So, I had been thinking how great it would be if i could put my house on the market this spring. It would seem I'd have plenty of time (this winter and early spring) to get done all the many things that I feel should be done.

I hate looking forward to another tough winter and another season of lawn mowing after that.

However, this bank contract job I have lasts until July 2014. The bank hires a LOT of contractors like me, and it's not uncommon for a contractor's initial term of 10 months to be renewed for another 3 months, and sometimes, another 3 months after that. There have also been any number of people who were offered a permanent position there.

So any of those scenarios, especially the last one, would be wonderful, OF COURSE. Being a contractor worker at a company with lots of perm employees makes me feel like the poor little match girl (if you remember that children's story) outside in the cold and wintry night, looking in the window at all the other children laughing and playing and having a grand old time.

I don't think I can consider putting the house on the market before I find out what's going to happen with this job in July.

After years of going to condo open houses in my area (I'm committed to staying in this general area because my mother is here, and I will need to look after her), I feel no closer to knowing where I might end up than I did 4 years ago.

I have yet to find a condo complex that meets all my key requirements (gas heat, c/a, newer construction (1985 would be about the oldest I'd want to go), updated kitchen and baths and a woodsy, "uncondo-like" setting, plus reasonable price and property taxes.

I don't really plan on moving again after this, so I want this condo to be my retirement home, the home I've worked hard all my life to finally enjoy.

One complex I've been interested in, with its brand new construction and large square footage in a nice country town near my mother is in the opposite direction of where my commute to the bank is. It would add another half hour to my current 35-minute commute, and if you've been reading my blog from time to time, you KNOW how i hate a lengthy commute.

There's another condo, built around 1985 with electric heat. Some units have been very nicely updated, while others, not. But it is in a lovely country woodsy setting and very private outdoor patio or deck. The kind of outdoor privacy and peaceful setting is unlike any other condo I've seen in the area. The outdoor space and privacy is SO important to me as I'm not used to condo living. However, this condo, too, would add about 15 minutes to my drive for a total 50-minute drive.

So for as long as I keep this job, whether it's for another few months or possibly longer, I don't think I want to move further away. So it could put my whole move on hold.

I guess it's not the end of the world. In the event I got a perm job offer from them, I think I'd be in a position to hire someone to cut the grass. I still clear my own 100-foot driveway of snow as there's an upward slope involved and lots of broken up areas/cracks. Plows in the past tore of asphalt. I use a small snowblower, which works quite well. Still a lot of work though, at a time in my life when I want the physical labor to wind down a little.

So I may still be here for a while. But if the job eventually ends, perhaps by winter of next year, I would then have time to clean the place up, do final repairs and put it on market in the spring of 2015.

Although even then, if I wound up at either of the 2 condos I mentioned above, it might make the doability of a future job a little difficult becus both of those towns are further out from job centers, not closer. If I were ready to retire totally, it wouldn't matter, but truth be told, I am still just in my early 50s and financially, I'm not quite there yet. I'd like to retire at age 60, so a possible 35 years in retirement is a whole lot of years to cover. I need to work a little longer. I'm not sure I can hold out til 60 becus working f/t really doesn't appeal to me, but I suppose a lot of people share that sentiment. At 60, I would still do my freelance writing from home, and perhaps even a simple p/t job in the local community, just to keep busy.

I'm a planner, and it's frustrating to have things up in the air like they are, but that's the way it goes, I guess.

At least I'll have a brand new roof.

Once again my grand plans for saving are stymied as I learned yesterday I am in need of a new roof.

At 18 years, I knew the roof was approaching the end of its natural life, but hadn't really planned on putting this on my list of things to fix before selling the house. However, something happened yesterday that changed all that.

Handyman was over yesterday to apply the 2nd coat of compound on the back wall of an upstairs linen closet which received ice dam damage from last winter. (I'd discovered similar damage in an adjacent closet and dealt with that previously, but I didn't discover the damage in the 2nd closet til I emptied it out in search of stuff to sell in my garage sale last summer.)

So anyway, when he returned yesterday, he pointed out an ugly brown stain on top of the compound he'd applied! There must be a damn water leak. I went into the attic to have a look, but of course it's bone dry now and everything looks fine. But we did have some rain last week.

Not the kind of thing I want to let go. Put down my info on HomeAdvisor website and within, like, one minute, the first of 4 roofers called me. He came over an hour later, got on the roof and informed my I need a new roof. I climbed out a bathroom window and walked on the more shallow pitched family room roof and he pointed out shingles that had been damaged by guys I'd hired last winter to shovel snow off the roof after an exceedingly heavy snowstorm. Not something I usually do, but there were reports of old barn roof cave-ins at the time, along with cave-ins of roofs with a shallow pitch. So I forked over a couple hundred at the time thinking I was doing the smart thing.

He also said the shingles all along the eaves were all chewed up...could I have done that myself with the long roof rake I have? I didn't scrape down to bare shingle, but who knows? He said if you use a snow rake, leave a half inch or so of snow there....I thought I had. I may have also damaged the shingles myself the umpteen times I got on an extension ladder in dead of winter to chip ice dams off the gutters with a hammer. I thought I was being careful, but he said shingles are very brittle in cold temps so maybe that was the problem. Stupid me.

On top of that, I knew there was much older damage to the family room roof from at least 10 years ago when an old boyfriend was trying to help me by setting up a ladder on the shallow pitched family room roof to paint the side (2nd story) of the main house. He'd done a lot of damage to the shingles because the feet of the ladder dug right into them as he moved the ladder as he painted, and by the time I saw what he'd done, it was too late. I was pretty mad at the time. He couldn't have put a throw rug or something or something under them??

So anyway. The roofer who came over also pointed out some holes in the roof; don't know what happened to the nails that were once there, but maybe they were pulled up by the guys shoveling. He said I could still be getting water inside the walls even if I don't see any leaks/stains.

So anyway....his price wasn't too too bad, at $5800. That's because he said the plywood panels underneath the shingles seemed fine, and most wouldn't need to be replaced. This is contrary to what a roofer told me a few years ago who said all the plywood was soft and probably couldn't hold a nail and would need to be replaced, and his price was $8,000. So who's right?? The first guy seemed pretty nice, but maybe he was just trying to make more money, betting on the fact I probably wouldn't get up there to look at the plywood myself.

