weeks but it could be f/t, not sure. She asked how many hours I could provide and what my rate would be.

I said I could work f/t if the need's there, and asked for $35/hr. Not sure if I could work at home or work out of one of their offices, but either way I HOPE I GET THIS.

I'm delighted to have gotten that email. It just goes to show, when you do a good job for someone, it often pays off down the road. I know she really likes my writing, so maybe they figure they have no time to advertise for someone. Crossin' my fingers. I hope I didn't suggest too low a figure.

In other news, here's a perfect example of how a little job turns into a big job, home improvement-wise. I have a bunch of half used paints sitting on the basement stairs. There's a paint recycling event coming up later this month, but there was a can of something in the ivory family, which I used on the tool shed. Instead of getting rid of it, (part of my general decluttering before I move) I reasoned, why not use the last of it to get one more good coat on the tool shed?

So I got the front of the shed painted, probably the side that needs it least, but it's the most accessible side as well. What really needed repainting was the wood plank floor/walkway, but before I could paint that, I could see a lot of green mildew on it that would need to be cleaned off.

I trudged back to the garage (over 100 feet away) and returned with some diluted bleach, a sponge and a scrub brush and set about getting rid of the mildew. Actually, I was back and forth for various supplies at least five times. Then I needed to rinse the bleach solution off, so I uncoiled the heavy double-length hose in garage and dragged the whole thing into the backyard. Now I had to wait for it to dry before painting, which won't take place til tomorrow. I was going to paint at 3 pm, but it wasn't quite dry.

But then I realized the only exterior paint I have is this ivory color I have on the walls of the toolshed. If I use that light color on the plank walkway, it will show every speck of dirt and mildew. I do also have exterior black, but it's a bit of a stark contrast to this ivory; not sure how it will look. Too drastic a contrast? Here's a photo of the tool shed colors now:


Sorry, I know it's sideways but it's not on my Picasa. Actually, those vertical posts you see aren't that flesh color anymore. They're the same color as the siding, so it's just 2 colors, the ivory color on the siding and the darker grayish-whatever which goes really well with it.

The idea is to avoid having to spend any money on this and use materials on hand. What color do you get if you add black to ivory?

I picked about a pound of stringbeans yesterday so today I made a huge stringbean casserole. It's pretty good.

Today was a pretty productive day.

I spent some time investigating alternatives to my Vanguard money market fund. While only about 9% of my investable assets are in cash, the bulk of that is a hefty $40,000 in the Vanguard fund. It's meant to give my overall portfolio some stability, yet that seems like a lot of money to just languish at a miserly 0.16%.

I'd gotten interested in I bonds cus they have a few things going for them. Issued by the US government, they're highly unlikely to default. They're exempt from state tax and offer an interest rate higher than most savings accounts. You need to hold them for 5 years, or you lose 3 months of interest with an early redemption.

Which all sounded pretty good, until I found they're currently only paying 1.18%. I soon found I can do better with a comparable 5-year CD paying 2% APY with State Farm. I'm not a fan of State Farm, but the rate is good for money that's been earning practically nothing. I'm also not a fan of locking up money in bank savings accounts, but in this case, it's portfolio money that needs to stay in a cash account, as ballast for my portfolio. Don't need to touch it, just need to keep it safe.

I'd like to do some CD laddering to take advantage of rising interest rates over time, so I'm thinking of buying 5 CDs of $8,000 each over the coming year or so.

I also mowed the front lawn and went to the landfill with some recycling for electronics that didn't sell in the tag sale and some early hypertufa creations that also didn't sell, so they went in the concrete/brick recycling pile, and while there, I found about 25 perfectly good stone blocks. Dropped them in the trunk for edging.

I must have good karma, cus whenever a job ends, little freelance assignments always pop up out of the blue. I wrapped up a sales brochure/website content for a new active adult community, got some legal editing from a court-appointed guardian ad litem done today and got a query from The Author about editing just 25 pages of another book so she can send it as a sample to book publishers. I'm waiting to hear back from her what the word count is.

I often fall in love with the communities I write about. The active adult community of which I wrote was quite interesting to me. Because the complex has septic systems, the town wouldn't allow anything but one bedrooms. So the builder created units with the master bedroom on the main level with a huge loft and equally huge storage area (about 12 x 13') on the upper level. The loft lacks a bathroom (both baths are on main level) and a closet, and it can't be marketed at all as a possible 2nd bedroom, just a space that could be used as an office, art studio, gym, theater room, you name it. The total square footage of these units is 1700 to 2400 sf, so they're not small, yet the price for this NEW CONSTRUCTION is just $229,900. That’s very low for Fairfield County. And taxes and common charges are also very low, partly becus they can only be sold as one-bedrooms, even though there's so much more space. Oh, and gas heat and central air.

These are very appealing to me. It doesn't bother me that much that there is no bath on the upper level. The kitchens have granite, s/s appliances, maple cabinetry. Wood flooring on main level, tile in baths, patio or deck outside, 1 car attached garage.
The ONLY thing that doesn't really appeal to me is the way the older units already built on site look. It's one building of about 25 units and it sort of looks institutional, maybe even like a nursing home. UGH. I think the new units will be designed to blend/complement what's already there, but maybe they will be more home-like. The model won't be ready for another 3 months.

I also calculated my third quarter estimated tax payment, which wasn't much, so will mail off the check tomorrow.

Tuesday and Wednesday I helped my mother load up the car with her art and then drove to 2 different galleries to install them for different shows. I've done this from time to time to help her when I can, but this time she offered to pay me ($100), which I gratefully accepted.

On tomorrow's agenda:
1.Start cleaning up the vegetable garden, which is really winding down. Tons of damaged tomatoes on blighted vines.
2.Mow the back yard.
3.Go to State Farm to open up the first CD, fill out forms.
4.Move 2 box fans and AC into the attic.
5.Make some time for a country walk.

I wanted to go the Labor Day parade, but friend couldn't go, and I didn't feel like going by myself. However, here at home this morning, I could hear the sounds of the marching bands in the distance.

Since the parade ended, we've been having a series of thunderstorms and intermittent rain, sometimes heavy. It hasn't done too much to relieve the oppressive humidity, but at least the sun isn't out.

Today was an absolute do-nothing day. I had hoped to start a new freelance project, but the realtor never called me back.

As part of my widening regimen fighting the Lyme (I'm still getting headaches, after finishing 2 courses of antibiotics), I'm dosing myself with lots of fresh, raw garlic. I've been doing that for a week or so but after further reading determined that I wasn't consuming enough garlic to get a benefit from it, so I stepped it up day before yesterday to 5 sliced up cloves, 3 times a day, or 15 cloves daily, enough to do away with any vampires within a 100-mile range. That's a lot of garlic! Luckily, I don't mind the taste. If I know I'm going to be with people, I do the garlic later.

I felt kind of borderline at times today, but did not have actual headaches, which was not the case in recent days, so perhaps it really is working. Garlic is anti-bacterial and Lyme is a bacteria. Garlic can cross the blood brain barrier. I'm also trying to eliminate most of the sugar in my diet.

In addition to the garlic, I'm downing a huge assortment of herbal pills containing resveratrol, astagalus, cat's claw and sasparilla, among other things.

I did 2 loads of laundry yesterday and changed the bed sheets. Also began sorting through the remains of my garage sale. Tomorrow or Wednesday I'll drop some of it off at the dump, will recycle a few glass pieces and keep the rest to try to sell again in a month at friend's tag sale. The Teac stereo system I'd hoped to sell I couldn't when i discovered the CD player wasn't working, so that I can recycle at dump.

I have begun dipping my toe back into the online dating waters. Yesterday i met Bachelor #2. (Bachelor #1 was too ho-hum to write about.) It's hard for me to find someone who really interests and attracts me, so I was somewhat excited about Bachelor #2, and I think he's interested as well. However, I'm really not sure if we should proceed because I've observed we've made very different lifestyle choices in some ways that could make it hard to enjoy time together.

The biggest thing is that he has 2 Harleys. While I used to enjoy riding around with a boyfriend or two on a motorcycle when I was much younger, it's not something I want to do now. I think it's a high risk behavior. Even if you're a perfect driver, you can't control how other drivers react, and an accident on a bike is much more serious than an accident in a car. Plus, they are way too noisy. I don't think my neighbors would appreciate hearing it. However, B #2 really seems to enjoy riding them and taking them on trips, and if I'm unwilling to hop on with him, it would kind of put a crimp in any free time we might spend together. He does have a car, of course.

The other thing I've noticed is that alcohol seems to be a regular part of his dinner routine, and probably his social routine as well. I've always been a light drinker, and in fact recently decided to never drink again, based on new research that suggests that ANY amount of alcohol increases a woman's risk of breast cancer. Used to be they'd say 1 drink a day was ok. Now they say there is NO safe threshold. Here's the link if you're interested: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/breast-cancer-alcohol-how-much-is-safe.html

Normally I would just take it a step at a time, but I'm worried that if I came to develop feelings for him, it would be so much harder not to cave in on my beliefs to better enjoy time with him. I really do believe that "your body is a temple," and a good diet and a healthy lifestyle really is important to me. So I don't know.

On the plus side, he lives nearby, about 25 minutes away. He's also just a year older than me; so many of the men who are interested in me are like 90 years old. That's an exaggeration, of course, but I'm not interested in dating someone in their 60s. Sorry, grandpa. While he was married before, he has no kids, which to me is a plus becus it just means fewer complications.

He works as an engineer for the US government and drove to Ohio to adopt a rescue dog that had been a breeder in a puppy mill. The dog is terrified of all people now except him, and it's especially afraid of women. I don't know what they did to that poor thing.

He is also quite handsome, which let me to tell you, is increasingly hard to find when you're dating men of a certain age. It's true for women too, of course, but so many men just get old looking, gain too much weight and just don't look that appealing. I had very nearly given up on ever being in a committed relationship again.

So what to do about Bachelor #2? I've been feeling very tentative about the whole thing and have more or less indicated I want to take it slow.

The garage sale has concluded. The results? Drum roll, please. ... $101.

After deducting the cost of the ad, my net is $92.

It was an awful lot of work, and this reminds me of why I don't do this more often! As I recall, I made about the same amount last time I did one.

The sale was today, 9-4, but people began showing up last night, and as early as 7:30 am today, which, frankly, I think is really rude.

Then a police officer pulled up my drive, and I had a feeling he wasn't there to buy a pillow. Unbeknownst to me, he informed me there was a road race going on and that they were directing traffic to detour down my road. He told me that people visiting my tag sale had to park at least 50 feet from the curve. (My house is located right at a very sharp curve.)

I began running up and down the driveway whenever someone pulled up to ask them to please park in the driveway, in my neighbor's driveway (I was able to get permission from their teen son, as his parents were off on vacation) or up the road a piece. I was afraid that the police might give me a ticket if I didn't do anything about it, or worse, shut me down. Some people didn't want to get blocked in my drive so they drove on the lawn without asking.

Another cop came by 5 minutes later and repeated the advice about parking. They were very nice about it but I didn't want it to seem like I was ignoring the hazard I was inadvertently creating. The police actually stopped by THREE times during the road race, and I was doing my best to tell people to move their cars, which of course doesn't help with tag sale attendance; I also made up signs about where to park at the bottom of my drive.

Things eased up after the road race was over. The weather today is sticky hot, very uncomfortable humidity, but we had a steady stream of traffic up until mid day, and then it really died down.

People are ridiculous. My friend was asked how much something was, and she said "$2." The person put the item down and walked off. I mean, how cheap do they want it??

An Indian guy saw a large copper wash tub I had and snatched it up and kept walking around with it. When he went to pay me, he was under the impression it was .50 when it was actually priced at $50. He actually thought it was just .50!

Actually, I sold that wash tub to my friend's husband when he came to help my friend pack up at day's end. It was my biggest sale of the day!

I also sold an antique auger ($25) and rolling pin ($5), a hardcover book ($5), a charcoal grill ($5) I'd previously had trouble GIVING away, 3 large Tupperware containers for .50 each, thumb tacks (.50) a pair of wine glasses ($1) and a whole bunch of little stuff for exactly .50. Two old birdhouses sold for $1 a piece. Some plastic combs for .50. Two muffin trays for $3 and $4 each which I won't use anymore becus they're aluminum (same goes for the plastic Tupperware). A vinyl laptop bag went for $5 to a woman who seemed to want to use it as a handbag. Two old matted photos of sunflowers by my sister went for $3 each. There was nothing really special about them.

I met a few of my neighbors in town, which is always nice, and I met a few creepy groups of people who made me nervous. There was one family with kids and the wife asked me if her daughter could use my bathroom. I was very uncomfortable with that idea and as an excuse I said i had to be there with all the people walking around. As I glanced around the garage, all the people had left, but my friend was sitting there, and the woman saw that, hoping I would then relent. I still said no, feeling a little guilty, but later my friend said I'd done the right thing and she thought they were trying to scope out my house or something becus the husband had said 3 x that his daughter had to use the bathroom.

Another woman wanted to know if I'd take a check. Umm, I don't think so.

I'm satisfied. I wanted to make money, but my secondary goal was getting rid of stuff I really don't want.

My friend had mostly a lot of cutesy signs given to her during her teaching career, a bunch of old pillows, a whole lot of porcelain dishes and a rocking horse. She only made about $25.