A 2nd roofer came over this a.m. He had bad attitude, plus I really didn't like the way we started off on the phone. He wanted to have my "husband" present when he gave his pitch, which he said would take 45 minutes. I told him just I would be meeting him and I'd be the one making the decisions. He insisted that my hubby should be there and pretty much said it was becus I wouldn't understand everything he said about their process and that he didn't want to waste my time...meaning their time, of course.

I don't feel it's his business to know my marital status, so didn't say anything about that, but I did tell him I didn't think roofing was rocket science and that I could process the information.

He was borderline rude when he got to my place, 20 minutes late. Needless to say, I won't be hiring him. I think I'll go with the first guy. He seemed to know his stuff, his references were sterling and I see he's licensed, insured, bonded. Couldn't dig up any dirt on him online.

Tomorrow is my first work at home day on the new job. AT&T is coming over sometime in the a.m. because there's a problem with my UVerse Internet line...I'd told them I keep losing internet every so often, and then it corrects itself in 5 minutes or so.

Also, the handyman is coming back tomorrow to do the 3rd and final coat in the closet. I'm not too thrilled with how it looks so far... in hindsight, I don't think taping is his strength, but it's the back of a closet, so hoping once he does one more coat and then I paint it, it'll look presentable.

Yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the 5 gallon bucket of joint compound and tools that he left here to try my hand at taping some of the many stress cracks above doors and such in my house, something I'd always been afraid to do becus I'd probably botch the job. I used that sticky netting tape and for a 1st coat I guess the 6 places I did aren't terrible. I have to do the 2nd coat TODAY since he's returning tomorrow.

There were a few other issues with his work and he really charged me a lot for what he did, so though he's very friendly, I won't be using him again.

Also tomorrow afternoon, I'm taking my mother to meet with an attorney in town so he can set up a durable power of attorney for me and her. This was something I tried talking to my mother about 6 months ago but got nowhere once my mother learned it would cost a few hundred dollars to do. It is so important, but she never wants to spend any money.

Also tomorrow is my ONLY day to call Access Health, the Connecticut health care exchange, to finish up my health insurance application. I have questions to ask and since their hours are 8 to 6 pm, I have no time to call them since I'm at work. It's been extremely frustrating. I may also have to call Anthem to ask my questions and endure their own needless/annoying questions about me.

This is why I don't like working 5 days a week. Thee is no time to attend to personal matters without asking for a day off, something I don't want to do when I'm working a contract job with no benefits. So I'm forced to try to sneak some in on a work at home day.

Other things I accomplished this weekend: grocery trips to BJs and Big Y for Thanksgiving dinner and a few special food items for my mother, for a Xmas food basket; filled up the gas tank; donated some old 60s records to the library, for their annual sale; vacuumed the downstairs, tried to remove old dried latex paint from an exterior garage doorknob (it works but not very well); organized myself cooking-wise for Thanksgiving (I will be brining the turkey overnight in a cooler, in the garage, the night before...never did that before, but supposed to make the turkey breast tender)

Once again, I'm at the tail end of a weekend and still haven't found time to just...relax.One good thing: yesterday was the LAST time I mowed and now the mower is in storage in back of garage. I wasn't really mowing the grass, but i learned a while back that it's much easier to run over fallen leaves with the mower, to mulch them, than it is to rake up the leaves, so that's what I was doing. But now we're done with lawn mowing season, and that should free up substantial free time on my weekends.

I've been having a problem with anxiety and excessive worrying about things, mostly financial and job-related. It's hard for me to let go of worrisome thoughts.

It's an unfortunate side effect of underemployment since my 2009 layoff.

I should be feeling better now, since I started a 10-month full-time job 5 weeks ago. It got me thinking about how differently I feel now compared to how I felt this time 3 years ago.

Three years ago was when I had landed a 3-month contract job with a large financial services firm. They were paying me $50/hour,and although it was a contract job to end 12/31/10, there was also a chance it would go perm. (I think most agencies just say that as further incentive.) Because I'd gotten good feedback from my managers there, and because they let go the other two contract writers hired the same day I was, I figured I was going to get a perm offer. That didn't happen, but before knowing that I did go a little crazy in the spending department. I spent quite a bit on clothes and shoes and I do recall making take-out a regular thing on Friday nights, and a few other purchases I didn't really need. But I felt good about my work situation!

Fast forward to today. What can I say, I'm still feeling anxious about my long-term future, and wonder if I'll be resigned to short-term contract jobs and an extremely unstable financial lifestyle for the rest of my working years which, if I have my way, will be just 6 more years.

My issue with the near daily headaches is now something I think was also stress-related. It started way back in July. I was in the middle of one of my contract jobs that I found fairly stressful due to a work environment where I got no feedback on how I was doing and people left me to my own devices. I felt isolated and lonely there. I also didn't have enough work to do to keep me busy and I worried that I'd be let go early, and that, in fact, is what happened.

That job ended in August and then in September I started another contract job, this one for 2 weeks. Although it was a much friendlier environment (i knew the woman who hired me from a prior job) the headaches continued there, I think because it was yet another new job, new people and I felt I had to "prove my worth" all over again.

The headaches began easing up in October, but I was still having headaches probably half the time. November has been much better; in fact, i haven't had a headache since Monday, which is a big improvement. I may even cancel my neurologist appt next week.

Interestingly, I ran the numbers and realized with surprise that although I was making $50/hr in 2010, my total gross from that job, where I felt much more confident, was $26,000, whereas today I'm making $35/hr but for 10 months, so the gross this time around will come out to $60,660. Quite a bit more than in 2010 so I wish I could breathe more easily.

In 2010 I didn't realize how long and slow this economic recovery (and my own) would be; now, after long stretches of nothing but unemployment and my freelance work, with the occasional contract job, I'm much more cautious about my immediate outlook.

So I am being extremely careful about spending, or at least, HOW I'm spending. Unlike my 2010 spending spree, I've done very little spending this time around and can actually recite from memory the few "splurges" I've made. This includes 2 Friday afternoon lunches with others from the job at $7.50 each time for a yummy portabello/pesto panini. I consider this necessary, not just for my own sanity but also to cultivate/maintain friendships at work, something I used to think was optional but which I've now concluded is vital. In my usual independent way, I used to think that as long as I did my job that I could take care of myself. But I've learned that as a newcomer, I really rely on others for information related to how things work in the new company, etc.

I did also "splurge" for a $1 diet coke from the vending machine at work one day.

The only other non-essential spending I've done is $75 for 3 pieces of clothing at Kohl's and much more money on needed upgrades/maintenance/repairs on my home, which again, I consider essential so I can sell this place.

At least I've started the ball rolling in that regard. Carpenter still has to come back to do 2nd coat on compounding a closet wall, and fixing a shelf he installed in another closet where the screws came THROUGH the wall out into my hallway! I was furious about this since I TOLD him about a prior carpenter who did the same damn thing when he put paneling in the same closet. Now the hallway wall will have to be repainted. (Well, it probably would have to be repainted anyway, but still....)

The carpenter did replace a side garage door that was wood and had rotted out in the bottom. The new door is metal sheathing on both sides but pressed wood or something inside. The door came primed, but not painted, so I am taking advantage of a high oif 60 degrees today to paint the door, and I made the carpenter apply silicone to both the top and bottom ends of the door, something he initially told me I could do by removing the door from its hinges, etc. Umm, I can't do that! For crying out loud! That's why I hired you! He also replaced all the trim around the door, and did a good job at that. Some of the trim was rotted at bottom and just looked old and worn out. He also redid the concrete threshold, not by rebuilding it with footers as I wanted, but anyway i guess it looks okay. You really have to be ultra-specific with a contractor or they'll take shortcuts. Like, I want a metal door that's SOLID metal through and through, not this pressed wood crap.

I also bought a new floor register to replace an old wrought iron one that had been painted over numerous times and looked bad. It looks great so I decided to order 4 more for other rooms in the house, although I found by measuring that not all the cut-outs in my wood floors are a standard 8 x 12 or 9 x 12 so there is one, I think, where I can't replace the register. But just a small thing like that really helps to update the appearance here.

I'm happy to have a 3-day weekend (yet another bank holiday) but not so happy I won't get paid for the day off. Nothing I can do about it, so might as well enjoy it.

Tomorrow a chimney cleaner is coming over in the morning. My dad doesn't think I need to have the furnace flue cleaned (I have no fireplace) but I've read that it's still important as buildup can occur.

On Monday my new, expensive but supposedly meticulous handyman guy is coming over to do a few jobs around here for $985. I am really curious to see how long it takes me, because instead of telling me he'd charge $x an hour, he just quoted me a flat rate for all 3 jobs I wanted him to do. I already know he charges others (like my friend's husband) $45/hr, and I suspect I'll be paying him much more if I calculate it on an hourly basis.

If so, I will just tell him that if he wants more work from me it's got to be in the $45/hr range or I won't be able to afford to hire him again. I should have told him that from the get go, but I didn't.

I was prepared to suggest to my sister that we take my mother out for Tgiving dinner as mom's getting too old to be having to deal with the big dinner, even if just for the 3 of us. But, even though I'm working the day before, I decided I'd rather save money and have it at my place if everyone can just chip in and bring 1 or 2 dishes. I'll do the bird, dessert and a side. I'd rather have the leftovers, to be honest, and since my sister and i would be paying for mom, the bill would probably be at least $50 each.

Well, another Friday commute home has come and gone and I'm proud to say I have yet to cave in to a desire to get takeout to treat myself. The only reason I didn't do it today was, I was all set to pick up a pizza on the drive home, but as it turned out, there was leftover pizza at work and I snagged a piece and gobbled it down without even reheating it. So I had no appetite for more of the same a few hours later.

After 5 weeks of f/t work, the ONLY splurge so far has been $1.50 on a bottle of soda at work. There will be another outlay of money next month when it's my turn to bring in breakfast for a group of 10. If you join the group, you get to enjoy breakfasts once a week that others bring in. There are a few people who have not "joined" the group but still manage to help themselves to free food, which I think is incredibly bad form.

I got my new World Wildlife Fund Visa bonus card ($100 after $500 spend) from BankAmerica. It's a bank I've hated becus of their role in the credit crisis, but I love their bonus cards.

I upgraded my landline to AT&T UVerse; in order to get the plan I wanted, I had to upgrade my UVerse DSL with them to the next higher speed. Still, the 2 together only cost me $44 a month. The phone part of the plan allows just 4 hours of free talk time a month, whether local or long distance, and after that, calls will cost .05 a minute. Before this, I had an even cheaper AT&T plan that charged me for toll-free calls but had a very low monthly base rate, but it was really too restrictive. I had hoped I could rely on the 60 free minutes I get on my cell phone monthly, but it was never enough and I'd have to buy more minutes on the cell. And I call a LOT of toll-free numbers and was always stressed out when I had to wait on hold, since it was costing me.

If 4 hours is still not enough, for $10 more a month ($55) i can get unlimited talk time on the land line.

Only problem is, the internet portion of this deal is good for just 1 year, and I'm probably nearly halfway through on that one year term. Then the price will jump to $36 a month just for Internet, I think. Not sure what I'll do then. I may be stuck with it. I'm sure some will say that's still a good deal?

Remember, I've been on a bare bones budget for a very long time. The bank job may not last forever, and that's always in the back of my mind, meaning, I don't want to start having little bills creep back up again here or there.

I'm excited it's the weekend. Me time.

I remember the Novembers of my youth as being gray, chilly days. Not so the fall of 2013!

When many other plants are spent, the scraggly beauty berry is at its best...


Too bad the berries don't dry well; they basically shrivel up. But they're still pretty to look at.


I can't get enough of the Japanese maple. This small one is a volunteer that just started growing, and I let it be.



Not to be confused with the much larger red maple here:


I am pooped, but I am done with this weekend's writing assignment about a small luxury custom home development in lower Westchester County priced at $1.4 mm each. It took me about 4 hours to write and I'll gross $300 for it. Right after that I mowed the back lawn; tomorrow I'll do the front.

I've had freelance real estate writing assignments every weekend since I started my new f/t job, and I feel like I could use a break. There doesn't seem to be much time left over for...well, me.

But I can't complain. Don't want to say "no" and risk shutting off the spigot since this f/t job will (probably) eventually end and then I'll really value the two freelance clients giving me all this work.

The new job is going ok. The commute isn't too bad (35 minutes) and the money is decent (especially since I don't have a mortgage to pay). I think my boss is pretty happy with me, but there are big changes coming down the pike which could lead to layoffs. I suspect the perm employees have more to worry about since contractors like me are already saving them money. Still, I'm a little uneasy about it all and it just further incenticizes me to save as much money as possible, while I can.