She said she wants to have another sale end of September, so I might pack up the best of my leftovers and bring them there again. Other stuff I think I'll bring to the dump or recycle.

Yet another post thoughtfully written last night completely disappeared into the nether. I can imagine how it would cause newcomers here to give up in disgust. Ah, well...

I had my interview with media giant yesterday. I think it went okay. Met with 3 people. I sent a very nice follow-up letter. It took me a while to truly understand what the job entailed. What they told me in person was actually somewhat different than what the posted ad described. Interestingly, if I got the job, it would be the first time since college that I had a non-writing job!

It's more about curating/organizing a high volume of photos and creating/building numerous photo galleries that would go on the news website. Also building and managing a team of freelance photographers who I'd assign to go out and shoot various cultural events in the paper's coverage area, like fairs, festivals, auctions, fundraisers, etc. I'd need to learn how to use their content management system and train the photogs how to tag photos, etc. Right now they have just 4 freelancers while she'd like to see around 20.

Sounds kind of like fun, huh?

One thing that would probably drive many applicants away is that becus so many events would happen on a weekend, the work week for this job is Wednesday thru Sunday. Which doesn't really bother me much.

Becus they pay the freelancers very little, I'd probably be called on fairly regularly to go out myself to get the pix. I did a lot of picture-taking when i was a news reporter years ago, but this is even easier becus i wouldn't have to stop and get the names of those i photographed. They just want a high volume of photos, like 75 to 100 per event.

Photo galleries apparently draw a huge number of clicks, and the idea is to help increase page views and get people onto the site. There is some creativity involved in coming up with thematic photo galleries that will have universal appeal; you know, like photos of little kids, people with their pets, etc.

I can't imagine the job would pay that much, but then again, I don't need to make a ton to get by. I just want to pay the bills and have something left over to add to retirement. $50 to $60K would be great. I know I can live on $50K, as I did that before, when I had a mortgage. Even $45K would probably be doable, although I don't think I'd want to go much lower than that. I figure a job like this should pay at least $40k, which is very low, but being mortgage-free now gives me more flexibility to consider jobs like this without having to make money the #1 consideration.

But as per usual, i see the job was advertised online, so god only knows how many responses they got.

I was planning on putting up my tag sale signs tonight (for tomorrow's sale) but there is still a 30% chance of rain today and tomorrow. I'd hate to see these signs get rained on and possibly illegible. I suppose I could go out EARLY tomorrow to do it, though I'd rather not wait til then in case i get early birds.

I did a little of this, a little of that.

Prepared for my job interview tomorrow; I do this by anticipating the kinds of questions I might receive, and also developing my own list of questions.

I ironed and laid out my clothes for tomorrow. In the a.m., I'll be putting in a half day proofing at the p/t job and then I'll head over to the interview just a few miles away. I'll bring an extra top I can change into to feel fresh and unwrinkled.

I starting putting price stickers on my garage sale items and made a list of everything I'm selling, with asking price in 1 column and a 2nd column for selling price. Everything is really dirt cheap, but is it cheap enough?

I purchased the ad in local paper ($9.50), placed a free ad on Craig's List and another free ad on our local Patch. I have a bunch of signs to put up Friday.

I also cleaned a number of items. Things are coming together, and the bulk of the stuff will fit in the garage, so in case it rains, it won't be a huge deal, although I plan to put an old rocker and a cabinet and a bed coverlet outside. They're saying 20% chance of rain. Worst case scenario, if I sell less than expected, I might consider having another sale sometime in September. God knows I'll certainly have the time now.

I also went to the dump and the bank where I got a bunch of singles and quarters. And I explained to 2 contractors why I could no longer get the work done that I wanted them to do. It really bothers me to have to pull the plug on that stuff considering how much time I spent looking for the right person to do it, and being so close to having it done after deferring it for so long.

Tomorrow when I get home I hope to mow the front lawn. Friday I'll devote again to the sale, if needed. A friend may be dropping some stuff off that night. My other friend should also be coming over to help price stuff, though at this point I've attached prices on most items. Didn't want to leave it for the last minute. The vast majority of stuff is less than $20. I may have her drive me around as i jump out and put up the signs. Easier with 2 people.

After I get the sale out of the way, I may plan an overnight trip to see my dad on the Jersey shore. Haven't been down there all year.

I've been picking sooooo many tomatoes and can't wait to share my final tally with you soon.

I'm still waiting to receive 2 new bonus credit cards in the mail, and by paying my car and homeowners insurance, both due in September, I'll be able to quickly meet the spend targets and earn myself $200. I was going to apply that money toward me tree take-down, but now it will go toward general living expenses.

With yesterday's news that my three-day-a-week job had deteriorated into occasional freelance work, I've rejiggered my projected monthly expenses and income to see where I stand.

It ain't pretty.

Total minimum monthly expenses: $1845
This reflects somewhat higher car insurance since I bought the new car. It also includes (ranked from highest to lowest expenses on a pro-rated basis): health insurance ($589, will drop somewhat 1/1/14 with Obamacare), property taxes ($488), food ($240), heating oil ($101), gas for car ($60), electricity ($55), homeowners insurance ($40), cats (mostly food, $38), phone/internet ($38), car fees/taxes ($23), water ($16, this fee will rise soon), dentist ($16), out of pocket medical ($15), borough taxes ($14), furnace tune-up ($13), gardening supplies ($12), sewer fees ($11, I paid off the loan itself last year), annual dump sticker ($7), haircuts ($5), allowing 4 a year at $15 each), car maintenance ($5, for 2 annual oil changes at $30/ea), printer cartridges ($3, allowing 2 at $20 ea) and mortgage ($0, I paid it off last year).

My budget does NOT allow for: home maintenance, retirement savings, clothing, dining out, the vet, entertainment, birdseed and Xmas.

Anticipated, estimated monthly income: $1272
This includes projected unemployment benefits of $161 a week. I could be off a bit, but that's what I've come up with. I won't open a claim right away and may wait til October becus it appears I might get a little more if I do wait. (They based the payment on average of 2 highest quarters, not counting immediately preceding quarter, so Oct 1 is start of a new quarter and works in my favor.) It also includes guesstimate for freelance work as well as occasional work from my current employer.

So my monthly shortfall is -573 a month.

While I continue to look for a job, I'll attempt to lower this shortfall with credit card rewards (I just opened 2 new cards that will deliver $200 in rewards when I hit the spend targets) and possible product studies. If I get busy with freelance work again I can do even better.

It was almost 4 years ago to the week that I was laid off in September of 2009 at age 50 and finally, after all that time of scrambling for work, my back is up against the wall, meaning I may for the first time have to start living off my savings to address that $573 monthly shortfall.