I had been told by other contractors that this company routinely furloughs contractors for a week or more around Tgiving and Xmas, to further save money. I asked my boss about it and she said that since I'm the only writer she'd like me to make myself available for at least part of those holiday weeks, which was exactly what I was hoping for, since if I don't work, I don't get paid, and I'd rather not lose two weeks of pay if I don't really have to. So I proposed I take off the 2 holidays plus 2 days, but will come in for 3-day work weeks those 2 weeks. Oh, and I guess the office will be closed New Year's as well.

I am beginning to learn the lay of the land there. Meaning, there are way too many people who have input into writing various letters that go out to customers, and it seems nigh impossible to get agreement on the language. I understand that decision-making by consensus can be desirable at times, but I think there needs to be someone in charge who can make a final call to expedite the process.

I have someone I walk with daily at lunch, but her assignment will likely be ending by year's end. I am also friendly with the 2 women who sit near me but otherwise haven't really had occasion to get to know others too much. It's been over 3 weeks, I guess, and I did finally get my first full-time paycheck for a 40-hour week, which netted out to $999 for 1 week.

So I was able to make my first $1,000 deposit to replenish my emergency savings account, an online money market earning .90%. It's where I put money that I want to remain more or less liquid (ie, not invested in the stock market) and I often transfer funds into it from my checking account, which earns no interest. I funnel $500 into this account every month so I'm sure I'll have enough to pay my twice a year property tax bill. Right now I think I've got about $6,000 in there and I'd love to see it get to $20,000, but I won't get there in 10 months (the term of my contract job) unless I step up my monthly contributions.

I am feeling hopeful that the company will see fit to renew my contract when my term is up next July since my walking buddy said they often renew contract job terms for 3, 6 or 9 months, sometimes more than once. She herself has been there nearly 2 years. Even better, of course, would be a perm offer. Trying not to think about it too much since there's still plenty of time and also, I was greatly disappointed when I was in the same scenario working for Prudential and it didn't pan out.

This weekend I want to take advantage of some great gift card offers including Staples where you can buy $75 worth of gift cards to Home Depot or other stores and then get a $25 credit when you purchase with your Amex card. Similar deal with Amex when you go to Lowes.

On the credit card front, I thought I had pretty much exhausted all the lucrative credit card bonus deals of at least $100 (the business cards that require $3,000 spend are too much for me), but by going directly to the credit card websites instead of just googling credit cards or going to some place like creditcards.com, I found more deals that weren't listed elsewhere.

For instance, Bank of America has at least three more deals where you can get $100 cash back by charging just $500 on the card within the 1st 3 months of having it. They have one card that benefits the World Wildlife Fund, another for Susan Komen breast cancer fundraising and another for major league baseball teams, all three with the same spend/reward deal. So I got the WWF one.

When it comes to saving money or making money on the side, I like to go for the lowest hanging fruit first, so for me, earning this kind of credit card reward is some of the easiest money I've ever earned. It beats running around town to save a couple of dollars here or there at different sales, and it isn't the mind-numbing tedium of many online survey sites. It also requires very little of my time.

Despite 4 years of under-employment and a big fat 0 in retirement contributions, my net worth (see profile) is at an all-time high, thanks to the stock market. I am a little nervous about what will happen to my bond funds when the Fed raises rates, as I really don't know where else to put my bond money. I also have a big chunk of money sitting in a Vanguard money market earning a pathetic .03% and while I did move $8,000 of it to a 5-year CD earning 2%, I also don't want to tie up that money for so long as I don't believe rates will remain this low for 5 years, and then I won't be able to touch that money without penalty. If anyone has any suggestions, love to hear them....

OK, so I never grew parsnips before, and while the little packet of seeds said to thin them out once they were a few inches high, I did not. (It's near impossible for me to pull healthy vegetable plants...i will have to simply sow more thinly next time...)

So my parsnips were mostly small, and the roots were growing and entwined in and around each other. Still, I dug over 2 pounds of parsnip roots today, which are about to go into a yellow split pea soup.

There are a few more parsnips still in the ground, though they will likely be small as well.

Well, it's been 3 years since I worked full-time and I am quickly becoming reacquainted with the mad dash on the weekends to try to do everything I need to do.

Today, I finished up yesterday's laundry, did the grocery shopping at Shop Rite, picked up some cat food at both Walmart and another pet food store where they sell rabbit (at $3 a can, it's just an occasional treat that they really like), filled up the gas tank at BJs (it's come down a lot...$3.53/gallon, lovin' it) and mowed the back yard.

Now I've got the split pea soup on the stove, which will be my weekday lunches. I'm a little pooped.

Yesterday I mowed the front lawn and did a luxury home write-up for a $4 million home in Greenwich...it took about 2 hours, will charge $137 for it, although the listing agent never called me back so it's not quite done.

Otherwise, things are ok. Job is okay, although it's hardly challenging. I've made a few friends there, and have a walking buddy for my lunchtime walks, which I really like, since she's also a contractor and is a good source of information on a lot of things.

Come Nov. 1 I will be making my first large deposit into my emergency fund to replenish it as much as possible in coming months. I don't feel "rich" yet, but I've been able to pay off all of my bigger bills of recent weeks, which included lots of doctor's visit not covered by my lousy insurance, the hot water heater, the furnace humidifier and all that. I will feel much better when I can add to the emergency fund.

Otherwise, I've spent nothing out of my usual frugal routine and hope to keep it that way as much as possible.

After spending about an hour online looking for a lotion dispenser, I wound up going to my local Dollar store and getting a perfectly nice ceramic one that matches my bathroom wallpaper for $1. The ones online were in the $20 range, so I'm happy I didn't buy anything online.

Today was the last day of the farmer's market and as is my habit, I tool a stroll around lunchtime and discovered five fine pachyderms in the small plaza in the heart of downtown:




Mm, this is tasty.


They set up long tables laden with fresh produce, probably to ensure the elephants didn't wander off!


I wanted to catch up to the departing beasts, heading east down Main Avenue, but traffic lights thwarted me from doing so. The policeman you see in the foreground here was approaching a driver leaning on the horn, seemingly oblivious to the line of elephants blocking traffic. The cop chewed him out pretty well.