I hope that doesn't happen, I hope I get that job I'm interviewing for later this week, I hope the cats stay healthy, I hope the tree I was going to have cut down won't fall on the house this winter in a storm.... I hope, I hope, I hope.

Are you getting sick of hearing about my job woes? Go ahead, you can tell me. I know I am.

Today my boss at my 3-day-a-week job told me that because work has been unusually slow, she's going to have me continue on an "as needed" basis, probably through the end of the year. I can work on the occasional writing assignment at home, she said, but she wants me to come in to the office when doing the catalog proofing.

Which leaves me with next to no income.

They think I'm an "exceptional" writer, but that's not what they need long-term, so they'll be hiring a perm editor 1/1/14.

So even more is riding on the interview I have this Thursday for a f/t job with xxx. I don't go back to my regular employer now til Thursday, which is convenient becus since my interview is the same day in the same city, I can eliminate one day of driving down there, or two hours of my time and gas.

I'm depressed, discouraged, tired. I'll have to cancel two of the three home improvement projects that were very close to getting done. The third one, installing the furnace humidifier, will proceed, since I already mailed in a $200 deposit and I really do want to be comfortable this winter.

I did have a nice time yesterday with R. He wanted to go to the Harley Davidson open house with free cookout, etc. If he doesn't die of prostate cancer in 4 years, he said, he's going to buy a Harley. He's not going to do it before then, since it's a high risk thing and his dog and 95-year-old father are still alive. After that, I guess he figures, he's entitled.

When we got there, there was no lunch; it was the day before. And since he had his dog with him, and the dog couldn't go into the showroom, guess who got stuck sitting in the car with the dog while R. went in to browse? Moi. After that, R. ferried me to BJs where I picked up a few things. We dropped that off back home to my fridge, then we set off to make a surprise visit to my sister's in neighboring town. The surprise was on us cus she wasn't home; i left a note in the door.

After that we paid a visit to a childhood friend of R's, who lives in the same town. I hadn't seen him since I broke up with R. 30 years ago! He sure looked older, but then of course, I bet that's what he's thinking about me. I gave R. some tomatoes from my garden, one of the few healthy things he eats.

The weather forecast for Saturday looks good so I'm committed to doing my garage sale then. Will buy ads in 2 papers on Wednesday and advertise it on Craig's List, too. I'll have Friday to get ready for it. I have a s***load of crap to get rid of.

Once again I only worked the equivalent of two days this week. I went in yesterday (my 3rd day) and it was a continuation of having absolutely nothing to do. Since one was away on vacation, the other one who sits right across from me now knows he's the only one who would be giving me work to do; I have a feeling if I could somehow stick it out sitting at my computer, pretending to be busy and doing nothing that he would have let me finish out the day that way, but it was more or less unbearable to do that and incredibly boring, so around noon I suggested that unless he anticipated having some work for me that afternoon, that maybe I should leave. He agreed, and so I went.

I'm guessing they maybe feel that since they initially said 3 days a week (earlier had said full-time), that if they tell me to leave early too many times I might look elsewhere for steadier work and so perhaps want to retain me for the time being. I certainly need the money, but I had already spent most of Tuesday trying to "look busy," ie, having a few screens open on my monitor, which anyone could see as they walk past or behind me, and occasionally typing on a word document.

I have of course been looking elsewhere for work. No calls yet.

I finally decided to hire one firm to install the furnace humidifier mid-September. I also found an affordable ($35/hr) freelance carpenter to repair the water damage in back of hall closet. While others quoted me $600+ to re-sheetrock the whole closet, he suggested I could save money by letting him see if he could repair the damage first. Which I'm all for since I hope to sell this place soon and it is the back of a closet. He spent a lot of time here discussing and thinking about different aspects of the work. He's a friend of my friend's husband. He'll start it next Friday. It should save me quite a bit, depending on how long it takes him, and if all goes well, I can use him for a number of other must-do projects around here.

That leaves the humongus tree take-down. I have one more guy coming to price it; I may wind up giving it to another one for $1200. I am nervous as all get-out about getting it done safely as the tree is in between my wires and my neighbor's wires, plus my neighbor has a telephone pole with those wires very close to the tree, so the guy taking it down has to know what he's doing. I had another guy here today who priced it at $2400, which includes taking away all the wood and bringing in topsoil and repairing divots on neighbor's lawn, which I think is probably unnecessary, though I am nervous about a heavy bucket damaging my neighbor's lawn. They’ve already given me permission to have the truck access the tree from their side becus my side is way too overgrown/brushy, but I don't want any complaints or hard feelings from them should the tree guy mess it up.

Nothing else much new. I've really been focused on collecting bids for these 3 different jobs. It's hard to spend @ $2300, which is what I'm looking at, especially when I consider that eats up about 4 months of my "discretionary" monthly income from my p/t job. But it all really needs to be done. (In my "money" days, say around 1995 through 2001, I wouldn't have worried about it at all and certainly wouldn't have spent so much time collecting prices, but that was then and this is now. )

It'll be another $350 or so to fill up my oil tank for fall heating season.

I'm still prepping for my garage sale. Here's a peak at just some of the stuff collecting all around the house.


An old rotary style phone (how retro), record albums from the 60s, a few kewpie dolls, a mirror my neighbor retrieved from the dump and then gave to me and a million other items. I have piles all around the house....

This weekend I hope to scrounge around for some white foam core, to make a bunch of signs to put next week.

Also, since I have so many pressing expenses, and because I remembered that I'll be billed for both my homeowner's and car insurance next month, that it would be great to get some more credit card bonuses by charging the combined $1200 or so bill. So I applied for 2 new bonus credit cards at the same time (to avoid being turned down by one due to recent application for the other) and was approved for both which should net me $200 cash back. I'll charge the car insurance with one card which will earn me that $100 bonus with just that one charge, and charge the homeowners with the other card, which will require just a bit more spending to receive the 2nd $100 reward.

I was very perturbed/disappointed that Amex would not give me the $100 bonus I thought I'd be getting after meeting their charge requirements with the Blue Cash Everyday card, but they said I was ineligible for the bonus becus I already owned another reward card, an old green cash card. I won’t be doing Amex rewards again.

Still, I'm not doing bad with the credit card rewards. YTD, I've received over $900 cash back from cards plus another $75 in gift cards. So, about $1,000 for 2013, compared to just $371 in cash back last year, though I did also get quite a bit in gift cards...at least equal to the cash back amount... in 2012.

There are very few times of the year when working in the attic is feasible. It's either blistering hot up there or freezing cold. Today, though, it was quite reasonable, so I wound up working all morning and then some up there scrounging for things I might like to get rid of in my garage sale and tidying up in the process.

I was VERY UPSET to discover something. About 5 years ago, I bought a beautiful new rug, about 8 x 10. Gorgeous. Shortly after that, I adopted Luther and Waldo, so rather than watch them slowly destroy the brand new rug, I decided to store it in the attic. It's not rolled up, but it is face down on the floor. The better to protect it, I thought. I discovered in cleaning that all around the edges it looks a little...not exactly frayed, but like something's been nibbling it! Has got to be a mouse/mice!!! I’m very upset. Don't know what the heck to do with it to protect it from further damage. I could bring it downstairs, but then the cats will be scratching at it. Gosh darn.

I do have a pile of stuff for the sale, but I have a feeling the bulk of it will go unsold, even if I price everything very reasonably. I will have to aggressively advertise it in at least 2 local papers, maybe a third as well to build traffic. Becus if I don't sell it all, much of it will be donated to Good Will, and all that prep work for nothing.

I brought most of my stash down from my upstairs spare bedroom, where I'd been accumulating stuff, downstairs by the front door. Up and down the stairs about 50 times. I figure, with still 2 weeks from planned date (unless we have another heat wave OR it rains), no use hauling it down to the garage becus things tend to get dirty in there just sitting around. So bulk of work still to mostly be done on the Thursday and Friday before the sale.

I was able to borrow a full-size folding table from friend R., and I remembered I do have 2 smallish (about 18" diameter) folding wood tables I can easily put out there. And I have one long counter in the garage, plus a makeshift job I made with bricks and wood.

It's so hard knowing how to price things. I have a friend who sells a lot of stuff on eBay who will be coming over to help me with that. There were a few things I thought might be worth more money that I researched online. An ironstone teapot made in England, 2 kewpie dolls I'm having a little trouble letting go since my grandmother gave them to me and she crocheted them both little gowns. But so much stuff just sitting around in storage. A rocker that is rather nice but needs new fabric seat, lots of kitchen stuff, just a lot of tsotchas, etc etc.

This weekend I also managed to do two loads of laundry, mow front and back and I got another estimate on rebuilding concrete sill on side garage door and taking down that tree of paradise ($1200). He wants too much. If I move, why spend all that $$ on having a tree taken down? For peace of mind. If we have another storm similar to Hurricane Sandy, this tree could drop more limbs, possibly on the house. They say we're going to have another "active" hurricane season.

The price of ripping out damaged sheetrock and putting in new sheetrock, and taping it, was $670, I think, from one company. A lot when you consider it's just sheet rock. It’s all about the labor. I have another guy coming sometime this coming week. He's supposed to be "reasonable" and was recommended by a friend.

After having finished up the antibiotics for the Lyme Disease I believe about 2 weeks ago, I had 2 days feeling very headachy all day. Pretty sure it's still the lyme. So doc gave me antibiotics for another 2 weeks, which she said sometimes helps. I don't like taking antibiotics all the time, but it's very troubling to be having these headaches, and there’s no other treatment available. So antibiotics it is.

I made a peach/wineberry crisp yesterday.

I like to count my produce (the stuff I grow), and so far I'm up to 457 cherry tomatoes and 59 beefsteak tomatoes, plus smaller quantities of other stuff. It's really hard to believe. I've given away a lot of tomatoes to my mother and frozen even more. Tomorrow I may try digging up some potatoes. Perhaps a bit early. If the voles got to them before me, it'll be a washout.

I was wryly amused to notice another deception in the prominent ad I'd seen from the tree guy. He said he had "27 years of experience."

Since I researched him by name online, I learned from Intellius and other data collection resources that he's 42, so with 27 years of experience, he'd have had to start tree cutting work at age 15. Not wholly outside the realm of possibility, except that I also learned from my online research that he used to drive a truck before he got into the tree cutting business.

The funny thing is, he came across as unusually friendly, reassuring and polite when I spoke to him. The last person you'd think might be lying to your face.

...last night I spent a few hours helping longtime friend R. clean out his dad's assisted living apartment since his dad (age 95) has been moved to the nursing home on the same property.

I worked in the kitchen, packing up dishes and other stuff for Goodwill, and occasionally asking R. if he thought his sister might like this or that. R. also let me take a number of things I know I can use, like half-used rolls of tinfoil, and a few items he said I could try to sell in my upcoming garage sale. Like, there was a nice set of 3 largish pots with lids, the dark blue metal with speckles in it? I forget what that's called.

The clean-out was one of those necessary things, but it was a little sad at the same time. As R. commented, it was hard to believe that a person's lifetime could be reduced down to three small rooms of stuff. I reminded him later that it's life experiences and relationships that are most important, not "stuff," and in that sense, his father had lived a rich and full life. I mean, he was still golfing with R. up to age 94!

Like my mother, R's father was a child of the Great Depression, and so it wasn't surprising to find untold quantities of metal soda tab pulls, plastic containers, the plastic caps from dish detergent bottles and other stuff that most people would throw away, all stuffed inside the kitchen drawers. There were also pieces of dried up orange rind thrown inside the cabinets as a means of non-chemical insect control. (I wonder if it worked...I never saw any signs of bugs.)

We recycled a bunch of stuff. There were a lot of old mugs with "World's Best Dad" and similar sentiments written on them, but they were too dirty to just box up as is. R. said don't bother washing them, just throw them away. (R. can be very sentimental, about some things, but old mugs aren't one of them.) I got about 3/4 of the kitchen dishware wrapped and boxed up and told R. I could come back to help him on Thursday, my next day off.

Afterwards, we stopped in at the nursing home to visit his dad, who looked smaller and more frail than last time I saw him when he and Ron. came to my house maybe 6 months ago. He took my hand as he often has and said I still look like I was 14. It's nice to know that, at least to a 95-year-old, I look like a teenager.

He was a little confused. He said a few things that didn't make sense. He mentioned he'd just had his breakfast, when actually, it was dinner.

Meanwhile, I spotted lobster at $3.79/lb at Caraluzzi's, alerted my mother and now we're supposed to enjoy lobster dinner together later in the week. She's very excited.

I don't have anything specific lined up for today, although I did buy some organic peaches with the thought in mind that if they're ripe enough to use today, I might make a peach/wineberry crisp. I also need to think about workday lunches for the upcoming week.

I haven't taken a walk for a very long time, and this seems to be the day to do it.

I am getting more and more push back from the recruiter about having to keep paying me that extra $1/hr difference each week for my job. He keeps saying he's going to try to "get you more money" on an hourly basis, though I'm thinking, why would they agree to pay more for someone who's already working there? He's going to make a case that I've been underpaid to start with, but since the agency accepted the employer's lowering of my pay rate to start with, I don't see why the employer would now say yes, you're right, we need to pay her more. Even if I'm worth it, and it's the right thing to do. Because employers just don't do that. Employees are not their most important constituency; shareholders are.

I foresee that extra $1/hr going by the wayside soon; of course, the job may not last long either.