I always do check my bank statements, and this month, I'm especially glad I did since I discovered I paid the heating oil company TWICE for my oil tank fill-up last month.

One would think they would call and tell me so, but no, I discovered I'd paid $424 twice, once when i left the delivery driver a blank check and again two days later, without thinking ,when they mailed me the receipt that should have been left in the door.

When I called she said they just applied it as a credit. Umm, you mean you don't bother to inform the customer, or ask the customer what their wishes are? It makes me distrustful of them; how do I know they wouldn't have just pocketed the extra cash?

I told her I wanted a refund; I don't always buy oil from them so I'd rather have my cash back.

OK, so I'll be first to admit this wasn't my idea, but I think it's pretty nifty anyway.

I bought a bag of scallions at the supermarket for a recipe. Instead of throwing away the root ends, I kept them and planted them in a pot of dirt.

You can see the little white nubs in the photo below, where I originally cut them. If you look carefully, you can also see slender green shoots emerging from a few of the scallions.



Pretty cool. I put them in the sunniest room I have, an upstairs bathroom with southwest exposure, and hope to grow them all year long.

I've done the same thing with celery, although in this case, I happened to be growing celery in my home vegetable garden, so after I cut down the entire stalk about 3 weeks ago, I kept what was left, and all the attached roots, and stuck that in a pot too. This is still sitting in my driveway since we haven't really had a hard frost yet, but I will bring it indoors soon, too.



You can see the green leaves coming up. I like to use these in pea soup.

I might add that the scallions sprouted even though what I bought in the store was not organic.

In other news...

I discovered how delicious chai tea is. It's black tea plus lots of aromatic spices like Cinnamon and ginger, which just happen to be loaded with antioxidants.

Got my first paycheck from the new job Friday. Hooray! It's pretty small (net about $600-something) but that's because I started mid-week and only got in 23 hours. This week was better, at 30 hours, but there was the holiday on Monday. Hopefully this coming week I'll be able to put in 40 hours.

I'm feeling broke right about now as all my credit card bills had to be paid, and between car and homeowners insurance for the year, plus the hot water heater and the furnace humidifier, plus the deposit for the carpenter coming to do some work next month, the checking account is REAL low.

I have learned from another employee at the job that they hire a ton of contractors (like me) and that it's not uncommon for them to extend the original contract. They also have hired any number of contractors on a permanent basis. So one can hope for the same treatment.

I couldn't resist checking out the benefits handbook for regular employees, and I must say their benefits look very good, even above average. They offer benefits, including health insurance, even to p/t employees who work at least 20 hours a week. They offer 4 CIGNA plans, they seem to contribute a generous portion to the 401k..they match $1 to every dollar contributed up to 5% of pay, I think. Isn't that more than the usual .50 of every dollar?

When I was walking at lunchtime the other day I came upon a farmer's market in the park. They even had an organic vendor from my hometown there. Too bad that next week is their last week for the season. I will definitely go next week as I want to get some apples, and when I was there before, I didn't have any money on me.

My friend R. came over last night and we had some popcorn and a good talk. His PSA levels are rising again, despite the meds (chemo in a pill) he's on. His prostate was already removed, but the cancer is circulating in his blood. Things don't look good. The only alternative is a $93,000 drug that only extends your life 4 months. He was invited to do a clinical trial in Maryland area for a year, but there would be no guarantee he wouldn't get the placebo, so it would be risky to do that even though he'd get the drug for free after the 1-year trial was over.

He's also trying to help his niece who is going through a contentious divorce. He's going through his own divorce too and getting near the trial stage. He's trying to care for his 96-hear-old father who he recently had to move into a nursing home. He visits his dad twice a day, every day.

He's thinking of just giving up on all his prostate cancer meds and just letting the disease take his course. He figures he may have another 3 years. I tried to discourage him from doing that. It breaks my heart to hear him talk like that; he is very fatalistic. He says he's had a full life with no regrets.

He has been very generous to his niece, and is prepared to help her buy a house where she and her 2 kids can live after the divorce. He made some money transfers previously and then she decided she was going to work things out with her husband, so he wound up losing several thousand dollars.

He previously loaned her and hubby $40K so hubby could build a grand garage to store all his truck equipment.

Now R. is worried that he may run out of money (he'd assumed he would die before that happened). Since his retirement, he's worked a variety of p/t jobs; right now he works at a gas station and teaching kids how to drive at a driving school.

Unfortunately, a kid he was recently teaching froze up in the middle of an intersection and people were beeping horns, etc, and R. had him pull over to the side of the road and parked the car there temporarily, and a cop came along and gave them a ticket for parking there. So R. will probably lose his job there as a result.

I told him not to try to appeal it, let it happen, it will free up more time in his hectic schedule to see his dad and see his friends and just have a saner life. There are any number of other jobs he can do when he's ready to do them.

This story about an Oregon man who built himself an underground dwelling after his divorce will appear to SAers, I'm sure.

He told NBC News, "I don't believe in houses or mortgages. Who in their right mind would spend their lifetime paying for a building they never get to spend time in because they are always working?"

Here's the link:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/tiny-homes--man-lives-in-self-built-hobbit-hole-in-rural-oregon-164837144.html?vp=1

While the weather here in the northeast is still great, it certainly is chilling down as soon as the sun sets, and so my mind is on the upcoming winter. I can't believe it's here again (groan).

Here are a few of the things I've done to prepare for winter:

1. Started bringing all my potted annuals and perennials in the garage where they overwinter, saving me money on new plants in the spring.

2. Brought in the bird bath.

3. Scheduled a furnace cleaning.

4. Scheduled a chimney cleaning.

5. Got my furnace humidifier installed (hooray)

6. Froze piles of tomatoes from the garden, for winter soups and stews.

7. Drained the garden hose and shut off water to faucet in garage.

8. Moved a bunch of summer clothes in my main closet back to spare bedroom, and brought more winter attire into the main closet for handier access.

9. Soon, I will remove some of the screens from my windows so I can enjoy a much clearer winter-time view outdoors.

10. Replaced my storm door screen inserts with the glass inserts.

11. Reprogrammed my furnace timer to my current schedule with the new job.

12. Set a timer up on a lamp in living room so it's no longer dark when I get home.

13. Plugged in my two carbon monoxide detectors (to coincide with furnace heating season).

14. Cleaned up the garage so my car will fit in there when it snows.

15. The vegetable garden really could use some cleaning up.

16. I pulled out some of my draft dodgers to put against exterior doors, and put in the foam stuff around attic door to block the warm air from rushing up.