Man, can you trust anybody in this world today to be what they say they are?

As mentioned yesterday, I had 5 contractors over my house yesterday to give me estimates for three different projects. One of them being the takedown of a huge ailanthus (tree of paradise) tree that is too close to my house (maybe 20 feet) and has already dropped a large limb in the last big storm.

One guy who was highly recommended passed on it, saying it was a little too big for him and I'd need someone with a bucket truck.

The next guy climbed trees and didn't use a bucket truck. He quoted me a price of $930 which would include mulching the smaller branches, cutting and then stacking the rest of the tree. Unfortunately, I don't have a fireplace so don't have much use for the wood.

I called my next door neighbors (an elderly couple) to see if the tree guy and his crew of 4 could drive a truck over their lawn with the mulcher. I figured they'd be fine with it because this tree threatens not only my power lines on one side, but theirs as well, on the other side and all of us, I think, are getting tired of big trees dropping in storms.

Sure enough, they were okay with it and so I called and told the tree guy he had the job. He was going to do it tomorrow morning.

It was around 4 pm today when I suddenly remembered I hadn't called the contact number tree guy gave me when I asked about his insurance. Tree work is inherently risky and dangerous work, and if someone got injured on my property, I could be sued. So I called and checked out the insurance; they said he had general liability insurance but not worker's comp.

I decided to do some quick due diligence online to check out the guy's background; this is something I do with most contractors I do business with. I noticed like so many others, he didn't put an actual address on his estimate paperwork and I learned years ago when I wanted to sue someone in small claims that you can’t serve someone if you don’t have their address.

While I didn't dig up his address, I did learn that he had only recently (a year ago) arrived in CT from PA. A man by the same name as him and going by the same business name had a long list of complaints filed against him by customers who said he completed part of the work, asked for more money and then never returned to finish the work. There were 16 complaints of that ilk. BBB of PA gave him an "F." Others also said he treated his workers very poorly, yelling and cursing at them. He was arrested for drug possession. There was even a local television station in PA that did an expose-type story on his business practices!! Amazing what you can find online when you dig a little.

So, I decided to back out and left a message for him. I was actually a little nervous about telling him the truth about what I found, lest he get angry with me and blow a fuse, so I lied and told him my husband lost his job today. Sorry, but you can't be too careful.

I'm just frustrated that I have to start from scratch again, and I'm pretty sure future estimates will be higher. His $930 I thought was fairly reasonable, given the size of this tree. I don't know if it even makes sense to spend money taking the tree down when there are so many other home improvements I need to make before selling my house, something I keep saying I want to do. It's just that after last winter, I truly am fearful of going through other storms like the 2 or 3 bad ones we've had, including Sandy.

Certainly, there are probably a half dozen other trees that could, theoretically, hit the house, but this one was the one I worried about the most.

One of the furnace humidifier guys got back to me with an emailed quote of $985 to install an Aprilaire humidifier, which I thinks is ridiculous. I hadn't realized what a top notch company this was, and they do a lot of business, he was telling me, with all the mega-mansions in Greenwich and southern parts of Fairfield County. They charge $130/hr for labor for cripes' sakes. I want to get the price from the other HVAC guy and then make a decision. This, too, is a project that is debatable as to usefulness if I sell the house in a year or two. Could I make do with the single room humidifier I use now, but perhaps more consistently, in just the bedroom? It gets incredibly dry in this house with forced hot air. I don't know; don’t really want to have to deal with that anymore. It's a $600 question.

There was another project I called a guy over for...the north side of my house with a large picket fenced-in area, all totally overgrown and beyond my control. (It would scream "high maintenance" to any prospective buyer.) He was here for quite a while talking to me about my options, which included his using a rototiller-type machine or something else I forget the name, to dig up the pachysandra and invasive brambles but we both agreed he wouldn't be able to get every last bit of pachysandra and the stuff would grow back. He wanted more money for doing that anyway. So he suggested that he had his 2 sons simply rake up all the debris and growth in there, take it away, trim it real short and dismantle the picket fence which is falling apart and rotting. For that he wanted $1200, again a ridiculous price. The idea of just cutting it all down low would be that I could then stay on top of it with my lawnmower.

When I didn't call him back in a day or two, he called me and left a message saying hey, I'm working in your town next week and I can save you some money by doing your job same day and hauling your stuff away same day, thereby only having to pay dump fee once and he brought the price down to $950. Somehow I suspect he's just trying to get my business and isn't necessarily working in my town. Anyway, that's way too much money. I might as well just wait til spring and again attempt to stay on top of the growth in that area with a mower/trimmer.

I keep feeling like I'm getting nowhere. Probably the biggest thing I’d want to try to fix with the house before selling it would be my damp basement issues. In the past with very heavy rains in spring I've had water coming through the cinder block walls. I have used Thoro-Seal and believe that's mostly plugged up. But I still have damp areas of the concrete floor in there during times of high humidity or in spring when there's a high water table. It's not wet, per se, and not standing water, just damp areas along the perimeter of the walls.

In years past I had not one but two separate underground drainage systems installed and spent probably $10K+; still I have these problems and I dread tackling this problem again. But I feel this would need to be addressed becus, unlike when I bought the place, state laws now require that any house seller disclose certain key problems (like wet basement, termites, etc) on a special form that's given to the buyer.

I've poured so much money into this place, installing a top of line furnace, new roof, hook-up to city water, hook-up to town sewers, all new Whirlpool kitchen appliances w/ s/s fridge and dishwasher, new washer/dryer, sun room conversion, new attic windows, French doors, new I-beam in basement, rebuilt front stoop, rebuilt brick patio, replaced all faucets, attic insulation, blown-in wall insulation, vinyl siding...

Other shortcomings of this house are...the driveway is in bad shape, but that's another expensive fix I wasn't planning on doing. And while I replaced the roof 18 years ago, it should probably be redone soon because the plywood boards underneath it are soft and no good. And the final big problem is the walls in the dining room and living room...it's paint over wallpaper and, you guessed it, the paint is cracking and coming up because the underlying wallpaper is starting to come up. I tried with one small area of the wall to scrape the whole thing down and it's a mess, with several layers of old wallpaper from I'm guessing the 50s. It would probably be easier to just replace the beaverboard with new sheetrock and then tape it, but that again is an expensive and time-consuming project. I also thought it might be easier to have my handyman guy just install vertical wood paneling over it, but then you have baseboards and moldings to worry about, and things like electrical outlets won't be flush.

If I had the $ I could just wave my hand and say, make it so, but now, every dollar is precious and I have to be careful of how I spend it. If I had a handy husband, that would be enormously helpful right about now.

So, a while back I had an HVAC guy here to give me a price on installing a new humidifier. The price I got with labor was about $500 or $600, depending on how long it took, and his estimate of time (3 to 4 hours) seemed a little high to me, especially at $95/hr. He wasn't familiar with the Desert Spring humidifier I extensively researched, but said he could install it.

Today I had another guy come out. He said it usually takes a little over an hour to do but mine might take 2 hours max becus I was asking them to replace some sheet metal that rusted out after the old humidifier leaked. I'm eager to hear his price.

I was pretty much set on the Desert Spring furnace humidifier, but with the Aprilaire 400 seems like there won't be mold issues, it won't use excessive water and maintenance is just replacing the panels twice a season. I guess I'm concerned that neither of the 2 guys who were here had ever head of the Desert Spring brand but they were both very familiar with the Aprilaire. So may end up going with that in case I have issues down the road.

Getting this humidifier installed is my #1 spending priority this year. I think it will make a huge difference in my comfort level during the winter months.

Also had a guy, highly recommended, come out to look at an ailanthus tree I want taken down. It's a humongus tree of paradise, too close to house for my liking. One limb already came off during Hurricane Sandy and it dropped maybe 15 feet from the sun room. It towers over everything.

He said the tree was a little too big for him to handle, plus it is rather close to my power lines and my neighbor's. He said he'd have a friend with a bucket truck give me a call. I also have another tree guy come over later for another estimate and I have one more humidifier guy coming, too.

Aside from the tree issue and the humidifier, I unexpectedly discovered some old water damage from ice dams last winter in the back of an upstairs hall closet I was cleaning out. It looks terrible; the sheetrock will either need to be repaired or replaced. I called one guy who didn't call back; my neighbors love him, but I suspect he's not interested in small, low-paying jobs like this. I suppose I could call Handyman Connection but I know they'll be higher priced. There's my other handyman guy but I sometimes question his skills. Meanwhile, I'm a little reluctant to put anything back in the closet so it's strewn all over the hall floor.

I agreed to help my friend R. clean out his father's apartment on Saturday. His dad is 95 and is having enough health issues that he's going to have to go into the nursing home he was moved to from his assisted living apartment. He said he'd pay me $10/hr for maybe 3 or 4 hours. I'd help him anyway; we've been friends a very long time.

I have a bit of work from my p/t job...writing some very brief bios for some architects.

I was able to get the payroll person at the agency confirm they are now in receipt of my time sheets from the last 2 weeks and that I'll be receiving 2 paychecks tomorrow....thank God.

Handyman Connection guy came and went; estimate tomorrow. It's just the back wall that's damaged by ice dam melting, but the other 2 walls are paint over wallpaper, so since he'll be disassembling the shelving in there to get to the back wall, I asked him to give me a 2nd estimate based on putting in new sheetrock all the way around.

Just got car my car tax bill today; it was apparently mis-delivered as someone hand-wrote on the envelope "deliver to correct address." Thanks to the mailman, it's already past due and I have to pay a few extra dollars in interest.

Oh, now my neighbor just dropped by to show me his latest puzzle designs. (He knows I'm home on Thursdays and Fridays.) We sat around the dining room table and talked for about an hour. I showed him the closet with the water damage and told him I was getting estimates but couldn't get a hold of the guy he recommended. He kept telling me I could do it myself and told me exactly what to do, but it's really not something I'd feel comfortable doing. He finally wound up saying he would do it for me for $200 and will come next Thursday.

I've been enjoying plenty of tomatoes, lots of cherry tomatoes and small beefsteak tomatoes, from my dad's plants that he grew from seed. The plants are five feet high. I'm also getting a few yellow squash, which surprised me since I have such a terrible infestation of cucumber beetles. Also a few cucumbers and green bell peppers.

I had something really spectacular growing in great profusion with little white flowers, but forgot what I had planted. It was in the general area where I planted my sister's parsnip seeds, so I figured that was it.

But when I mentioned it to her, she said, no, parsnip wouldn't be in bloom now. She suggested I dig one up to check for a tuber. I did, and got absolutely nothing. So I've apparently been giving free rein to some sort of weed that looked like something important. I ripped it all out this afternoon.

Finally, I have several celery plants which I bought on impulse and stuck in the ground. They're doing quite well and appear to be insect-free. I am really looking forward to starting to cut off a stalk or two as needed.

I made a new drink today….a pitcher of cold water with a handful of mint leaves from one of my plants and the juice from two limes, with some stevia thrown in for sweetener. Will let brew overnight in fridge, and will be curious how minty it will be. The limes were 10 for $1 at Shop Rite, so I figured what the heck.

I also made my lunches for the coming work week: a cold salad of equal parts black beans, corn and edamame. You don't cook anything, just let the edamame and corn dethaw. You also add some red onion, chopped red tomatoes and your favorite salad dressing, and oila! Yummy healthy salad.

Today I checked out an open house with a friend in town. I've been looking for the most part at condos, but this was a small house about 1200 square feet. A little too small for me, I think, with very small rooms. A cape built in 1947 but totally updated with 3 small bedrooms and 2 baths. New siding, new plumbing, new electrical, vinyl windows, nice patio out back. Central air and instant hot water. On a dead end street and a half mile from Sandy Hook Center. About a third of an acre, but still seemed like more grass to mow than I care for. Short sale situation.

It was cute, but a little claustrobic on second floor and steep stairs leading to a bedroom/bath due to the slanted walls that really made it necessary to watch where you were walking lest you hit your head. It also lacked a garage. They dropped the price to $249K.
After looking at the house we stopped in at the coffee shop for an iced tea and sat outside on the deck overlooking the Pootatuck River. It was such a nice day. A. is going to help me with my garage sale.

After that I went grocery shopping and rushed out to mow the back yard when it began raining. I was able to finish it and then do the trimming. Then it stopped raining and the skies cleared, so I trimmed a very large viburnum which keeps growing into my driveway. I picked some more tomatoes from my garden. Also potted up some groundcovers I hope to sell in my garage sale. I figure I'll pot them up now (4 varieties) and get them all good and healthy looking, though don't know how much interest there'll be in perennials in late August/September.

Inexplicably, the agency did not issue me a paycheck today. It wasn't in my checking account (direct deposit) and I confirmed on their website the check wasn't cut. I sent an email to the woman who does payroll, only to get an auto reply saying she was out til Monday. I then called my recruiter contact John at his office and I get a fast busy signal. (I'm getting a wee bit nervous now.) I called again and this time someone answered and said, "No one by [that name] works here." I finally get my contact John on his cell. He said everything was fine at his agency but they were having phone problems. And that he'd look into the paycheck issue.

Despite my having emailed my timesheet to payroll with a copy to John, they claim they didn't get it. And no, they can't cut a check for me until next Friday's payday.