How about you? Did I forget anything?

Happy Columbus Day...

A beautiful fall day here...


I took a morning walk in town.


This is near the new town hall complex.

Though town offices are closed today, I stopped inside town hall to use the rest room and then browsed a photography exhibit there.




Here is an origami mobile someone made, with 26 doves representing the 26 children and teachers killed on December 14th.

It was one of those rare, unstructured days.

Around mid-day, I finally got dressed and drove over to check out an open house at one of my favorite condo communities about 15 minutes east. There were actually two units for sale, next to each other, in the $240K range.

After that, I hit Shop Rite and spent about $30 on stuff, with an eye toward making pumpkin black bean soup, a wheat berry salad and something else I can't remember now for workweek lunches.

Otherwise, worked at the computer, lolled around and then once I had my afternoon black tea, I was inspired to sweep the top end of the driveway, sweep the garage and generally tidy up the garage with an eye toward making room in there for my car to fit this winter. I also brought some potted annuals in there to overwinter and drained the garden hose.

Got a rare phone call from my sister tonight, returning my call from a week ago about having her come up and cut down some small trees she could use for firewood, and I just want to get rid of as they're slowly dying.

She wants to wait til after a hard frost as she's still crazy busy canning produce and harvesting from the garden. (I still have parsnips and celery in the ground, but that's about it.)

Yesterday I was actually able to change both back wheels on my lawnmower. I made four trips to the hardware store for the parts, and had quite a bit of trouble getting the one wheel off, and then had even more trouble getting the wheels to stay on because the only thing holding them on the axles are these little washers with teeth on them. I got a smaller, non-Black & Decker wheel and so I only had one-quarter inch of axle available after putting the wheel on with which to put on those little washers. Too much jiggling or shifting of weight on a slope in my yard, I worry, could cause those washers, and then the wheels, to fall off. Which is what happened a few times before I really secured them. Still, I mowed VERY GENTLY yesterday, but tomorrow, when I do the hillier front yard, will be the real test.

Tomorrow is a bank holiday so I'll be mowing the front lawn, taking a walk and cooking for the work week. And playing with the kitties. Luther got a new catnip mousie today so he is happy. I also trimmed his front claws.

My bank account is looking very puny, in the $2800 range. But I have now paid off all the big bills that appeared on credit cards, with $1,000 car and homeowners insurance and the new hot water heater.

I still expect more bigger than I'd like medical bills since I'm essentially paying out of pocket to see doctor who doesn't like my health plan. Got my final paycheck Friday from the 2-week real estate job and am looking forward to my first paycheck from the bank job, which will be small as I just worked 3 days. This week it will be probably 3.5 days with the holiday and my coming in late Tuesday due to Lyme doc appointment.

I'm working in a city with a long history of having crime, drug and related problems, but i was pleasantly surprised at how nice the immediate downtown area is. Maybe I said this in my last post? But a friend who knows this city said there daytime purse snatchings and muggings still take place downtown, so to be careful. I'm rethinking whether I want to continue my lunchtime walks, something I've done wherever I've worked for the past 20 years.

I wrapped up my first abbreviated (3-day) week at the bank job.I think it's gone pretty well.

Today was day 3, and I was definitely busy today. The people are fairly nice, though I haven't met that many yet.

The security measures and ID badges and parking badges are all kind of a pain. I'm supposed to take my laptop home with me every night so no one steals it, and with my purse and my lunch bag, it's just one more thing to lug.

Otherwise, today I was glad to get my final paycheck from the real estate contract job, but just as quickly I had to pay a big credit card bill and pay off the new hot water heater I just bought. My checking account is looking very sparse right now with just about $3k in it.

I was hemming and hawing about whether I would keep the appointment I made for this Tuesday with a Lyme disease specialist, as my headaches have improved but I am still getting them, though not as much.

I was reluctant to go thru with it since I'll have to pay him $300 out of pocket because he doesn't accept my state health insurance, and there will likely be more charges associated that if he repeats the blood test or does something else to try to determine if it's Lyme or something else causing my headaches. I am fairly sure it is Lyme because the ELISA blood test my PCP used only has a sensitivity (accuracy) rate of 65%, which means that 35% of patients will have a false negative test. (I tested negative on the Lyme.) However, I was still treated with antibiotics and I'm still having headaches. From what I've read, if you have a co-infection, which isn't uncommon, meaning not just Lyme but another tick-borne illness, then it's harder to treat and you'll likely need more than the standard 4 weeks of meds.

But anyway...I am going to the doc appt as I had to decide so I could tell my new manager about it. Monday is a bank holiday so I had to tell her today about that appt as well as another one the following week, for my eyes. She was fine with it, though I am anxious to try to make up the lost time as I really need the money. I also have a furnace cleaning but I think i will (reluctantly) leave access to the garage open and then lock the door at top of basement stairs. It's just one of those locks where you pull the metal bar across into the slot, but it would prevent them from perhaps secretly wandering around up here.

With a 10:45 am appt, I'll probably not get to the office til 12:30 pm, which means 3.5 hours to make up during the rest of the 4-day week. If I could get in at 8 am each day that week, that would do it, but realistically, I have trouble making it in at 9. I am not good at getting up in the dark.

Speaking of the dark, has anyone else felt it's been relatively easy thus far to have no heat days? I haven't mentioned the annual contest, but I've only turned the heat on 2 nights, I think, when it got a bit too chilly. Otherwise, it's been fairly comfortable, especially given that we're already into mid-October.

#1 on my priority list this weekend: try to fix my lawnmower so I can continue mowing the lawn the rest of the season. I like to mulch the fallen leaves with it too. (Easier than raking.) The wheel was wobbly for a very long time and I tried to remove it, even called Black & Decker, but I couldn't. So i just kept mowing with it getting wobblier and wobblier. I was hoping i could at least finish out the season and then get it fixed at my leisure. But no, it finally broke off last weekend. I also lost a bolt and plastic handle to one of the long screws that keeps the long handle in place.

It's been a real pain having this mower, not becus i don't like it, but becus there is only ONE black and decker dealer in the state, an hour away. He said he'd have to order the wheel, doesn't have it in stock and that when i brought it, i'd have to leave and then come back. I told him i live an hour away; i don't know they'll make an exception for me and meanwhile, i need to cut the grass. They didn't sound like they especially cared.

So although i ordered the wheel through him (without paying), i plan to hit home depot first thing tomorrow and bring the broken off wheel and see if i can find the same size match, then ask my neighbor to help me put it on. I just left a message for them now. I'll also bring the long screw in that needs a bolt at least, just to hold the thing together.

Last spring I also ordered a new blade for it but a friend of mine was unable to install it correctly, so that's something else. Dealer said they'd charge me $30 just to install the blade. I may skip that even though I already bought it. Frustrating.

The B&D website has a bunch of repair places listed, but so far none I called repair the lawnmowers. So this alone is a good reason not to buy another B&D cordless mower, although I like the way they work.

I'm looking forward to not having to get up in the dark tomorrow.

I'm still waiting for word from the recruiter about when exactly I start. It was supposed to be today but then on Friday she said probably "closer to Wednesday." I didn't hear from the recruiter today so I guess I'll email her tomorrow unless I hear from her.

I hit Xpect Discounts today (a grocery store) to take advantage of their $4.95 a pound sale on walnuts. I got 4 pounds, plus some almonds. I eat them often and freeze them in the meantime.

Also made a big batch of my very delicious vegetable soup with tomatoes from my garden, lots of beans, wheat berries and spinach.

I signed up for a health insurance plan online for 1/1/14. Because I had to factor in the new job for the last 3 months of this year, my income was bumped up a little, resulting in little if any subsidies. (It was a little unclear to me when stating income if I should go by what I made last year, for example, or what I expect to make this year, and I figured it would be the latter.) Still, a Bronze plan with Anthem will cost me about $95 less than what I'm paying now, although the deductible will be $6,000 (!!!) but with $0 co-pays on many things.

Yesterday late afternoon was rainy and overcast. There were not one, but two deer family groups here in the yard....3 does in the back and 2 does and 2 older fawns in the front.

A few days ago I happened to glance out my upstairs bathroom window and I caught sight of some animal moving into the undergrowth of a large rhododendron in the back, the same rhododendron where last summer I saw some sort of large cat-like creature go. The cat I saw last summer had a long tail and seemed to be tan, while what I saw a few days ago was smaller than a big dog but much larger than a house cat and it had no tail. To me, that says "bobcat." But I just saw it for a fraction of a second before it disappeared from view and by the time I ran down to the sun room I knew it would be gone.

There have been both bobcat and mountain lion sightings here in town, and I've seen the photos in the paper, so there's no mistaking it. The bobcats have been verified by photos, whereas the official state DEP position is that there are "no mountain lions" in Connecticut. Yet people continue to report seeing them.

This morning I made a delicious banana walnut bread. I wanted to use up the rest of a container of sour cream and it came out really well.

I also cooked up the rest of some fingerling potatoes and made a dill potato salad, now cooling in the fridge, with the same sour cream.

Breakfast was 3 hearty pancakes with real maple syrup and blueberries.

I wrote up a property description for a home this am and finally settled on a price of $180 for it. I haven't done this kind of writing for this company yet. In the past I charged another brokerage more $, but that was when I was traveling down county to view the house, and I long ago decided that just wasn't a cost-effective use of my time. I'd love to know what the other freelancer charges; I'm guessing my price will be on the high end, but I am confident I am also the better writer, and I turn most jobs around very quickly. Broken down, I allow an hour to interview the realtor on the phone, 2 hours to write it at $50/hr and a half hour for possible revisions and subsequent drafts.

Yesterday we saw Enough Said, with Julia Luise Dreyfus and James Gandolfini, who passed away shortly after making that movie. It was pretty good. I liked that it was about two middle-aged people living very ordinary, middle-class lives.

This is the time of year of the fall warbler migration. Most people would never even notice the birds, a drab olive green on top with pale yellow breast, but I've enjoyed watching one just now gorging on the bright red berries of the dogwood tree outside my office window.

While we certainly could use the rain, we've had an incredible run of I don't know how many weeks (at least three) of back to back sunny days in the 70s.

I was supposed to start the new job Monday, but recruiter called today and said it will probably be closer to Wednesday. Apparently there are delays because their IT guys are setting up my computer. I suppose in a bank they might not want me to have access to customer records if I don't need to...who knows.

I do have 2 doctor's appointments coming up and had hoped I could get a solid week or so under my belt before having to say I'd have to come in late. It just doesn't look as good, but these are important doc appointments, especially the one about my headaches.

Given the extra time, I may be able to travel to see my dad after all...I'm thinking this weekend, for an overnight. I had felt before I was running out of time, and didn't want to be doing any long distance travel right before I started, but at this point it would be no problem.

I mowed the back lawn today and completely obliterated the plastic cap on the clean out pipe of a drainage ditch I have. I'll have to find something else to put over it so leaves and stuff don't get in there.

I got a dozen farm fresh eggs at the local farmer's. They certainly aren't cheap at $5.75 a dozen, but they are the best I've ever had, save for my sister's. The secret is, I think, the farmer has lots of discarded produce which hens like to peck at, so they get lots of good nutrition you don't find in feed grain in a bag. the yolks are really orange.

I dropped off a box of books as donations for the library sale and returned some DVDs. Tomorrow I'm seeing a movie with a girlfriend.

I planted the celery plant I dug up from the veggie garden yesterday after using the whole stalk. I put it in a terra cotta pot which I'll bring indoors when it gets cold, but it's in the low 70s, so no need to do so right now. It had good roots, and I hope it will start sending up greens all winter long. I have a sunny bathroom; we'll see if I can grow it like a houseplant. It would be cool not to have to buy celery again. I plan to try the same next time I buy organic scallions. I will cut off and use the scallions, but plant the base of it in a pot, as I saw done on another website.

Later today I hope to plant my garlic seed for next year, but I'm kind of pooped from mowing and can't seem to get motivated. I also have those eggs, so now I can use two of them with some leftover sour cream to make some banana walnut bread. I'm thawing out some bananas I'd frozen months ago.

I really feel I have run out of credit card bonus offers to take advantage of. The kind where you earn $100 or $200 or more if you charge a certain amount in the first 3 months. I've applied for, charged up and then cancelled probably a dozen or more cards in the past year or two, just to make extra money that way. There are a lot of travel-related cards, but I don't get involved with those since many only let you redeem earned points on travel or hotel stays, and I have no plans for travel in my future, I'm afraid. I do it for the cash or for gift cards.