This happened this morning and I'm still feeling ticked off. Partly because the payroll people over there apologized very nicely to John and never bothered to get back to me. Listen, people, I'M the one who didn't get the paycheck, not John. You’d think as a courtesy they would make a simple apology, but no.

Can you tell I hate dealing with this agency? How much effort is it to send a quick email?

Today I did 2 loads of laundry and was totally annoyed to find the "Start" button the GE dryer I just bought 2 years ago is not working properly. That is, the dryer won't stay on unless you keep holding the button down. I got it to work by applying duct tape over the button. (It's an auto shut-off.) I don't think it's under warranty.

I started mowing the lawn but then it started raining so I had to give up. It only lasted 5 minutes, but it was enough to make everything wet, so I decided to bag it until tomorrow.

I vacuumed both floors.

I made good progress on my weeding schedule. Everything here got real overgrown during all that heat we had, so this is catch-up time now in the garden.

I got a phone call this a.m. from my #1 freelance client. I was very surprised to learn (and so was he) that his right hand woman (she was at director level), quit the job to pursue her personal passion: thoroughbred horse rescue. She was very capable. He told me he wound up hiring 2 different people to cover everything she did. This past month had been very quiet and I'd been wondering why…now I know. After I got off the phone with him, I was thinking hmmm, maybe this is a good time to suggest we restructure our own work relationship. That is, instead of my continuing to freelance for him, I could work for him as a p/t employee 1 or 2 days a week, on-site. The advantage to him would be to not have to always worry about my availability and having me there on a regular basis would only improve the quality of my work since I'd have easier access to him when I needed info. The advantage to me, of course, would be more consistent income.

I was thinking how good it would be to have a steady p/t job with them now. For as long as my other job lasts, it would mean I'd be working 5 days a week. And if and when I lose the other job sometime later this year, most likely, I'd then have the other job to rely on.

He hasn't responded yet so don't know if there's any interest there. I know he likes my work and we have a very long work relationship, 20 years, in fact. I have worked as a staff writer there in the past, as well as part-time and now freelance. The question would be do they have room in their budget for this? I'm pretty sure they could keep me busy with all the work they have. I charge them $50/hr now; if I get that same rate working on-site for 15 hours a week. I'd gross $39K and I'd be golden.

I mean, I recently learned my HVAC guy charges $95/hr, for gosh sake's, and I'm pretty sure he has only a high school diploma.

I had a long overdue talk with my boss today at the p/t job I started after Memorial Day weekend. They're happy with my writing, love my fast turnaround and my great attitude, but she thinks that, like her (her words) she thinks I'm a stronger writer than editor, and she's unsure what the right "balance" is between writing and editing skills for the perm position.

(Note that the job was originally advertised as a writing job, so to hear her say this was complete news to me. It also is a painful reminder of what happened at Prudential; I started working a contract job there as a writer and then mid-way through that assignment, which I was hoping would go perm, they decided to rejigger the job description so it ultimately included certain skill sets I didn't have. All along they said they were quite happy with my work but my background, they felt, was no longer a great fit for their future needs.)

She said she will know from HR if she will have funding for the perm position (to start 1/1/14) this fall, but wants to start whoever it is working beforehand to see how they work out. She didn't rule me out as a candidate either. She was pretty candid about it and about as nice as could be, so I can't really fault her for that.

While I've worn dual hats at many smaller companies I've worked at as both writer and editor, out of necessity, I think she's probably right about my strengths. There are many companies out there who are less concerned with the exact correct placement of a semi-colon and more interested in getting a high volume of work done. I think it comes down to priorities and is the company doing well enough to afford to be so picky.

So I'm thinking I should be able to work through August no problem, but then after that, who knows how long I'll have? If she learns in September she has funding for the perm position and decides to advertise the position and they get the right person, I could be out the door fairly soon. Or I could still be there in December...don't really know.

I did inquire when we talked whether she'd be open to my working a 4-day week, if they wound up picking me for the position. She was not at all open to that becus she felt the workload was such that my being absent one day each week would burden other employees.

So the job for me would be all or nothing. I told her I was still interested. I have to be careful how I handle this and can't reject a f/t offer even though I'm very reluctant to take it, if offered, due to the lengthy commute. But if I declined any offer they might make to me, I would not be eligible for unemployment benefits, and I really have no backup plan for income other than that if I don't get this job. So I will have to accept it if offered.

I already told recruiter about the conversation and asked him to keep an eye out for other opportunities for me, and of course, I'm looking too, as I have been since before I even took this job.

In other news...
July was an expensive month, to the tune of $5200, but that's because I had to pay my semi-annual property taxes of $2928. Moving forward, I'm going to insert the monthly cost of $488 into each month's expense report. I haven't done that in the past; I would simply record the expense when I paid it. But doing that distorts my expense picture and makes it appear I'm doing better, expense-wise each month than I really am because I'm only paying the property taxes twice a year, and then it's a big wallop.

Other big expenses this month were my sun room blinds ($317), medical treatment for my Lyme without having health insurance coverage ($249, should have been more like $50), Luther's vet bill ($141) and a variety of one-time annual expenses that all hit at the same time, like my borough taxes ($156), car registration ($90) and dump sticker ($85). Groceries were also higher than I budget for, at $248. Sigh.

It's gratifying to see that my net worth increased by $19,456 (!!) since last month, but it's not because I saved it. (My cash on hand has decreased by about $2,000 since I started this new job).

No, the big increase in my net worth is purely due to the bull stock market we've enjoyed of late. In fact, my net worth August 1 is $70,286 more than it was a year ago at this time. Pretty amazing if you consider I have not worked full time during that year! Plus I spent $20,000 of savings to buy a new car. Compared to 4 years ago (2009), my net worth is $147,724 higher. My net worth is now at a lifetime high. But what will happen if the stock market takes a corrective turn?

Today, we start with a clean slate on August 1. I need to immediately revert back to my "survivalist" lifestyle with minimal expenses. Since starting this new job, I'd indulged a bit with just a few fast food splurges along with some discretionary spending on clothing, those sun room shades and my maharaja chair.

To help offset some of that, I've decided on having a garage sale September 15. I've enlisted a friend to help on the day of the sale and suggested she try to sell some of her own stuff, too. I figure the weather should be decent by then (not too hot) and it gives me plenty of time for further organizing.

My real problem is the lack of tabletop space. What I need is a few folding card tables but it doesn't make sense to buy anything since I never make much money at a sale. I might scrounge around at good will but not sure I'll be able to find anything. I have one long workbench in the garage that I could clear off to put items on, but it would be nice to have enough stuff that people can walk all around the garage.

I plan on having some furniture, mostly chairs, as well as the usual housewares, kitchenware, old records, books and so on. Also some hypertufa and perennial groundcovers though most people aren't thinking gardening in September.