Another uber-productive day here at Patient Saver's homestead.

I did 3 loads of laundry.

I tried out a chocolate/apple bread pudding recipe in my new mini slow cooker. It was not bad. Might be better to try another time with better quality bread, maybe a challah bread.

I also knew I had 3 or 4 full size celery plants growing in the veggie garden, and I want to make use of them before the frost kills them.

I dug up one by the roots today. I plan to try growing it in a pot indoors this fall and winter. It's the coolest thing: here's a blog post about it: http://www.17apart.com/2012/02/growing-celery-indoors-never-buy-celery.html

While my celery stalks were pretty skinny, I did have a ton of bushy leaves, which of course are also edible. Most people don't bother with these, but they're organic so I figured, what the heck?

I tried another recipe for cream of celery soup. Had to go the supermarket for a few missing ingredients, and it wasn't too hard to spend $30 there. (I got the freshest organic red grapes there; I've never had such crispy grapes. Really good.)

Instead of a cream of- type soup, the recipe called for about 4 oz. of brie cheese. I used my immersion blender to puree everything. It's not bad, but a little on the watery side.

Tomorrow, I want to try to use up a container of sour cream before it goes. I just hate wasting food around here. I have some frozen peeled bananas so may try some sour cream banana bread. However, I'll need to run to the organic farm for a dozen eggs.

I tried going on my state's healthcare exchange. I was able to create an account, but when I began applying for 1 of the 3 silver plans available to me with some credits, the system stopped working. It was also difficult to tell by going to the insurer's sites whether my doctors were in their networks.

I'll try again later this week.

The garden is all pulled up save for the celery plants, a yellow squash plant with one small squash I will pick soon, and several parsnip plants. The parsnips sweeten in the ground with a few frosts, so they can stay a while. I'm not sure how big the roots will be since i never really thinned them the way I should have. Bad me.

I had an average sized vegetable garden this year, with one exception. My dad had given me a surplus of cherry tomato plants he'd grown from seed, so I had probably 7 or 8 in the ground. Because I am obsessive about these things, I counted every cherry tomato I picked this season (as well as all my other produce). I weighed and calculated the organic price equivalent of my harvest, too.

So, are you read for the grand total of cherry tomatoes harvested? 1,198 cherry tomatoes. Yup. Amazing, isn't it?

Blight has become a big problem, though, so next year, I may have to only grow tomatoes in pots. I also want to try the celery again, along with garlic, shallots, scallions and potatoes. Each year I like to try different things.

Sorry, it gives me some personal satisfaction to call them "idiots."

I took great umbrage at her suggesting I might need to hand over my federal tax return; luckily, that didn't happen and she pronounced my background check "complete."

As it turned out, my one reference they never bothered to even bring up the subject of, what was PS making when she worked there, even though she said they'd be checking. And my other reference, after agreeing that the person would call her back, never did but wound up sending her an email with questions that assumed she was my manager, even though I said she was a colleague.

Recruiter was later put out when she needed to do an I9 certification with my driver's license and Social Security card when i informed her i don't have Skype, i don't have a laptop with a built-in camera and i don't have a smartphone. For someone who claimed to be so by the book when digging into my personal information, she conveniently let the protocol lapse as she was unable to confirm my ID in person from her Atlanta office.

On the headache front I finally made progress in securing an appointment with a Lyme specialist and also should have one set up for month's end with a neurologist.

I discovered that the state health plan, for which I'm paying nearly $600 a month for, is not accepted by most specialists. I looked high and low and came up with a hospital clinic for poor people, where the earliest appointment would be end of November/early December. Then I found one neurologist who did accept it, but he ONLY treats MS, and even though I have MS, my issue here is headaches, so his secretary informed me I couldn't see him. Of course, this wasn't done over the phone; they don't take phone calls; I had to send an email and wait hours for a response. Crazy.

So the Lyme specialist I'm seeing doesn't accept my state health plan either, so I'll have to pay $300 out of pocket to see him. (Neither does my primary care provider, though her office visit charge is a lot less, at just $87.) I decided my health is worth it and if I have to spend a few thousand on tracking down the cause of my headaches, then that's what I have to do. The thought of having to "power through" the first weeks of a brand new job with day long headaches is not something I want to repeat. It was like that when I started the real estate temp job, before the Prednisone kicked in.

So I've learned this health plan really sucks and is not worth much at all. I will definitely have to sign up for an Obamacare alternative plan that actually has doctors in its network. Another thing on my list for this week.

I went to the landfill this a.m. and dropped by PCP's to see if I could get a copy of all my medical records, but they couldn't get it together so will have to return later this week.

When I got home, had to have another 1/2 hour conversation with recruiter so she could go through her spiel about not using the internet at work for personal business and how to fill out a time sheet. I was very chilly toward her.

Then I vacuumed my car out and washed it. I vacuumed both floors of the house, too. There's a batch of homemade granola cooling on the kitchen island, so I'll be set for my first few work weeks with breakfast.

This afternoon, I'm heading over to the dealer for a discounted first oil change as well as a few more shopping errands and then a free dinner meeting at a local inn at 6 pm. These dinners are always a treat, as long as you can stomach sitting through another slide show lecture about your incurable disease.

I may also be meeting Bachelor #3 for dinner later this week. Need to finish mowing the front lawn tonight, and put the tomato hoops away in the toolshed for the season. Need to do laundry. Also need to plant garlic for next year and if I can find organic shallots, I will plant them too.

I may not have time to visit my Dad in Jersey, unfortunately. All the stuff with the doctors and health insurance kind of messed me up.

Recruiter said it's not positive I'll start the job Monday; it could be Tuesday or Wednesday. For the month of October, I do have 2 doc appointments (1 for the aforementioned Lyme specialist) as well as a furnace tuneup, which means I'll either have to work at home those days, if they allow it, or lose valuable work hours and try to make it up by staying late on other days. There's no way around the two doc appointments, but I may leave the side garage door open for the furnace guy to come in and do his thing. I can lock the door at the top of the basement stairs leading to the main house, although I would still have to move the cats' litter box upstairs so they can access it, maybe in the downstairs bathroom.

I may have other diagnostic procedures needed related to the Lyme, so eliminating the furnace tuneup thing as a reason to go in late would be good.

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.